Felix zoned out during the next thirty minutes of bargaining, negotiation, and statecraft. Thank God Melanie is here to deal with this stuff.
When do you want me to activate the secondary function on the boxes?
Once they leave the VBV. The boxes had two modes. One was a ‘both open’ mode, and the other mode would lock the box permanently before teleporting it away hundreds of miles in a random direction. Since they have the tome that they think will destroy their foes, we don’t want the side who does keep their word to suffer by responding in kind.
It’s a nefarious plan done for the most benevolent of reasons. It makes me shed a tear.
Felix chuckled internally as the various parties signed the peace accords, giving their copies to Melanie to sign off on as a witness. The emperor took his box and Felix willed the portal to re-open, allowing him to leave and return to his home ‘Verse in his throne room. Lucifer used Felix’s function of allowing certain people into the VBV to prevent anyone who entered the VBV from the Coralith Empire from going into the Monolith Empire’s portal, and vice-versa.
The empress stayed. “Versewalker, may I have your ear for a moment?”
“Yes,” Felix said as Melanie vacated his seat and left with Roy. He sat, crossed his hands, and gestured for her to speak.
“I see the various possibilities that lie here. And I thank you for establishing a permanent portal to my… ‘Verse. The Coralith Empire is in your debt.”
“Don’t mention it,” Felix stated.
“Well, I want to establish trade relations, if you’d have it.”
Felix nodded, “I’ll let you coordinate with Lucifer on that.”
“Whom?”
Lucifer extricated himself from Felix and waved, “Hi, I’m the Overseer of the VBV and Felix’s Versewalker Core. The name’s Lucifer.”
The empress bowed her head slightly, “My thanks. Would yo-” The box on the table vanished. The empress immediately stood up, “What sorcery is this?!”
That bastard! Felix slammed his hand on the table and willed the portal to the Monolith Empire shut. All those innocent people that will die.
We can save them. They only opened the box. Even if they start the ritual, it will take some time.
Right. We have time. Felix stood up and took a deep breath before exhaling, trying to calm himself as a furious empress glared at him. “I can explain…” Felix told her about the truth behind the boxes and the tomes. At first, her fury persisted. But as his explanation continued, her demeanor softened until she looked at the Portal Room, with horror on her face, as she muttered something to herself that Felix didn’t catch.
“I’m going to stop him and take the tome back,” Felix stated as he glanced at Reth. He was deep in thought. “Reth,” the Earthborn looked up and his eyes met Felix’s. “What do you say?”
Reth nodded, “We must save as many as we can. The emperor must fall and more cool heads take his place. As there is no heir to the throne, a council will elect a replacement from the remaining nobility who are eligible.”
The empress looked at Reth, “I’d like to immediately re-enact these peace accords.”
“Sounds like a plan,” Felix stated. “We just have to get the book back and eliminate the emperor.”
Reth nodded, “He must be removed – temporarily or permanently – so that we can save as many as possible.”
The empress looked at Felix with sad eyes, “I thank you, Felix Winters the Versewalker, for trying to salvage this situation. You have my thanks, and whatever support I can provide.”
Felix nodded, “My thanks, empress. I’d ask that you return to your court and prepare for a possible surge of refugees.”
Tinuriel spoke, “From a strategist perspective, you should take soldiers from the front and reinforce your food facilities and production regions. Those will be under attack by those who are desperate should the ritual succeed and the world flood.”
Felix looked at Reth, “We eliminate the emperor.”
----------------------------------------
The empress left and returned to her capital once more, preparing to order new troop movements and ready for a wave of refugees once the water level rose and all was ocean. Felix utilized one of his VBV Room functions to create a new portion of his realm. The mountains split, and an enormous ocean appeared in that space, with a resplendent city mimicking that of the capital Coralus, and adjacent to it and a part of the same city, another that mimicked Foundation. A precaution in case people needed to flee Astragos.
Lucifer merged with Felix, and he stood in front of the portal to Foundation alongside Tinuriel and Reth. “Are you ready?” Felix asked Reth.
