Chapter 70

Tone Deaf

  I’ve heard of the whole human tradition of talking to plants. I also know that Endarians are very into communing with plants and nature. I even saw the way this universe’s Rayquel; spoke to the seed I gave her in exchange for my freedom. I saw all of that, yet I didn’t think I would have seen the day, when a seed would dictate not only, who had to plant it, but when and where as well.

  That is why I am here at a dig site. The hole is already pre-dug. I am just waiting around like a moron with the seed in hand, waiting.

  And waiting.

  Yep, I have done some pretty lame things in life. Not going to lie. I don’t think what I would normally be doing, would be any more meaningful than this. But still, standing around, waiting, because a seed told us to. What is worse, the Endarians listened. Their listening of course meant, that I now had to listen.

  So here we are standing around awkwardly. Well at least I am. Everyone else, and by that, I mean all the Endarians, are standing there looking like they are listening to their favorite song. I wonder if this is what deaf people feel like while being in a club? This has got to be awkward for everyone, I think, but I know it is only awkward for me.

  “I’ve never heard her sing so happily before.” General Fellina says.

  “Yes, I must admit. I am somewhat jealous of you.” This universe’s Rayquel states.

  “You can have it.” I say, gesturing to hand the seed over to Rayquel.

  Almost instantly all the Endarians flinch away in pain, as they turn their heads away from the seed.

  “AHH!” Several the Endarians all scream in pain, at once.

  I look at them with a confused look. Fortunately, General Fellina, this universe’s version of General Tigran, speaks up.

  “Please stop.”

  “Stop?” I ask, as I pull the seed back in towards me. With that everyone visibly relaxes.

  “You could say the world tree is protesting your giving it up again, excessively.” General Fellina states.

  There is a moment’s pause as everyone takes first one, then two calming breaths, before they seem to be able to move once more.

  “Some sort of sonic attack?” I ask.

  “No, more like a sonic and psychic attack combined.” Rayquel states.

  I pause and wait.

  Finally, after a few more minutes of waiting, and having to hold the clingy seed, I ask. “So, what are we waiting for?”

  “Well, we are waiting for the correct time. But we are also trying to do something special, by having some of the nutrients from the first world tree added.” General Fellina states.

  “Nutrients?” I ask.

  “Yes, soil from the site of the first world tree have been harvested and are on their way here.”

  At first, I think of this as being no big deal, remembering the giant tree from the alternate, or fourteenth universe. But then I remember this universe never had a world tree, that or it did, but the tree died something like a thousand plus years ago. With that in mind, I realize just how crazy these people are for this stupid tree.

  Still, this whole thing did get me what I wanted. Once this is over, Rayquel and I will have a time when we can talk, and she must answer everything I ask truthfully.

  “So, the seed doesn’t want to be planted without this special dirt?” I ask.

  “No, don’t be silly.” The General begins, as if I somehow asked a crazy question about why we are waiting here. “The seed is waiting for the celestial alignment of all the planets. We are just going to use this time to make sure the seed grows properly.”

  Right, because the seed of an ancient plant, is truly worried about being planted during a time of the celestial alignment of the planets. Which planets? I don’t know, and don’t care. I realize when I am beat on crazy, and this is one time when I realize I am outmatched. So, I just wait and let them decide on when I will plant this seed.

  VWOOM!

  A sleek ship enters atmo, then proceeds to race towards us. For some reason this one sounded different. That or I am just so tired of waiting, that I notice anything. I know hundreds of ships are entering and leaving the atmosphere of this planet all the time, but this is the first one that drew my attention.

  I watch it cut an arcing path through the sky, and head straight for us. It looks like it is on a direct attack vector to us, which would be stupid as we are surrounded by dozens, if not hundreds of elite Endarian forces. Yes, this is a big deal, at least for the Endarians. Over one hundred honor guard are here for the initial planting. The sad part, they all volunteered to be here for this. These are the best of the best, the elite of the elites. In orbit there are dozens of fighter planes that are already scrambled to provide continuous coverage. Again, I cannot state how stupidly overprotective these Endarians are being. I also cannot state how stupid it would be to test their resolve in protecting the seed. Perhaps this was why I was drawn to the ship clearly entering our sector of space.

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  “Oh, looks like my secretary has finally arrived, and just in time.” General Fellina said.

