Chapter 33: System event: The Luxian conflict

I stare at Sairal as he teaches me every swear word this world has. And there are a lot. Most of them are just random words that don’t mean anything to me, however, the name Beluraia comes up a lot. Maybe she’s like Pursua?

The system chimes again, this time only in my mind.

*System event: The Luxian conflict.

*You have been added to the Luxian faction.

*Defend the Luxian forest to event gain points. Defending the forest includes: Slaying invaders, setting up defences, protecting other forest dwellers, destabilising enemy participants’ plans…

*Event points can be spent in the event shop.

*Enemy factions include:

-Zulis

- Cave Crawler Empire

- The Plateau

* Smaller groupings or individuals include.

-Firedancer

-Guralin

-Zorza

-Igruoso

-Devourer of nature

-Zilindial

-The Master

-Chara

-Merriser

The list goes on and on. In my mind, I scroll through it and suddenly stop at one entry. I break out in cold sweat.

- The Firesword maidens

Her last name was Firesword. It can’t be a coincidence.

My face sours as if I bit into an unripe apple.

I’ll get my chance to take her down sooner than later.

*Defeat any smaller groupings or individuals for extra points.

*Good luck!

The system says in the most emotional voice I’ve ever heard it speak in.

New windows pop up in my mind. One displays the rewards you can buy with points. The rewards are immense. From stat points, to levels in skills, and back to buying new skills and items.

*Time remaining: 300 days, 14 hours, 22 seconds.

*Event points: 0.

“Sairal,” my voice fills the void around us, the world still suppressed by the revelation of a system event.

I repeat his name again, this time getting his attention. He blinks a few times and focuses on me, “On a scale from one to ten, how bad is this.”

He seems to consider the question seriously, “Fifteen. Maybe sixteen.”

I look at the campfire. Even the flames seem to be subdued by the recent events. “That bad huh?”

The dryad shakes his head beneath the brown robe. “To be honest, Green. I don’t know. I can only guess. But I do know that this is bad. So bad, that Luxia might not survive,” he says already sounding defeated.

To liven the spirit I speak up, “Hey, it’s not that bad. Luxia had repelled that Zulis army before.”

He lets out a defeated laugh and shakes his head, “You can’t call that an army. Maybe it was back in your universe, but things are different here. By the end of the week, Zulis might send two to three armies that are a hundred thousand strong each.”

My mouth falls open and despair worms its way into my mind, growing only worse as he continues, “And that is just one of the major factions. We have the Plateau to worry about now too. They have been hesitating to join Zulis in a full-scale attack. This event will change that.”

“So Luxia will be flanked. The plateau is in the west right?”

Sairal shakes his head again, “Flanked is an understatement. We have also the so-called ‘Cave Crawler Empire’ beneath our feet. And that’s only the large factions. The groups and individuals will be much worse. They’ll breach defences and will rampage through the forest for event points.”

I nod. Attacked from the outside by strong forces while smaller groups destroy you from the inside. A dark premonition forms in my mind, “Can groups and individuals join the event?” I ask, already knowing the answer.

“They can. So any good groups or people that are desperate will flock to Luxia like flies to manure.”

My heart throbs painfully in my chest. I can see armies marching into Luxia, chopping down trees and dryads alike. Forrest dwellers run away as Cave crawlers as large as houses rise from the ground. Storms like the one the plateau created extinguish the flames lit by Zulis. Dead mushroom guardians litter the forest floor around the lake. Sairal’s tree, his heart, pulled out of the ground as if it were grass.

“We need to go,” the dryad says, pulling me out of a horrible vision of what might be. “They might send extra forces after us now that the connection is cut and it is clear that we are from Luxia.”

I nod and stand up. Sairal uses spores to extinguish the fire. He spends a minute gently picking up the mushrooms he planted for the fairy circle. And then we are off.

For most of my time in this world, I felt like I was on the verge of death. Just one step away from meeting the grim reaper. Now not just I, but my home in this world is not even a single step away from a disaster. I thought I knew this world. And then it surprises me again. A forest that is probably as large as an entire continent, maybe even larger can be destroyed.

For the first time in this world, I don’t want to go home, afraid of how it would look when I return.

***

The general laughs as she reads the system announcement. She looks at the man sitting next to her. He’s staring into the blank space before him again. If he is trying to recall what happened to him, or if he is reading the system announcements, she doesn’t know.

She takes a long moment to look at him. His face is worn out by exhaustion. When she first saw him he looked like a teen, deep asleep, captured by dryads. Now he looks diminished. Almost as if he had aged five years in just a few days.

General Aïska had several healers look over him, thinking that the dryads placed some kind of life-draining curse on him. She wouldn’t put it past those pestilential weeds to do something like that.

