Miria found herself seated across from the Highlord, a cup of tea in front of him from which he sipped gently, an audible sigh of pleasure coming from his mouth.
“Say what you will about Ryka,” Varis said.
“But her tea leaves are one of a kind, but I’d take a jar of wine of it anytime”
Miria found herself frozen, Varis seemingly unaware of the effect he had on her, somehow she doubted it. he was too keen and cunning not to realize the terror currently gripping her despite the cold look she gave out.
“Miria, the tattooed lady, ink affinity, yet to pick a second affinity” Varis started again, this time his tone slightly cold.
“Waiting for the convergence as well?” he asked.
“The venerable Highlord knows all” she replied with a bow.
“You flatter me lady Miria” he gushed in response.
“It doesn’t answer my earlier question though”
Miria found herself unable to tear her eyes away from his gaze, the black and white-haired Talahan with his pearly white smile that screamed of danger.
“I’m unsure of what to tell the Highlord” she started, her voice calm.
“But to my knowledge, lord Tunde possesses both the affinities of shadow and destruction”
“I see,” Varis said calmly.
Miria found herself breaking out in a sweat.
He tapped the table gently, the sound echoing across the entire shop, eyes still on her as he spoke.
“Shadow and destruction” he repeated slowly, staring at the teacup in front of him.
“Perhaps I’ve grown rusty” he murmured.
“Soft enough that adepts and lords consider me a fool”
“Venerable Highlord, I- “
“Perhaps, she was right, we have been lenient,” Varis said, cutting her off.
Miria sealed her lips shut, hands on her lap as she squeezed them to keep them from trembling. His mere presence suffused the room subtly, the feeling of her surroundings shrinking down on her as she kept her eyes on him, cycling her Ethra with great difficulty.
“Are you aware of the master of the heavenly wrath art?” he asked, Miria shaking her head slowly.
“Ruthless bastard, an ally of ours, flame and destruction Ethra” Varis started.
“Ruled the hundred tree plains to the far east, close to the technocracy. Not a large area, just his own sect known as the heavenly wrath sect, I know, bad naming style”
“But see, one time, a little faction of the technocracy thought they could conquer his sect, why you ask, because he wasn’t a vassal of ours, merely an independent ally, an excuse to encroach on what was technically empire land” he continued.
“Hundreds of semi-sentient abominations they called automata, large armored cultivators, artificers of Highlord rank as well as their master, a grotesque thing of flesh and Ethereum fused together, barely human in any sense”
Miria found herself rooted to the spot as well, entranced in the story as well as scared to her very soul.
“Now, note that the techniques of masters affect not only the physical reality, but the soul, not sure I should be telling you this, but consider yourself lucky”
“Heavenly wrath was quick to anger, we knew that, the technocracy didn’t and it was amusing to watch as they thought he would capitulate, give up peacefully, how sorely mistaken they were,” Varis said with a chuckle.
“I was told his flames burned for days on end, burning away even the Ethra in the air, ten Highlord artificers, their entire army, and the master invading, all burned for days on end” he continued.
“Imprints of their dying screams still mark that place to date, crops and live stocks refusing to repopulate the area. Destruction Ethra is unique, lady Miria” Varis said as he reclined on the chair.
“It taints its environment, leaving it a desolate husk that takes the planet centuries to recover form, it destroys the body and soul in ways words cannot explain and frankly, looked down upon for obvious reasons” he finished.
“Pardon me, venerable Highlord, but what are you implying?” Miria asked.
“If your lord truly wielded destruction Ethra, you all would be slowly dying in body and mind, a corrosive effect that thankfully led to the downfall of the heavenly wrath sect,” Varis said.
“But then again, I shouldn’t be explaining that to you, do I?” he added.
Miria swallowed calmly before speaking.
“If indeed, lord Tunde has deceived us, perhaps he has a valid reason for doing so?” she asked.
Varis gave a soft smile that didn’t reach his eyes.
“One affinity, and lord rank aura and Ethra, perhaps essence flames as well, but we’ll see” Varis murmured.
