Walking in the general direction of a rift, or so he hoped. It had been almost two months now. Whenever he asked Crystal if it knew where the nearest rift was, it would say no, but they should be walking that way. To Ambros, it seemed to be east, but he still found it strange that they were still in the undead part of the Endless City. He could still feel the bond with Whisper, but it was muted. Maybe she was too far away. His Guild badge should tell them he was alive anyway.
Ambros kept trying to get answers to some of his questions about Crystal's purpose and origin. It was not going well. It wasn't that it didn't want to say. The answerers he got were fundamentally simple, but Crystal had trouble explaining the reasoning behind them. It was like someone from the fifth dimension successfully explaining how its home looked to someone from the third dimension. He simply lacked the reference points to make sense of it. Sure, he understood the words, but what those words represented was a bit more troublesome to discern. Ultimately, he decided the best way to deal with Crystal was to send his intent at it, and it would answer if it was awake. Crystal was very happy to answer anything it could. If the answer made, any sort of sense was another matter.
A lot of time was designated to sleep for Crystal in the coming months. It had been a long time since it had agreed to anchor the dimensions. When Ambros asked if the two planes would drift apart again, it claimed not yet. There were many more anchors. One day it would. When it was time to do so. When he asked when that time was, Crystal answered, “When it was the right time”. It wasn't really sure how to explain it better. It was a wrong time and a right time. Now was the wrong time. Another time would be the right time. That was admittedly how most of his questions were answered by Crystal. Any time Crystal sent him the packages of ideas, feelings and pictures that made up their communication, he could feel Crystal's happiness and excitement to speak with him, so he didn't think it was deliberately being obscure.
Clambering over some rubble, he saw another group of a few thousand zombies. This was getting ridiculous. He knew they hadn't sent adventurers teams out to clear the zombie part of the Endless City for a long time, but he was starting to feel like every single one had been put in his way for the last few days. Even worse, he didn't even get any experience or system points for putting them to rest. At least he received a zombie ear and a grain sized Energy stone from them. Especially the Energy stones, he had run out of those a long time ago.
Even if his aura had no effect on the mindless undead. His high Mind and Spirit attribute did come with some perks however. Standing amid the rubble, Ambros activated Arcane Sight. Looking at the nearest zombie, he followed its spine until he found the point that animated them. It was a string that ran from somewhere deep in the ground. He had tried digging down to find it without any luck. It was attached to the second vertebrate from the top of the zombie. Gathering a smidgen of energy, as much as he could without passing out, he sent it to the connection point with instructions to rip the connection. He had to sit down before his body passed out. It was a strange thing to watch. It wasn't exactly a spell construct. It was an application of will, but the thing was. He would not have been able to do that if he hadn't remembered studying the spell construct that did the same thing a long time ago.
He still couldn't access his mana, so he had no way to test if he could actually create the proper construct now. Crystal claimed his mana was fine. It was doing that strange catlike purring at it. It would wake when it awoke. Don't stress it. It was growing. Needed rest. One thing that had taken him by surprise, however, was that Crystal knew exactly where all of his meridians would need to be opened. The first one was unsurprisingly occupying the same space as his mana marble. For some reason, that made sense to him. He once asked Crystal what the difference was between mana and Energy, and it responded with two clear, distinct notes. Then it said he should learn all the different notes, and he would almost be like First, well almost almost. Crystal thought that was a fantastic idea. It missed First very, very much.
Sitting there, he watched as the little ball of Energy finally ripped off the connection, and even as the zombie fell like its strings had been cut, the Energgy ball split in two and did the same to the next pair of zombies, then those would split, and on it went. It was sort of entertaining. At first, a few started falling, then it moved as a wave through the zombies. Almost every single one just lay on the ground, useless now. The few remaining zombies were the ones too strong for his Energy to affect yet. Summoning Ogre Slayer and his Steel shield, while walking towards the intersection where the zombies had stood, he started hitting Ogre Slayer against his shield. Dinner time.
They came scrambling over dead bodies and out of the nearest buildings. The few hundred that remained. He almost felt a moment of nostalgia as he decimated the first five of them in a cross slice before turning the one close behind them into a projectile against the ones behind it. These were the strongest of their kind here, but they still fell far short of what Ambros had become in a few short months. Anything that got close enough to him was cut down before they could make it a step past his Ogre Slayer blade. A short time later, Ambros stood looking at the pile of dead with a smile. As far as he could tell, not a drop had landed on him. That was an improvement. Wondering why the prompt from the system hadn't shown up, he looked around for more of zombies. The something hurled itself out of what had once been a building's ground floor, shooting rocks and debris in the air.
