Of all the things Tunde expected to face as he arrived at Jade Peak with the help of the nexus stone, an incursion wasn’t one of them. Black rock had survived its trials, its cultivators were battered and bloodied, and some had given their lives in the process, but the skies were clear and the full scope of what they had survived was still settling in. Tunde had been in no place to console them, his mind already on the next task, but it had made him wonder if he was moving too quickly.
Not again.
Not as he watched a full lord-ranked Thorne battle it out with forces he was both aware of and new to. Arriving in a secret room deep underground, Tunde came across a trio of aura-burning skeletal creatures in a lab that most definitely belonged to Borus. He made light work of them, the creatures dead before they knew it even as he hurriedly ransacked the entire room, finding few items there, Borus apparently clearing it out before making his way out of the city.
The tremors above had informed him that the artificer had been right in one form or another, the revenants were here, right in the middle of the city itself, a mind-boggling thought. Questions from how they had gotten in, to just how many forces they brought along were soon answered as he stepped foot into the daylight itself, staring at the destruction around him. Smoke and ash filled the air, bodies littering the ground and the forces of the revenants fighting it out with what remained of the defenders.
The adepts of the clan were nowhere to be seen, even the lords felt like a distant presence in the skies, Tunde turned his attention to them before withdrawing it. He didn’t want their attention on him, not yet, and he would have to fight his way through to the jade palace itself that now lay in ruins. It took a few seconds for the adepts of the revenants to notice his presence, a few more seconds for them to notice he was a lord, or at least, according to his aura.
They attempted to retreat, to call for help, all five of them, Tunde couldn’t allow that. Not that he was scared of facing a lord or anything of such, but he simply didn’t have the time for distractions, nor for asking them to surrender as he glanced around at the deaths around them, they didn’t deserve it. The first one, a man with fishing hooks tied to his hands who attempted to forge a projection technique died from a stone imbued with void touch blowing his skull away, black blood and bones spraying all over his comrades as his body toppled over.
The female with a whip found her attacks dodged easily, Ethra sight navigating with ease through what she no doubt thought were complex movements before another attack from void touch blew her chest away, her body toppling to the ground. The last three were a bit smarter, activating talismans to summon already stored tier 3 creatures to face him, except he was through them both and the creatures in the blink of an eye, a metal rod he had picked up suddenly imbued with cosmic Ethra, skewering all three of them at the same time.
It had taken him less than five seconds to reduce them to dead bodies, Tunde turning away without so much as picking their void rings, he wouldn’t taint himself in such a way, not anymore. His body imbued with lord rank Ethra, he shot through the districts, heading towards the palace where the main battle was coming from, picking out revenant forces and killing them with an imbued weapon he had within his void ring. They didn’t last, the imbued weapons, something about his Ethra burnt them out from within, as if they couldn’t handle it. Changing weapons at least three times, he was about to push past what had once been the trading district when he slowed down, coming across two bodies he recognized. Sorin and Shiro, the former with a hole in her chest and the latter missing his head.
Fear gripped him as he unleashed his Ethra sight, spotting a body in between the crevice of a demolished building. He pulled away the rubble effortlessly, fear gripping his heart, feeling a fraction of relief as he realized it wasn’t Elyria but Rhyn, the adept unconscious.
“You didn’t think I’d go down that easily, did you?” a soft voice said behind him.
Whirling to see Elyria, he was next to her in an instant, hugging her lightly as she groaned, catching her before she fell. Her metal arm was missing, her face looked exhausted and her breath ragged, about to pull out an elixir to help, she raised her left flesh hand.
“No, water, please” she requested.
He brought out a leather skin filled with the diluted version of the azure spring water, bringing it to her lips as her eyes widened, Elyria draining it before releasing a sigh of relief.
“Took too many elixirs, close to being poisoned at this stage,” she said.
“What happened here?” Tunde asked softly.