“Normally, I’m inclined to raze this settlement to the ground, for all I know, you could be working for your masters over at Crystalreach”
“They are not our masters!” Miria growled for the first time.
“Ink Ethra, a stealth ranker, and cultivator, common sense would dictate you are currently looking for a shadow affinity item to bond with, one of a higher rank, lord stage perhaps?” he asked.
So he knew her plan, Miria slowly realized Tunde had been right about the Highlord. This was not a cultivator they could move easily against.
“of course, Draven already has his rock affinity, he’ll be adding fire to it I believe, that’s the path Forgesmiths take anyways. Harun seems simple enough, blade affinity, Giselle would be going for something related to if not hammer or crushing affinity” the Highlord listed out.
“Isolde though, her air affinity would more or less be complemented by a weapon affinity as well, although she doesn’t look like one to advance anytime soon. Lady Ryka though, well, we’ll see about that”
Miria steadied her beating heart now that she knew he wouldn’t be ending her life here.
“My point, lady Miria, is that your games are hilariously obvious to me. Black rock is just so placed in a perfect zone for the convergence, a nexus point, which I find seriously suspicious seeing as it was also the same zone of surge rifts” he stated.
“You all intend to take full advantage of it, solidifying your positions as a sect, albeit a fledgling one, but a powerful one all the same as well.”
“Tell me why I shouldn’t simply kill you all and take it all in the name of the empire?” he asked.
“Because you need us, you need Tunde” Miria automatically replied.
Varis raised an eyebrow.
“Overestimating your worth if you ask me” he replied.
Miria took a deep breath, releasing it before she shook her head.
“No, pardon me, venerable Highlord, but you and the empire need us, we’re disposable”
“at least we agree on that” Varis murmured.
“Something about this wasteland king seems to have the empire unwilling to use its forces” she replied.
“An entire force is coming from the empire, unfortunately,” Varis said with distaste.
“indeed” Miria replied.
“But you intend to soften the enemy with us, to put it simply, you intend to use us to replace the valuable lives of the children of the noble clans of the empire, meat bags to throw to the wolves” she explained, each word a bitter yet true pill in her mouth.
“we’re your stick army, your puppets, and Tunde your puppet king, you leash him to leash us” she finished.
Varis said nothing for a few seconds, merely staring at her as Miria began to smell the tell-tale signs of rain, feeling the temperature in the room begin to rise as her eyes widened. She began gathering her Ethra, what little it would do for her, knowing that this was the end, the Highlord striking down an adept despite the stain on his honor. All of a sudden, it vanished, Varis giving a tsk as he got to his feet.
“Whatever bizarre twist Tunde is, I want you and by extension, him as well as your band of family to realize that you dance on the palm of my hand” he started softly.
“I condone your brash attitudes simply to give you all the illusion that you’re in control, I let you grow stronger because it suits my goals. The moment you so much as bare your fangs at me or by extension the empire, nothing will remain to remember you by, a death so thorough that would leave the destruction done by the heaven’s wreath sect look like child’s play” he finished.
Then his smile was back, wide and warm despite Miria suppressing a shiver.
“Let them all know that the next time you hold one of those your usual meetings together, hmm?” he said before stepping out of the shop.
The doors closed shut as Miria got to her feet, running to a corner before retching her guts, her stomach despite being the refined body of an adept dispelling everything it had within it. she heard the door open again, watching as a smiling Ani came it, her bright face slowly vanishing as she saw Miria’s state.
***********************************************
The disciples and initiates aboard the sky vessel had descended along with Giselle to scour the ruins buried beneath the ashes. The usual entrance used by the scavengers was their route, going farther than the scavengers did seeing as they had not just two adepts in the presence of Giselle and Isolde, but an actual lord with them to guarantee their safety as well.
This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience.
Tunde stood on the prow of the vessel, looking at the makeshift line created from the depths they had plunged into, to the large wooden carts that stood at the entrance, constantly being filled with random items from clothes to jewelry and even forgotten weapons both mundane and imbued. The real jackpot was when they stumbled across an entire vault filled with Ethereum, Giselle having to fight some sort of underground mole rodent with rock affinity for it.