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Arcturus had been watching the man steadily making his way toward the Agera rift for three days now. Making sure to only watch him through the long glass. He did not dare to get nearer. There was something terrifying about him, much more than the zombies they had been sent to clear. Their mission changed once the man was spotted. You could only watch a man who only needed to look at zombies and destroy thousands upon thousands of them without lifting a finger. Then he would stand there and baited the hundreds that remained out of the thousands to come to him, simply to be cut down with contemptuous ease so many times before even that lost its wonder. It did leave a bitter taste of his own inadequacy however.
The queen could probably slay a thousand zombies, but with a look? The Agerans knew that there were other people out there. Powerful ones, but in their isolation, there wasn't much they had to worry about except for now. That the man had walked through the great illusion arrays as if they did not exist was a cause for great concern, even a crisis. They had stood there since the founding of the capitol, gifted to them by the great heavens, it was claimed. On the rift side, that was their greatest defense. On the overworld side, there were the mountains. They brought both a blessing and a great curse on the Agerans.
Their greatest warriors, the Danos Guard, those fierce men and women who set aside their lives from farming and family and pledged themselves to the God of war, had spent hours luring as many zombies as they could into the man's path at great risk. It would seem that it had been to no avail again, and they had little room left before he reached the rift.
Arcturus was about to signal another failure as the ground shook. Dirt and stone spewed forth from one of the ruined basements, then another from a different ruined building. It was the first time Arcturus had felt joy at seeing the abominations that were the Bone golems. Maybe there was still hope. Hulking but hollow constructions of bone, sinew and foul magics. They would easily tear through a phalanx, even if they had time to put down the war arrays. Great slayers of the undead. Breathing out a sigh of relief, he watched through his long glass for the man to turn around and flee as he saw him unsummon his shield and that horrible long axe.
Moments later, a defeated looking Arcturus farmer and father by vocation and happily so, but recently he had been called to join the citizen phalanxes as all free citizens were in times of turmoil walked to the other side of the building and signaled to someone in the distance. Failure. The man was still walking towards the rift. Arcturus still had trouble deciding how he would explain to the strategus that the man had thrown a Bone golem at another Bone golem and then proceeded to stomp them into their final rest.
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Ambros was starting to get worried. He was close to reaching level seventy. He really needed to get to a system node soon. If the regular frogmen hadn't stopped giving him more than an experience for each kill at the end there, he would have already have passed it. He didn't know what would happen if he entered the next Circle and became an Adept with unspent attribute points, but he had a hunch they wouldn't transfer. He did have a mountain of trophies though, if he ever found an Adventurers Guild again. Not to speak of more Energy grains than he could shake a fist at.
The last two bone constructs had been moving so slowly that he wanted to test his bone density against theirs. After accidentally breaking a few when he took hold of the first one, it sort of became a pointless experiment, so he threw it at the other bone construct and just stepped on them. The bone scythes they had on their forams were no better than the rest of the bone. They did give five thousand experience and seven thousand system points, however. That was nice, besides the drop of something called bone powder. one of their sharp corner teeth and an Energy chip. He certainly needed more of those too.
Setting out again, he found it surprisingly easy. No more zombies seemed to be in his path for this part of the trek. He tried engaging Crystal in a trade of thoughts, but it seemed busy with singing to his mana, and he wasn't sure what to make of that. He didn't want to interrupt whatever it was up to either. Jumping up on a building that seemed more or less whole, he was pleasantly surprised to see a building that didn't look like the ruined city in the distance. A tall one. It reminded him of the settlement's main tower, but no other towers stood near it. He couldn't see many details yet, either. Finally, something different. He was down to dried rations and wanted to see if he could get someone to contact his friends through the guild. Stepping off the building, he hit the ground running.
