Infinitium

(Day 167) Aprilis 12th, 12th year of the Dragon, Age of Enlightenment

Adam activated his Cloak of Invisibility then ran as fast as he could to Venoran. A voice spoke into his mind and surprised the crap out of him which caused him to fly through the air until he brought himself under control again. As he corrected his trajectory the voice continued, “Hello, Adamantadine. I am contacting you directly to ask you to first head to the Temple of Serena in Venoran and save Freya.”

“Freya’s in danger?” he asked interrupting the voice.

“Yes, also you should know King Liam II is dead. The Council sent in a group of assassins and has killed off a significant portion of the Nobility. You will discover the reason for this eventually. Let me say that the fates decreed that it would be so with or without your influence so do not blame yourself. In your Place of Power, we may have a longer conversation. I will end this by saying you may heal Adaline freely with my power while she is in your home. Otherwise, my powers will not aid you. Good hunting my cleric

“Thank you, Serena,” Adam said.

“What the fuck was that?” Abi asked.

“Just my goddess talking to me. Going to be busy in the near future. Seems there’s a war on. Going to be going against rogues and assassins it looks like. Time to bring our super A-game.

22 seconds later Adam started circling Venoran in order to slow down then headed down to the Temple. At a more reasonable pace. As he did so he cast God’s Sight, which would last 500 minutes, then reactivated his Cloak of Invisibility. As he sped into the temple he noticed that city guards were fighting three other city guards and there were two individuals moving slowly up behind Freya and another priest surrounded in a red glow,

“Abi what’s the red glow mean.” He asked.

“You didn’t read the spell? Hold on, I’m looking through you’re prompts. Okay got it. The red glow means that there is a hostile…” Abi was saying as Adam struck the individual trying to sneak up on Freya for full damage which caused him to explode and also destroyed the chest piece he’d been wearing as well. Later when he reviewed the combat log he would learn that he had hit the assassin for 1,908,639 damage.

“… towards you, or someone you consider a friend and that they are somehow obscured from sight…” Abi was saying as Adam struck the 2nd stealthed target causing the exact same effect.

“…If the red glow only surrounds someone’s head, that means they're hostile but visible.” Abi finished as Adam used his 3rd combat action to scan the room.

As Adam scanned the room there was a pop behind him as a short sword came into existence stabbing toward Freya’s back. Adam moved and deflected the blade while he performed a called strike to this assassin's head with the sole purpose of knocking them out. The assassin slumped to the ground behind Freya as Adam had the nanites remove all nonmagical items from the assassin while taking all of her magical items and placing them in his ring. When the assassin was nude he had the nanites cover her in a toga.

Leatrice had been waiting to use her shadow step ability to finish Freya with a backstab attack that would do well over 60,000 points of damage if it hit. She had two of the new recruits sneaking up and was surprised that the two clerics had not noticed them yet. As she activated shadow step out of the corner of her eye she saw the three guards that were on her side crumple to the ground or did one of them burst part and the two recruits explode as she shadow stepped passed them and appeared thrusting her shortsword forward for the kill. Which never landed as something struck her head and blackness fell.

Adam scanned the room as he set the nanites to clean up the dead but left all the equipment. He also made sure to repair any damage his attacks had done to the temple. He looked at Freya as she turned around and said “Serena sends her love.”

“Thank the Goddess, and you, Adam. The Castle has fallen, and the King is dead. Knowing what you can do. Destroy any of the attackers that are not city guards. Try to do non-lethal blows on any of the residents of the city. This spell will help you identify those that hold residence. Be warned one is an Assassin of considerable strength,” Freya said. Then she cast her spell

Freya has cast the level 40 spell Eyes of the Kingdom of Venoran. For 100 minutes anyone who is carrying papers or bears a coin or talisman with the spell Resident of Venoran on their person or in an extra-dimensional space they are carrying will be surrounded by a soft white circle. This can be noticed up 100’ away. This spell cannot be resisted.

“You will have to teach me that spell when you get a chance. Are you going to be safe here?” Adam asked as the guards started to bind and gag the last two traitorous guards.

“In a moment. Please protect me while I cast a spell.” Freya said. Then she started to Pray. A minute later a wave of energy pulsed out in all directions.

Adam looked at Freya questionly.

“It was a magical barrier of sorts. It is not a physical barrier as much as it is a mental warding. Anyone that is not a resident of Venoran will not be able to come within 1,000 feet of this location” she said.

“And the traitors that are residents? Adam asked.

“I do not believe there are many in the city. If they come in numbers we can’t subdue or handle, I have another spell that will seal this temple physically.

“Okay, sounds like a plan,” Adam said as he pulled the Staff of Healing and the Staff of Resurrection from his ring and handed them to Freya, “I found these yesterday. Use them as you see fit and keep them or pass them on to another cleric. We both know I’m not much of a healer. I’m going to head to the castle first. Then run through the city taking out any hostiles that are not members of the city first. See you on the other side” he said as he activated Displace and Stealth.

Freya watched Adam disappear from normal sight and then felt the air shift as he left. She moved among the wounded and started healing as she instructed her acolytes to check for survivors outside and to move them inside. She sent thoughts of thankfulness to her Goddess as she realized it was going to be a long day. Even so, she knew she had a lot of work ahead of her. She might as well get to it.

