Volume 2: The Birth of Calamity
"Wow!" says Manato.
"Right?" replies Yuki, his childhood friend.
"Who would have known that they can build a city like this around a volcano." add enthusiastically Akari their classmate.
"It's retarded." I say quietly to which my everyone responds with deep sigh.
"Mark. You should learn how to enjoy little stuff! Not everyday we get to travel and see sights like this."
"Maybe I would, if we would not have not wasted time travelling through that shitty desert." I scoff back.
"Oh come on! What did you expect? It's called 'dead desert' for a reason." says Sam, our 'unofficial' leader, with a huge smile.
The only way I can react back is with a deep sigh.
Sam earned his position as a leader in a quite unusual way. He simply learned Tasar, the language of empire, much faster than anyone else, even me. Thus he immediately transformed into sort of teacher for us, and a representative of our group in general. Everyone was happy to shift all the negotiations and responsibilities on some else, if he fucks up they will have someone to blame. Sam beamed through the whole process, not complaining even once.
The damn language has too many rules and exceptions for everything. And the worst thing is that it is only one language out of dozen on this continent alone. I never liked learning foreign languages, never was good at it, but when you have to, you do just that.
The language that we were forced to confront was grammatically much more clustered than any I had heard about back on Earth. It involved countless exceptions in syntax, with alphabet consisting of 49 letters. In written form it reminded me of deformed love child of Greek and Korean, which looked 'rectangular' and 'simple' at the same time. There is also the polite and casual form, which changes the ending of every single fucking word. Oh did I mention that every object has a gender too? It is as if people gathered and decided to put as much bullshit into a single language as they can.
To my utter dissatisfaction aside from magical energy and few other races, which are rarely seen in Empire, the whole setting reminded me of late medieval era. No auto-translation, no status menu, no health or mana bars whatsoever, even after scrupulous testing of hundreds of commands and gestures, in private of course. It was not a game, and I was forced to accept that. Which left me no other choice than to immediately appraise their small assemblage of books.
Speaking of races, against the recommendation of the 'advisors', which constantly followed me and explained everything, I went to slave market, as that was the only possible way to see other races. I was enamored with the idea of seeing a real cat-girl or bunny-girl. The whole 'they are savage, dirty and uncivilized' comments were simply ignored, as I believed them to be another xenophobic societal norms in the place.
As I was explained, all elves are instantly bought even before they enter the capital, many are either bought back by their families, who pay hefty price, or sold to 'private' collector, which are actually just high-nobles. So the only option left was demi-humans. The non-human traits ranged from just tail and animal ears to full fledged werewolves on two legs.
The ginger cat-girl that caught my eye proved my ideas of the not-understood tribes to be wrong when she tried to rip my eyes out. She was quickly subdued by guards, but that did not stop her rapid onslaughter of what surely sounded like curses.
This world was not what I expected, still much better than the previous one.
Well at least my powers are something that makes me stand out, which I am not sure if is a good thing. The less people know about me, the easier it will be to reach my goals. But nonetheless, there are no words that can describe the feeling you get when you start throwing massive spells, as if damaged fire hydrant. Maybe image of adults throw candies during Halloween is better. Anyway, I felt as if I am a walking tank, an impenetrable fortress which rains chaos and destruction on anyone it meets.
But not everything is awesome as it sounds.
My classmates, or teammates as I call them now, continue to chat about nonsense, like weather and nature. The Manato, Yuki and Akari trio is the worst. That the hell do they think this is, school trip?
I am not sure if this is irony or sick joke of fate to summon three Japanese into another world. But the joke is not in the summoning, but rather who was summoned. They are so stereotypical that is feels as if someone makes fun out of us. I read Japanese comics and novels too, but I didn't think that characters in them can be actually real, that people like that can exists. I didn't interact with them before that much, but after the summoning, the first thing that came to my mind was that they are being sarcastic, and it was their way of coping with stress.
But no, they are actually right that.
I scowl at the useless, carefree idiots, that continue to chat with absolute no care in the world.
Why can't I train by myself? Why couldn't train while we traveled?
Fuck.
If I learned anything from those stories, that I read, it is that problems will appear, and the only thing that will be able to solve them is power. Absolute power, like the one I posses. But I should not get drunk on it. I will not become a failed background character, like in those third-rate stories, who turns evil and starts explaining their plan, until they get killed in a stupid and ridiculous way.
I will not end up like that. I will not fail. I will not become my father, and for that I need to train.... and maybe wait.
...
It is still hard for me to understand how these magic baboons were able to create the structures like the palace that stands before me. Enormous walls and doors, with their height not losing to our skyscrapers even a bit. The only answer to the question how they were built was 'ancients' and 'reinforcement magic'. I kind of understand the basis behind the reinforcement magic itself, but the skills and amount of mana required is just inhuman. I tried to replicate the stone reinforcement myself, but it took more than half of my mana pool and an hour of single minded concentration to create a single square meter cube of reinforced stone.
How much mana and time would it take to create a city like this? Unimaginable.
Anyway, after a quick rest and a bath we had to attend a ball organized specifically for us. We have to do the usual political stuff, like greeting the king and his queens, small talk with local lord and nobles, fake smiles and laughs. But at least there is something that brightens my day, the queens, they are a feast for anyone's eyes. Well endowed beauties, which would instant get labeled as 'MILFS' back at home.
"We could be training in the dungeon right now. Right Mark?" comments Lisa with a smile while we are standing alone for few short minutes of rest, until next noble doesn't appear to discuss his collection of paintings.
I sigh and try to appear as calm as I can.
If it was about a year ago I would be ecstatic at the fact that Lisa wants to talk to me. God knows how much time I spent trying to be friends with her, trying to find common hobbies or interest.
So much time uselessly spent.
