Oblivion's Crown

by M. H. Johnson

  But of deadly horrors attempting to break free? He saw no sign.

  Until a single broken face covered with an ever-growing number of cracks peered at him with inconceivable hate, the head itself bursting through the rift!

  Only to collapse into a pile of dust, covering a stunned, shaken, and now completely healed Val.

  Greater 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 Greater Eldritch Essence! Saving throw versus Corruption: tie! Your mind screams with the hideous energies ripping through your body! You suffer a temporary Charisma penalty as forces alien and strange seek to warp you from destiny’s grasp, transforming you into their own creature! Willpower check made! Your mind is your own and your Charisma rounds up to its former score, though a trace of madness now lurks in your gaze. Vitality and Strength have both permanently gone up by one full point each! 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.

  Spirit Link check: Success! You have spared your enslaved coven the brunt of the Horror’s touch. Their spirits have been spared Eldritch Warping. A good thing too, considering how corrupt most of your mages already are!

  Then Val felt as much as heard Alwin’s triumphant voice.

  “My lord, success!”

  Val's Arcane Perception allowed him to see precisely how Alwin was twisting open the lock binding the rift to his own dimension. His sense of it was only heightened by his Spirit Link, all but tasting the ways Alwin was using his gifts to untie the knotted strands of reality.

  And with the howl of damned souls fading forever out of salvation’s grasp, the gate, along with the innocent and monstrous souls that had powered it, was no more.

  Insight gained! You now understand the basics of abjuring extra dimensional gates! And with a little more exposure, you’re almost certain you could summon horrors from the darkest corners of reality just as well as your enemies!

  Conjuration is now Rank 1!

  And all was silent save for the dazed whispers of the mages under his care, visible to his naked eye in the pitch darkness all around, though they glowed mightily to his Magesight. His Psi-Sense now granted him a colorless sense of everything in his immediate vicinity, nothing seen so much as felt, as if the world he strode upon was his hand, and he could feel the swaying trees and the furtive wizards as if they were a weight, a pressure of focus and intent upon the ground around him.

  Perception check made!

  Smiling coldly as he pulled his Psiblade back out of storage, spending precious moments flipping its Valorium matrix into correct alignment before dropping to the ground as a bolt of necrotic death scorched the air where his head had been just a heartbeat before.

  Gazing dispassionately at the wizard writhing and screaming among his fellows, Val deliberately casting his torchlight spell so all the Christos mages could see what happened to any mage who dared break the Greater Oath they had forged with him.

  Ten pale-faced mages gazed on as the snake among them shrieked piteously as his back arched so far back it cracked, blood shooting from mouth, ears, and nose, giving Val one desperate piteous glance, screaming with his mind a plea for mercy Val alone could sense.

  Val knew he could do nothing. He could allow the growing discordance to tear the treacherous mage limb from limb, until every last shred of flesh tore itself free of his bones, compressing his corpse into a compact cube of flesh and torment.

  Val sighed and shook his head, choosing instead to mute his horrible retribution. The wizard collapsed in a sobbing broken heap, shuddering as torn back muscles at last unclenched, crying out with pain from blood still trickling out of all his orifices.

  Val gazed down at the piteously sobbing Christos wizard. “Why?” he asked.

  The man could only whisper. “You would take our freedom. You would make us your slaves!”

  Val shook his head sadly. “It would have been nothing to let the curse continue. Your flesh would have been ripped from your bones, every organ ruptured, and you forced to endure every last moment of it until your brain itself burst from your ruptured skull.”

  He turned, gazing at each and every mage present, all of them gazing at Val in speechless horror.

  “But I have spared you. I have shown you mercy. I chose to pity your life and give back what you willfully surrendered.”

  His stare burned into each wizard’s countenance, holding it until each and every one flinched and lowered his gaze.

