Chapter 21
Sorene watched city officials frantically cleaning up bodily ash from the area in front of their stall as they made their way out, back towards their farm. Without Kalex, she was afraid they wouldn’t be able to use their new cart but was pleasantly surprised as her mother had no problems getting it moving. “Axiom.” Sorene said softly. Everyone in the Realm of Seeds knew what an Axiom was, and with the start of the Days of Many, the entire population knew that one had recently been born.
From everything she knew, other than those present at the birth, nobody saw the Axiom. She didn’t know why, but everything she had read about them never stated their later exploits. She scrunched her eyebrows together in thought. “How can Kalex be the Axiom? The Days of Many just started a few days ago but he seemed just a little younger than me. It explains how he was able to do everything he had done though. Wait. Does that mean I was personally taught by the Axiom? Oof-da, that’s a lot to take in.”
Arla turned to her daughter with a concerned look. “What are you muttering about over there? If it’s about Kalex, we can talk about it when we get home. We need to see what’s going on with that bag he gave us as well.” Sorene nodded her head absentmindedly and reached for the bag that was slung around her shoulder. “He told me to try to find out how it was made, and since we have a little time before we get back, I can start now.”
Arla said something but Sorene didn’t hear it. Her entire focus squarely on Kalex’s bag. Looking into the energy the bag had inside, she noticed something that reminded her of a tag. It looked completely out of place and guided her focus directly towards it. Touching the tag of energy immediately unraveled it, causing the seemingly infinite space inside of the bag to be shown to her. Three things happened in an instant. She was able to peer into the space and see what it held. As she sat wide-eyed as everything from the exchange was in the bag, a small envelope tumbled out and landed at her side. While separating her focus from the bag to the envelope, an intangible pane of glass filled her vision.
Name: Leather Envelope of Thanks
Rank: Axiom
Durability: N/A
(Storage Vessel) A simple envelope widely used as a vessel for storing currency. The Leather Envelope of Thanks has been altered by an artificer whose talent transcends Enternia, and has thus gained durability that cannot be overcome by any being on Enternia.
Contents: 400 Gold Coins
Artificer: Kalex Wounder
Owner: Sorene Mix, Arla Mix
Tears ran down Sorene’s face in shock and surprise as she read the odd window and looked up to her mother. “Ma?” Sorene said shakily.
"Yes, hun?” Arla again turned to behold her daughter. “Sorene! What’s wrong? Talk to me!” Arla stopped the cart as Sorene’s sobs slowly died down. Stepping into the storage area of the cart where Sorene had been sitting, Arla grabbed her face to look into her eyes. Before Arla could again ask what was wrong, Sorene’s tears stopped and her gaze turned distant.
Name: Arla Mix
Race: Human (Enternia)
Rank: Silver
Maturity: 14/200
Path: Affable Agronomist (Adept)
Vitality: 520/520
Myst: 2097/2100
Strength: 20
Wisdom: 30
Agility: 11
Charisma: 18
Luck: 7
“Rank Silver?” Sorene studdered out as she read her mother’s rank. She put it together in an instant. Kalex had given her this ability and gratefulness filled her entire being. She held out the envelope to Arla with a smile. “Here Ma, open this.” Arla took the envelope with no small amount of trepidation and opened the flap. A moment later Arla went through the same emotions Sorene had, and also ended in a smile. “I knew he was a good kid.”
—
Kalex looked back at the unconscious Elder in surprise. He hadn’t thought that what he had done was enough to warrant fainting. He turned to face the Potentate once again and immediately felt the pressure in the room shift. “HOW DARE YOU PRESENT YOURSELF IN SUCH A…” Kalex held up his pointer finger at the Potentate to silence him and looked down at the floor in front of him. “THE DISRESPECT! I WILL HAVE YOU THROWN…” Kalex looked up and into Zilg’s eyes. “QUIET!” And the leader of the Realm was silenced.
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Kalex had heard Lex speak to him and he wanted to focus on what it was saying. Mentally he asked Lex to start over. “The gift you gave to Ms. Mix and her daughter has been opened, Mr. Wounder. I have given them access to our system as you requested.” Kalex smiled and thanked Lex mentally while his gaze went to a red-faced man who looked ready to explode. Kalex tapped his boot on the floor to dislodge some dirt from the bottom as he spoke.
“Sorry, something more important came up that needed my attention, you can speak now.” With his words, the Potentate was able to speak again, but instead, he decided to attack. Zilg held his hands out and slowly brought his palms together. Kalex instantly knew why this was the leader of a Realm, the strength and ability to invest myst into every word and every action was impressive considering the abilities of the other elites he’d come across.
Bones and joints creaked as Kalex’s shoulders were pushed closer together by the force Zilg was exerting, but he was relaxed and was allowing it to happen. After a few loud cracks and pops, Kalex let out a content sigh and brushed off the energy that had been surrounding him. Zilg’s astonishment made Kalex’s lips slightly curl. “No. This is impossible! I am the Potentate! I lead the Realm with my strength alone! I am the one who was blessed by the Lumen!” Zilg visibly calmed himself.
