The Enchanter (Project Stellar Book 2): LitRPG Series

by Roman Prokofiev

  Unwilling to discomfit her, I went back into the ruins. A few seconds later, however, I heard soft footsteps behind me. Alice walked in, wrapped in her own hair and looking slightly abashed, and handed me her folded jumpsuit, Claw of Helheim, the shuriken sling and Gerda’s broken sword.

  “Beast. He’s hungry. He'll come. I think,” she said, casting another glance at the darkening sky. “I’ll leave. I must go far. You hide.”

  I met the tense glow of her green lantern eyes. “No. Don’t go.”

  “But Beast,” she groaned.

  “I think I know how to handle him now.”

  Chapter 21

  THE GIANT SPHERE of the Black Moon loomed above our heads, its faint blue glow reflecting in the water.

  Alice stood up to her shoulders in the swimming pool, hugging her shoulders and mouthing something. She was scared. So was I. Even Miko kept going on and on about the high risks of my little experiment.

  Still, I wanted to try. You can’t keep running away from a danger without confronting it. That way you can never win. I’d managed to tame the Fiend imprisoned in the Blue Steel of my dagger; I’d scared off the ghostly Voids on several occasions – so why shouldn’t it work with the Beast? Any Azuric entity was sensitive to an Enchanter’s mental orders. And even if that didn’t work, I already had a plan B in place.

  We waited.

  Because I had a limited psi-field range, I looked at her from above, from the surviving terrace of the second floor. Wild grape vines entwined its classic colonnade and the walls, concealing me from any prying stares. This was a perfect lookout which also allowed me to escape at any moment through a narrow hole which led down into the maze of the villa’s rooms too small for the Beast to move freely.

  Just like the last time, Alice’s transformation was instant. I saw her lips twitch, followed by her entire body which shook so strongly it sent a surge of ripples over the water. She arched in a terrible spasm as her body exploded, metamorphing into a horrendous black and blue Beast.

  He resurfaced as if he owned her, reclaiming her mind like a butterfly leaving its cocoon. By now, I’d been scanning her mind for quite a while, waiting for this moment. As I detected the monster taking free rein of her mental abilities, I focused and broke inside her mind. As unethical as it had been to enter Alice’s own head – because it meant some sort of psionic intimacy – now I had no qualms about it whatsoever.

  Immediately I realized this wasn’t going to be easy. It felt like I’d stepped into a fire, a ball of inhuman passion, scorching and freezing at the same time. Its touch betrayed hatred, the desire to kill and a furious insatiable hunger. The hunger being the dominant emotion that determined all the rest. Flesh wasn’t the only thing the Beast fed on; he also devoured pain and suffering, savoring them like a gourmand savors exquisite food.

  I felt sick at the thought of what this monster must have done to his victims. It was a miracle Alice had managed to preserve her sanity.

  Who are you? What are you? I kept probing deeper, trying to get a grasp on that alien entity and sink into it, feeling for any vulnerable spots, then squeeze him in the vice of my willpower like I’d done with the Fiend before.

  Obey me! Veins bulged on my temples. I lost all sense of reality, determined to bring the monster’s mind under control. For a few tormentingly long minutes, we struggled, trying to break each other – but my first and strongest attack had already failed.

  The monster was sentient – far more intelligent than the Fiend and possibly, us as well. He instantly sensed my presence and began to fight himself free. I’d overestimated my ability to lasso an infuriated tiger. I kept channeling him the feelings of pain, fear, light and fire – only to sense my own helplessness which kept growing with every minute. Our mental duel wasn’t going well for me. My opponent was stronger and more experienced.

  Sensing my insecurity, the Beast roared with inner laughter like a mad hyena. I lost focus and collapsed down his inhuman mind filled with insanity. My head was bursting with the nightmarish scenes of thousands of bloodied jaws devouring me. Feeling I was balancing on the brink of madness, I severed our mental link.

  I’d failed. The Beast was way out of my league.

  An agonizing pain pierced my temples. How long had we been fighting? Overcoming vertigo, I picked up the weapons I’d laid out on the floor for this very purpose.

  He was coming for me.

  The crumbling stone parapet exploded. The Beast’s long lithe body landed on the very spot where I’d just stood. His crooked black claws left deep long marks on the stone tiles. His jaws opened wide, revealing double rows of dagger-sharp fangs. Judging by his guttural growl and the glow of hatred in his eyes, he wasn’t going to grant me an easy death.

  I was prepared. My newly acquired speed and reaction times made it so much easier. Miko kept drawing the right paths in the air and all I had to do was follow them. Not rocket science. I just had to be fast and unpredictable. I had to be on attack, not defense.

  We danced under the Black Moon on the ruins of a terrace awash in its pale-blue glow. I deftly ran along the crumbling remains of the parapet, then took a long leap and rolled out of the Beast’s desperate lunge. Take this! I buried Gerda’s broken sword under his front leg, compromising the Beast’s agility. It couldn’t have stopped him for more than a few seconds but that was all I needed. I leapt back onto the parapet, pretending I was about to jump down – but instead, I leapt onto his neck as he stood there fooled by my maneuver.

