Time seemed to pass in a dizzying blur for Elonia, Brittany squeezing her hand so tightly as they were hustled down multiple glossy futuristic-looking corridors of chrome and glass and glittering topaz alloy that Blue Corp had invested so much of itself into making such extensive use of, the corridors saved from too stark a look by the occasional lushly plotted plant, all of them bearing perfectly ripened fruit that her friend couldn’t help but pluck from one bush or tree or another, swearing they were far sweeter than anything she could get in Massachusetts right now with the war on, everyone living on wheat and wild game and grateful just to fill their bellies.
Elonia could barely find it in her to smile at her friend’s antics, knowing she was doing it just to lighten the very serious mood. Never mind the increasing sense of tension twisting her gut, and the very physical tingle in the back of her neck, letting her know that she was just a whisper away from throwing up or passing out and she knew damn well that was from the absolutely massive boost to all her physical stats, almost doubling them. All of them.
Now she was in desperate need of a good night’s rest so it could all go into effect without it tearing her apart.
“Loni? You okay, babe?”
Elonia forced a smile. “Yes, it’s just…” She swallowed. “I got hit with a stat boon so large that I think I’m about to puke. But there’s no time for me to actually retire to Eric’s suite and sleep it off, because we have to go go go! And there’s a kingdom on the line and assholes who probably want me dead and after that godawful meeting, I feel like I’m going to fly to pieces. But there’s no time for rest or anything but pushing forward all the time without stopping ever.”
Brittany flashed Elonia a bleak smile. “Now you know how I feel more than half the time. But don’t worry. You’ll get through this. Best of all, you now get to have a fuckin’ awesome happy ending, and I can’t tell you how grateful I am that you’re letting me tag along!”
“Well duh, of course I am! You and Caliban both. Fellow Sovereigns who just happen to be my closest friends and allies in these uncertain times. Now come on! Elevator’s just—”
Her words were cut off by a solemn head shake from the obvious female among Caliban’s elite sentinels.
“Forgive me, Your Graces, but we’ll be taking the stairs.”
Elonia blinked, then winced. “Ah. Of course you’re right. By all means, lead on.”
“At once, Your Grace.”
ES – Ernest! THANK YOU! THANK YOU! THANK YOU! I LOVE YOU SO MUCH! You don’t even know ;) - Caliban’s arranging things so we head there via secret escape routes like a spai movie! Oh! Did you know that Stony, the thick-headed ogre Contender, isn’t so thick-headed after all? Guess who set you up in the desert? Yup! That’s right. And the goblin seers supposed to keep ‘eyes’ on you for the sake of what’s now a totally corrupt counsel of humanoids that hate us were just using their arts as a mirror to make sure a SERIOUS monster could lock onto you and send his progeny through. Fucking psychopaths. Then Stony tried to use the very asshole that was supposed to kill you as proof that transcendent attacks were in play, all so he could get his cronies to slaughter us by the Bronze bucketful… even though it was HIS pawn that showed off those higher order arts before the feed cut off! - Then he basically spits in our faces when we call his bullshit! After first trying to get us executed for calling him on his bullshit without proof! Then, when proof manifested so gloriously, he just sneered and said that of course this is how it is, and a big ‘fuck you’ to anyone who thinks that fair play is actually a thing.
ES - Lol. I can’t tell you how GOOD it felt to see Caliban coldly throttling and disarming Stony when he tried to kill my girlfriend. Now the fucking bastard’s oathbound to keep his trap shut and not try to push for more Bronze psychopaths coming in to invade our world. And he also knows he’s up shit creak if ‘daddy dearest’ ever comes calling for his missing scion, that scary Silver-tier monster now knowing Stony’s responsible for the FUBAR, so hopefully that’s the end of bullshit with him, since he’s going straight to New York with all his cronies, no doubt to dream up some new way to fuck us all over. But who knows how many other humanoid factions we only think are stupid that will reveal themselves to be hidden masters of intrigue, espionage, explosives, or just throwing out wads of cash so that death is always just two steps away? So we are heading to New Arcadia... (Thank you so much!!!) with elite Blue Corp Bronze-tier armed escorts! Yay!
