Endless Online: Oblivion's Price: A LitRPG Adventure - Book 3

by M. H. Johnson

  Small Arms Rank 3 / Demolitions Rank 2 / Laser Carbine Rank 3 / Grappling Level 3 / Sword and Shield Rank 4 / Longsword Rank 4 / Psiblade Rank 4 / Intense Conditioning

  Potion Formulas Learned

  Basic Restoration (Jordia)

  Greater Skills Learned

  Greater Alchemy Rank 3 (Specialization: Elemental Infusions)

  Meta-Magic Feats: Stabilization Rank 2 / Spellboost Rank 2 (150% for 250% cost) / Psiboost Rank 1 (125% for double cost)

  Personal Resonance Mastery Rank 10 (PRM Mastery achieved! Zero mana radiation! -5 mana cost to all spells. Stat boost, regeneration, & superior arcane protection; degree dependent upon realm inhabited.)

  Greater Oathbinding Rank 1

  True Artificer Rank 2

  Jordian Magical Arts Learned

  Creation - Rank 2

  Destruction - Rank 2

  Manipulation - Rank 2

  Transformation - Rank 2

  Corpus - Rank 2

  Earth - Rank 3

  Fire - Rank 2

  Herbam - Rank 3

  Time - Rank 2

  Water - Rank 2

  Jordian Spells Learned

  Firestream Level 20 C/F - Cost 5 Mana

  Explosive Retribution Level 30 C/F Must save against Oblivion when casting. - Cost 35 mana.

  Condensation Collection Level 5 M/W - Cost 0 mana.

  Stoneflow Level 1 M/E - Cost 0 mana.

  Dwarven Catalyzation Level 20 C+M+T/E - Cost 10 mana.

  Automative Folly Level 20 D+M+T/E - Cost 15 mana.

  Plentiful Bounty (Greater Ritual) Level 40 C+M+T / E+H - Cost 90 mana. (5%+ Critical failure risk: This spell is slightly beyond your abilities)

  Greater Plentiful Bounty (Master Ritual) Level 50 C+M+T / E+H - Cost 173 mana. (20%+ Critical failure risk: This spell is far beyond your abilities!)

  Ice Spear Level 20 C+T/W+E (Adept Rank: +20% damage/-20% casting time) - Cost 12 mana.

  Burning Light (acts as a torch, can unleash as Firestream) Level 20 C+M / F - Cost 5 mana to cast, 1 per minute to maintain.

  Fencer's Fire Level 20 C+M / E+F - Cost 15 mana to cast, 0.6 mana per second to maintain.(Stabilization check required, or weapon bursts!)

  Lesser Power Manipulation Level 10 C+M / F - Cost: Size-dependent.

  Dominion Catalyzation Level 20 C+M+T / E+F - Cost 15 mana (Note. High PRM needed, or short out equipment trying to fix!)

  Greater Dominion Catalyzation Level 30 C+M+T / E+F - Cost 50 mana per minute of repairs. (High PRM needed.)

  Water Spout Level 10 C+M / W - Cost 3 mana.

  Haste Level 20 T/C - Cost 10 mana to cast, 0.25 mana per second to maintain.

  Lockburst (break open a door, or a bank vault!) Level 30 D+M+T / E - Cost 40 mana.

  Searing Cleanse (clean injury sights) Level 20 C+D+T / C+F+H - Cost 20 mana.

  Season's Binding (bones heal 1 season in 1 day. Extreme pain.) Level 30 C+M+T / C+T - Cost 50 mana.

  Season's Mending (tissues heal 1 season in 1 day. Extreme pain.) Level 30 C+M+T / C+F+T - Cost 50 mana.

  ____________________________________________________________________________________

  26

  Val jolted awake, choking back a scream as everything clicked into place.

  Who he was.

  What he was.

  The things he had done.

  The friends he had rescued.

  The women he had loved. And loved still.

  Julia. Even now, he could taste her terror.

  Moments away from death.

  His father's eyes widened, catching sight of his now awake son in the dashboard mirror.

  "Val?"

  Val smiled. His father paled at what he saw in his son's gaze.

  "Start the car and turn around, dad. We have to go back."

  "What happened?" So much asked with those words.