  Literally straddling his neck, I ripped out the injector I’d received from Cherub and sank the needle right under the monster’s ear. If Cherub’s stuff didn’t work straight away, I might have to suffer a bit. Or more than a bit, as the case may be.

  Luckily, his concoction worked almost instantly, triggering a new transformation. I realized I was lying on the floor, pinning down Alice’s scorching-hot naked body. It worked!

  “You okay?” I asked, gasping. “Don’t shut your mind...”

  I reached out mentally, touching her conscience. It had indeed worked. The Beast had curled up like a snail hiding in its shell. He was fast asleep as if he’d received a bumper doze of neuroleptics. I sensed the familiar heat of Alice’s opening mind and her emotional state: the mixture of immense relief, fear, hope and embarrassment.

  She breathed in heavy fits, startling and shuddering. Our minds were merged – and suddenly I realized she didn’t want me to leave. I laced my arms around her shoulders and gently drew her close, stroking her disheveled hair.

  She clung to me, buried her face in my shoulder and wept like a little child. She could be hundreds of years old, but deep inside she remained weak and vulnerable, always wishing she had someone to shield her from all the misery. Her strength and her toughness were but a mask she was forced to wear. All people tend to look up to someone stronger in spirit – a potential leader who can make them follow. This must have been the kind of person Alice had suddenly seen in me now: the first person in all those years who didn’t despise her or consider her a monster but wholeheartedly wanted to help her.

  There was something else to it, too: the instinctive attraction of the male and female natures. The insurmountable body chemistry. Suddenly the touch of her hands clawing at me felt different. I sensed the shudder that ran through her body. She was aroused, fearing my embrace and longing it at the same time. You can’t hide this sort of thing when you’re in psi-contact with somebody. I desired her; the same thing went for her, filling our unity with sweet anticipation.

  The rest happened naturally. No kissing, no words, no extended foreplay. Just one of those things we all do instinctively, like walking or sleeping. Alice was absolutely no different from any other woman, apart from the unreserved, greedy ardor with which she accepted her due. No ordinary human would have survived her steely embrace which was quite a challenge even for my reinforced body. The ecstasy of two bodies entwined in a single spasm, the furious fervor and the long exquisite shuddering of pleasure
– that’s the kind of love worthy of Incarnators!

  When it was all over, I absently stroked her back covered in perspiration while she panted heavily, clenching my arms. Her grasp left white fingerprints on bronze skin which faded slowly. I hurt all over, feeling absolutely drained as if I’d just done ten rounds with a sumo wrestler.

  “You hurt?” Alice awoke when I stretched my body, unable to suppress a groan. “You in pain?”

  “I’ll live,” I smiled. “Everything’s fine. You’re very strong, that’s all.”

  “I... I didn’t mean it. It’s just... You a man. Me no sex for a long time,” she confessed. “Hard to hold back. Sorry. Me strong. You’re right. Too strong!”

  “I didn’t mean to upset you.”

  “You didn’t. I know,” she said with a faint smile.

  Impulsively she clung to me, lacing her arm around my neck, and touched her lips to my shoulder where Angel’s inked outline spread its wings. “I will help. You’ll be strong. As strong as me.”

  I HAD A FUNNY FEELING she regretted what had just happened, but was grateful at the same time. I knew it wasn’t going to change anything in our companionship — but it might help us get closer. We weren’t going to become two puppy-eyed lovers – we might not even become an item at all. But Alice had needed this fleeting moment of intimacy – not just to relieve sexual tension but also as a proof that she was still human and desirable.

  Tara in her new heavenly home wouldn’t have disapproved of me. On the contrary: had I not done it, she probably wouldn’t have understood. She knew the laws of this dog-eat-dog world only too well. Miko described it as “sexual sublimation” while I – I just sensed it with my very skin, knowing how this constant dancing with death enhanced your prime instincts, and I couldn’t see anything dirty or shameful about that.

  THE NIGHT HAD GONE without incident. Early in the morning, we continued on our way. It took us until early afternoon to finally clear the A-zone. Although the place still looked the same, I knew we’d left it when my Azure counter froze at zero. We’d left the perilous Purple Fault Line behind, and we’d managed to get out of it alive, albeit by a miracle. It was only the sudden resurfacing of my own past that had saved us from impending death. Necros, Voids, the Daat, Transmutation Storms and the uncontrollable surges of Azure – this part of the world didn’t belong to humankind anymore.

  Brimming with energy, Alice had shapeshifted back to her Allys form, sweeping both of us up and down the wooded volcanic hills and avoiding open terrain. We couldn’t ignore the possibility of Pilgrim still tracking us down, even though I kept scanning the sky until my eyes nearly popped out. It seemed to be all-clear... but you could never be too sure.

  Closer to the evening, we finally saw the Monolith’s needle piercing the sky on the horizon. It seemed to be drawing your gaze wherever you looked. During one of our brief breaks, Alice and I had a very interesting conversation.

  “Have you ever been inside a Monolith?” I asked.

  “Yes. I have. When I was captured. Prometheus. Phoenix. The First Legion. There was a war. They had guards. ID checks. They wanted Stellar terminals. They took them from us. Brought them here. They took them from everyone.”

