Chapter 48: is it okay if, y'know… nevermind. i'm okay.
Middle Fire Month, 6th Day, 600 AGG
"How tedious."
Isoleiryx cast his essence-enhanced senses over the remote settlement. Having to scrounge from the edges of the Vahasi Republic was irksome, but it wouldn't do to run into the Player or her summons now.
'From here, I can grab around… a couple thousand,' didn't that loathsome Malvar manage a spell that could harvest an entire kingdom? Speaking of which, it had been over a century since he'd heard of the disgusting excuse for a dragon… likely hiding like the pathetic coward he was. 'After this, around five more times should be acceptable.'
Isoleiryx extended his soul—a vast net blanketing a radius of slightly over a hundred kilometers—and pulled.
Thousands died as their souls were torn away by their once-absent god.
A pittance, but their essence would be put to good use in spite of their worship diminishing over the past century and more. For what greater calling was there than the protection of the World itself?
He could just blame all the 'mysterious' deaths on the Player anyways. In her misguided effort in culling the Republic's capital and its vicinity, it would be a simple task to blame the sudden deaths resulting from his harvest on her.
'Another few hundred kilometers to the south,' he shunted the souls into relatively nearby modified homunculi before unfurling his wings and taking to the air. 'Player summons shouldn't have made it that far yet.'
Isoleiryx took a glimpse at the Orb of Seeking in his hand. That descendent of his and the Player were still mucking around in an underground complex hunting the last remnants of some irrelevant beastman clan. As he flew, he kept an attentive eye on the orb, noting every detail of the Player's summons along with the spells she casted.
'No Eleventh-Tier spells,' He knew for a fact that she used one a few days prior. In truth, he would be surprised if more of his brethren hadn't noticed; the pulse of corrupted mana could be sensed from even beyond the borders of the Vahasi Republic. 'Just like the Greed Kings, there must be a limitation on her use of them.'
The number of times she could use it per-day… no, that wasn't important. He simply had to deny her the opportunity to cast one when they fought. With a cast-time of roughly half a minute, he was confident in his abilities to deal enough damage before the Player could complete casting—especially considering her poor physical attributes.
'I'll need to prepare a suitable location to fight. Maybe close to one of the Draconic Kingdom's larger cities; it'll be good if I can limit her offensive options,' additionally, based on his observations of her personality, Isoleiryx predicted she would be further crippled by attempts to prevent collateral damage. 'Residents and summons won't be able to breach a『World-Isolating Barrier』.'
If he simply contained her in a barrier before detonating a『World Collapsing Dirge』within, then there was a good chance he could kill the Player without having resorting to revealing himself and thus save a significant amount of trouble. The problem with that strategy was twofold:
First, and the most important, he did not possess enough proficiency with the spell to actualize it before the Player—or more importantly, that displeasing descendent of his—would notice and teleport away thanks to the nullification effect World Items had on direct Wild Magic effects. Holding a city hostage was worthless if he simply blew it up without warning; the Player would also begin to act more cautiously, drastically increasing the difficulty of potential rematches.
Secondly, even if he did manage to catch the Player off-guard and catch them in the blast zone, there was no guarantee she would die from that one explosion. It might be able to stun her, but betting on 'might's' was a surefire way to suffer an unexpected loss.
But he wasn't too concerned.
'Once I debottleneck the process for weaponizing the essence crystallization, fighting her even in close to mid-range combat will almost be too easy,' While he was at it, he should fine-tune the damage-mitigator,『Light-Bending Cloak』, and homunculi as well. Perhaps name the crystallization procedure too…『Soul Shattering Prism』sounded suitable for what the spell did. It wouldn't have any effect on the Player herself, but her summons were another matter entirely.
Suddenly, he felt the warping of space near him, the bending of the natural order to the will of a blessed. Isoleiryx immediately shot up into the sky, gaining elevation as he looked down at whoever had the gall to interrupt him.
'Tch. It's him.'