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Pythogenes appointed strategus for this campaign against the undead was troubled. They had encountered an outsider, from the reports, a powerful one. Able to ignore their great arrays meant to befuddle and send intruders away. He had just gotten a report brought through the semaphores that the intruder was mere hours away after the last attempt to derail him. The part of the message that befuddled him was that the initial observer had reported, “Do not engage” at the end of the message. That was just preposterous. If an outsider came to breach their peace and land, he would be dealt with accordingly. They could always hold up in the rift tower if the odds were too much in the opposition's favor, but this was one person. A single person would not force the free citizens of Agera to turn tail. It was preposterous.
Yes, he had heard fantastic tales of how some outsiders performed feats of strength and agility that were far beyond mortal bounds, but they were just stories from long ago and the overactive imagination of lonely scouts. No, Pythogenes would not stand for such silliness. There was a commotion outside his tent. A moment one of his guards came running in. “The stranger is here, strategus!” Staring at the man for a moment, he said, “Calm yourself, Nicandros,”
Walking outside, Pythogenes saw the army was largely sitting around tents. A few were looking curiously at the man in the distance, walking slowly towards them from the undead city. Signaling the horn blower over, he instructed. “Call to form ranks.” At the signal, he saw the men and women scramble. Some put on helmets and fasten shields while running toward their squads from across the camp. Others were clearly wandering around, confused about where they belonged. Soon enough, captains started approaching him and asking where they should be forming formations. His initial satisfaction at leading the troops in battle was turning sour fast. It was an unsightly mess. Looking over at the outsider, he saw that the man was sitting and eating something while watching them. It was simply infuriating. Only the Danos Guard stood ready, spear and shield held at ready to charge at command. It was said they could stand like that from morning to evening without flinching or losing a drop of sweat. He had his doubts, but it was a good rumor for the morale of the free citizens who never had seen battle.
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A long time later, Pythogenes stood in front of his army. They were in perfectly ordered phalanxes. War arrays activated on each phalanx to turn the entire force into a single deadly entity. Working as one, moving as one striking as one. The force of a single spear was the force of a hundred citizens. It was expensive to run such arrays, but that was the burden of the queen to acquire such things as Energy stones for the arrays. He wasn't really sure what he should be doing, however. The intruder appeared to be sleeping, and the scouts may have been correct since none of the gathered zombies had followed the man. Could he really have destroyed them all? No, Pythogenes refused to believe such foolishness. As a patriarch, he had been allowed to take the fourth step, as was his right. He knew the limits of mortals, and that thing laying on the ground was certainly no good. Oh, he was getting up. Now he was stripping, then he removed his unmentionables and proceeded to hang them from the tip of his spear while waving them at the gathered army. Was this some sort of insult?
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Ambros wasn't really sure what to think about the throwback to ancient Greece he was seeing, but they certainly were entertaining while trying to do something... He wasn't sure what yet, but the rock was nice to sit on, as he was chewing on the last of his rations, so he planned on enjoying the show and the meal. Crystal had refrained from commenting after sending him that the rift was in the tower. It had now decided that napping was the best solution to the situation. Ambros thought Crystal may have been on to something. This was gonna take a while.
He could see a group of the ones with black shields standing, shields raised and spears ready for an overarm strike. Very impressive. They would also be standing like that with bent knees for hours, by the looks of it. He had to admit they looked good with their uniformed equipment. The only people that seemed to have the same uniform too. The other people seemed to have more anything goes approach to equipment. Sure, a few had a breastplate and a helmet, but for the most part, there was an overrepresentation of torsos in plain cloths and a cloth hat that resembled something he would have taken with him fly fishing. Everyone had a spear and a shield though. A few had opted for a sword too.
Yeah, this was gonna take a while. He sunk down and lay with his head resting on the rock he had sat on a moment ago. Half closing his eyes and relaxing. He couldn't feel anything down there that even remotely seemed like a threat. How they survived inside the rift was a mystery. Probably best to just let them be. They would eventually send someone to do the intelligent thing and just talk with him. It wasn't like he had come here to go murder hobo on them, but the day was young. He just needed some rations, access to the rift and an Adventurers guild hall. Not really unreasonable in his mind. With a yawn, he put his arms behind his neck and lay there thinking about what he would do once he was reunited with his people again.
