They all showed signs of agreement. However, seeing it all, they were stuck thinking about the coming battle.
“Now, who’s ready for dinner?” Dave closed the interface screen showing the flying citadels and picked up a rack of boar ribs while he moved toward the large table.
Food was doled out and drinks flowed.
Deia stopped the proceedings with a tap of her glass.
The noise around the table calmed down as they all looked to Deia.
“In these times, it’s hard to find a minute to get away from it all. Thank you for all coming to share a meal with us and put the world’s worries at the door. Today, while we have this meal, our table is two people shorter.” Deia looked to the two places that had been set at the table but there was no one there.
“Anna and Jekoni gave their lives for the people of Emerilia. They gave their lives for us. A number of us have heavy hearts and minds thinking that we might have been able to save them in some way or, if we had done something different, that they would be with us here today. I understand these thoughts as I’ve had them myself.” Deia found Dave’s hand holding hers. She looked to him with a smile on her face before she continued.
“Whatever we think, here are the facts: Jekoni and Anna loved us to lose their own lives, so that we might live, so that we could continue on Emerilia. Many of the people at this table are alive because of their actions. Today we grieve for them, but tomorrow let us fight and live in memory of them. As they have left, we will forge ahead to live, to take this life that they have given us and do something with it!”
Deia raised her glass into the air in toast. “To those who were lost, may they never be forgotten and may we meet them in our next adventure! To Anna and Jekoni!”
“To Anna and Jekoni!” The others raised their glasses in salute before tapping them on the table and drinking from them.
After Deia’s speech, it was as if a weight had lifted from the group. Here they didn’t have to care about being the strongest or the most powerful; they could share their emotions and their feelings. They smiled, joked, and laughed; talked about memories they had of Jekoni and Anna—shared the people they knew with one another. There were tears but there were also smiles.
They ate and drank together late into the night and to the next morning, putting to rest their memories of Anna and Jekoni.
Through it all, Alkao had a strange light in his eyes as he remembered what Bob had told him after Anna died. He didn’t tell anyone else, not wanting to raise hopes for something that might or might not work.
***
The Dark Lord and the Earth Lord looked to each other through seeing ponds. They were both overlooking the different launch points for their invasion into Markolm. Neither of them had actually gone onto the battlefield and were instead watching what was going on from their own halls. They wanted to defeat Light and they were working together, but they wouldn’t be so close to each other in the midst of a massive battle. It would only make it too easy for the other to kill them in the confusion.
“It is time,” the Earth Lord said, talking in his deep and gravelly voice.
“It is.” The Dark Lord looked to one of his aides, an undead skeleton, at his side. “Forward!” the Dark Lord shouted.
The Earth Lord sent his own order through a sprite to his side.
On the Heval coast, an army of undead appeared from the ground. The ground fell apart as if it were corroding underneath the descending darkness of night. These creatures that were weak to the sunlight now emerged from where they had been resting and waiting. They moved upward and landed on the platform that rose just a few feet from the ground—one edge in the forest that was slowly dying, the other reaching the water’s edge. Dark smoke moved over the platform, becoming stronger as night came. Looking upon it, one might instantly think of poison.
However, abominations, champions, creatures, and people who served the Dark Lord all came from the different places that they had been resting and mounted the platform.
As soon as they had finished, the platform shook. Metal and stone legs extended from the platform, reaching out into the sea. The platform rose up and moved forward. Other legs tore through the Heval land as they, too, stepped forward. Hundreds of legs moved like a slow caterpillar; the platform moved forward, passing over the waves of the sea and headed for Markolm.
At Opheir, a similar scene was taking place. Creatures seemed to emerge from the ground of the island that had been formed over the last two weeks. The trees and different plants seemed to come alive, showing off the different creatures that waited there. Other people and creatures from other Affinities stepped off the land around the island, onto it, or moved in the water to grab a hold of the different roots that extended down and made harnesses.
Once everyone was on the island, it moved forward, slow at first but then faster, creating waves with its passage as the monsters from the deep pulled the islands as if they were nothing but venerated beasts of labor.
In different locations overlooking these rally points that the two Pantheon lords had been waiting at, players and POEs emerged quickly and sent back word to the Terra Alliance. The Pantheon’s battle seemed to have started.
Chapter 13: First Movements of the Pantheon
Dave looked at the portal in front of him. A well of emotions filled him.
Word had come down from the various scouts who had been watching the Dark and Earth Lord—both of them had started to move. Within Light’s Markolm, the different legions that she had trained were arming themselves and preparing for the coming battle.
It would be a day before the island and platform reached Markolm but the Terra Alliance was already moving to their different positions. The forces that had been on break were now activated. The flying citadels were all in the sky. The teleport pads in Terra had all been closed down, ready and linked to the onos that were inside the citadels, ready to move the reserve forces to the flying citadels in a moment.
The fighting dragon force had left the safety of their Densaou Ring of Fire. A massive formation of nearly one hundred dragons met up with the citadels and rested in their towers.