I even thought that something was progressing, until my classmates showed me a video on his phone. In the video an awkward teenager tried to hit on a pretty girl, Lisa. She 'tolerated' the guy with an awkward smile until a bit bigger guy came up, Sam, after which a huge genuine smile broke on her face, unseen by the awkward guy. The girl then started to passionately speak with the big guy, even going together with the big guy to next class, leaving the awkward teenager behind after a small goodbye and wave of hand.
And that awkward teenager was me.
I still don't understand how I didn't notice.
It's better to see once, than see hundred times.
The sudden change to her behavior can be attributed to several things. There is the thing that she may be trying to get my help with her healing magic, as I am the one with the most skills in the area of magic generally. There is also possibility that after being transported here, and seeing me in new light she had a change of heart.
I myself actually changed, physical mostly. I started training the body, and feeding mana into the muscles to make myself agile and fast. Even against strict orders from Grand Wizard, I extended my bones, gaining about ten centimeters in height. They constantly were saying something about breaking synchronization with soul and it's corruption, but I didn't care much.
It is hard to be short.
Anyway, I will not be a standing idiot which casts magic from single point and become a retard who is an easy target for enemy. And for that I had to change my body. Which resulted an 'esthetically' appealing frame. Everyday exercise together with Sam made my abs quite defined, it was a happy addition to the main goal.
As Lisa continues to try chat with me another, much more likely reason comes to mind. Sam has caught attention of many girls, especially few princesses, and therefore, number of competitors rose sharply.
"And here is our gloomy arch-mage." comes sweet female voice from behind.
Looking back I find the twins walking in my direction.
I scowl.
I am kind-of okay with the brother, Sergei. His scythe looks dangerous, but in my mind I already generated few scenarios how to subdue him if he every though of doing anything dangerous. But his sister, Natalia, is a totally different story. After she assimilated with her powers, her hair turned white and eyes turned yellow. Creepy, but manageable.
But her powers are an issue.
Natalia looks at me from head to toes, biting her lips in the process, as if she saw a juicy piece of steak. My instincts scream not to get close to her, and there is a valid reason for that.
She is a god damn Sear.
I can feel mana, and it's change in air but that is natural, something everyone can do. Natalia can fucking 'hear' and 'smell' it, whatever that means. She even says that she is already training to 'see' it. She knows exactly what is happening IN my body, where the mana moves, when and what spell is coming. But as if a joke of fate, she somehow has extremely rare mana absorption abilities. She needs a living target of course, but still.
Worst enemy for a mage.
And her hungry looks are harder and harder to ignore. Both girls stand by my side talking about nonsense and shit, while I try to maintain the talk with minimal input.
Great, heal slut and mana lamprey.
My horny younger self would gladly let you eat me alive and use me in whatever way you wanted back then. But not now. Not now.
Where were you cunts when I cared about this shit?!
Thankfully Sam comes and saves me, stating that he needs my input in something. After quick 'byes' I follow him to the two young princes. After quick greeting their discussion continues, which I try to follow. The short descriptions would be that the talks is about improvement of city's defense, countering possible 'issues' and more militaristic stuff.
At some point I became Sam's 'right hand'. Maybe because of my magical strength, maybe because of contrasting personality that I have with him, or it may simply be because we are very old friends with Sam.
Most people would think that he is an idiot because he is tall, muscular and into sports, but that is wrong, very wrong. He is incredibly sharp and agile in his thought process.
We continue to have the discussion with younger and older princes. Even though they look alike, as if copy of same person, just few years apart, their whole demeanor is totally different. The younger one has this smug smile of superiority as if everything is below him, a face of a totally spoiled brat, even though the guy is in his early twenties. In contrast the older prince face tries to appear calm and neutral, with kind and welcoming smile, but deep under it I can feel turmoil, as if something significant is bothering him.
If the older prince really cares about something this much, the kingdom is in good hands.
The subject flips between strategy for land and sea attack, moving slowly to cases of insurgence caused by neighboring countries, and how to stop or counter them.
Responding to the older prince, Neusor, I try stir him away from the idea of storing large amounts of pure mana for defensive towers, as managing stored mana will be a pain in the ass. And in the long run it is better to set those that feed on ambient mana and essentially do not require constant maintenance. Yes they are much weaker than the burst ones, which are powered by pure mana, but actual battles are never short, or at least that is what books claim.
I have actually been reading much more since I came here, mostly about magic and mana. Some even claim that my knowledge on few subjects can be compared to the level of a Mage Tower's Grandmaster.
These results are there, only because there is this unsatisfiable hunger for knowledge I always had. This 'gluttony' is hard to describe. The more you read the more desire.
And you never feel full.
Then night comes fast and we decide to get to bed 'earlier', which is actually far past midnight, because tomorrow will be a long day. Guided to my own room I enter, slip out of the clothes and have another quick bath, trying to remove all the smelly perfume that clung to me after the ball. Women in this kingdom don't know what self-control means.
Returning to the main room I find two maids, a younger one in her teens, few years younger than me, and a bit older one, well-endowed beauty in mid-twenties, standing and waiting for me. They both bow deeply and announce in unison.
"We will be under your care Lord Marcus."
I smile as at least there will be someone to warm me up.
Even without my command they start undressing and letting their clothes fall down on floor, until they stand bare naked before me. Sitting on the side of the bed I motion them to come closer. The younger one sits on her knees as starts to please me with her mouth, while the older one sits behind me and her hands sit on my shoulders, massaging them.
The skills of the younger one is lacking, but she makes-up to it with pure enthusiasm. The one from behind sits closer to me, pressing her enormous assets into my back.
Well this is not as good as my personal slave-maids back at the empire, but for now this will do.
I don't even understand how I lived without this back at home.
Why didn't my family buy a slave back there? Even after my father lost his position, as one of lead managers in the US biggest insurance company, we weren't poor at all.
