I held my breath in an attempt to refrain from lashing out at the fish floundering in front of me. There’s no real question here. There’s a whole load of innocent people up there completely unaware that they’re in any sort of danger, least of all that they’re about to have their freewill stripped away and become prisoners within their own bodies. I opened my eyes so as not to alarm Gretkarn, and expanded my senses outward. Now how do I get away from him and keep him occupied while I free them? For that matter how do I free them?
I gritted my teeth so hard I feared they might crack.
But I’m not gonna solve anything just by sitting here, so–
“Time to move.” I muttered, safe from drinking his parasite polluted water due to my ever so durable and dependable barrier, “I’d say it was nice to meet you, Gretty, but honestly It’s been anything but.”
Gretkarn froze, and focused both of his beady eyes on me. ~Speak? Words? What did you say? What language? Why do you not address me as before? What has changed? Of what do you speak?~
He’s confused since I unconsciously spoke in english, alert, but confused. Good. I might be able to use this, namely by hitting him with one of his own tricks.
~Oh I assure you, nothing’s changed. So just sit there and let your will become mine. Just like you wanted.~
Hypnosis.
It was beyond weird feeling that spell activate, as the rather unpleasant sensation of my consciousness being dredged out of my body and toward him overcame me.
The worst part was that it didn’t just affect Gretkarn, but continued on to the leviathan, and spread to all the tiny parasites in the water too.
In other words, I felt myself seep into about a billion different minds, all at the same time. A sensation that I can only describe as transforming myself into mush and then smushing myself through countless different strainers and sieves of varying sizes and levels of refinement all at once and over the course of a second that lasted an eternity.
Then I snapped back to being me and me alone.
Uriel buzzed.
Notice: All targets successfully hypnotized.
Levels of Compliance and duration: Parasites:Full/ until dispelled
Leviatain: Moderate/ 5 minutes
Gretkarn: Slight/ 10 seconds
Well shoot. It’s not ideal, but now I can do this.
~Hey big guy, Gretkarn’s in danger, so why don’t you let me go so I can deal with it while you wrap him up to keep him safe?~
I sent my thoughts to the oversized amalgam of mini monsters and to my relief, it retracted its tendrils from me and enclosed Gretkarn with only a second to spare before he broke free of my spell.
~What?! What?! What are you doing? Why do you not obey? You are to obey! Obey!~
I could feel Gretkarn’s mana intensify inside the leviathan’s gooey grip, but since it, like the other parasites, had the ability to absorb and wield their progenitor’s power, it had no effect other than being alarming to me.
~Alright, as for the rest of you tiny things, why don’t you just sit tight, or get to doing what you do best?~
I honestly wasn’t sure that those mega tiny worms would even be able to comprehend my instructions, let alone act on them, but to my relief they did indeed obey and with that little bit of insurance in place I turned my attention elsewhere.
Alright, that all worked better than I hoped. Now to get out of here, since the clock is ticking. With a little over four and a half minutes remaining on my control of the leviathan, I swam out of the domain, layered several scintillating barriers at the entrance, and then rocketed my way up with all the strength I could muster boosted by strength release, and shifted steps.
It was interesting to paddle with all my might only to then get a brief reprieve before suddenly being plunged back into icy water, but the timing was easy enough to adjust to, and the surface greeted me within seconds.
Water erupted away from me the way it might a guided missile launched from a submarine as I left the lake behind.
I traded my webbed appendages for wings and soared straight to the castle in a similar fashion to how I was swimming before. It took only a second to find the man in charge with all my senses spread to the max, and I all but dove toward the room where I found him conversing with Carmella, before timing my use of shifted steps to evade the castle walls and plunge directly into what appeared to be his office.
I didn’t much care to examine the spacious, and somewhat gloomy, candle lit interior, however, I was going pretty fast, and it took all I had to skid to a halt and not slam into, and perhaps through, the finely inlaid and lacquered door once I appeared inside.
Naturally, as a swordsman of his skill level, the Count sprung to his feet and had his weapon in hand before he could even register what had just invaded his office.
Carmella, on the other hand, let out a little shriek and nearly fell out of her chair.
I wasted no time pulling my nose away from its abrupt meeting with the wooden portal, and pivoted on the spot.
Once they registered it was me, he lowered his weapon and she hopped up, more than a little furious. “Lord Anon! What is the meaning of this?”
Instead of speaking, I just targeted them with my still active telepathy, and bombarded their brains with everything I’d just learned, while also scanning them with my senses for Gretkarn’s little friends.
And unfortunately, they’re both infected. And the Count’s got it bad.
