City Of Alva. South Of Vorthe.

Nolan Alvric

“Are you possessed, Nolan?”

Nolan Alvric raised an eyebrow at the sudden question — and insult — from the Matriarch he was trying to convince to join him in bringing down Vorthe. Fei Jia would be an asset when they went to war with Vorthe.

“No, I am not, Jia,” he replied. “I merely want to rid myself of Vorthe once and for all.”

She shook her head with an expression of pity, her long black locks moving with every motion. “You should have known that you’d be fighting a losing war. I will not help you, Nolan.”

Nolan narrowed his eyes at her as if he could pressure her into submitting to him through the projection on the wall. He couldn’t risk meeting her in person, so the only other option was through a transmission crystal.

“No, Jia. This time things are different. Vorthe wouldn’t survive Alvric. I only extend a hand out of courtesy. With or without your help, I would bring down Vorthe; mark my words!”

“Then do whatever suits you, Nolan. I’m not interested in your war.”

He noticed she didn’t mention joining Vorthe’s side. But that didn’t mean if they called, she wouldn’t rally her men to fight against him.

“Then remember this day, Jia,” he spoke with all the authority of the Patriarch, he was. “For it will not come again. And when I’m done getting rid of Vorthe, I will be coming for you.”

A slow, mocking smile spread across her face but he ignored it.

“A word of caution though. Vorthe has a nightmare of a creature in their keeping. Caged. Yet, they let it loose from time to time… to sow chaos and destruction in the kingdom—”

“Empire, Nolan,” Jia corrected. There was a smugness to her words that grated on his nerves but he held back any retort.

“I planned to find this monster. To kill it, or tame it if possible. I had been planning this for decades. Such a creature, if tamed, would be a great addition to one’s force…

“Only to find out that Vorthe sent him with our children to Terra Praeta.”

Jia’s expression remained calm, tranquil like a lake. But he knew that on the inside, she was anything but. He had chosen his words carefully and he knew she recognized who he was talking about. After all, he had said ‘he’ and not… ‘it’.

“That is quite the accusation, Nolan.”

Nolan didn’t respond. He held her gaze as Jia held his. The silent communication between them went beyond words. He didn’t have to say anything to prove his accusations. She could either take it and do her due diligence, or risk getting caught off guard.

“Good eve, Jia.”

Nolan cut the transmission. She was too relaxed. There was no reason for her to be, especially with the Argonaut on Alvric’s side. Except she had something that was just as powerful as the Argonaut on her side. Because at the end of the day, power was all that mattered.

Nolan chuckled to himself. What was he thinking? If Fei had something that could compare to the Argonaut, they would have broken away from Vorthe ages ago. The Fei that used to look so big in his eyes were now like pests. Power truly was everything. He could convince his father to implore the Argonaut to wreak havoc in her lands in the East. Maybe then she’ll be willing to talk.

Nolan stood up from the high backed chair in the transmission room. He glanced around at the red tapestries on the four walls shimmering with silencing scripts to help keep his conversations a secret. He couldn’t be too careful. Vorthe might be listening.

As he left the transmission room his spirit stirred inside him with a warning, like an impression of bad things to come. Whatever it was, he couldn’t decipher. Nolan was a shrewd man and his recent meeting with his father, the Ancient One, had driven home the fact that he needed to be more careful in whom he dealt with. Right now the number of people he could trust even in his own household was less than a handful.

The ornate halls of Castle Alvric echoed with his footsteps as he reinforced the scripts on his robes, scanning the whole building for trouble, yet he found none. He kept himself alert and on edge should he happen on an incident that could cause chaos or put a dent in all their plans.

“Hedon,” he said aloud, speaking into the transmission bracelet on his wrist. “Meet me in my chambers.”

His message will be passed to his son. The Ancient One had ordered that he listen to his side of things. That little child he attacked at Blade’s Edge Canyon some years ago was the devil he was looking for. He’d been a blind fool all along.

“Never again,” he grunted. He’d never be caught with his pants down again. The next step would be to plan how to trap the devil. They already know where he is after all. And he will be coming back soon.

His transmission bracelet vibrated the next moment, and he scanned it to reply to his son.