Much much later, something seemed to finally be happening. A middle aged man had stepped in front of the now very impressively lined up groups. He wasn't sure he would call them soldiers, but they made nice lines, and he could practically feel the arrays they had activated humming with power from where he was sitting. Was he supposed to clap? And why hadn't they sent someone to talk with him yet. Did he need to do everything himself…
Looking through his dimensional bag, he couldn't find anything white left. They were not the easiest clothes to keep clean when you were constantly covered in some form of goo and blood. He still had a pair of underwear left, though, the one he wore. He had made sure the rest came in black, which was much easier to keep looking clean. Standing up, he undid those nice fluffy pants and removed his underwear. Bringing the top spike of Ogre Slayer within reach, he tied it to the top of the spike. Good enough.
Waving Ogre Slayer back and forth while walking slowly toward the lined up army was perhaps one of the most ridiculous things he had done so far. Double checking that his pants were still on, he kept a slow pace. Letting them decide on who to send out to talk with him. When he reached the halfway point between them, he stood there briefly, wondering what the blazes were going on. The commander had actually ordered the entire army towards him. That didn't seem very peace talk like. It actually seemed to be a bit aggressive. When they were about a hundred paces away from him, some soldiers without shields started running toward him, holding throwing spears. Yeah, definitely not peaceful intentions. When they reached about forty steps from him, they threw the javelins and retreated towards the line. Ambros was looking at about four hundred javelins coming towards him, so he did the only natural thing. Infused a bit of energy into his feet and took a rather long few steps to the left, watching the area he had been in turn into a flat porcupine. The rest of the army charged, and Ambros unveiled his aura.
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Pythogenes was fuming. The outsider was walking towards them. His aid was asking and half demanding that they stand down and contact the overland. Several phalanx leaders reported that some of the array inscriptions were in need of repair, and even worse, his personal attendant had forgotten his red plumed helmet. The man had been with his family for thirty years, and he had forgotten something that important. He put down a mental note to have the man's children sold to someone on the other side of the country. It would serve him right as a reminder.
This was supposed to have been his! Victory, His! Year to carry the laurels of the victor for cleansing the undead menace. His! Energy stones and regents. Nothing had gone to plan. No doubt the outsider had all that wealth now. Gritting his teeth in anger, he wanted the man's head on a plate. No, this was not how it was supposed to go at all. He would take the Energy stones from the outsider's cold dead body.
When the intruder was around the halfway point, he ordered the phalanxes to march. Steady pace. No need to exhaust them this early. Horns sounded the attack, and Pythogenes watched in satisfaction as the best of what Ageara had to offer. Men and women, free citizens, one and all, fit and young ready to show their dedication to the queen and the country. Maybe if he handled this situation appropriately, the queen would finally allow their lines to cross. Pythogenes daydreamed about the queen as they came within javelin range. Startled out of a mental picture that had his pulse racing, by his aid, he almost lashed out and cut the man's hand off. Oh, of course. Javins lose! Smiling in satisfaction as he saw four hundred of the best youths from the games run out and throw their javelins at the lone intruder. The sky darkened from the synchronized throw. He would have to commend them later. They had clearly been practicing. Well done, very well done. Anticipation built in him at the swift end to this year's debacle of an undead cleansing.
When the outsider suddenly appeared on their right flank, Pythogenes was starting to get a bit worried. He hadn't even seen the outsider move… Raising his sword, he ordered a general charge. They would need to box the intruder in. Every one of the captains already knew of that plan. No sooner did he lower his sword than he was standing in front of a ravening beast that had come to rip their flesh and crack their bones, burn their bodies to ashes. Running would be pointless. No, it would only prolong the suffering and enrage the beast even more. He could already feel its great sickle claws burring in his flesh, the sharp teeth ripping his flesh from his bones. Its great wings cast everything into darkness. There was only the beast and Pythogenes… his name was Pythogenes? It didn't matter. He could feel a warm stream running down his leg. Yes, best to just give up. No, point in running from what was moving towards him. No, it was better to just give in. Begg the beast to give him a swift end. He had been good and not run, right? Pythogenes had been a good boy. He could feel tears running down his cheeks.
