The Water Dragon let out a roar; the Earth Dragon replied with a roar as well and dove into the water stream. The Earth Dragon collapsed their wings and headed through the portal.
The portal on Emerilia’s side distorted slightly as the Earth Dragon reappeared out of the other side of the portal. Water continued to pour through as the Earth Dragon rose into the sky, letting out a roar of victory.
The ground around the Emerilia portal seemed to shake before it dropped downward in the center of a large crater. Water filling it to the top. Any Erach that came through now found themselves in a large pond, the ocean filling it up rapidly.
Ragged cheers rose up from the surrounding castles. The Erach couldn’t swim and with the water in the way, it was easy to see that the portal had been effectively cut off from the Erach’s planet.
The Water Dragon moved, flapping her wings as she unleashed her attacks with her wind brother.
The Earth Dragon moved to one of the castles, digging his claws into the castle walls to hold themselves as a magical formation appeared around them. A pulse of massive magical power shot out from the Earth Dragon, covering all of the castles and a few kilometers beyond. The pulse ended and the ground started to rumble. Erach were shot out of the ground, as if the ground refused their entrance. They were tossed out of the ground. The Water and Air Dragons moved to kill all of the ones that had made it past the castle and were now being tossed into the air.
“Kill the Erach that are past the castles!” Deia yelled out across the command channel. If the castles fell, that was one thing; if the Erach were able to move past the castles and start to spread across Emerilia, then they would turn the planet into hell as they consumed anything that was living.
The Terra Alliance changed their aim as Deia unleashed more and more Fire arrows that multiplied before hurtling back toward the ground. The Dragons systematically moved with the Terra Alliance’s help, killing off the Erach that had made it past the castles and forcing them backward. It was a slow process but it was working.
They finally reached the castles, The Dragons were massive and powerful beasts but they had burned up a lot of Mana. They landed on different castles, adding their support to the defenders.
“Aunty Deia, it is good to see you,” the large Water Dragon said. “My name is Liera. My siblings and I live in the mountain range to the south. Ilas is using his Earth magic to make sure that none of the Erach escape into Emerilia. He was able to make a crater around the portal on the Erach side, like the one here. Basically, if any Erach want to come here, they’re going to have to go through two very large ponds in order to do so.”
Deia nodded. It was a smart idea, and it effectively cut off the Erach. “Thank you for your help,” Deia said, relieved.
“It is my honor. My sister Rela and I are both tired from our Mana expenditure so we can help a little but we aren’t as effective as we would have been with all of our power,” Liera said.
“Rest and help out as much as you can. Now that we don’t have to worry about more Erach coming through the portal, we can focus on wiping these bastards out,” Deia said, a grim look on her face.
Anna, Jung Lee, Lox, and Gurren were all fighting down along the main walls.
While the Earth and Dark mages were doing everything that they could to try to deal with the burrowing Erach, in some locations there were simply too many of the creatures and they had been able to enter the castle. The members of Party Zero rushed from breach to breach, helping to push back the Erach and try to contain them.
Their experience rose as a result and while they gained levels here and there they needed a truly insane amount of experience to level up now.
Induca and Deia were focused on long-range spells and thinning down the Erach in the distance. Now, with no more Erach reinforcements, they could change their tactics.
“I vote for killing off the Erach that are on our castle walls and in the nearby area, now that they can’t escape. We can defeat them in close, repair our walls and hit them at range,” Deia said to the castle commanders.
“I agree. It would be good if we could get some DCA fliers to drops some Mana bombs on these bastards,” one said.
“No harm in asking the higher-ups,” another added.
All across Emerilia, similar battles were happening, not all of them as successful.
***
“Pull back!” Esa yelled, waving her sword at her people as a Xelur Grand Demon Lord that was fifteen meters tall slammed his war axe the size of a small boat into the walls of the defending castle. Rocks exploded outward with the impact of the axe.
It’s skin was purple in color and as tough as a beasts, their bodies were covered in complex Xelur tattoos to channel their soul energy these symbols were marred by battle scars and piercings. Their eyes glowed with a yellow light and twin horns that looked similar to a rams curled around their heads.
Their hands were sharpened into claws while they wore simple shorts around their waist.
Those with less power were smaller their tattoos less profound and their horns shorter.
The demon soldiers made up most of the forces but the Xelur, by using souls, were able to increase their size and their ability to store more souls and more power. The larger they were, the stronger they were. Minor Demon Lords could be up to three meters tall; Demon Lords were up to ten meters tall; Grand Demon Lords were ten to fifteen meters tall. They didn’t get taller than fifteen meters, but they had different capabilities. A young Grand Demon Lord wouldn’t be as close to an ancient Grand Demon Lord that had come to understand their power to a higher degree, creating more power augmentation for its own attacks and reducing the power it needed to draw from its souls.
Rocks from the castle walls crushed people as they ran, players and POE alike.
