The Fourth Realm (The Ten Realms Book 4)

by Michael Chatfield

  Hiao Xen’s body trembled and he bowed again. There was a hidden side to the Blue Lotus, one that gathered information throughout the Ten Realms. All of the main associations had members like these, to keep track of what the other associations were doing and to gain information on the people they had to deal with. What someone said and who they were could be very different things. If one didn’t know their allies better than they knew themselves, it was possible to be taken advantage of.

  “Erik West, do you know him?” Elder Lu asked.

  “I have a benefactor by that name who was a healer I met in the Second Realm,” Hiao Xen said. The pressure from the other people decreased as Hiao Xen’s eyes thinned.

  “What do you think of the man?” Elder Lu probed.

  “I think he is brash, bold, strong, in all the meanings of the word strong. He’s the kind of person who has seen the best and the worst of life and knows the thin line we walk upon. He’s not a simple man. He is a healer but he must have a history of fighting as well—the way he worked and reacted, the way he wore armor most of the time. He also looked into using Alchemy for fighting purposes—also, he had cultivated his body to a small degree.”

  “Would you trust him?” Cui Chin asked.

  “With my life. He treated my son of a disease I could not find a cure for without asking for rewards or compensation. He is a good man.”

  Elder Lu nodded and his expression relaxed. He waved to Cui Chin.

  “Nearly a week ago, Erik West came into contact with our Blue Lotus location at Tareng, on the Yaleir continent in the Fourth Realm. The city had been affected by what we thought was a plague…” Cui Chin got Hiao Xen up to speed on everything that had happened.

  “Before you ask, I have looked into it—there are policies in place for this kind of thing. We do not have a guide for this totem that they have found at some cursed capital city that no one has seen in hundreds of years. There are people from Tareng rushing to it to teleport over to us here. We will need to examine them with healers and alchemists to confirm that they are not plagued and are, in fact, under the effect of a concoction. These are the rules of the Blue Lotus and we are bending them slightly due to the circumstance. You will be there to liaise, put Erik at ease and pull our combined forces together. Coordination on the battlefield can be the key to winning or losing.

  “I have to wait until we get evidence of the Blood Demon Sect’s involvement from their higher ups. We can’t destroy a sect based on their actions of just one army. If we start attacking people because of one issue then our image will drop.” Elder Lu explained.

  Hiao Xen nodded, looking at it from Elder Lu’s perspective, we have thousands of locations across the Fourth Realm. Losing one is bad, yes, but having our image tarnished can spread through all the realms and affect all of the Blue Lotus locations.

  “Once they are cleared of the plague diagnosis, then we can start sending out our forces. We will destroy whoever organized this attack, but we must be completely sure.” Elder Lu continued.

  “While on the surface it looks like the Blood Demon sect is at fault, there are certain facts that don’t add up. The attack looks to be well thought out but there are too many flaws. At any time, our people at Tareng could send out a message through a number of ways saying that the Blood Demon Sect was attacking. Something is wrong,” Cui Chin conferred..

  “Anything that I can do to help, I will,” Hiao Xen said. The Blue Lotus had given him his current life. They had looked after him and his family. They had allowed him to go to the Second Realm so that he could look after his son and see that he had a good life despite his shortcomings.

  They had accepted him and allowed him to ascend once again after his son recovered. He was just one of four deputy heads at a lower Blue Lotus branch, three or four positions below what he had been before, but it was more than he expected.

  “Do you know about Age Rejuvenation potions?” Elder Lu asked as he took in a deep breath.

  “I do know that he made a number of them and sold them to the Blue Lotus. I made sure that he knew that we would take any he made. I saw that there was an update on his file some time ago and that he was made a friend of the Blue Lotus,” Hiao Xen admitted.

  “He signed a contract with us for two formulas an Apprentice and Journeyman-level Age Rejuvenation potion, that had the effects of Journeyman or Expert-level concoctions. We do not know what happened, but the contract and oath between the Blue Lotus and him has been broken.”

  “I don’t think that he would go back on an oath.” Hiao Xen frowned.

  “He didn’t. Someone on our side did, by breaking his trust.”

  Hiao Xen’s fists tightened. If someone in the Blue Lotus has attacked Erik… Hiao Xen’s emotions were mixed as he looked at the ground, thinking on it. His eyes moved back and forth.

  “It was a blessing in disguise, as it brought the issue to my attention. There are rules and regulations to everything in the Blue Lotus, but they can get in the way at times.”

  “How long until we can get people there to help them?” Hiao Xen asked.

  “It is best that we have the element of surprise. As such, we cannot send more people to support them until we are ready to act,” Lei Huo spoke up for the first time.

  “Seven days,” Elder Lu answered with a stiff expression. “Thank you for coming on such short notice. Someone will get you a residence to stay in. We may have more questions.”

  “Elders.” Hiao Xen bowed deeply again and headed out, knowing that they had much more important matters to do than answer his questions.

  He left the room and found an attendant ten levels stronger than he was waiting for him.

  This headquarters is filled with monsters. All of them come from the Seventh Realm, completely separate from the regular promotion chain.