I will not fail. I will not become like him.
But still, why didn't we have slaves? We should have had slave-maids. Someone was cleaning the house, right?
Wait.
Where were the slaves even bought?
Slavery is a normal and legal thing. Why can't I-
Suddenly a strong headache hits me as if a heap of bricks, but I try to maintain the though process.
There is something wrong here. Why can't I-
Another much more powerful migraine hits me causing me to groan in pain as if something is drilling my skull.
Breathing heavily I look down on horrified girl which starts to beg for forgiveness on all four.
What the hell am I doing?
Who cares about the earth? Who cares about that loser of a father? Now I am here. I am a hero. I mean something. I am something. And I will enjoy it.
The headache disappear as fast as it appeared. As clarity return to my eyes and mind, I tell the young girl to look up. Caressing her face to calm her down, I guide her back to pleasing me and proceed to ram myself into the small mouth of the young girl. Pleased enough I throw her on bed and mounting her from behind, and start circulating mana around the body for the next round. At the beginning it hurt her a bit, as it looks like it was her first time, but after a bit more time her soft moan filled the room. The young one fell unconscious after about half an hour of moaning, tired and exhausted. But that is not enough for me. I look at the older one, which was patiently waiting for her turn, while pleasing herself with her hand in silence. Circulating mana I restore myself for another round, I motion to the the older to come closer, to which she react with a huge smile and leaps at me in hunger. She did not lose the younger one in enthusiasm even a bit.
This is life.
...
I wake up with a groan and find the young slave-maid sleeping on my chest, with a happy smile on her face, drolling on me. The warm feeling around me is quickly replaced with another as I shudder and feel something wet bellow the blanket. Throwing it off I find the older maid passionately pleasing me with her mouth with her eyes closed, until she opens them and our eyes meet, after which she stops.
Clearing her throat she bows and whispers softly.
"Good morning my Lord." looking down on my member she continues "Please, would you allow this one to finish.... I was very close..." At that moment I notice her right hand is between her thighs.
Smiling, with my hand I guide her head back.
What a nympho, I had her whole night and she still is not satisfied.
A very lovely present indeed. I will take both of them with me for sure.
...
Our group gathers together for breakfast, which is better to call lunch because of current time. During the process of eating the fancy local cuisine.
The carefree trio start discussion what they want to look at in the city, but Sam stops them softly, stating that we were sent here for a very important task.
They must be faking. They can be like that. Right?
We start discussion about the next actions, first of all we need to hunt down the thing that we were sent here for, some kind of monster deep in the dungeon. But we only can do that after we block access to the dungeon. King's advisor also inserted few meetings between them, namely the church and several nobles.
Preparing quickly we get into each of ours coach and start traveling to the dungeon. The travel is a bit rigid, as several Blood Brothers are accompanying each of us and taking a lot of space in already small carriage.
I sigh deeply.
They are nothing like what read about. There is nothing new with overpraising, that is usually present in books, but they act the opposite of what their credo should be. When reading about them two images came to my mind. The orphan vigilante in bat suite and a gun nut with a white skull on his chest. Death to evil at any cost, night vigilantes with strict code, absolute disregard to any political and social status, those that die without their names even known.
But what the hell is this? Where are the unseen creatures of darkness? Where are the blood thirsty knight of righteousness which would die but destroy all evil? After we were told that they would accompany us here, it got my curiosity tingling, only to be royally letdown.
Their leader, or how he called himself, the Inquisitor, was a guys in late thirties with arrogant smirk every noble has, his subordinates were no better. The travel here did not improve my opinion of them even a bit.
White and red full-plate armor? Walking during day light with their symbols in open. Their stuck up chins and condescending look like a copy of young prince's.
There were several more things that didn't make sense. Everyone of them introduced themselves with names. I clearly remembered that when I read about the Blood Brotherhood it was specifically written that every member discards their names and in return get a code-numbers.
Looking a bit more into I found a very contradicting information. 'Inquisitor' was a title given by people to the most evil entity of the Brotherhood, the one that was scorned and hated the most. Accursed creature which consumed cities and countries in search of corrupted. He murdered young and old, woman and children, making path of dead bodies wherever he went. It was written that his existence was allowed only because how zealously he hunted down the darkest creatures in existence. He was sort of acceptable 'lesser evil'.
But the the person was nothing like in the texts, and Inquisitor was never the leader of the Blood Brotherhood.
Confronting few of the religious leaders about the contradiction, I was quietly explained, that the 'previous' Inquisitor started a coup, and together with his indoctrinated brothers killed nearly all of their leadership. After learning about the coup the Empire hunted down most of the fanatic. After which the surviving leadership restored the order and rebuild the organization.
Later, rethinking everything I found to many holes in the story. After, as they claimed 'horrible atrocities', why keep the same name? Why use the title of Inquisitor, the one who started the coup? How did they hunt the hunters? Why was even the coup started?
But I stopped looking into it as my hands are already full with my problems, I don't need someones else.
Still, I am not sure which version of Brotherhood I prefer.
...
We arrive at the enormous dungeon plaza and gathering together walk up the stairs to the dungeon entrance. Few officials arrive and we start discussion about what kind of barrier we should put. Something is screaming in my head that it is wrong to do as they say and fully close the entrance.
"Won't pressure build up?" I voice my concerns
Eyes of single official become alive, as if they found hope.
"W-We are not sure lord Marcus. Some of us-"
"Everything will be fine lord Marcus." say two elder official glaring at the one who voiced his opinion. "Those are just baseless fear. I believe my colleague is simply over-thinking."
The younger official visible trembles. He instantly apologizes and bows down deeply, after which he leaves with haste.
I am about to voice my disagreement, but the leader of Brotherhood comes closer and tells me to believe the elders, and focus on my task.
