Hey Yo! NerdRyuu back for this month's chapter of Udan's legends! I firstly want to apologize for last month I forgot to answer the questions, I've been dealing with heavy stuff in my personal life and writing kinda became a afterthought, but I'm here, with another chapter warm from the oven!
Last chapter Lincoln, Lynn and Clyde arrived at Youndorf, capital of the region of Yound to negotiate a alliance between Eriol and Yound, met Udan's version of Lori, and now here we are!
But before starting, I want to answer some questions I received in the last 2 chapters!
Dimitri Gomez: Does anyone else knows about Lincoln's other skill?
Nope. no one knows. not even Lincoln yet realizes he has a hidden skill!
Guest99: Does Carol gonna be part of Lincoln's Harem?
This chapter here kinda hints on the answer, so I'll not really say yes or no
DISCLAIMER: I do NOT own The Loud House
Lori made a step forward, holding the door.
"Excuse me… Treason?"
"You are accused of conspiring against the Jarl." The first guard spoke.
"You and yours surrender peacefully or we'll be obligated to use brute force." The second guard said finally. Lori pursed her lips.
"Stand back you two." She ordered.
"Sorry Miss Youndfaith, but you're coming with us!" The first guard pointed his spear to Lori, that jumped back in surprise.
She kept her serious look, but her hands started to shake and she gulped.
"No… I'm sorry men." She quickly swung the door close, slamming it with a loud bang Lori used the brief stun shock of the guards to lock the door. "Quick, the wardrobe!" She said, pulling the wardrobe that was by the side of the door.
Lynn, Lincoln and Clyde ran to help them to push the wardrobe.
"What do you have in here? Dresses made out of gold?" Lynn spoke rhetorically as she pushed
"Don't be silly, these are just my shoes." Lori said. As they stopped, the wardrobe was in front of the door entirely.
"This should stop them for some time." Lynn said as the guards started slamming repeatedly into the door, trying to tear it down.
"But not forever." Lori said walking back at the tapestry and lifting out the wall, she pushed a single brick exposed under it.
The bricks trembled and rotated backwards forty-five degrees, revealing a dark staircase.
"A secret passageway!" Clyde exclaimed. Lynn rolled her eyes to him stating the obvious but also risking the guards to hear him.
"Let's go." Lori said. "There's a lever inside to close it." Lynn and Clyde entered the passageway, but Lincoln looked back at the window.
"Wait a second." He quickly ran to the window and opened it the sun was setting, then he ripped the curtains, tied them together and threw it over the window and walked back at the passageway. Lori looked at him impressed.
"Clever." She said simply with a smirk. Lincoln nodded and entered the passageway. Lori also entered, letting the tapestry and pushing a brick sticking out the wall to close the passageway, leaving it as hidden as it was before.
"Good, I can't see a thing." Lynn said, before Lincoln lit a light ball on his hand and softly threw upwards, the ball floated over their heads gently weaving back and forth. "Oh, good."
"What the hell is happening with those soldiers?" Clyde asked finally.
"Obviously the person that reanimated the Jarl is making their move." Lynn said putting her hands on her waist.
"Probably made your Jarl declare you as a traitor." Clyde suggested. "And declared your prison." Lori sighed looking down.
"I don't think it's just that…" Lori said finally "They didn't obeyed me back there. There's something else going on." Lynn groaned.
"Oh, the guards didn't obeyed me, they shouldn't be able to disobey, because I am the granddaughter of the Jarl!" Lynn said, mockingly imitating Lori. The older girl scowled.
"It's not like that!" Lori said, looking visibly offended.
"I have a Divine Blessing called Absolute Command, or Kengengan as Lady Cass calls it." She explained. Anyone spoke. "It forces people which I have authority over to obey my commands."
"Pft." Lynn held a laugh. "You really need to be convinced to think that you have a divine power!"
"Marlin once told me about Divine Blessings." Lincoln spoke up, grabbing their attention. Lori smiled. "It's said that the goddesses may grant people their blessing, but the reasons will always be a mystery just the goddesses will know." Lori nodded, keeping her smile.
