by Matthew Peed
There was a surge of darkness, then hundreds of figures started to appear and surround the pair. Izora sucked in a gasp as she watched, so I switched to my mana sense as well. Mana was pulsing like a bonfire from the gathering as it surged to something.
“REBIRTH! As You Have Been Deemed . . . Worthy!” Anubis shouted, then the cascading mana began to ripple as it surged toward the body of the dryad.
The body vanished from the massive amount of mana turning it into particles. The figures made of shadows broke into smoke, then flowed into the whirlpool of mana. The stump, which was over fifty meters in diameter and still thirty or forty meters high, began to crack and condense as it sank.
Finally, when the light show was over and the stump seemingly couldn’t condense any more, Anubis tapped the newly formed tree that was barely the size of a sapling with his scythe. I noticed a shard of metal become embedded in the trunk. He stepped back and bowed in front of the tree. Something had told me not to interrupt before, and the same thing told me that this now was the most important part of the process.
This time the whole area within nearly a kilometer trembled. Anubis stepped back several dozen meters without hesitation. A massive hand broke through the ground, and I momentarily worried about what the hell Anubis had summoned this time. Upon closer inspection, I realized the hand was actually composed of bark, a golden bark that appeared to repel unholy mana.
The massive treant slowly pulled itself out of the ground, coming to a rest in front of the small sapling. It came to just short of fifty meters tall and seemed to have a presence that made it look twice that size. It looked down on Anubis and gave him as much of a nod as a giant moving tree could give before it sank its roots into the ground a couple dozen meters from the sapling. It closed its eyes and for all intents and purposes looked just like a giant golden-brown tree.
The feeling I was having vanished, so I felt it safe to bring Anubis back to the ship. I sensed that his mana reserves were severely depleted even with him absorbing all the unholy and dark mana from the dryad and the area.
“What was that?” I asked, more curious than anything.
“She knew what was wrong with her and wanted it to end. Forgive me for failing my mission!” Anubis said hurriedly as he kneeled in front of me.
“No. I’m not worried about that; I assume it’s the same soul?” I asked, glancing back down at the sapling. Soul magic was known to me, though I’d never wanted to play with it. Meeting Creation once had been enough. With two meetings with him, I really didn’t want to play the wrong card. Soul magic sort of rang out like that.
Anubis looked relieved and quickly stood up and said, “Yes, I controlled her path along death’s twisting road to allow her to be reborn instantly from a body created from her own.”
“Will she have her memories?” I was sure being in this hell for decades was something anyone would rather forget than remember if given the chance.
“No, only the same soul. This was her request, to return to the forest so that she might once again return it to nature’s grasp.”
“So, you were able to understand her?”
“No, only the cries of her soul were heard by me,” Anubis answered, shaking his head.
“I have to say you continue to surprise me,” I said, rubbing my head.
“I was created in the image you gave me. All my powers come from you, in one form or another.”
“Good to know. And the big guy?” I asked, pointing in the direction of the golden treant.
“All the treants that died here returned when called to help their mother back on the correct path. From them the bravest stepped forward, and from their many dead roots, created a new body that could withstand the unholy taint. Magic is as we will, therefore the greatest deeds can be done by those already gone,” Anubis explained.
“That’s amazing!” Izora exclaimed after hearing the story. Then, with sheepish look, asked slowly, “Can . . . can you let me see my mother? Not bring her back but just let me see her?”
“My apologies, Princess of the Gnomes. I can only commune with those recently passed or those that have strong attachments to this world at their source of power,” Anubis said with the bow of his head. “I have a feeling your mother would not be the kind to linger.”
“No, Mother wouldn’t linger,” Izora said with a sad smile.
“Father, I would ask a favor,” Anubis said, kneeling again.
“What is it?” I grabbed his shoulder before he made it all the way to the ground. “My children have no need to kneel without cause,” I said firmly.
“Yes, Father,” he said and stood up straight. “I would like to be responsible for helping the other dryads back to their correct path in nature. This one,” he said with a look toward the sapling, “begged me to help her sisters, as they are much worse than her and much older.”
“I don’t see a choice without using much more destructive weapons than I would like to at the moment,” I said, thinking over the battle. I really didn’t want to show all my cards to the ones that might be watching. Using the ion cannon was more a test to see how space-launched weapons would react to this type of world and, I guess, a show of force to those that might be watching. Not to mention the mana cost from firing the thing . . .
“We’ll leave the finishing blows to you,” I finished, grabbing both his shoulders.
“Thank you, Father!” Anubis exclaimed with a smile on his dog head. He started to leave before he turned back for a second and said, “Make sure you let Vetur out, or he’ll go crazy just sparring with me.”
I laughed, then said, “Noted.”
