NOVEL NEXT 49. A Night to Remember XI
At some point, I noticed that Fahria's glass construct skill had evolved and she could now have several glass blades flying around everywhere. For one brief glorious moment, she looked like an angel with hundreds of glass blades forming armor and wings around her before they all zoomed off. The knives turned and changed shape in the air as they shredded through one large kobold. The glass burrowed inside flesh and shot out through it or just fragmented to wreak havoc to internals. Who knew that minions of mad dragons were good for experience? Probably everyone, now that I thought about it. The problem was always just surviving the actual dragon part. But I digress. She looked like she had a handle on her target so I moved on.
Elsewhere, Medea was grappling with a bestial kobold while its children and drones tore into it. It was doing great too.
And me? Well, I was clearing out the rabble so that others didn't get overwhelmed or waste all their mana on it. On a related note, I was now starting to understand why anyone would ever forgo mana and flashy skills for raw physical stats. Not having to worry about mana when killing a kobold was a game changer. Sure, I was getting physically tired but that was at a much slower rate than mana drained in a fight. In short, I was almost having fun.
Despite the admirable performance so far by all three of us, we paled before the raw annihilation that a foreigner whose name I didn't know rained down. Blood-red threads lacerated and sliced through limbs like writhing angry snakes. Whoever the pale dude was, he was destroying kobolds. Until the dance of red stopped. I looked up with a tendril. It was exactly who I had expected. A towering humanoid shaking off pulped human from its weapon before somehow just disappearing from the pillar. The pillar that had space for one regular-sized man and definitely not the kobold who had been on it just a moment ago.
Crusader.
The kobold that I had mentally labelled as 'Crusader' was below average in size by the standards of the super-sized kobolds that were now trying to kill us all before we could escape. It was also one of the more human looking with only the deep cross-shaped gashes on an otherwise completely blank face giving away its inhumanity. That, and the size. Hence the name.
Crusader didn't use claws and fangs like its siblings, no, it used the aforementioned siblings as weapons, swinging them like clubs. And it was smart. It seemed to actively avoid being forced into a corner or surrounded, took cheap shots whenever it could and targeted people to maximize damage and minimize risk. One moment it should appear to be engaged in a frantic melee with a warrior and the next, it would use the chaos to smash someone else into a pulp. Always anyone who seemed frail or otherwise occupied, always someone who was incapable of defending themselves, always someone who was like I had been at the beginning of the night. In a way, it did for kobolds exactly what I was doing to them.
That and the Crusader's utter refusal to be pinned down meant that it was whittling us down while we were occupied by its kin. How someone so huge could escape notice so consistently was not something I was going to pretend to understand. Still, it wasn't like we were losing. It was a stalemate. It was a stalemate when all we needed to win was to last long enough. Even with the loss of the red strings guy, we could win this. Crusader's attacks were devastating but it was only one kobold. We could do this.
As I took out another of the weaker kobolds, I briefly wondered how long the teleportation would actually take. The mana in the air was not just almost suffocating now. It was actually suffocating as the very air turned heavy and slow under its weight.
'Mother. This one needs aid.' Medea rasped in my mind and I abandoned draining my dead quarry to drop off a quick Summon Swarm. Waving off its apologies about being unworthy, I assessed the damage in a frozen instant of time. It didn't look injured before the scratches on its shell and 'Dea confirmed that it was simply jumped by too many at once. It was alright now. I turned back to the kobold I was in the process of absorbing the blood from but it was gone. I knew for a fact that it was definitely dead but where was it? The flesh was useless to everyone. I sent a few newborn scouts to look for signs of it being dragged or eaten or somehow even still being alive and returned to what I was doing best. Taking out the trash kobolds that got in the way of the actual fighters. Exterminator Anya on the way!
