Stormforge (Rise To Omniscience Book 5)

by Aaron Oster

  “Are you finally going to tell me what’s really going on?” Katherine asked, staring out over the battlefield as well.

  Sarah grimaced, feeling the usual mix of jealousy and animosity welling up inside of her. Why did Katherine have to keep getting between her and Morgan? Couldn’t she just leave them alone?

  She opened her mouth to say something, then closed it. She took a deep breath. She started to say something again and stopped. In truth, she didn’t know what her problem was, only that over the last few weeks, a distinct sense of unease and discontentment had permeated her every waking moment.

  All she wanted to do was leave. Leave and never come back. Yet Morgan, the only person she loved, didn’t want to come along. Perhaps she felt this upset because she was simply used to getting her way, or maybe it was because she could see that this Kingdom was doomed to fall. Whatever the reason, Sarah wanted nothing more than to leave, and Morgan had now done so without her.

  “Shit, not again. It’s too soon!”

  Sarah looked up, her train of thought broken, to see Katherine staring into the distance. At first, she couldn’t see what had made Katherine so worried. Then, she spotted it. Far off in the distance, on the very edge of the horizon, she could make out a small gray patch, one that was growing larger by the second.

  “Shit,” Sarah said, agreeing with Katherine’s sentiment.

  The storm could only signal one thing. Another attack was coming, and a full week before they’d expected it.

  ***

  Arnold stood, legs braced and arms folded, as the storm grew at his back. The wind howled around him, whipping his long hair and ruffling the thick fur that now covered his powerful frame. Before him stretched an army of over six-hundred thousand, made up of the mindless beasts that the Pinnacle King had made into his soldiers.

  He’d lost a good deal of his soldiers, as well as several valuable commanders in yesterday’s attack. Arnold could still feel his master’s displeasure at that. While losing the mindless monsters wasn’t such a big deal, the loss of capable, self-thinking commanders was a heavy loss indeed.

  So, to make up for his failure, Arnold was now committing all of his remaining reserves on an attack on the walls of City Eleven. He wouldn’t be able to go until they were all dead, but he would push harder this time. Hell, if the battle was going well, he might even make an appearance himself in an attempt to rid the kingdom of its queen. Without Katherine, the North would quickly fall, but Octagon had forbidden him from directly assaulting the Queen without his explicit permission.

  Arnold was Octagon’s top commander, his right-hand man, so to speak. Along with Penelope, his left-hand woman and lead intelligence officer, they made up the bulk of his forces’ power. If either of them were to be killed, it would be a heavy blow to Octagon’s plans, one that may set him back months or even years. Or worse, it may force the Pinnacle King to rise from his throne and take to battle himself.

  Though Octagon was likely the most powerful being in this world, Arnold knew how he viewed needing to fight. A ruler should rule and not need to sully his hands with the blood of his lesser. Octagon might be tempted to come out, should a certain supermage make an appearance, but aside from that, Arnold knew that the King would consider it an insult to his power and station.

  That was why he had commanders. Octagon had given Arnold a new lease on life. He had given him purpose and a reason to keep on going after he’d given up and was ready to die. He owed the powerful Pinnacle King for that, and more. He’d been given power, more than he’d ever imagined he could have, and it had only continued growing.

  Octagon had said that there’d been a shift in the planet’s power, one that released the constraints on their cores and allowed them to continue growing past what should have been possible. The Pinnacle King himself wasn’t entirely sure why, or even how it had happened, only that it had.

  Arnold was well on his way to rank 51, something which Octagon had said would take much longer for him than a regular super, due to his influence and boosted power. That was perfectly fine with Arnold. The fact that he’d even made it this far was astonishing and that he could continue growing even after his supposed limit had been reached was exhilarating.

  Morgan, the bastard supermage, would have had that ability all along, meaning that Arnold would never have had an opportunity for revenge. He knew that Octagon had some sort of interest in the boy, though he wasn’t entirely sure why. And when pressed, the Pinnacle King simply refused to answer. Octagon had promised him revenge, though, and Arnold knew that the King was a beast of his word. Now all he had to do was wait.

