Ayesha had told him that attacking the black orb was useless but that didn’t stop him from trying. Perhaps she underestimated how powerful a Soul Armament truly was. Turned out Arthur was overestimating himself. Arthur’s water-shot spear hit the orb with the sound of two metal rods clashing and quite literally bounced back. Twice as fast as he’d launched it. He was lucky it wasn’t aimed at him. Arthur didn’t want to find out if his body was strong enough to tank an attack made with a weapon created by his soul. Or if the true damage it inflicted applied to him too.
“Maybe next time, you should listen to me,” Ayesha said dryly. “And they wonder why women live longer than men,”
“Uh-huh,” Arthur replied noncommittally. “You said the bastard's going to explode in a minute or two right?”
“After it comes out of its shell, yes.”
“How are you so certain? Scratch that. The way you're talking shows you aren’t surprised by the first soul explosion. I thought that was caused by a failed transformation.” That I was responsible for. He left those thoughts unsaid. Ayesha looked at him, deep in thought.
“I don’t know if I’m allowed to tell you this but fuck it. The planet’s going to shit and the bastards in charge aren’t offering any help for some reason.” She sighed, rubbing her temples. “The first soul explosion was the vampire's attempt at establishing a Territory. Unfortunately, they were somehow successful.”
Seeing the confusion on his face, Ayesha explained. “Territory creation is a process that makes the land, air, the ether itself intrinsically aligned to a specific species. A baby one like we’ve got on our hands is still strong enough to quickly kill a human below level 100, at least the average ones without any means of protection. At their very strongest, a territory will give all aligned persons within power akin to a prime on their homeworld. They’d constantly be fed energy, recover rapidly from wounds that would otherwise kill them and be empowered a dozen other ways.”
“That sounds pretty bad,” Arthur said.
He knew he was powerful, but fighting vampires when the world itself became his enemy was still beyond him. “Ayesha quickly assuaged his fears. “Luckily for us, you don’t find territories like that on a planet below tier 3 and they’re rare even there. What we have to be worried about though is whichever vampire comes to claim this territory. Killing a territory lord inside his own territory is all but impossible,” she looked at his soul spear consideringly, a slight frown marring her features. “Well. I guess it’s possible for you, I can’t believe we didn’t realise you were a soul mage. Iris is going to be pissed when she gets here.”
A look of dawning realisation came across her face. “Unless…she already knew but just didn’t tell me,” Ayesha cursed loudly kicking a piece of rubble across the ground. At least she tried to. The sad thing exploded the moment it touched her foot. That only made her more annoyed but she quickly bought herself under control.
As calm as she was trying to be, their current circumstances were dire. The only reason she wasn't panicking was because she knew Iris would have a life-saving treasure in her storage ring. No way would her parents let her die on a no-name tier 1 planet like this. Surviving, however, wasn't the same as succeeding. As powerful as their group was, she put their chances of killing the ascended Bloodbeast in under two minutes at less than ten percent. That was if they were lucky to get so long in the first place.
Already, she was running through all the plans she'd have to change. How big will the Territory get? 20km? 30? At that point, the vampires would have firmly established their base on Earth, something they'd only do if they wanted the planet for themselves. She could feel the corrupt sanguine energy permeating the very air she breathed and if her intel was correct, the source originated from Borelus, a level 243 Savage Vampire, a particularly cruel breed of the bloodsuckers. He was by no means weak, but Ayesha knew he was very far from the realms of power required to establish a territory.
He created six Bloodbeasts, one of which failed. Even if I'm being conservative, that's at least twelve levels worth of stats permanently sacrificed. Forcing a Territory establishment costs at minimum an additional ten and the bullshit he's pulling now will mean ALL the stats he's gained since upgrading his class at level 200 will be gone forever. Perhaps even more.
Ayesha just couldn't wrap her head around it. Sure, territories were great, but was it worth so much sacrifice? Borelus would now forever be at least 30% weaker than he could have been. Ascending past the class barrier would now give him mediocre gains if it was still even possible for the man to do so. No, it simply didn't make any sense.
Something stinks and it's not all the blood lying around, Ayesha mused. C'mon, think. If things don't add up, find the missing part of the equation. What am I not seeing? Her father had always advised that most mysteries had elementary answers so she tried to take a step back and analyse everything again, looking at the broader picture instead of the specifics. Borelus was the strongest vampire to have come over. That rules out-
The answer hit her like a truck.
"Shit," Ayesha cursed, startling Arthur. "What is it? Did something change?" He asked, his eyebrows furrowing in worry. "No, I just figured something out. The vampires didn't create this territory for themselves. No way would a bloodsucker make that kind of sacrifice. Not unless they were forced to. And the only thing that can force a vampire is-"
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"An Elder Vampire," Arthur finished off, his skin somehow turning paler than its usual milky white. A creature well beyond level 300, they were feared almost as much as apocalypse beasts. Perhaps even more so.
To grow so powerful, a vampire would have had to drink the blood of thousands of apex creatures that they themselves had hunted. They were thousands of years old, with millenniums of experience using the most insidious of ritual blood magic. And one of them's coming over to Earth. Fuck, one of the bastards that came over must be a dimensional mage. And if the boss is coming, he's bringing his whole coven.