A floating being wearing full-plate fashioned in the appearance of a savage dragon popped into existence, displacing the air around it with a burst of teal-green essence. Four weapons—a hammer, greatsword, spear, and katana—floated around the resplendent platinum form like seamless extensions of itself. High above the ground, zephyrs whipped its plume and the lengths of thick fur wrapped around its shoulder; the only moving parts of the unyielding armor.
Only there was nobody inside that empty puppet. The favored toy of Vaision was powered with his essence and his primary choice when he wanted to remain 'unknown.'
Ultimately, that's all it was: a mere toy. Such a trifle could pose no true threat to him, and so he concluded that Vaision had sensed his actions and accosted him in the name of some inane 'justice.'
"Rhell," the armor's voice was filled with horror. "What are you doing?"
"Preparing for what needs to be done," Isoleiryx failed to completely keep the disdain out of his inflection. "You're here for the same purpose, are you not?"
"Preparing is one thing," Vaision's puppet didn't move, but he could tell from the warning undercurrent in its tone that the Platinum Dragon Lord was bristling. "Unnecessarily killing thousands of innocents is another. You have plenty of domains to draw power from; there was no need for you to do… this."
"Did you forget to install eyes on that puppet of yours?" He doubted he'd be able to persuade Vaision no matter what he said, but not trying at all would draw more unwanted suspicion than he wanted to deal with. "Have you not seen what they've been doing in this nation? If the Player is set on burning every last life to ashes, then it'll be better if the people here give up their lives to aid in resisting her, no?"
'And I need to drain them before my authority is ousted by A-H-4-3,' despite her incompetence, the gathering of souls wasn't outside her area of expertise.
"Don't play games with me, Rhell," Vaision was unbending, his words colder than the blizzards of the Azerlisias. "You know she's only striking the Clans. The people you killed would've been left untouched."
"Hm? But you're here precisely because you were worried she would, am I wrong?" Hypocrisy ran deep in the blood of the Dragon Emperor it seemed. "If she's as undeniably conscientious as you say, then why have you bothered coming all this way to monitor her?"
"..." For a few seconds, the expanse between them was filled only with the flapping of Isoleiryx's wings and the bitter wind. "Then—how about your great-granddaughter?"
"What about her?" Rhell asked in puzzlement. Some people were prone to forming gratuitous attachments to concepts like 'friends' and 'family,' but when it came down to it, how could such meaningless things protect what was truly important? There was nothing as convenient as the power of love or friendship in this world.
"You're aware of the relationship between her and the Player," of course he was; how couldn't he when she spent so much time in the presence of that filthy existence? "From what I know, she has the potential to serve as a moderating influence on them. Isn't it preferable to avoid making yourself a dangerous enemy when you can ally with them at little to no personal cost?"
"Bwahaha!" A relationship of that nature? It might be true, but in all honesty, he doubted she'd even serve as decent leverage against the Player considering how rapacious the Greed Kings were; the people of this world flocked to the powerful like moths to the fire, and it appeared his descendent was no exception to that rule either. "Have you gone senile since the last time we met? It's been only what, a few weeks? Entertaining foolish notions is below you, Vaision!"
"She's really that worthless to you then…" The armor responded sadly. "The Republic…. The Draconic Kingdom… What was the point in an experiment with a foregone conclusion? The way you set this up was needlessly cruel, Rhell."
"From the start, she was only meant to administer the Draconic 've seen her Wild Magic; she clearly lacks the aptitude to do anything useful with it. A curiosity, nothing more."
An intriguing iteration, but that's all she was: intriguing. Her entire existence was only worthwhile in demonstrating bloodline-Talent synergy, and now she was a liability the Player could exploit for her Wild Magic capabilities.
Maybe he'll examine her more closely at a later date; after he dealt with the Player first.
"Even still," Vaision stubbornly pressed onwards. "The last thing our kind needs is more enemies—enemies that you're set on creating."