“Meeting in the war room. Now!” the Ancient One’s mental voice boomed in his mind. “The Church has responded. The Judges have arrived!”

~~~

Terra Praeta. The Northern Hemisphere.

Nyx

There was little she disliked more than unpredictable people. And Jerome was placing himself into that category right now. Why would he think helping Achilles was a good idea? Achilles was more powerful than anything she had ever encountered, the thought of facing him again didn’t sit well with her.

“You better stay alive, Jerome. You hear me?” she said to his meditating body. Nyx knew he couldn’t hear her. She had sensed his soul leaving his body — how he achieved that was beyond her. But maybe that’s why Ilyrrah chose him; why Mother Nature chose him… why Aether chose him. She still couldn’t believe her luck in being the one to find him.

Nyx had only looked at the prophecy of Ilyrrah’s Chosen as something far off that had nothing to do with her. But here she was, bound to him until he led her to The Beginning — her Beginning. Nyx shook off the nostalgia that had come over her. Now was not the time to appreciate fate and its dramatic twists that made bastard dragons lucky.

She knew where Jerome would be since he wasn’t dead. And it was most likely a dangerous place to be. She looked around at the still-burning masses of flesh and bones. The carnage she’d wrought today wouldn’t be forgotten — ever. She smiled. This was the best way to earn respect. The denizens of the North had forgotten there was a terror in the dark forest. And now they had paid the price for entering her territory.

Her eyes settled on Jerome’s form which sat midair in a meditative pose. She frowned. She should join him there; there was no other way to keep this stubborn Sprout alive. But dragons weren’t known for their mental or psychic acuity.

Nyx plucked him from the air and shot toward the void world at the center of the dark forest. She cloaked them both from the eyes and senses of the Sprouts as she raced into the void world and straight for the pool beneath the hovering mountain.

When she reached the bottom, she created a bubble of air for them to breathe. She settled into a meditative position opposite Jerome. Now it was time to try. At least she could find out how talented she was at elevating her mind.

“This better be worth it, Jerome. Or I’ll tan your hide,” she said, scowling at his soulless body.

With a deep breath, she calmed her heartbeat to a crawl, centering her mind so she could prepare her soul to enter The First Heaven.

~~~

Terra Praeta. The First Heaven.

Warmth pulsed through Jerome. His avatar soaked up the energy. Dashani kept talking. About the things she was going to do to the denizens of Terra Praeta.

“First. I would take the elves and the faen; those ungrateful descendants of mine. They live in the eastern realm, far away from me; enjoying life without war, without struggle. War would be upon them soon. Very soon.”

This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.

“You will… do no such… thing,” Jerome struggled to speak.

“Oh?” She leaned in closer to his face, twisting the blade in his chest and causing him more pain. “And what… can you do about it, little cur? You die today.”

The warmth pulsed in him again. This time stronger. Strength filled him. Filled his arms. He gripped the blade in his chest and heaved, pushing it out. Dashani — or her demon — looked down in surprise. But that didn’t last. She pushed her blade in and Jerome felt it bite into his palms, bleeding him of more light. Palms? He noticed his other hand had regenerated back. But the warmth inside him pulsed faster now, increasing his strength. Soon he was glowing with white light again. He pushed out the blade and twisted it away from his chest. The blade broke and the creature screeched in pain.

Jerome snatched up his spear and faced his enemy with renewed vigor. The severed bladed arm in his hand quickly turned into motes of purple light and disappeared, blown away by some non-existent wind. The creature charged him, fast. It was a blur to his senses.

But somehow, it slowed. The mind-calming stone pulsed inside him, its energy rising in him, filling him with more strength. Jerome felt like it wanted to tell him something. He listened to it, for whatever it was trying to speak to him.

Breathe…

The word came to him unbidden, deep within his soul. Jerome didn’t question it. Even with the demon speedster almost to his position, slow though it was now, he closed his eyes and took a deep breath of… not air.

Out…

He pushed out the ‘air’ in his lungs and a cloud of purple dream aura enveloped the demon. It screeched in pain. The dream aura remained in position, swirling and twisting around the demon. Its screams reached him but Jerome couldn’t see what was going on inside the fog of dream aura.

