Revenge of the Sorcerer King 3 - 9

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Chapter 9

Oberon

“Master’s home?” Maya asked with interest.

“That’s right.” I walked through the portal and my connection to Fallen Haven’s core snapped to full strength. “Zriq!” I called the city core’s manager fairy. The well-dressed fairy appeared a moment later with a bow. Freedom of movement in the core’s aura was a benefit that all core clans possessed.

“Master Oberon! We did not expect you for several months.” He paused as he looked around the room. “I’m not acquainted with this room.”

“Its in the basement of the mage tower at the back of the castle. I didn’t expect to be able to use it since I would have to install Lay-line Arrays. But, the mortals appear to have… commandeered the knowledge in my absence.”

“I’m not sure I understand but does this mean you will be able to travel here regularly.”

I nodded. “I sent out a spell that would destroy any lay-line arrays, but I should be able to quickly repair them if a location I capture had one.”

“Marvelous!” Zriq clapped his hands with excitement.

“Where is Arathorn and Lenora?”

“They are alternating diving the dungeon. I believe Lenora should be back soon.”

“Excellent.”

“Master. What is the… pretty man?” Maya asked from next to me.

“He is a fairy. Have you ever seen an imp?”

“The mages made… them help out at the… tower! They were ugly!”

“This is their true form. I took their sin from them.”

“Their sin! Can you take mine?”

“Probably, but I would likely kill you in the process without understanding your body better.” Hell, I wanted to try taking the sin from Alessa and Helena along with the other vampires, but I feared it would kill them. Zriq suffered quite a lot of pain as did many of the other fairies. A number of goblins died until I had mastered pulled the mana from them when changing Gobluke’s clan.

That was one of the many projects that I worked on during my down time. I wanted to create a medium that took some or all the strain from the person, but that was a challenge. It was a curse that affected the entire realm after all. I couldn’t just snap my fingers and reverse it.

“What are you sins at child?” Helena asked with interest. Maya quickly told us her sins and Helena grew wide eyed. Sin: [Pride: 1%] [Greed: 1%] [Lust: 1%] [Envy: 1%] [Gluttony: 1%] [Wrath: 120%] [Sloth: 1%]. “How… I thought reaching a hundred percent in any single sin caused a change. For you to have even higher than that is unheard of.”

“Master… I mean my old master. He said they were working… on something for the king. They did everything they could… to make me angry. I don’t remember what happened… when I reached one hundred. There was a… lot of blood though. They continued to enrage me which was easier than before. When it got to… a hundred and twenty. It stopped moving no matter how they tortured me.”

“Fascinating!” I said patting her head. “I wonder what changed in you?”

Maya only shrugged and I chuckled. Well, all in good time. We left the gate room heading for the throne room. Khaar was still acting controlling the vital features of the core while taking input from Arathorn and Lenora. He was getting quite good at controlling the core as if it was a part of him. Though, looking at it another way, he was once part of a core. It might not be that big a change for him.

Khaar was sitting next to the throne as we walked in. I’d told him numerous times that he could use the throne, but he adamantly refused. By this point, I had given up on him. “Khaar. Where are we at?”

The living armor stood and bowed. “Master. The city is growing steadily. It will be another month before we reach the ocean as you commanded. The number of undead have increased to the point that there are no longer regular monsters in the desert. If we didn’t have the dungeon, the overall level would have ground to a halt.”

“Good. While I want to focus on the Igerox continent for now, it is only a matter of time before the other two get involved, either by trying to take advantage of the situation or by trying to help the doomed kingdoms. We need to create an undead fleet before we get cut off from the ocean.”

Waving my hand, I brought up the map of the city. If there was one change I greatly enjoyed it was the reworkings to the cores. While buildings could be built in the old fashion way with manual labor. An appropriate amount of mana and resources could be spent to rapidly build the buildings with the click of a mental button.

Now that the Lay-line array was linked with another one, I could start to have it draw mana from the lines and channel it into the core. Before the great change, I had done this to supply the city shields and services in times of war. I couldn’t help but rub my hands in anticipation at what I could do with all that mana at the tips of my fingers.

“If you could use something like that, why do we need Mercy?” Helena asked when I explained the reason for our trip. She wasn’t every patient when left in the dark.

“Because these require several high level materials to create. Of which I didn’t have any until earlier today when we captured the mage tower. Even with the supplies I raid from their vaults. I can create one maybe two more. Lastly, they are fixed to their locations, take days to build and calibrate, and are fragile as I just showed the rest of the continent.”

I felt a tug on my sleeve and looked at Maya. “Mercy. I’ve heard that name before.” I stopped what I was doing and gave her my full attention.

“And? What did you hear?”

“It’s in the Wandering Dungeon right?” she said tilting her head then pointed at her stomach. “I was created to find it.”

“Of course! You would be able to link with it from the lay-line! Genius!” I reached out and picked her up lifting her into the air. “I knew we’d be great friends! You help me find Mercy and I’ll make whatever desire you have come true!”

“You promise?”

