Erika teleported to the Pelza Empire’s Capital City, Rodos on the planet Nostrom. She didn’t like coming out to these unenlightened cities on these fringe planets where the bare minimum of the Pelza Empire’s glory was known. But they were still technically part of the empire and useful. The Empire used fringe planets as test grounds and farms for the low-rank cultivators. Those that survived and prospered would one day be invited to learn the truth of the Empire’s Glory.
It wasn’t that the trips were long or tedious, she could simply teleport to most of the Empire’s fringe worlds, having visited them one time or another as a messenger. No, she didn’t like coming out here so soon after her last scouting mission because she’d only been able to stay in her true form for about a day before she’d had to head back out. She felt less like herself outside of her true form. This time, she only had to wear a magical ring to appear as a normal human, unlike her recent scouting mission.
Erika had been on Earth 1314 day and night for years with only an occasional visit to make a report. Those visits had never lasted more than a half hour so she’d never had the long-term modifications that were done to her body, undone. Not that she wasn’t human, she was. The Death-attuned magic that coursed through her system as a Class B Cultivator modified her and made her look so ghastly. The reason the physical modifications had been necessary was because of the medical screening and tests that were performed to get into the high-security areas she’d needed to. Infiltration had been easy when she’d posed as a teenager and went to college before joining the Genesis Top Secret Project which had turned into a game called The Labyrinth. It was too bad that her Empires needs were so high. If the Empire ever decided to convert the Universe of Earth 1314 she would have to visit and confiscate the files and hardware for that game. The Idea might lead to some serious quality-of-life upgrades for a lot of people.
As for her true form, if she was being honest, she hated the way her mascara looked like it was always running down her cheeks. Two black lines from her eyes to her jaw. Also, the skin of her head was skull tight making her seem like a walking skeleton with flesh on it. She still had her bright blue eyes but she knew that eventually, they would turn into black orbs of death. There was always a price to pay for power.
Erika teleported into the Chamber of the “King” of Rodos. In truth, there was no King. It was a charade that only the upper echelon of the city knew. There were no organized races or alliances on this planet that could withstand the power of the Pelza Empire. There were various races within the city and the underworld below it that created a struggle for power that made outsiders feel that they could easily take over the Empire. Those seeking power struggled to take over and always failed while the Empire found recruits that it sent off to other planets once they’d been caught. There was no need to destroy the talented that were ignorant. Traitors after they’d been shown the truth were destroyed but not those struggling on the fringe worlds for the power there. There was no need, the power they sought was of no consequence to the Empire.
Erika was shaken from her thoughts as a man in full plate magical armor with a huge two-handed sword sheathed on his back entered the chamber she teleported into and said, “Greetings Commander. I am Knight Christen, it is my honor to serve,” he said as he dropped to a knee and waited.
Erika looked at her garb. She rather liked the tailored purple suit that she was wearing. The Magical ring she wore made her appear like a normal human with luxurious blond hair that highlighted her sparkling blue eyes. This appearance was similar to what she would have looked like if she had not accepted the modification. This knight and a few others here would be able to see her true form. The man before her was one of them. “Rise, Knight Christen. Have you been briefed?” she asked.
“I have. Transportation has been prepared,” he said as he looked hesitant before he continued, “Is the Commander sure that she wishes to travel unaccompanied?”
“Quite sure,” Erika said. For the purpose of this visit, my true identity is not to be spoken of to anyone outside of this room. Those that have attained the ability to pierce the illusions that shroud my appearance are not to discuss my visit with anyone.”
“Yes Commander, I will make sure that everyone understands that?” Knight Christen said.
“Very good. What kind of Transport have you prepared for me?”
“The location you wished to visit is on the other side of the planet so we have prepared a sled. It is one of the hybrid magical and technological devices that have been brought to this planet. It does contain restricted items and as per regulations is fitted with anti-tampering devices and magic should it fall into local hands. We wouldn’t want the savages of this world to have access to technology as well,” The Knight said.
“Very well, if you’d take me there I do have a long journey ahead,” Erika said.
“Yes Commander, right this way,” he said as he turned back toward the door he’d entered from and headed out.
Erika fell into step beside him. “Is my target location loaded into the navigational system of my transport?” She asked
“There is. Also, the nearest human settlement is run by what we would consider a Baron. He has some Quintessence ability but is at most Class D, though we think he’s Class E with some very unique magic items. Also, he’s only been the Baron for about aw a week, there is a very high mortality rate for the leader of that particular settlement,” he said.