  In the meantime, he’d put an end to the North, then move on to the other Kingdoms. He knew that Penelope was working behind the scenes, pulling strings and making the others offers they wouldn’t be able to refuse. Still, Arnold knew the stubborn nature of humans and the vice grip most rulers held over their own personal power. If even a single Kingdom caved to Octagon’s demands, he’d be shocked.

  Then again, the Pinnacle King did seem to place a lot of faith in his intelligence officer, so perhaps Arnold was wrong. He actually liked Penelope. She was ruthless, cruel, and would stab anyone, including him, in the back if she thought it would benefit her in even the smallest way. Much like himself, she was logical, had led a life in the shadows, and had been betrayed by everyone she’d worked for or trusted.

  Arnold’s lip curled as he remembered how he’d been treated. The lapdog of one lord after the next. Forced to hide in the shadows like a rat, while cowering in fear from their retribution. Sure, he was technically working for another powerful being, but Octagon was different. He didn’t hide his intentions, didn’t deal in backhanded ways or lie. It was, if anything, the most significant way in which he was different than humans.

  The beast might contain human-like intelligence, but he still acted according to his bestial nature. Animals didn’t lie, they made their intentions clear from the outset, and if they wanted something, they would take it. By any means necessary.

  Arnold could feel his lips curling up into a smile as he watched the swarm of monsters shuffling towards the wall. Snow blew around him, refreshing now as opposed to bone-chilling as it had once been. His eyes could see all, even through the whirling cloud of white. His enhanced senses afforded him abilities that the feeble humans scrambling atop the wall could not even hope to comprehend.

  Out here, his power was absolute, though if he had one complaint, it was that Octagon rarely let him use it. For the past few months, ever since his run-in and near death at the hands of that other supermage, the one Octagon had locked in the bowels of his icy fortress, the Pinnacle King had changed his role to that of a backline commander.

  His eyes narrowed as he watched Katherine, still beautiful and immaculate as ever, commanding troops with calm precision. Arnold honestly wasn’t sure whom he hated more, Morgan or the Queen. Both had wronged him, and both had cost him in many ways. Though if he had to choose, he’d likely pick Katherine.

  Morgan had his reasons for interfering, for fighting and for nearly killing him in their last battle during the Skyflare Tournament. Arnold had been ordered to kill the young supermage several times, so all Morgan had really done was defend himself. Sure, Arnold still hated him for it, but it wasn’t like he’d manipulated and blackmailed him the way Katherine had.

  There was a special place in Arnold’s non-existent heart for the Queen of the North, and it burned with hatred every time he laid eyes on her. Had it not been for Octagon’s direct orders, he’d probably be charging the wall right now, preparing to end the bitch once and for all.

  Soon, he told himself.

  If today’s battle went to plan, then he may get the go-ahead after all. In order to do that, he would need to ensure his success and hope that the powerful supers and mages, as well as Morgan himself, didn’t cause too much damage.

  His losses yesterday had been massive, but in a straight-up numbers game, he’d still come out on top.
They still had around two million soldiers within their forces, while the North only had an estimated two-hundred thousand. His numbers could be off, but judging by their losses, that was what he was estimating, and Octagon seemed to concur.

  The King himself had even confided that those numbers were unlikely, but it was better to overestimate rather than the other way around. Arnold wholeheartedly agreed with that sentiment. He’d underestimated his opponents way too many times, and it had nearly cost him everything. He wouldn’t be making that mistake again.

  “I hope you know what you’re doing. The Master won’t be happy if you fail again.”

  Arnold turned to see Squint, his second-in-command, now standing beside him, his eyes slitted in the way that had inspired his nickname.

  “So do I,” Arnold replied, turning his attention back to the walls as the first flashes of light shone through the whirling snow. “So do I.”