“Mart,” she coos. Even she knows that her voice isn’t meant to be kind. It is meant to command. To lead soldiers into battle and into possible death. But as she looks at him, she can’t help it. Her voice strained with kindness, she calls his name again, “Mart.”

Finally, he turns to her, it takes him a moment to come back from wherever he was, “The system spoke. Those dryads will die soon now that the system has declared war on them. That forest they call home and all those abominations that lurk in it will soon burn to ash.”

Finally, Mart looks up, “The dryads will die?” he asks and gives her a blank stare.

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Aïska’s fist clenches. She doesn’t want to know what they did to him. However, in the back of her mind, she already knows the answer.

Experimentation on humans.

What kind of experimentation, she doesn’t know. All she knows is that the dryads will pay. Even if she has to personally cut down every dryad heart in that damned forest.

Sensing her own emotions, she forces herself to calm down. Her fists unclench and she turns to Mart. With a fake, but gentle smile, she nods, “The dryads will all burn. I will make sure of it.” She says.

After a few seconds, Mart finally nods. Then he goes back to staring into the blank space in front of him.

General Aïska of the second battalion, repeats the words, “The dryads will all burn.” This, she promised. To herself. To the man. They will all burn.

***

Her sword is fire. Meat sizzles and burns when she cuts. Monsters fall. Experience is gained.

Iveihla Firesword closes her eyes as she feels the experience flow into her.

Notifications of levels, skills, and a system event reach her mind.

The last makes her pause for a minute. Then finally she grins. Her white teeth glinting in the sunlight.

She stabs the dead beast which she stands on another time for good measure. Her band is watching below, so she must put on a show. So far it has worked. She had asked the general of the believer army for independence. And that is what she had gained; A small group of six, five women and a man.

They watch as she walks down the back of the gigantic Platypus’ back.

She looks over her team. Well, team is the wrong word. Perhaps backup would be more apt. Then again, that doesn’t fit completely either. Whatever the correct word is, Iveihla will find out as she dives into the heart of Luxia with her troop.

No. That word doesn’t fit either.

***

High above Luxia, on the barren plateau sits, a man sat, looking at the forest below.

The tall trees sway in the wind. His eyes move towards the barometer in his hand.

Magic flows out of him and he watches the needle steadily lower. Wind blows around him making his long white robes flutter.

His eyes move back down to the forest. How long would it take him to submerge it all? The last time was a good attempt, but perhaps this time he will try something different. Maybe something with wind? Or hail the size of boulders?

Who knows what the future will bring?

Before he can look at a tool he made to measure magical density an upset voice calls.

“Grandpa! If you don’t leave now, you will be late! You know what the Queen will do when you are late again!”

An old sigh escapes his lips. He takes one look at the forest below and stands up. “I know. I know. Why don’t you go study magic with Grandma? I’m sure that you will get to use it soon.”

He strolls over to the teleportation platform that will take him straight to the ruling body of the Plateau. His granddaughter was right to urge him on. The Queen of Stone doesn’t like to wait.

Before he steps on the teleportation platform he spares one glance at the forest.

Maybe. Just maybe it has the thing he needs; the final thing he needs to evolve to (C) grade.

***

Zorza entered The Master’s home beneath the ground. Like any other minion, he takes the time to look at the creations of his master that sat in the large glass vats.

Bodies, creatures, or sometimes just parts floated in the weird solution.

The difference between him and the other minions is that instead of wanting those parts on his body, he simply admired them. Artworks carefully crafted from bone and muscle, they are.

He walks past the vats, looking at the new creatures that can be activated when the Master would level more, and have more mana.

Sometimes Zorza wonders why he doesn’t swap creatures out. Clearly, a few in the vats will be more useful than the ones out or are lounging here.

He rounds the corner and entered the Master's workplace. Beneath the workbench, there is the nuisance. It lazily sleeps in the small bed the Master made for his greatest creation. That is not the snake.

The snake has failed. A mandrake defeated it. That is inexcusable.

Zorza lets out a low growl, letting the failure know that he is back.

The snake looks up, seeing Zorza, it quickly moves out of his bed, out of his home.

He almost bites off those legs the master had given it. But that would be a waste, undeserving the monster might be.

If the Master saw the kerfuffle, he doesn’t show it.

Zorza waits for the Master to be finished with his current project. Idly watching the blood drip from the workbench onto the ground.

He has to agree that working with flesh and bone can be quite messy.

Finally, the master speaks up, “Ah. Zorza. I see you have returned.” The Master says in his perfectly smooth voice.

Zorza nods, he doesn’t mind that the Master could be so consumed by his work that he didn’t notice his entrance.

