Oblivion's Crown

by M. H. Johnson

  “No one’s killing anyone,” Val snapped. “Not unless I deem it necessary!”

  Before Alwin could protest, Val quickly spoke over him. “Alwin. The pair of men struck down. Do they still live?”

  Alwin gave a grudging nod. “The ones you treated did. But a third was destroyed utterly!”

  Val glared at the trembling hostages. “Do you need me to cast additional healing magics on the survivors?”

  To this the older mage smirked. “We will respectfully pass, my lord. I’m not sure where you learned healing magics based on time’s cycle, but the agony is beyond brutal. Highly effective,” he conceded begrudgingly, “but brutal. And though the Christos healing arts are… ahem… limited, it is a gentle magic, and combined with the potions you so graciously gave my men, it has proven sufficient to heal them.”

  “Good,” Val said, even as the dreadful howls of a second abomination crawling through the rift cut through the air. He glared in the direction of the sound. “We need to handle that, now.”

  Alwin sighed. “I know, my lord. I was able to ward the Chateau foyer, though I don’t know if it will keep even Lesser Horrors at bay if I am not constantly concentrating. But my wounded brethren sleep the slumber of exhaustion. They can aid us no further until they recover. We just need to be strong enough to hold the wards until they do.”

  Val frowned. “One moment.” He clenched his fist, scowling at the hideously glowing breach in reality even as a second thousand-tentacled horror began to ooze out, only to look up with its endless scores of eyes and shriek once, pitifully, before oblivion caressed it with a bone-rattling roar of destruction that set the entire chateau to rattling as a titanic explosion of dirt and stone rained over ruined gardens.

  Blood poured from Val’s ears and nose, healed an instant later as tainted power flooded his soul once more.

  Yet still haunting the air with its maddening hum was the glaring tear in reality itself, now several feet above the devastated pit of the crater that had formed.

  Starfall successfully cast and targeted! 40 mana & 40 health expended! Rift has been hit! Eldritch Horror has suffered Catastrophic damage, all self-sustaining matrices ruptured!

  Starfall has no effect on interdimensional rift!

  Insight check made: Potent as they are, the magics tied to destiny which you now embrace are oriented to Jordia’s fate alone. It will be some time, if ever, before you can use your matrix powers to affect portals to alternate realities.

  Lesser Eldritch Horror’s Remains have crumpled to ash: Death’s Kiss in effect. You have instantly healed 55 Health + 10 = 65 Health and 3 wound tiers! You have permanently absorbed Eldritch Essence! Saving throw versus Corruption made! Vitality and Strength have both permanently gone up by 0.2! Saving throw versus Hideous Temptation made! You are still feeling the sweet rush of power coursing through your veins from your first Abyssal kill, and suffer no further penalties to enticement.

  “By the gods, that spell could bring the North to its knees!”

  “Meteors from the heavens. We were wise to swear ourselves to this one.”

  “But our wards don’t protect against earth shocks! I fear this chateau is at risk of collapse if any more meteors hit close by!”

  Val gazed at the men favoring him with looks ranging from awe to fear, frowning as he looked up and saw the truth of those words, the once elegant ceiling chipped and damaged, multiple cracks running overhead.

  “Alright, we’re closing that gate, no matter what it takes.” He glared at the two newest members of their huddling group. “You two, I assume you know how to dispel what you cast?”

  The youngest of the pair jerked a nod. “Yes, my lord.” Frightened eyes met Alwin’s pitiless gaze. “We will do everything we can to assist, we swear it!”

  Alwin glared, before giving a begrudging nod. “It will do, my king. Much as I loathe these bastards, no one is better at rift-making than the Ormur clan. But you must not cast any more tactical magics! You’d kill us if you did. This is not something we can cast from a distance.”

  Val grimaced but nodded. “I don’t know how effective my other magics will be, but I’ll do my best to hold off any horrors that try to slip through.”

  12

  “Ormur mages, you will add your flows last to the ritual, cracking the weak points revealed by our spell!” Alwin snarled at the pair of trembling mages. “And should you hesitate for even an instant, rest assured the punishments our master has in store for you will be nothing compared to my own!”