'I should follow the orders.'
What? No. There is something wrong here.
'I should follow the orders from Empire elders.'
I suddenly find myself mind empty and lost, as if I just woke up, with slight headache and some kind of motion sickness.
What happened? What was I thinking? But before I could trail back Sam tells me to join in the ritual.
Everyone stood together and channeled their mana into creating basic barrier, with very specific controls, so we, or someone else, could later enable and disable the barrier if needed. It took nearly an hour to set the thing up, and during the whole time more and more people gathered at plaza gazing at us. After the barrier was set up, Sam was given a short script, which as we were told, was personally written by king, to say before the endless sea of people at the plaza.
Yeah, 'personally'.
But we decided not to argue.
After Sam finishes the speech we walk out of plaza accompanied by the Brotherhood who are here to protect us from the crowd. We reach the coach and jump inside, after which we quickly return back to the castle.
But the during whole period of time my blood was boiling because of the useless waste of time. How many hours were wasted just standing, smiling or walking? I need to train and practice.
God damn it.
We reach the castle quite fast, and entering back are greeted by the older and younger Prince. Sam exchanges greeting and explains the task done while I stand to side of them and try to contain my anger quietly.
"Is there something bothering you Lord Marcus?" asks the older Prince with a visible concern.
"Sorry. It is-" I start but stop shorty.
No. Enough. I need to train.
"Actually, I wanted to know if we could resume our training. We didn't train during the travel at all, because of security concerns, but we have already been in the city for two days."
"We have a small Colosseum if you want to have a small spar, but I am afraid there aren't many enemies that can match you in that regards.." he smiles awkwardly while his younger brother glares at me.
He does not stop me, but does not give green light.
Fucking politics.
I can't waste anymore time. Fuck it.
"Than it won't be a problem if we simply take a quick tour through the dungeon? We surely won't cause issues that way?"
"Well... I think it won't-" he responds.
"Great! Than we will take a short dive into the dungeon."
"I am very sorry for Mark harsh tone, but deep down I partly agree with him. We need to train." Sam injects with positive and apologetic tone, laughing through it as he always does.
In the end we got the approval to travel to the dungeon and postponed the meeting with the church for later time. We were also given a bracelet which both sides can send signal if something happened, and either we need to return back or we require help.
I wanted to say that I highly doubt that such event will happen, but something at the back of my skull was whispering that it may not be the case.
After some more discussion we organized and went back to the coaches. The trio grumbled about exploring and seeing the city, others agreed that we need to focus on training, but in the end everyone agreed that we need to be together. The leader of the Brotherhood insisted that few of them must travel with us into the dungeon. Sam agreed. He sat together with me into the coach, alone, telling everyone else that there is some stuff that he needs to discuss with me.
We travel for few quite minutes until Sam's monotone and apathetic voice breaks the silence as he stares outside of the coach.
"Learn to wait."
"We don't have time." I respond shortly.
"I know."
"They are hiding something."
"I know." Sam repeats again as he continues to stare outside of couch.
Few long seconds of silence follow as we stare outside of coach, he to the left and I to the right.
"Any idea what exactly?" he finally breaks the silence.
"The crown prince should not behave like that. There is no arrogance, no sneer. He is either a very badly performing double, or something scared him shitless."
"Don't label him. Not everyone is badly designed template character from books or games." Sam says, squinting his eyes at me.
"Ha. Everyone is an archetype. Look at us. A muscle idiot and his loser friend. Thankfully, someone fucked up with few parameters."
We both chuckle.
"Don't rush. We will manage it. We just need to continue playing our roles." Sam continues
"'Playing' huh. I agree, but you should also feel that we don't have much time."
"Yeah."
"Mark, you need to improve you communication skills. Learn to interact with others." after a pause he adds "Maybe with Lisa or Natalia?"
"No."
"Mark, I can't be the only one holding the team together. Both of the girls need emotional and psychological support. If you-"
"Sam, No." I cut him shorty.
He deeply sighs and responds with "Okay."
We finally arrive back at the plaza, and exiting resume our roles of positive and happy leader, and his dark and gloomy friend. Sending mana into the barrier we unlock it and phase through it.
The dungeon is exactly what you would expect it to be in fantasy world, a cave with occasional monsters. We continue nearly unobstructed for few hours as I snipe from afar all the small fries with fireballs.
Not wasting time, I train even with this small fireballs, playing around with explosion delay. Throwing another fireball between two oversizes rats, it explodes right between them, taking their lives, leaving behind two charred corpses. I have enough mana to burn every single rat in the dungeon separately, but that would not be training.
Natalia is happily coming to charred corpses and just by touching them turns them into dust.
Stealing mana just by touching. Fucking bullshit. I don't even want to imagine what will happen if she plunges those sharp fangs, that grew in her mouth after the assimilation, into a living person.
Finally bigger enemies appear and we try different strategies, switching between one on one, group on one without using advanced spells, and in rare cases only physical attacks. No one wants to get hit but we need to, because this way we become a training target for Lisa's healing spells.
Generally everyone is serious about the whole situation, everyone expect the trio. The are smiling and chatting happily about their improved skills, but mostly about how much cooler new lighting spell Manato cast was. In response to that he smiles awkwardly and scratches his head, leaving his back unprotected to possible attack.
How can they be so carefree? It was the same when we encountered the huge sand worm and wyvern in the dead desert.
Manato even picks up body part of dead monster and starts chasing Akari with it, while she is running in circles and screaming for help.
Everyone around just chuckles at their game.
WHAT THE ACTUAL FUCK? Are you people sane? Do you think this is a game?
This can not continue like that, this can no longer be allowed. I should do.
No.
I am the bad cop. First Sam need to prepare them, then I will act.
