Oblivion's Crown

by M. H. Johnson

  Val nodded, taking a grateful sip of the flask Alwin handed him. “Long story short, in case it wasn’t obvious, that damned Keeper warped one of my kin into a horror. A horror forged for one purpose. To break me.” He gazed at the sky once more. “After he did that, there was only one response I could give. My enemy’s death.”

  “But how, Val?” Yin pressed.

  “By goading it to fight me for the gate. And yeah, it was a hell of a lot more powerful than I had first thought. What started as a contest for the gate quickly became a contest for survival. I couldn’t master the gate, but I have something of a knack for surviving when other people want me dead.”

  Chris chuckled softly at that.

  “Anyway, after enduring this awful vision of him crushing me to blood and bone with his mind, I thought that connection could work both ways, so I slammed his psyche with an image of me devouring him from within. Next thing I know, I’m back to myself, and I can sense just how to strike him with my blood magic. But no matter how much I drained, no matter how much energy was pouring into me, it was nothing to this creature. He really was like a god.

  “I might have been able to hold on to my sense of self, immune to his dark illusion magic, but I couldn’t prevent him from forcing open the gate.” He flashed a cold smile. “And then I realized I didn’t need to. I let up on what was turning into a stalemate, and he popped through. And like an idiot, I only found out after I invited my enemy into my metaphoric home that I couldn’t selectively dismantle improvements upon lands that were being contested by another power. But there’s more than one way to skin a horror. So I performed a sacrifice instead.”

  Chris’s eyebrows raised at that. “Sacrifice?”

  Val nodded. “The second you guys jumped through the gate I opened for you, I destroyed all my territory’s improvements at once. Including the Greater Mana Warping giving everyone so much arcane juice and, incidentally, acting as life support for that creature. Then I sent a Meteor Storm hurling for his ass and gated out myself.” Val frowned. “Burnt a handful of points doing all that, too. But it was worth it.”

  Alwin blinked. “Meteor Storm. My lord, I recognize that name. It’s recorded within the archives and was used in various battles between the gods that once roamed our land. I mean no offense, but there is no way a mortal should be able to cast that spell.” His gaze turned oddly penetrating. “Who are you really, my lord?”

  Val furrowed his brow. “You already know, Alwin. I’m just a Terran daring the throne. Meteor Swarm is one of my Overlord rituals. And one I gave my oath to cast extremely carefully, if at all.” He flashed a cold smile. “And since it allowed me to take out that damned bastard who butchered my people, turned my kin into a writhing tentacled monster, and sought to kill me as well… yeah. Illuminous, or The Keeper, if you prefer, needed to go. And after goading him to rush me within my own lands, it was time to make that happen.”

  “A divine spell!” whispered one of the awestruck mages. “No wonder he could defeat the Keeper!”

  “I’d expect nothing less from the mage who rescued our families and took out Malice,” declared another.

  “I never thought I’d see the day one of our own would dare the throne!” declared a wide-eyed girl who looked far too young to be wearing a mage’s robe, staring so intently at Val that he wasn’t sure if she wanted to worship him, or devour him.

  Val grimaced, but did his best to ignore the excited murmurs of the growing crowd, clapping Alwin on the shoulder as he exchanged nods with his friends.

  “The children we rescued...”

  Alwin flashed a reassuring smile. “Will be adopted into our clan as our own. Parents now grieving for their sons and daughters will gaze upon these orphaned children crying with loneliness and fear, and their hearts will go out to them. Fear not, Valor. More than one clan has been forged anew from the remnants of multiple broken clans, even if it was their own initial folly that had brought them all low.” He shook his head and sighed. “Perhaps it says something about our world that embracing the survivors of clans shattered by folly is accepted tradition for all of us here in the South. Foolish as we are, at least we are wise enough to nurture precious sprouts so they may grow tall and strong as welcome members of our garden, lest we destroy our gifted bloodlines entirely with strife and avarice.” He shrugged. “Considering all that has happened, perhaps even the pair of begging fools we had originally planned to execute will be given a second chance at life.”