"Yes. That's right. I was blessed by Lady Melanie since I was a child. Lady Cass confirmed it." Lori explained, but Lynn rolled her eyes, completely unconvinced.
That talk of blessing of the goddesses was getting in her nerves, it was just a invention she was making to try to justify her ego. Saying that she was divinely blessed to boss around and being a bossy egomaniac.
That pissed her off.
"Lynn, let it go." Lincoln said, sensing that Lynn was going to continue arguing. "We don't have time." Lynn groaned and rolled her eyes.
"Fine." She begrudgingly spoke.
"If the guards don't obey you when they should, them…" Clyde spoke up. "They're already obeying someone else! Does this makes any sense?" He speculated. The gears on Lincoln's brain started to turn as he heard the speculation.
"It… actually does!" Lincoln said giving a smile to his friend that smiled in surprise, Clyde actually thought he had spoke something stupid as soon as the words jumped out his mouth. "Miss Youndfaith, does your Kengengan has priority over the manipulation school of magic?" Lori stood in silence, trying to understand what he meant.
"Uh…" Was everything she could say.
"The school of manipulation is another of the banned schools of magic. It studies the magic of manipulation. Overcome and overthrow the will of the mind. Your blessing, it can overcome mental manipulation?" Lincoln explained what he meant. Lori nodded along as he did, then, shook her head.
"I don't know. Never had the opportunity, or the thought, to test this." Lori answered. Lincoln them cuddled his fingers in his chin with his fingers in thought.
"The odds are that these guards… If not all of them, are under mental manipulation of some kind. Combined this with someone reanimating the Jarl…" Lincoln trailed off.
"…The one in charge of this must be very knowledgeable on magic." Lynn concluded the thought. Lincoln lowered his head. The young knight sighed. "What's this tunnel anyway?" She questioned as the group started to walk down the stairs.
"It's a secret emergency evacuation tunnel." Lori explained. "Just the closest members of the court knows. We'll be safe here. It connects the main rooms of the mansion and leads. into a passageway to the sewers."
"So this is your plan? Escaping to the sewers?" Lynn spat.
"I need time to think." Lori said serious. "Lincoln, you are a wizard, aren't you?" She stopped walking to ask the boy.
"A Junior wizard." Lincoln clarified.
"Do you know a way to undo the manipulation spells?" Lori asked. Lincoln's eyes widened for a split second, realizing what she had in mind.
"No, but I think there's something in the tome my master gifted me." He said reaching to his satchel and pulling the large book and opened it in the middle, then turned some pages and looked at the others. "It'll take some time for me to find something. Marlin is a genius but he sure didn't wrote this in any order."
"Tsk." Lori said. "We need to act quickly. As much time we spend here, harder it'll be for us to deal with this."
"That I agree with." Lynn said nodding. "You said this tunnel connected to other rooms of the mansion. We can use this to sneak up to the Sage and clover her in the head before she even knows what happened." Lynn suggested pounding her first on her palm.
"There's just one problem with this plan " Lori said. "The tunnel unfortunately doesn't connect with the sage's study." Lynn groaned.
"By Lady Thania's sake." the young knight spoke. Lori thought for a second and realized a way around.
"However, there's a entrance in a nearby room. If we're lucky, we can sneak there without much trouble." Lynn nodded.
"Be quick Stinkoln, we're going to do this." Lynn demanded, resuming walking down the tunnel. Lincoln murmured a positive answer.
"This way." Lori called, pointing to a branch on the tunnel. The group followed her.
The dark and damp tunnel smelled like decay and sludge, it made Clyde dizzy, it was hitting his allergies.
"Here " Lori said as they arrived at a dead end. She hit a brick and again the way rotated 45 degrees forward. The group exited the passageway and found themselves in another bedroom.
But they weren't alone.
Carol was there, looking at them flabbergasted. She was holding a pair of sheets.
