This was it. The last red stone. I thought to myself as I stared at the stone from Callist in my hand on the other side of the well. The others were gathering up the weapons cases we brought from Synthetica that contained the plasma rifles. Everything had all culminated to this. It had been about a year and a half since Higgins first made me privy to my family's ordeal. When I first got into this, I looked at the whole thing as some sort of game. I had been deluded by the fantasy’s that inhabited the various forms of fictions I consumed. Distractions really. From a life I loathed as a corporate accountant with no love life or ambition to speak of. But all that had changed now. Somewhere along the way, I realized this thing was bigger than me. For generations, my family had battled the seven devils in order to prevent chaos from making its way to our world. How all this came to be, I had no clue. But what started as fun escapism for me had now turned into a fight for my very way of life.
“You gonna help us with this shit?” Wraith asked. He was toting a heavy case that they had just unearthed.
“Yeah. On my way.”
The plan was simple, yet complicated. We were supposed to meet Tolly and the barbarians later today in the desert north of the spring. The knights from Vale would also be there. And hopefully the call for mercenaries put out by Frederick and the Thieves Guild would also bring us some help.
Apollo was there too, but I wasn’t sure how much good he would do. He helped us haul the cases to the meeting point. But I was gonna suggest he leave after that. Without his clerical powers he was only putting himself in danger coming with us.
We got to the meeting point. There was no specific place, but it was only about ten square miles of desert between the canyon with the spring and the lower region of the Barbarian Lands. It didn’t take long before we saw horsemen in the distance. A lot of them! It was King Ardu and the barbarians. Well over a thousand of them. He had gathered every able bodied warrior that could ride a horse and use a weapon. Considering that the barbarians fit this criteria at birth, that didn’t leave many of them behind in their various villages.
“Ahoy, Sir Eric!” the king greeted, as he dismounted his steed and kneeled, “we are at your command.”
“Arise, my friend,” I said, playing it up a little bit.
“Are these our only allies?” He asked, in dismay.
“Oh no,” I assured, “I have many other friends coming. You already know Wraith and of course your daughter Arduwan. But We should be having allies from Vale arriving soon.”
“Argh!” the king scoffed, “to think that we are reduced to aligning ourselves with the likes of those from Vale.”
Oh shit! I totally forgot. During my fathers time in Callist, the barbarians and the kingdom of Vale were still at odds with each other from the last great continental war. And Tolly was coming! He and King Ardu had personally done battle with each other in the past!
“Look! Riders approach!” shouted another barbarian. Off in the east, you could see two dozen men on horses making their way to us. It was the knights from Vale! Still only twenty five of them. I was hoping that Herald the King of Vale would have changed his mind and sent some more after all. But this would have to do.
The knights all wore white and green tunics over their chainmail. Their leader called out,
“I seek the one known as Eric the son of Noble?”
“That be me…eh, or rather, ‘tis I, Sir Eric!”
“Greetings from the Forest Kingdom of Vale. I am Captain Christoph. The king sends only his finest knights to aid you in battle against Shagrath’s forces of evil. I am at your command.”
Well that was good to know. At least they sent me some elites.
“Please allow me to introduce my other friends. Sir Wraith of the desert and King Ardu of the Barbarian Lands along with his daughter, Arduwan.”
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“Ah, yes,” Christoph stated, as he dismounted, “I had heard the Moonlight Night would be a part of this campaign. I’m eager to see your legendary exploits in battle.”
Wraith shook his hand and gave me a boastful grin.
“But you,” he added, looking towards Ardu, “As emissary of the King of Vale, I have a message.”
Everyone stood silent in anticipation.
Christoph continued, “King Ardu, it is a shame that our people bear such a rift between one another. A shameful relic of the old war. Let us make this alliance last far beyond the sieges of the Devil King.”
Ardu smiled and extended his hand to Christoph. “On behalf of the barbarians, I concur!”
Whew! Well at least we weren’t starting out on a bad foot forward with old grudges in place. No sooner did the barbarians and the knights of Vale start mingling with each other, showing their weapons and telling stories of each other's lands, another scout shouted, “Over there! Dwarf riders from the west!”