Carmella and the Count quivered.
It’s either from information overload, or fear… Maybe both. Probably both.
She dropped to her knees, and he leaned forward onto the desk in an effort to remain standing. I gave them both a moment to recuperate, since I’d need the Count at least to be functioning for coordination purposes, then said. “I can try to remove the parasites, but I’ve never done anything like this before so I’ll need volunteers to practice on. Basically you guys. I promise I won’t let it kill you, but it might hurt like the dickens and since you both have different levels of infection I’m gonna need to experiment on you both, no exceptions… Sorry.”
I maintained a steady and gentle tone in spite of myself, since my heart was still going full throttle and I had enough nervous energy to power a city for a year.
Thankfully, the sound of my voice seemed to help restore them so I continued. “I’ll do all I can to help everyone, but we need to hurry. I’ve stunned him for a few minutes but those are almost up, and once he breaks out of the barriers blocking his domain my attention will have to go to fighting him off.”
They looked at each other, and lined up without hesitation, side by side in front of his wide desk.
The Count bowed. “We are in your care. Please do whatever you need to.”
I turned part of my mind to ponder how to most effectively remove the parasites from Carmella’s stomach, while ordering the Count. “First, I’ll need you to get all the people to start gathering, both in and outside the castle, as far from the lake and Gretkarn’s temple as they can reasonably get. After that, I’ll need you and anyone who can fight to get ready to do so, because there’s no telling when he’ll break free and start wreaking havoc.”
Now, to get these things out. Do I just rip 'em out and heal her? No, that'd be cruel and take too long considering the time needed for each person to recover. Do I hypnotize them and order them to–? No, no, that’s a terrible idea. I don’t even want to think of how they’d escape the human body. I guess I could kill them inside her, but it’d be so much easier, and more relieving for them, if I could just teleport them out! But shifted steps can only target me, and I don’t know any other space essence magic!
Uriel buzzed.
Notice: You have the ability Double Standards.
I froze.
Then facepalmed.
Goodness, I’m an idiot. I focused on each of the apparently acid resistant near microscopic worms in her stomach, and thought. Shifted steps!
There was a small flash in the palm of my outstretched hand, and to my relief, all of the wriggling wretches were present and accounted for. Once I’d incinerated them with a tiny activation of immolate I muttered. “One down, now to figure you out.”
And I knew I had to hurry, because I could feel Gretkarn and his leviathan start their assault on the first of the seven barriers.
And based on the intensity of their attacks, it seems they’ve realized my magic isn’t so easily torn down.
While I de-wormed Carmella, the Count had been busily interfacing with the windows opened by his ring’s authority. And just as I’d finished with her, and glanced at him a loud warning started blaring out in the city. “Attention! Attention! All citizens are to begin gathering at the nearest square, plaza, or landmark. Remain calm, and await assistance as far from lake Karnkaroth as possible. All who do not comply will court death, and any survivors will have their taxes doubled.”
The message repeated continually with only a moment’s pause in between, and a similar one began to play within the castle, only in a much more pleasant voice.
The narrative has been taken without permission. Report any sightings.
“Attention all guards, arm yourselves and gather in the barracks to await further orders. Attention all staff, please gather in the great hall to await further orders. Attention all guests, please gather in the audience chamber as soon as possible.”
I internally balked at the punishment he’d chosen to motivate the people with, but didn’t have time to remark or make a witty retort about death and taxes, so I concentrated on how best to combat the Count’s far worse condition.
I mean, those worms have gotten pretty big, and they’re all swimming through the veins in his spine and inside his brain.
I glanced at Carmella. “If you’re feeling alright, could you support the Count for a sec?”
Either due to the space essence magic going off in her stomach, or the sight of me burning something she knew had come out of her, Carmella had become quite pale. That didn’t stop her though, as she staggered off the desk and draped one of the Count’s arms over her shoulders while shifting both of their weight back onto the solid desk.
After a silent prayer for his safety, and with no better ideas coming to mind, I cast shifted steps on the worms, followed by small wards to take their place.
I then slowly shrank the bitty barriers so as to prevent any air pockets from forming in his veins or any other literally bloody abnormalities from occurring inside some of the most important parts of his body.
Another flash preceded a clutch of several five odd inch long worms appearing in the palm of my hand, but since I’d kept it burning, all I had to do was up the power of the spell in order to fry them into char as well.
And what a pleasant smell they make too. Like smoldering sardines on a pile of garbage in the middle of a hot June day.