  Val looked out the window, finally realizing where they were. They weren't on the main driveway up to Julia's manor, but they hadn't turned tail and fled to some safe house either. His father had gone off-road instead, stopping behind a small cove of trees with a clear line of sight to the Petrovsky manor from their spot. "You didn't flee."

  His father frowned, then shook his head. "I made a call. Help is heading our way. But Val? Things are far worse than I thought. Felix Mordare is no simple presidential appointee. And with his influence... let's just say I didn't go through official channels, and we are both now wanted men."

  Val nodded. "I know. Mordare is probably an inquisitor."

  His father's eyebrows raised. "What the hell is an inquisitor?"

  "No time. Jordia's real, in case you had any doubts. The two hundred kids pulled out were being used as mind drones for a coven of sick psychopaths who can manipulate others with their thoughts and feed off weaker people's power."

  His father blinked. "What the hell happened while you were gone, son?"

  "A story for another time." Val peered carefully out the window. "Our location is good. The trees provide decent nighttime cover, and you have perfect line of sight on the house. Now hold, there is something I need to do."

  His father shook his head. "What you're thinking of is madness, Val. I spotted half a dozen armed men up there while you were out, and I can only guess that's Felix over there in the flesh... what the hell?"

  And Val could feel the sudden release of crackling energies.

  A Psiblade had been activated.

  "Shit." His father's voice was one of disbelief, both of them leaving the car, his father gazing for long moments through the scope on his SSR MK 20. "Don't tell me those things are real. Lightsabers?"

  Val shook his head. "Psiblades," a now fully armored Val softly said, catalyzing the one now in his hand, needing only moments to realign the Valorium matrix within.

  Dwarven armaments successfully pulled out of dimensional rift! Congratulations! Your pocket dimension is now Perfectly Attuned! No critical risk to plucking out items in either universe!

  You have donned Shadowcloak! +2 to stealth, +1 to Shadowmind! Your enemies will never see you coming with fabric that blends so well in darkness!

  Psiblade successfully repaired! You have activated Psiblade. 100 mana reserved!

  The air crackled with the hum of his activated blade. His father frowned, gazing up from his spotter's crouch, furrowed brows turning into an awe-filled gaze. "Val?"

  "It's still me."

  His father was at a complete loss for words.

  "I remember now, if it isn't completely obvious." Val's gaze hardened. "Everything. Stay here, don't take a shot unless you know it's clean."

  "Damn it, Val, you can't charge straight up, they have full visibility... Val?"

  But Val was already gone.

  A heartbeat between shadows, as silent as the rustling flowers in the vast garden beds that brought Julia and her mother such joy. Hardly visible at all in the darkness that made its way up to the grand manor that was almost a fort, even the telltale crackling discharges sparking from his shaft of oblivion died in the inky gloom.

  He quickly spotted multiple heavily armed and armored mercenaries with their guns trained on a handful of captives who had collapsed on the grass as if they had all been knocked out by a single perfectly executed attack.

  Val's friends, now at the mercy of monsters.

  Only two were awake.

  Julia and Christine, the former looking on in speechless horror as her mother fought for her life against none other than Felix Mordare.

  Both of them crackled with projected force fields that Val knew would do nothing to stop the Psiblades they both wielded, only the psionic shields they used to counter each other's blows as their blades streaked and danced through the air had a hope of doing that.

  "You break all accords coming here, Felix!" Christine declared, having kicked off dainty shoes to fight barefoot, her delicate voice of a sophisticate who had married well replaced with one that resonated just like Elise's had, once upon a time. Her eyes shimmered a brilliant g
old while Felix's blazed like the pits of Hell.

  Felix's laughter was harsh and cold. "Accords were made to be broken when the time is ripe, Christine Highblood! The dwarves learned that only to their folly when it came time to wipe them from the face of Jordia before they became a threat to our Dominion! It was only later that we saw all the wasted potential. Their Valorium starship cores could have doubled our force of dreadnoughts! The last true artificer capable of making such artifacts in this sector expired with the destruction of Tytus's ship, threatening the stability of our entire quadrant! And here we find that a clan of dwarves still lives! And your daughter and my pawns are the only ones who know that secret, know where they are located. The only ones, save me, who could bargain with our new master for a fiefdom undreamed of!" he snarled, eyes filled with darkest avarice as Christine jumped back.