Tunde watched the carts being loaded into the swan, Isolde with a book in hand as she stood at his side.
“Not sure we were ready to account for all these, they are taking up space,” she said.
“we’ll find a way” Tunde responded.
She glanced at him from the book she was going through.
“That sounds like you have some plan to help,” she said.
He wasn’t necessarily going to tell her he had access to a technique that allowed him to store ten times the items a rare type void ring would allow him, but he simply shrugged.
“I just believe I guess”
Isolde simply shook her head saying nothing, turning back to the book.
“I’m of the opinion to not tell the Highlord of our…. recent discoveries,” she said, indicating to the carts.
Tunde shook his head.
“You really think he wouldn’t have one or two people within the initiates and disciples along with us that report back to him?” he responded.
Isolde glanced behind her.
“Think we can root them out?” she asked softly.
“isn’t worth the stress, besides, only a fool with a death wish would say no to a Highlord, can’t really blame them can you?” he replied.
She said nothing after that, Tunde turning his gaze to the skies above.
“It’s almost noon, we should get moving,” he said.
“Agreed, we’ve spent enough time here, more than an hour,” she said.
Tunde was about to turn away when he spotted something at the side of his eyes in the distance, turning to its position and seeing nothing. He activated his Ethra sight, unsure if he was hallucinating or actually seeing what he was indeed seeing before shutting his sight back.
“Isolde, tell me, do you see anything in the distance?” he asked, pointing in its direction.
The adept squinted for a few seconds before shaking her head.
“No, only the heat, sure it isn’t getting to you?” she teased.
Tunde cracked a soft smile, shaking his head before activating Ethra sight again.
“perhaps” he muttered.
“Signal to Giselle, get whatever we have back up to the swan, we leave in a few minutes” he ordered as she nodded.
Watching Isolde turn away with a nod, he sighed, he hated it when Varis was right.
****************************************
The silent serpent stood atop the rocky outlines a few hundred meters from the scorched territory that stretched for miles. His imbuement technique, venomous veil, shrouded him by twisting the light around his figure, his robes custom-made for him to run his Ethra through, allowing him to be virtually invisible to the senses of any cultivator.
It worked perfectly against lord-ranked cultivators, Highlords being the only ones to sometimes sense it before he struck, and yet, for some reason, he couldn’t shake off the fact that the lord target he could see clearly within the ship had spotted him for a few seconds. He doubted it, but the serpent hadn’t survived this long in the business by not trusting his senses, and so he had wrapped himself in even more layers of the veil.
This time sure that Tunde would no doubt have taken it as the sun playing on his senses, the serpent kept his watch, waiting for the best time to strike. He had watched him battle the abomination left behind by the cult of undeath and was impressed if he was being honest with himself.
His movements, speed, everything pointed to him being trained by a skilled teacher, perhaps the rumors of one of clan Talahan’s Highlords within the borders were true, but the serpent doubted one of them would stoop so low as to reside in such a place. Still, it didn’t take from the fact that this would be an interesting fight, one that he intended to relish. The thought of taking on the lord with those rash contractors as well irritated him.
The reckoner was a brute and feral savage and he wouldn’t trust the executioner even with the life of his worst enemy, something about his false piousness despite the type of job he engaged in disgusted him. And yet, the serpent knew that they would meet up with him at some point or the other if he didn’t strike quickly.
He turned his gaze back to the sky vessel, watching as it began to take to the air, their mission done in the ruins. He considered killing everyone aboard the vessel, it would give him ample space to take on the lord without distractions, plus, he wouldn’t need to sneak around. Agreeing on the plan, he waited till the vessel was above him, preparing to take to the air with his aura and under the cover of the brief shadow the vessel afforded him when he found himself twisting out of the way as a blade descended from above to split him into two equal pieces.
His favorite blades out and on guard, the serpent dispelled the veil, staring at the lord whose eyes caused him to shiver a bit, black with tiny pricks of glowing white.
“You could see me,” the serpent said.
The target worth five hundred thousand lumens stared him down, the ship hovering above even as the serpent felt its cannons lock on to him, his expression passive.
