Rules of Biomancy: A LitRPG Healer Fantasy

Some days, Elijah wondered what it would take for him to leave. He and Aleksi had promised each other that, at the sign of a danger too great to defeat, they would take the young and flee. Their survival had been the final goal, after all, and there was no point in wasting their lives for a country that could handle itself.

And yet here they were, a full week of travelling later, in a green field that carried no sign of human alterations. Hills of grass and flowers, without the slightest part of disturbance, save for the other three that stood a hundred meters ahead.

"That's them," Aleksi commented. Elijah grunted in agreement. They'd seen two of them before. One Ester Sutton, diplomat of Castilla, an armoured Mage of an unknown capacity, and then the young Eidomancer that had most likely transported the trio into the field. "I can't spot anybody else."

"I can't either," Elijah added, though all four knew that there'd been no expectation of such things. Using tricks and trickery to outsmart the enemy was a constant of war, and trusting one's senses alone never ended well. "Louis, remember the plan."

"'Hug Sasha and keep my head down,'" the prince muttered under his breath, garnering a chuckle from the giant and a pair of rolled eyes from Sasha. "Nothing complicated."

"Contingencies don't have to be complicated to work," he countered. Louis didn't offer a reply to that. This wasn't the time to talk anyhow. With the week spent getting here, all four had discussed every variation of how this would go anyway.

He sent a glance Sasha's way to make sure that she seemed ready. When Vera had suggested her, Elijah had been hesitant to go along with the idea. He knew the young woman's priorities, knew that leaving behind Kulvik for something like this would seem pointless, but he had been proven wrong. It had taken a word of comfort from Mila and Jack's offer to take her place if needed, but Sasha had accepted the idea.

"Prince Louis Newell," Ester greeted politely, bowing her head in respect as they approached. Elijah frowned when the two others mirrored the act, albeit in a more discreet fashion. "We're happy to see you arrive for this meeting. We hope it wasn't too much trouble."

Awfully respectful.

It didn't sit right with Elijah, and neither did the round chunk of metal that sat to the side. Elijah could sense the Mana coursing through it, and its distant connections, but its purpose was unknown. The Runes on its surface did not seem to possess offensive capabilities, but the sheer amount of power resting inside made him uneasy.

"Ester Sutton, chosen diplomat of Castilla," Louis replied, nodding back. To anybody who hadn't spent some time with the prince, the politeness might seem genuine, but Elijah could tell the young man was as unsure as Elijah. Something was wrong, but neither could place it. "It was no trouble at all. Especially not when you claimed to have a proposal that might end this war early, before both sides suffer more needless death."

A practiced response. They'd gone over it all with Vera and Harper, references countless pieces that could give them an edge. Even if this entire thing was a farce, Vera refused to be caught unaware.

"I'm happy to hear that," the Castillan diplomat said. "Sven, if you would?"

The Eidomancer had started moving before Ester had opened her mouth. Barely, but Elijah had caught it.

The logical side of his brain wasn't surprised. They had practiced this meeting on repeat for a week. A passive show of power, like using a servant to summon a table and chairs for them to sit, would be agreed upon beforehand, but the command to make that happen would still need to happen. Even if the sequence of events had been planned in detail, Elijah's subconscious was suspicious.

They can communicate without our notice.

How?

"Please, sit," Ester encouraged. With only two chairs on either side, Elijah and Louis were seated opposite Ester and Sven, the others standing in place. "Now, I will have to be fully honest. Our original hope was for Serenova to surrender early on, that a show of force would make you realise that war would not solve anything, but things haven't ended up like that. From our count, over forty thousand people have lost their lives already, and projections suggest that we will reach six figures within the next two months.

"It's horrible, to a point where I have looked at what's been happening and I pray for it to stop. I have convinced my superior to talk to you directly, in the hopes that we might conclude this horror."

"Am I to assume that the purpose of that metallic creation is to allow for that?" Louis questioned, nodding towards the silvery disk. While it looked the same to the naked eye, Elijah could sense the increase in power from it.

"Indeed," Ester confirmed with a smile. "It's a newer invention, from the bright minds in Castilla's eastern academy, that allows a person to appear somewhere else, without physically being present."

None offered comment, as they watched the machine work. Within a dozen seconds, the runes began to emit light. Brief flashes came first at the start, forcing Elijah to blink away dots in his vision, before a humanoid figure began to form on top of the disk.

Single-colored, a lighter blue to be exact, but the details revealed more and more features. Elegant robes, jewelry worth more than most mansions, the beginnings of wrinkles, and a lightly trimmed beard.

From how Louis sat a little straighter, Elijah assumed he was supposed to recognize the figure, but he was drawing a blank.

"Let me present to you King Oberon, the current ruler of Castilla and my superior," the Castillan diplomat said. "Your Majesty, may I introduce Prince Louis Newell, son of the late Mason Newell."

