Brant’s claymore swung at Alix’s head with more rage behind it than he would have liked. The man had taken to the greatsword like a duck to water and he relished every opportunity he got to swing it around like a madman, even when he was supposed to be training Alix instead of decapitating him. It forced him to learn quickly though, much to Brant’s chagrin.
As Alix deflected the would be killing blow with Xilian, he realised it was the first time he had properly wielded the sword. At Mortlake, Tifayn and Brant had managed to do all the damage by themselves. It was disconcerting how quickly the blade began to level up as he deflected blow after blow. Lv. 2, Lv. 5, Lv. 7. With each level, Xilian moved faster in his hands and deflected blows harder, until he was worried he was in danger of destroying the claymore, something he really didn’t want to do. He had made sure to remind Brant it was just a loan, until he either returned to Galdea, bought himself a new one, or helped to forge one himself.
“I think that’s enough for today, Brant,” Alix said after a particularly powerful deflection sent a jarring vibration coursing through both of their bodies. “If we go any further, the claymore is going to shatter.”
“You are just trying to think of an excuse. I don’t like weak people,” Brant replied, trying to coax him into another round.
“If you are willing to reimburse me the one hundred gold coins I paid for that sword, then we can keep going, but I would prefer things didn’t go that far. I think we should take a break until I can forge us a pair of training swords, ones of equal strength that my Darknight abilities won’t keep powering up. We could both do with some armour as well. I feel like I’m pretty much impervious when I’m wearing Primal Ruin, and you don’t have anything other than your clothes,” Alix said, trying to reason with the man.
“You haven’t been able to hit me yet though. I think I will be fine. Come on, we’ve barely started.”
“We have been at it since daybreak, and I’ve deliberately not hit you because you would probably die. I’ve got more to get done today than take a beating.”
Before Brant could argue further, Aix put Xilian back in his inventory and left the grounds. Brant flinched at the sight of the sword disappearing, still finding it difficult to wrap his head around Alix’s abilities.
The first task on his to do list was to have a talk with Evory. It felt like she had caused nothing but trouble since the day she had arrived at the castle, however many hundreds of years ago that was. She had destroyed the spell on the skeletons, which in turn led to the ruination of the castle. She gave him the vampire crown, a holy relic of her race, which caused who knows how many demons to revert to their rage filled unbound forms. Then she dragged him into a war with slavers which led to the deaths of dozens of men. The only positive he could think of was that the Ringtails had been saved. He would have uncovered the Vault and the Gargoyles sooner or later without her chaotic intervention, but he probably would have ended up killing Brant.
Alix was no longer able to speak to Evory through the crown, but he found a new ability had been unlocked that pretty much did the same thing. As a “Vampire Prince” he was able to locate Evory on the map, if she was in close proximity, and “request” an audience with her. This he did and she instantly accepted, still insisting on thinking of him as her master. Before he even had time to catch his breath from the brutal training, she dropped out of the sky.
“What is it master?” Evory asked eagerly.
“I’m sure you have noticed the Gargoyles running around by now, Evory,” Alix began, bracing himself for what was to come.
“Big brutes keep interrupting my sleep. They say the tower is one of their ‘lookout points’, but I have been here longer than they have been gone so it should be mine now,” Evory pouted.
“They are the original security system of the castle, Evory. I wish I had known about them earlier. If they can help repair the castle as well then that is just a bonus. I’m sure you can still keep your tower, they only need the roof, but I guess you don’t really need to keep an eye on things anymore now that they are back.” Alix braced himself for an outburst but Evory just went quiet.
“Are you telling me to leave?” she eventually asked in a quiet voice.
“No, of course not!” Not in so many words anyway, he thought, hoping the crown didn’t give her some sort of power to hear the thoughts of everyone in her ‘Court’. “There is plenty of room here for everyone. I am just saying that with the Gargoyles back, there’s now dozens of others guarding the place so you don’t have to. This means you can do whatever you want now. You can go and look for more vampires, or find some humans that are willing to become vampires or however it works here. You could find a proper job, one that actually pays you money. You could find somewhere to live that doesn’t leak,” Alix said, but with every word her face darkened until he started to wish he was still wearing Primal Ruin with Xilian in his hand.