“That won’t be a problem, I’ve brought a change of clothes and some items of my own. It’s been a while since I’ve been able to practice my Archery”
“Are you a Ranger?” he asked.
“Heaven’s no! I have a unique class, one that revolves around my transformation and takes advantage of both my upbringing and training as well as the modification I went through. Have you heard of Death Archers?” Erika said as they stepped out of a hallway into an open area with other people making their way through the building.
“I have! There are said to only ever be six of that class anywhere, something about the sacrifices needed to accept the class,” he said.
Erika laughed, she actually laughed. One of her fellow Death Archers had been spreading rumors to make them more intimidating than they already were. It was probably Maxine. She was always making things up.
“What did the…,” the knight started to say then realized they were in a somewhat crowded area of the King’s building and changed what he was going to say to, “May I ask what you find so funny?”
“You may,” she said with mirth in her eyes holding his gaze before she finally relented and said, “One of my fellow Archers is having a bit of fun. There are six of us within the Empire but there are others, and the class does not have an upper limit. It is a class, like any other. It’s just really hard to meet the requirements.”
“Oh, I see,” he said. “Some of the masters have exaggerated my accomplishments with the recruits. I find that annoying, yet you find the same type of exaggeration amusing?” he asked.
“The path to power is long and arduous. If you try to stay serious about every little thing you will soon find yourself unable to progress. The Empire needs us to be strong, and unquestioning when given orders, but they also need us to be adaptable. If you become too rigid, you will not progress. Only those that can adapt can gain power and meet the challenges that await. I have personally found that laughing about the little things that mean nothing to my progress helps me maintain that perspective. Who knows, I may even exaggerate the current requirements it takes to become a Death Archer further to anyone that is asking but is not on a path to become one. We can have our fun, but not at the expense of another loyal member of the Empire pursuing their path to power. Gossiping is not part of that pursuit, but it is a nice diversion once in a while.”
“I see,” he said as he continued to lead Erika through the building.
“I can see that you do not, but that is okay as well. When you come to a block in your progress, and you will because we all do. Remember that you will need to adapt and let go of everything that means nothing to your progress. Admittedly some of the most powerful among us tend to punish those that interrupt their journey, but I would prefer to be someone that laughs first, and only resorts to punishment when necessary,” Erika said.
“How will you know when it is necessary,” Knight Christen asked.
“You have had the same training as I,” she said leadingly.
“Punishment is necessary when all other avenues of leadership have failed and the individual’s actions are either treasonous to the Empire or prevent the individual, or other loyal members of the Empire, from pursuing their path to power within the Empire.”
“Exactly! There is a lot of leeway in the second part of that requirement. And always remember punishment is not necessary if someone has reached their limit. Not everyone will continue to progress until they become an Epitome of the Power they wield,” Erika said.
“You have given me much to ponder, I thank you for taking the time to do so,” he said.
“Do not worry about it. We must help those beneath us that are loyal to the Empire. I know that you are loyal Christen,” she said.
“Again, I thank you. Also, we are here,” Christen said as they stepped through an archway onto a balcony that held four metallic shapes. Each looked like one of the fighter cockpits from Earth 1314 except there was no plane and the cockpit was sitting on a flat square piece of metal that spread out beneath the cockpit.”
If you spot this tale on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.
“Is cloaking provided?” Erika asked.
“Yes, once you sit down and activate the sled you’ll be able to control the sled mentally. An aerodynamic force bubble will enclose the sled and produce an invisibility field around it. That field can be left on for up to 24 hours before the magic item that produces it must rest for 48 hours. While you fly around the globe it will automatically activate anytime something comes within a mile of the sled to prevent detection, though you’ll probably be traveling faster than anything that flies naturally on this planet. It can easily break the sound barrier and travel up to three times faster than the speed of sound through that will deplete the energy reserves of the vehicle a lot faster.
“Will I have enough of a charge for the sled to get to my target and back?” she asked.
“Easily, so long as you don’t travel faster than 500 miles per hour. The magic drains a lot faster at speeds higher than 500 miles per hour.” He said.
“How long is it going to take me to fly there from here?” Erika asked.
“Around 25 hours he said,” We don’t normally worry about anything over in that corner of the world. There are only a few human settlements and the elves do a good job of keeping the monsters at bay.”
“25 Hours,” Erika mused out loud. “Well, it looks like I’ll have plenty of time to rest,” she said.
