READ WEBNOVEL Chapter 355 - Paradise Lost
“What do you mean, Baron Crevpost is unaccounted for?!?”
This from a panicked-looking officer wearing the standard steel mail lined buff coat that appeared to be de rigueur uniform for the officers of Eric’s latest batch of foes. Though the waxed mustache was new, the properly groomed officer who looked like he had just stepped out of a salon was glaring down at the young man who couldn’t have been any older than Eric, covered in sweat, grime, and terror, just a few dozen feet from what were now at least a thousand troops been neatly assembled in rows just outside in the dark.
There were no torches or lamps anywhere in the camp... as Eric had taken the time to both dart around the camp and simply claim them, the handful of anxious patrols extremely easily to slip past when he was over twenty times as fast as even level 10 troops with 25 Quickness at best. Of course he had spent precious minutes taking Yini’s advice to heart, movdifying several dozen exquisitely constructed artillery rounds and trading steel shells for hide and bone and multiple strips of what were now soul-bound cloth dipped in blood and the essence of heat now set at an eternal 77 degrees Fahrenheit, surrounding a handful of steel shot covered with multiple layers of the essence of blood, assuring a cool core and a top layer several thousand degrees. Of course Eric had taken the time to test every last one of his beloved primers by the simple expedient of placing them in a very shallow pile of the gunpowder he had claimed along with the three bronze 12-pounder cannons earlier, then sprinkling another layer of gunpowder on top. He did them all at once, not having time to fuck around with each individual cool cloth-covered blazing hot catalyst, and he was pleased to find that his Mad Bomber perk was fully on point, there not being a single hint of smoke or heat let alone any flash, and his interface had already made it clear that each and every one of the artillery company’s long guns were Pristine Mortal Tier, which he assumed was a good thing.
Eric turned away from the officer currently berating the confused private in the dark to peer back at several battery’s worth of cannons on a nearby hilloc less than thirty yards away. All of them were aimed right for the mass of assembled men by the gate. All of them were supported and secured in a secure framework comprised of the extremely resilient flesh and bone of multiple high level minotaurs, dire wolves, and reaver bears. It was a bulwark that happened to be sturdier even than the incredibly resilient structure of lizard hide and bone that had served Eric so well for so long. Perhaps a full magnitude sturdier, as those original giant lizards had been no more than level 20 and Eric was now a Master Class Necromancer. And of course, all of his cannons were guarded by his fifty revenants, who had unscrewed the bronze sheath securing the two halves of their 20 foot long spears and now wielded what were effectively either 10 foot long spears or massive ten foot long war hammers with a weighted butt spike that, in the hands of what were now approximately level 50 monsters, could be windmilled around with devastating skull-cracking force as easily as a boy might flick around a bamboo stick.
Eric spared only a moment smiling fondly at his cannon battery before he was drawn back into the conversation just a few yards away.
“And why the hell are no lamps lit? Where the hell’s your discipline, boy? This is a camp, not a new recruit training center! Now take me to your commanding officer at once!”
“Forgive me, Captain Brena. The lamps are missing and Captain Klaus is nowhere to be found!”
Captain Brena’s eyes twitched with obvious ire. “You’ve lost track of your own commanding officer?”
“Sir, please, there’s only a handful of us left!”
This, more than anything else, gave Captain Brena pause. “Was there an attack?”
“I... I don’t know. We didn’t find any bodies or signs of fighting...”
“Because I have Blood Mastery,” Eric grinned under his breath.
“... It’s like everyone fled into the night!” The panicked private sobbed when the captain clenched the hilt of his cavalry saber with obvious ire. Before exhaling and shaking his head.
“Well you didn’t, and that speaks well of you, boy,” the man said in a far less intimidating tone. “Now, how about you take me to the portal generator. That is clearly working, correct?”
The boy gave a desperate nod, telling Eric what he had been so eager to hear.
“Yes, sir! But I can’t... the few of us left can’t get in! The force ward came up as soon as everyone important went missing! And of course... no one inside will listen to an enlisted like me.”
“Well they damn well better listen to me!” Captain Brena snapped. “Come along, private. At least they kept the gate open, so there’s hope that we can make something of this botched damn operation before first light!”
“I... yes sir. Right this way, sir!”