"I recognize the face," King Oberon assured the diplomat, who put her head down in apology. It felt like an act. "Greetings, Prince Newell. I sincerely apologize for not being there in person, but other matters have forced me to stay in the capital city for the next several weeks. I had hoped to conduct this meeting in person, but we must make use of this invention instead."

Elijah doubted that.

'Noticing anything, Dawn?' he asked, getting a negative from the duck. A quick hand gesture to Aleksi caused the same reply. Nothing abnormal had appeared yet. 'Keep looking. We need to be ready.'

His instincts were screaming, but he couldn't spot the danger. They were being watched, Elijah knew that for a fact, but he couldn't tell from where or by whom.

"The lives of royals are chaotic and our schedules rarely allow for larger trips," Louis replied with a knowing smile. For a man who would happily throw a punch at anybody from Castilla, Elijah had to admit the kid was holding it together rather well. "Don't apologise for what we can't control. Even if we're not eye-to-eye, we can still talk, and I hope that we can still find some common ground and end this bloodshed."

"Well put," Oberon affirmed. The older king took a deep breath, shoulders briefly tensing before relaxing once more. "Decades have passed since the tragedy that caused Castilla to split into two. In those times, my predecessor passed and gave me the throne, allowing us to look back at those past actions with new eyes.

"With the most sincerity possible, I apologise. The… abhorrent acts ordered by the rulers of Castilla were wrong. Our ways of treating the southern people, our ways of abuse, because there is no other way to put it, were wrong. Words cannot describe in full how disgusted I am, not just of the people who came before me, but also of myself. Since then, I have learned. We have all learned, and those who followed the old line of thought are no longer in positions of power.

"In the old civil war, millions died. People with families, people who were loved, were killed in a war that Castilla is to blame for. And now we want to make amends. We want to unite with Serenova, to make you a part of Castilla, and put aside all the hatred that has festered over the past decades.

"There will be sacrifices for both sides, of course. We, at the moment, have differing opinions, and we have to accept that. What we can agree on is that the people of Serenova deserve freedom. They deserve a good life. They deserve the chance to grow old alongside their children, their loved ones, and feel no fear of invasions or corruption. Would you not say the same, Prince Louis? That the people deserve safety?"

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A long speech with little relation to negotiations. From that first pause, Elijah could tell it had been forced, but the voice sounded genuine. A public speaker through and through.

"The reason that my father led a rebellion decades ago was because of the safety of the people, to save them from the torture they suffered under, in the name of your predecessors' profits," Prince Louis replied. The king seemed like he wanted to say something, the first word already on the old man's tongue, but the prince continued before he had the chance to speak. "I would love the chance for no more blood to coat the grass, for the people to return to normal life, but we remember what happened in the past, and you have instigated this second attempt to retake land. You were the first to kill in the modern day, but you still preach peace?

"For an agreed ceasefire and unification, both sides have to trust each other, and your actions are making this very difficult. What kind of guarantee could you offer that the people of Serenova would not be forced back into servitude?"

King Oberon said nothing, as the old eyes looked at the young prince. Even with the single-colored, translucent image of the royal, Elijah could tell what emotions stirred within the man. None seemed kind, and yet that tone still left the king's tongue a moment later.

"You have my word, the word of Castilla's king, to start with, but… I can see from your expression that this would not be enough," King Oberon said. He continued after, while nodding at the Castillan diplomat. "As I believe Ms. Sutton should have explained already, we did not wish for more dead than necessary. We wanted to show that we can invade if needed, that we have the army required to unify Castilla by force, but we don't want to. If we can make agreements that you can deem mutually beneficial, we will happily cease all activity inside this region. Please, just consider the terms."

"... And what would those terms be?" Louis questioned.

"The first would be for you to respect the authority of the Castillan royalty, swearing your fealty to the crown and the current ruler," the king said. "This would cause you to lose your current status as a royal, but we will happily replace it with a Dukedom of Kulvik. However, we will be taking over the Dungeon inside Kulvik, with only a portion of the profits going to your house, and we will be having the final say over the operations."

A rather larger focus on what would happen to the royal family. A gambit of some sort?

"And what of the people," Louis asked, not offering comment on the current terms. "What of the other nobility, who had their titles granted to them after Serenova's emancipation?"

"For the other nobility, most will be allowed to remain in power, but a few regions will be returned to the original owners," the king explained. To Elijah, it seemed rather tame, but he could see the prince's fingers turning white from pressing down on the table. "For the people, they will retain all rights. Ownership of estates and housing will be respected and transferred over the Castilla's registries. Some changes in taxation are to be expected, but possible grandfathered rulings can be discussed later.

"What matters is that we allow the people to retain the standards in their daily lives. Insignias will be changed, the banners might shift in coloration, but they should expect no other shifts in their lives. The only requirement from them is to accept the change from Serenova's royalty being in power to Castilla's royalty. If they do that, and you and your family respect their choice, we can unite in peace. No more bloodshed. No more innocent civilian deaths on either of our hands."