A woman who was supposed to be sniping kobolds with what were basically just magical bullets that she tossed from her hands was screaming in agony. She had somehow been dragged down or fallen from her pillar. Judging by the blood on her face, she had probably also lost her eyes. That certainly explained the fact that two normal kobolds were in the process of killing her while she feebly tried to fight them off. Some people were simply not in possession of skill loadouts for close-quarters combat.
While she was blind because of her injury, the two kobolds were also blind because of their singular focus on her. Just blind enough to not see what was rising behind them. Two tendrils wrapped around them and I squeezed. The kobolds exploded and I picked up the injured girl with my tendrils. And then I was sprinting back to the depths of the gambling rooms.
"Medic! I need a medic!" A tendril made of misshapen flesh hollering was probably just as absurd to experience as it sounds so it was a credit to Lady Ayn's guests that no one wasted time on giving me odd looks. With my cargo delivered safely, I was off again.
I spotted another small crowd around someone who was surrounded but before I, or anyone else for that matter, could intervene, they shone purple and the kobolds were just… gone. Poof! Nice. Note to self, I need fingers to make thumbs-up signs.
Crusader howled right beside me and then I died. Well, a spider-scorpion that I was possessing died, anyways. A shame, that one might have been capable of becoming a General, more likely a meat shield. But why did Crusader itself come to do it? I replayed the last few moments of the arachnid's life.
I had found a trail of trace amounts of kobold blood and followed them all the way back to the main floor and to the place where the pets were kept. There was something in there. Something round and massive that glowed orange.
Whatever it was, the spider-scorpion was killed before it could take a good full look at it and that meant it couldn't be anything good. I could send another scout but I had a feeling that if I did then Crusader would just come to end the problem from the source. No, it was better to just find someone who would know what to do with it. That was easier said than done because no one had the luxury to not be fighting.
If only I could make it so that the scouts didn't look like spider-scorpions that only one girl-tiger-thing was using. I could do that but I couldn't exactly have a rat poking around and be any less conspicuous. I needed something smaller. A fly? I couldn't fit all the organs into something so tiny. No, wait, I was being stupid. I didn't need it to have functional organs. It just needed to last long enough to get me a good look at what the hell was going on there. Calling one of the other scouts back, I set to work even as the mana grew even heavier if that was even possible.
One problem with working with spider-scorpions was that they were almost perfectly efficient already. I couldn't improve them without just adding in new bits. That also meant that there was nothing vestigial and extraneous. Everything was either necessary or a redundancy for emergencies. Still, I went to work. I was just removing everything I could that wouldn't immediately kill it and then doing it over and over again. It didn't need venom production. It didn't even need a digestive tract. It didn't need to be able to evolve. Didn't need a shell. Didn't need a large brain. Didn't even need legs or senses other than vision and hearing. I stripped away everything that made it a spider-scorpion until I had what I could charitably describe as a single tiny eye on wings.
The fly wobbled in the air as instincts warred against the shape of the body. I didn't have this issue for whatever reason and neither did spider-scorpions that evolved 'organically' but this thing was having trouble just staying afloat even with me guiding it. Eventually I just gave up and assumed direct control and buzzed off. I had been abusing my mental skills so much that I had a pounding migraine but this was important. If they were making even more kobolds or something then we needed to prepare.
I, as a spider-scorpion in the shape of a fly that didn't have a digestive system, buzzed forward bravely. Well, more like trying to avoid getting caught in the crossfire of combat. Still, I eventually managed to get a good look at the orange thing without dying.
It was not something to create more kobolds. No, it was possibly worse. The thing was a large glowing orange machine with a sphere made of intersecting gears of black suspended in the middle. The machine released a ton of mana into its surroundings. Mana that certainly explained why the air was so dense with it all all of a sudden. It wasn't entirely the teleporter's doing after all. Maybe it was using the teleporter to hide itself? That made sense to me.