There was a brief silence before Reth nodded and his expression became more serious. “I am. I’ve been under the thumb of the Monolith Empire my whole life. Doing what needed to be done to protect them. And now…” he trailed off as he looked to the portal leading to the Coralith Empire, “I can see that the only way to really protect them is to cut out the poison.”
Tinuriel hefted her blade on her shoulder, “Right into his throne room. There will doubtless be soldiers present. How are we with killing?”
“We do what we must,” Felix replied. “I can’t extend my Talent to you both to prevent their deaths…but I wish I could.”
A loud ‘pop’ echoed around the trio and a familiar voice to all but Reth reverberated through the space, “Hi! Vicky here! I’ve been keeping an eye on your logs.”
“Great. What do you want now?”
“Be nice, Lucifer” Vicky admonished. “I just want to let you know that the System Admin took note of one of my reports. He’s lifting some of the restrictions that he’s placed on you, Felix.”
“Good. But Why?” Felix asked.
“You’ve been doing a lot of good. The System pushes the Multiverse towards order and consistency, and you’ve been doing marvelously at returning ‘Verses to a consistent state. Heficyre, Zephelam…Astragos you didn’t get the optimal outcome, but it wasn’t even listed as a possibility to solving the Crisis because of how remote the chance was. It was the thought and effort that counted, though.”
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“So, what are we getting?”
“I’m applying Felix’s (P) Killing Intent to all Versewalker Escorts. In addition, I’ve been permitted to remove one layer of restrictions on your Queries, Lucifer. You’ll obtain more information when you try to access the System.”
“Wait,” Felix replied, “Does that mean I’ll know what Class Skills and Items do before crafting them?”
There was a loud sigh, “Sadly, no. It’s not because of a restriction, but rather, it’s because you’re the first one to have those options. You’re constantly adding information to the System as you encounter it. So…the next person to come across an Invictus Ancient Dungeon Core, they will know what Whisperfang does ahead of time.”
Tinuriel frowned, “Seems like this System needs our help more than we need its help.”
Vicky groaned, “Yeah, well, don’t let my boss hear you say that.” There was a commotion behind her, and then a new voice reverberated around them.
“Hi Felix. I’m Jax, Vicky’s assistant. She got pulled away for an emergency meeting. First off, big fan of what you’re doing.”
“Thanks?”
“Sure, no problem. Oh! There’s one other bit of information she wanted to pass along. Multiversal Horrors are starting to occur more frequently in some of the higher Core Level Versewalker VBVs. Make sure you have fortifications and defenses ready. Gotta go!”
The air stilled around the trio and went silent. Reth glanced at Felix, “I know who they are thanks to your VBV Function, but that was still rather jarring.”
Felix looked to Tinuriel, “Now we don’t have to worry about killing people.”
“What about the emperor?” she asked as her grip tightened on Valiant Edge.
“I’d rather not kill him. We can capture him. Let the empress choose what she will do with him.”
“That’s a death sentence,” Reth replied.
“It’s the just thing to do,” Felix said. “After all, he made his choice. His free will, will result in a consequence.”
“I’ve taught you well, young grasshopper.”
Felix chuckled, “Let’s do this.” He pulled out his knives and activated a suite of Skills and Magic/Power effects in rapid succession, at the same time his allies also used a suite of Skills and Affinity effects. Ghostwalk. Undetectable Step. Shadowborn. Fallen Flight. Electroblade. Hellblade.