  At that comment, I made the mental note that I would hate to be the General’s secretary. Being sent on the worst of tasks, in this case likely traveling across half of Endarian space to get dirt. Worse, I bet this dirt was exceptionally tough to get.

  Nope, I did not envy the secretary at all. Then a thought hit me, I wondered what the secretary looked like. In my mind, I imagined for a second, the General using her rank and position to seduce the lowly secretary. “Oh, you’ve got my soil. Look at you, you dirty, dirty boy.” Sorry, sorry. I know, I’m going to stop. But I can’t help it, I have been here waiting so long to drop a stupid seed into a hole in the ground, for so long that my mind is now wandering. I would also like to point out, that my maintaining focus for more than thirty seconds is a blessing not to take for granted. Thus, this entire time here, has been an exercise in futility. You guessed it, futility won.

  The ship lands not too far away, and a gangway drops.

  “Finally.” Rayquel says.

  With that one comment, I felt like we were soulmates. That or maybe this was just me projecting. Still, I felt closer to her at that moment, than well ever. My being the foreigner, I didn’t get to say such things, but for her to state how I was feeling. That meant a lot to me.

  I was so busy looking at Rayquel, that I almost missed the moment the first few people began leaving the ship.

  From their military garb it was clear that they were the pilot and co-pilot respectively. I was about to comment on her secretary being a pilot, when I saw a form coming down walkway. This last person was carrying a rather large box, but the box wasn’t what caught my attention.

  No, what caught my attention was who, no, what was carrying the box.

  An icy chill ran down my spine, as I stared on in horror at the monster coming down the walkway and I thought. You have got to be kidding me.

  Almost as if reading my mind everyone turned to me. Well, everyone in the immediate area. Rayquel even raised a hand to hear ear, as if trying to block out a sound.

  “What is it?” General Fellina asked, locking eyes with me.

  “What?” I manage to ask, my mind suddenly caught off guard by the way everyone is turning to me.

  “The seed, it senses your discomfort.” General Fellina states.

  “Well, there goes the element of surprise.” I mutter to myself, as I look around to see that most of the honor guard are also staring at me.

  Shrugging to myself, I turn to the Prolaxian Infiltrator, the one that is still carrying a giant box right towards us. A box that I suddenly have a bad feeling about.

  This is bad. This is all types of bad. The PI is too far away to use my Revelation Sight on, forcing him to change. I could wait for it to get closer, but that runs the risk of contaminating this site. I have a feeling that whatever is in that box will not help this little tree at all.

  “Here.” I say to Rayquel, holding out the seed. I am about to do something very stupid.

  “AHHH!” She cries out. In a second I realize that everyone around me is once again cringing in pain, as if hearing a high pitch piercing sound.

  “Okay, fine.” I say, turning my attention to the seed. “You want to be with me that badly, then so be it. We do this together.”

  I don’t have any pockets. Well, no pockets that are big enough to hold the seed. But I do have a space suit that is vacuum sealable, and a giant hole for my helmet to seal onto. With that, I pull up my space suit’s collar, and drop the seed in. Then I begin doing something very stupid.

  I cast my magic spell, Physical Attribute Boost, as I know I will need every advantage I can get for this.

  “What?” Rayquel and a few others chorus. I don’t know if she is reacting to the magical resonance, or the fact that I just tucked the priceless seed up against my chest. Regardless of her reason for her reaction, it doesn’t matter, as I am already taking off running towards the PI, not wanting to let the monster get any closer to this site.

  “Wild Stag, stop him, before he runs off with the seed!” General Fellina screams from behind me.

  Wild Stag, the supposed secretary of the General and Prolaxian Infiltrator, stops their movement for a second to peer around the box.

  I am at first confused by the comments of the general, but then in a moment of insight it hits me. This was likely one of their biggest fears all along. A ship comes in to drop off supplies. The crazy half-human sees the ship, and then thinks to make the ship part of their getaway. Why they think I would choose now to abscond with the seed I will never know. I did just try to give it away a second ago, but the seed didn’t want to leave my side. This was the seed’s fault, not mine.

  Wow, in this moment, while running towards clear danger, I realized how messed up my life has become. Here I am running towards certain danger, and I find myself trying to mentally argue that it is a tree’s fault. Well not even a tree, yet. The seed of a tree. Just how messed up has my life become?

  Pfft. Pfft.

  Laser beams fire past me.

  “Don’t shoot, you might hurt the seed!” General Fellina shouts to the hundreds of itchy finger honor guard members. Fortunately for me they missed.