Eric couldn’t quite hold back a feral grin as he effortlessly stalked the pair, moving with fluid grace and taking full advantage of his infravision to see the contrasting heat signatures all around as effortlessly as his opponents would take in their environment on a shadowless cloudy spring day. Of course it wast he farthest thing from spring, just an hour before midnight on Winter Solstice, but if things went as Eric hoped they would, he’d soon be getting some wonderful presents. And he needed all the gifts his enemies would send his way, considering the fact that every invading faction had just declared war on his people.
Eric shivered, all too easily able to imagine countless raving hoards tearing into the palace and slaughtering his poor, comatose sister. Even if his interface made it clear that the only reds were here and a dozen scouts or spies at the periphery of his sister’s territory miles away, he could never discount Bloodtear assassins sneaking past all perception, even his own, and attempting to assassinate everyone he held dear.
It was a grim thought that brought a sense of urgency to a scene that he would have otherwise been content to savor like a cat stalking his prey.
Yet he already knew the peril of rushing, quietly following his quarry, making use of the lush green noise-muffling grass beside the gravel pathway used by both officer and private as they approached the one permanent part of the fort that was made of more than linen tent fibers. Eric furrowed his brow at the extremely sturdy-looking fortification made of steel and stone that was presently surrounded by a crackling ward that radiated Bronze-tier intensity. Eric had let the enemy ward stand, reluctant to dispel it until he was absolutely sure that he wouldn’t end up releasing something extremely nasty as a result.
Because when interdimensional rift generators were humming so loud and low that Eric felt it in his 435 Vitality bones, he couldn’t help fearing the worst. Especially when his Mad Bomber perk made it damn clear that something very active and extremely excitable lay within that stone bunker.
Which was why he allowed the self-important captain to pass him in the dark completely unmolested as the man furiously tapped the barrier with a brass wand glowing with arcane energies that made the dome pulsate a bright pink color before the captain stepped back.
Much to Eric’s bemusement, that was all it took, the force-field powering off just seconds later as several harried-looking soldiers that were far closer to thirtieth level than tenth exited the bunker with what a bemused Eric noted were Tier I blasters, of all things.
Even the captain noted with a raised eyebrow.
“You know the restrictions on those weapons, lads. Are things really so serious?”
“Standard protocol, Captain!” Bellowed the impressive voice of a man radiating even more girth than presence in his pristine cashmere robes who was at that moment emerging right behind his armed escort, glaring the captain’s way with his bristly white beard and ice-blue eyes. In his hands he casually held a staff absolutely thrumming with powerful magics as he addressed the wide-eyed captain before him. “In the event wherein an invading force engaging in lawful protocols establishes a rift gate, they are to protect said gate from native capture at all costs, even should it supersede native protocols. So long as assigned blaster carbines aren’t used in the actual campaign and are restricted to securing the bunker and its contents and no more, it is permitted.”
The captain bowed his head. “Of course, my lord. Please forgive my...startlement. I was not expecting to find the camp in its present state.”
This earned a harrumph from the noble mage clearly tasked with running the gate. “As to what happened... it’s a mystery. And I, for one, do not like mysteries on campaign!” His ice-blue eyes twinged with long suppressed fear. “Have you heard any word from Lord Crevpost or anyone else of significance?”
Captain Brena’s eyes widened. “Wait, do you mean...”
“I mean nothing!” The mage snapped. “It is a question, no more!”
The man swallowed, eyes widening as he flinched, looking all around him. “No, Lord Mage. I’ve seen no sign of any officer or nobleman of significance, save for your august self, of course.”
The mage closed his eyes, wiping the sweat beading on his forehead as the pair of blaster-wielding soldiers gazed stoically in the dark, not seeing what was observing them so keenly, just a short distance away.
The mage sighed, before solemnly handing the suddenly anxious captain an envelope. “Well, there’s no hope for it, then. Best send a runner back right away and give this to Duke Nalbain’s second. It will explain what’s occurred, so far as I understand it. If we’re to proceed against an unknown, invisible threat, standard protocol requires the immediate reinforcement of Bronze elites in the twelve hour window before we must either retreat or risk censure... or we flee these lands entirely.”