  ***

  Rugrat heard the yells as the flying creatures could be seen. People moved to positions as they loaded their dual heavy repeaters and aimed them at the sky.

  “Vuzgal, this is Storbon. We are coming in to land. Where would be best?” Storbon asked.

  “Stand down!” Rugrat shouted to the men and women of Tiger Platoon, and got the undead to continue their work.

  “Take them right to the totem,” Rugrat ordered.

  “Understood, First Sergeant,” Storbon replied. The flying beasts cut across the large capital, riding through the thinning mists. They could see the full city; its buildings might still be in disrepair but the walls stood strong in the sunlight. There were undead moving everywhere, carrying out different tasks: making arrows, hauling rubble up to the walls, walling off the gates, creating a labyrinth inside the city, opening up holes in the ground for IEDs and mines, or plain pits for people to fall into.

  Rugrat knew what they saw; he had seen it while flying with George. The main pillar of the city still lay on its side, but with the undead and powerful spells, they had been able to get it off the walls and push it into the middle of the city.

  There was a large open area inside the city as well.

  Rugrat patted the string holding ten rings numbered one to ten. With Mana blades and the undead’s help, they had been able to tear down the freshly built totem. They had only built it and not activated it, not fusing the building together. This allowed them to take it apart piece by piece and those with some art or blueprint ability had recorded the plans down. It was a reach to see whether it would work after being reassembled in Alva, but if it did, it would solve one of their biggest security concerns.

  ***

  “Come on, George,” Rugrat said as he put his hammer down.

  George got up, moving his wings as Rugrat got on his back. George ran down the street and flapped his wings, causing them to rise into the sky. George used a heating spell underneath him, causing them to shoot up into the sky, a little trick that Rugrat taught him about hot air rising.

  They rose above the houses and banked toward the Vuzgal totem.

  Rugrat rode on George, looking
over to the group with Storbon. There were members of the Blue Lotus and the Crafter’s Association; all of them had tired but determined looks on their faces from riding constantly for four days.

  They landed in front of the totem, looking at George, who landed with them. Rugrat got off, his face covered in soot. He and the rest of the armies smiths had been working in the smithy all this time to make more ammunition for the mortars and the M32’s.

  “Warrant,” Storbon nodded to Rugrat.

  “Good to see you back. I’ve got work for you to be doing,” Rugrat said.

  “I didn’t think it was true that you had been able to take over Vuzgal. I have heard stories about this place,” one of the crafters said, looking around.

  An undead moved through the city nearby, jogging with crates that had been strapped to their bones so they wouldn’t fall off. One of the people from the Blue Lotus used a powerful sound talisman that disappeared.

  “So, what now?” Rugrat asked.

  “Now we wait. They will need to ready everything on the other side. After we travel through, we go through testing; we tell them what is going on and then we bring back reinforcements to destroy the Blood Demon Sect,” one of the people from the Blue Lotus said.

  “Very well. Let me know if you need anything,” Rugrat said as a sound transmission arrived in front of the person who had used the powerful sound talisman previoiusly.

  “They are waiting for us,” the man said.

  The Alvan army backed up as the people from the Crafter’s Association and Blue Lotus pulled out Mana stones for their passage.

  The Mana stones turned into energy and the totem activated.

  Light covered their bodies and they were all gone.

  “Well, that wasn’t quick at all.” Rugrat looked to the members of the special team. “Get some hot food into you—we’ve got plenty to do!”

  Rugrat’s sound transmission device lit up with a message.

  “Warrant, I think that we’ve found an armory, but the traps are difficult. I wouldn’t be asking if I didn’t think it was important,”said Glosil.

  They had continued the recovery efforts to see what supplies and resources they could draw on if they needed to flee.

  Rugrat’s eyes flickered to a building near the totem. Inside it, several carriages with crates were filled with valuables ready to be moved. There were three such buildings around the totem. With these carriages, resources would no longer be a problem to Alva in the foreseeable future.

  Their next shipment was ready to go, thankfully there were some traders that were a high enough level to make it to Vuzgal that were helping the Dragon Platoon to take the carts down to the lower realms to the different branches of Alva.

  The carts filled with ammunition had been already stripped bare and divded up. The mortar rounds were shipped out on the fastest mounts. They had trained beasts with storage items around their legs flying to the mortar teams. Other teams were moving to the ammunition caches that had been set up along the road. The mortar teams had to watch their ammunition consumption closely so they wouldn’t run out as Han Wu and his people had to get creative with IED’s to make the explosive that they had go as far as possible and create the most damage.

  “All right, I’m on my way to you.” Rugrat was interested to see what was in the armory. They might be able to outfit their people and the skeletons in better gear. They had put the best armor on the Alvan army with the strongest of what was left being placed on the undead.

  “Come with me. I’ve got presents,” Rugrat said.

  Storbon and the others followed, getting back on the winged lizard mounts that had been leant to them by the Blue Lotus and Crafter’s association, following Rugrat over to the castle.

  Three or four days until the people from Tareng finally get here. We still have a lot to do by then. Rugrat looked to the valley, thinking of the dungeon beyond.