  Both terrified mages trembled before the coven of glaring Christos mages, Val ignoring their pleading gazes.

  Alwin smirked. “The men are ready, my lord.”

  Val nodded, gazing at the awful rift while trying to avoid looking too deeply at the twisting of space and time he sensed just beyond. His fist squeezed the hilt of his dwarven sword. His Psiblade and forceshield he had put back in storage, for even his skills had proven insufficient to counter the intense surges of electromana energies emanating from the rift.

  Energies so potent that Val alone was able to stand so close without sickening or blisters forming on his skin. He was chilled by the thought of what this Jordian equivalent of radiation might be doing to his insides, were it not for his healing 5 health per second. He had also taken a second purple, on the off chance his first earlier regeneration potion might be winding down.

  Val turned to gaze at a furiously chanting Alwin as the nine Christos mages and the two subjugate Ormur wizards attempted to twist apart the knot of power tying the rift into place like a lock twisting inside a key.

  Alwin stumbled back, gazing at Val in horror.

  “It comes. My lord, it comes!”

  But Val already heard it, the rumbling crash of something massive treading upon unfathomable ground that was not ground so much as the crushed bones and souls of countless enemies.

  Val felt his gut twist and clench in horrific knots as a massive hand the color and texture of granite punched through the opening.

  Quickness check made! You have successfully dodged Eldritch Horror’s limb!

  Stone cracked under the force of the blow as the massive hand left a crater where Val had been standing just moments ago, his boosted dwarven blade merely scoring the surface of the rock-hard limb that had punched through the earth.

  Boosted dwarven blade fails to penetrate! You have hit for two points of damage!

  Perception check made! Your experience battling Darklords and dodging their deadly stares has paid off!

  Val hissed and leaped back as a wave of terror sought to pin him where he was, savvy enough to avert his gaze from the horrific face of twisted flesh and bone glaring at him with inhuman hate.

  The creature howled as Val continued to avoid its gaze. He could feel his flesh sizzling and burning under its glare. The monstrosity then forced another arm through the tight gap, straining with the effort of slowly pulling the dimensional rift farther apart as the gate began to pulse a brilliant shade of red, the horror before him taking on the same hue, even as Alwin crumpled to the ground.

  “Alwin!” Val wasted no time, launching out with all his fury, an impressive bolt of pykrete launched from his clenched fist, slamming into one of the beast’s grasping hands.

  Your boosted Ice Spear has struck Eldritch Horror! Elementalist title (+20%), adept status (+20%), boosted damage (+50%), Potent Magus (+30%) Level 1 Arcane Reaver bonus (+10%) and embracing your wrath (+60%) has endowed your Ice Spear with a 190% damage increase!

  And it shattered against the massive titan of stone, doing no more than chipping his foe.

  Your foe has resisted Ice Spear. 4 Points of damage taken!

  The creature roared, massive hands tearing at the dimensional rift, and it was all Val could do to hold fast as dreadful howls bombarded his soul, promising horrors neverending more convincingly than any Highlord’s snarled promises ever had.

  Save versus fear made! Save versus paralysis made!

  Val’s eyes w
idened for only a moment as yet a third hand burst through the gate, desperately trying to force the opening wider, and Val thought he heard the rift itself shrieking in agony inconceivable, as if it too was a sentient thing. A sickened Val couldn’t help but wonder if it was the sacrificed souls themselves that cried out.

  Val knew he didn’t have a moment to lose, and he knew he had to change his tactics completely.

  Letting go of the hot fury roaring through his blood as he dodge-rolled away from the titan’s flailing limbs, the furious bubbling magic in his blood cooling until he was one with the darkness and gloom once more, twilight fading into proper night at last.

  Darkness gazed at his foe with Magesight and Psi-sense both, sensing at last the clever ways molecules twisted by forces beyond his own dimension to keep the entire matrix that was the Eldritch Horror stable, shivering with an insight so profound he almost slipped into plain view before his monstrous foe.

