Lifeblood Chaos [LitRPG Apocalypse]

Sameer didn't make it. As did no one else from his team. Neither Karkatrix nor Eliza showed up.

It was definitely aggravating to be abandoned on the very day the Tower Lord was carrying out his grand plan, on the cusp of their final confrontation to stop him. A part of Ray was tempted to curse out loud, to actually divert his course and head to wherever Sameer was and kick the asshole's ass.

Unfortunately, they were running out of time.

"Eliza said they're having trouble," Marcus said with a frown. "They're being… attacked? It wasn't clear."

Ray and the rest of the squad were waiting in his and Marcus's room in the hotel. It was a little cramped, especially with Lent in there as well. Ray had actually been surprised the big, boulderlike alien could fit in.

"Should one of us go and check?" Pierce asked.

Marcus's statement had at least reduced Ray's building anger. So Sameer didn't look like he had betrayed them. He had just been waylaid.

By the survivors of those he had tried to kill in the last dungeon.

"We don't have time," Gritty said. "They'll survive. Random assholes aren't going to be able to do much to 'em."

Ray sighed. "Right, but the problem is that if they're not coming with us, I won't be able to bring them inside the palace. Shit, this is screwing up the whole thing…"

Maybe he was exaggerating a little. It wasn't like the presence of anyone from Sameer's team was absolutely vital to what they wanted to carry out. They didn't have exact, measured steps or roles that each of them needed to fulfil. It just would have helped to have powerful allies working alongside them.

It would have helped a lot.

"I want to go see if they're alright," Marcus muttered. What he meant was that he wanted to make sure Eliza was alright. He went on before anyone could argue. "But I trust them to be fine. We should get a move on. No time to waste."

Ray agreed with a nod. "No time to waste indeed. Let's go."

The first thing was to get a bunch of Aeon Mana crystals handy. They were all about to teleport. Ray literally couldn't move with four other people alongside him at once. The strain would probably cause his head to burst like a ripe melon.

But the simple trick to counteract that was his ability to teleport alongside each of his companions one by one.

Nevertheless, that was going to cost a good chunk of Mana. That was where all the Aeon Mana crystals came in. He'd need to resupply himself and keep his stores topped up.

There really was no time to waste on mistakes.

First, of course, Ray checked that the coast was clear. He nodded at his comrades, then cast Temporal Passage. And disappeared.

Reappearing a world-shifting instant later inside the bowels of the palace. His whole body was tense as a bowstring. Not just from the teleportation, but at the anticipation of what he might find when he appeared at his target location. Ray found nothing but a room. A prison, just like the one he had been in.

And beside him was the fake Pierce he had planted into the Sylvan Tower Lord's palace all that while ago.

"I can't believe they actually didn't kick you out or kill you or something," he said.

Of course, his Imitator construct didn't respond. Ray had probably forgotten to imbue it with enough intelligence to converse or carry out any other functions requiring higher intelligence.

But the point was that the first step of their plan would work. They could infiltrate the palace this way. Without a hitch.

Despite his tension lowering, Ray wasn't quite sure of things just yet. After all, there could be traps. They could have anticipated something like this happening, which was why they had left the fake Pierce well alone.

As bait.

Thankfully, a few casts of Eternal Pulse didn't reveal anything. There were the reinforced walls that would resist Mana, as well as the single doorway made with the same kind of material used to create the shackles that stopped people from using Mana. Standard protective measures. Nothing that would stop them.

Satisfied with what he saw, Ray teleported back to his room and reported his findings to the others, all of whom were relieved to see him back in one piece.

"Let's go," Ray said. "One by one."

Within a minute, Ray had transported the entire squad to the prison cell. Thankfully, it was about as big as his room, so they were all able to fit inside. By the time Ray had brought Lent—the last one—Gritty had already figured out how to get past the lock.

"It's pretty simple actually," she said.

"How did you even manage to get your blood past—" Marcus looked down to see where the blood Gritty had called up had seeped under the doorway. "Oh."