"Don't you understand?" He derided Vaision's foolishness in the depths of his heart. "The longer you wait, the more time she'll have to accumulate angels. You say that she can be trusted to be responsible with the power granted to her. But one day…"
He left the rest unsaid and allowed Vaision to fill in the blanks on their own.
"You sound like him," the suit of armor muttered, a low resonant thrum spreading through the skies. "For your sake, I hope you stop before crossing a line you cannot return from, old friend."
"Was that a threat?" Isoleiryx's voice was quiet but deadly sharp. "Once was an anomaly, but for you to side with one a Player twice… No, I'm certain there's others you've interacted with in secret. Have you forgotten who you are, Tsaindorcus? "
"I have forgotten nothing," the light shining from the helmet's visor flared. "I see that it is useless to speak about this any further."
Essence condensed within the armor, whirling and crystallizing into a mystic phenomenon that bent the World to its will. "The Night Lich and its servants in the Devagathapur, unsettling rumors, the unnatural taint left in your trail—don't think that I haven't been paying attention to your other activities."
Grief tinged the light that was the armor's eyes as it floated ever-so-slightly forward. "Rhell. You're among the wisest people I know. Don't let hatred cloud your better judgment. Do the Greed Kings have to take that away from you too?"
Isoleiryx called forth his own essence, layering defense after defense while a prismatic inferno coalesced in his maw—
"I see," Vaision sounded tiredly resigned. "『World Teleportation』."
In an almost laughably anticlimactic fashion, the suit of armor disappeared, trace wisps of essence quickly scattering in its absence.
"Worse than your father," Isoleiryx mumbled as he looked at the void left in the armor's wake. "Him, lecturing me."
An intolerable hypocrite. Who were they to lecture him on right and wrong when they themselves manipulated legions of unwitting lessers?
"If we never meet again," Isoleiryx shook off his annoyance and changed course to one of his many research stations. It was a shame, but he'd have to end his harvest early. "It'll be too soon."
His wings flapped—a mighty force above the silent land, an imperative that bent the will of the World itself—and carried him into the blood-red horizon.
All things came to those who waited.
'Vaision is unimportant. Focus on the real threat.'
Now, to ensure the outcome he wanted.
"Last one," the Captain and First Seat of the Black Scripture, or Ilislev Hemel Kestava as he was going by at the moment, flicked the rotting blood off the head of his spear. "All clear on your end, Quaiesse?"
"All clear," Quaiesse confirmed, watching the corpse-flesh dribble out the mouth of his Gigant Basilisk. Usually, the pet's petrifying gaze and innate poison would be sufficient in dealing with ordinary monsters, but the undead reptilian dinosaur-like beasts were too strong for the Basilisk's abilities to be effective. "Is there anything up ahead, Giaraju Khuni?"
Aided by the Seperati tribe and some disgruntled dryads, the Theocracy task force finally found what they believed to be the base of operations for the cultists—and by extension the traitor—after more than half a month spent foraging through the jungle's tangle.
"A concealed hideout," the Leopard Nacatl reported from her perch in the branches. "A few undead, but none of them are nearly as dangerous as the ones you two have already destroyed."
"Probably assistants then," Quaiesse noted. It was common for spellcaster-type undead to enthrall and create more of their kind to fill the role of servants. After all, undead could not complain, had no upkeep costs like the living did, and were absolutely loyal to their creator. "Watch out for traps."
'Would returning to base and performing reconnaissance via scrying first be better?' He wondered. 'We already dispatched their guards; they'll hide somewhere else if we don't take this opportunity.'
"『Greater Evasion』,『Strengthen Perception』," Ilislev shook off his doubts and activated a few detection boosting Arts before deciding to cast some spells for good measure. "『Resist Energy - Negative』,『Protection from Evil』. Let's go."
He spearheaded their advance, silently approaching the lair built into a small hill. Ilislev felt a tinge of unease: why would Zurrernorn cultists hide in the open when they knew the local demihumans had an axe to grind? Did they not expect anyone to get through the zombified dinosaurs? Were they overconfident in their strength?