“I think I’ll stay, master,” Evory said through gritted teeth. “But I think you are right. I should be planning how I’m going to rebuild the vampire race. I’ll get to work on it immediately,” she said, taking off into the sky as quickly as she had landed, barely having heard half of his suggestions for what she could do. He had half a thought of sending her to investigate the slave trade in Celadon, something that had been bothering him. He knew he wasn’t going to be able to let it go now that he knew. He doubted anyone else was going to do anything about it. There was no chance Leon was going to go out and do anything so heroic with the tight leash he was on. He was even going to offer to craft her a pair of metal teeth so that she didn’t have such a hard time finding other victims. He didn’t have time to ponder where she had gone. He had said what he needed to say and that was enough.
Alix retreated inside and after a quick bite to eat, and finding that Tifayn was still asleep, he got to working on one of the things that had been waiting for his attention for too long. With all the blueprints and books he had absorbed, he knew how to craft pretty much every piece of wood the castle needed. For the next few hours he did just that. He called on Mr Bones and some of the other skeletons he had entrusted with taking charge of some of the work, and got them to list off everything they needed.
The piles of lumber in the ground depleted one stack at a time as he crafted roofbeams, doors, floorboards, walls, stairs, bannisters, trim, and countless other things, each piece carted off into the castle as soon as it appeared. Then he got to work on making the place more comfortable for the Ringtails. He crafted new beds, chairs, tables, wardrobes, everything a proper house needed, even if they didn’t have any clothes to store in the chests or belongings to lay on the surfaces. He cushioned the chairs and beds with Butterfloss, a fluffy plant not unlike cotton that had grown in abundance in the grounds.
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Once the woodworking was done, the stocks of lumber dangerously low, he changed track to clothes. First he practised on himself, crafting a few pairs of shirts and trousers, then made a few durable work outfits for himself and the skeletons. Once those all turned out well enough without any issue, he offered to craft the Ringtails anything they liked from the books he had on hand. They were shy and reluctant to engage with him at first, until he seemed to pull a dress straight from the pages of a book. Then they all got in line with their demands. He kept on crafting until he ran out of Fibre.
I’m going to have to spend a week in the woods cutting down more trees at this point, he thought to himself, although that was still another item on his to do list. He needed to cut the forest back far enough that no one could sneak up on them. At that thought, he decided it was time to have a talk with the Gargoyles, or at least the one that seemed to be their leader, Ajugor.
With the activation of the Security System, a new tab had appeared under his Map menu named Gargoyles. It showed the two dozen or so Gargoyles and Hounds in and around the castle, with the areas they had just been in coloured green, and the areas they had yet to patrol in red, with an active zone constantly updating in their field of vision. It really helped him to feel more secure in the place, as did getting all the rotten doors finally replaced, but there was still the question of the metalwork. Until that was also replaced, the Gargoyles on his map were the next best thing, if not better. He was able to communicate with each one and send them to help each other or patrol a specific area.
Alix checked the map and found Ajugor on a high floor of the castle, in an area he had considered too dangerous to explore before, but as soon as the Gargoyles had been released, they instantly got to work making their rounds, and once they were satisfied that the area was clear, they turned their attention to restoring the stonework, while a few of the hounds continued to patrol the grounds. He would have trekked all the way up there, but the dozens of skeletons were working fervently throughout the castle installing all the new wooden fixtures. Likely half the stairs he would need to climb to get up there had already been torn down, so he called to Ajugor and asked him to meet him by the gates. Alix grabbed his Azurite Axe and headed out to the forest to get started on more of the trees encroaching on the wall.
Ajugor wasn’t as prompt as Evory or Mr Bones, instead taking his time to finish the task he was doing before he soared down on large wings that looked too heavy to support his weight in the sky. Even animated, the Gargoyles still looked like they were made of smooth solid stone.
“You called master?” Ajugor said formally, standing as stiff as a soldier in front of his commander.
“I just thought it would be good for us to have a talk. We didn’t get much time in the Vault. How are you finding things since waking up? And please, this place has been your home a lot longer than it’s been mine, and it will be yours long after I’m gone, so you don’t need to be so formal.”
Ajugor cleared his throat and relaxed slightly, a sound like a landslide echoing in the distance.