The captain gazed at the mage for long, painful moments. “My Lord... if Baron Crevpost is...”
“I know, boy! The Dream Wardens are in a panic! Not one of three children can be found!”
Captain Brena blanched. “No. Not the duke’s grandchildren!”
Eric’s heart began to pound, a cold clammy sweat breaking out on a back normally inured to any sort of temperature extreme.
Fuck. Just how bad were things after being forced to fight for his life against those elite Bronze-tier assholes?
The mage squeezed his eyes shut, shaking his head. “The Duke will raise holy hell. It will be an absolute slaughter and he’ll care nothing about voided contracts or the loss of three full Bronze tier levels for a royal infraction. If those children are confirmed dead, he’ll burn this world on the pyre of his hate.”
It was all Eric could do to keep from howling in fury at the unfairness of it all. Not only were the bronze-tier monsters he had fought for his life against warded and protected, if anyone did manage to put them down, the repercussions were so awful that most would have probably hung their head and accepted that they were nothing more than pawns to be sacrificed and devoured by powerful entities with so many perks, advantages and laws in their favor that there was no chance in hell of anything like a ‘fair’ ascension. Which was, of course, the entire point.
He winced, very deliberately putting out of mind Zofira’s panicked plea, her fury turning to terror then despair after Eric had taken care of her psychopathic brothers. He had already paid a bitter price more than once before, when he had tried to be ‘the better man’ and given his enemy a second chance. Yet it was also true that at least a few of the youths he had spared had turned into genuine friends. And Zofira had been begging with her heart and soul. Yet as much as his heart had ached to spare her, like he had Yuki and everyone else his mother had expected him to kill when he had been tossed into that delve... There was no way in hell he could afford to show Zofira any mercy after what had come before, no matter how much he had wished it were otherwise.
He had already slain both of her brothers. However much she begged or pled now, Eric knew that, were he in her place, he could never have forgiven any monster who harmed his family, no matter how craven fear temporarily made him.
Considering his own vulnerable sister, there had been only one way it could end.
Then Eric was forced to face the father of all people. And what kind of asshole brings his Bronze-tier children on campaign? And now the Duke himself would be out for blood.
Eric wanted to laugh at the bitter absurdity of it all.
Instead he kept his increasingly desperate gaze tight on the captain as he solemnly clasped the letter that Eric would die before letting cross that portal before asking the officious wizard the question burning in Eric’s mind as well.
“My lord, of course I am at your absolute disposal, but may this one ask why such a precious correspondence isn’t being hand delivered?”
The wizard’s exhausted features hardened in unexpected fury. “Because, you fool, we used a Valorium starship core to stabilize the rift!” he roared, before rubbing his face and sighing as the terrified-looking private, still beside the captain, fell to his knees.
“I heard nothing! I swear it, my—” the private’s plea died off in a shriek as he was obliterated by a bar of silver-white flame.
“Completely my mistake,” the wizard said with a sigh. “Do make sure his family gets a full twenty year stipend for an honorable death in the field, Captain Brena.”
The captain’s horrified expression immediately snapped back to cool deference as he crisply saluted the mage. “Yes, Lord Mage. I shall do so just as soon as I’ve delivered the letter.”
The mage clenched his jaw. “In any other time and place... but no. You’ve earned the knowledge you’ve been given. But don’t be surprised if you find yourself promoted to far more... discrete service.”
The captains gulped, gazing with horror at the bunker before him.
“Don’t look so horrified,” the mage said dryly. “Yes, it’s a Valorium core outside of a ship’s containment field. Fortunately, the energies radiating from this newly ascended world are so pristine in purity and intensity that it does a remarkably good job of catalyzing our portable containment field and stabilizing the core.” He gazed fondly back into the chamber behind him before turning to fix the pale-faced captain with his cold, measuring gaze. “You do understand why this MUST be kept close, and why you are to report to me immediately after your mission, yes? It is only because there are no Bronze Contenders on this newly ascended rock, thank the gods, that we dare this operation without a full contingent of Ascended champions. As it stands, I still need to be here to maintain the field. Because if that collapses...”
“We’re all dead?”
