Revenge of the Sorcerer King 3 - 10

Good evening everyone. I wanted to say that I might not post for the next week or so. I'll be out of the house for much of the next week and did wanted to say something in case i didn't get time on the computer. 

Let me know what ya'll think about how I'm going with this fiction. 

Chapter 10

Alessa

I made good on my promise. Blue Garden was in sight by sundown. Oberon had step up shop around the mage tower with undead streaming away almost as fast as dead bodies were being carried to the spot. All the buildings around the tower had been more or less vaporized. Only their foundations still showed that something had been there.

“Alessa. I heard you ran into some trouble,” Helena’s voice called as she emerged from the darkness.

“Yes. I almost had one but got interrupted,” I said grinding my teeth in annoyance.

“Make sure you call him, or I might take care of him for you,” she said licking her lips with a wicked smile.

“He was mortal but moved faster than even I could.” I shook my head, angry just remembering the fight.

“A few mortals will always excel above others. For one reason or another. Not sure how much time we have before they arrive, but it might be good to get some training in.”

“I agree. Where’s Oberon?”

“In the tower with his new pet,” Helena said with a clear look of displeasure.

“Pet?”

“He found something in the tower after you left. Well, its easier to just see it for yourself.”

I tilted my head in confusion but figured it would sort itself out. Oberon was always finding people even as the master of evil which felt odd to me at times. In the stories I was told as a child. It was the hero that usually found talented or outstanding people to join their side while evil ended up alone and cast aside. Oberon was continuously challenging that concept.

I walked through the lines of undead into the tower. I didn’t spot Oberon on the first floor and when I asked the undead just pointed toward the ceiling. Sighing, I made for the staircase. I finally found him on the top floor. On a stool next to him sat a… young girl.

“That’s right. The runes form a matrix. By folding the matrix, you can reuse parts of the structure for increased affects. In some cases you can call certain parts multiple times. Take a lightning storm, by using this formation in conjunction with these, you can amply its power by tenfold.”

“Ah! I understand master!”

I was about to say something when Oberon spoke without even turning to look at me. “Alessa. Glad you made it back safely.”

“Thanks. Who’s this?”

“Meet Maya. I’ve decided to call her a chimera.”

“A chimera?” I asked moving towards them. “She’s not a human?”

“Show her. Don’t worry. You can treat her like a big sister.” I wanted to gawk as I was sure I’d never heard Oberon sound that… warm toward anything. No wonder Helena was on edge earlier.

“Okay, master.” The girl, Maya, pulled back both her sleeves and her leggings. One arm appeared to be made from metal, while the other was stone. This alternation of materials continued for most of her body. While her torso still possessed flesh, to my nose there was little difference between it and the undead zombie that I had passed on my way into the tower. Her legs were some sort of crystal that looked like they shouldn’t be able to function, but as I watched she was kicking them back and further without issue.

“What did they do?” I asked horrified to see a living creature like this. At least Oberon had the decency to kill his enemies before he changed them into horrors. This was like people hunting my family merely due to my heritage all over again. I rushed forward and wrapped my arms around the girl. “You poor thing!”

“Ah!” she squealed from inside my embrace. The next thing I knew, I was embedded in the wall having been thrown by some sort of force.

“Careful. She has access to the Lay-line in this area. She technically has more mana than even me at her command.”

I pulled myself free, not technically hurt by the attack. A small bubble of mana hovered over the girl’s body before dissipating into the air. Dusting off, I walked back over. “Doesn’t that make her invincible?”

“No. I could easily break through the barrier if I wanted to,” Oberon replied shaking his head. “Isn’t that right, Maya?” Maya pouted, obviously he’d proved that to her at some point.

“This is all very interesting, but what about the National Party that is on its way?” Helena chimed in from behind me. She must have joined us at some point.

“Tell me about them,” Oberon said returning to his normal cold tone. Something about it actually made me feel better. Maybe I couldn’t handle a warm Oberon.

I told them about the two I encountered and Helena confirmed that it was indeed the National Party of the Kolia Lordship. She went on to explain what she knew about the rest of the party. It was one of the smaller National parties, coming in at only ten members. The average level of the group sat around a hundred and fifty with the leader rumored to be over two hundred.

They were skilled in a range of activities with large monsters being their specialties. Whether that gave us an advantage or not, I was too inexperienced to tell. The Boss, as she was called, was a powerful druid with an extreme command of nature magic. Not surprising with most of the party being elves.

“Challenging, but given what you’ve told me, I think we can handle them. Even more so with Maya’s help.”

“I can help master?” Maya asked with an innocent tone, but I didn’t fail to notice the extreme intelligence looking out from her eyes. Maybe it wasn’t such a surprise these two got along. If they were both monsters…

“That’s right. With your help, I can make from here to the capital burn overnight.” The flames of Oberon’s eyes flared up showing he couldn’t wait.