  Congratulations! You have successfully used Find Weakness against an Eldritch Horror!

  Critical Success! Your Find Weakness skill is now Rank 2 and works on interdimensional horrors just as well as it does mechanized opponents!

  The creatures body was able to transfer kinetic force and electromana energies and distribute it evenly through the surrounding tissue while still maintaining absolute rigidity, save for joints bending in directions Val’s stomach twisted just to see. It was like nothing Val had ever sensed before.

  He wondered if perhaps there was a way to kill this horror after all.

  But first, he had to test the theory.

  He had to know.

  The horror’s limbs flailed, smashing the earth all around the gate as if determined to obliterate what it could not see, and Val plunged his mind to icy depths of frosty resolve greater even than the howling wind now echoing through his soul, looking deep, deep within the frigid core of his being, tasting the shape and flow of a weave so very like Ice Spear, and so much more.

  “Glacie Pilum Perfuro!” Val screamed, jutting out his fist as not just one or two but an entire flood of icy death flew into the titanic horror in a vicious storm of spears, dozens of them, all striking the monstrosity in one shotgun-like blast.

  Similarity bonuses in effect! Adept bonus in effect! Elementalist bonus in effect! Overlord bonuses in effect! Save versus critical spell failure made! Congratulations! You have warped and twisted your understanding of Ice Spear into a 35th level storm of icy death! (And it was closer than you think, Val: that storm of death could be raining down upon you!)

  Val’s eyes widened in the tiniest flicker of hope as the horror’s leftmost arm was webbed in a fine mesh-work of cracks, as if he had overloaded the creature's ability to distribute the force of the blow.

  Triple damage for vulnerability! Foe takes 125 damage!

  Val’s heart hammered with panic.

  It wasn’t enough. Not nearly enough.

  The creature’s howl was beyond anything Val had ever heard before. He stumbled to the ground, feeling the blood pour from his ringing ears, his balance instantly shot, knowing he was in trouble.

  Rolling for all he was worth as frantic limbs lurched forward through the rift, pounding and tearing the ground where Val had collapsed just moments prior.

  “Alwin! You need to dispel that fucking rift!” Val screamed in his mind. But he sensed Alwin and the other wizards’ terrible weakness and exhaustion. They were all on the verge of collapse, and they had come so close to twisting free the horrific knot that could doom his entire province, and perhaps all of Southern Jordia as well.

  Val gazed at the heavens for only a moment in contemplation of a horrific act of betrayal to his men, knowing what his ultimate duty had to be, before pushing it away with a lurch as he sensed Alwin’s awful despair.

  Please…

  Ready to laugh at his own stupid folly, forcing his body to roll away from a massive pulverizing fist, backing away as far as he could, knowing he was a fool to stay so close when his spells worked just fine well out of sword range.

  Save versus Eldritch Blast made!

  He lurched to his shaky feet as his foe’s dreadful howl sent them all stumbling back. He summoned forth half a dozen red potions, grateful as always that he seemed to have a far higher tolerance for potion consumption than even his human friends, wondering only for a moment if that was due to his origins. Perhaps he was no more real than a simulacrum that had willed itself to being within a sarcophagus filled with liquid Silbion in the crypt of an ancient wizard who had died a thousand years ago.

  And what was the catalyst, the source of potency of almost all Jordian potions?

  Pure liquid Silbion. Only trace amounts needed, and he had forged himself from entire gallons of the substance.

  Flowing through him and rejuvenating his body even as he chugged the potions, deliberately pushing that wonderful sense of healing, of harmony, through the chords that connected him and his coven, grimacing as blessed relief turned to instant pain, forcing those connections deeper, wider, a heartbeat from collapse, knowing everything depended on healing his friends.

  Ancient legends no more true than rumors whispered by desperate Terrans on Readit have been made true by nothing more than distorted insights and sheer stubbornness as you twist the natural limits of this ancient art in order to accommodate your own warped understanding! Your Spirit Link can now transfer the effects of potions and spell effects you cast on yourself to anyone linked in your party!