I put the problem in the back of my head, something must be done, but not right now. We dive deeper and deeper, as we finally meet more dangerous foes and can let loose, using our high level skills and spells. Even though the monsters are not much of an 'enemy', but such training dummies are good enough after months of gruesome physical training back in Empire.
Unauthorized tale usage: if you spot this story on Amazon, report the violation.
Several Blood Brothers mentions few times that we have been in dungeon for a bit too long and should return. I wanted to snarl at them that it is better that we continue, but everyone already did that before I could.
It looks like I was not the only one who wanted to explore the dungeon and train my skills.
This is a good start.
We continue going deeper and deeper, meeting enemies that requires attentiveness even from me, until we come into a cross road, where we are ambushed from all sides. I instantly deploy a fire barrier, giving everyone enough time to regroup and setup defense formation.
Mountains of dead bodies continues to grow, as we dispatch the endless waves of monsters from all sides. Everyone tries to play it safe, not to risk because of the sheer number of enemies, and that even a single mistake can lead to serious injury. Everyone is careful, and giving their best, well, except me, as I simply continue to cast basic fireball spells, trying to see the limit of my current skills.
Suddenly, the bracelet on Sam's wrist starts to shine with blue light, sending low pitched hum across the room. My and Sam's face instantly changes.
Not waiting even a second I send powerful spells into each corridor. The spells explode with intense heat, coloring walls with deep black, as some parts of them melt down.
My and Sam's eyes meet and question bubbles in both our heads. it should have been the over way around. Right?
"Whatever the reason may be, we should return quickly." voices his opinion Sam looking at the concerned group.
We start running back to the surface.
...
I should have listened to my instincts. I should have been more brave with my decisions and theories.
Fucking inter-continental war.
We can't be here just by a coincidence. The Empire knew that this would happen, and they sent us here on purpose. Even the idiots in my team understand that there is something wrong with timing and our presence here.
The Empire is openly declaring to us that we are just puppets, nothing more.
The questions the elder prince asked make so much more sense now. They knew about it too, but didn't say anything. Or maybe they expected us to know the information ourselves.
While I am somehow able to hide my extreme 'discontent' with the events under grim face, Sam's mask broke several times, showing his true emotions. It looks like he didn't know either.
There were several assassinations attempts on royal family while we were gone. Few got seriously hurt, therefore we had to become personal guards of the royal family until the morning.
But things don't end there. In the morning we received information that a group of necromancers appeared on north cemetery, raising thousands of dead. it was decided that the most of the Blood Brotherhood should stay and continue protecting the family while few of them, together with us, will solve the problem.
While we were fighting few undead and several feral Liches slipped our notice and entered the city. I could have killed all the undead with a single spell, but that would take a significant amount of my mana, which I can't waste even a fraction of. In the end, after half an hour of extensive teamwork, nearly all the thousands of undead are lying, dismembered, burned and destroyed, and our mana reserves only increased since the battle started.
After some discussion, and firm stance from me, it was decided that the city guards will manage the few escaped undead, and we should travel to south cemetery to check things there. If north cemetery was in that state, than south could be in exactly the same situation. But as we travel closer and closer, we encounter no undead at all. Several of my team mates insisted that we should regroup with other kingdom's forces, but Sam agreed with me that we can not allow possibility of thousands of undead, led by necromancers and liches running around during major battle.
I genuinely though that we would come in time to stop the necromancers, but I was not prepared for what awaited us. Mountains, upon mountains of dismembered dead bodies. What alarmed me the most, was a significant part of the limbs didn't have clean cuts. It just looked as if something ripper them apart. I thought that it could be a group of wild animals, or a monster which somehow crawled out of dungeon, but there were no teeth marks.
We decided that we will report the situation to higher ups, and it would be better to regroup with everyone else right now.
But I will not let my guard down. The creatures that did this may still be crawling in the city.
...
We regrouped with the main forces and other from the Blood Brotherhood, though things didn't go as we have planned. The whole team was placed under command of one of the Nobles, a fat and arrogant shit. By his enthusiasm it was apparent for everyone that he is trying to use the situation to elevate his position and earn something.
There were also many sleazy nobles trying to suck up to each member of our team, especially me and Sam. Only Sam's constant chant directed at me to 'calm down', held me back from ripping them apart.
I can see endless sea of demi-humans pouring into the city, but I continue to stand, because the fat and arrogant shit has a 'strategy', which he believed we should not be notified about. His life could be ended with a single spell, a tiny burst and he would disappears, but problems would still be there, even more will appear.
I continue to stand and fume with hatred at everything, the fact that we are standing and waiting for something while people are dying, the fact that we were not notified about the reasons and plans, but mostly at the fact that I can actually do something, but don't.
Sam's voice grows quieter, until suddenly the voice fat shit breaks though the silence, and commands everyone to move in the direction of dungeon plaza. The procession is slow, but we finally reach the plaza and what stands before me is hard to describe.
If there was sea of people pouring into the city, than what stands before me is ocean of body parts, dead bodies and people fighting against each other as they scream in hatred at each other. They are so packed at the plaza, that I can't even see the black marble floor.
Looking at my team I find most of them in horror and shaking, with their eyes glued to the scene.
I do not know what I hate the most right now, the situation, the fat noble, my team mates to which I will have to entrust my life, or me who should have done something. Sam specifically told me about the issue, but I ignored it.
I will not fail. I will not become a loser. I will not miss this chance. I will not become like my father.
After command from the fat shit, we finally act. Sending dozen of powerful spells at the enemy, they crumble as if ants squashed. If I focus my eyes I can see the scorched bodies of the ones who died by my spells, and it takes great effort to not do that, I don't know if this a coping mechanism or some kind of self-preservation instinct.
They are the ones who attacked. They are the bad guys.