  Val gazed at the trembling children now being approached by several women wearing the robes of mages and the faces of grieving mothers. One girl instantly leaped into the welcoming arms of a softly speaking mage and began crying her heart out. The woman’s eyes filled with tears as she gently kissed the child’s brow.

  “Good,” Val said, blinking away the blur in his eyes before turning to his friends. They all nodded in unison, so much conveyed with that one shared glance.

  “My lord, where are you going?” a puzzled Alwin asked.

  Val flashed a tired smile. “To sleep, Alwin. My friends and I need rest more than you can imagine.”

  22

  “Well, it’s that time again,” a somewhat nervous Yin declared, squeezing Dirk’s hand as they gazed upon a luxurious suite complete with bookcases filled with leather-bound volumes, divans, reading tables, and a polished dining table. Shafts of golden light coming from the stained glass windows gave it all a dreamlike glow, with a beautiful view of the vast herb garden below, filled with exotic blossoms all but glowing with magical potential even to the naked eye, sparkling prettily in the Silbion-enhanced mist coming from the miniature waterfall making it all look like a perfect dream.

  “Are these really our quarters?” Yin asked, taking a sip of sangria from the glass handed to her by a Christos bodyservant now serving the needs of the Arcane Academy’s most revered members.

  “You bet they are,” Dirk grinned, squeezing her to his side, plucking a crystal glass from the silver snack cart placed before them along with a fluffy pastry covered with melted chocolate and what Val was certain was cinnamon and nutmeg, the man closing his eyes with an expression close to rapture. “If what Alwin said is true, we’re practically lords of this keep, or academy. Certainly the surviving mages and their servants are treating us as such. Let’s just hope the gratitude lasts, and damn if this doesn’t beat the stuffing out of every chocolate-covered donut or strudel I ever had before!”

  Chris grinned at that, taking a massive bite of his own pastry before flashing a chocolatey smile. “Couldn’t agree more, sir. We’ll leave you and Yin to your… rest. Our quarters are right next to yours.”

  Val grinned at Yin’s awkward flush but her eyes were beaming as a smiling Dirk shooed them all out and closed the door.

  “Well, that’s our cue, guys. See you both after we level up.” With that, Chris snagged a few more Jordian pastries from the cart and made his way to an adjoining room, the manservant bowing low before departing down the spiraling staircase.

  Julia chuckled softly, squeezing Val’s hand, gazing at him with the most beautiful eyes he had ever seen. His heart raced with her smile as she clasped his hand with her own. “Shall we, lover?”

  Val grinned as she led him to the adjoining suite, neither of them bothering with the tray of delightful pastries as they slammed shut their door before hungry kisses and the sound of ripped clothing filled the room, the pair falling to the bed with giggles and laughter as they sated desperate hungers too long denied.

  For all that the tower was now designated as indestructible, Val swore he felt the earth move, so fiercely did they surrender to their passions, adrift in a storm of desire as they consumed each other with sweetest bliss, stroking and savoring every crevice, every secret they shared, before collapsing in each other’s arms. Sated, replete, and filled with a brilliant warmth that blazed all the brighter as their minds and hearts entwined.

  Though he kept certain secrets locked away, Val refused to hide his soul fr
om the girl he adored, no matter that she could destroy him with her mind as easily as he could clench his fist.

  A sultry chuckle sent delicious tingles down his spine. “My god, Val. I can’t tell you how much I needed that.”

  He grinned as she took shuddering breaths, euphoric and exhausted in equal measure, Val kissing her soft lips and stroking her hair.

  “I love you, Julia Petrovsky Highblood.”

  Her smile lit up his heart, flinching not at all from the scars he now bore. “I love you just as much, Valor Dauda Hunter.”

  Saying not another word, he gathered her in his arms, inhaling the luxurious scent of her hair as he drifted off to sleep.

  Before awakening to the sound of a madman’s laughter, realizing it was his own.

  A jolt of dread turning to sweetest euphoria as he felt the power roaring through his soul.

  Sweet and glorious as the mead of the gods.