Didn't matter. He was the one best suited for springing traps anyways.
Ilislev stalked towards the entrance, body leaning forward and center of balance low against the ground as the skeletons standing outside obliviously continued their tasks. Upon closer inspection, the lair looked incredibly barebones—
The trees roared as wind blasted through the clearing, heralding the sudden appearance of a massive decaying dragon descending from the clear blue and through the gap in the jungle's canopy. On top of the decomposing monster stood a skeletal being outfitted in magnificent robes that exuded a shadowy dweomer.
'Zombie dragon,' Ilislev grimaced. In order for an undead to exist, there either had to be sufficient ambient negative energy or… a corpse.
Ilislev had never seen a zombie dragon naturally spawn before.
He dropped 『Strengthen Perception』in favor of 『Greater Ability Boost』,『Greater Ability Sense』,『Greater Enhanced Magic Resistance』,『Reinforce Defense』. Worst came to worst, he should be able to take Quaiesse back to camp and cover the task force's retreat.
"It's him," Giaraju murderously hissed. "The despoiler of our lands."
The Captain's eye focused on the skeletal being standing atop the zombie dragon. Considering its appearance and how it commanded the zombie dragon, he deduced it to be a type of spellcaster.
'Elder Lich?' The robes it wore, the sheer aura of wrongness surrounding it meant it could be nothing other than an undead.
"Troublesome," a masculine voice rumbled from the undead's nonexistent throat. It was a voice free of worry or fear; Ilislev was certain it, or he, had been watching them somehow. Did the undead think himself stronger than the thralls they've slain? "I knew taking along those two would result in something like this… Ha… If only Granz was still alive."
"I'm afraid you have us at a disadvantage," Ilislev's voice was as calm as could be. "You are?"
"My colleagues call me 'The Abyss.' Ah, if you're curious as to what kind of undead I am, feel free to think of me as a Night Lich."
'Night Lich…!'
Then this was no typical undead spellcaster.
In the secret annals of the Theocracy there were descriptions of horrifyingly strong Liches who transcended ordinary Elder Liches and were known as 'Night Liches.' Of the ones they knew, Q'fantera Argolos, Siyern, and Fear ruled over domains that rivaled small kingdoms in size.
Could the being looking down on them be one of those undead that stood in a realm above humanity? Judging by his appearance, a skeletal figure with six arms and two heads, he wasn't one of those three renowned Night Liches who took the form of a Dragon, Giant, or mass of shadows respectively.
In spite of—no, because of the self-proclaimed 'Night Lich's' words, Ilislev's suspicion grew. How could a legendary kingdom-destroying undead appear so… weak?
"You and the blonde-haired human," the 'Night Lich's' heads turned towards him and Quaiesse, completely ignoring the Nacatl's that were accompanying them. "Both of you are from the Slane Theocracy, no?"
Ilislev didn't say anything. Even if the Lich was certain in his knowledge, there was no need to confirm it for him. Quaiesse seemed to have the same idea as his Captain; one of the Fifth Seat's rings flashed and called forth the second of his Gigant Basilisks.
"Hm, well. It would've been foolish to expect an answer to a question like that," two of the Lich's hands extended outwards in a show of peace. "But you and your friends are here for that Clementine girl."
His tone was more statement than question. Ilislev wondered how many secrets he was able to extort from the traitor.
"I'll take that as a yes," the Lich lowered his hands to his side. "You see, I have no desire to begin a conflict with the Theocracy. If she's the only reason why you're here, then I would be more than happy to offer her to you. My only condition is that you refrain from following or attempting to scry me when I leave."
'Attempting to scry?' With the Miko Princess of Water and their ritual enhancements, the Temples could manage up to an Eighth-Tier scrying spell. 'Is this… is this undead able to foil a spell of that tier? No, the more important question is if he knows the full extent of our scrying rituals.'
Normally, Ilislev would've thought it impossible. The Miko Princesses, but more importantly the limits of their use, were some of the most jealously guarded secrets of the Theocracy. There was absolutely no way the 'Night Lich' could gather that sort of classified information without being noticed.