  Val could taste her fear, and it filled him with a hideous rage that made the shadows within him boil.

  Felix hissed, sniffing with his pale, hooked nose, hot red eyes beginning to turn as Val forced his fury to icy stillness, one with the night once more. One with the storm even now brewing as thunder rumbled overhead, the first drops of chilly rain splashing upon the ground.

  "I don't care about any damn dwarven treasure, Felix! I forsook dreams of dominion and conquest many years ago."

  Felix nodded, turning towards her once more, his voice almost crooning in its mockery. "Oh, I know, dear Christine. I know. Your father, once one of the most revered and powerful Highlords alive on Jordia. His potency was near a match for Overlord Tytus himself, before he grew frail with age. And everyone knows his chances of surviving the rejuvenation vats yet again are near infinitesimal! They would have been better, of course, had he dared youth years ago, but everyone was counting on your research, counting on Earth's logarithmic computational advancements to provide you with the visual tools you needed to splice apart and reassemble our entire genome into ageless perfection!"

  Felix spat his contempt. "And what do you have to show for all your efforts? A pitiful excuse for a daughter, bastard hybrid that she is, so weak and untrained that she was mistaken for drone feed! Her brain is now as porous as sandstone! You were a coward and a fool to let her live, after proving so unworthy of her heritage. This is what your family's arrogance brought you, Christine. Both your daughters broken under Tytus's heel, your father a living corpse, your entire clan about to be consumed by jackals, and how I will laugh at the close of your family's tale! And now, Christine, it is time for us to end this farce."

  "It worked!" a desperate Christine shouted.

  Felix mocked her with his laughter. "Your lies are pathetic, Christine, as is your fencing! You never were my equal with the blade, and I have only grown stronger in the years since you last dared to challenge me!"

  Christine backed away, keeping a trembling Julia close as she held her blade and shield before her. "I've found a way to neutralize over a dozen aging sequences! The mitochondria are immortal! This skin fully regenerates! I've found ways to perfectly inoculate even Terrans from seventeen forms of cancer, and Jordians will be all but immune!"

  Felix's eyes narrowed. "You have truly accomplished so much, in just the last twenty years?"

  Christine gave a short, tight nod. "We had so many pieces to the puzzles in play. All we needed were graphic algorithms our universe doesn't allow for! Processes that are comparatively child's play here. There is so much their technology can't do. But so much that it can! Even now, with my present research, I can extend the time between rejuvenations from two hundred years to three hundred. At least!"

  Felix flashed a twisted smile. "Then your computers will double my fortune, for they alone will have your secrets when I take your head!"

  Christine's eyes widened in horror and fury both. "No!" She screamed, desperately fighting for her life once more.

  And the black shadows behind the mercenaries gazing on with smiles and crude laughter coalesced into death as the howling storm took its due.

  A choked off scream the only sound to escape the first pair of mercenaries Val struck down, his terrible weapon cleaving through skulls and limbs as easily as air, the night alive with the stench of blood and death.

  "What the hell?" whispered a soldier blinking in horrified disbelief at his companion's instant death, only to gaze down in confusion as the ground smacked him in the face, too shocked to feel the hideous flood of pain from every ruptured organ before blackness claimed him a dying heartbeat later, the crackle of Oblivion's blade the last thing he ever heard.

  Felix Mordare, so lost in his frenzied need to destroy the psionicist who for some reason would not fall to his blade, hissed only after his last man had fallen, leaping back from a panting Christine, her blade still at the ready, for all that her limbs trembled with exhaustion and terror.

  Felix turned, gazing into the darkness around him, his left hand rapidly pressing a button on the shiny black phone he held. "I am Inquisitor Felix Mordare, former servant of Overlord Tytus, dutiful appointee of the master to come. I demand any lawful servant of the Dominion to show themselves and for any foe to give formal challenge, lest it be cowardice alone that staves your blow!"

  His eyes widened, catching sight of all the corpses cleaved in twain. "Is this your doing, Christine?" he hissed.