Linus staggered, then swooned, and basically collapsed in spite of my precautions. Poor Carmella struggled to keep him upright, but a quick cast of minor regeneration, seemed to mend anything wrong with him, so with my confidence boosted, I wasted no time using shifted steps to get over to the audience chamber I’d introduced myself to Linus in.
I felt the first barrier reach the halfway point on its durability, but ignored it while telepathically info-blasting Calden, Ysdra, her brothers, the ranger and knights from our prior adventures, and the elderly steward Griswold, to appraise them of the situation.
Obviously their reactions were mostly what I’d expected, Calden paled, the older boys hung their heads, the knights stepped back in shock, Ysdra puked, but the two older gents surprised me by chuckling as if they’d just been on the receiving end of a prank.
I scanned them all at the same time, since I needed to practice doing multiple people simultaneously, as I wouldn’t have time to help everyone one at a time, and then followed up by applying the prior spells as needed.
The older men were the only two who suffered fainting, but I positioned myself behind them for that reason and lowered them to the ground, where they could recover in peace.
I guess the effects of warping space/time inside someone’s body gets worse the older you get. Who'da thunk?
Conveniently, Ysdra didn’t need me to purge her stomach anymore, but she had a prior infestation to deal with so I still had to pull that out of her.
My head throbbed once at the strain of activating over twenty spells at the same time, but I was fine immediately after that so I immediately warped down to the lower floors of the castle where the guards were gathering.
The rather massive stone room was lined with weapon and armor racks covered in dinked up and well worn weapons and protective suits. The several sand filled pits all but confirmed that this was the barrack’s training hall, and the several hundred armed guards were, understandably, more than a little wary of my sudden, and slightly outrageous, appearance.
Since, ya’know, I still have wings.
But it looks like some of them do too, so I guess it isn’t that weird.
One of the more important looking soldiers stepped forward, sword in hand, but I info-blasted the lot of them, with a slightly more abridged version of everything plus directions on what I needed them to do after they’re healed, all in an effort to save everyone some time.
Because ironically, time is the one thing I don’t have anymore.
After that, I braced myself and started casting.
I didn’t dare risk doing them all at once given how I felt after the noble group, so I relegated myself to bunches of ten to twenty at a time, starting low and working my way up as I got more used to the sudden heavy throbs that wracked my brain and body after each.
As soon as each squad was clean they thankfully got up and ran out of the castle to follow my instructions. Namely, to go and ensure every citizen was gathering, that the assembly points were protected, and that the temple of Gretkarn is isolated from the rest of the city.
Because I really don’t need any more distractions right now!
The second barrier was being hammered by the time I finished with the guards, so I warped over as quickly as I could to the servant’s gathering place in the spacious and honestly really dark great hall.
You’d think that they’d light up a few candles or something, but they were all huddled in the shadows and gloom, as if it was the most natural course of action.
He didn’t specify, so maybe they think they need to hide? If the castle was under siege or infiltrated I guess hiding in a fortified position is logical.
Anyway, there were so many shrieks and shouts at my arrival that I didn’t hesitate to just start purging right away. They weren’t going to play a pivotal role in my plan anyway, but I did need them clean in order to safely turn my attention elsewhere, as having a secure command center in a crisis is important.
Personally, I’d like it to be farther away from the lake, but feudal society is feudal society, and I don’t have the time or desire to argue about the feasibility of moving operations elsewhere.
I had to pause to catch my breath once I’d finished with this group, as both my mind and mana needed a second to catch up to my pace.
I’d been gradually amping up the number and speed as I got used to the process, but I knew I had limits, and this city is practically doomed if I go down before that parasitic punk.
I grimaced as the second barrier broke, and used it as motivation to go and get to the nearest gathering point outside the castle since I could feel Gretty’s mana starting to churn in the parasites within the lake and city.
Obviously, my next stop was in the central part of the city, and though I didn’t want to show favoritism, rich people are people too, and they even brought all their guards and servants so I could at least commandeer them to help the Count’s soldiers if nothing else.
I once again started the cycle of forcefully informing everyone before teleporting parasites into the fire. I happened to notice, in between my momentary black outs, that there were a few nobles who didn’t evacuate their homes as ordered. I probably could’ve helped them from here, but if they weren’t willing to listen to simple instructions then I wasn’t willing to prioritize them over those gathered elsewhere who were.
The third barrier broke as I was in transit to the next point in the central part of the city, I flew up high to better appraise where everyone was, and easily spotted the around twenty points left in both the middle and outer parts of the city thanks to the abundance of torches they’d lit at each.
I’d already saved about five hundred people, but each of these points had nearly a thousand each so I knew I’d need to pick up the pace.