  Burning.

  I feel an intense burning sensation on the back of my left calf. No wait, they didn’t miss, it just took a second for the pain to catch up to my brain. I cast Heal, almost reflexively. But I am stumbling.

  The honor guard members are charging at me from all sides. The PI for his part is only a few dozen paces away. Still, I know I cannot make it to the PI before the honor guard gets to me.

  Realizing this is likely as close as I can get and feeling that the monster is well within my effective range of my Psionic abilities. I channel energy into my passive ability Revelation Sight, changing its status from passive, to active.

  Rippling waves of power.

  Power flows out in rippling waves, out towards the monstrous secretary. The energy flows out in one continuous stream, that slams into both the box the monster is carrying, along with the camouflaged monster secretary.

  BOOM!

  There is an explosion, as the contents of the box burst into a plume of pyrotechnics, illuminating the open fields in dazzling lights. The ground rumbles from the explosion.

  “Wild Stag?” General Fellina asks, fear evident in her voice.

  OOF!

  I feel the wind get knocked out of me as I am forcefully tackled to the ground by not one, but dozens of elite Endarian warriors. I am going to wonder why, or how, but then I realize these guys are the elite of the elites. They have levels in the high hundreds. Many of them are likely part of the group that have evolved their classes to the Omega levels, meaning there is no level cap for them. Even with my Agility and Dexterity tripled from my spell, it is nothing in comparison to these people.

  I am tackled to the ground, but fortunately I have a friend. Rather than being roughly man handled, the Endarians who tackled me, all begin clutching their ears in pain. Fortunately, the seed does not like this treatment either, as it is screaming its discontent.

  I use the moment to get up from the ground, only to see that the Prolaxian Infiltrator is also grabbing its ears. I hope it is revealed now, as I take a step forward, only to feel my body make a wobbling step. This is bad, I am already drained, and I have not even come close to attacking this monster. There is just one problem, a cloud of dust surrounds the monster. Dust that was kicked up from the explosion.

  To my Revelation Sight, the monster stands out like a beacon in the darkness. But to others, the monster is likely hidden. Worse, I don’t know if I was even successful in removing the outer layer of the attacker. From the fact that I now feel completely drained of psionic energies, it had better be enough.

  “What did you do?” Rayquel shouts, her wings are fully exposed now, and she is flying straight towards me. But before she can get to me, she is stopped by a sinister sound coming from the dust cloud.

  HAHAHAHA!

  A sound of laughing machine monsters grinding through a funhouse of unsuspecting children, echoes.

  There is a moment when everyone pauses, as a gentle breeze blows away enough of the smoke to reveal the Prolaxian Infiltrator.

  “What? What is that?” Endarian guards call out.

  “I am the herald of Darkness!” The monster says, its words hissing as it pronounces the last word. With that one word, an immense wave of power is released. Then the world was cast into complete Darkness.

  “Huh?”

  The sun seemed to be covered by a cloud, as the world went multiple shades darker in a matter of seconds.

  “The light? What happened?”

  “Can you hear me?”

  “Where is everyone?”

  The soldiers all called out. Looking at the effects, I could see that this was likely some elaborate illusion. One so powerful that it cut others away from all forms of light and sound. I looked on, as people that were literally within touching distance of each other, couldn’t see or hear the person next to them.

  At that revelation, as slight tingling sensation ran down my spine. As the PI that had been the General’s secretary came forward. The monster could clearly see through their own spell of complete darkness. Because of course, why wouldn’t it be able to see through its own ability.

  I don’t know why the others didn’t use this attack, it seemed effective. I almost wondered if the different PIs had different sets of abilities, but for the moment I had a more pressing concern to worry about. Namely the fact that I would be on my own when having to deal with this PI.

  The fact that I had to kill it before it could do whatever it intended to do here was obvious.

  Just me, by myself, I thought to myself. But as I did, I felt a strange tingling sensation from my chest. My hand instantly went to the spot, that is where I felt the small bump in my suit. The bump that I instantly realized was the world tree seed.

  “Okay, fine. I am not by myself. I have you as well. You happy?” I say to the seed. With that I feel a warm pulse of energy flow from the seed into me.

  “Now I’m talking to the seed as well. At least when you are this close, I can feel your intentions a little.” I say, as I prepare to do something stupid.

  I am going to face down darkness.

  Or at least the herald of darkness.