Anchoring the ships there to allow the mana storage to recharge, we rested—if robots could rest—for the night. I sent Izora back to the embassy. They were handling her disappearance like champs. Only a few of them were freaking out. The sapling had already grown to the size of a small tree. I was happy to see that it was actively cleaning the air of unholy mana, much like it would of carbon dioxide.
It looked like it was caused by the interchanging of mana between the sapling and the sliver of metal Anubis had given the tree during its creation. Magic never ceased to amaze me. I was sure Anubis had done that on an almost instinctive level to help protect the sapling in its new life, but it was having such an effect beyond the scope he could imagine. For the rest of the night, I mainly just studied the interplay of mana in the area, as it was causing all types of phenomenon.
~~~
The next day, I was surprised when I felt my security system inside the castle go off. I had several types of alarms so that I could respond to the ones that actually needed my attention. I’d set Louella’s castle to high priority for obvious reasons. When my consciousness reached Louella’s office, I saw that she was quite pissed.
A woman who gave me an . . . off feeling was slumped against the wall, her body smoking slightly. I formed my avatar, ready for what this new threat could throw at us.
Chapter 20
Louella
The interrogation of the necromancers lasted only a half an hour at most, so after Regan sent us back to the barracks, Lines asked to be excused and left. Ezal and I didn’t have anything else to do, so I headed back to the castle in case anything might have happened while I was gone. I doubted it, as any news would have made its way back to Ezal, given that she was the town’s guard leader. Wrakras was waiting for me, along with the rest of my guards. I felt Lucifer was the happiest to see me, however, as he whined and then proceeded to lick my face for nearly a minute before I could get him off me.
The next day, back at the castle I settled into my chair just to relax for a moment from all the happenings. I’d hired enough assistants to actually manage the paperwork for me, so all I needed to do was glance through it. I had trouble trusting people due to all the stuff that had happened, so it was all checked by one of Regan’s automata—but that was one of our little secrets. We’d already caught one person trying to scam money from the town. They were made
an example of by being hung from the entrance gate for three days before being banished from town. We were kind and allowed him to drink water twice a day, but it was still torture for him.
As I was resting my eyes, I felt a hand go around my mouth. My eyes jerked open, and I tried to struggle to get free but failed. Something wet entered my mouth. I suddenly felt my whole body go rigid. The hand let go, but I still couldn’t move. A silhouette moved around my chair, then I managed to see the person who was in the room with me.
She seemed to epitomize the word “red”; everything about her appeared to be the color. Only her pale skin made the picture seem less odd. She wasn’t that tall, probably only one and a half meters. She was beautiful, but a beauty that seemed to have seen too much weather, as it was faded, like a memory.
“Am I correct in assuming you are Miss Louella Coates, lord of this lovely valley and a viscountess of Thonaca Kingdom?” the woman’s sweet voice asked. It was almost sweet to the point that some might find it sickening.
I wasn’t sure how I was supposed to reply with my body completely frozen the way it was.
“My bad . . . just nod with your eyes. I can’t risk releasing any of my control. You took quite a bit out of me,” the woman said, pursing her lips.
I was trying to channel my mana to break whatever was causing this, but it was like my veins were sealed, the mana congealed into a rock.
“Oh, I can see it! Just like all the others, struggle all you want. My magic is much more advanced than anything you have ever seen, young lady,” the woman said as she stroked my cheek. I glared at her but couldn’t do much more.
“Now, I’ll go ahead and take that as a yes to my question. I’m looking for a Sir Bruce, tall, strapping man with more muscle than brain. Ring any bells?” the woman said, licking her lips. I tried to keep my eyes neutral.
“Ah, good you know him,” she said with a grin. I wasn’t sure how she’d figured it out, but I worked on increasing my glare some more. “Oh, you really are precious. You don’t even know who or what I am, and you’re putting up such fight,” she said with a chuckle.
“I think I’ll help myself to a little taste,” the woman said as she nicked my cheek with one of her clawlike nails.
A small trickle of blood ran down toward my chin, then the worst thing I had ever felt happened. My mana was forcibly pulled from my pool through the leaking blood. My stomach wanted to turn at the horrible feeling.
“WARNING! INTRUDER ALERT! WARNING! INTRUDER ALERT!” suddenly blared out from all around the room.
The woman jerked around, trying to find the source, and I felt whatever was holding me reduce in strength. I watched as stone pillars emerged from the corners of the room that were lined with hundreds if not thousands of runes.
“Arcarin!” the woman hissed in anger. Her body started to fade into red mist just as a sphere formed around her. The sphere pulsed, and the woman screamed in pain as her body fluctuated between what looked like a dozen different forms. There was a sudden surge of mana from her, and a crack formed in the barrier that you could barely fit a finger through. This time she changed to mist in a split second and appeared to fling herself through the hole.