Elijah blinked. He couldn't spot the catch. He doubted Castilla would follow along with their promises, but—

"My hope that this slaughter can end makes me want to accept this idea," Louis expressed, causing Elijah's mind to pause. Out of everything to potentially leave the prince's mouth, he wouldn't have put any money on this. "I don't doubt that my sister would agree. We care for the people, and we would love to make whatever sacrifice is required for them to prosper, but we still need more faith. We need more proof that you can hold your word."

'Movement,' Dawn reported. Elijah's eyes glazed over as he followed the duck's guiding feathers. One kilometer out west, on a hill just barely in view, a small metallic orb floated a meter off the ground. It was invisible to the naked eye, but it had the slightest of shimmers to their magical senses.

A quick shift in the way he sat alerted the others to the change, but it wasn't time to act on it yet.

"... What do you propose?" King Oberon asked. He sounded curious, but his eyes had an edge of irritation.

"A temporary ceasefire for a full month," Louis explained. "You can hand over all documents and terms for this unification to be agreed on. During the ceasefire, my sister and I can inspect the terms. If you stay true to the ceasefire, and no invaders are spotted on Serenova's lands during that month, we will deem your word to be trustworthy, and we can settle on the final alterations to the terms for a peaceful unification."

A low hum left the king as he looked at the prince with new eyes. A sign of respect, perhaps. It lasted for a while, until an unfamiliar mumble reached their ears and the king looked to the side. Outside of their view, wherever the king's physical form stood, another was speaking to him.

The frown that had come a moment later meant nothing good would come of the proposal.

"I'll be very honest here, Prince Louis," King Oberon said. "If my people had not received intelligence that revealed that your officers had reported needing a full month for your armies to reach their full might, I might have accepted your idea. But… it is with a heavy heart that I say this, but I need an answer now. You might not trust my word, but I am beginning to doubt yours as well."

Louis was being portrayed as the reason the deal wasn't happening.

"We are at an impasse then," Louis said, "because the answer right now is 'no.'"

"A shame," the king replied in a sad voice. A brief silence followed, and Elijah heard a muted click. "I believe you got what you needed, Ester?"

"Yes, your majesty," Ester reported, getting back up from her seat. The Eidomancer followed, the young man's face looking mildly stressed. Elijah could see the obvious beginnings of a teleportation. "Thank you for aiding us in this endeavor."

"Yes, yes," King Oberon muttered, looking entirely unconcerned. Annoyed, even, with a look sent Louis' way. "Just kill them."

Things moved very quickly from there. The translucent image of the king disappeared, the metallic orb a kilometer away exploded into a dark pillar of death before Elijah could cover it in plant growth, and the armored mage accompanying the Castillan diplomat began to power up a similar strike.

Louis got dragged out of his chair by Sasha in the same instant that the pillar of death reached them. Aleksi did his best to repeat the act with Elijah, but it was too fast.

He thought himself lost, yet he still took in breath a moment. The pillar of death, with the screams of damned faces inside its sickly black color, had stopped a meter in front of Elijah.

"Weak," Sasha spat, hand outstretched and twisting. The pillar tried to shift in form, to cover them instead of hitting them from the front. Sasha didn't allow it, her hand pulling it inside herself.

It resisted.

Sasha won.

"What?" Ester exclaimed. The diplomat had stayed behind for an extra second, either out of stupidity or sadistic desires, but now she undoubtedly wished to flee.

The Eidomancer reached out towards her to teleport them away to safety.

'Dawn.'

A solid blade made out of roots shot out of the ground, creating a wall between the diplomat and the mage while also cutting through the tips of the Eidomancer's fingers.

"Die!" the armored mage shouted in the same instant as the attack finally formed. Following the trend, the air around the enemy mage darkened. It dripped with black fluids, but didn't carry the same aura as the affinity of death.

Shadows.

Elijah couldn't warn the others before the shadow of the grass grew in size, becoming spears that stabbed through his legs. One flew at the upper body, but Aleksi grabbed and broke the spear before it could land.

Louis!

Brief panic, followed by confusion. With one hand, Sasha had pulled the prince off the ground. Spears still struck, piercing her legs, but it took only a second before one aimed at the prince was caught.

It didn't shatter.

"Enough," Sasha said. Her voice crackled with an energy that wasn't meant to be. Elijah's mind screamed as he saw her skin starting to fracture and reveal the absence of existence beneath. A glimpse into the void, into nothingness, into what the human mind was never meant to understand.

A flash of power brought him back. Dawn had worked hard, impaling the enemy mage with roots. Nothing paralytic, but it was painful enough to stop the shadows.

Yet that hadn't been the source of Mana. The Eidomancer, with a shining throat and tears in his eyes, phased his hand through the wall of roots, grabbing both the allied mage and the diplomat before disappearing into thin air.

And, just like that, the four were alone.

Possibly.

"... You are much lighter than you look," Sasha commented, as she adjusted Louis into a princess hold. "Nothing but bone and skin."

From the increasingly wider gaps on the young woman's skin, Elijah doubted it was Louis who was the problem.