The thing clicked and whirred as the gears slowly spun until they rested on interlocking teeth. Every time it ticked, the corrupted mana of the kobolds burned brighter. It was doing something that made the kobolds stronger constantly. They and we were both on a deadline and considering how much stronger Crusader was than any one of us already, we might run out of time first.
One of the weaker kobolds stiffened and stood ramrod straight before its mana exploded. The burned pilot lights of that enforcer faced me and its mana changed.
Shit. Shit. Shit. If Kalist was here then Valdima, Ayn and so on are all dead. And then I was too. We all were unless there were even stronger classers around that I didn't know.
"It is not often that I see someone else also appreciate the sheer inefficiency of being limited to merely a single body. Let's talk, shall we?" A voice rumbled. His voice. I mean I couldn't talk as a fly in any case but a conversation with Kalist was not something I was equipped for. Still, I oscillated vertically to indicate what I hoped was interpretable as a nod. Kalist cocked his head in amusement and a bottle of wine turned into ashes. At least him talking about not having a single body meant Valdima and Ayn weren't dead. Hopefully.
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"You can write, yes? Very well, we are both civilized men then and let's talk as such." Men? I was a girl. I might have assumed it was just an old fashioned manner of speaking but Dellish didn't have grammatical gender assumptions to begin with. Everything was neutral unless explicitly noted otherwise. Something about classes and a system where anyone could become a walking, breathing weapon of mass destruction didn't lend itself that well to the formation of social hierarchy like that. No wait. He was baiting. Fishing for information. I nodded again but he seemed even more amused.
"Not a man then? Very well, I think I know who you are."
Crusader moved like thunder and a body was plopped before the possessed kobold. My body. My actual body. Not a possessed scout.
'Mother! Summon this one to you immediately. If it means my death, so be it. You must survive and finish the Great Work.' Medea screamed in panic in my head.
"Go on, answer it. I can see your telepathic mana." His eyes dulled and he crumbled into ashes. Another simple kobold was possessed almost immediately. The new body walked closer and the ash swirled around it before disappearing.
'It's okay. I'll be fine. Don't try to come after me though. Go to Fahria. Keep watch over her.' I said that I would be fine but I didn't believe it as judging from the sheer scepticism Medea radiated, it didn't either.
"Done? Just a word of advice. If you manage to somehow escape this city before it burns, learn to hide your mana in the ambient mana of the world. Someone could intercept and even read the telepathic string of information there, if not worse."
"Thanks? I don't get why you would want to help me." I spoke to him for the first time in our rather one-sided conversation so far.
"I'm not. I'm just enjoying the slow realization of how utterly and hopelessly out of your depth your kind is set in. Let's say for example, how certain are you that your pet didn't just receive orders to kill itself?" Fuck. I immediately tried to switch over to Medea and… nothing. It wasn't there. But I was sure that it was alive. How? My skills. I had one aspect, still on cooldown but it was there. And my swarm didn't feel diminished. That made me wonder if Medea could disobey if it was unsure if the orders came from me legitimately. Gah. Mustering all of my mental skills, I glared at the kobold, at the dragon, who was turning to ashes before me.
"You are messing with me. It's still alive so presumably the order went through." The kobold didn't answer as it died but an answer came nonetheless. It was a third kobold who answered. If I was not imagining it, the second one definitely lasted much longer than the first one.
"Maybe. Maybe not. Perhaps you are wrong and it just hasn't managed to kill itself yet. The night is still young and things can always get worse. Your pet dying is merely one such possibility." Kalist's face twisted as he sniffed. "I do recognize you, child. You thought you were helping apprehend me before, weren't you?" I nodded. No point in denying that.
"When you are alive as long as I am, child, you will find that often what you think happened and what really happened can be very different. You didn't help catch my host. You let me escape. I latched on to you and from you to that woman of ice. For some reason, I couldn't possess you. I don't know why but I have theories. And even before that, it was you who identified the face of my host for your overlords, was it not? It is curious, isn't it? How you seem to just find yourself in my way all the time. As if we are bound, you and I? Curious but not unheard of. Stranger things have happened and will happen. Some of them even tonight. For another such upcoming thing, the grand coda to this evening of revelry, do you know what this machine does?"