“The castle is in a poor state, but the skeletons are doing an admirable job of restoring what they can. Some of their stonemasonry leaves much to be desired, but we Gargoyles will be able to sort that. All in all, it could be worse. The myriad spells on the place have kept the important parts standing and the rest is basically structurally sound, even if it does look a bit worse for wear, and the foundations are still as strong as the day they were laid down. It will take more than a bit of wind and rain to knock this place down.”
“That’s good to hear,” Alix said, taking a swing at the closest tree and feeling instant satisfaction at seeing it fall, and then burst into hundreds of new units of Lumber. With his new muscles, the trees easily fell with one strike, where before it had taken him close to an hour to cut down the first tree. “The skeletons are stronger than they look, but I always worried the stonemasonry was going to be beyond them, especially without any tools. You say the Gargoyles will be able to take over that side of the repairs?”
“Of course, we have already started. The holes in the wall will be repaired before nightfall, the towers along its length fully serviceable again, and then we will work on the roof. Us Gargoyles are able to shape stone with our hands, which seems like it’s going to be a handier skill than ever in these times. The most use I got out of it before was tearing a slate off the roof and fashioning it into a javelin to skewer an intruder.” Another three trees fell to Alix’s axe as Ajugor spoke, some pride filling his voice as he spoke of the Gargoyles strengths and powers. “It pains me to see the castle in such a state, so I will endeavour to do everything in my power to restore it to its former glory. Us Gargoyles and the castle are one and the same after all. We were carved from the same rock that was cut to build the castles foundations, an ancient vein that runs to the heart of the mountain. Maybe that makes the castle more like our father.”
“I never thought about who built the castle. For some reason I just assumed it was always here. Do you remember who built it? It must have been tens of thousands of years ago,” Alix asked, taking a break from felling the trees to hear Ajugor’s story. The Gargoyles were just as interesting as he had hoped.
“Of course I remember. It was the First Darknight. His name was Afthalos, but he goes by Mr Bones now.”
“Mr Bones is the first Darknight?” Alix burst out after a moments silence. “Why didn’t he mention it before?” He suddenly felt like he had been played for a fool, struggling to make his way in this world when Mr Bones already knew the answers to every question he had. Why had he changed his name? If he was the first Darknight, did he know what Babyl was like before the Terminus Ritual? Maybe he knew what caused its need in the first place.
“He is thousands of years old. Every time he is put to rest and brought back, a little bit more of him becomes lost. He forgot his own name a long time ago, but every time I try to remind him of it, he stops me,” Ajugor said, staring off towards the castle, as if he could sense Mr Bones’ presence.
“I’ll have to have a word with him about that and see what the deal is. It’s a real pain that no one seems to tell me things unless I ask the right questions directly. I hope you will be more forthcoming, Ajugor, as well as all the other Gargoyles. If there’s ever anything you think I need to know, please tell me at once. Oh, and if you find any intruders, please bring them to me first, alive. I just realised that if you had been here when Brant attacked me, you probably would have killed him, and his wife would be half way across Babyl by now on a slave ship.”
“I will be sure to employ less lethal methods with anyone bold enough to intrude in your domain. I will let the other Gargoyles and Hounds know as well. Best I get on that now. They are elated to be back and eager to return to their old positions, maybe with too much enthusiasm. I take it we are to treat these fox people, the angry man, the demonette and the buxom vampire as your guests?”
“Yes, the Ringtails, Casimir Brant, Tifayn and Evory are allowed to stay for now. Let them come and go as they please, but make sure they stay out of the Vault.”
“Of course, master. If you will excuse me, there is a lot of work for me to catch up on.” With that the Gargoyle took off into the sky with a heavy beating of stone wings that almost threw Alix off balance.
I’ll have to get them some swords as well, I bet they would be handy in a fight…
Alix began to wonder what sword was bigger than a claymore as he went back to cutting down more trees, harvesting hundreds upon hundreds of units of lumber, clearing a substantial swathe of forest along the wall. Did they even have need of swords? If what Ajugor said was true, they could just pick up a boulder and fashion it into a sword at will. He hoped he would never have need to call on them in a fight, but he felt infinitely safer knowing that they were there.