The mage chuckled coldly. “If only it were so tame as to irradiate us all to oblivion. No, Captain. It’s worse. Far worse. If the shields collapse, it will indeed start pumping out electromana radiation so intense that anyone below 100 vitality will die within seconds, depending on their proximity. But that won’t matter for longer than a minute.”
“Because of fail-safes?”
“No, fool. Because it will erupt like a quark bomb, totally obliterating everything within a hundred miles. And I do mean obliteration. The resultant shockwave will utterly destroy everything for hundreds of miles in all directions before the fireball that will follow, so massive in size and scale that one could expect absolute devastation in all directions for a thousand miles. At the very least. And assuming the mana levels aren’t so high that the air itself ignites, the reverberations will be heard and felt around the entire world. Lacking druids, tech, or magic, the world will fall into another ice age with dust clouds poisoning the atmosphere.”
The wizard flashed a grim smile at the look of horror upon the captain’s face, at which point the rotund mage handed him a mithril headband.
“And that is why you will now wear this. Yes, it’s an artifact, never mind the warnings your superiors gave you while you were a raw recruit. It will ward your mind against psionic intrusion or Sylvan enchantments.”
The captain shuddered but didn’t hesitate to put it on. His eyes widened. “I feel no different!”
The mage snorted. “Did you think I’d give you a substandard artifact that would slowly fry your brain? Of course not. It’s my own! And you’d better bring it back after your delivery.”
“I... yes sir.”
Stealth check – Critical Success! Something going right when everything’s on the line. Imagine that!
The mage glared out into the distance and the swaying trees for a long moment as the nighttime breeze ruffled his silky salt & pepper locks before turning to head back inside. “Alright, you have your orders, captain. Make sure the duke gets that message immediately!”
“Yes sir!” The captain held his salute for long moments as the mage coolly nodded, turned around, and headed back inside, immediately followed by his blaster-wielding assistants before the chamber door was sealed shut and the mage hurriedly made his way without disturbance along the bare-bones corridor with a preoccupied look upon his brooding features until he gave a hard smile as he gazed upon the prize awaiting him in the center of his obvious laboratory with tubes, beakers, crackling diodes and a fortune in coppery wires sizzling with chromatic lights. It was an awe inspiring collection of exotic instruments and nameless colors that utterly paled in insignificance compared to the true prize within that chamber.
The mage sighed, gazing up with a fond smile towards the prize he clearly valued more than any other.
Resting suspended in mid air at the heart of the dome shaped laboratory soaring a good thirty feet high and surrounded on all sides by a crackling force field was a bowling-ball sized globe that glowed like a miniature sun.
The mage then turned to the guard on his left who had just reholstered his blaster and taken off his helmet to reveal a very erudite-looking guard who gave off an air more suited to wizard or scientist. His partner beside him did the same, revealing cherry-blond curls and pert elfin features as their female counterpart immediately summoned chart and quill before heading toward what looked like an old fashioned stock ticker, only covered with waving lines. She picked up the stream of unbroken paper and frowned. “It’s as we feared, Lord Conrad, the oscillations are getting progressively worse. We’ll need to increase power output if we wish to keep this gate stable for the foreseeable future.”
The rotuned lord frowned, peering thoughtfully at the Valorium core pulsating in the air. “You know the risks, Frieda.”
“Yes, my lord, I do. Worst case scenario, we still have a full two minutes to jump through the gate. The exact time it will take Earth’s sun to move its diameter across the sky. The connection between realms should hold for at least that long.”
Her male counterpart snorted, scratching his bristles. “Problem is that we don’t have two minutes. If we push this core too hard and a meltdown begins... we’ll be dead in seconds and our uncle here, even with his impressive personal shields, will still have no longer than a minute to reach the gate before the blast of radiation cooks even him to oblivion and earns him all sorts of friends in the capital when a stream of pure plasma blasts through the rift.”
“You’re being an overdramatic worry-wort ‘cousin,’” Freida said acidly. “There’s no chance in hell of that—” Frieda’s eyes widened in horror when her cousin’s hands were cleaved off his wrist in a spray of crimson. “Kemil!”
Lord Conrad blanched with surprise, stumbling back as the air rang with his niece’s last words.
“Kem—”
Then Frieda collapsed in a heap when something slammed into the base of her spine, and Kemil’s shocked open mouth began to scream.