“You will, the seat does recline and there is even a cover that can be slid over the chair to keep the sun out. The Sled is equipped with an autopilot that will wake you if you have any issues.”
“Does it also provide life support for high-altitude travel?”
“One of the engineers mentioned that it could fly at high altitude for up to three days before it needed to recharge, but I don’t understand what the difference between flying at high-altitude and flying near the ground is?” He asked questioningly.
“Not to worry, your classes haven’t covered atmospheric pressure yet. You’ll get there sooner or later. It is useful information so pay attention,” she said.
“Very well. Is there anything else you need?”
“No, I have everything I need in my dimensional bag. Thank you for the escort and the diversion. It would seem that I will make up for that momentary diversion with plenty of time to meditate,” she said as she stepped onto the sled, sat down, and activated the autopilot with a thought.
The sled rose into the air, surrounded itself with a globe of force and invisibility, and then rocketed off to the east a mile above the ground. Erika paid attention to her surroundings for the first two hours as the sled effortlessly circumvented mountains and continued on its path to the other side of the world. She saw flying creatures off in the distance as she rose above the mountains and then descended on the other side always maintaining an altitude of one mile.
Once Erika was satisfied that the auto-pilot was working correctly and she shot over one of the oceans on the planet that would take four hours to cross she pulled the cover Christen had mentioned over herself to block out the sun and went to sleep. Her dreams were troubled until she finally woke her up just as she was coming back over land. While she’d been sleeping the sled had traveled into the night and she looked out noticing fires and lights speckling the coastline she was flying over. To the northeast of her flight position, she noticed a city nestled against a mountain range that soon faded from view. Checking the map function, she found that it was a dwarven trading outpost on the edge of the mountain range with an unimaginative name, Tradeforge. Dwarves and their simple names, she thought.
It was time to get to work. Erika pulled out a piece of metal that looked to be about the same size as an electronic tablet on Earth 1314. She tapped it once. The metal lit up with information and she pulled up the time stamp of the event that had happened at the Plant and then the current date. The event at “The Plant” happened 26 days ago. She’d only been back for three days. She’d arrived debriefed, had the semi-permanent alterations undone to unlock her magical channels to their fullest protentional, and then made her way here.
She was also wasting a little over a day making where way around the world. Once she was there she’d be able to teleport back to Rogos. She’d never traveled to the forest of the Kaljaharsi Elves, so she had to make this flight. Once she’d arrived she would set the autopilot and the sled would return to the Capital on its own. When she was done, she’d teleport back to Rogos or The Plant. She’d decide when the mission was complete.
Of course, the mission was going to take a little longer than she’d expected because the trail was already three weeks old. The day after the incursion at The Plant had happened an army was decimated. The reports they’d received from local spies had said that Adam had been killed by a Vampire. There had been no more reports on the subject since then.
Erika had returned from Earth 1314 and teleported to this planet in short order. She’d taken the time to remove the semipermanent modifications that had been done to her to hide her true appearance. Once that had been completed, she visited her residence to make sure nothing had changed. She’d slept for just over eight hours, eaten then headed out. Even so, she was still three weeks behind.
Erika pulled up the information on her destination to review it. She was headed toward a small city, a town really, that was run by a local Baron. The Baron’s name wasn’t listed though “Name not given because it changes too often)” was annotated in the file. There was also a note that the elves didn’t like humans much, but they weren’t at war currently. The report she was reading detailed that they’d been working together against a group called the Eternal Empire.
The Eternal Empire? She’d heard of them. That’s right, she’d read a report years ago and it was recommended that contact should be made soon because the Empire needed to either add their might to the Pelza Empire or remove them as a threat on this planet. A group of organized Undead could be extremely useful to the Empire. Showing them the bigger universe, they were part of was a gamble though. Sometimes they’d turtle up and try to withdraw and defend the little bit they had. In those cases, the Empire couldn’t allow the knowledge the Empire had divulged to make it to the rest of the local population, and steps were taken. She had even participated in a few of those campaigns herself.
The next 21 hours were a test of patience and resilience. Every once in a while she would expand the force bubble so she could stand up on the plate and stretch. She slept and she also meditated for a bit. Finally, they were drawing closer to her destination.
She looked around and noticed that she was flying above a mountain range and was about an hour from her destination. She took control and increased her altitude until she was about 9,000 feet off the ground and moved to hover over the City. This city had no listed name though it had gone through four names in the last year, the last being Brentville. Off to the North, just over a mile away, she could make out the 500-foot-high trees of the Twilight Forest.