But… they had Clementine. They had free access to the traitor for well over a month by now. It wasn't implausible to assume that the Lich squeezed them for every drop of knowledge he could.
Knowing that, Ilislev began to weigh more on the side of killing the Lich here than taking them up on their deal. "Showing yourself out in the open… you're pretty confident that we won't kill you."
'Bait him for a response. See if we can't shed some light on any ulterior motives or gain an idea of his strength.'
"A fair question," the Lich shrugged. "We don't have to be enemies, you know? I'm not saying we can be allies either, but this is the most efficient way in accomplishing both our goals: safety for myself, and the traitor for you."
"You might be the most reasonable undead I've met to date," Ilislev replied, pretending to relax his stance. "What's keeping you from running away and breaking your end of the bargain?"
"It may not seem like it to you humans, but people like me find keeping promises to be infinitely less problematic than breaking them," the Lich absentmindedly tapped his foot on the head of the zombie dragon. "Conflict is… undesirable."
'He's wary,' the Captain realized. 'Of course he would be. There's no way Clementine had clearance to the more sensitive aspects of the Theocracy's arsenal. He's aware of the gap in understanding and doesn't want to test his strength against unknowns.'
"Add in the cultist who collaborated with Clementine," Ilislev answered after a second of thinking. "And you have yourself a deal."
"Acceptable," the two-headed lich gestured at the zombie dragon, tattered wings somehow generating enough force to lift the dragon and lich off the ground. "In any case, I can no longer afford to waste more time here—staying out for as long as I have is already putting my life at risk. I'll send Clementine and Khajiit to that Nacatl tribe where you're staying at by the end of the week."
'Should I just try to kill him anyways?' Ilislev wondered as the dragon-corpse pierced the canopy. 'No, it's too risky. He's been watching us while we know nothing about him; running into a fight with minimal knowledge will only lead to disaster.'
He watched the 'Night Lich' vanish into the cloudy blue. The more he thought about it, the more odd the situation seemed.
Was the being he had talked to really a legendary Night Lich?
Ilislev was confident in his skills of appraising the strength of another person, but the undead didn't feel any stronger than a mildly above average Elder Lich. 'Impossible. An Elder Lich shouldn't be able to control a zombie dragon so easily.'
The two details were at odds with each other, unless… unless the real Night Lich created a decoy of itself and sent it to talk with them in his stead. This entire time, they had been two steps behind. Now, they could only rely on the Lich's promise without any leverage of their own: especially since they had no idea where the Lich's true body was residing.
Ilislev sighed. So in the end, they were back to square one if the Night Lich reneged on their deal. Worse, because the undead knew exactly who they were now.
He should really leave the talking to Quaiesse next time.
"Here it is," Guin, the hobgoblin in charge of the attack on the human base, muttered as he observed the guards and golems patrolling the perimeters. "You made sure everyone knows the plan?"
"Yes!" Rif stupidly saluted and ran off to spread the news. Guin released an exhausted exhalation and turned his attention back to the patrols.
'The human guards shouldn't be a problem,' true, they were heavily armored, but the demihuman coalition could easily overwhelm them from a range. 'Won't be able to take out the golems from a range, tsk.'
Guin couldn't see the mediocre arrows most of their archers and rangers were supplied with doing any significant damage to the sturdy stone golems. Thankfully, it wasn't too important for the primary goals of their plan.
Indeed, they were to rescue their brethren abducted by the humans for some foul purpose and exact vengeance if at all possible. Therefore, it wasn't necessary to annihilate the sentries; they only needed to create a large enough distraction to improve the chances of their more stealth oriented members in sneaking out the kidnapped.
'Start with an arrow volley, have our shamans buff the vanguards,' Guin quickly reviewed the plan the coalition had decided upon. 'While the humans are distracted, the gnolls will locate and free the victims. Shame we couldn't get the Alraunes and Treefolk to cooperate.'