“Who are you, and what do you want?” the dark-skinned lord said.
“You won’t live long enough to remember” he replied, striking with the speed of the creature he was named after.
He didn’t see the blow to his ribs coming.
*******************************
The first thing Tunde did as the ship took to the skies was to inform Hajan to gather everyone within the most secure room he had aboard the vessel, simply telling them that they would be attacked by lords. That had been enough to push them into a rushing panic, Giselle and Isolde by his side.
“What did you see?” Isolde asked.
“Trouble on the horizon” he simply replied, his Ethra sight still on the figure.
Cycling his Ethra continuously, Giselle had her hammer in hand, Tunde glancing at her.
“He looks like some shadow affinity Ethra user, a stealth type from what I’m seeing”
“he’d cut me down in a moment” Giselle translated.
“precisely” he responded.
“What do you want us to do?” Isolde asked.
“Nothing for now, communicate back with black rock, inform Varis that I’ve met the first of his ‘troubles’, and ask how many more should I be expecting?” he ordered.
“Giselle, be ready, I suspect this won’t be the only one taking a shot at me” he added.
Her eyes widened.
“Someone sent them after you?”
“My guess as well” he responded.
“Where is he now?” she asked.
Tunde walked to the prow, drawing his two blades as he ran Ethra through them.
“Below us” he responded, dropping from the ship.
******************************
Tunde again found himself grateful for Ethra sight, without the technique, he’d not only be oblivious to the presence of the assassin with what was beginning to look like a shadow and venom affinity, but he’d probably be incapacitated with the first strike. He’d seen it coming a second earlier, and just as he’d been training with Varis, he knew when and where to strike.
But Tunde didn’t want the cultivator dead, dropping a blow to his ribs even as he parried the venom-laced blade, he refrained from using void touch, allowing the strength of his blow to shatter the rib of the assassin as he flipped backward from him. His attacker landed without a sign to tell he’d been hurt, no doubt stifling the pain through one means or the other.
“Again, who sent you?” Tunde asked.
The killer gave no response, simply tearing towards him with lord-rank speed, weapon flashing through the air as Tunde joined him in combat, matching his strikes blow for blow. He found himself being suffused with an aura of poison that attempted to weaken him.
[body is being attacked by poison aura] Ifa wrote out
[essence flame is purging and purifying the aura] it added.
“That handled that,” he thought to himself, ducking another swing of the deadly venom-laced blade that sought to either decapitate or nick his skin. Tunde released his aura, pushing back the attack of the poison aura as he gave himself space, his eyes watering.
“How aren’t you dead?” the killer said, speaking for the first time.
“I could say the same to you” Tunde responded.
His body, the relic that hummed within his right hand rapidly drank the effects into itself, cleansing his Ethra lines in his system, allowing him to keep up with the attacks of the assassin. A thought came to him as he shouted.
“Hajan!” he roared.
“Push on ahead of me, inform the baron!” he said.
He felt the hesitation from above before the ship powered up, shooting towards the distance.
“You feel confident enough,” the assassin said.
“I’d rather not put them in the way” Tunde responded.
“Besides, you’ve been holding back” he added.
The assassin paused for a second for a second as if not believing his ears before chuckling.
“I was right, this was going to be fun” he added and then simply vanished.
Tunde brought his blades up in the last moment, catching the blow even as a kick slammed into his chest, feeling a sharp blade slip in between the attack to stab into his chest as well. He was shooting backward, crashing into the ground as he cursed himself for not imbuing his body, feeling the venom run rampant through his body as he spat out black blood.
[venom Ethra has entered your body, purification process has begun!] Ifa wrote out.
Tunde got to his feet before another strike landed, kicking backwards as Ethra and aura suffused his form, watching the assassin manifest again out of nowhere.
“You considered yourself invincible, you rule as a king out here in the middle of nowhere,” he said.
“Whomever you offended, I hope you think of them with your dying breath” the killer added as Tunde watched his Ethra and aura begin to take shape on his blade.