  9

  Morgan breathed deeply, enjoying the warming air as he flew further east. He’d been flying for a few hours now and could already begin feeling the difference. Sure, the landscape flashing by beneath was still covered in snow, frozen and white, but the temperature here was higher by at least thirty degrees.

  In addition to being a different climate, the biting cold associated with the Pinnacle King’s power didn’t permeate this area nearly as much. This told Morgan that the Pinnacle King’s hold over the North wasn’t as strong as they’d first assumed, though he knew that it was growing stronger every day. Every day in City Eleven was just a bit colder than the one before, and every attack took with it just a bit more of the warmth and hope that they might actually win.

  He was a bit unnerved that he hadn’t seen a single other soul during his flight thus far, human or otherwise. All of the beasts in the North were either dead or had flocked to the Pinnacle King’s call. Even beasts would bow to one as powerful as him, though Morgan knew that he’d be seeing plenty of beast activity once outside the borders of the North Kingdom.

  The temperature right now was a toasty twenty-something, a good deal higher than the negative numbers he’d been feeling in City Eleven when he’d left. With his advancement, Morgan shouldn’t have felt the cold at all, but the Pinnacle King of Winter had an all-consuming cold that affected even the most powerful.

  If a confrontation between the two of them ever happened, Morgan wondered how he’d even be able to fight. If the Pinnacle King’s power alone exuded this much cold, then how cold would it be with him standing just a few feet away? There was a point, Morgan knew, where cold could not get any colder, an absolute zero, whereas heat could continue on forever. The real question was, did the Pinnacle King exude that level of cold, and if he did, would Morgan even be able to survive coming near him?

  Morgan dismissed those thoughts, turning instead to his flight. He still had a few hours to the border of the East Kingdom and a full day and a half from there to the capital. He was not worried about passing over the border wall and falling as he once had with Sarah. That night, when they were plummeting to their deaths, now seemed so long ago.

  Back then, the fifty-foot fall had shattered both of his legs, and Sarah had had to physically carry him away while defending from attacks. Now, he doubted a two-hundred-foot fall would do more than annoy him. His body was tough, dense, and weighed well over three-hundred pounds, though he was still under six feet tall and looked like he didn’t weigh much more than one hundred and fifty.

  His wiry frame belied his weight, as it did almost everything else about him. You couldn’t tell just by looking at him the extent of his explosive power and speed, his ability to destroy vast swaths of land or kill hundreds in an instant. His Shooting Star, the most powerful tool in his arsenal, had been enough to kill several rank 50 supers and mages, and it hadn’t even been all that hard.

  He’d faced a god in single combat and driven him away, nearly killing him in the process. And, if Loquin had been telling the truth, Samuel had actually died that night, killed by Gold. Though she hadn’t named the two dead gods, Morgan hadn’t seen hide nor hair of either of them, so it was the logical assumption. Loquin’s disappearance still bothered him, though if she were somehow dead too, he wasn’t going to lose any sleep over it.

  She was one of the reasons he’d suffered so much pain and torment over the years. She’d worked with Samuel to create him, as well as the monster currently threatening the entire world. He hadn’t heard any rumblings that the other four Pinnacle Kings were awakening, and Samuel hadn’t seemed too worried about any of them when they’d last spoken civilly. Dabu, the omniscient supermage who’d died thanks to Samuel, had also not mentioned them, telling him to worry about the Author instead.

  Still, despite all that was happening, Morgan couldn’t help but worry. No one had mentioned the other Pinnacle Kings in a while, not since the war between the North and Central Kingdoms had ended and Edmund had been killed. Now, though, Morgan couldn’t help but recall that three other Pinnacle Kings, those in the East, West, and South were all just as powerful as the one in the North. The final one, in the Central Kingdom, was more powerful than all four combined.

  If that monster were to somehow rise, he didn’t think even the combined might of all Five Kingdoms could stand in its way.