Sam sees something in the see of enemies and sends a powerful beam of light from his sword at what looks like feral liches and a single Elder Lich, which are at the foot of dungeon entrance stairs. How did I miss them? What is wrong with me?My eyes search for any more possible liches and they stop on figure of what I believed to be undead for few seconds.
A nearly two meters tall skeletal thin figure, with grayish hair, in a huge rag and with a long sword, stands and stares back at us. There are several crushed liches lying under his feet. I want to send a fireball at the figure, but stop when my eyes met his. He is alive, or at least looks like that, but something is screaming in me that the he is dangerous and that I should kill him, though I don't understand what.
Why do I feel that way?
Then it hit me. I don't feel even a bit of mana coming from him. That can't be. Every living being produces ambient mana, which I should feel. But not from him, it's as if I am staring at a wall, or a doll.
I notice that Natalia is staring at him too, but with a bit different eyes. I really want to ask her what she sees exactly, but don't get the opportunity as the Brotherhood finally reaches us.
Ground starts trembling as I notice hundred meters tall giants coming from behind the enemy army. I read about giants, but seeing them for the first time is a totally different thing. The towering frame awakens some primal instinct. Maybe this is exactly what cockroaches feel when they see humans.
As if agreeing with me both the enemies and our armies start retreating opening a path. Dozen figures in tribal armor walk out of the retreating army, as everyone feels the huge amount of ambient mana they are releasing. With a quick glance between the team we prepare our weapons, and start walking in their direction.
I notice that the skeletal thin figure continues to stand and stare at us with a look that is hard to describe.
We walk to the representative of the Paletia and stop at about fifty meters from each other.
The silence is broken by a guy with short black hair in the middle, who looks like their leader.
"Hello, fellow summoned."
What?
My mind comprehends and understands what the guy said, but somehow I am thinking about any other meaning to the word 'summoned'? They can't mean summoned like us, I looked into it the way to transfer people between world, but most knowledge is either lost or requires shitton of mana.
And if they really are summoned the same as us? What then? Are they enemies or friends?
Suddenly another sharp thought crashes into my head. 'No. They attacked the Empire, they are enemies'.
HUH?
Where did that come from? How did I get to-
A strong headache hits me as I try to maintain calm and breath. I try to return to the thought chain but am hit by another much stronger migraine.
The leader of Paletia summoned opens his mouth and I forget about what I was thinking of as I try to catch every word the person says.
When the leader of Paletia summoned finishes, we all just stand frozen, as if statues.
This was totally not what I expected at all.
Prophecy? Apocalypse? End of world? Team up? More summoned coming soon?
But all the possible talk or alliance instantly crumble when they voiced their only request, or should I say demand, 'subordination'.
No.
Air around both me and Sam changes in unison, stating our unanimous opinion, and the summoned from Paletia smile sadly.
"Then we don't have a choice." the leader says calmly. "We need to be united against what is to come, and small differences are not to be allowed."
No. My whole plan will not break apart. There is too much on the stake. I will not fail.
I send gigantic amount of mana into the mana bridge and the elemental energy fills my body to the limit, as if bottle of soda that was shaken too much. The amount of mana around me makes the enemy flinch and widen their eyes, as I turn into something akin of red bulb.
Vanguard with a huge mace appears before me wanting to take the life of mage first, but he is too late. I pour all of my rage unto him, with a single goals to burn him alive, but sadly some kind of shield saves him as he is thrown hundred of meters away. Out of cloud two new summoned appear, with their weapon coming at me, but I do not hesitate even for a second, starting the cast of wide range spell as Sam appears before me, deflecting their attack easily. Their eyes open in horror as two enormous fireballs descend on them.
I jump around, sometimes sending ranged spells, sometimes appearing in front of them and making concentrated spells explode right in their faces, but that is possible only because of my modified body and coordinated attacks with Sam. We alone hold nearly half of the Paletia summoned, not needing any words for communication at all.
Natalia stays behind us and guides us in the direction of next possible spell or if someone has dangerous mana flow, but that backfires as they start focusing on her. A single, powerful spell connects with her and sends her in the direction of dungeon entrance. The spell should have hit her hard, but she will manage.
We continue to leap around and fight, regrouping and trying to make up to the loss of our sear, until a scream in my head explodes, Natalia's scream. We set a specific spell on everyone in our team, which would be triggered when life-threatening conditions are met or in case someone was in extreme danger.
Sergei abandons his fight and leaps in the direction where his sister flew.
I curse as he left me and Sam open from flank.
"Help him!" screams Sam.
I wanted to argue but when our eyes met, I abandon the idea and follow Sergei.
When we arrive I find the skeletal, gray-haired figure jaws clamped around Natalia's thin neck, moment later Sergei's scythe collides with the figure, sending him flying through several columns as they explode in shower of chunks.
I don't know why, but the moment I saw the figure holding Natalia, a huge fireball already formed over my head, and moment later it was sent after the figure. The spell explodes sending shock-wave through the whole area as the columns not far from us melt down.
I may have overdid it with the spell.
Sergei tenderly holds Natalia as blood is streaming down her neck from open wound. After a scream from me, Sergei breaks from his stupor and we leap back to our team, my eyes already searching for Lisa. I find her in the rear of the team. Running to her Sergei places his sister on ground and screams for Lisa to heal her. But Lisa didn't hear him at all as she already leaped to tending to Natalia. As if calming down a bit he stands up and after looking at his sister one more time turns around with his scythe. He stand together with me as we guard the duo from possible attacks, while Lisa desperately tries to heal Natalia.
After everyone saw the state Natalia was the whole fight broke into stalemate, both us, and the Paletia summoned.
The leader of summoned points his ax at us, specifically at me, and announces loudly.
"Move an inch and we will attack. And if we do the girl won't-"
"Jason! Everyone, please, calm down. It does not have to go this way. We come from the same world, same earth." says the girl with red hair next to him.