“Frieda? Kemil? What... good god!” The mage radiating a Bronze’s power stumbled back on his fat ass, looking on in horror at the crumpled girl and the young man screaming and writhing, yet Kemil’s stumps had already stopped spraying blood.
Bloodmastery Skill check: Success!
The mage then stiffened when he felt mithril caress his neck.
“So, it’s Conrad, right?” Eric said as the man trembled and shook before the taste of mithril against his neck. “No, don’t flinch. You were stupid enough to use a lesser ward pretty damn similar to the low grade enchantments orc shamans favor. It’s about comfort, am I right? Because a man deserves to feel like a king in his own home and there’s no way in hell any asshole’s getting the drop on you inside your own sanctum sanctorum, am I right?”
The mage trembled in fear and fury in equal measure. “You! You killed them. You just... in cold blood, killed them!”
Eric’s voice was chill as the grave. “Are you stupid? Both your niece and nephew live. And they will continue to live, so long as you answer my questions. You play your cards right and give me an oath, and all three of you can walk away from this with fresh lives, and that’s a promise. If you fuck with me, however, their screams will be the last thing you ever hear. Now enough with the pointless drama, pleas, and dismay. Let’s keep it nice and simple. You’re going to tell me all about that cute little Valorium core. Namely, how the fuck you even stored it before bringing it through that gate.”
“You... you abomination!” The mage roared. “You’re the reason why the camp went dark! Why Lord Crevpost is unresponsive. He’s dead! You killed him! You killed them all!”
And in the blink of an eye, Eric realized he’d miscalculated. Badly, when the Bronze-tier wizard began crackling and glowing with fearsome power as a sonic boom hammered into Eric with hurricane force.
He had thought that seeing his own niece and nephew in obvious peril would keep the man civil. Reasonable. And maybe he could get through this night without having to kill anyone else who looked like they were in their early twenties, however old these monsters actually were.
Turned out he was wrong.
Strength Check successful!
Your opponent FAILS his Vitality check!
Eric instinctively held on tight when the massive surge of Bronze Tier POWER roared through his flame. HE bit back a scream as the kinetic blast radiating in all directions from Conrad strained Eric’s more than 400 points of might such that his adrenaline poured on Burst of Strength, allowing him to actually hold on against a kinetic blast that would have otherwise slammed him against the wall in a stunned, perhaps broken heap, rendered easy prey for the formerly roaring tyrant showing Eric just how foolish he was to ever think he could get a drop on a Bronze-Tier wizard.
And somehow he still ended up flying across the chamber, filled with dismay and dread, bracing himself for the inevitable follow-up killing strike.
Only for System messages to flare in his mind’s eye so rapidly that he went from bemusement to disbelief to sheer dread, knowing he had less than sixty seconds before his entire world was doomed.
You have successfully bested a Level 10 Bronze-tier Mage!
It turns out that the so called ‘perfect-defense’ a point-blank kinetic blast forcing all enemies away from you at bone-shattering speed isn’t quite as perfect as the Gildersnitz academy taught, when someone’s hanging onto your neck with over 800 in temporary strength!
An arrogant enough wizard (who had both your arm and your mithril blade in very close proximity to their neck) might just lose their head over it!
Eve is exceedingly AMUSED by this battle! For grappling DOES have a play in martial conflict, and sometimes fortune IS in your favor! (Let’s hope it’s enough for what’s to come!)
You are now a Level 35 Contender!
You have achieved level 71 as a Primal Adventurer!
.................................................
UNSTABLE VALORIUM CORE DETECTED!
EMERGENCY SYSTEM QUEST INITIATED!
SAVE YOUR PLANET!
YOU HAVE 59...58...
Eric stunned dismay lasted only a split second, having absolutely zero time to even register the horror of a man so filled with righteous wrath that he had managed to slaughter the family he had brought with him... or that the psychopaths who somehow got some freakishly unfair System dispensation to raid a planet with Bronze tier opponents were further permitted to do so using tools that were effectively more powerful than the deadliest nuclear weapons mankind had ever built.
Willpower check at -10 penalty MADE!
You have the resolve to do what needs to be DONE!