  There was a movement off to the side. He saw Elizabeth raising her hands; dirt rose up and compressed, becoming stronger than stone and creating a new wall in the city.

  Reaper was with her, creating traps formed from small trees. They looked like nothing but weeds—a perfect disguise.

  “The worst thing you can give a defender is time,” Rugrat said to himself as he looked at the city.

  ***

  General Ulalas was resting her eyes when she heard the whistling again.

  A half dozen explosions went off before peace returned.

  I’ve never heard of the Blue Lotus or the Crafter’s association fighting like this before.

  She sighed and rubbed her face, pinching the bridge of her nose as she rose slowly, she was still wearing her armor.

  The world seemed to be made of noise as Ulalas’ eyes went wide, she reached out and grabbed the wall as the carriage came to a sudden halt.

  She stood up, her sleep forgotten

  Ulalas grabbed her helmet and ran outside, looking at the Mana shields that were erected, waiting for the whistling attacks from the sky.

  There was nothing but screams that could be heard as a seventy-meter section of road had been torn apart—another unit destroyed.

  “Have the scouts spotted anything?” she asked Minor General Damel, who had been in command as she was sleeping.

  “They haven’t,” he said.

  “Sneaky fuckers,” Ulalas muttered, looking out at the forest all around them, she knew that they were watching them. They had tried using life detect spell scrolls and other means to find out where these attacks were comign from. They hadn’t found any trace of the enemy that had to be attacking them from well beyond eyesight range.

  They’d pushed out the cavalry to move through the forests to look for spotters. They knew that someone had to be guiding the long-range abilities on top of them.

  “Get the road repaired and get us moving again,” Ulalas said. She lost hundreds of soldiers with every attack but so far they had only killed some twenty Masters from the Blue Lotus. She looked over the army. She could see their nervousness, their anger; they wanted to attack the enemy but were unable to fight or even see ghosts.

  If we could send up scouts to clear the road ahead, it would be for the best. But we just don’t know what kind of strength this hidden force has. Maybe, this is for the best. The longer this drags out, the greater chance of the Blue Lotus reporting that the Blood Demon Sect is attacking them.

  The wounded were cleared away as Minor General Damel went off to get the army moving again.

  Ulalas wasn’t blind to the sentiment of the soldiers. When they had started after the Blue Lotus and Crafter’s association, their morale had been sky high. They were chasing two of the assocations!

  They had even killed some of their masters! Their bodies were paraded around as proof of their strength.

  That was yesterday and this is toady. The incoming attacks placed a constant pressure on them, kept them from sleeping, from having a meal in peace. The ground they walked on could turn into a trap.

  Already some of the people from armies not normally led by Ulalas were starting to show morale issues with their generals trying to reassure them while looking for help from Ulalas.

  It took two hours before they were moving

  They were a half day or more behind the Tareng people now.

  Just who are the people in this forest? They aren’t from the Blue Lotus. I’ve never heard of anyone using these tactics or attacks before.

  A report was passed to her. Four hundred had died today. A percent of their fighting force.

  We’ve only killed what, thirty of their people, out of an army of ten thousand.

  Ulalas gripped the hilt of her sword. This will become a fight of morale instead of numbers. I need to make sure that I bind everyone properly with oaths so they can’t turn back and escape.

  “Lets make sure that people reaffirm their oaths,” Ulalas said, looking to General Damel.

  They shared a deep look before he nodded slowly.

  “I’ll
make sure I pass the order on.

  A dark cloud hung over the Blood Demon army as oath keepers went through the ranks to reaffirm people’s oaths to the Blood Demon Sect.

  Forty minutes later the whistling started again.

  “Take cover!” people yelled out and ran to the sides of the road as explosions went off.

  Why does it look like the ground is exploding instead of the sky?

  ***

  “We hit them with mortars as they put down the Mana barriers. A bunch of them ran into the forest and found our mines there. They’ve deployed a large number of flying beasts and are scouring the area,” Niemm reported.

  “Okay, that will make it harder to use the mortars,” Erik said after he listened to the report. It had been two days since they started their attacks.

  “They’ve got their scouts out around three hundred meters on either side of the road,” Niemm reported.

  “Maybe we can turn that into a trap?” Roska asked.

  “How?” Erik asked.

  “Well, we’ve got these spells scrolls we haven’t used, turn the sky into a mess with tornadoes or something?”

  “Could use spell scrolls to mess with the ground around the road. Raise golems, make it hard to travel across the ground. Won’t stop them, but it would be annoying to deal with,” Niemm suggested.

  “Their mana barriers get disrupted by the trees, looks like it doesn’t go through solid objects. If we can get a few mortars in there?” Gong Jin asked.

  “We’re running low on mortar rounds. Well, really it’s not that we don’t have the rounds. We just don’t have the ability to get them from Vuzgal to our positions fast enough. We’ll need ton conserve our rounds until we get to the prepared caches along the road,” Yui sounded frustrated.

  “Suggestions?” Erik asked

  “We’re not going to crack through their shields anytime soon with our mortars, they’ll have a greater effect on their morale, I can send some of the mortar team back to the caches or meet up with the supply beasts. Then they meet up with us and transfer ammunition.”