She set the autopilot to return the sled to the Capital after a 30-second delay. Until then she turned off the protective field and stepped out of her seat onto the plate it sat upon. She swapped her clothes to her leather armor and obvious archer equipment with a thought. It was worth the money to pay for the enchantments to be able to equip and unequip weapons, armor, and items with a thought. Next, she looked down on the city to look for a place to jump to. She chose a location 500 feet or so north of the gate that was not within the line of sight of the guards and teleported to the ground. She looked up to where the sled hung in the air, watched it disappear, and saw the telltale signs of its passing as it darted off to the west.
“What do we have here?” a dirty-looking human said as he stepped out from behind a tree.
“It must be our lucky day if the gods are going to have women jump right into our midst. A pretty one too,” a second larger man said as he stepped out from another tree with a giant hammer held in one hand balanced back against his right shoulder.
“If you move you die,” a third voice called from behind a third tree.
Erika Laughed. She laughed so hard tears started to roll out of her eyes.
“What’s she doing,” the first man asked.
“She’s laughing,” the second man answered like the other man was an idiot.
Just then an arrow flew toward Erika from the bush cutting off Erika’s laughing. Not because the arrow hit her. Her laughter cut off because she’d activated an ability of hers that allowed her to move outside of normal time for one second. Everything slowed to an almost standstill as she quickly moved toward and through the bush as she drew a hunting knife from her belt. As she suspected there was another thief in the bushes with a bow. With her hunting knife, she cut the archer’s bowstring and then stepped back.
“What, where did she go?” The first man asked.
“I don’t see her,” The second man said.
“My bowstring snapped,” the third said as he drew an arrow and tried to string it, then realized how unlikely a bowstring snapping on its own must have registered and he spun around to find Erika looking at him. “How?”
“Today is your lucky day boys. I need a little information and if you answer my questions you may come out of this with a platinum each. If you try to attack me again. You may only come out of this encounter with your lives, but you have been entertaining thus far so maybe I will be generous because all three of you must have the worst luck to be right where I appeared. Especially you she said pointing to the man that spoke first, I can feel your power,” she said.
Erika paused speaking as she felt a change in the first man's aura. As she predicted, the first man charged Erika to bodily tackle her. She opened her arms and as soon as the man touched her they disappeared with a sudden pop.
“What the hell?” The man with the hammer exclaimed.
Phil, the man that had just been teleported a mile above the Twilight Forest with Erika realized something was different when his legs lost their purchase on the ground. He looked around quickly and realized that he was above the ground and had already started dropping toward the ground.
“I hope the ability I’ve detected that you have can get you out of this,” Erika said as she winked at Phil and pushed back from him before she vanished from his sight.
“What the hell?” Phil asked out loud as he fell toward the edge of the Twilight Forest.
Erika deliberately chose to appear between the other two bandits and the man she’d just left falling to his doom. The man with the hammer turned and yelled, “Where’s Phil?”
Erika used her thumb to point over her shoulder where the two bandits saw a man-sized shape falling from above the tree line.
“I will kill you…”The man started to say as Erika lazily drew a black bow into her hand from her extradimensional storage ring which caused him to pause.
“If either of you makes another threatening move toward me, I will not be as kind as I have been to Phil,” she said as a loud thud was heard as Phill slammed into the ground. “Besides, he’s a cultivator. That fall will hurt but I think he has an ability that would have allowed him to survive.
“He does,” the third man said.” “A fall from that high though, he’s still going to still get hurt.”
“Hopefully he’ll learn a lesson from this encounter then,” Erika said
“A lesson, what lesson?” The second man asked.
“You shouldn’t assume those that are smaller than you are lesser than you,” Erika said pleasantly. “Now my questions. I am looking for a human that has come out of the Twilight Forest within the last three weeks…”
“No human has come out of the Twilight Forest in at least a month. Technically the humans that came from that direction six weeks ago never entered the forest, they met with an elven contingent to discuss strategy concerning the Eternal Empires Army on the border.” He said.
“And this is the closest city to the elven Mother Tree?” Erika asked.”
“Yes,” the archer answered.
“Very well, I’m going to head into town, you might want to go check on your friend,” Erika said as she allowed her attention to drift back toward the border of the Twilight Forest only to see their thief being helped out of the forest by a human in a brown robe.
Erika's couldn't believe her luck as her eyes focused on the man with Phil, it was Adam!