Lori stepped forward.
"Carol. You need to help us!" She said but Carol released the sheets and opened her mouth to scream.
Lynn was faster and tackled her into ground, holding her mouth shut. Carol struggled in the ground, trying to release herself and scream.
"Carol, stop, you'll get the guard's attention!" Lori begged. The young maid continued to struggle.
"Not helping Youndfaith." Lynn said. "Can someone help me tie her?" Clyde nodded and ran up to the two and did so.
"She must also be under manipulation!" Lori said, and looked to Lincoln, who frantically turned pages trying to find something of help. "Any luck?"
"No… wait!" He turned back a couple of pages and eyed the contents. "I think this is it." He spoke as he read the contents. His eyes turned yellow as he did.
"So?" Lori spoke.
"It's not a counter spell, but here says that mental manipulation is upheld via a psychic link between the victim and the caster. Severing this link will release mind of the victim." Lincoln repeated what the book said.
"Cool, how do we do that?" Clyde asked.
"It says that one way the connection can be severed if one if the one of the ends gets unconscious… Oh, also there's a spell, just let me-" A loud thud cut Lincoln as Lynn clobbered Carol in the head with her first, making the older girl unconscious as Lincoln said. She looked at the others, Lori scowled to her for resorting to violence with a good friend of hers.
"What? It would take time for Lincoln to learn the spell, and look, she's free from manipulation!" Lynn pointed to Carol, still unconscious on the ground. Lori groaned and face palmed.
"Come help me get her in the bed." She asked Lincoln, who nodded and did so, grabbing gently Carol by the arms while Lori grabbed the legs, they slowly put the bound unconscious girl in the bed.
"If someone saw us in this position, we would be in a even bigger problem." Clyde noted. "Better if we cut her free at least." Lynn rolled her eyes, but unsheathed the sword in her waist und cut the ropes she used to tie Carol.
"Let's get to the study before someone see us." Lori said, peaking out the door to the corridor. The path to the study's door was clean. "Come."
The quartet quickly sneaked to the study before any guard appeared and Lori slowly opened the door, making sure to not make any sound.
The study was very messy, only half of the bookshelves held actual books, the others were various types of glasses, colorful potions, weird creature body parts, sorted as ingredients and several other trinkets and tools. The tables also had every sort of book, trinket, potion and lizard tail laying on it. It was quite dark, without any window and being illuminated by floating candles that shine purple flames. It had a strong smell that none of them could identify, but they could identify that the source was whatever was on the black cauldron in the opposite side of the room as the door, being lit by equal purple flames.
The sage was taking attention to the cauldron Lynn gestured to the others by softly punching her palm. Lori rolled her eyes but nodded.
As Lynn started motioning to act but the Sage Cass turned around, making her hood fly back, revealing auburn locks and a furious look. She pointed her open hand at the group, throwing a purple orb of magic at the group, Lynn instinctively whipped her shield up from her back and jumped in the direction of the spell that was flying directly to Lori.
The spell hit Lynn's shield making the knight stumble back as if she was hit by a battering ram. Before they could act further, Cass put her index finger on the side of her throat and spoke.
"GUARDS!" The sound of her voice was extremely loud beyond normal human capacity. "THE TRAITORS ARE HERE IN MY STUDY! COME QUICKLY! I'LL HOLD THEM!"
"Crap." Lynn said, drawing her sword.
"Sage Cass, stop this!" Lincoln said lifting his hands, but Cass just responded by firing another orb in his direction. Clyde tackled the young wizard out of the way, the orb hit the shelf behind them, making the glasses shatter and potions explode in all direction and tumbling a table over.
"I think she's not in the mood for talking Linc." He said as they rolled behind the table.
"Hah!" Lynn shouted as she ran on the sage's direction, but was stopped by another spell, and then another and another.
"Do something Stinkoln!" Lynn roared to the wizard. "Shoot a fireball or something!"
"Yeah, while she's focusing on Lynn!" Lori said.