Eyes alight, he drank in the sight of the technique growing into the shape of a shadow green serpent that rose to the skies above him. It hissed at him as Tunde found himself within a sphere of darkness, no doubt the dominion technique of the assassin, shadowy webs snatching his limbs and holding him down on the spot.
All he could see was the serpent, looking down on him with eager malevolent eyes, ready to strike, the assassin no doubt enjoying the moment.
“This is what a true technique of a true lord looks like, umbral strike,” he said before swinging the blade down.
Tunde sighed.
His aura tore through the strings holding him in that moment, Tunde flooding his blades with Ethra and aura as he gathered void touch on them before releasing the attack on the projection technique. The only thought in his mind being that the battle had been too quick, even with the handicap he gave the assassin.
************************************
The silent serpent was confused, confused as to why he lay on the ground, his chest split open and his blood pouring all over the ground. Coughing blood, he watched as the figure of the lord with the odd eyes stood over him, shielding him from the sunlight, unsure of what to say.
“you” he croaked, gathering his willpower to keep him alive even as he felt it being drained away steadily.
“It didn’t work, did it?, my venom,” he asked with a cough of blood.
The Lord said nothing, merely staring at him with cold eyes.
He gave a soft smile, feeling his life ebb away as he laughed with his last breath, the dying thought of the monster the other two would face on his mind.
***************************
To be honest, Tunde hadn’t been planning on killing him. Staring at the dead body of the assassin, he couldn’t help but realize the odds had been skewered in his favor. Not only could he see through the techniques of the assassin, but his body nullified whatever effects they had on him thanks to the relic and tempering that turned anything poison or venom into his strength. he ignored the [+5 to strength] that appeared on his screen, crouching down to cut the finger off the body of the assassin.
The body burst into flames as he leaped backward, watching as everything on it burnt to ashes and then nothing. Staring at the finger with the void ring on it, Tunde plucked it off, throwing it into his void space as he turned toward the distance, shooting in the direction of the ship.
Someone had sent assassins after him and Varis knew about it. he wasn’t sure what annoyed him the most between the both of them. He could only narrow his options down to two people, assuming they were even alive at this point. Alaric and Moros, the two remnants of clan Verdan, were the only ones who had lingering issues with him, unless he counted Rhyn along but he doubted it, the cultivator wasn’t one to stoop so low.
A final candidate came to his mind, causing him to pause mid-air, Varis himself. Tunde found himself entertaining the thought of the Highlord paying off assassins to come after him in some sick form of training. He pushed it out of his mind as he drew closer to the ship, realizing that its cannons had been firing. Pushing closer revealed two figures floating mid-air, one laughing as he launched technique after technique at the ship.
The other figure simply floated in the sky under his golden aura that seemed to irritate Tunde, large prayer beads around his neck, a slippery smile on his face as he watched his second take shots at the ship. The brute figure with the large maul weapon kept striking the ship, Tunde realizing Giselle held a broken arm, bleeding with her other hand cradling her hammer.
The golden aura cultivator turned in his direction as Tunde launched void sphered and discs at him, a ball of golden energy covering him as the attacks crashed into him, blasting him backwards despite the protection of the sphere, Tunde going for the larger cultivator who swung his maul at him.
Parrying with his blades, his eyes widened as the force of the blow blasted him down to the ground, Tunde’s imbuement taking the brunt of the attack. He landed with a flip; blades drawn as the two cultivators stood together.
“Told you that slippery serpent couldn’t take him on alone” the brute one roared.
The other cultivator with the bald head as well as beads gave a wince, bowing at him.
“Young man, are you the lord named Tunde?” he asked softly.
“Your friend’s dead” Tunde replied calmly.
The brute figure roared with laughter as the hermit-looking one nodded.
“I see, he has returned to Astradriel’s grace, glory be his name” he replied.
“Keepers, what are you doing here?” Tunde asked.
The keepers weren’t welcomed on these lands as far as he knew.
“Please, forgive me, but your death has been paid for,” the hermit said, producing a spiked Morningstar as the other brute figure blazed to life with a green and dark red aura.
Tunde released his aura as well, the three figures staring each other down before striking together with projection techniques, tearing the air between them apart in an explosion.