“Should be obvious, revenant cult” she replied.
“The main question should be how you did it, lord rank”
Tunde gave a soft smile.
“Situation needed for it” he replied.
“Could hurt your advancement down the line” she warned.
“I’ll be fine, besides, I’m not a full lord, not yet anyway” he replied.
“What does that mean?” she asked.
“it’s either you’re a lord, or you’re not”
Tunde shook his head, helping her to her feet as they turned in the direction of the battle that boiled the skies above them.
“there’s something you should know,” she said.
And then Tunde found himself listening to the most ludicrous tale he had heard, Thorne had killed Thalas, the clan had been infiltrated somehow and the rift duplicator acted as a key for the forces of undeath to invade. Even with all the evidence, Tunde refused to admit to himself that Thorne had grown that cold, or was it something that came from the powers of undeath?, could it do that a person?. He was silent, hidden as they were, watching the scene before them, the gathered powers with such a presence that he could hardly breathe. The nexus key opening had Elyria turning to him with wide eyes, as if realizing that was the only way he could have made it to the city so quickly.
“You used a nexus key,” she said.
He nodded, eyes trained on the figures that came out of it, raw power coming from them in waves of aura that he somehow managed to withstand, swallowing heavily.
“Artificer Borus had one” he replied calmly.
“And he just willingly handed it over?” she asked incredulously.
“he’s dead, and so is elder Joran” Tunde said.
Elyria could only stare with wide eyes, Tunde gripping another imbued blade, unwilling to call his relic for fear of the Highlords gathered when the Highlady of the revenants unleashed a talisman, an entire rift opening swallowing the Ark spire itself, gouging out the very land it was on as it swallowed it in one fell swoop.
It was chaos after that, an incursion opening up, the death of the patriarch, and then Tunde watching as Thorne defended the revenant Highlady before seemingly going boneless like a puppet, the Highlady escaping through another nexus key portal. He had stepped out at that moment, calling to Thorne as he watched the portal close with him and the Highlady. It had been chaos after that, the barrier that seemingly kept the residents of the city trapped dissipating with the exit of the Highlady, clan Verdan in shambles with the majority of its powers either missing, dead, or presumed dead.
Tunde found himself and Elyria standing within a makeshift building created by an adept with stone Ethra, a tall bald man with a mace strapped to his back, clothed in the colors of the Heralds. Elyria stood by his side, and in front of them, seated as if in judgment were the two Highlord and lady left within the shambles of jade peak. Allegiance to clan Verdan meant nothing at this point, its patriarch and one of its lords dead, accounting for half their true strength gone.
Instead, Tunde found himself under the scrutiny of Varis Talahan, the tall Highlord's gaze settled on him like a boulder, unflinching, Tunde stared back. As the known accomplices of Thorne, they narrated their tales, all the way back from the beginning, sworn under oath to reveal everything they knew about Thorne. It had been easy for Tunde, Elyria, even easier, understanding settling in him that whatever his fate would be after this point, it could under no circumstances be tied to the former herald turn revenant lord.
When they were done, the Highlady of the Heralds known as Aerin got to her feet, explosions ringing outside of the dome of shimmering barrier that protected them from the rampaging creatures outside it, the tier 4 winged reptiles that flew through the air.
Blue-skinned basilisk tier 4(early)
It was what his screen called it, another anomaly seeing as the Ark spire had been stolen and yet, his still worked perfectly. Tunde turned his gaze to the skies, watching as the creatures rampaged before the voice of the Highlady rang across the room.
“Lord Tunde,” she said.
He went to his knees, Elyria at his side in silence.
“Your words have been weighed, I will discuss with my fellow Highlord of the empire, but understand this” she started.
“Your ties with the traitor have placed you in a precarious position, the both of you”
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Tunde’s gaze went to Elyria who said nothing, her clenched teeth conveying her view on it.