ER – That’s awesome to hear, better half! I’m glad Caliban’s got your back and I REALLY want to have a LONG talk with Stony. He and I have SO MUCH to discuss! :D :D. I’ll have to ask Caliban if this means I can go hunting for fresh game RIGHT NOW! Without waiting another two weeks. But I’ll put that off for another day. What matters right now is you. I’ll be swinging by there in just a few minutes! Hmm… maybe it’s time for your brother to show his shy, scholarly face to the world. Just in time to walk side-by-side with you into your new kingdom?!? Wow! And he’ll even have his own Elite merc corp escort that will hopefully compliment yours beautifully!
ES – Lol sounds good! I’m pinging Caliban…
ES – He said it’s a great plan! Eric and Rising Sun should meet us by the western gate! He’s messaging you, I guess? Thanks again, HERO :) (And almost better half. - Ha ha!)
Elonia immediately felt better after messaging her brother and letting him know both how grateful she was and where she was going, just in case. She swallowed a lump in her throat at the thought of her brother’s smiling countenance. Once such a goofball she adored but who could never quite get his act together… and now, somehow, he was a genuine hero who had saved her life, saved a city… and had just given her the most impossibly magnificent gift imaginable.
“I love you bro, and I’m so incredibly proud of you,” she whispered with a soft sob only Brittany could hear as their guardian detail soon had them flying down multiple sets of stairs, no one saying anything but Elonia feeling the sudden sense of urgency as they entered a darkened stairwell so different from the ones with translucentu Alutopaz windows where one can see the entire glittering city below. Of course, that equally meant that anyone with foul intentions could spot her as well, so perhaps this was for the best, she consoled herself, promising herself that her breath wasn’t tightening and she wasn’t at all claustrophobic in these tight, cramped, smelly underground passages that she was assured led to a secret garage that would allow them to vacate without anyone the wiser.
“Feels like we’re in a spy movie!” Brittany said with the cheerful exuberance of someone who had never developed an unreasonable fear of drainage tunnels and similar underground passageways after nearly getting eaten alive by rats in a life that might or might not have ever happened.
But still, her friend was trying to cheer her up, and Elonia suddenly realized that it was as much for Brittany’s own benefit as Elonia’s.
Elonia gave an agreeable nod, trying to do her part, and put a positive spin on it. “I think you’re right. Exciting, isn’t it?”
This earned a relieved laugh, Brittany immediately reframing her thoughts with the far more cheerful descriptor.
“Oh yes. It really is thrilling and ooh… look how Caliban’s badass bodyguards just smashed open the door and there’s nothing at all except for... fuck, that’s incredible! Look at that AFV!”
Elonia blinked, rendered speechless by what looked like a genuine tank of an armored vehicle, save for a far shorter and more mobile plasma gun that was nothing like a tank cannon, but just from the crackling hum of electromana in the air, she was pretty sure it could fry any stubborn Bronze bandit to electrocharred briskets and superheated ash in less than a second, and she suddenly felt much, much better about things.
All the more so when the female sentinel who seemed to have been assigned to her and Brittany stepped forward to bang on the top hatch that immediately popped open.
She flashed Elonia a reassuring smile. “Come, this way, Your Graces. Have you ever ridden one of these babies before? It’s a real treat, let me tell you!”
Breathless with what now really was genuine excitement, Elonia eagerly clambered on board, surprised by how easy and effortless it was to climb inside.
The seating was a bit cramped, but not too bad, she decided, even with four sentinels joining them inside, along with Brittany who was giving Elonia such a look.
“How did you do that so gracefully? Gymnast on the side, now? Ooh… and the interior is so cool and futuristic! Padded leather seats and high tech buttons… sorry, I won’t touch anything, I swear, mam!”
Elonia snorted. “That’s just a personal light, Brittany. They’re not going have too much that we can muck up, stuck in the grunt compartment of an AFV. But yes, it is bloody cool. Now how did I do what?”