The merpeople had left the safety of their cities. Their war shoals, or groups of mer-warriors, moved to rally points between Markolm and the Densaou Ring of Fire. Forces were being moved around, till they were ready and waiting in Terra.
All eyes were looking at the progress of the Dark and Earth Lord’s forces as they traversed the sea between their staging points.
Dave steeled himself and stepped through the portal. He left the stone of Pandora’s Box behind and stepped out onto the rubberized flooring of the Jukal carrier Datskun. He cast his Touch of the Land spell that ran through the entire ship. He didn’t find Bob anywhere but he did find a number of areas that had been blocked off by stealth runes.
The areas that had held the living quarters were blocked from his vision; there were also entire sections of the fighter bays. However, the living quarters were closer so he headed toward them.
With the magical runes across the ship, teleporting within it was a bad idea so he was stuck with walking. Thankfully the power systems had recovered enough so that he could use the elevators and different conveyor belts to move through the massive carrier.
It still took him some time before he was able to reach the area that he thought Bob was hiding. He moved to the living quarters and opened up a door.
Inside, there were banks and banks of powerful servers that were working constantly; the flickering lights told him that they were online and working. Once inside, he was able to cast his spell again. He quickly found Bob, who was sleeping on a couch near a workstation.
Dave moved through the room, sensing Bob waking up.
“Who is it?” Bob sat up on his couch.
“Hey, Bob.” Dave came around some servers and looked at Bob. He looked like hell, but he doubted anyone who had lost their child would look any better. Dave knew that he would be barely holding himsel
f together if he lost Koi or Deia.
“Dave, oh, umm, sorry. I’ve been a bit busy with things.” Bob got up from the couch. There were ration packs all around and there was a massive console with a rolling seat in front of it.
Dave remembered the seat; Bob had taken it a number of months ago, never to be seen again.
Dave looked at the complex lines of code as well as the information overlays on the old-fashioned screens. “What have you been working on?”
“Bit of a complicated question there. There’s two real parts. It’s more who and why.” Bob moved to his seat and sat on it.
Dave stepped up behind him and looked over his shoulder, trying to understand some of what he was seeing. All of it was written in Jukal code, making it hard for him to understand.
Bob input a line of code. One of the screens changed from an update screen to a very familiar face.
“Hello, you must be Dave. My father has told me a lot about you,” the head said with a smile.
Dave felt himself go into shock as he looked at Anna’s face and heard her voice. “W...what?” Dave stuttered out, looking to Bob with wide eyes.
“As you might know, Anna was an AI at first. She was then transplanted into a Beast Kin body. However, I needed someone I could trust in the AI network of Emerilia.” Bob waved to Anna. “Anna is the basis of the AI controllers. She has admin rights to everything, backdoors into all the systems that are attached to Emerilia. She isn’t connected to the defensive networks, but with her we can shut down communication and the different broadcasts that are going on. She was distributed throughout the different networks, barely conscious—instead just a system running multiple processes. This was done to make it nearly impossible to wipe her out or for the Jukal to discover her. The other AIs have already been altered so that they will never recognize Anna being in the system, but they can have their programming changed by her. After Anna’s body died at the Xelur citadel, I was in pretty bad shape. But I knew that Anna had backed up herself into the AI so that she was always consistent. Anna can tell you the rest.”
Dave looked to Anna’s face, which had a wry expression.
“Come on, Dave. AIs—we’re pretty hard to destroy.” The corners of her mouth lifted into a smile at Dave’s stunned expression. “My physical body was destroyed and so were a number of my memories. I have faint recollections of Party Zero. Dad has been bringing me up to speed. I’ve been using the recorded information to compile what I can of my actions. My memory was fragmented and is all messed up with the destruction of my main body. However, over time I am coming to remember more. I do not remember anything from the time that I was woken up on Emerilia and that I started to fight alongside Party Zero—the power of that Xelur soul array was too powerful. Though with time and using the different records I have and interactions with people I met between that time to now, I can use them as reference points to help defragment my memories. Right now, I know of Party Zero and others, but it will take time for me to remember you all,” Anna said.
“Now, if you’re going to ask why is she in the server instead of in her body, that’s because if I was to put her into a new body, then the Jukal would notice it. After all, I would be pulling out the center of the monitoring program. Also, with the servers, Anna will be able to recover a lot of her base memories faster here,” Bob said.
“Just—” Dave was at a loss for words as he sat on the couch.
“She won’t be the same Anna that you knew, but at her core she will be,” Bob said.
Tears fell down Dave’s face as he laughed, filled with happiness.
Bob had tears at the corners of his eyes, touched by the clear and true feelings that Dave showed toward Anna.
After a bit, Dave calmed down and was able to get a hold of himself.
“Now, I don’t want this shared too much. After all, Anna might not be able to leave here for weeks or months and we don’t know what state she’ll be in when we transfer her over to her new body,” Bob said seriously.
“I can do that. I don’t think they need anything to distract them from what they’re doing,” Dave said, reassuring Bob.
“What’s happening?” Bob frowned, catching onto the tone that Dave was using.
“Earth and Dark are getting ready to attack Light.”
Lines filled Bob’s face as his expression became serious and dark. “Tell me everything that has been going on.”