"It makes your kobolds stronger?" He laughed.
"Only incidentally. What it is doing is undoing centuries of decay and damage so that I may once again possess my body. My own true body that will bring me right back to the peak of my power and even beyond. And would you believe it if I told you that it will be over in moments? This city will return to fire from whence it emerged." This was even worse than I thought. Even Vinny, possessed by Kalist, was giving the city's possibly strongest a run for their aetherite. Kalist in his body and with his full power was probably several times worse.
"And that involves keeping us hostage here because?"
"Because, child, this place is built right over a section of my prison. The overseers of this cancer of a city thought that they could keep me under control by dividing me into parts and scattering me across the city. No, I only need a little to come back. This event is important and simply killing all of you is not a diplomatic price the people you call the Illustris Council can pay, even if it means letting me recover what was stolen from me. I don't have any such reservations about the value you possess and so, no, I will not let you leave."
We settled into silence for a moment. I could hear the distant sounds of a battle raging but I couldn't make out anything. Were Medea and Fahria looking for me? An irrational part of me hoped they did but I doubted it. Medea wouldn't disobey and Fahria didn't seem like the type to make dumb decisions like that. Just to stave off what was absurdly enough, boredom, I asked that which was in my mind.
"But why? Why do all this? Destroy the city? You could just get your body and leave."
"Let me tell you a story, child. When I died, my soul didn't entirely pass on. Instead it… ruptured into two. This is what happens to everyone who reaches a certain echelon of power. Death does not accept that which it cannot digest. The ruptured self remains in torpor as it is slowly broken down until it too can pass on. For years I lay like that, not really aware of time passing. Not really even thinking. For the first time in my existence, I was at peace. Do you know what happened next?" I obviously didn't but people tend to get annoyed when you ignore hooks like that. I was obviously not going to test if dragons were any better.
"What happened next?"
"Pain. Thousands of needles and saws cutting and violating my body and my soul to extract my power. This pain was not merely a physical one but one of my soul. You can't get used to it, you can't go numb and you don't lose your mind from it. You just suffer. Suffer without pause. For centuries, I suffered. And yet I escaped, and I was full of hatred. But it was not my hatred that drives me now. One of my first hosts was from what you call Gerankir. A woman, bound in so many oaths and geasses that even thoughts of freedom subjected her to agony. Possessing her, becoming one with her let me let go of my burning hatred. I don't wish to see this cancer burn from hatred, although I would certainly relish it. It is a mercy as far as I'm concerned."
"Can't say I agree but." And here I paused. What the hell was I even saying? Nah, if I'm going to die then I might as well be honest. An image of me curled up around a pillow and crying flashed through my mind. "I have known many who would find death a mercy to a life like that. Hell, even I was in that same boat once." Kalist seemed pleased with my answer and nodded.
"Very well. I'm glad that you didn't try to convince me of the error of my ways or some other trite nonsense. I lack the patience for such platitudes now."
"So what now? Can I go rejoin the others or would you kill me right here?" A part of me screamed at me for being so calm and reminding the murderous dragon that I was the enemy, another part seemed to find it funny.
"No. I would prefer it if we wait. This conversation was stimulating and I believe you deserve to see my ascendance first hand."
And so we waited. I tried to contact Medea every so often to no avail all the while the mana in the air grew heavier. Then something changed. Flames flickered and Kalist's host partially disintegrated. I jumped and yelped in surprise at the now dismembered head and torso.
"What now?" Kalist laughed. A barking harsh laugh.
"It seems that I underestimated my opponents. The body. It was a trap. This party. It was all a trap. A trap to keep me here and truly pinned down so that I could be killed once and for all. I must ask you to relay my congratulations to the lovely Lady of the Evening. She got me good. You will escape with your lives now. Congratulations to you too, then."