“You say you have a fortress known as black rock, and that it stands right where the first incursion of the undeath cult was recorded, it is not my concern. Perhaps Varis would look into it, seeing as it’s empire land?” she asked.
Tunde turned his gaze to the Highlord who said nothing, his eyes still on him.
“Either way, you’ll find that the Heralds will not let this go easily, as of this moment you are under a blood debt to the cult, the adept accomplice of yours will walk free, so long as she lends her blade to this fight, her debt will be paid in full,” Aerin said.
Elyria glanced up, eyes alight, Tunde wondered for a second what was going on, glancing between the both of them.
"Consider it as a favor, you do understand, don’t you?” the Highlady said to her.
Tunde watched understanding blossom in her eyes before she nodded, head bowed to the ground.
“This lowly adept thanks the Highlady,” she said, her voice cracking.
Tunde said nothing, keeping his mouth shut, aware that whatever was going on between them was not something he was privy to, he had his own troubles to be bothered about.
A roar came from the outside of the dome as Varis spoke up.
“We’ve spent enough time handling squabbles; we need to contain the situation outside,” he said softly.
Aerin nodded, turning away from them as she walked towards the Highlord, whispering to him silently, the Highlord nodding in turn.
“What was that about?” Tunde asked Elyria, the girl drawing herself to her full height, her gaze cold.
“I need metal,” she said softly.
His void ring was opening and dropping off large pieces of metals he had kept away for no other reason than they were of pure Ethereon. Watching in silence as she manipulated the metal Ethra, twisting it into a shiny new arm she replaced on her stub of a left shoulder, she tested its response. Sharp metal fingers responded, closing and opening before she turned to Tunde, tying her hair up.
“you’re better off not drawing yourself into some matters Tunde,” she said.
He stared at her for a while before nodding, Elyria looking away even as she took the other metals, her Ethra twisting and shaping them into blades, the last one melting into a puddle and floating beside her.
“If we survive this battle” she started.
“We have a lot to talk about”
“We will survive,” Tunde said, taking a deep breath.
“you” an authoritative voice came from behind them.
Tunde turned to see an adept of the Heralds, a spear in his hand held languidly, a ruse. Tunde had seen that weapon move with blistering speed, even faster than he had seen from any other spar user.
“What concept do you possess?” he asked.
Tunde frowned.
“I was not aware people told others their concepts,” he said.
“You do when a herald asks you” the man replied with a wide smile.
Elyria stepped forward, bowing at the waist.
“Excuse my companion here, but he’s not from this continent as he said earlier” she started.
“Yes, one of the Crystalreach,” the adept said.
Tunde said nothing, his senses sharp, Ethra sight slowly bleeding into his gaze before Elyria placed a hand on him.
“But still” she continued.
“Isn’t it a bit disrespectful to talk to a lord that way?” she asked with a smile on her face.
Tunde stepped forward as the man did, matching him eye to eye as he prepared to unleash void touch on him.
“I could take your limbs off before you even blinked,” the man said.
Tunde smiled as he released a fraction of his aura.
The man’s eyes widened as he took a step back before he even noticed it, gripping his spear tightly.
“You play a dangerous game, adept Hadas” Highlady Aerin’s vice rung out.
Tunde snapped his aura back tightly around his body. Taking a step back.
“That elder over there informed me our resident lord here is a possessor of a shadow affinity,” she said, nodding in the direction of an elderly man.
“Elder Wren” Tunde whispered, watching the elder move forward with a soft smile.
“The even more astonishing tale is that as of two months ago, lord Tunde here was just an initiate, if you can believe that” Aerin continued.
The adept Hadas gave Tunde a double take, his body constricting as if preparing to spring.
“I could care less” Varis’s voice rang out.
“He can keep whatever concept he has acquired; we shall test his mettle against this incursion”
“agreed” Aerin replied.
Tunde bowed.
“I hope to do my best in the sight of the Highlady,” he said.