Brittany blinked, then smirked. “Clamber up so fast!”
Elonia inhaled before furrowing her brow, realizing that was a damned good question and that she should probably check her character sheet. But just an abbreviated one, since she got the feeling she’d be giving their exit her full attention in about five seconds.
_______________________________________________________
Elonia Silver Level 30 Elemental Adept
Level 2 Destined Ruler (You now enjoy major bonuses to all elements of negotiation, statecraft, war, and trade! You additionally receive a 50% boon to all your class level-up points (minimum of 18!)
Physical Characteristics
Strength – 13 (23) (25.3)
Vitality – 14 (24) (26.4)
Finesse – 13 (23) (25.3)
Quickness – 12 (22) (24.2)
Appearance – 20 (30) (33)
Mental Characteristics
Scholarship – 16 (26) (28.6)
Perception – 17 (27) (29.7)
Willpower – 13 (23) (25.3)
Charisma – 18 (28) (30.8)
Potency Pools
Arcane Potential – 540 (550) (605)
(Mana Pool = 6480) (6600) (7260)
Spiritual Energy – 10 (20) (22)
(Qi Pool = locked)
Soul Reserves – 15 (25) (27.5)
Stamina – 140 (240) Points
Health – 453 (563) Points
Bronze Title – Destined Ruler +10% to all baseline attributes!
It is now your manifest destiny to rule a kingdom where the sun never sets. Your people enjoy a permanent +50% (+100%) Bonus to morale and a permanent +25% (+50%) bonus to productivity!
Your citizens will defend your territory with Fate’s luck guiding their blows.
(10% Bonus to all additional attribute points placed in any stat!)
Bonus Title – Extreme Mastery – You have (by means currently unknown!) Unlocked the Hidden Extreme Mastery title! You have invested every last level-up point into a specific attribute (Arcane Potential.) Your total points have been doubled! Additional points placed in Arcane Potential will continue to count for double, so long as ALL of your attribute points are placed into this singular stat! - Should you ever deviate from this allocation, you will lose this doubling bonus for all future levels. (you will still keep the points already invested and doubled and all other attribute bonuses and modifiers.)
Ensure your favorite authors get the support they deserve. Read this novel on the original website.
- Note. Attribute boosts from training, titles, or skill mastery do not count against this Specialization.
- Note. Level-up points put into spell or skill masteries or other personal enhancements that do NOT involve attributes will NOT cancel this boon.
NOTE! Your Arcane Potential exceeds 500! You have earned the top spot in the Northeast Sector Leader Boards! You now earn an ADDITIONAL 40% (50%) Bonus to all additional attribute points placed in Arcane Potential!
________________________________
“Oh my god,” Elonia whispered.
“What??”
“My physical stats.”
“What about them?”
Elonia gave her friend a long hard look. “Promise me you won’t get mad or overly excited?”
Brittany sighed. “Elonia, just tell me! You were mentioning something about a title? And I know you’re um… a little bit fragile, because you’re really highly specialized, so I always try to be very gentle whenever we…” Her cheeks flushed.
Elonia couldn’t help but grin, no matter the four sentinels who were Bronze and were no doubt centuries old and incredibly experienced with all things in life and probably thought they were just a couple of silly girls who barely knew how the world worked and Elonia didn’t let it phase her a bit.
“Let’s just say I’m not quite as weak as I was, ten minutes ago. Even if it will take awhile for it to all digest.”
Her friend blinked. “Did it shoot your Strength all the way to Seventeen? OR your Vitality?” Brittany flashed a wicked smile. “The things we could do if you were just a little bit more—”
“Twenty four.”
“I’m sorry?”
Elonia couldn’t help but grin. “All my physical stats are twenty four or better.”
Brittany blinked. “Wait, all of them?”
Elonia nodded. “Yup.”
“But that’s like… over forty points, right there, with one title!?”
Elonia nodded, deciding right then and there to say no more about just how powerful was the boon she had been granted, her heightened Perception catching the tiniest whiff of jealousy mixed with the desire and adoration her friend normally radiated whenever they managed to get together, difficult as that now so often was.