  Morgan shivered at the thought, then banished all thoughts of world-ending monsters and concentrated instead on flying at full speed. The problem with flying for any length of time, especially alone, was that his mind tended to wander. It couldn’t be helped, especially seeing as he was getting further and further away from Sarah, the one person who always traveled with him no matter where he went.

  Which was why he needed to occupy himself with something, instead of worrying and wondering. The air streamed past him as he pulled the heavy cloak from his shoulders, stashing it in his pack. He flipped around midair, continuing to fly backward and allowing his innate sense of direction to keep him on the correct course. He’d yet to test his newly gained skill and was eager to do so, however, he didn’t want to risk firing it ahead of himself, lest he fly into it and injure himself.

  He could almost imagine Sarah laughing as he fired off the skill, only for it to blow up in his face. So, he took precautions to avoid an unfortunate accident.

  Now that he was facing back, Morgan raised his fists, feeling the wind pressing against him from behind as he continued on his eastward course. Taking a deep breath, he pulled his arm back, then triggered the skill. This was the first time he was using it, so Morgan wasn’t really sure what to expect.

  He could feel his reiki flowing as it activated the skill, then watched as the air around his fist seemed to grow almost solid, pulling towards his hand and compressing down. He felt as though he were carrying a great weight around his hand by the time it finished charging, the air around him humming with power.

  Morgan struck out then, his fist flashing forward in a straight punch and a blast of colorless energy fired outward, disappearing into the distance. The boom of displaced air sounded just a second later, and a visible shockwave was spreading from his outstretched fist and spreading outward in a circle.

  Flexing his fingers a few times, Morgan triggered the skill again. He tried it several times, noting the timing and power of each blast. He found that the harder he punched when he released the compressed air, the longer and thinner the blast was. When he took a slower swing, the blast burst in a cone shape instead of a straight line, blasting the area directly before him.

  He would need to test this attack on something more solid to get an idea of how much damage it could actually do, but so far, he was impressed. He’d known that wind could do some serious damage, as proven by his Stormforger skill, but he hadn’t known how effective a blast of compressed air could really be.

  Morgan turned back, facing forward, and spotted a tall rocky protrusion coming up ahead and suddenly had a crazy idea. Why wait until later when he could try it out now?

  Grinning at the idea, Morgan dove, dropping
over a hundred feet in the span of a second and angled himself on a direct collision course with the tall boulder towering nearly fifty feet in the air. Gathering himself, Morgan drew on his power, then lashed out with Compressive Blast, sending the beam of air right into the thickest part of the boulder.

  Instead of blasting the stone apart as he’d expected, the beam slammed into the stone, punching a hole straight through it without leaving even a small fracture around its perimeter. The hole was roughly the same around as his fist, but Morgan was shocked at how easily the attack had blasted through the solid stone.

  Having expected the attack to blast the stone apart instead of drilling straight through it, Morgan now found himself face to face with the wall of stone. There was no avoiding it at his speed, and Morgan slammed into the boulder full force. He wasn’t really sure how much damage hitting a boulder at ninety-five miles per hour would do, however, smashing straight through the stone without getting so much as a scratch was not what he’d have guessed.

  Morgan coughed as a choking cloud of dust billowed around him. His body was apparently harder than stone, shattering the top half of the massive boulder and scattering shards of stone in all directions. He flipped a few times in the air, fighting to reorient himself from the impact and clear his eyes of the dust that had worked its way in.

  He finally came to a halt mid-air, about a hundred yards from the stone, rubbing at his eyes and coughing up dust. Finally getting his eyes open, Morgan got a good view of the boulder he’d just flown through, marveling at his body’s strength and toughness. Then he felt the gritty mud between his teeth and noted the awful taste, and the feeling of pride quickly vanished.

  He spat a few times, removing a canteen from his pack to rinse out his mouth. It didn’t get rid of the taste entirely, and Morgan knew he was likely a mess after flying through that boulder. He’d need to find somewhere to clean up before nightfall but figured that wherever he stayed, most likely City Five, would have accommodations.