Eric emptied his mind of all panic and dismay, knowing damn well that what he was about to do would probably kill him. But he had been effectively doomed from the second he had returned to Queensland, with who knew how many foul cards warping destiny that had been thrown by spite-filled goblin shamans and others to assure his demise, no matter what it took.
He couldn’t help but flash a bitter smile even as he raced to catch the wildly crackling orb that would have seared out his eyes even with 84 physical and 50 Elemental Resilience, were it not for his Unified Restoration Node he damn well was pouring every last experience point he had earned past his automatic level-up to super charge as much as he possibly could. Because he wasn’t fleeing the hideously searing white ball of agony but actually daring to get closer, no matter how much his flesh now BURNED!
Then CLOSER still, as the skin seared right off his fingers, then the first layer of muscle right underneath, and he could see his monstrously resilient bones reach out to touch that slowly falling ball. Bracing himself for the agony he knew was coming.
And it didn’t matter that his flesh was already irradiated clean off his fingers and hands and wrists, or that Unified Restoration was just barely keeping his brain intact as he was using Unified Perception to see out of his SKULL as his squinted shut eyes were no more than husks.
All that he needed was a single instant to touch it...
Before a blood scream emerged from his throat as he endured agony the equivalent of being dropped in a vat of liquid iron.
And NOT dying.
An endless awful pain that left him in such hideous agony that he could barely move, losing himself in a sea of blistering pain, no matter how he tried to squeeze time not just to absurd slowness but a dead stop within his Extra Dimensional Storage space.
IT still wasn’t enough.
Even after being expanded by holding half a trillion credits worth of gold in the vaults of his mind... it STILL WASN’T ENOUGH!
“MOTHER, IT HURTS!”
Eric shrieked with his soul more than his ruined lungs.
And somehow, by some miracle, he sensed, for the first time that night, genuine alarm.
More than alarm... terror.
And fury.
And of course, it was directed at him.
When the fuck wasn’t it?
Willpower Check at -20 penalty made! Good thing it’s over 80 and you UNDERSTAND pain! You already know what you have to do, hero!
And Eric did just that. Embracing Dominion to numb the nerves of his body as best he could. But it wasn’t enough as he stumbled to the entrance of the underground bunker now flaring with alarms and a massive steal gate that just slammed shut in front of him.
FIRE FIST! Before being obliterated in a splash of superheated metal as the transcendent essence of flame utterly destroyed the mortal artifact.
And then he was stumbling out the containment bunker, because of course that was what it was, and the night was as bright as day!
OR so it seemed as he raced for the crackling gate that he knew would only be up for another two minutes at most! And if Eric didn’t do something before that time was up... He’d explode. He knew it. And he truly would be the harbinger of oblivion, in the least cool way he could imagine.
“He’s glowing!”
“Monster! Run...”
“I’m blind! I can’t see! I can’t see!”
“Flee for the gate! Containment breach! Containment breach!”
The words wavered and melted together as the air itself seemed to bleed with plasma and fury.
And still Eric forced himself forward, one agonized step after another, his smile a rictus. For what else could it be? HE himself was little more than bone and living flame. The furious hot essence of fire, of oblivion even as he embraced the first of ALL his essence spells, abilities, and powers in the most primal way he could. Heat Surge.
It was all that was holding him together as he stumbled toward the crackling purple gate he could sense, but certainly not see, even as hundreds then thousands of soldiers first raced toward him, then stumbled back with cries and screams before bursting into flame.
And then he was before the gate. And for just a single second, he sensed not hundreds but thousands... tens of thousands of souls beyond that gate, so many cords of life in a city as magnificent as any cyberpunk megalopolis he could imagine.
Or perhaps it was a massive military camp designed with world conquests in mind.
Either way, Eric released the now wildly blazing orb of white-hot potency, a living bleeding sun, through the gate with as much relief as when countless tons of gold and poured out of him.
It would have been ecstasy, the sweet joy of relieving himself after holding it in for an all night cram session, if only every last fiber of his body wasn’t screaming in agony.
And it still wasn’t enough. Even without eyes, even with dozens of pounds of flesh melted off his frame, his blood circulating with Heat Surge at 98.6 degrees Fahrenheit keeping his brain and heart intact the only reason why he was alive at all, he still needed MOVE!