"Nola, it is useless they will not listen, they don't understand, they have not seen what is to come. They-"
"Jason!" the redhead screams, quieting down their leader.
The girls turns to us and starts talking, while their leader continues to stare at me as if daring me to move.
"We do not want to fight. We are here to unite everyone. Only together we will survive the coming storm."
"What you mean, is that we should 'unite' under you." I state flatly.
She looks at me sadly.
"You need to see it to understand. And we just do not have much time left."
"You attacked, you are the aggressor, and somehow WE are the ones who need to understand?" I reply back.
Suddenly something in back of my head screams to me to turn left, and I follow shortly. What I find is a figure, which looks almost human, walking down the stairs. It is hard to call it a human, as the figure's whole body is deeply burned, with red flesh exposed to everyone, and many black areas throughout the whole body. The very sight of it is revolting.
I do not understand what the abomination is until I notice what has been screaming danger to me the whole time.
There is no ambient mana around the figure.
It's that gray-haired skeletal guy.
He survived my spell.
The figure continues walking down with his legs dragging behind him, which are barely holding him straight.
A huge demi-human from Paletia army laughs loudly and walks out from the supporting group behind the fellow summoned. He screaming something about Inquisitor, after which he leaps at the figure with inhuman speed. It took him only a moment to appear near the burned figure, with his sword coming down to take the life of person before him. A fraction of a second later his body splits vertically as if cut apart clean. The demi-human half's fly by side of the figure as his innards spray the burned guy, painting him red.
What the hell was that?! It was as if parts of movie was cut out, I did not see the movement of figure at all.
The burned figure slowly turns its neck in our direction, which causes my skin to crawl.
As I am trying to calm down something in me screaming to either destroy the creature in front of me or run, until those thoughts are interrupted by the leader of Blood Brotherhood, who stepped out and announced loudly.
"The cursed heretic. You have finally showed your treacherous soul. By the order of the Emperor, and my power as Inquisitor, you are sentenced to death. We-"
Only to be interrupted by ghastly voice coming from the burned figure.
"Impostors." "Fakes."
Only now I notice that on his chest, under the burned and bubbled flesh, a symbol is visible, a circle and triangle inside of each other, which somehow reminds me of the symbol of Kryptonian in red and blue, the same symbol which is on the armor of Blood Brotherhood, their symbol.
I slowly repeat the words said as if trying to make sure who he is.
Heretic? Impostors? fakes?
The original Inquisitor, leader of Brotherhood coup.
"You will regret it cursed rat!" the new leader scowls and screams in rage as his subordinates jumps at the figure.
The figure, not hindered by the deep burns at all, moves around with tremendous speed, riping apart one person after another, as if they are toys.
Skin crawls on my back at the possibility of the monster coming close to me. I want to help them, stop and destroy the burned creature, but the leader of Paletia summoned eyes are still on me. He is staring at me as if awaiting my movement. I move my foot few centimeters to which he reacts by sending enormous amount of mana into his huge ax, which is still pointed at me. The mana continues to circulate around the ax, ready to be unleashed on the foe, as he stares at me in silence, as if daring to make another move.
Shit.
"Pathetic" comes ghastly voice from the burned figure, while he is standing in the middle of what I can only describe as slaughterhouse.
The figure tries to take several steps in the direction of the last one, the new leader of Brotherhood, only to stop sharply. His legs start visibly trembling as he attempts to make them move.
"Die remnant of past!" screams the leader of brotherhood, getting a critically needed opportunity, which he instantly uses and leaps at the figure, only for a sword to suddenly appear above him. That sword cleaves his shoulder and carries him into the ground, crashing and sending cracks around.
A second later Sergei appears in front of figure swinging down his scythe, only for the figure to somehow 'feel' the attack and bend unimaginably. A sword appears our of nowhere, and redirect the fatal hit into ground. The burned figure, not waiting even a second, sends his sword at Sergei's neck, as air leaves my lungs. Only for defensive enchantments to flare up and explode the very last moment, sending the burned figure several dozen meters away. The figure tumbles several times and using his sword reorients himself, ending somehow on his knee.
Shit! Shit! Shit! What the fuck was that?!
The burned figure tries to stand up several times but fails again and again. Blood start seeping down his eyes, ears and mouth. Taking several long breaths he turns in our direction and looks at us as ghastly voice reaches as.
"V-a-i l-a-y"
"V-e-i l-a-i"
What?
I not know why but I repeat the words in my mind until it finally hits me.
'They lie'.
What. How? How does he even know English?!
What the fuck!?
The headache returns as I swat it away again and again, focusing on the thoughts. There is something very wrong here. I need answers. And the figure may provide at least some of them. As I am about to leap in his direction I notice very sharp change in ambient mana. I look around trying to identify the culprit, thinking that it was the leader of Paletia summoned, but he, and all of his comrades are staring at the burned figure in shock.
My eyes capture slight movement of blood on the marble floor.
Huh?
All the blood starts flowing faster and faster in one direction, the body of the dead leader of Blood Brotherhood. His body slowly melted and reformed into what I can only describe as small blood slime.
Ambient mana around the slime increases sharply as huge face appears out of it as if wordlessly screaming and trying to escape it. The next instant face disappears and all red goo gathers into a small bundle, out of which feature of humanoid looking limbs break out. The tiny, humanoid looking creature rises to height of about half a meter and scans the area with its eyes, until they stop in the direction of burned figure. The blood creature screams with inhuman screech and within a second it grows into four meters tall sleek being with razor sharp claws and fangs. It leaps at the burned figure and with a slash sends it flying across the plaza in the direction of city.