Holy crap. We won. I could even reach Medea again. Just like that? All that just for it to fall to a trap laid from the beginning with us as simple bait? He could be lying but it didn't feel so. I could see from Medea and every kobold was breaking down. Was that it? No. I didn't think so.
I stood up on all limbs to my considerable height and walked closer. I burned all of my remaining mana to create the gnarliest tendril I could. It wasn't made to kill or incapacitate. It was meant to hurt. Nothing more and nothing less.
"What are yu— Oh I see. This is where you prove yourself to be just as petty as me. Go on ahead."
"No. This is not for me. This is for Vinny." I said while ripping out Kalist's skin with a swipe. And he laughed.
"Please don't insult yourself, me, and that poor dead woman by justifying your actions in her name. There is no shame in enjoying torture every so often."
He just laughed as I ravaged him and viscera flew. Between every blow he would laugh. It wasn't even mad laughter anymore but a truly joyous one. He kept laughing until the mana reached a crescendo and space twisted around me. I teleported.
We were in a wooded clearing. Some kind of garden. I was pleased to see that Medea was alright. Then a glow in the horizon grabbed my attention. The Illustris Palace glittered in the night. And above it was a golden angel. No, Valdima. She was clad in crackling lightning of pure gold. Aurum Bolt.
Hundreds of clouds covering the whole city rumbled in unison and lightning fell towards Valdima, often at strange angles or after making unnatural turns. But she didn't seem hurt. The lightning coalesced around her into a gigantic bolt. Even at this distance, my hair stood at their ends while the static building created sparks around me. The downside of having fur.
The bolt grew larger and brighter as more and more smaller bolts were absorbed into it. The night sky lit up as a new golden sun was temporarily born. And then she threw it like Zeus casting a bolt.
I had never seen a thermonuclear warhead detonation in real life but I imagine the literally retina searing light and the mushroom cloud were comparable. The palace was nothing but a pillar of white-hot fire stretching upwards with no end in sight for a second before the mushroom cloud blew up. And then a sphere of translucent gold formed around it. We never felt the shockwave or the heat come. There was another thing that I wanted, waiting desperately for that didn't come either. The kill notification for Kalist. I had hurt it so I should get some, even if just a miniscule amount of experience.
It never came. Kalist never died. He had escaped. Again.
Deep in Gerankir, a fireplace roared as a glassy eyed husk of a man bowed before it while averting his eyes. As the fireplace burnt, the fire seemed to leap into the eyes of the man and he changed. He grew in height and his face became a featureless smooth mass of meat. Then gashes appeared on it as if made by an invisible whip. If the child who was always in the way saw it, she would recognise it as the one who had captured her body.
Finally, the eyes gave way to two burnt out pilot lights and Kalist smiled. The evening was not a failure. He had his body. Just severely damaged and poisoned to the point that it would take him years or extraordinary effort to restore it. But he was alive and his body was one with him now. He had won. Then he stumbled. The damage was worse than he had initially thought. He was even weaker than he was when he had first escaped. At least he was alive and free. Free to fix himself.
A notification that he hadn't had since the days of the old Empire flashed across his vision. A quest from a god.
\\\\Generating quest
\\\\Kill the girl who appears in your way. Kill eleven others like her.
\\\\REWARDS: Divinely empowered draconic body from the hidden one who hides behind a thousand veils. Every kill promises greater upgrades.
\\\\Failure will result in divine smiting
Accept quest?
He paused. How downright interesting. That certainly reduced the possibilities of what was going on with the girl. Still, he didn't hesitate to reject it. He was done being the plaything of divinities. Kalist had learnt his lesson from Arshanara. It was possibly the only good thing about his tryst with the goddess of the devouring fires. The city would burn and so would the girl but not because of some god willing it so. Kalist would not bow anymore.