Soon the demon’s screeches weakened. Now in its death throes, the fog of dream aura lifted off the ground a little. Jerome saw the demon disintegrating. Weak and begging for death with its squeals. A few breaths later there was nothing remaining of it. All of its aura was absorbed by the dream aura he breathed out.

“Now, what are you?” Jerome muttered in contemplation.

The dream aura collapsed in on itself just as a loud bang resounded behind him. Jerome rolled out of the way on instinct. He hadn’t sensed the incoming enemy, even with his perception still active. Something shot out of the fog of dream aura toward the newcomer.

A spear!

He scrambled for his own spear now. Jerome looked up to see Charybdis spinning about and holding back another demon. He couldn’t help but grin at the turn of events.

“Ah ah!” he rejoiced and quickly joined the battle. This was getting better and better! Together, they worked as a team and put pressure on the demon. It was on the back foot throughout their fight. Charybdis was ruthless; with every cut, it siphoned some of the demon’s dream aura. The demon, frustrated after a long battle with no result, roared into the air.

Jerome felt his phantom body pulse with trepidation. Charybdis impaled the demon, destroying it completely.

“I think more are coming,” he said and the spear hummed in accent.

The cloud of dream aura gathered around them and Charybdis hummed again, transmitting a message to him. Jerome turned his gaze from the swirling dream aura to the spear.

“You’re not really Charybdis, are you?”

It hummed again. Jerome nodded. It didn’t matter. If it came from the mind-calming stone, all the better. The mind-calming stone was a mysterious artifact that even Achilles, with all her computing powers, couldn’t detect.

Jerome was reminded again that he had to get Achilles a new name.

He held onto the spear and used it to lift himself off the ground. The spear twisted, wrapping around his arm and moving onto his body to form a makeshift breastplate. The remaining dream aura was sucked into the breastplate and it twisted some more to make room for more metal. Or at least it looked and felt like armor. Jerome couldn’t tell the difference. He took a deep breath and imagined more dream aura forming in the depths of his mind. He may need some soon.

More than a dozen demons broke away from the battle above him, heading his way. Jerome took another deep breath to calm himself.

“This is it… all or nothing,” he muttered to himself.

He didn’t try to convince himself that he could take them on alone. He knew each one was stronger than him. But he wasn’t going to back down. That wasn’t him. He didn’t come all this way only to lose a trusted companion. Besides, Dashani would wrought hell on Terra Praeta if she ever took control of Sanctum. That was all what this was all about: a way to move between continents with her army of Children. He would never let that happen!

The warmth in his soul began to build up again, pulsing throughout his body. The demon in the lead shrieked. It pushed off the space behind it, increasing its speed exponentially. The others did the same. Jerome took a long look at them all. Twenty-two. How the fuck was he going to fight them all?! As quickly as the thought came, he shut it down. He’ll find a way… or die trying.

The demon in the lead got within twenty feet when a beam of pink light knocked it off its trajectory.

“Jerome!”

Was that… he took a chance, turning around to see her, hoping it truly was her. “Csala…”

She crashed into him with a hug. “Oh, Jerome. I thought I would never see you again.”

Jerome hugged her back, expecting her hug to be crushing — it wasn’t. Maybe being just souls, they didn’t have the strength they would’ve had had they been in their fleshly forms. But that idea was defeated by the fact that he had punched a shark-sized monster a while ago.

“I missed you too, Csala,” he said, hugging her back.

“Hey, we don’t have time for sentiments right now,” Achilles said from behind him, fighting off the demons.

“Achilles?” He turned to see her fighting the demons a few feet above him. Something was different about her. Sure, she looked the same and had the same voice but this voice was… more. It had a sultry undertone that Achilles’ lacked and the sight of this Achilles—.

“I am not Achilles,” she announced, slicing through another demon. She shot the pink beam of light out of her hand hitting another, twirled beautifully in the air, and slammed another downward with a kick.

Jerome shot upward and sliced it in half before it regained its balance. He continued on so he could aid the strange succubus — or at least he assumed she was a succubus.