Esa couldn’t do anything but grit her teeth, dodging rocks and hitting others aside with her shield. The impacts were so powerful even from the small rocks that she saw her hit points falling slightly.
Motes of light covered the Grand Demon Lord’s weapon, looking similar to the light that one would see within a powered soul gem.
The Xelur Demon hit the wall again. The wall exploded outward.
Esa was hit by a slab of rock that slammed her through a wall. She lay there broken, her Health points falling down as she looked through the hole in the castle that she had come through.
The Xelur soldiers and various Demon Lords charged into the castle. Any wounded they killed with their enchanted weapons; motes of light floated up the carved lines in their weapons, passing through ports in their hands. The Xelur’s strength increased with each kill and soul they absorbed.
Finally, darkness surrounded Esa until it started to get brighter again. Esa looked around at the room she was in. It took her a moment to realize what it was as a screen appeared in front of her.
This is my game lobby. Esa felt cold fear as she read her screen.
You have died in Emerilia
You have been returned home.
You have 5:59 hours (game time) until you can re-spawn at (Nadorf, Opheir)
Or
1:59 hours in real life
Would you like to play a different game while you wait?
Dismissing the screen, she let out a shaky breath, her face pale and her hands clammy. Since coming to know the truth of Emerilia and Earth, she knew that every time she saw this screen, she had actually died.
It took a force of will for her to calm down. Quickly, she accessed her settings on her interface and moved to the shared lobby of the Stone Raiders.
There were tens of Stone Raiders hanging about, talking about their battles, how they’d died and replaying the death cam footage to the others. They greeted Esa as she took a seat, looking at the information that was being passed to those in the lobby. It allowed them to know what was going on with the guild across Emerilia.
“It doesn’t look too good,” Esa said to herself. The Xelur had come out of a few different locations. S
he had been based at the portal on Opheir between the Donasuk and Zelheam cities, near the Benvari Mountain Range.
The Xelur were powerful, able to create powerful Mana shields but unable to create Mana barriers, which meant that they used a lot of power.
Being fueled by souls, the Xelur were akin to walking, talking soul gems. Some might be even as powerful as a vault soul gem, but these were leaders of the Xelur race and rarely ventured out into battle, instead taking a tithe of soul power from those beneath them, which continued to keep them as the highest power of their planet.
Esa’s castle had been the second to fall, though the others were holding on still. The ono at Esa’s castle had been removed and placed in one of these other castles. Right now, with the lack of onos, they were being constantly switched between different locations so that people could move quickly. It was a stopgap measure as it took time for an ono to connect to the teleport pad and reconfigure itself before it could be used.
Time they didn’t have.
“Yes!” Esa stood and pumped her fists into the air as shells exploded over the portal that was hidden within an old ruin that had been camouflaged into the forest. Remaining trees were shattered, turning into splinters that tore apart the Xelur forces.
“Where did that come from?” one of the Stone Raiders asked.
“That was from Benvari Mountain. The dwarves’ artillery, when combined with grand workings and enough power, can reach out and barely touch the portal’s location,” Esa said excitedly, slumping back into her chair in relief.
“I didn’t think that the dwarves’ artillery could go that far,” another commented.
“Remember when we were dealing with the Elsoom spores? Those artillery cannons were massive and they were using reduced charges so that they wouldn’t overshoot where the Elsoom were,” the first Stone Raider said.
“Damn. Maybe we can get more of that support in other places,” the second said.
“It is powerful, but it wouldn’t take much for them to miss a portal and hit a castle nearby. That’s why they’re using grand workings, as the spells will affect the enemy and can be directed after it goes off to not hit allies. We would need to be having our battles a lot closer to the mountains if we wanted to use their normal rounds.” Esa’s voice trailed off as a notification appeared.
She went to it. Finding a message, she quickly read it and frowned at the words within. “What the hell is she up to?” Esa muttered under her breath.
***
Markolm might be a small country compared to the others but it was no less populated and it had a lot of undiscovered portals. One had opened on the shores between the Markolm forest and the ocean; another was in the swamps on the opposite side of the island nation. One opened between Mel’alla and Hovulof. One opened north of the capital Maphrol and another south of the city Ataraxis.
This meant that the island nation was dealing with five different portals. They had only known about the one to the north of Maphrol and the one between Mel’alla and Hovulof, calling on the Terra Alliance to assist them.
However, when creatures started coming from the southeast and west, the elves were shocked. They locked down their cities and were put under siege. There were Alturarans, Ooinfa, and Jera Root. However, the Jera Root didn’t come from the portal; instead, it had been released by the event near the swamps, though it had been so powerful that it killed off the Jakan forces. The Alturarans came from the south; the Ooinfa came from the eastern forests while the Jera Root spread from the western swamps.
Alturarans were creatures of limited intelligence and were created from inorganic materials. They manipulated their own inorganic bodies into weapons and lived to destroy life around them. The Ooinfa were beings of illusions; they could hypnotize people with a weak Willpower into a lull before killing them. They saw the portals as a desecration of their land. They, just wanting to be left alone. Thinking that it was the people of Emerilia placing these portals down they attacked again and again trying to shut down these entrances into their homeworld.