  Corrupt and black as a thousand screaming souls.

  Filling him with power wondrous and grand, eyes widening with tantalizing hints of knowledge that awed and astounded him. That tantalized him. Calculations so exquisite, so groundbreaking, they might explain Terran physics with a theory of everything just as profound as Einstein’s general theory of relativity, bundled into a neat little multidimensional equation that would make string-theorists sob with envy at its sheer beauty and utter symmetry.

  And that was but one direction his mind could blossom, assured the powerful baritone voice echoing in his mind with the honeyed words of a master bard, sending delightful shivers of wonder racing down Val’s spine as his mind was transfixed by endless possibility.

  Did he but focus his mind upon it, the art of fire could be his in all its permutations, earth magics as well. He could rain down storms of endless fire upon enemy cities and watch with laughter as his foes burned for his amusement. He could summon volcanoes that would crack the ground and fill the skies with smoke and ash as lava flooded down to bury entire cities much as Pompeii had been, thousands of years before.

  And should such glorious brutality displease him, assured the bemused baritone voice, he could choose to master gentler arts as well.

  The glorious golden light of healing magics so potent that any disease could be purged from suppurating flesh. In fact, for a true master of the art, embracing secrets lost eons ago, it might even be possible to reverse the course of aging itself, and to the extent that it was only progressive damage that barred the spirit from awareness, death itself might not be beyond the true master who could restore a fallen soldier, or wife, completely.

  This, like nothing else, filled Val with a nameless awe and hunger. For all that he enjoyed being a tank when gaming with friends, when embracing truly immersive solo experiences, he had always loved playing the divine hero, able to heal the sick and cure the diseased, earning the respect and gratitude of endless NPCs, and truly being a hero in the most glorious sense of the word. A serene counterpoint to the darkness he had always known lurked in his soul.

  Only now, the lives he saved would be real.

  A delightful sense of wonder filled him, somehow knowing in that terrible, beautiful moment, that should he open himself up to the power roaring through his soul, that dream would well and truly come to pass.

  “And a glorious dream it is, disciple.”

  Val blinked and smiled, turning to the handsome bearded man beside him, broad of chest with the build of a soldier and the eyes of a scholar. Val could sense both sincerity and the warmest of intentions beneath the twinkle in his gentle brown eyes.

  The man chuckled softly, clasping Val’s shoulder. “But work with me, Valor, and we can make that dream come true.”

  Val blinked, suddenly finding himself in a hospital ward filled with dying patients, struck by a nameless plague that had all the gathered doctors and nurses shaking their heads with growing disbelief and horror before fear of their own mortality sent them fleeing for safety behind biohazard suits and sterility protocols, even as innocent people suffered and died.

  Before wheezing lungs breathed easy once more, sores disappearing from flesh as sick children sat up in dazed confusion, skin clear and glowing with good health, wrapped up in the arms of sobbing parents swearing their gratitude to the one who had saved their family, their gazes filled with awe and reverence for the healer before them.

  The hero that could be Val.

  Val blinked suddenly confused eyes as if waking from a dream, finding himself with drink in hand at a busy tavern, well-to-do patrons smiling and nodding, returning to their conversations with various individuals filled with grace and charm so like his own charming host, his bearded would-be mentor winking and raising his stein in toast.

  Perception check made! Insight check made!

  His host flashed a bemused wink. “I must admit, I’m both surprised and impressed. It’s been a long time since I encountered someone worthy. And you, dear Valor, would make a fine healer indeed.” He gave a satisfied nod. “It is a fitting path for your story to take. So much blood on your hands, and so many lives saved. Only now, you can be a hero in the truest sense of the word. Saving lives not by killing tyrants, but by bringing mercy and succor to those who need it most.”

  He tilted his head. “Tell me honestly, if you could live your life completely over and find out that this was all a dream, chuckling with relief when you find that what you really are is a hard-working resident with a prestigious degree who happens to have the gift to heal any illness he comes across during his hospital rounds, would that not be a wondrous life to wake up to? Perhaps you keep your powers secret, enjoying the looks of awe and wonder shared among hospital staff at the miraculous recoveries. Perhaps only your beloved Julia, who stole your heart when you both attended pre-med together, would know your delicious secret. Would the chance to live this life not tempt you just a bit? Perhaps more than a bit?”

