Having been in the valley for so many days was a bit of a surreal experience. It felt almost like time was accelerated, because something new was happening each hour and you never went to sleep or saw the sun leave the sky for more than a few hours at a time. Even then it seemingly lingered just beyond the horizon.
Added up it meant the past six days had felt closer to a month, in terms of experiences.
It all finally wound down as they gathered to join in what was apparently a monthly occurrence, a feast of Van Vicci’s.
The [Guild] still had a few hours to themselves while the Titan was running errands in preparation, so they naturally congregated around Livia.
Although they did not really buy her version of what she had been up to. “Yeah, games mostly. Van Vicci is apparently an enthusiast for it, uh, word association and the like.”
Apparently it sounded like the flimsiest of excuses just to not tell them her real challenge. But once she explained how Van Vicci made mock simulations of their every addition, so they could actually see it all play out, it made slightly more sense.
Nevertheless she gave them all some more advice on what they had been up to, including telling Harold he needed to speak to Hyde about the birds and the bees, although she refused to elaborate, and Hyde was pretending like he did not hear.
It wasn’t until she got to Oscar though that she was the one surprised, Van Vicci had not considered his first day worthy of much scrutiny at the time. “You got a what!? A magic sword, from a lady in a lake?”
When she looked down at his hip all she saw was a slightly better version of his old sword, it looked like it might be steel instead of iron, but other than that, there was no apparent difference except the missing stone which used to carry his basic repair enchantment.
It did not add up, but Oscar was standing there looking proud as a peacock, so obviously something was up. “Uh, that sword Oscar? Are you sure, it looks sort of basic?”
Now it was Oscar’s turn to give her the queer eye. “What are you talking about, you’re calling this basic?” He held out his hand and sword straight, but there was something funny about it. It took her a good thirty seconds to figure it out, but then she noted the shadow.
“Wait, where is it exactly?” Now Livia reached out a finger and touched, very carefully, near where she saw the edge to be. “What the hell,” There was nothing there, it was passing right through. “Why is your sword illusory Oscar?”
“Wait, what?” It took them a minute to figure out what they were both meant to be seeing, then Oscar figured out a way. They both held his sword by the handle and he willed her to see its true form, and that finally earned him the gasp he had been waiting for. “Wow,”
By now the young guy was practically glowing with pride, but Livia's next words put a bit of a damper on his mood. "You really did receive a magic sword from a lady in a lake, that for sure settles it, now you have to become a [Knight]."
After that everybody wanted to see the true thing, and the presumptive perception that the Classless had been screwed over a bit by their gains from the valley, when compared to the rest, was shattered.
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Not long after that the feasting began in truth, and all manner of denizens from across the valley came by to join in the festivities.
Livia got to finally meet the otters that Elin had been spending her time with. Kalle got to meet his mole friend's uncles, which turned out to just be a singular uncle in the end.
Even Hyde got a visit from his summer camp girlfriend, as Livia chose to label it, who he had apparently been having quite the different relations with–compared to Algernon who was glaring at the other beast getting such action.
Not even the flavourful servings available at the feast could distract Hyde for long, and they had to eventually take their business to the forest after Harold got sick of the sight and conspired to have buckets of cold water thrown on them as they kept escalating their flirtation.
All in all they were having a hell of a time, but many hours later, as the short period of dark approached, everyone in the [Guild] felt the looming shade of Van Vicci grow longer and longer.
Sten was the one who finally plucked up the courage, but his question was one that had been on everyone’s mind since the day began. Not least Livia’s, who had been pondering it all week.
“Thank you for a splendid meal Van Vicci, and I do hope I am not being rude by asking, but is there any possibility of you sharing the story of your reaching a high enough level to slay a Great Spirit–with us tonight? I am positive the histories cannot do it justice.”
Van Vicci took a long drag to finish his drink before responding, but when he did it was still with his customary smile.
“Ah, yes. No need for worry, of course I knew this question would come. Although, most do wait until their second visit before daring to chance it, hah.” Even Sten blanched at the possibility of Van Vicci considering him rude, after all his hospitality. “But as I said, I was expecting it. There’s more than one with quite the ambition amongst your lot, the kind that is all too often married to an equally great curiosity.”
The Titan was being slow and considerate, but it was clear he was still working up to a yes, so all across his tables the people were settling down to listen.
“But this fact needs not lead to anything negative, and there’s nothing more valuable than friends if you’re going on a long journey.”
With those words Van Vicci had every single one of them who wanted to listen enter a dream where they actually saw it. A version of it, fit for their views of the dangers of the world–and their ambition.