Ordinarily, a baby planet like Earth would never have the ether density to support a tier-three creature like an elder vampire. The monster would have starved to death in minutes. But everything changes if they finish establishing that territory. Arthur turned his attention back to the black orb. It was all but invisible to his aura senses, a blank spot in the universe. He tried to identify a weakness, anything he could capitalise on. The stakes in this fight had just gotten so much higher.
"What about our alien overlords?" Arthur asked. "Earth's part of some massive intergalactic empire, right? Are they just going to let this happen?"
Ayesha smiled sadly at him. "At the end of the day, it's all a numbers game. The Izar Collective, which is the name of the coalition of planets Earth falls under, is headed by a tier-3 empire that has around three dozen planets to its name. Earth as a baby tier-1 world has very little to offer, the only valuable resource being the talents they already plundered during the tutorial. Maybe after a thousand years of growth, they might start to give a shit, but until then." She tried to find the right words. "Well, a vampire coven has a lot more to offer. They'll put some sanctions in place, and the vampires will have to make a few concessions but at the end of the day, the Izar collective seeks to gain far more if we lose the planet."
"That's not to say that they don't want to help us at all, but for some reason or the other, the stellar system has been dimensionally locked. At least from travel within This dimension. Even my father doesn't know what's going on."
"Long story short, the unsavoury characters at the top who gain more from Earth's loss are actually in a stronger position for once and the laws are in support of them. Besides that, dealing with an Elder vampire in its own territory will cost far, far too much if the battle is waged on a tier 1 world."
Arthur took a moment to digest all that information. He'd learned a few new things and had others confirmed. Politics, it turned out, were exactly the same no matter how high up things went. Human greed, or in this case, sapient greed, still wore the crown of ultimate motivator. The dimensional lock is a little worrying though, he mused. Try as he might, he couldn't figure out why they'd put it in place. Could it be breached or were they trapped on the planet for good? "
"I guess that simplifies things for us, then," Arthur finally said, hefting his spear over his shoulder like it was an axe.
"What do you mean?" Ayesha asked, confused.
"We're on our own, stuck in this shit. Since the bastards up top are so adamant about their hands-off approach, we're free from interference. The only people we can blame if we fuck up is ourselves."
"Love the speech. Very macho," Ayesha said dryly. "Can't say I agree with all of it though. And that's exactly the problem. I don't think you, we, are strong enough to deal with this shit."
"That's great then," a new voice announced. "Because I just called for some extra hands"
Arthur turned to see who had spoken and was taken aback by what he saw. He knew that people became more attractive as they advanced in power. They grew into their ideal form. For the first time since the system's arrival, Arthur was shocked at just how beautiful someone could be. It was beyond human, probably because the woman was clearly not human with her pointy ears and baby-blue skin. Even the way she moves is beautiful. It wasn't a seductive or powerful walk by any means but the general poise and grace of her motion could only be described as well... beautiful. Arthur wrestled with his wandering thoughts and got them under control. Yes, she was a pretty face, and maybe he'd ask her to dinner if they got through this, but there were more important things to worry about. Ayesha placed a hand on the woman's shoulder.
"This is my best friend and resident Seer, Iris," she introduced. "I'm honestly surprised you got control of yourself so fast. Fae literally have a beauty stat, the damn cheaters and this idiot over here's got a bunch of titles boosting hers."
Irish brushed the hand off her shoulder. "I'd appreciate it if you didn't go around revealing my secrets, thank you very much. I've got enough tea to spill on you that we'd drown the poor man." She turned to face Arthur and smiled brightly at him.
"As the witch said, I'm Iris. This is our first time meeting but it feels like I've known you for a lot longer." She flushed. "Sorry, that came out a little weird."
Ayesha stared at her friend with wide eyes, eyes open in disbelief. Iris. Embarrassed! It was like oil and water. The two things just didn't mix. She considered Arthur in a new light. He was certainly a handsome man, she'd be the first to admit that, bordering on beautiful even. But Iris had a line of suitors the length of the Grand Canyon. People so powerful they were forbidden from entering tier-2 planets, men so pretty that a mundane rock would fall in love. They do say beauty is in the eye of the beholder, I guess and Arthur's not half bad. He's got that rakish charm going for him and his potential's greater than anything I've ever seen.
Seeing the embarrassment on her friend's face, Ayesha decided to have some mercy on her. "What was that you were saying about reinforcements?" She asked, giving the seer something else to focus on.
"Reinforcements? Oh... yeah." Iris mumbled. "I did say that, didn't I?" Her voice grew in strength as it returned to familiar ground, taking on the assured confidence Ayesha was used to hearing. "I contacted Captain Arencia. His mage has recovered enough for short-range teleports. They'll get here in under two minutes if the territory doesn't hinder them. "That thing," she gazed pointedly at the black orb, "Is going to open in 57 seconds. Our chances of beating it are infinitesimally small, but not zero. Failure means we lose the planet... that's an irrefutable fact I don't even need to look into the future to see." She smiled widely at them. "We've got a minute to do as much damage as we can before the big guns arrive."
"Here's the plan."