Oberon

With the immediate plan settled, Alessa left with Helena to train. I ordered some of the weakest undead I had, mainly the ones that I had been summoning from the dead of the town, out a few kilometers from the town. It would be a decent early warning sign from the party that was heading for us.

I wasn’t overtly worried. After listening to Helena describe their power, I felt they were weaker than the avatar that I had recently put down. Plus, I had some undead that hadn’t even gotten a chance to fight yet. I only had a rough estimate of the Calamity Icon’s power from the few monsters she’d defeated during the march.

That wasn’t even a good estimate, as she’d basically waved her hand and the monsters turned to a paste on the forest floor. Along with the Wraith, Irgire, Alessa, and Helena, I was sure we had enough firepower. Not that I would go in this expecting to just walk over them, there were a few ideas I wanted to get ready over the next couple hours.

“How are you feeling?” I asked Maya coming out of my thoughts. I didn’t know the rate she needed to receive the fluid to maintain her condition. Many of the notes on the experiment on her were locked in mind stones. Not the end of the world, but something that no matter how powerful, took time to break through.

“Fine. Tired.”

“You have a bit of work ahead. It is probably best if you got some sleep.” She nodded then to my surprise curled up next to me, pulling the edge of my robe around her like a blanket. Before I could tell her to move, she was out like a light. “I’m going to lose my undead credit.”

I decided to ignore it for now. I could do everything I needed in the short term without moving. I snapped my fingers and the town manager imp appeared. “How are the repairs coming?”

“They will be done in a few minutes, with plenty of mana to spare.”

“Good. Prove yourself loyal and I’ll do as we discussed.”

“Of course, master!”

With a wave, I dismissed the imp. I’d offered to return him and his clan back into their fairy form if the ones that were summoned preformed well. I had originally planned to make him work for several days, but the National Party on its way was forcing my hand. The fairies were a force to be reckoned with. I couldn’t afford to let it sit around.

With another wave, the screens pertaining to the city appeared in front of me. Feeding mana from the Lay-line array was speeding the process tremendously. I was pleased that the city barracks could be converted to service the undead with nothing more than a click of a button. The undead produced by the city’s necromancy were on par with the owner’s.

It helped that I was able to set it to whatever level I wanted for the hourly summoning, up to my highest level. The better levels took more mana of course, but that was little matter to me. We were closing in on the center of the continent. Unless the fundamental rules of mana changed as well. The lay-line will have more mana than I could hope to use.

“Guess its time to test a few more of these territory spells.”

They were all spells that I could cast myself, the essential difference I found in my experiments was that the spells covered many times more area. Not only that but they were on par with me dumping days’ worth of mana into them. There was a clear pro and con.

That was what I was finding now that I had adjusted to the world. There was a balance. It might not be obvious at first, but it was there. Whoever designed this change knew what they were doing. I had to, reluctantly, admit that. That wasn’t going to stop me from trying to beat it. With my spatial spell, I already proved that I could bend the rules.

Looking through the menu, I considered the spells I wanted to cast. There were country covering spells, similar to the perpetual darkness that Siateth was providing, but they required an army’s worth of mana. Looking it over, I felt that it usually involved a ritual involving hundreds if not thousands of people over a span of several days.

I settled on four spells. Greater Weaken. It would steal strength and energy from anyone hostile to the country. A decent spell that lasted for a month before it needed more mana to recast it.

Lasting Nightmare. A nasty spell for those that required sleep. As the name implies, without proper protection, the enemy would suffer their worst fears in their sleep. Even the strongest warrior can be reduced to nothing if care wasn’t taken.

Storm and Elemental Allies were sort of a combination. Using storm would create a nasty weather system through the area that I selected. Combined with Elemental Allies, lightning, air, and mana elementals would be summoned at random. They would be at a decent level decided at random. I doubted these would give the coming party too much trouble, but it should hinder and make our battle with them that much easier.

Focusing on the area around the tower and town, I felt a definite dip in the ambient mana. Even the Lay-line grew shallow as enough mana to fill a small lake was pulled through the city core. I observed every detail to learn what I could about the condition of the lines. That much mana should be nothing for the lay-lines. The array had received a fair amount of stress as well. I would have to be careful using it for a few days or weeks or it might suffer a critical failure.

Shaking my head, I put the issue to the side for now. I needed someone that had been around and that paid attention to those details to fill in the missing information. Those people were few and far between though.

I patted Maya’s head absently. “I suppose I need to make a trip to Heaven. Then I could wring the answers from Lucifer’s neck.” All the more reason I needed to locate Mercy.

With the immediate preparations over for the moment, I turned to a slightly more pressing matter. Maya only had a limited amount of the fluid remaining. Used sparingly, it will last for maybe a week. I needed to replicate or create a replacement before that time. She was a key. One that I needed to crush the entire world. Pulling the liquid closer, I began to study its properties.

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