She said nothing turning away before walking towards three adepts that sat together, feeding Ethra into a talisman that glowed.
“Bring it down” she ordered.
Turning again to Tunde and Elyria, she spoke.
“The both of you will be in charge of protecting what’s left of the citizens of Jade Peak, bring them to this place, the barrier will go up the moment we leave” she ordered.
“Should you survive, the adept will be free to go, you however, lord Tunde, would be wise to report back to me, don’t make me hunt you” she finished as she snapped her fingers.
The barrier dissipated like glass, the basilisks shooting for them. Varis rose up in the air with his aura, pointing one finger at the coming hordes as a line of black fire wreathed with lightning tore sideways through the ranks of tier 4 creatures, cores falling all around them like rain. Tunde almost wept for the wastage, his void ring already opening up, swallowing the cores he could.
“Adepts stick together, hunt as a pack, lords, cleanse this tainted place” he ordered.
The Highlord and lady disappeared in a blink, transforming into trails of Ethra that shot for the incursion itself, no doubt to face its guardian. Tunde watched as the adept Heralds shot towards the creatures, Ethra wrapping their weapons of choice. Elyria tapped him, nodding in the direction of Alaric who made his way towards them, free of the chains that had bound him earlier.
Tunde had watched as he had been made to explain all his clan’s dealings behind the eyes of the empire, stripped of their position and left for tatters. He had pitied him in that moment, till he realized the man was the only prominent survivor of his clan, behind him, a tattered-looking elder Moros. They stopped a few meters from Tunde who said nothing, matching eyes with the lord, and to think at some point he had considered the man near omnipotent, how time flew.
“Where is Joran?” Moros snarled.
Tunde turned to him; his eyes cold as he spoke.
“Speak to me like that again, and you lose your head” he replied.
Moros looked taken back, Tunde turning his gaze back to the lord.
“It is good to see you alive, lord Alaric,” he said.
“You don’t really mean that,” Alaric said.
Tunde inclined his head without a word.
“Thank you, for saving my son” Alaric continued.
“She did, not me” Tunde replied, gesturing to Elyria.
“Still, your presence will go a long way in protecting the people of Jade Peak”
“There is no jade peak, not anymore, your clan saw to that,” Elyria said, her sword arm swinging as she launched a projection technique at a basilisk that came for them.
It tore into the creature, blood spraying, evidence of her growing strength. Tunde pointed one finger at it, a void sphere manifesting on the tip of his finger before shooting at the creature, blowing its head away, the body tumbling to the ground before slamming with a wet splat. Alaric glanced at the body and then at Tunde.
“Perhaps, we should have left you in the wastelands,” he said softly, shaking his head.
“And perhaps, if you had treated us with more kindness, we wouldn’t be facing this without allies” Tunde replied.
Alaric inclined his head to the side before bowing, Moros releasing a strangled noise as if not believing his eyes.
“My debt to you is paid, I wish you good luck in your future endeavors, and I hope we do not meet again,” he said.
Tunde watched as a bandaged Rhyn walked to their side, staring at Elder Moros who spoke.
“We leave Rhyn,” he said.
“No, you leave, I’ve had enough of the clan,” he said.
Alaric stiffened, standing straight as wisps of aura began to emanate from him, Tunde relished the thought of facing the lord, he wanted to know and see just how far he’d come.
“Are you betraying your clan too, Rhyn?” he asked.
“You displayed Celia’s head like a trophy for the world to see” Rhyn started.
“I did it to prove our innocence!” Alaric thundered, losing his cool.
Rhyn shook his head.
“No, the same way you met with Thalas, convincing him that lord Tunde here was no threat to him, that I was the threat” Rhyn replied.
Tunde’s head snapped to Rhyn before facing Alaric.