"I don't want to harm her!" Lincoln said in a slight panic.
"JUST DO IT!" Lynn roared again. Lincoln stood up from the table and used his left hand to throw a small ball of fire like he was throwing a pebble.
However the much more powerful wizard effortlessly redirected his mini fireball to a nearby shelf, hitting a green flask that exploded by the fireball, tumbling the shelf forward, knocking the books and other potions on the ground, making a complete mess.
The mage then lifted her hands, making the tables fly upwards, exposing Lori, Lincoln and Clyde.
"Oh no." Clyde said before Cass closed her fists with a lot of strength, and the quartet instantly felt their throats being violently crushed.
Lincoln lifted his hands up to his neck. He could fell something strong strangling him, but he could touch anything.
They started to suffocate quickly, Lynn's face was getting purple like the light illuminating them, Clyde was rolling his eyes to the back of his head and Lori could feel her losing conscience.
"Miss Cass, stop, please!" Lori pleaded with the very last of her breath.
Also feeling himself slipping out of conscience, Lincoln, without any thought, also used the last of his breath to voice a last word.
Voh
Fire erupted from the back of his throat, forcing the thing holding his throat release with the strength the fire came out the mouth of the boy's mouth.
Cass shouted, being obligated to release them to create a transparent barrier to protect herself from the hellish flames from the boy.
The extreme heat emanating from the fire started to boil the potions and liquids on the room, cooking and burning the potion ingredients and melting the candles even faster.
Lincoln's friends hade dived down to avoid being burned to death, looking in awe to the inferno their apparently weak friend was creating.
Cass was sweating very hard, the barrier she made, a spell called Magic Ward, was blocking the fire, but the heat couldn't be blocked. Not at that level. She was getting floozy. The fire was burning all the oxygen around her, it was getting hard to breath.
She couldn't keep it anymore. She feel backwards as her ward faded. Just then that Lincoln closed his mouth, blocking the flames and stopping the power of the word. The boy stumbled forward as smoke came out his nostrils.
His head was light, he may have overdid, as his insides tortured him in pain and his lungs, burning hot and still sizzling made him have lots of difficulty to breath.
The white haired boy reached for his chest feeling the burnt lungs inside him. He fell forward as the immense pain finally made him go unconscious.
But Lori didn't let his limp body hit the ground as she caught him in her arms. She had a look of complete shock and surprise.
She may have been subconsciously underestimating him, seeing how young of a wizard he was. But that power was something in a complete other level Lori had ever seen. Well, not that she had seen lots of wizards dueling daily, but that young boy, a lot younger than her, was producing a flame so powerful that she only associate with dragons.
But not only that. Lori checked his pulse, it was low but still active, and he had very low breathing. That power had damaged him deeply, if not mortally. And That boy had did that for her.
Lori flustered unconsciously as she had that thought. She shaked that idea away, but regardless of reasons, he had demonstrated, whit his words back then, and with his actions now, that he was indeed disposed to help at any cost.
"WHAT WAS THAT?" Clyde shouted, finally snapping out of his silent stupor.
"Yeah, Remember that Stinkoln is a dragonmouth or something? He learned that by learning the word fire from the dragon that attacked his village." Lynn explained, or tried to, as she barely understood herself.
"We need to get him into the infirmary to get a burn healing tonic." Lori said finally turning to Lynn.
"It shouldn't be one her-" Clyde stopped as he noticed that almost all potions, canisters, ingredients and everything else were destroyed. "Nevermind." Lynn spoke up.
"Okay, you two get him the infirmary, I'll have a talk with that roast of a wizard." Lynn said giving the unconscious wizard daggers in her look. Lori and Clyde nodded, but as they turned around to rush to the infirmary.
A peloton of guards barfed into the room, quickly surrounding them, with spears pointed at them.
"Guards, stand down." Lori demanded, but the guards didn't budged.