“Csala, keep up!”

Csla flew up to meet him. How the hell could she fly here and he couldn’t? She seemed to catch him studying her and asked, “What?”

“How is it you can fly here?”

Csala shrugged as they joined the succubus. The demons surrounded them, causing them to take up a phalanx formation, even with just the three of them.

“Jerome. Guess who she is,” Csala said, her excitement practically dripping off her. Jerome had never seen her so excited about someone.

He glanced at the other succubus who just shrugged with a smile at him.

“You both aren’t taking our situation very seriously, you know?” he said. Then to the new succubus, he added, “no offense.”

“None taken,” she said. “She’s just excited to see me and I’m excited to see Ilyrrah’s successor!”

“Successor?” Jerome gave her a once-over to make sure he was seeing her for the first time. “Who are you?”

“Guess, Jerome. Guess!” This was unlike Csala. She wasn’t the type to be so excited about someone.

The demons attacked — all at once. Their movements were so coordinated that Jerome worried they were a hivemind. On the other hand, the three of them were the opposite of coordination. But their defenses held.

“I can’t guess someone’s name in the middle of a battle, Csala. Who is she?!” he screamed in frustration.

Csala grumbled, swiping her twin blades at a demon. Jerome watched as her blades multiplied to dozens like after images and she fought off the demon’s attacks.

“Ok, how did you do that?”

“With dream aura,” she replied. “See. It’s easy to talk during battle. Your turn.”

Jerome snorted. If he could use dream aura like that, he’d have gotten rid of all these demons before they accosted him. But wait. “You can use dream aura?”

“Why not?” she said. “Now, guess!” Her voice took on its excitement again.

Of course. The Sovereign had said dream aura was not essence — or not like essence. Since succubi couldn’t wield essence, he had concluded that such impairment had included all types of energies. With this, he wondered what else he didn’t know about the different energies he’d witnessed. They just kept popping up everywhere.

“Fine. Your mother!”

Csala laughed — a happy throaty laugh. She fought like the battle was unconcerning to her. He really was stomped by the fact she took it very lightly. The new succubus must have seen his thoughts written on his face though.

“Succubi have a great affinity with everything that has to do with the mind. So here in the First Heaven, we are like predators,” she said with a smile.

The fight continued for a few more breaths before the last of the demons were destroyed. Jerome looked over at the succubus now. He could sense she was ancient. There was just something about her that gave him vibes of an ‘ancient’ being. Csala’s mother couldn’t be so ancient, could she? There was only one other succubus Csala had ever talked about. He recalled the reverence in her voice when she spoke about her, the sacredness she had communicated when she shut him down for asking.

The succubus smiled as realization dawned on him. One moment she was a few feet away. The next, she was hovering close to him with a finger against his lips.

“Shhhh. Names have more power here than you realized,” she said.

Jerome looked at Csala for confirmation and she beamed up at him with the brightest smile he’d ever seen on her.

“How are you…? How is Achilles…?” he asked, befuddled, unable to get whole sentences out of his mouth.

“It’s a long story, Jerome. But I’m glad to see you’re doing better than I expected; better than Ilyrrah expected.”

Jerome frowned, not understanding her point. “You sound like you knew him; like you were close to him, even.”

“Oh, I knew him.” She gave him a knowing smirk. “I was one of his lovers — just like Csala is one of yours.”

If Jerome could blush he would have turned red as a beet. He was thankful for the fact he was in this realm of the mind right now. What had Tialana called it again: The First Heaven? But he was thinking off-topic.

“How so? I thought the ubus and the Fae were enemies.”

“True. but there’s something called forbidden love, is there not?” She chuckled, her eyes distant. But she quickly regained herself. “Oh, but I must say,” — she caught another demon that shot toward him from the sky, pulverizing it with that strange, pink beam of energy — “you are one lucky bastard to cross paths with me so young. Ilyrrah never had anyone to guide him.”

“What…?” Jerome felt like they were entering deeper waters and he’d lose himself to the conversation if he wasn’t careful.

Tialana grinned at him. “Ilyrrah was born like you were — a reincarnator, with all the memories of a past life intact.”