  “Because I need you. Because Jordia needs you. Needs wizards willing and able to stand up to the Dominion. Wizards who could serve as the backbone of a force so mighty, so powerful, our enemies will never be able to claim this world again! But it will take years of effort, training, perhaps centuries, before we are ready. Before we have enough talented men and women born with the gift that you lot will sire to hold this planet from our foes, to resist the blandishments of our enemies seeking to weaponize our greed, our envy, our pride, eager to have us do their own work for them, killing ourselves off for their amusement like utter fools!”

  Val’s eyes crackled with barely suppressed fury, his mages shuddering before his wrath.

  “I have shown mercy once. Never again.” He glared at the fallen, sobbing mage.

  “Alwin, he is your responsibility now. I don’t want to see his treacherous face until you judge him redeemed.”

  Alwin paled and bowed to his waist. “Understood, my lord. And for your mercy… thank you.”

  Val clenched his jaw, shaking his head. “We risk our own extinction, and we’ve seen more than enough stupidity this night. Just know that he has tasted only a sliver of the agony awaiting him. Awaiting anyone who dares to break their oath to me. Now tend to your men and ready yourselves while I scout ahead. We have overcome a rift that could have doomed us all, and that is no small thing. But we still have a tower to reclaim and a foe to defeat. Together, we will make those bastards regret ever setting foot on these lands!”

  Weak cheers greeted him, but Val could sense their exhaustion, leaving them to recuperate and rest while he embraced the shadows once more, circling around the ruined manor for signs of ambush or enemies before proceeding at last to the true prize of Greengrove estates.

  Val slipped past magnificent mushroom groves glowing with eldritch potential, and he couldn't help but smile with pride at the thousand pristine blossoms glowing impossible shades of red and blue in the adjoining garden as he approached the tower proper, a magnificent edifice of translucent stone that now shimmered like a thousand stars trapped in bricks of pristine darkness, for all that it glowed like ivory and gold in the light of the sun.

  His precious tower, torn free of legend and forgotten dreams, brought to vivid life once more.

  Only to be captured by his enemies, before he ever got to learn its secrets, before he ever had a chance to truly commune with his prize, to bond all its wonder and potential with his own hungry soul. And he could forgive himself the awful folly, having perhaps saved countless billions from a bio-engineered plague comprised of madness spanning two realities. Yet he was struck by the odd feeling that unless he purged this tower of all foes and claimed it as his own this night, its wondrous secrets would disappear forever in the light of the morning dawn.

  Val glared at the pair of wizards and the hovering bodies of flame standing sentinel before the entrance to his tower.

  A tower he would reclaim before the night was through.

  13

  The nighttime breeze caressed the stink of sweat, unwashed bodies and brimstone, the muttering curses of men who feared the horrors unleashed in the dead of night, guttural laughter drowning out the cries of women and children could be heard from within the tower.

  “The Christos blood runs strong with those wenches,” sneered one sentinel, hands adjusting his brow
n tunic, his twisted features and crimson eyes filled with feral hunger.

  The second man nodded, running a grimy hand through stringy hair. “Soon it will be our turn. And once we’ve killed off those fools at the manor, their whole coven will be ripe for claiming.”

  The first mage nodded before lurching in sudden surprise, blinking away death as the top of his head exploded, torn asunder by one of the dozen ice spears tearing through his body and the pair of fire elementals suddenly blazing with hot fury at the assault.

  Ice Storm successfully cast! Three targets caught in blast! Enemy guard suffers 600 damage, 2 Critical and 1 Fatal Wound! Fire elemental takes 20 damage from opposing element and no significant wound! Fire elemental takes 10 damage from opposing element and no significant wound!

  “Glacie Pilum Perfuro!” Shadow roared as a snarling Val boiled into being where darkness had hidden just heartbeats before, two largely unhurt fire elementals and one howling wizard glaring daggers of hate even as Val flashed a cold smile and darted for the grove, focused primarily on redirecting the massive balls of fire roaring for his head, sent spinning off to erupt like fireworks in the nighttime sky. The surviving wizard screamed, one hand holding a glowing dagger, the other lashing out with bolts of caustic slime sizzling harmlessly against Val’s ward.