But if I go too much faster I’ll risk running myself ragged. Currently I’m recovering fast enough in between points thanks to my odd constitution and rapid regeneration, but if I go any harder I might start to really feel it… And that could have adverse effects on morale. Guess I’ll just have to hide it.
Illuminate.
I concealed myself in white light, and dove at my next gathering of patients. I crashed down and started off the cycle again, only now I was reaching for around a hundred people at a time and nearly vomiting with each attempt.
My vision blurred, my legs wanted to give out, and my head was somewhere between the void and nirvana but I didn’t let that stop me, as I was rather chuffed at the fact I could handle casting over three hundred spells simultaneously.
“It’s a miracle!”
“My leg’s all better!”
“Look, mommy! The nice light is here to make us feel better!”
I somehow managed to pick up some of the assembly’s murmuring in between my abrupt out of body experiences, and as a side effect of casting body recovery magic I’d also been lifting many of the ailments of the people who had more serious infections, but what really got my attention was the fourth barrier breaking.
I finished the group at around the same time it shattered, and lugged my butt back into the sky to see if anything had changed.
He’s about halfway free, and with his mana acting up more with each one that’s gone down, I’d rather be safe than sorry.
I rested on weary wings, and sighed. “Great. Now the battle begins in earnest.”
Up from the depths, nowhere near fifty stories high, and certainly not breathing fire, came the shadows of Gretkarn’s spawn. Infested fish, crabs, eels, and even clumps of seagrass were surfacing with what I could only assume was the intent to infect or destroy everything on the surface.
Now disturbingly enough, they didn’t look like the critters I saw on my way down. They were extra slimy, glowing pink and blue, and covered in what I could only call a sort of parasitic armor that made them look like mutants that’d grown extra or completely new limbs all over their bodies.
And while they swam really fast, the ones that made it to the shore were at least pretty slow and awkward, except the crabs. They were the opposite.
“Well, at least I have an easy answer to this.”
I snapped my fingers and cast, spark shower!
My always reliable first spell came crashing down from the heavens with the vengeance of everyone currently suffering from one worm’s delusional dreams of dominance.
It was the ideal spell for this situation since it only used up a little mana and concentration in order to produce and aim the bolt, after that, nature did the rest, so I could hit them hard without needing to tax myself too greatly.
And I didn’t stop at one.
Again and again, I rained lightning down on the corrupted creatures, roughly twenty bolts a second, and occasionally threw in a small
I felt the fifth barrier start to crack, and hurled myself back into healing.
It broke partway through the next group, and I paused to survey the situation again, but the only thing that changed was that Gretkarn’s followers were now running out of his temple in a frenzy and fighting with the stationed guards.
I left that situation to them, all too aware that some of his following were probably present in every gathering place in every part of the city, but since the local guards were just as numerous I was able to focus and maintain my momentum.
Thanks to the positioning of the city squares I was able to weave in between the central and outer districts to target the places with the highest concentrations of people first.
The cool night air really helped to combat my overheating brain, but I was always woken from that pleasant reprieve by the increasingly sudden and forceful landings I made at each of my stops.
It was also a relief to see Iskel and his congregation. However, they greeted my arrival on bent knees and with lowered heads, muttering prayers much as they had earlier in the evening, though to my distress the other unaffiliated people started to imitate them long before I’d finished healing everyone.
Oh, man. I just realized this day still isn’t over is it? First the gate incident, then the church one, and now I’m here! Give it a rest, world! One problem at a time! One day at a time! Sheesh!
Three groups later, the last barrier broke.
And the majority of the populace are still infected… So much for saving everyone.
I let my light fade as I forced my exhausted wings to bear me ever higher and frowned as Gretkarn’s navy and pink light filled the lightning lashed lake.
I took a moment to catch my ragged breath. “He’s taking his sweet time… Is his plan crapped out since he doesn't have a new host? Or maybe he’s just afraid of the lightning? There’s no magic in my attacks so he won’t be able to just dispel them, so maybe that’ll buy me time to rest?”
It didn’t.
He just put up some sorta mental force barrier and laughed into everyone’s heads as he ordered the parasites within them to grow and activate.
~Behold! Behold! This is the hour of Gretkarn! This is the start of my reign! Kneel before your master! And send all who resist to the grave!~
I let my shoulders drop. Guess he didn't need a new host for this... I really hope this isn’t a lost cause. I’m spent right now, but with my recovery rate I might be able to return to healing or even fighting in a minute or two so if I can get the Count to hold him off for a bit I might be able to salvage things.
I swept my eyes over the city, and blanched. “Oh no. Are they… Are they able to mutate people too?”