“Have you seen the news?” he asks his master. Another reason why he liked the Master is because he is one of a select few that can understand him. Well, the other ones can understand him, but Zorza doesn’t think they are worthy of hearing his voice, so he only speaks to the Master.

He lets out a bark, replying to the Master.

The Master keeps knitting flesh and mending bone, “Tell me Zorza, what do you think of it?”

He takes a long moment to fabricate the answer in his mind. It needs to be flawless. His Master labours each day for perfection. Why should he be any different? “I think it will be a great boon to you-” The Master cut him off.

“To us.” He corrects Zorza. “I already told you. It is us. You are not some test, nor a disposable pawn. You are my first creation. My best creation. Or don’t you remember the past?” the master asked.

“I do. You created me, and raised me from when I was a (J) grade cub.”

The Master stops working on his creation and fully turns to Zorza, “Good. Now why is it a great boon?”

“The extra store. It has many potions and elixirs that can be of use to y-us. I even saw a few items that were… Unique.”

Then the Master starts to laugh, “You saw it too then? I wonder. Has the system placed it in the shop solely for us as an incentive?”

Zorza takes a moment to gather the courage, “I think so. It is tailored to you. And items that work with souls are rare. Even by system standards.” The Master nods.

“What about Luxia? Do you think it will survive?”

“It depends on what the King and Queen do. Certainly, Luxia will lose land in this event. The question is how much will it lose. If the King acts early on… maybe he can slow all the factions. However, even that will be difficult.”

The Master looks into Zorza’s eyes and smiles. Zorza makes sure to commit the smile to his memory. It would be a crime to forget it, “And why would it be difficult?” The master asks, already knowing the answer.

It is a test. One Zorza will score perfectly on, “The Queen is occupied with the Queens of the depths. And rumour has it that down there it is getting worse. So with her unable to fully occupy the Cave crawlers, the King has three, possibly more, opponents.”

The wolf-blooded alligator grins as he sees the Master's smile widen. “The King has to defend the east and west of Luxia all while the war below slowly rises to the surface. Luxia certainly will go down. It is only a matter of time.”

The Master gives applause and realises he is getting blood everywhere.

“We do still need to find that mandrake. And we will take full opportunity of this. Any dryad you can take on, you will kill from now on.” The master says.

He leans back on the chair and smiles, “I wonder how this will play out. But with my — with our — creations we will come out on top.”

***

Finally, we are home. Hesitantly, Sairal and I take off the clingy brown robes. Now that I come to think of it. I’ve been walking around naked most of the time in this world.

I look down. Not that I have anything to hide.

“It's better than I thought,” I finally say.

“Howso?” The dryad asks. Already looking around for any enemy that might jump out.

I shake my head, “Look around you. Nothing is on fire and the trees are still standing.” I say, pointing to a tree.

We walk towards Sairal’s dryad heart and my home.

“Pessimist,” He finally says.

“You taught me to be one,” I huff.

The conversation dies down quickly. There are no signs of battle. The humans that have been roaming around in groups are gone. The forest is desolate. Maybe even more so than when that tsunami washed everything away.

It seems like the forest denizens seem to know their predicament. No birds chirp. There is just nothing. Even the plants look like they are frozen in fear.

Unhindered we make it to the dryad heart.

The two mushroom guardians are standing around staring at something.

A blue bulky figure stands next to them, looking up at the mushrooms.

Immediately, I pull on my Stamina, letting it course through my claws and body.

Sairal notices and puts a hand in front of me, “Calm down, that’s a friend.” He says.

I want to ask him when he have friends outside of the mushroom guardians and me. Out of kindness, I swallow the question down.

Hesitantly I approach.

[Cobalt coleoptera soldier] lvl ??/?? (F)

It takes me a moment to realise that I have seen this monster before. The same recognition is on its face.

Sairal casually leans on the trunk of his tree, “It’s good to be back. Now why don’t we three have a chat?”

The beetle I saw before walked on four legs and closely resembled a beetle. This one is humanoid.

I knew that Evolutions could change a lot about someone. I changed my whole body to another type of plant. Seeing it on someone else is different.

It observes me with the same interest I hold for it. We both are in some way different than before, I guess.

Things start to get more awkward as the staring goes on. I want to look away, but something captivates me. If it is the bug-like eyes or the blue chitin, I don’t know.

Then the beetle bows. A deep bow. The gesture that made this all begin. I bow back and before I know it we sit on the moss between the small glowing mushrooms, planning for the future. To stand against the tides that will batter against Luxia’s shores? Flee to the grasslands, finding a new home. Retreat into the inner forest and be safe from the armies that will rain down soon?

“So,” Sairal says, determination in his eyes, “Let’s discuss how we’ll all come out on top.”