  Val flashed a feral smile as he flowed between the trees, now as much the rustle of the branches and the faint beams of moonlight cutting through the clouds as he was the youth leading his enemies on a merry chase, feet as silent as the rustling leaves, one with the night once more.

  Dual skillcheck made! Congratulations, your Synergized Ward can now be activated while embracing the powers of Shadow!

  “Where’d that bastard go?” snarled the surviving wizard, hand growing an eldritch shade of green, dripping caustic slime that sizzled and burned the undergrowth at his feet, the plants crying out silently to their protector as the hideous magics sizzled and burned.

  Before cries imagined transformed to the very real hum of a crackling Psiblade and the piteous screams of a mage tightly clenching with his offhand the stump now shooting blood and gore, falling to his knees, eyes wide with disbelief.

  Find Weakness check made! It seems Elemental Abominations and Eldritch Horrors have some things in common! Cores of power held within matrices of form and function!

  Too bad you’re not reading deeply enough, Val.

  Foes struck for Fatal damage!

  The trembling Ormur’s disbelieving gaze only widened as first one, then the other elemental disappeared in an explosion of sound and brilliant light, a four-foot blade of crackling darkness effortlessly cleaving through the tightly wound knots of power that was the heart of those summoned elementals.

  And two brilliant rubies shimmering with inconceivable beauty fell to the ground.

  The pale-faced wizard let loose one bitter smile. “Fool. Now savor the prize your idiocy brings you.” Before collapsing to the ground, eyes rolling in the back of his head as his frantic grip relaxed.

  Almost as if he welcomed pleasantly fading to oblivion as his lifeblood gushed from a severed wrist. As if he knew something that Val, at that moment grinning like a madman for the priceless rubies on the ground before him, did not.

  Enticement check failed! Perception check against Greater Secret failed!

  Eyes widening as he desperately tried to summon his Synergized Ward…

  Too late. Far, far too late.

  The night exploded in a horrific cacophony of flame and agony, Val’s blazing body sent soaring into the heavens before crashing to the ground.

  Save versus crippling injury: Failed! Save versus shockwave: Failed! Save versus instant death: Made! You have taken 456 Damage and have suffered 3 crippling wounds! Your ribs have been shattered, internal organs pierced, right arm blown clean off your body! Your eyes have been ruptured and your face destroyed! You have suffered Hideous Disfigurement! -6 to all reactions save those already bound by loyalty or love until fully regenerated or Tier 3 Plastic Surgeon operates! Your skull is intact! You are currently suffering 9 points of damage per second due to internal and subcranial hemorrhaging! PRM Regeneration, Greater Regeneration Potion, and Song of Battle are currently keeping you stable! Once the song winds down, so will you!

  And Val couldn’t even scream, so great was the agony of his shattered mind and burnt body, his innate healing magics desperately seeking to stabilize the horrific internal injuries that would have had any normal Terran flatlining in seconds.

  Giving up on even screaming for the horrid pain coursing through him, Val struggled for just a single wheezing breath, fighting harder to gasp than he ever had in boot camp, even when his drill instructor would order them to sprint straight up a 20-degree incline. And how Val had felt a fierce sort of pride when he managed to be one of the last ones collapsing to the ground puking after a hard morning of sprinting in full gear, grateful at last when his instructor would favor them all with an almost fatherly smile, knowing they would at last be allowed to rest and rehydrate.

  But now the pain did not end. It only grew. A crushing wave of agony searing into his desperately gasping lungs, too weak even to cough up the blood pooling within.

  “There he is! Ha, the bastard is already dead! Greengrove is ours!”

  “Come, let’s end those damned Christos mages once and for all!”

  “Devil’s balls, that husk is actually twitching! Where’s the kris?”

  Even as agony screamed through him, Psi-Sense still, somehow, sensing his opponents closing in, going no faster than a sedate stroll, peering at him with what Val could taste was a sick fascination, a sadistic glee more than any fear of him, Val fought against the pain, knowing what he had to do.