But what actually happened, the horrible truth of this world; This he revealed only to Livia and her chosen few, who he could sense were prepared to deal with it, to the extent such things were something that it was at all possible to be ready for.
After all, in the end all you really needed was the will to live with the truth; and that was something you were likelier to still have in abundance while young, in Van Vicci’s experience.
Before you had learned the comforts of delusion.
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“I grew up quite poor, that is for sure, but so did we all. We traveled, and stayed in locations where nobody else wanted to be. With time we had learned how even there, in such poor places, the rocks held secrets. So, in a way we thrived. Our art did at least.”
They could see it all before them, visions of his family and their caravan of livable wagons, going through mountains and valleys to keep out of notice and out of sight.
“But there was always a shadow looming, one of many faces, and many minds.“
They knew these parts of the story, how the Panda-ra had been persecuted. Seeing it was different, a people who had nothing but rags remaining to them, but who were still hunted for a mistake of the past, not of their making.
It was impossible to make out which one was Van Vicci at this point, each of the families had multiple children and it was clear that they did everything as a community.
“We knew how to love, and how to create. It was in our spirit. But we were never given the room to do it for long.”
They saw them again a year later, bringing everything they had gathered to hide in a huge crevice in the ground which led to tunnels and a temporary home.
When they emerged they found their brethren devastated, and the rebuilding in full swing. This was how they survived, by entire communities alternating between hiding and building each year, when they sensed their tormentors approach. Some would always survive this way.
“I had a defiant streak, I suppose. Seeing everyone being so accepting, it struck a chord in me. I knew deep down we did not deserve this. But the world is far from fair, I had learned this also, despite my youth. I decided then and there to always be unfair to my enemies.”
The next visions were all of Van Vicci growing into a warrior, one who listened intently during every lesson, even if he did not always learn what they meant to teach.
He knew following convention would not be enough, so he was working just as hard at finding new ways as he was at mastering the old. But somehow it fused into one, even if some of it was due to lucky encounters or getting support when he needed it most, in the end it was the tireless testing of new ideas that got Van Vicci to keep leveling.
He acted as a man possessed at times, only resting when he knew beyond certainty that it was not more beneficial to go on.
“I did not mind bleeding, nor even shedding the blood of others, despite both hurting. I knew that to do nothing would hurt more still, in the end.”
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He showed how they suffered setbacks, and how they lost friends and family along the way, but how Van Vicci was always the one who kept pushing for going onward, for not accepting that such pain was fate.
It seemed clear to Livia that if not for him dragging them all along, giving them someone to look up to and prove how going a step further, reaching a bit higher, was still possible; they may well have failed.
What he did not show was any of the actual battles against the Spirit, none of the ones they lost. They saw some build up, and the aftermath, where so many of the faces they had started to become familiar with were missing. But they did not see the mystic being itself.
Not until they got to that final scene.
And there Van Vicci was, somehow larger than ever, though not yet as large as he was back in the rainbow valley. He was standing with a group of twenty, all his most trusted lieutenants, and behind them were thousands of elite warriors, not even all Panda-ra, each divided into teams with specific tasks for the struggle ahead.
“There we were, and after all that time and preparation, we just had to wait for the beast to appear and fall into our trap. That was when my closest officer asked something they had apparently been wondering for a time; where did my unbending will stem from, how had I stayed so motivated for all my life, and how could they also reach levels in the 90’s?”
The vision was on pause, and they did not hear anyone speak anyway, it had been Van Vicci narrating the whole time.
Livia couldn’t bear the tension that Van Vicci was playfully letting build, with knowing him closer than the others it was a given she would crack first. “What did you tell them!?”
Van Vicci gave a booming laugh, the one thing about his voice he seemed forgetful about regulating. “They knew my true methods, of course, that was what was being taught in my schools all over, so I answered what they were really asking; what you actually need? Well, I have heard you Humans call it the X factor. The ability to defy any statistics, the confidence, or some would call it faith, that you are the exception.’”
And if that wasn’t a hell of a thing to ask a young one if they thought they possessed. Either way, it was something to consider.
“As for their first question, I think I launched into a ten-minute tirade about how much I hated our ancient enemy, how it had always felt deeply personal and how I was not going to waste one second not ensuring I got to see their corpse one day, and I have felt that deeply since my teens. I was explaining my hate with every metaphor using stones I could think of, until I even resorted to metals. In the end, despite the sincerity of my sentiment, I ended on the quite juvenile note of ‘I would not piss on him, even if he were on fire for all the world to see.’”
Livia and her gang were nodding their heads in full understanding, after all the tragedy they had just been witness to.
“And do you know what my 1st lieutenant said, with the tension of ten thousand elites behind us, having heard every word?”