Surely as I stand here today, there were more than fifty ponies carrying dwarf warriors on their backs heading right for us. Wraith’s idea of sending Frederick to talk to the dwarves worked!
Their leader proclaimed, “As a token of good faith for your warning about the imminent attack by the Devil King on our mountain range, my liege spares five dozen of our warriors to aid you in your crusade. Among us are skilled medics as well, so we hope to be of use to you. He is sorry he could not spare more as he is preparing for an attack on our western front.”
I smiled hardily and replied, “That’s quite alright! The more the merrier.”
The dwarf continued, “Unfortunately, we couldn’t commit more from our security forces but they too have been on high alert for sometime as well. It seems it has become trendy to raid our gemstone mines and the originators of the trend have not yet been identified.”
I gulped hard and looked towards Wraith and Arduwan. They too had an uneasy look on their faces.
Things were going swimmingly. Our forces were starting to amass and I had the Divine Arrow. As long as they could get me within range of Shagrath, I was confident we could pull this thing off.
The dwarves, the knights, and the barbarians were all getting along just fine. Still no sign of Tolly. He didn’t give a specific time. All he said was for us to meet with our allies here in this desert. I’m not sure why though. I guess it made sense as a centrally located place, but we were nowhere near either of the directions to get to Shagrath’s domain. If we were on a coast, we could get there by sea. If we met at the dwarves' mountains we could take the same route I did in the other timeline. I wonder what he was up to?
Suddenly, there was movement to the southwest of us. About fifty or so more men on horseback. They clearly weren’t from Vale, nor were they barbarians or dwarves. Our army started to put themselves on guard since we had no other planned guests. Could this have been a preemptive attack from the Devil King? But how could it be unless our plans leaked? Delilah said that since she erased Shagrath’s curse, he would no longer be aware of my encounters with his forces outside the rumor that the same person who defeated Davol converted Apollo. Speaking of Apollo…could he have been a double agent this whole time?
“Eric! Eric! Have your men stay their ground!” a familiar voice shouted from amongst the riders. It was Frederick! He was riding at the front of a motley crew.
“It’s alright, everyone! He’s a friend,” I assured. After he dismounted, I asked, “Frederick, who are all these people?”
“The mercenaries you requested, Eric. I’ve been signing them up the past few weeks. Wraith said they should register at his trading post, but no one’s been there except the guards…and the girls.”
Wraith looked at Apollo and said, “Yeah. Maybe we should have thought about that before bringing you back to Eric’s place for the wedding.”
“Not to worry though,” Frederick added, “I’ve doubled the number of men since then. We just came from the port city to the south and look who I found!”
A man in pirate garb stepped up and said, “Captain Tye, at yer service matey.”.
“Wait a second,” I noted, “I’ve seen you before. Isn’t this the pirate from the tavern you pointed out to me when I first arrived in Callist?”
Frederick smiled big and said, “The same one. Captain Tye, master of the Typhlosion
Wave attack. I hired every known mercenary in the land willing to fight, just as you asked. The Thieves Guild put up half the funds from their shared treasury on the condition that Sir Wraith put up the other half.”
“Not a problem!” Wraith said, “How much are we talkin?”
“Ten million gold.”
Wraith nearly fainted but I added, “It’s alright, it’s alright. I’m sure after the fight is over we can make some kind of special bargain arrangement with the Thieves Guild for conducting commerce by way of Wraith’s trading post.”
“Of course,” Frederick agreed.
So there we were, my little band of adventurers, twenty five knights of Vale, sixty three dwarf warriors, fifty two mercenaries, and over a thousand barbarians. Everything was looking up, but still no sign of Tolly.
I was beginning to get worried. Afterall, he was the one who insisted we meet here. Why would he be late or no show? Could something have happened to him?! The sun would be setting soon. We had waited all day.
Finally, we heard shouting coming from just over a nearby ridge. I looked over and lo and behold, there was Tolly!
“Over here!” he shouted.
The leaders of our various groups and my party made our way over, ahead of the army to meet him. When we got to where he was standing, we could see that there was a puddle on the ground near his feet. It was a transportation puddle!