"Yeah." Gritty looked quite satisfied with herself. "And then outside, I just moulded the liquid into the lock shape they've got and hardened the blood into it."

"Quite easy, if you ask me…" Lent said.

Ray was tempted to agree. The whole infiltration was turning out to be a lot easier than he had expected. Shouldn't they have had more secure locks to prevent escapes?

Then again, the poor construct was shackled and deprived of Mana, so adding more layers of security seemed a bit pointless. Especially because he wasn't even the real deal in the first place.

The door swung open soundlessly. No creaking hinges or anything like that. Ray had to hand it to the Sylvans. At least they took care of their shit.

"We'll need to scout ahead so we're not spotted," Ray said, lowering his voice. "I also don't know the map of the interior, so that's even more reason to scout."

Scouting was easy. Ray could create a few of his Scouring Eyeball constructs, hiding them with Mimic Mana so they wouldn't be spotted. Gritty wanted to send droplets of her blood too, although they had decided earlier that it would be too risky.

Plus, the rest of them had other senses and skills to rely on. Pierce and Gritty both had perception abilities, while Lent had some sort of stone-sense thing that could detect vibrations through the ground and walls. Those would all work even against Amulets of Blinding. At least to let them know if there was anyone approaching.

They waited for a little while to see what the Scouring Eyeball constructs revealed. As they waited, Ray couldn't help but notice that he wasn't the only one who felt tense here. All his companions were either fidgeting, looking around everywhere, or were rigid as a plank left outside in winter.

It was only Lent whose features Ray couldn't even begin to decipher. He wondered if the big alien's race had any telltale features that their kind could understand.

"I think we've waited enough," Pierce said after a couple of tense minutes.

"Not yet," Ray said. "We still haven't encountered—"

His words turned out to be rather prophetic. As soon as he started speaking, one of the flying eyeballs finally met a Sylvan.

They gave no chance for any alarms to be raised. As Gritty gripped Ray's shoulder, he used Temporal Passage to appear right in front of the Sylvan. Gritty was already using her skill. The moment she materialized, a whip of bone emerged from her hand and stabbed through the Sylvan's chest, before ripping out a Growth-Mana-studded heart.

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She crushed it before the Sylvan even knew what was going on. The lifeless body slumped to the ground, dark purplish blood pooling around the corpse.

"That's that," Gritty said almost casually.

They hadn't stopped to care if that was a martial Sylvan or just a civilian. There was no room to care for such differences right then. The eyeball was already flying on, mapping out more of the palace in order to find their way to where the Tower Lord was about to call down a Paragon.

Marcus: They're getting antsy…

Ray: We'll be back in a sec.

Of course Pierce and Lent were getting antsy with Ray and Gritty taking too long in their opinion. It was time to head back.

Temporal Passage returned them to fake Pierce, from where they walked ahead to meet their companions. They waited again until the eyeballs had scoured more directions.

"I think they found the main hallway," Ray said after a little while. "It looks big enough. I think if we get past this, we should be able to find the main auditorium or wherever it is that the Tower Lord is holding his ceremony."

"Hurry up," Pierce said.

"I'm going as fast as I can."

It was strange for Ray to try and actively control the Scouring Eyeballs. Especially two of them at once. Especially when both of them were in the same room, observing mostly the same things from different angles. Thankfully, his brain got over it soon.

If only he had Scouring Ears to go along with the eyeballs. Sound would have been really helpful to help navigate, especially when he was looking for something specific.

"We should at least move from our current position," Pierce said. "The longer we stay in one spot, the greater the chance we might get caught."

Gritty tutted. "No one's going to come down here if they've left your fake back there for this long."

"We should be making incremental progress towards our goal," Pierce insisted. "What if your fancy eyeballs suddenly get taken out, huh? We'll have lost all the progress we've made."

It was Ray's turn to speak up. "It's fine. Temporal Passage can go to wherever any of my spells had been within the last minute."

"The last minute. Like that's far enough."

"Alright, fine. The palace isn't exactly crawling with Sylvans so it's not like we have to be too careful. But we're going to incorporate Plan B if we're going any further."