His comedic timing was impeccable.
“A fire can be relit, why deny yourself the pleasure?”
The silence around Van Vicci stretched for several seconds before they all broke down laughing as one, even Hyde and Algernon were both thorougly tickled, shoulder blades shaking with mirth.
That was how the warriors prepared for the challenge to come, with laughter, and it was a good thing for Livia and the rest watching too.
“Before we go on, I want to make a few things about my valley clear. Now that you have been invited, you will always be welcome unless you commit some act I would deem unacceptable in my presence, it is not meant as a yoke of any kind, so I will neglect the details; just live your lives as you would. But you can always return here now, just enter a rainbow for a visit.”
That was certainly welcome news, they had not known enough about this meeting beforehand to be certain it was not as fleeting as a dream, but that was probably how Van Vicci liked it, best you pay attention after all.
“And you also need to know that my valley holds challenges you are not yet ready for, including what you are about to see next. Once you are level 30 you should return, and witness the same things to perhaps learn from how your perspective has changed. You will not understand the forces at work, nor be able to pay attention to the true scope. Do not let that dissuade you, your memories will grow even stronger as you level, so observe what you can without fail, but understand that there is much yet to learn also,”
What came next in the visions was a calamity beyond imagination for such low level people.
Just like the rainbow valley, it was like the gathered army had all suddenly entered a different realm–but this was beyond any shade of doubt a hostile one.
The snowy mountains they had been standing among had turned to broken crags, blackened with a perpetual lack of sun, as the sky above held nothing but dark whirling clouds, interspersed by the occasional carmine lightning that caused no thunder.
They saw Casters spreading their dominions to challenge the hostile environment, protecting their groups from the passive effects, but those bubbles were fraying at the edges from the very first second.
After that their enemy made its entrance, not in any destructive manner though, suddenly it was simply there–appearing as easy as a flash, despite consisting of thousands of tonnes of mass. All glowing with a carmine blood magic wherever its dark, snake-like skin did not protect it.
This was its territory, even if it was not almighty here, for a price it could do anything. But it was being wasteful, which made Van Vicci smile. He had already prepared each and every soul behind him for the mental effects of seeing such an impossible feat from the outset, so the effect was completely wasted.
Tiamatlin did not care. The Malefic Hydra, the Baneful Violator. It had all manner of titles. Worldeater, for having consumed another Great Spirits spiritual realm. Nightmare’s Visage, for how even the survivors had their psyches marked.
The younger Van Vicci evidently did not care either, even as a mortal he could match them all. The Red Menace, the Runic Warden. Panda-Ra’s Heir of War. The Stoneshaper.
The gargantuan, twelve-headed serpent raised its heads to the sky, and in seconds glowing ritual circles appeared beneath all the lesser fighters Van Vicci had brought. He slammed his staff down, a smaller yet identical version to what the Titan still wielded–and a Skill sent everyone in his army to their secondary prepared positions.
Then he flung himself at his ancient enemy, like a man looking to die. He had less than a hundredth of the Great Spirits mass, and even in sheer magic he was no match for it. But he hit his race’s ancient enemy like a modern missile striking a warship.
To Livia and her crew it looked like one of its heads just exploded.
But it was not called a Hydra for no reason.
The rest of the battle…They barely understood.
Everything was happening so fast and with such complicated Spells that all they could truly witness was the devastating effects. People were dying all over, as the Spells of the Great Spirit struck too fast when it was not focusing on an entire army at once, making it impossible for Van Vicci to protect them, but something strange was happening each time.
Despite being struck with carmine markers–and an explosion of tainted fire consuming them less than a second after–in that short window the warriors were biting down on something, something that seemed to send an intense white light straight to Van Vicci, empowering him for several seconds–even longer in some cases.
Livia’s interpretation was that they were sacrificing their lives before their enemy could steal it from them. They were using the last of their life-force to empower their champion and deny their strength where it had never belonged.
Looking behind her, she could see that some of her [Guild] had on aghast expressions that meant they may well be interpreting things differently. They would need to talk this all through once things were settling back down to normal.
When the Great Spirit finally fell it was long after Van Vicci’s companions had already been devastated. Yet the hero fought on.
The final sequence sent him streaking like a light towards the last of his enemies’ minds. He had lost an arm by that point, and was bleeding all over, yet he had somehow picked up the pace right as his ancient enemy started flagging.
They all wished they understood more of the true forces at play, it seemed like something beyond magic, but trying to sense it before they returned at level 30 was evidently a fool's errand.
The vision finally ended with Van Vicci standing victorious.
None of them had the heart to ask to see what came next.