  The memory of his mangled face would have smiled, had enough strands of muscle remained for the feat, remembering encountering a very similar agony as he lay dying at the feet of his enemy, having dueled with Brutus Blackenthorp for the right to claim that province as his own. Even in his agony he remembered Angelica’s smile, her bemused violet eyes gazing into his own, her face holding all the haughty beauty of the most arrogant of queens. And her smile had been that of a jaded girl bemused at her own pathetic hope that the man before her could ever love someone as dark and ruthless as she.

  “Take the damn potion, Val. No way in hell I’m letting you die after going to all that trouble just to claim you.”

  Critical Success! For all that it should be impossible, you have accessed your dimensional rift! Six healing potions remain!

  Like honey-sweet nectar fed in a wondrous trickle to a man dying of thirst, the potion flowed down his throat.

  First one, then a second potion, and he almost cried out with the overwhelming flood of agony and relief now coursing through his veins. It was all he could do to force the healing in very specific directions, for all that his tormented body screamed at him to let the magics heal by need alone.

  Willpower check made! You have healed 200 points of damage! 2 Critical Wounds stabilized! Fatal blood loss averted! You’re still a crippled, burnt, one-armed husk of a man, but your internal organs are stable and you have hours before you die of asphyxiation related to near every inch of your skin being burned off!

  You have directed your healing! Tongue, lower and upper jaw are now intact! No teeth yet, but you can lisp as well as well as any toothless mage!

  “Akal, look! The corpse is moving! Get the kris out now, let’s finish this! Wards up, fools. Jax and Ulriss fell because they underestimated this bastard.”

  And Val’s returning Magesight spotted the pair of powerful Synergized Wards held by the pair of leading mages perfectly, the other three possessing much weaker wards in back.

  Noting the pulsing glows to his Magesight that could only be wands and the enchanted Kris blade, Val wondered just how far and in what odd directions he could push spells even fate itself declared had been invented in folly’s shadow alone. A spell strong enough to tear through a bank vault as readily as a lock
ed door, summoned into being just a handful of days ago. Back when he had been playing what he had thought was just a game, with a girl he happened to love, jacked in from Earth with a black cat helm.

  Not dying in the flesh upon a world strange, fantastic, and utterly beyond his dreams. The birthplace of his mother, whom he still missed dearly, for all that she had once served as an assassin to the darkest of Overlords, this world of fantasy and wonder as true to Val’s origins as the Earth he had left behind.

  And he sure as hell wasn’t going to shame the memory of his mother, dying before these fools.

  “Aperio!” Val’s shattered mouth whispered, forcing every iota of his tortured psyche into a final furious strike against his enemies from the most unlikely of angles.

  Gambling his very life on the hope that his eccentric magics would bypass Magewards designed to counter direct kinetic strikes and arcane fire.

  Knowing he had to push his spell, and his soul like never before.

  And how he screamed as already warped magics twisted in a deadly web unlike anything he had ever cast before.

  Similarity bonuses in effect! Elementalist bonus in effect! Overlord bonuses in effect! Save versus fatal spell failure: Made! (No mercy for fools at death’s doorstep, Val.)

  Congratulations! You have warped and twisted your understanding of Lockburst, a spell already outside standard Elementalist traditions, into a 40th level Spell of Valorious Disjunction! Casting Requirements: Destruction/Manipulation/Transformation + Air/Earth/Fire/Water/Mana Manipulation. More than disrupting simple locks or bursting steel vault doors from their frames, you can now disrupt the very linchpins holding arcane artifacts together, releasing all those pent-up energies at once! Spell falls outside standard paradigm. Base cost to cast = 75 mana. Cost to cast at your level of skill (Mana Manipulation below ideal rank) = 90 mana.

  But the word he had muttered before had not been enough. It had not truly defined the matrix bursting through Val, at risk of tearing apart his extremely fragile body even now, if he couldn’t release the terrible magics roiling through him. “Lacero Attero!” Val cried, his voice no more than a whisper.