image [https://i.postimg.cc/JRwdmGSC/Ghostwalk-WEBP.webp]
image [https://i.postimg.cc/z5skH47n/Undetectable-Step-WEBP.webp]
image [https://i.postimg.cc/KG45t2C5/Shadowborn-WEBP.webp]
image [https://i.postimg.cc/CSn6WjP4/Fallen-Flight-WEBP.webp]
image [https://i.postimg.cc/RMRTkJVZ/Electroblade.webp]
image [https://i.postimg.cc/ry8ZWxVB/Hellblade.webp]
image [https://i.postimg.cc/cdZ9hcN2/73-1.webp]
Tinuriel’s body flared with various shades of blue and icy-white as she, too, prepared several Skills. Bastion
image [https://i.postimg.cc/0xBgWd7w/Bastion-Reflection.webp]
image [https://i.postimg.cc/X3rttBjB/Icy-Shell.webp]
image [https://i.postimg.cc/TRJstf7M/Deathless-Juggernaut-WEBP.webp]
image [https://i.postimg.cc/GR7ZMxC1/Aura-of-Frost.webp]
image [https://i.postimg.cc/KFkH8zNq/73-2.webp]
Reth utilized a combination of Magic/Power effects, combined with several class Skills. Affinity Amplification augmenting an Earth Shield to affect all three of them for fifty Temporary Health. Affinity Amplification augmenting a Contingent Heal on each of them with a trigger of being at ten Health, to heal them for fifty Health. Affinity Storage keeping a Revive on standby in case one of them died, which would automatically trigger upon the condition being met. Netherlight Mantle and Vestige on himself to ensure he survived even longer in the coming fray.
image [https://i.postimg.cc/MwDkDbNM/Affinity-Amplification-WEBP.webp]
image [https://i.postimg.cc/FvpPq87V/Earth-Shield.webp]
image [https://i.postimg.cc/0vhcXJmH/Contingent-Heal.webp]
image [https://i.postimg.cc/rcTKRcFc/Affinity-Storage-v2.webp]
image [https://i.postimg.cc/Gc5qC4ft/Revive.webp]
image [https://i.postimg.cc/gdnMZVWP/Netherlight-Mantle-WEBP.webp]
image [https://i.postimg.cc/Ph9SzCXv/Netherlight-Vestige-WEBP.webp]
image [https://i.postimg.cc/SSwVM6rZ/73-3.webp]
“Alright, I’m going in first.” Felix looked through the portal and could see the large group of arrayed soldiers staring right at them. Not seeing him, but present and ready with weapons. Easily seventy heavily armed and armored soldiers with arbalest wielding ones in the back, and several Earthborn that looked like Reth, wielding various magic tools like his staff. The room was decently lit, but there were enough people that shadows were plentiful and connected enough for his purposes. Felix stepped through the portal, and one of the soldiers must have sensed something come through, or felt the disturbance in the air, as he stabbed his pike forward. Felix deftly dodged and stepped through the shadows to be atop the dais, before flying up to the roof. He had told Tinuriel to give him thirty seconds before following through so that he could set up several Magic/Power effects. Time to try stacking these. First…Stormbringer. He took a deep breath. Here we go. Affinity Amplification. Affinity Empowerment. Jolt for 1 Anima.
image [https://i.postimg.cc/MwDkDbNM/Affinity-Amplification-WEBP.webp]
image [https://i.postimg.cc/SQJ8wxDX/Affinity-Empowerment-WEBP.webp]
image [https://i.postimg.cc/q4PQyd54/Stormbringer.webp]
image [https://i.postimg.cc/nHZkSGxW/Jolt.webp]
image [https://i.postimg.cc/kJVfG1x6/73-4.webp]
The sparks of yellow lightning zapped every single target in the room, save for the Earthborn who were under the effect of some type of Magic that prevented them from being hurt by such a low-Anima effect. That’s fine. Detect Weakness.
Affinity Amplification for area!
image [https://i.postimg.cc/qJcZzjTc/Detect-Weakness.webp]
image [https://i.postimg.cc/4J2WJkhR/73-5.webp]
The golden circles highlighted every single person in the chamber. Twenty seconds left, Felix thought as he took in the whole situation for a final moment. The doors in each direction were locked tight and barred. He had marked every target with Lightning Rod thanks to Jolt. Use two Vigor Elixirs to top me off.
Done.
Felix targeted each of the Earthborn magi, waiting for the moment Tinuriel exited the portal with Reth behind her. He didn’t have to wait long as he counted out the seconds. 5. 4. 3. 2. 1.