  Christine chuckled softly. "You have made powerful enemies, dear Felix. Not every clan was unaware of your maneuvering. Your desire to butcher all your pawns, break all treaties, and claim the treasures of the dwarves for yourself did not go unnoticed. Perhaps it isn't me you should fear, dear Felix, but the Dauda lurking in the darkness, ready to take your head even as we speak!"

  Felix's eyes widened, his already pale features growing waxy. "Dauda? Here? No, impossible! Only Tytus's servants even know that Earth exists, let alone its potential! You are lying, Christine, and don't think I won't take your head for that!" Words aside, he raised his Psiblade in a hanging parry, shield covering his flank, desperately turning about, looking for an unseen foe.

  A panicked cry escaped his lips as Val's blade flashed into view, four feet of crackling death held in a two-handed grip, Felix desperately countering Val's furious barrage of Oberhau and Zwerchhau blows with every ounce of skill and control at his command.

  "What are the terms of our engagement?" Felix shouted into the darkness. "I have no quarrel with the Dauda clan! Come, let us seek terms, there is no reason both our clans can't profit beyond our wildest dreams! A whole world ripe for expansion and conquest! Work with me, and you can join our master at the seat of Earth's table, territory the size of an entire continent your own, your tribe never having to lurk in the shadows again!" Desperate red eyes glared Val's way, seeing only darkness, Val sinking his sense of self into the night all around him even as the ether screamed with the Psionic Blast sending Julia crumpling to the ground with a groan, everyone else save Christine already unconscious or dead.

  Shifts of blade and stance alone Val used to sense and counter his opponent's blows, the night's gaze always avoiding the crimson lights burning through the darkness, desperate to sear his mind even as Felix's forked tongue pled with darkness to come to terms. To reach an accord with a man who had threatened the life of the girl Val had held in his arms just hours ago.

  The storm howled its rebuttal and the inquisitor's furious pleas turned to desperate panting as he fought only to survive.

  Their blades kissed together in the bind, crackling with death, and Val felt the fury of the man trying to overpower his bind with a single-handed grip, sensing his enemy's play just a heartbeat before execution, Felix abruptly slamming up with his shield to lift Val's blade up high even as he roared and lunged.

  Catching only air as Val flowed and spun to the side as his foe overcommitted, Val's longer weapon easily slipping free of the bind, and Felix howled before turning desperately, knowing death was only a heartbeat away, screaming out with his mind as well in a desperate final blast as Val pivoted and thrust such that his blade guarded his
line even as it crackled against the lip of Felix's suddenly warping shield. - You have successfully boosted Ancient Psiblade! Additional 100 Psion reserved! - before abruptly exploding through the crackling shield to pierce his screaming foe, cleaving through the inquisitor's wrist with hideous ease, fingers and cleaved hilt lost in the grass and darkness, Felix shrieking, desperately pressing his stump against his slick trench coat, spurting blood easing to a trickle, and Val could all but feel the surge of Psions cauterizing the man's wound even as the Inquisitor used the shock and agony to fuel his awful howl, so terrible even Christine stumbled back with a gasp, roaring through the space where Val would be, if he was other than shadows and death to come.

  Psionic blast resisted! For the night cares nothing for a dying man's howls.

  "No! You can't do that with a blade to rupture a shield! Oblivion must be contained! Your ancient relic is in violation of the code!" Felix screamed, retreating in the half second he should have attacked while he had the chance, Val having already ducked and lifted his hilt in anticipation of the one rebuttal Val's thrust allowed before springing forward with his Psiblade, lashing out for a panicked Felix, still retreating, blood streaming from his nose, one eye bulged and distended, holding Val off with a desperate series of moulinets.

  "Yes," Val hissed. "Your pathetic shield was designed centuries after your kind traded raw power and killing blows for graceful duels and effortless ease. All you arrogant fools, terrified of your own deaths, trying to codify war. Trying to control the chaos of battle and the fury of oblivion! Tell me, worm, do the names Inquisitor Estof, Adolf Mordingi, or Solena Petrova mean anything to you?" Val could tell by the man's panicked hiss that they did indeed. "All of them were defeated by this ancient relic, all of them armed with Psiblades just like your own."