  Val felt a sense of awe as he looked out the grand arched window beyond their booth, catching sight of a majestic city of crystal and gold floating upon the cloud tops nearby. Even as their own tavern, and the city containing it, rested upon the peaks of an incredibly high cliff, engineered by magic long departed from the face of Jordia. At least until Val had opened a crack in the skein of reality leading to infinite realms of possibility and dream, unleashing a storm of wild magics flooding at least one territory once more.

  He turned to peer at fellow guests in deep conversation with charming hosts, all of them wearing exquisite finery and possessing the air of rulers and kings. Val gazed down at his divine drink, knowing here and now, like no place else, he could not lie. Dared not lie.

  Slowly, he nodded. “That would indeed be a sweet life. And the man who got to live it would be a lucky soul indeed.”

  The handsome man before him chuckled, eyes twinkling with warm approval. He raised his stein. “To deals struck and bargains made, Valor Hunter.”

  Val did not sip his drink.

  “Who are you, really?”

  The man before him smiled. “Vetiti Eruditio, at your service.”

  Val felt a cold shiver race down his spine, those words alone needing no translation, for they weren’t Jordian at all. “I never was one for academic studies.”

  “I have deduced that already, Valor Hunter.”

  Val smirked. “But I did study Latin. I was never a scholar, but I always had a thing for military history, and I sure as hell admired the Roman Legion’s accomplishments. There was no Latin in my school district, so I made a point of studying the Commentaries of Caesar on my own. Did you know that before being recognized as a master tactician and eventually ruling what was once one of the greatest empires on Earth, Julius Caesar had dreamed of becoming a famous poet? I never got much beyond that text, but my father was impressed enough to forgive my completely failing French.”

  Vetiti chuckled, though his increasingly dark gaze never left Val’s own.

  Brown? His eyes were liquid pools of darkness in the dimming light, the e
ntire tavern seeming to fade, until it was just Val and the man across from him.

  “Still, I did pick up a few terms while studying that dead language.” His eyes hardened. “I know what Vetiti Eruditio means. That means I know who you are as well.”

  The tavern went completely still. The murmur of conversations, glasses drinking, footsteps treading, all of it replaced by sudden silence.

  Not a single sound from any of the dozens of patrons now turning their heads in perfect synchronicity, like marionettes, pinning Val with their ice-cold gazes.

  Liquid pools of inky blackness.

  Vetiti flashed his perfect teeth in a smile. “Who am I then, Valor Dauda Hunter?”

  Val flashed a grin equally cold, heart racing with icy glee. Reveling in the madness to come.

  “You are Illuminous, the Keeper. Fallen patron of Forbidden Knowledge who would challenge me for my soul.”

  The man’s smile widened to inhuman proportions, showcasing brilliant ivory-white teeth as rubbery blackness showed where his perfect features had begun to crack, his once handsome face made hideous as the horror within began to ooze forth.

  Val could feel the cold winds of oblivion caress his soul as the Keeper's inhuman gaze locked upon his own, the sudden stench of rotting rubbery flesh filling the air.

  Psi-Sense in effect!

  Val could taste with his mind the inky black tendrils bursting from the bodies behind him, discarded porcelain masks shattering upon the floor. Val was suddenly utterly certain that should he tilt his head, he would see the faces of ancient kings and queens and counselors replaced by slime-covered brain-flayers, eyes blazing with a diseased yellow-green light, tendril-covered mouths opening wide, whispering awful secrets left trembling in the air.

  “Many things are forbidden, Valor. Delicious secrets I would share with only a select few. You have proven yourself worthy of a single forbidden secret. The path to the world you seek, your soul allowed to depart into the dream you seek to embrace. I shall grant your soul access to the… program within the matrix best suited to your dreams. I would suggest you accept my offer, Contender.”