Adam was in the throne room 2 seconds later. Noting the female assassin who did not bear the mark of a resident of Vernon. Adam rushed forward and plucked out her heart and released it in midair in front of the assassin’s eyes. There was a look of pain, then surprise as she noted the heart. Finally, shock filled her eyes saw the bloody heart and she tracked it as it, and she, fell to the ground. There was a loud splat as the assassin slumped to the ground and died. Once Adam was satisfied that she wasn’t coming back from the attack, he left the room in search of more targets.

To Lady Francesca the assassin had been moving toward her, then the assassin had a hole in her chest and her heart had appeared in the air before her as the heart and she fell to the floor. Lady Francesca watched as a look of surprised shock came over her face as her eyes saw a beating heart in front of her, just as an incredible pain tore through her chest. The assassin looked to her chest to see a fist-sized hole just as everything went black and she fell to the ground dead. Lady Francesca screamed.

Adam sped through the Castle finding almost 30 assassins on the lower floors as he systematically searched the castle for anyone that didn’t belong. They were all extremely low-level, and each was killed by having their hearts plucked out. This led to screams from nearby residents that were being toyed with by the assassins. Adam then went through the upper floors and found another 25 assassins who were busy trying to either break into the king's personal family chambers or they were trying to kill off the other members of the nobility. Each Assassin was killed by having their heart plucked out and dropped in front of them. As Adam left the Castle 3 minutes later he was absolutely sure there were no assassins in it, though the screams of the witnesses to the assassins' deaths started to emanate from the castle.

Going clockwise Adam searched every single residence and structure around the Castle and found another 15 low-level assassins that he killed by showing them their hearts. This made 55 low-level assassins. As he started a second ring further out. He ran into 18 advanced assassins. He’d started Analyzing them before attacking. He was still leaving them with their hearts on the ground and witnesses screaming. This had the effect of creating a cacophonous scream that emanated from the castle in all directions much faster than Adam could make his way through every building. As Adam moved through the buildings he noted those buildings with dead bodies and those that the Assassins had seemed to skip. He’d let Freya know about it but if the city did nothing he might revisit their homes and deprive them of everything they owned.

Desirae was getting ready to go into another Noble’s home that had not sworn allegiance to the council when she heard the continuous screaming coming from the Castle. She activated stealth as did her left and right-hand lieutenants as they set themselves in a 3 spoke formation, each looking out to cover 120 degrees of their surroundings

Adam was on his fourth circle. He’d killed another 24 assassins, of which 7 had been low-level. When he came to a halt and analyzed three Legendary Assassins that seemed to be waiting for something. Probably him he mused.

Analyze: Success: Desirae Level 4,897 Hit Points 5,437

Analyze: Success: Hera level 3500 Hit Points 3,890

Analyze: Success: Kera level 3760 Hit Points 4,180

Adam ran through the air so that he was 449 feet directly above them looking down as he cast a fireball at the spoke. Once he cast Fireball he activated the Ring of Blinking to change his location and direction of movement and also to break the Line of Sight of anyone that might have seen him.

Desirae had not lived as long as she had by hesitating. She caught a shadow against a wall that had not been there a moment ago and activated her ability Shadow Form. Her lieutenants were not as quick and took a fireball that did over 254,000 points of damage to each of them. They, and most of the structures within 30 feet were turned to dust as she survived. Desirae tried to track the target and knew where he had targeted to land. She activated another ability and stepped through the shadow to kill her attacker only to find nothing.

Adam saw the last assassin and cast Mage Bolt. Luckily for the assassin, she was wearing a Necklace that was specifically designed to thwart Mage Bolt by creating a field that absorbed the energy of the attack which could be utilized to fuel other spells and abilities or even charge magic items. The problem though was that it had a maximum limit of energy it could absorb. Seeing how powerful the fireball had been she hoped it wouldn’t be so with Mage Bolt. She knew she was in trouble when she saw multiple bolts of all eight colors streak toward her. She knew that the spell would saturate her necklace which would cause it to explode doing full damage to everything within 20 feet.

Adam was unaware of any of this as he activated Invisibility and Jumped to hover directly above the assassin so that he could witness his handiwork. He didn’t need an assassin sneaking up on him. That was why he was completely surprised when he saw a shadow take something that was glowing from her neck which he identified.

Identify: Success: Necklace of Negation. If worn this Necklace can absorb up to 100,000 points of damage from the spell Mage Bolt. Stored damage can be converted to magical charges for wands at a 10 to 1 ratio. Magical Staves at a 25 to 1 ratio. Artifact charges at a 100 to 1 ratio. If the Necklace absorbs more than 100,000 damage there is a 1% chance per point of absorbed damage above 100,000 of detonation. Within 1 second.

Desirae moved her hand toward her ring and the necklace disappeared.

It must be a Ring of Holding Adam thought, this could be bad, he analyzed the Shadow and was not shocked to see that it was Desirae, the highest-level assassin that had survived. Adam started to fly up to put a little more distance between himself and her and watched as she drew back her hand to throw the ring when it shattered as darkness expanded from the point of the ring and opened into a sucking vortex that sucked the Assassin, and everything with 1000’ that wasn’t secured into it, including Adam.