"Lori Youndfaith, you're surrounded! Surrender or prepare to be executed!" One of the guards barked, making Lori gasp in shock. The guards were still under influence. She looked at the unconscious Lady Cass on the floor, then to Lincoln in her arms. But it should have worked. Were they wrong?
Lynn unsheathed her sword but Clyde gently lowered it, and just shaked his head sadly when she looked at him. The knight pursed her lips, but nodded and sheathed again her weapon and raised her hands.
A little more than half an hour since the guards dumped them in the jail of the mansion. They had grabbed their weapons, Lincoln's bag and even Lori's shoes. For some reason.
But this wasn't what the group had in mind. Lincoln was dying on that floor, and with each minute that passes, they came closer to their own also. When they return, they would be all executed. With Lori dead… however was controlling the Jarl would be free to reign and with Clyde executed… war between Yound and Eriol would devastate both provinces.
"What's the plan Pretty Girl?" Lynn asked to Lori who sadly looked at Lincoln who rested in the only bed in the cell.
"Honestly… I literally have no idea what to do… I… think we're going to die." Lori spoke defeated, in the verge of crying. Lynn sighed with a scowl.
"Look here Blondie." Lynn forced Lori to look at her. "I'm not going to die here today, neither does you, so stop crying!" Lori reluctantly nodded.
They remained in silence, uncertain what to do when the clanky sound of something hitting the metal helmet of the only soldier guarding them.
They looked and saw Carol, holding a frying pan with the guard unconscious on her feet. She was hyperventilating and surprised at what she had did.
"Carol!" Lori rushed to the bars of the cell. "Are you good?" Lori asked. Carol rubbed her head in the place Lynn hit her.
"Sorry Lady Lori, I didn't knew what my mom was doing!" Carol pleaded. Lori gasped.
"Your mother? Morgan is behind all this?" Lori asked rhetorically.
"Lincoln delusion wasn't so delusional after all." Lynn said putting her hand on her hips, looking at the young wizard.
"Quick Carol!" the voice of the sage Cass came from the corridor, catching the attention of the others.
"Lady Cass is with you?" Lori asked as Carol searched for keys on the unconscious guard.
"Yes, when I woke up, I went straight to Cass and saw the mess you did on her study. I explained what my mother is doing and she said that we needed to come here. She was right." Carol said, inserting the key she found on the lock and opening the door.
"Lynn, grab Lincoln. CASS! Come here, we need your help!" Lori shouted and asked for the sage.
The formerly controlled sage walked into the jail and immediately saw the injured kid and understood what to do.
"On it, Miss Lori." She walked into the jail and like Lincoln had did to the injured people on the village earlier that day, she put her hand over his chest and her palm started to glow. Immediately Lincoln started to breath better, but was still unconscious.
"He still needs to rest." Cass said. "Well leave him here as we deal with Morgan."
The group exited the cell, Lynn grabbed her weapons, Lori her shoes and the group rushed off the corridor, leaving the resting Lincoln still on the open cell.
Soon, the group arrived at the empty main hall of the ma Sion, where the Jarl's throne laid empty. Lori closed her eyes for a moment at the sight. She was paying her respects to the chair her grandfather ruled in.
"MORGAN SPRINGLEY!" Lori shouted at the top of her lungs.
And like earlier, they quickly got surrounded by dozens of soldiers, holding spears, swords, shields and bows.
Smirking at the group, Morgan walked up from behind a particularly big soldier. She had a sadistic look of satisfaction on her eyes.
"You just couldn't wait for your execution Youndfaith?" She said with venom in her tongue, yet she spoke with a delighted tone, like if those words were sweet for her.
What was fitting, since for some types of giant lizards, their venom tastes like marmalade.
"Mom, please, stop this madness!" Carol pleaded for her mother.
"I can't believe my own daughter is in this conspiracy." Morgan spoke with disdain. Lynn's upper lip contorted in scorn at blatant gaslighting she was trying to do.