Dave pulled out a memory crystal and held it to his head; his memories flowed into the crystal, hitting the high points before he tossed it over to Bob.
Bob took it and put it against his head, closing his eyes. They snapped open as the crystal turned to dust.
“Well, it seems that you’ve been busy!” Bob said with a slight smile before he looked to the screens in front of him. He let out a long sigh before he got to his feet. “Well, if the kids have finally decided to go to war, then it’s time the Pantheon stopped existing. They’ve brought enough pain and suffering to Emerilia already.”
Dave’s scalp tingled with the cold anger that was held in Bob’s words.
Bob’s body expanded; his weak frame became more powerful and stronger. Hair appeared on his head and a thick tail extended from his spine. His hands grew into claws as his ears became pointed and moved to the top of his head. His thin body changed, powerful muscles covering his body as runic lines ran down his body.
Dave watched as Bob the gnome turned into Bob the wolfkin. He stood there, a proud alpha wolfkin. His body radiated power. Dave could see clear similarities between Bob and Anna.
Dave looked at him, his face stuck between shock and a frown. Bob in his wolfkin form was actually taller and bigger than Alkao.
Runic lines looking like tattoos covered his body, much like they did Dave’s when he activated his conjuration powers.
Bob’s body had fine gray hair over it with black and white lines. Anna didn’t have fur on her face but Bob’s face was more wolf-shaped than hers. Runic lines ran up his neck and onto his cheeks, giving him a fierce look. The lines emitted a gray smoke as the air around him seemed charged with Mana, as if he were ready to jump into battle at any moment.
Bob chuckled, revealing sharp teeth and a deep and powerful voice. “You should see your face.” Bob reached to his pouch of holding and pulled out a cloak. It was covered in runic lines nearly identical to Dave’s own cloak on his Lux armor. Bob twirled it around, putting his arms through the sleeves and flipping the hood up to cover his features and face. He didn’t wear a shirt, revealing his strong upper body; he had on simple cloth pants with multiple pouches of holding and shoes. Only the edge of his snout was visible as silver eyes looked out at Dave.
“What?” Dave asked. The aura around Bob was similar to Fire, Water, and Air’s—there was an unfathomable depth to it. However, he felt that the power Bob had was even deeper than the other lords and ladies he had met in the Pantheon. Standing next to him as he unleashed his full aura, Dave felt as if he were in the presence of a true god, as if kneeling was the right thing to do.
“Well, Anna got her good looks from somewhere.” Bob laughed and clapped Dave on the back. The force nearly launched Dave across the room of servers as Bob started to walk toward the doorway into the server room.
“I have not always been in a gnome body. I took that body because gnomes are usually underrated. People see them as weak and useless while in actuality they have sharp minds and fast fingers. Never cross a gnome,” Bob warned Dave. “In gnome form, I was small—looked weak. This was something that was imprinted on the different people in the Pantheon.
“However, it was not my first form. The first form I took was this. I used this form to move through Emerilia, watching over my people. Away from others, I would train in magic with this body. I came to understand this body more than the others. I might practice or make up spells in other bodies, but I was the most familiar with this. With this body, I can fully unleash my powers and strengths. I’m not simply someone who was going to si
t on the sidelines if my Emerilia was attacked. I held back my power, hoping that the Pantheon would pull their heads out of their asses. Even though they might be my children, the time has come to show them why I was neutral.” Bob’s eyes flashed with cold light as he passed through the door to the server. “If I was to take a side, then anyone facing us would be destroyed.”
A chill ran down Dave’s spine as he saw a small hologram on a bracelet on Bob’s wrist.
Anna flashed into existence before fading into the bracelet.
“You’re bringing Anna?” Dave asked.
“Well, she does control my divine wells. Easier to have her use them than to try to do it all myself.”
“You have divine wells?” Dave asked, stunned.
“Of course. I did make the Pantheon. You think I would give them all things that I don’t have?”
“But you’ve never used them!” Dave said.
“Well, I used them sometimes for teleporting, but yes, otherwise I’ve been saving up for a rainy day, you could say,” Bob said with an amused smile.
“Saving for a rainy day? That’s five hundred years of saved up power,” Dave said. “But wait—you don’t have any followers.”
“I don’t, but I’ve got a fusion power plant as well as ley lines and whatever I can pour into them. Just like how Fire charges her own divine wells with her power instead of through her people’s devotions,” Bob said.
Dave went silent, unable to understand the power that Bob had been hiding. “Poor Alkao. His girlfriend’s dad is scary as shit,” Dave muttered.
Bob snorted and shook his head as they walked through Datskun toward the portal.
***
Light looked at the approaching forces of Dark and Earth.
“Seems that Earth had more rallying power than I gave him credit for. He’s brought over a number of creatures from Water and Fire Affinities that neither Water nor Fire would have helped out,” Light said casually. Her eyes thinned as she looked to the Dark Lord’s platform. Although the other forces were more powerful in different areas, their attacks weren’t as powerful as when Light and Dark clashed; their naturally opposite powers had a greater effect against each other.
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