“You wanted him to go down that line of thought, pushed further by your sister’s compulsive need to prove herself better than you. And when he realized too late, the seeds of enmity had already grown between them. You started this, you and the patriarch, and Aunt Lirien as well, look at where it’s led us”
Alaric blazed to life with Ethra, jade crystals taking shape around him as an adept in red robes appeared in between both sides, clan in heavy armor, a sword pointing face down in his hand as he ignored the power of the lord. Hadas appeared again, shaking his head.
“I could have sworn the Highlord and lady gave you your orders, and yet, here you all are, squabbling like initiates,” he said quietly.
The adept tossed Rhyn a red robe, Rhyn catching it as he began to put it on, Alaric watching with disbelief and rage in his eyes, Moros shaking his head, not believing his eyes.
“I’m done with the clan Verdan, I have sworn my oaths to the Heralds, I bear no clan name nor title, simply an acolyte of the sword enclave,” Rhyn said.
Turning to Tunde, he bowed wordlessly, and then at Elyria, his bow going lower before he stood straight and walked with Hadas, not looking back. Alaric’s aura died out, his hand on his blade as he turned.
“Alaric” Tunde called out as the lord stiffened.
“Black rock belongs to me, and so is its territory, you’d be wise to stay far from it,” Tunde said.
The lord said nothing, pausing for a few more seconds before walking away, elder Moros in tow. Elyria and Tunde watched them go for a while before she spoke.
“I’ve got to say, seeing you stand up to a lord, quite satisfying, you’ve grown lord Tunde,” she said.
He rolled his eyes, a soft smile on his face.
“don’t call me that” he muttered as she chuckled.
Tunde glanced around, picking a simple rod off the ground as he swung it, testing its weight.
“What happened to your axe?” Elyria asked, noticing its absence.
“Long story, short form?, the artificer duped me,” he said.
She nodded, sighing as she spoke.
“So, this is our life, now, somehow standing in the ruins of the place that took us in, about to fight an incursion,” she said.
“What now, lord Tunde?” she said with a chuckle.
Tunde raised the pole, imbuing it with Ethra before swinging it down with raw force, sending out a projected void strike, the attack completely obliterating the basilisks that shot flames, coming for them.
“We clean up this place, I have things to deal with,” he said as he shot into the air with a leap, aura swirling around him and Elyria a step behind.
*************************************
A figure walked through the burning sunlight of the wastelands, garbed in stitched animal skin, the quite muscular figure dragged what looked to be a large thigh bone, gotten from one of the creatures of the wasteland, stripped leather wrapped around its thinner part to serve as something to hold on to. Shaggy hair that looked like it hadn’t been combed in a long time, features hidden behind the mass of hair, the figure whose foot sizzled as they marched through the blistering hot ground said nothing as it paused after a while, its gaze on another figure seated on a rock in the heat.
They both stared at each other for a while, no words spoken till the seated figure sighed, putting one hand into his ear, wagging it as he spoke. Dressed in a dark red robe, its arms torn away to give it a rugged look, the snow-white haired figure with a scar running across his face spoke.
“You know, the deal was for you to stay a Highlord,” he said.
The barbarian-looking figure said nothing, merely staring at him in silence.
“And yet, here we are, me, dragged all the way from my comfortable enclave as a favor to the empire just to confirm if in fact you’ll be marked for death”
“Your whelps didn’t deliver the news?” the barbarian spoke, his voice soft yet heavy, as if he considered speaking a chore.
The white-haired man shrugged helplessly.
“I haven’t heard from them, figured you’d killed them, a shame though, not sure the Talahan clan would smile on that” he replied.
The barbarian said nothing, merely staring at him. The white-haired man stood up, stretching.
“you’d be a fool to stand in my way, Kael” the barbarian spoke.
Kael Ironedge smiled, a grin covering his face.
“Amuse me, wasteland king” he replied as he swung his hand from up to down, the same moment the barbarian swung his bone weapon, alight with grey-looking flames wrapped with aura.
The wastelands erupted around them with raw power.