"Don't act like you are a innocent and loyal member of the court!" Carol spat angrily at her mother. "You use everyone around you as pawns! My whole life you used me! You used the Jarl, even Lady Cass fall in your trap! You used your so called Natural Talent to weave this web!"
"Natural Talent?" Lynn repeated murmuring.
"Shut your mouth Carol! You are the biggest flaw I ever made!" Carol's heart sank upon hearing that. She knew who her mother was, but hearing that was the last thing any child would want to hear from your parent. "One slip!" Morgan continued. "One slip and I had to rearrange my whole plan! One slip and I was stuck with you! But even with this slip, I continued to weave my plan! And I didn't came this far for you of all people to oppose me!" Morgan spat. "If you don't step aside, will be executed along with the other traitors!"
"The only traitor here is you. Mother." Carol spat the last word win the verge of tears, but mustering the same venom her mother had.
"So be it. GUARDS! I Jarl Morgan Springley sentence the traitor Lori Youndfaith and her conspirator allies to death." The guards slowly started advancing.
"Finally!" Lynn roared in excitement as she clashed her sword with two spears and redirecting them to the ground, right after she used her shield to bash the heads of both soldiers, knocking them to the ground.
"Don't use lethal force, remember they're under control." Lori ordered grabbing a spear from the ground and using it to rip her dress by the knee so that it wouldn't hinder her as she used the spear to block the swing of another sword.
The fight intensified when Clyde tackled a guard that was going to stab Carol in the back.
"So rude." He said to the guard before Carol reciprocated him saving her by shoving him down, preventing him from being decapitated by another guard attacking from behind.
"Focus!" Carol spoke.
Cass used simple knock back spells on the guards that got too close to them. Cass was still weak and tired due the battle she had with Lincoln earlier, so she had only energy for those weak spells. The wizard looked around, searching for Morgan. She needed to knock her down with a spell, and all this madness would instantly stop.
However Morgan seemed to also know this, because she was nowhere to be found, the entire main hall had only them and the guards fighting, Cass needed to keep her eyes open, Morgan could be hiding, waiting for a opportunity to put her back in control.
And Cass was right. As soon as the fight broke, Morgan his behind one of the support pillars near the walls, very far from the center of the battle, she was spying from behind said pillar, with her eyes set on Cass, waiting for a perfect shot and put the sage back under her manipulation.
And she actually had the perfect angle to hit her with the manipulation spell.
She lifted her hand.
She won.
And a purple spell hit Morgan in the side of the head making Morgan fly onto the wall and fall.
Every guard present groaned and fell on the ground unconscious. The group looked around, confused at what happened and looked at Morgan, on the ground and then to the other side of the room.
Lincoln was standing with his right arm extended in Morgan's direction and Marlin's tome open in his left hand.
On the open page of the tome, laid the spell Lincoln had saw earlier. There was a spell that could end the connection in manipulation spells.
And he had learned it in the way there. Lincoln lowered his hand and made a deep sigh, letting his knees wobble a bit, he still was weak.
Lynn sighed in relief, sheathing her sword, Cass had a somewhat surprised look on her face, Lincoln wasn't supposed to wake yet, much less be able to cast any spell at all. Clyde and Carol commemorated by high-fiving each other.
Lori smiled looking at Lincoln. This was the end. She looked at the throne of her grandfather. Now he could finally rest in piece. Along her father.
She walked over to the throne as the others turned to look at her sit there.
That was her rightful place. as the sun rose, she sat down.
She was now the new Jarl.
N/A: Oof, that was a packed chapter. The reveal that Morgan was the real villain wasn't really a twist right? Okay, let's start from the beginning, Lori's Divine Blessing, The Kengengan, is a real thing, although we didn't actually get to see it YET. Divine Blessings will be explained further and will actually be a large thing on the future.
I think that this I ended not conveying the time this chapter took place right, but this chapter took place mostly on the night and at the end at the sun rise.
Next Chapter we'll see the aftermath of this one! the first day of Lori as The Jarl of her people! And also the introduction of a fan favorite that won't be exactly how you expect she to be!