While this behaviours had been understood, there was simply no known way to communicate with the Ooinfa.
No one even knew what an Ooinfa looked like.
The Jera Root was the most terrifying of them all. The root wasn’t sentient nor could it create slaves of others like the Elsoom spores. Instead, they were a plant of poison. They were created by a chemist in the midst of a blood war on Ashal in ancient times past.
The Jera Root spread across an area, creating different poisons. The Jera Root naturally mutated the poisons it created in its body every time a new Jera Root grew. They spread across a large area in just a few days, growing at a speed visible to a person’s eye. They would look like a colorful field, inviting and pleasant, with a slight haze over it. If someone were to get close, they would fall victim to the multiple kinds of poison, falling down and dying from exposure and feeding the Jera Root.
Incredibly hot temperatures were needed to burn away the Jera Root and its spores. And it had to be done at the same time because the Jera Root would mutate so that it would become harder and harder to burn them.
So far, they were having a hard time crossing the mountain range that went through Markolm, and were being funneled down toward Heatho.
There was an ono evacuating the city but it was slow progress. The fields continued to grow, day by day—even in the night—as they moved south.
The Lady of Light looked over Markolm, a calculating look in her eyes.
Markolm was the center of her power, an island that had once dominated the skies of Emerilia, an untouchable city of light, called home by angels, divine beasts, and warriors of Emerilia. People would look up at this floating nation with awe and respect in their eyes.
Such times were in the ancient past for the people of Emerilia, where the world changed every week.
For Light, it had never been far away from her mind. Every time she thought about those days, her anger was ignited to the boiling point. However, she never let this show on her face, only a slight twitch at the corner of her eye or a light tapping. She had kept her anger and her power hidden.
As the nation of Light had landed in the sea, war was waged over her nation. She used the lives of those who died to fill her divine well, seeing an oncoming storm and waiting to reveal her power.
Markolm was conquered by the elves, who then raised edifices to the Lady of Light. Their devotion had diminished over the years but they were still believers that Markolm was a holy land, their true homeland.
They think too much of their bloodline. The Lady of Light looked down at these noble houses and their powerful and pure bloodlines.
The Lady of Light sat in her hall; her attendants and her people were gathered around. All of them focused on the orb that floated in the center of the hall. Khanundra was to the Lady of Light’s right, midway up the stairs that climbed to her throne. Along the base of her throne were several men and women, all wearing the golden armor of a warrior of the Light. Light had gathered these people who escaped from their bonds as Khanundra did. These were the eight generals of Light. On their backs, two wings glowed with brilliant radiance. Their eyes had a golden light to them as they watched the sights through the orb impassively.
Through it they could see the city Heatho.
They could hear the screaming and crying as people tried to move faster and through the single ono within the city. The fields of Jera Root had spread across the fields outside the city and were encroaching on the city. The walls were already sprouting with deadly flowers. Every minute, more and more of the flowers creeped through the city and toward the fleeing residents.
The Lady of Light watched, hiding her pleasure as she saw the looks of despair within the eyes of those elves. This is power, to watch those last moments and decide their fate.
Light waited a few moments and composed herself. It had been so long since she had the power that she now commanded that it was intoxicating.
“Go and save them, that they might learn the error of their ways and live with new life,” Light said, her words for her followers and angels as she waved an imperious hand. Golden light wrapped around the generals and Khanundra.
Light zoomed out seeing as the eight generals made a semi-circle in front of Khanundra, who stood above the Ono in the middle of the city.
People looked upward at the gold-covered angels with their pure white outstretched wings.
“With me!” Khanundra yelled out, pulling her weapon free as she charged forward. The eight heavenly generals yelled out as their weapons appeared in their hands, blazing with golden light that forced many to look away as they charged valiantly toward the Jera Root!
Golden spell formations appeared around them. Their speed made them seem like golden lights as their attacks lashed outward. The Light attacks were made to destroy the Jera, not the buildings or anything else. The precision needed was immense, but after making all of her generals also her champions, their power had doubled.
They passed over Heatho. People looked up in wonder and awe.
Light was unable to hide a hungry smile. Her eyes flickered in lust as she watched those expressions with glee. The time for Light to return to Emerilia has begun!
The angels pushed forward; in their path, there was no sign of the Jera Root. It was as if they were cleansing Emerilia of poison.
Cheers rang out of the elven people’s throats. Some dropped to their knees in prayer and devotion.
Light let out a sigh as power from the devotions made by the elves poured in, filling Light’s divine well. She looked to her left side. In the shadows, away from everyone else, there was a woman who looked nearly identical to Khanundra. Instead of the golden armor that the angels wore, this person wore simple clothes.
This was Daeundra, Khanundra’s sister. She was a fallen angel, part of Light’s forces that worked in the dark.
Emerilia Series Box Set 4 Page 44