If the plantfolk and keepers of the forest had chosen to unite with their cause, then this whole operation would be trivial. To Guin's regret, they all harbored no intention to embroil themselves with the conflict between demihumans and humans.
"『Fire!』" Guin shouted. A storm of arrows rained down on the unsuspecting humans, most of the projectiles bouncing off their enchanted armor while a few shots from the more powerful rangers managed to pierce their joints. The golems remained unscathed and immediately turned to face the direction where the arrows were fired. "『Vanguard, charge!』"
Goblins, ogres, trolls, owlbears, among a horde of other demihumans, stampeded into the comparatively flimsy human ranks and easily bowled them over.
Easy. Why was it so easy?
The hobgoblin warlord suppressed the nervousness that grew and ate at his composure. He needed to concentrate on saving the abducted.
'Rogues should be going in by now,' he carefully dove into the battlefield, calling out commands and swinging his sword with a nurtured ferocity. "『Avoid their golems! Focus on the knights!』"
The ranks of the enemy were collapsing. Of course it would, with only that many people defending it.
'I could've sworn the defenses were heavier just a couple of days ago,' the hobgoblin's nervousness continued to balloon. 'Should we call it off? No, we can't. Not until we save everyone.'
Couldn't give up so quickly, not when that meant allowing the humans to continue their atrocities. He was just being paranoid for nothing; the raid was going fine—
A pillar of miasma roared towards the heavens: a miasma so thick that Guin thought he'd choke just from looking at it.
An abomination in the eyes of all present, whether they be humans, goblins, gnolls, or trolls—everyone turned their gaze to the center of the compound and shivered.
"They failed," there was no other explanation. Guin and the rest of the coalition had wondered why the humans suddenly decided to abduct their kin. The foulness in the air was a silent answer to all of their questions. "『Retreat!』"
In an instant, the demihumans disengaged from the pitched battle, turning around and making a run for the woods. Ordinarily, such a sudden retreat would lead to chaos and people getting trampled over, but the combination of a new fearsome foe and Guin's own skills resulted in an orderly withdrawal—or at least, as orderly as could be in this kind of situation.
To his surprise, the humans also began to run away; had they not been aware of the purpose behind their actions? Guin felt a deep resentment surface in his heart. Their ignorance only added more insult to their despicable actions.
"Warlord!" One of the ogres who served as a vanguard picked him up and ran for the cover of trees. "It's an undead—grk!"
"I'll have to clean this mess up," sparks of lightning danced between the skeletal fingers of the undead. "A small price to pay.『Chain Lightning』."
Guin forced his twitching body to roll out of the way, grimly abandoning the stunned ogre who had absorbed the brunt of the first electrifying bolt. The streak of lightning slammed into the felled demihuman, burning their body to a crisp as it—perhaps unfortunately—bounced away from the hobgoblin and towards his fleeing allies.
"I hope none of you underestimate just how grateful I am for your offers of assistance in testing the limits of this new form," Guin gritted his teeth and helplessly watched the undead hovering above them gloat at their misfortune. "Ah… I suppose I should get on with it.『Triplet Extend Widen Magic - Cloudkill』."
'Shit,' Guin raised the horn to his lips and channeled every last drop of energy remaining in his body to blow it. Hopefully, he managed to instill enough vigor for a few of them to make it to safety. 'Have to let everyone else escape. Can't let them be caught—ur-urgh…'
The poisonous vapors flooded his lungs and sapped all the vitality from his body. Guin's horn clattered to the ground as he crumpled face-first into the dirt. He simply no longer had the strength to keep himself upright with each passing moment spent in the yellowish green fog making it harder and harder to stay awake.
How did things come to this? What did they do to deserve it?
Alas, even the right of last words was denied to Guin, another small sacrifice in a pile of them dedicated to an altar of obsession.
The hobgoblin watched as the undead spellcaster flew away, content to allow the toxic cloud slay the last of the crippled and dying.
'This fucking… sucks…'