Both Marcus and Pierce groaned at that, but they didn't protest. Ray walked over and started applying Mimic Mana on them. Before long, they were picture-perfect Sylvans.

Marcus groaned. "Ugh, this stuff feels so slimy."

"It does?" Ray couldn't actually recall what using Mimic Mana on himself had felt like, but it couldn't have been slimy. He'd remember if that had been the case.

"Doesn't matter," Pierce said. "We'll get over it."

The funniest instance was when he used the same trick on Lent. Transforming the overlarge boulder into a slim Sylvan was ridiculous. Even Pierce, who seemed the tensest of them all here, was chuckling at the transformation.

It wasn't exactly a great disguise, and it probably wouldn't stop them from being questioned. But the idea was that it wouldn't immediately raise any alarms.

Next was again using Temporal Passage one after the other. Ray had to use up another Aeon Mana crystal by the time he finished. His head felt woozy too. Slightly worrying, but necessary to stop the Tower Lord when they got there.

"We should keep moving," Pierce said in a low voice. He was a little hunched too, like crouching was going to make him less noticeable instead of more.

"Hold on." Ray waited a moment. Then one of his Scouring Eyeballs found a way through the grate he had sent it through before arriving at the next chamber. "I see more Sylvans."

He described it all. There were a lot more Sylvans here, though most of them looked like attendants. The room itself reminded him of some kind of reception hall, with the far windows looking out onto a field. A few of the attendants were moving in and out of the long room through doors at the far end.

An area for the servants and other attendants? Or was that the door leading to the main ceremony?

"Someone's approaching," Lent warned all of a sudden.

Ray immediately pulled his attention back to their surroundings. "Crap."

They all did their best to act normal. Naturally, it was impossible. For all that Ray's Mimic Mana might make them look like Sylvans, actually pretending to be one was far from easy.

Pierce edged away from the rest of them, circling around towards the direction that Lent had pointed. He stopped behind a pillar. Ray blinked. Was he hiding himself for a sneak attack or something?

A few heartbeats later, the Sylvan in question arrived. Ray blinked. Nearby, Gritty stiffened and Marcus gasped slightly. It was Lyvanse.

"Who are you?" the Sylvan said, narrowing his eyes. "I do not recall seeing you in the palace before… are you with one of the delegations? You seem to be lost from the ceremony."

Ray smiled in as disarming a fashion as he could. Lyvanse had given them a way out. "Yes, we are a bit lost." He had to modify his speech into a slightly more formal register to make them all sound as not suspicious as possible. "I was hoping someone like you would come along and help us find our way back."

Lyvanse's frown didn't recede. If anything, it grew deeper. "You should know not to wander around without guides."

Ray was caught in a bit of a conundrum. They could follow Lyvanse along and reach the ceremony location pretty easily, but it was unlikely to be a location from where they could actually stop the Tower Lord. But then again… Lyvanse wasn't on the Tower Lord's side…

Gritty caught his eye. She was clearly thinking the same thing. In fact, it wouldn't be surprising to discover that the actual Sylvan before them had his own plans to stop what was going on.

They had to make a split-second decision. Especially because Pierce was edging back out from where he was hiding, murderous intent clear in his stance.

And then he rushed to attack.

The Sylvan was clearly adept at combat enough to sense something was wrong, even if there was an Amulet of Blinding stopping him from sensing them directly. He whirled around, green Growth Mana bubbling around his arm in spiralling protrusions that created an oversized gauntlet.

But Pierce was much faster, his spear already in his hand, the tip aimed straight for the same spot on Lyvanse's chest where Gritty had pulled out that other Sylvan's heart.

Lyvanse was going to die. Unless—

Ray cast Temporal Passage again.

"How—" Pierce bit down on his surprised words. "What are you doing?"

Ray had appeared right between his ally and his Sylvan… well, ally as well. Pierce's spear would have gone through him if he had tried to block it directly too. But the thing was, Ray could teleport directly to where one of his spells was being used. In this case, where he was using his Mimic Mana on Pierce to keep him in the transformed state.