  Perception check made!

  Val dodged left as his foe spat at him from the rift, the globule of shimmering darkness eating completely through the ground.

  He dodged and ducked a constant stream of caustic death, knowing he had to break his foe’s line of sight for just a heartbeat.

  Duck!

  Racing for a break in the terrain, darting behind a cluster of shattered stone as caustic spittle rained overhead.

  And even as eerie black slime hissed and sizzled into the earth just feet away, Val forced his racing heart to calm, letting Shadowmind's cool embrace wash all horror and panic away, filled with icy resolve and dark purpose once more.

  “My lord. We are ready. If you can take out that creature without killing us, we can close the gate.”

  The night smiled. “Make sure the coven is behind the gate.”

  And for the most part, they were. Only because he was no more than shadow, one with reality in all its permutations, was Val able to endure gazing at the gate, the way space seemed to twist and writhe, glimpsing countless abominations just beyond. Waiting for the gate to be torn completely off its arcane moorings. Waiting for the invasion to begin.

  The summoned abomination continued to yank and tear at the edges of the gate, horrific power stretching it farther and farther, even as massive limbs flailed at the ground beyond.

  Val knew that to be struck by those hideous limbs would be instant death, no matter that his foe could neither hear, smell, nor see the pest that had stung it twice.

  Even as he slipped closer and closer, pulling free gifts blessed by oblivion itself.

  Quickness check made! Finesse check made! You are before the gate!

  Dodging madly as his Shadowcloak felt the pull of a massive fist barely avoided, smelling the awful stench of carrion and scorched iron as he slipped to the very edge of the gate.

  Measuring the chaotic way the monstrosity alternated between ripping open the gate ever further, and lunging out those awful fists until at last… Insight Check made!

  He found the pattern. The way the arms would shudder and shrink, a heartbeat before slipping back through like boneless snakes.

  And he waited. Waited until the arms roared forth once more...

  Dodging madly to avoid furious pounding fists.

  Somehow, his foe knew its nemesis approached.

  Quickness check tie! Shadowcloak torn off!

  Eldritch Eye vs Shadowmind… Shadowmind holds!

  A jolt of fear tearing into his icy core as death ca
ressed his spine and laughed…

  And then his foe’s arms began to twist in upon themselves once more.

  Now!

  Strength check made!

  With a burst of frantic strength, he pulled free one of Blackenthorp’s massive bombs worth a fortune in Silbion and Elementium, punching down the raised bulge, feeling conceivably potent electromana potentials build and escalate as he forced oblivion’s gift through the rift. He then ran like a madman under the gate, grasping his still fluttering Shadowcloak as he sprinted for Alwin as fast as he could.

  Thrown off his feet by a roar that shook his very bones.

  Save versus shockwave made! You’ve suffered 15 damage and mild disorientation!

  Gazing up at the nighttime sky, hardly believing he was alive.

  His gift having unleashed destructive force sufficient to instantly butcher several thousand men, as it had once before, its connection to his Greater Artifice Stabilization skill instantly cut off when it fell under the lip of the portal.

  Which was why Val was even alive. Ground zero for that explosion, the terrible shockwave released, had been at the feet of the abomination trying to break through… now a universe away.

  The results? Devastating.

  Just as if the rift entrance was the barrel of a rifle, and Val and his friends safely behind the trigger.

  The nearby gardens, however, had been completely obliterated by the spread.

  Val was just grateful it wasn’t his mystic garden that had been destroyed.

  But still, it had been close.

  Too close.

  And Val had to force himself to stand, despite the pain and dizziness he felt, in case more horrors tried to slip through.

  He had to know if his foe was well and truly dead.

  He exchanged quick glances with a sweat-covered Alwin who was gasping for air, grimacing a desperate smile. Val collected himself, redonned his recovered Shadowcloak, and slipped into darkness once more.

  Perception check made!

  He found multiple granite-colored chunks of alien matter upon the floor of the rocky crater, hissing and boiling away in Jordia’s air before the rift entrance.