But now they had the perfect excuse to spend lots of quality time together. Savoring it as only best friends could. And if Elonia was about to unlock something truly grand and wondrous… she could do it with a far lighter heart, not having to worry about her dearest friend getting slaughtered by orc cannoneers or gnoll ambushers before she even got back to Massachusetts. And who knew? Maybe if New Arcadia was as wondrous and grand as her excited system interface seemed to imply… maybe her Brittany would no longer feel compelled to leave at all. She could send for her family and just enjoy life, safe and happy, free of all shame, by Elonia’s side.
She couldn’t help but chuckle at her friend’s exasperated look, squeezing her hand without caring a fig if anyone saw who didn’t understand. Couldn’t understand. After what felt like months or years of constant pressure and anxiety and dreadful tension, they could finally let all those awful cares melt away, and experience something wondrous and grand. Together.
Savoring, even if only for a little while, the happy ending she had always dreamed of.
“Alright, you girls have your straps on? Good. Time for us to get this show on the road!” Their obvious caretaker gave them both a reassuring smile. “And don’t worry. This garage opens up just a few blocks from Freetown’s perimeter. We’ll be on the high road and making excellent time with a clear view all around us before you know it. And I have to tell you… I absolutely cannot wait to see this magical elven kingdom!” The Bronze-tier sentinel unashamedly gushed, taking off her helmet as if to put them both at ease, her pinned up straw-gold hair revealing her pretty upswept ears, and Elonia suddenly felt self-conscious, reminded of her one eccentricity that never used to bother her, pre-ascension.
Her ears were as round as any human’s. She was, in fact, half human. And she had just accepted the title and class befitting a Sylvan Queen?
Her cheeks flushed. She could only hope she wouldn’t fuck it all—
“We are under attack!”
The words washed over her, tinny and distant as her head smacked against the padded back-rest so violently that she momentarily grayed out, sensing the world spinning and flipping over until there was a second grinding jolt and then a final jerk and the sounds of crumbling mortar, screams, and blaster fire coming over the speakers.
“We are under attack!” The voice roared once more as red flashing lights blared through the chamber and the four sentinels who were supposed to be guarding her and Brittany and where the hell was Brittany?!? - they were moving so fast, speaking some hyper dialect she couldn’t hope to understand at the best of times, let alone now, fading in and out of consciousness, realizing that she recognized that voice even as half a dozen monitors flickered to life in what she thought was the grunt portion of the AFV but was actually the farthest thing as the sweet woman who had acted as a den mother just seconds ago immediately switched to hardened veteran mode, bending down over a crumpled form, and Elonia could finally make out some of the words.
“Regen-7! Now, Tom. NOW!!!”
Elonia’s eyes widened, finally understanding who the crumpled up body must belong to, so sweet and lithe with the gentlest laugh that filled her with fire so unlike the mad crushes she had once had on boys every week, and she would have never thought herself the type to fall for a girl, but here they were, about to escape to a magical fairytale kingdom, only that was looking pretty fucking unlikely with a metal piece of tungsten shrapnel sticking out of Brittany, who was gazing at Elonia with this dazed look of confusion as the Bronze-tier sentinel tore free a pale white patch and slapped it on both sides of her lover’s neck that had been spurting so much blood.
The den-mother sentinel’s vibro blade, so much more convenient to use in an enclosed space than a 48 inch long force sword, Elonia had no doubt, tore through the air in a headache-inducing flash of speed that cut off both pieces of tungsten shrapnel so as to be skin-smooth but no one was pulling the metal bar out of a suffocating Brittany’s throat and Elonia didn’t understand WHY! Even when she saw her guardian protector forcing a tube down her now thrashing friend’s nostril while another guard chanted something that seemed to freeze Brittany and she didn’t understand why her lover who she lied to herself and pretended she loved only as a friend, save when they were both happy and tipsy and laughing in a private little bubble of safety and warmth and privacy and now she was thrashing, and she was about to die, and why was Caliban the one roaring orders through the AFV but of course that was easy. Of course he was in charge. No doubt he had huge buff bonuses he could give all the troops under his command, but that didn’t explain why the most cool-headed and handsomest man she knew, and she’d happily share her bed with him and Brittany both and quit hiding her fucking feelings and why was she such a coward with her heart... if only he wasn’t married and Brittany wasn’t… (don’t say it! She’s NOT dead, she’ll be fine!) - why did he sound so PANICKED!?