The attack might have broken the disguise, but the Mimic Mana had only deteriorated seconds ago. Ray had no trouble teleporting straight up to Pierce, forcing them to collide and for Pierce to stagger back, his spear thrusting harmlessly past Ray's left side.

"Stop," Ray said firmly. "We don't have to fight here."

"That's a Sylvan," Pierce said.

"And a friend."

"What in the world is going on here?" Lyvanse's Growth Mana hadn't slowed, only building more and more until it now looked strong enough to do some damage. He was on the verge of attacking too.

Ray put his hands up. "Let's all just calm down. We're all friends here. Let me explain."

Despite the incredible tension, Ray's firm words got everyone to drop their guard enough. He took a deep breath, then explained the situation as fast as he could to both parties. There really was no reason for them to be fighting against each other here. Lyvanse was on their side. They were on his side too.

"It would've helped a ton if you mentioned you knew Sylvans who had a thing against the Tower Lord too," Pierce said, glaring slightly at Ray.

"Must have escaped my mind," Ray muttered.

"Be that as it may," Lyvanse said, looking around at all of them. It was an odd match where Ray and Peirce looked like their old selves again, while the rest of them were still fake Sylvans. "I cannot believe you would dare to pull off such a bold move like this…"

"Will you help us?" Ray asked. "I know you don't want to be involved in a plot acting so directly against your—"

"He is nothing to me, Raymond," Lyvanse said sharply. "And you seem to be hesitant to reveal your entire plan. However, it sounds to me as though you wish to reach the ceremony, and that too a specific location from where you can launch your… plan."

Ray nodded. "That's about it."

Lyvanse pinched the horn coming off his shoulder for a second, before finally sighing. "Alright, follow me. I know of the location you seek. Come."

Pierce shot Ray another glare, silently asking if Lyvanse could be trusted. It was wild just how much suspicion was written on his face. Ray just tapped his eye. That was right, he had the Scouring Eyeballs to count on. They'd make sure to warn him in case Lyvanse turned traitor or something.

The others fell along without complaints. Lent was expressionless as always, and Marcus and Gritty already had enough proof that Lyvanse could be trusted. They had grown stronger thanks to the Sylvan, after all.

"You don't want him to succeed either," Ray said quietly as they moved through the hallways. He and Pierce had retaken their Mimic Mana disguises as Lyvanse had instructed. It made things a whole lot easier.

The Sylvan didn't respond for a while. It was only after they reached a long, abandoned corridor that he spoke. "What happens regarding the Tower Lord is none of my concern… although yes, I will derive no pleasure in seeing this administration succeed." He scowled. "They meddle with forces that are almost a betrayal of their origins."

Ray was very interested to learn more about that, but they were nearing the end as they climbed some stairs at the end of the corridor. He could hear the ceremony now. The appreciative murmur of a crowd. The voice of someone speaking loudly over them, like an announcer.

"We have arrived," Lyvanse said.

They did indeed arrive. There was a large, arena-like location within the palace. Tall stands surrounded a central field. Lyvanse had brought them to roof of the bleachers.

Ray looked around, swallowing a little. The stands were occupied with the same kind of audience they used to get for the tournament. At the very end, bounding the field were several armed Sylvans. Guards making sure everything ran according to plan.

And in the centre of it all, the Tower Lord had the treasure out for use.

"It's time," Ray said.

"I still do not know what you have planned," Lyvanse said. "But good luck to you. I cannot help you further."

A clear admission that, if things turned to shit, Lyvanse wasn't going to risk himself anymore. He had already done them a great favour. Ray appreciated the honesty.

"It's time," Pierce said. "To stop you."

The sudden change in Pierce's voice sent alarm bells shivering down Ray's spine. He turned around fast, his hands already raised and calling up a spell. Just as Pierce's sudden spear descended on him, Gritty and Marcus both yelling out in sudden anger and alarm, Ray disappeared with Temporal Passage.