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Well, that had been an interesting outcome. The army was in shambles. Thousands stood rooted as thousands more were running in every direction except toward him. A few were even trying to dig holes in the ground with their bare hands. Yeah, a lot more messy and smelly than he had envisioned when he got the Reaper Apprentice title. Making his way towards the commander, still holding his white underthing on the tip of Ogre Slayer. Ambros tried to get some sort of contact with the man, but he was catatonic. Waving his hand in front of his face didn't make him so much as flinch. The man just kept looking into nothing and crying. Shrouding his aura again, he watched as every frozen person fell one way or another. The ones who had been digging stopped and looked around in confusion and fear. Some of the runners were still running, but the nearest ones had stopped and hunkered down, looking fearfully around. He really needed to get better control over his aura. Crystal chimed in that it would be good training for when he established his domain. It would help him. It was also very happy that he had won the battle so easily. It would not do if he was hurt. No, not at all Crystal did not like that idea. Then it sort of hunkered up to his mana center again and continued singing softly in clear tones at it.
A happy outcome had been the commander falling on his behind and not towards Ambros, considering the wet streaks down his legs. Not to speak of the smell. The commander was blinking rapidly while his eyes darted around, not reacting to his presence at all, so Ambros gave him a gentle slap on the cheek and said, “I'll accept your surrender now. Are you ready to hear my terms?” The commander looked at Ambros in confusion and said, “You speak, Ageran?” “Sure, why not that too. Now are you ready to hear my terms?” The commander looked around. This time there was someone home when his eyes scanned what was happening around them, “Speak your demands, great demon, but please, I beg of you, allow my people access to the rift so they can return.” Ambros just looked at the addled man. If he thought begging for mercy from a demon was a good idea, he had clearly never met one. “We will see. When it comes to my demands. I want access to your system node. I want enough travel rations for two. No three months, including a select amount of warm dishes with high quality meat, beef is preferred, but anything goes. Ten barrels of beer and forty bottles of good red wine. I will see what else I can come up with while we deal with those things. Oh, right. Do you have a map of the area? What is the nearest rift besides this one?”
The commander was just looking at him again. Double checking if his aura was wrapped nice and tight before he said, “So what will it be? Slaughter or a steak dinner?” The commander was apparently not the best of negotiators because all he managed to say was, “Y y y yes.” If Ambros considered slapping the guy, but he doubted it would help. With a sigh, he said, “Look, I haven't been outside the Endless City for months. Im going topside. When you have arranged things, you can find me there. Okay?” Taking the frantic nodding, he took that as a yes. “Excellent. Good man. See you later.”
Walking past the befuddled commander, he made his way toward the tower and its open gate. Of course, they wouldn't close the gate just because some annoying turd ball came waltzing by. Shaking his head at the strange form of arrogance these people showed, he was soon enough at the gate, walking towards a guard who looked about to piss himself.
“Hello there, guardsman. Mind pointing me toward the closest system node and the rift to Lemadis? Oh, if you are part of the army outside, you have already surrendered. No need to do so again. If not…” The guardsman was looking uncomfortable, but Ambros just kept walking until he was a step away from the man. The guard flinched when Ambros stood in front of him. He hadn't pointed his spear at Ambros so far. “So how about it, system node? Rift?” Eventually, the guard managed to say, “Rift in the tower, no system nodes in the rift. The temples will have rifts. The priests will take you. I have a family… Two children.” Walking past him, Ambros clapped him on the shoulder and said, “Good for you.” Looking at the tower, he could see the resemblance to the settlement's main tower, just a much smaller version, and the wall he had passed circling it was clearly made of a different material. Hated as the imperials were, they had certainly set their mark on the land.
Walking inside, the first thing he was was the rift. It was placed between two pillars. Slightly pulsating. The rift itself was black as the void. A few robed people were walking around it, replacing Energy stones by the looks of it. To his left was a staircase circling along the wall to the next tower level. The rift was calling him. He had been so long in the endless city now he had trouble imagining a place where his nose wasn't under constant assault, or so was his hope. Unlike a gate, a rift was, by its very existence, a force of chaos. How these so called gods had managed to stabilize that on a local level and keep the planes anchored together was something to be admired, but if they had help from beings like Crystal, he could see how they could overwrite reality with their will. It would demand a constant focus however. It was a demonstration of willpower far beyond what he was capable of. Crystal had decided to stay awake for his praises and was practically preening.
Ambros knew that if he ever wanted to go home, he would have to break those anchors or find a being powerful enough to send him through the dual plane. His freedom would free the planes to continue on their intended path again but open them from travelers again. He was going to piss off a lot of “gods,” wasn't he. He almost considered it worth it just from that. With a smile, he took the last few steps and entered the rift. Time to see what the other place looked like. It couldn't be worse than a constant view of ruins.