“I might be evil, but I always keep my word.”

“I think I’m going to be sick,” Helena commented. I was too overjoyed to care.

I sent her a smirk. “We have a war to win!”

Alessa

I tapped the ice and frowned when I saw the elf was still conscious. He had to be a considerable level to withstand being completely frozen. I drew back my arm to deliver the final blow when I felt something enter my perception at a high speed. I leapt back as a man larger than a house literally crashed where I had been standing.

“Deldrach. Why are you frozen?” asked the man as if he couldn’t understand what he was seeing. A murmur came from the ice before cracks appeared. I ground my teeth as the elf broke free.

“Husskan…” Deldrach said with chattering teeth. “Good… timing… as always.”

“The boss isn’t going to be happy,” Husskan replied with a shrug.

The entire time, the man hadn’t taken his eyes off me. He was very well trained, as even my novice level could tell their were no openings. If the scout and fighter were at this level, I couldn’t imagine what the other members were like. Horror washed through me as a thought washed through me like lightning. It was the Lordship’s national party! Basically, the guardians of the nation!

“Great. A brute had to show up.”

“Puny wench. Perhaps you should experience a few more winters before you think of challenging me.”

“Sadly, I fear the world will end before I see enough winters to stomach your face.”

I barely had a moment’s notice to dodge as a sword as large as I was sliced through the air. The impact caused the ground to explode throwing me through the air. I managed to catch myself with a tree branch, but the barbarian was on me, his large sword leading.

I couldn’t afford to hold back this time. I spoke a chant, able to omit many of the words thanks to Oberon’s training. With the howling of wind, a snowstorm exploded around me. Snow and ice started to coat everything in a ten kilometer radius. The sun that had almost fully risen by this point vanished behind dark clouds.

I switched to life sight and faded into the snow tossed winds. “Shit! She’s higher level than I expected!” Deldrach shouted. Even with the storm raging around us, I could still hear them with my increased hearing. I summoned more blood ice and made a blade that was almost a meter long at the end of my fist.

Under the cover of the storm, I appeared behind Husskan. With a thrust, I stabbed my new blade through the man’s stomach with my full strength. As I feared, the man was able to use his mana to reinforce his skin and the blade shattered against his back, but the force I used sent him flying through two trees.

“Little bitch!”

I moved away before Deldrach could catch up. With a thought, two dozen magic missiles formed and flew into the gray snowstorm. Deldrach’s skills held up, letting him counter with his daggers. They began to glow then he managed to move even faster. While I was concentrating on trying to land a blow on the elf, Husskan roared and the snow started to melt before it got near him. Steam rising from a decent meter radius around him, he stalked toward Deldrach.

I drew back summoning more magic missiles to keep them occupied as I concentrated on sending a message to Oberon. I was outmatched and doubted I could bring them down by myself. I warned that the Lordship’s national party was heading for the city and I was forced to retreat.

“Mistress!”

“My lady!”

Jade and Sarius’s voice cut through the storm before a rain of arrows crashed into the pair. Again, Deldrach was able to repel everything that came near them. Seriously, what kind of skill was that?! Husskan zeroed in on the voices before he threw his sword. I sensed Sarius experience an overwhelming pain before his link almost vanished.

I sent Jade a message that we need to retreat before I channeled all my mana into forming a prison of ice around the pair. With just about every drop of mana in me, I managed to make it almost a meter thick. Before I dropped in exhaustion, I rushed to grab Sarius who’s left arm and part of his torso was gone, splattered around the sword embedded a few meters away in the ground, and we retreated. Hopefully, they’ll think twice about chasing us.

We’d crossed almost fifty kilometers before I slowed to a jog. “Jade. Thank you for trying to help.”

“We felt your distress through the link. I made sure to order the others in your area to retreat, but… Four are dead.”

“How?” I was fighting those two.

“The big guy from the wounds I saw. He must have been searching for the smaller man and stumbled on them.”

“Fuck!”

“Was that Husskan?”

“That was the name the elf used. You know him?”

Jade nodded with a grime expression. “I do. He is famous. Kolia Lordship’s Grand Party. They are double A ranked and protect the interests of the Lordship. He is a barbarian that is rumored to be impenetrable.”

“Then its as I feared. Fuck!”

We regrouped with the rest of the Familia to the north of the main road. Oberon ordered me to stand down and not provoke the new enemy. We would deal with them using the army at Blue Garden. He wanted us to attack outlying villages using hit and run tactics. More in a bid to piss them off than to actually weaken the lordship.

“Send a trusted member to the north with some of your number. Check the border. While we can handle it, I’d rather not deal with reinforcements from the other lordships showing up on our doorstep unannounced.”

“Understood.”

I was disappointed that I wouldn’t get to get my revenge, but I needed to look at the bigger picture. At least that what I was thinking when Oberon told me to come back to the town on my own. “Let Jade handle the operation. If this party is as powerful as you said, I’m going to need your hands here. Don’t make us wait.”

Excitement rushed through me. “I’ll be there before sunset.”

“Good.”

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