And then her dazed eyes took a look at what the holo-images were showing circling their AFV… as the sinking feeling in the pit of her stomach became a horrid spike of anxiety so awful she wanted to cry. To scream! She couldn’t even sob. Her breath dying off as if a panicked little mouse had been surrounded by wolves.
Only these weren’t wolves.
They were a full DOZEN power-armored assholes that her interface now pinged as Red Scorpions, that had just become an official faction with ties to the Orc Alliance and the Ogre Moot and they had just declared war on Blue Corp and Freetown… no. Not just war. All out Vendetta. These power-armored psychopaths were fully intending on all-out extermination as the interface suddenly flared with scores of additional reds!
At least a hundred cold-eyed men and women. And even if these auxiliary troops were wearing the patchwork armor of White-tier mercenaries and soldiers, each and every one of them had a Tech 1 Blaster rifle.
According to her interface, some were even tech II. Weapons supposedly outlawed on any newly ascending world. Weapons that were supposedly more than capable of tearing through even low level enchanted enchanted plate armor like machine guns through tissue paper, yet here they were by the score.
Even worse, every last one of the dozen or so power armored assholes was sporting a Tech III miniguns that could have torn right through a pre-apocalypse Abrams tank.
It was a miracle that those treaty-breaking cut-throat psychopaths hadn’t already cut right through the poor, flipped over AFV that was all that stood between Elonia and an extremely gruesome death that her countless enemies were so damned eager to inflict upon her for the simple crime of existing. And actually becoming a queen in the grandest sense of the word, of course.
“Code One emergency! All available personnel are to defend Sapphire One! Coordinates are—”
The words were cut off with a chalkboard-grating screech of sound that caused Elonia to shudder with a spike of pain beyond agony and sure, the Bronze tier mercs might be utterly unaffected, save for glares and lips that moved in hyper-time that Elonia could now almost understand… screamer grenade? That’s what this was? Fragging all communication. Even System messages! But how? That made no sense! The system was immune to the silly games of its pawns, right?
Then her eyes shifted to the ruins of the vehicle, realizing only then that she was wedged into a corner of the overturned AFV, and...
OH god, Brittany was spasming! That awful sound was causing the rod in her neck to do something… vibrating like a tuning fork... fresh blood spurting from the regen-patch as her girlfriend’s eyes rolled up and she began frothing at the mouth and why!? How!? Why was this happening!?
That was when the entire vehicle rattled with fresh shockwaves.
The armored sentinels exchanged troubled looks.
Elonia wanted to ask what had happened as she struggled to reach Brittany before a calm shake of the head of the one sentinel to humanize herself to her froze Elonia where she sat. Because really, what could she do? And all it took were the flashing lights in her interface map to give her the horrifying picture of what had actually just happened.
Half a dozen key defensive sights here in Freetown had just been obliterated.
She didn’t know if that meant that the force field generators or barracks or everything was down… if people were injured, delayed, or a thousand splattered corpses, but somehow Elonia was dead certain that no help was coming anytime soon.
And things were about to get a hell of a lot worse.
Worse even than a dozen power armored brutes spraying the AFV with mini-guns that for some reason didn’t kill themselves with ricochets. And the hundred or so irregulars, a couple who did manage to hit themselves with rebound fire, but the hailstorm of plasma fire made it clear that there was absolutely no escape at all from the trap now closing in.
Yet behind the dozen power armored MONSTERS roaring and shouting words she could no longer understand was a coldly marching sentinel in polycarbonate hypersteel now marching forward with a crystalline sphere in his hands that was wildly surging with arcane energy that scalded Elonia’s senses even from here. Even from inside the AFV that was still somehow resisting the plasma fire that had finally died off when the dozen power armored assholes had stepped back, shouting in a dialect she couldn’t understand as the irregulars suddenly fled back all they were worth.