A moment later the creature turns in our direction and looks at us. A wide smile breaks upon it's face as if it found it's prey. Skin starts crawling on my back once again the moment it takes a step closer, only for it to sharply stop. The creature looks in the direction where it sent the burned figure and sniffs the air few times. Few seconds later an enraged expression appears on it's face as it screams again, but this time in frustration and hatred. Blood wings grow our of it's back as it leaps up and flies away, ignoring all of us.
My heart continues to beat loudly as I follow the trail the creature flew until, it fully disappeared inside of the city. The long silence followed as I try to calm down and analyze the situation.
"What the fuck was that?!" says one of my team in pure horror.
"An avatar." I reply quietly.
"What the fuck?! That was an avatar?! Shouldn't avatar be a person?! Not that T1000 bullshit!"
I also thought so, but the books lied. Only one thing could have such control over a specific element and be born out of it. I turn my head in the direction of Paletia heroes. They also look shaken at the experience, but somehow the expression on face of the leader and girl near him is different.
"They said we had time!" screams a guy behind the girl at her. "They-"
"Stop!" the leader cut sharply.
The leader looked me and Sam in the eyes for few long seconds.
"That, thing. It is just the begging. More will come. And we don't have time."
As the leader is about to continue I feel mana around flaring to extreme, as if I am submerged into boiling mana. I notice that few of my team mates felt something, but it will be already too late when they really understand it. I scream at my team mates to abandon everything and run. Sam looks at me in confusion, but when our eyes meet, he wordlessly understands that something is wrong.
Sam gives command to retreat, but I am already moving. I notice that a single person is still immobilized. They will be to slow to act. Leaping to Natalia I pick her up and throw her over my shoulder and start running. My team follows me reluctantly in confusion.
I don't even look back to check the Paletia summoned, as I continue to run through mountains upon mountains of dead. I try to keep my eyes straight and breath steady not only because I need to focus on where where I am running, but also because I do not want to look at the dead bodies which I pass and jump over.
Some of them may have been killed by me.
The moment we step outside of plaza, a huge explosion resounds around which is shortly followed by tremor that shakes the ground making us all stumble down. The whole thing strongly reminded me of earthquake, but the sound of titanic plate crashing into each other are usually short. But the sound of something gigantic shattering lasts for at least dozen seconds. The whole place is suddenly submerged into shadows, and turning my head back I see an enormous burning creature breaking through the volcano, sending molten rock flying around.
My heart stops as I scream at my team to stand and run.
We continue to desperately run as rock start falling on the city, destroying it as if sand castle.
I feel another shift in mana and series of powerful lightnings cross the sky, then they suddenly stop. The next few long seconds of silence are interrupted by explosion of at least thousands of lightning which merge into enormous elemental bird.
NO!!!NO!!!NO!!!NO!!!
After few seconds of gazing at each other, the monsters pounce as if mortal enemies, sending fragments of city into air. I regret looking back, as the very moment I look, the creatures roar, and the sound blast hits me straight in the face, ripping my eardrums. I scream in pain, as blood trickles down my ears, but my voice does not reach me. I continue to scream helplessly trying to make the pain stop, until I hear something. A soft male voice laughing, which reaches me out of nowhere, but concentrating on it the tone of voice changes from soft to deep and sinister. I don't have time to question how exactly I can hear it, or where it is coming from, as I am on my knees paralyzed in pure terror. The monsters stop and both turn in the same direction, in what looks like fear. They start casting spells, which I could only describe as apocalyptical.
As they are about to erase the whole city from the face of earth, every single speck of mana in the city disappears.
Together with mana the voice disappeared and the gigantic monsters start falling apart, as if made our of sand.
I try to breath, and understand what is happening, but the only thing I feel is as my chest is moving back and forth, until it finally hits me.
We are alive.
What? How?
..........
Person to the right and left scream in desperation, trying to get out of the freezing water, but they fail again and again as the ice layer simply breaks under their weight. Many start begging for help, but it is futile.
No one will come.
Frozen dead bodies of many are already floating around, notifying everyone about their future fate.
No.
No.
Not like this.
Sending all the mana I have into my limbs I leap out of freezing water, again and again, trying to get on the ice, but it simply breaks under me.
I do not know how many attempts it took but I finally succeed, and stand on my knees on the ice floor of lake, as freezing water streams down my clothes. I try to breath, but the air is so cold that each breath is robing me of the last bits of heat left in me.
"Pathetic."
"He will die."
"Doesn't matter, more than enough are left."
"No..... Only he crawled out after falling into the water. He survived."
"Are you going to nurse all recruits, Captain? These shits are not even brothers yet."
"No. They are not. But he survived, and that is important. Give him a spare coat."
Something warm is thrown over me, protecting from the freezing cold wind.
"Now it is up to you to survive."
"Okay maggots! The rest is over! Pickup your shit and follow us! We have a five hour long walk to the top of mountain and oh boy the storm is starting."
Will I survive?
No.
No.
I will.
I will survive. There is nothing else left for me in this world.
Survive.
I send mana into my nearly frozen legs to move, and slowly they obey, moving one after another. I command the mana to warm me up, any way possible, eat flesh, consume my essence but allow me to continue walking. I follow the stream of black figures through the storm as one by one they either disappear or fall down. Looking up at the dark sky I see endless sea of pitch black clouds swimming with absolutely no care in the world.
I will survive.
...
The pitch black clouds in the sky continue to move until my mind clears enough to understand that that was just a memory. A memory of long past.
My eyes slowly move, scanning around, trying to understand where I am.
What I find is an enormous altar with two sets of columns around, bigger ones much furtherer, and smaller ones, a bit closer, all covered in thick snow, forming some kind of circular formation, with me in the center of it all.
Looking down I find my body shredded with javelins as they pin me to the white frozen ground.
Javelins?
Oh. Yeah.
I died.
What? No. This is not...
I was in the white space.
Why am I here?
Am I....
Why am I alive?