  I scratched the back of my head, contemplating what she’d just said. Curiouser and curiouser. “You mean, initially the terminal wasn’t there? They brought it from somewhere else?”

  “Yes. Orders. Missions. They found it. They took it from us. By force. The First Legion.”

  I remembered Tara telling me that it had been Prometheus who’d built the Monoliths: the legendary Incarnator who’d united them all after the Impact. The founder of the City and the institutor of the First Legion. The translocation portals allowed them to travel vast distances instantly from one Monolith to the next. This was what must have allowed them to deploy troops fast, mustering forces to counter new threats.

  It must have also allowed them to control the territories around the Monoliths. Still, the fact that they’d confiscated terminals by brute force, taking them from those of the Incarnators whom they’d considered “the wrong kind”, had come as a complete eye opener to me.

  “And the Terminals, where did they originally come from?”

  She cast me a surprised look. “From the old cities. Old Stellar centers. There used to be lots of them. The Incas looked for them. They took them away. All for themselves.”

  “What she wants to say, Incarnator, is that virtually all big cities of the past used to have Animaturgy Research Centers which usually had Stellar terminals. I’d venture a guess that quite a few of the terminals must have perished during the Impact. The Incarnators sought the surviving ones to confiscate them.”

  “You mean, the First Legion claimed the terminals for themselves in order to install them in Monoliths?”

  “Yes. They had missions issued. Took them from everyone. Many didn’t want to,” Alice heaved a sigh. “Then, a war. My people died. Others too. So many died.”

  “And now, is it the First Legion who control the terminals now?”

  “Now? Dunno. No. The First Legion... it’s gone. Defeated. Over there,” a vindictive smile touched Alice’s lips as she nodded at the Black Moon.

  “And what about the Legion that’s in the City now?”

  “That’s not the real one. Few Incas. Mainly Tributes. The children of Incas’ children. They’re weak. They’re bad.”

  “And what happened to all the strong Incarnators of the old Legion?” I posed the question which had been tormenting me for quite a while. Because logically, hundred-year-old Incarnators had to be exceptionally strong. All those genomes, upgrades and the very ability to reincarnate should have made them virtually immortal. What had happened to those heroes of old and why had they disappeared, leaving nothing but legends?

  “Wars. Monsters. The Shea. The Black Moon,” she replied slowly, as if pondering every word. “The City. The missions. The threats. Then... the Possessed Ones. They came back to the City. There was a battle. Big battle. Horrible. Then the war. It lasted a long time. They died. Almost all of them.”

  “How about you?”

  “Me? They captured me. Brought me to the City. To the punishment block. The Cube, they called it. The Omega seal. Long time. Very long. Then the Possessed Ones came. They broke the seal. They set me free. Set everybody free. Another battle. I fought. I killed...”

  She heaved a deep sigh, then continued. “The City. It was scary. Incas against Incas. They struck with Absolute. Death. I left. I fled. I made it. I was looking for my people. A long time. Didn’t find them. Nobody there. Then... just sticking around. For a long time. The rest you know.”

  Just like I thought. It hadn’t been the constant monster-hunting or putting out threats that had become the Incarnators’ undoing. They seemed to have been quite adequate to the task, judging by the fact that they’d built the Monoliths and managed to unite around one City. What had drained them was the long turf war against their own brothers – the Possessed Ones – after the latter had come back from the Black Moon.

  I’d have loved to know what had caused the discord amid them. Zac had never told me because he’d wanted me to disable Miko first, and then all hell had broken loose. Alice didn’t make much sense, either. As far as I’d gathered, they’d put her into Incarcerum, the city prison for renegade Incarnators, long before the fateful expedition to the Black Moon. She’d only left the prison when the Possessed had stormed and destroyed most of the City and set the prisoners free. The battle must have been truly desperate, judging by the fact that they’d employed the Absolute weapon which destroyed the Incarnators’ ethereal bodies. So that’s how most of the First Legion must have perished, together with their mutinous brethren...

  By the time we’d reached the Monolith, the night had long fallen. We spent some quality time keeping an eye on it from afar but didn’t notice anything fishy. The ruins of the fortifications that had once surrounded the Incarnator’s citadel were cold, dark and deserted. W
e hadn’t seen a single soul, which went against my worst expectations. No ambush, no enemy camp. You’d think the Possessed would keep a bead on all locations where we might show up. Were Gnarl and Evyl so sure that we’d perished in the A-zone? That made sense, especially if they knew about the lethal Transmutation Storms, the Daat and his Call. In any case, their lack of vigilance played right into our hands.

  “Are you sure you can enter the Monolith?” I asked Alice as we climbed uphill toward the black obelisk.

  That wasn’t an idle question. I had no idea how the Monolith’s defense mechanisms might react to a Renegade’s arrival. There was high probability of the citadel’s cogitor acting upon the Dead Or Alive mission or even issuing one of her own.

  “No,” Alice said curtly. “Dead or Alive. You go. Remove it. I wait here.”

  “Can you lift the Dead or Alive status off someone?”