Yet this didn’t put her it ease.
It terrified her. Making it all too clear the nature of the device her sworn foe now held, a dozen mini guns locked on the vehicles hatch making it clear what would happen if any sentinel dared to stick out their necks, forcefield or no.
“Oh no, oh no, they’re going blow us up! We’re trapped here like fucking sardines in a can!” Elonia was dismayed by her own blubbering words, but panic had made a frightened girl of her, and all she could do was choke back panicked sobs.
And that was when she saw him.
The coolly smiling figure right behind the slowly approaching deliverer of explosive death… dressed in a well-tailored jacket, pants, and boots, all of which radiated magics powerful enough for to start blurring out the monitors. All the monitors. Yet somehow, his cold, too handsome smile, glossy black hair blowing in unseen winds, and those dead green eyes were still captured perfectly by the monitors. Pinning a terrified Elonia in place with eyes that seemed to see right through the screen.
Eyes that looked RIGHT AT HER!
PINNING HER where she sat, hunched over and trembling, and Elonia knew she should scream and cry out warning, but she was frozen and who was this man who raised a rose, of all things and winked at her, totally unaffected by the panic and the blaster fire and her protectors screaming about emergency protocols and all the while the power armored bastard with the giant BOMB in his hands was getting so close to the hatch and she choked back a sob realizing how utterly fucked they were because she RECOGNIZED that face, that mocking face that looked so goddamned similar to the young scion that had done everything he could to kill her brother, just minutes ago.
FUCK! This was payback?
Goddamn it. Of course it was.
Elonia wanted to scream with terror and fury and despair as she gazed into the sad eyes of the still hyper-fast speaking guardian who had tried so hard to save Brittany. Because what choice had her brother had, but to strike that homicidal fucker dead, after he had tried so hard to ambush and kill Eric? And that monster’s psychopathic father was now doing everything he could to assure that they all paid the most horrific of prices, using yet another overpowered relative, and countless powerful mercenaries, to finish what his first son had started. And now they were all going to—
Elonia blinked in surprise, gazing dumbstruck through the monitor revealing the power armored monster that had come so close to their downed AFV with a deadly crystal bomb in his hand… and all the bloodthirsty footsoldiers and pawns and almost a dozen more power armored assholes that might have backed away but were still holding position to snipe anyone trying to escape or perform a rescue in the seconds before a shaped charge could stun them or kill them or rupture the seal but that wasn’t going to happen because the man had stopped, dead still.
OR perhaps she should say that the power suit had ground to a halt.
The headless, bombless power suit.
Just frozen in place, spurting blood like a fountain. And how odd it was to see just a flicker of the horror she felt clawing her throats and guts out from the inside reflected on the faces of at least a few of the White-tier raiders as they desperately broke away from their cohorts.
It was long, perilous seconds before the decapitated power armor slowly crashed to the ground.
And as Elonia knew too well, a fuck ton could happen in those two seconds.
Death could happen.
A miracle could happen.
The saturnine featured ‘young master’ who looked so like his brother? Cousin? Gazing her way with rose in hand and an all-too knowing smile while radiating the power of a Half-Step Silver monster WHO SHOULD NOT EVEN BE HERE! could just… disappear before her eyes.
“Elonia! Are you alright? Focus on me, kid, okay? We’re going to get you out of here, I promise!”
But Elonia could pay her protector’s words no mind. Her eyes were helplessly glued on the closest monitor, desperately trying to focus on the staticky screen, somehow knowing that within that static was a miracle of high stakes combat unlike anything she could conceive of at her paltry 24.2 Quickness.
But somehow, she knew. Knew as assuredly as she was alive for yet one more precious second, that a battle for desperate stakes was occurring at unbelievable speeds. And should things not go the way she desperately hoped they would, then they were all doomed, and nothing she could say or do would change that fact.