“You may have increased the Realm’s level of power, but I cannot have such a wildcard in its midst.” The Potentate calmed himself further but seemed to be preparing something. Kalex didn’t feel anything with the Potentate’s energy that he couldn’t handle, so he took the moment to pull up Zilg’s full status.
Name: Zilg Quinbaker
Race: Human (Enternia)
Rank: Sage
Maturity: 964/1000 (Lumen Seeded)
Path: Nimble Culling (Master)
Vitality: 21,000/21,000
Myst: 7,870,000/8,000,000
Strength: 280 (Lumen’s Blessing)
Wisdom: 426 (Lumen’s Blessing)
Agility: 368 (Lumen’s Blessing)
Charisma: 72 (Lumen’s Blessing)
Luck: 399 (Lumen’s Blessing)
Before Kalex could ask about the weird additions to the status, Lex chimed in. “It appears that the Potentate has been given advantages by the Lumen. There is a faint trace of an energy signature similar to the Lumen you fought. With the knowledge I have of this world and the vast possibilities that it entails, I have a hypothesis. The Lumen are seen as this world’s higher power. A large portion of the population actively worships them and provides them with energy-dense materials as offerings at their temples. The largest of these temples is also located in this Realm’s seat of power. Everblade City, the place where the Potentate takes residence. It can be assumed that in order to receive continued support through resources from the populace, the leader of the Realm is granted power to stay in control. I have viewed and mapped all of the Realms and their capital cities and confirmed that the same phenomena are present in all of them. Out of the four Realms, the Realm of Seeds’ capital shows the strongest myst signature and thus, is the most difficult to overcome. Stay vigilant, Zilg is attacking.”
Time stopped as the space around Kalex was locked. One moment, the mansion was a sturdy and expertly warded building, and the next it had vaporized, broken down to its base components and shot outward by the power of the Potentate. There were only four people in the building, and as it disintegrated, two figures hovered in place and two figures fell bonelessly onto the foundation with a bodily smack. The clouds above Grangardd swirled and flashed with lightning as the Potentate rose higher to meet them.
“I WAS TOLD YOU WERE IMPRESSIVE, BUT I NEVER THOUGHT YOU’D BE THIS IMPRESSIVELY STUPID! YOU ENTER THIS REALM FROM THE WILDS AND DEMAND AUDIENCES FROM THE MOST POWERFUL. YOU PRESENT YOURSELF IN FRONT OF ME AS IF I AM OF THE COMMON RABBLE. NO FURTHER WILL I ALLOW MY REALM TO BE BASTARDIZED BY SIMPLE MEN LIKE YOURSELF.” Zilg bellowed. His voice was carried and heard clearly throughout all of Grangarrd due to his myst enforcement.
Meeting the clouds, the Potentate disappeared within the dark gray funnel of his creation. “HARKEN MY WORDS, FALSE AXIOM. YOU WILL PARISH BY MY HANDS TODAY, FOR I HAVE THE BLESSING OF THE ALMIGHTY LUMEN TO GUIDE ME TO VICTORY. THIS REALM WILL BE RID OF A CANCER DESTINED TO SPREAD THROUGH ENTERNIA AND PEACE WILL AGAIN REIGN. ACCEPT YOUR FATE, FOR I AM AS INDOMINABLE AS YOUR DEATH IS INEVITABLE!”
A violent gale ripped through the streets of Grangardd, tossing around anything that wasn’t properly secured. Outside of the city center, a few wagons stopped on the side of a worn path of packed dirt to try to weather the storm of wind and sound. Everyone huddled together in their carts and held down their belongings in hopes of minimizing their losses to the voracious squall. All but two.
“I know I shouldn’t be worried, but I can’t help it.” Lightning covered the sky from horizon to horizon as thunder pealed like the blows of a mighty hammer. “Kalex will be alright, I feel it in my bones. This probably feels like a light breeze to him” Arla said more confidently than she felt.
Kalex looked up into the storm above his head and marveled at what he was seeing. He had seen storms before, but nothing like this. “This is amazing! It barely whips my robe around, but it looks great!” He opened his presence sight and looked closer. The clouds themselves were almost completely void of myst, with it all congregating in the center where Kalex assumed the Potentate resided. As he watched, the myst condensed into a small sphere and was followed by the sound of an enforced voice.
“WITH THE POWER VESTED IN ME BY THE LUMEN EVERBLADE, THE FALSE AXIOM SHALL BE NO MORE!" A blast of pure cerulean plasma rocketed toward Kalex, the force of the attack immediately causing him to enter a shallow ponder. Time slowed for Kalex as he witnessed the beam of pure energy heading directly towards him.
A word came to his mind and he didn’t hesitate to speak it. “SUSPEND!” The bolt instantly halted but came close enough that Kalex could feel the energy it was giving off. Almost on instinct, he began to bring the powerful myst into his own internal circulation. The energy from the attack began to wane as it hung motionlessly in midair with the Potentate behind it looking for an explanation, but coming up short. When Kalex felt the energy from the attack surge through him, he decided to make his own proclamation. “I AM NOT A FALSE AXIOM! I’M JUST A LITTLE BROKEN!” Kalex’s fist soared towards the Potentate as a flash of light engulfed them both. A moment later, silence fell upon Grangardd, leaving only the hushed murmurs of the Grangarddians in its wake.