Because until that gate finally closed as the rift continued to waver and destabilize behind him, they were all in danger of suffering at least a portion of the catastrophic damage that Eric sensed would unleash in
9
8
7
“Run faster, you fool! FASTER!” He sobbed to himself with lungs that could wheeze for air once more.
....
3
2
The air filled with blazing blue-white light so brilliant that it was as if a massive flashlight had just lit up the night sky, searing the clouds and air to subatomic parts before cutting off an instant later.
The crack and boom that followed was so loud and fearsome that Eric was actually swept off his feet. Yet when he tumbled back to the ground with a flash of super-heated air that sent multiple copses of trees bursting into desultory flame that would have been so much worse, were it not for Aurelia’s early evening showers... the night grew still once more. Lit only by the brooding red light of fires in the distance as Eric collapsed upon the ground and took wheezing gasps of air as the ground hissed and sizzled underneath his frame, wearing nothing but mithril chain mail that glowed as everything else underneath had been outright disintegrated.
Somehow, he had done it.
By some miracle, he was still alive.
He could only pray with all his might that it was over.
CONGRATULATIONS! You have successfully completed MANDATORY SYSTEM QUEST: SAVE YOUR WORLD!
You have successfully contained AND removed an UNSTABLE Valorium Starship core BEFORE it could annihilate the continental Americas and put the rest of your world in an ice age, making the odds of sentient races surviving the Ascension all but non-existent!
Conflicting factors PRECLUDE The earning of any titles at this time.
Diligent completion of your quest HAS earned you VIP status.
Your valiant efforts have REMOVED you from all Censure for your (indirect) involvement in a world-ending catastrophe!
Duke Nalbain and the royal family of Gaian are now UNDER CENSURE!
Note!
Duke Nalbain has expired.
All acknowledged primary members of the royal family of Gaian have expired.
All acknowledged secondary members of the royal family of Gaian have expired.
Censure has been lifted.
Eric felt an awful chill, even through the hideous burning pain he was desperately trying to contain but it WOULDN’T be contained, no matter how fiercely he had used Dominion’s essence to numb his nerves. Because this pain was deeper in ways he could scarce fathom. Yet even that pain was insufficient to completely cleanse the awful horror of those innocuous seeming four words.
Censure has been lifted.
Because the royal family of Gaian was no more. The highest ranking and no doubt most powerful individuals of an entire royal clan, were no longer among the living.
“Because I threw a fucking quark bomb through their gate, just seconds before it collapsed in on itself.”
He froze, horrified by his own silent whispering confession that no one could even hear over the still howling wind that alternated between blistering hot and freezing cold.
And that was from just the barest flicker of energy released from the unstable core. What amounted to a tiny pinprick, an infinitesimal amount, of the whole.
Even if his eyes had been disintegrated by the time he had surrendered his awful prize... he had known what he was doing.
Known it from the instant Captain Brena had been charged with putting a certain letter in the personal hands of the duke himself... or at least his second, which could only mean one thing.
“Those fucks were actually mustering outside the gates of the capital city. Their fucking capital!”
Eric couldn’t help but choke out a despairing cry. Praying that he was wrong. Knowing that he was right.
“Really, what fucking choice did I have?” He whispered with a sob, shaking like a leaf, his body battered, bruised, and beyond exhausted.
Yet out of everything he had expected in those wild dissociated moments where his agony was so great as his Unified Restoration tried desperately to heal damage that went far beyond the physical, that the one thing he had not expected was to feel his mother’s graceful fingertips caressing his brow.
She gazed down at him with eyes that blazed with icy fire and the gentlest smile that promised him all the love in the world.
“You had no other choice, my darling baby boy. No choice at all, save to play the hand you were dealt, or surrender all hope, and doom this world for all time.”
Before he could say a word, she presented a handful of exquisitely rendered cards in front of his face with the grace of a street magician.
For all that his newly regenerated eyes still hurt so damn much when he tried to gaze out at the night sky that it was like daggers tearing into his corneas, he nonetheless found himself being drawn into the horrific wonder that was those cards of fate and fortune, good and ill.
His heart was pounding like a drum as he gazed upon pictures that looked like they had been carefully painted, centuries ago.
A blond knight.
A golden chalice full of blood.
A city disintegrating before what looked like a white hot sun.