Her hold on me vanished when she was struck, and I flared my mana to generate a charge around the room, aiming to hit everything in the room at once. I was pissed that someone had managed to sneak up on me, again! With a boom she was flung back into the wall as she was forced to retake her form.
“Who the fuck are you?” I growled, taking deep breaths, lightning arcing off my skin to anything metal in the room.
The woman smiled, but I could tell she was in pain. Whether from Regan’s setup or from me, I wasn’t sure. She spit out some blood, then said, “Quin. The king’s dog.”
“Lines has already seen me!” I shouted at her.
I heard someone bang on the door, but something was preventing people from entering the room. Most likely Regan wanted to keep any intruders from escaping, as he knew I could handle myself against the more common foes. I’d never heard of someone capable of completely sealing another’s movements, short of slave magic.
“We are both dogs of the king. He uses me for things he wants taken care of without fail,” Quin said with a sour look.
“What the fuck are you?” I asked again, still burning with anger.
“That, young lady, is a secret I’ll take to my death,” Quin said with a frown.
“We’ll see about that,” I growled at her.
Not a moment later Regan appeared in the room. He was in his, what I liked to think of, battle form. It was larger than a regular mortal by almost a meter, with particularly dark or black plates covering his body. He’d donned the crown he’d made during the conference between the Gnomes, and my town. It was often there when he formed his body in the town.
“What do we have here?” Regan asked after he finished forming.
“Someone managed to sneak into the castle,” I said a bit more aggressively than I meant to.
“I can see that.” He strode forward and picked Quin up by her neck. I could feel the pulsing as he used his senses to examine her. It was something I was able to pick up from being around him so many times while he’d done it. “You . . . you aren’t a mortal,” he said after a moment.
“Neither are you. Maybe we’re family?” Quin asked sarcastically.
“Not one of those,” Regan said with a frown. “I would drop the sarcastic tone if I were you.”
“Yeah, big man. You gonna make me?” Quin said with a bloody smile that quickly became normal as all the blood was pulled back into her body. “I’d like to see you try.”
“I see you are fond of using blood. Some type of aqua magic perhaps,” Regan said, then lifted his own clawed hand up to her chest. “My assistants tested this on some undead and found it worked quite well on causing the body to destroy itself. I wonder how it’d affect a body like yours?” he commented curiously.
“Undead are child’s play for one like me,” Quin said, continuing to smile.
“Very well,” Regan said, then stabbed his finger into the center of her chest. He released her and she slumped to the ground. She looked curiously at her chest as the wound healed quickly.
I stood from my chair and walked over to Regan. “How did she manage to get in here in the first place?” I wanted to know how to prevent it in the future.
“She may look like a mortal but is not one. She has a magic I have never imagined possible that allows her to change to a liquid form and move thusly. She made her way into the castle via her mortal form, as many mortals make their way in every day, then snuck off in her mist form,” Regan explained, tapping his chin. “I have altered the systems to take such events into account.”
“That’s good . . . I’m getting really tired of people sneaking up of me,” I said with a huff.
“Yes, I’ve noticed that a lot of people prefer the sneaking approach,” Regan said with a grin.
“Could you two stop talking as if I’m not here?!” Quin asked angrily. “Still not feeling anything from your little prick.”
“Give it another two or three minutes. It’s not like you’re going anywhere,” Regan said offhandedly.
“While we’re waiting for this . . . fluid to take effect, tell me, where did you get those?” Quin asked, pointing to the pillars of stone in each corner of the room.
“Why?” Regan asked.
“She said ‘Arcarins’ when she saw them,” I said.
“A dead race, but with very valuable magic,” Quin said as if it were common knowledge.
“My question is how you know of the Arcarins. The last person I found with knowledge of them was over three thousand years old, and didn’t even possess a body anymore,” Regan retorted.
“They . . .” Quin started to say before her face twisted from extreme pain. She screamed nearly loud enough to cause the glasses in the room to break and began rolling around on the ground as if on fire. “IT HURTS! MAKE IT STOP!�
�
Regan reached down and grabbed her by her neck. She instantly stopped screaming, then looked at Regan with an understandable amount for fear. Even I had to admit I was a little taken aback by the amount of pain she was in.
“Do you want to answer my questions now?” Regan asked sinisterly.
“YES! What do you want to know?” Quin cried, panicked.
Regan, articulating each word, inquired, “What. Are. You?”
“A Yunea!” Quin answered.
“That’s not one of the races,” I stated, then looked at Regan for confirmation. He shook his head in reply.
“Not on this world,” Quin said.
Just before we could ask her more, the door burst open as Wrakras and my guards managed to break whatever material it was made from. Quin burst into her blood mist and shot through the door before we could react. I charged my mana but let it dissipate, as I didn’t want to hurt anyone else in the hall.
“Well . . . that’s interesting. She was able to mask her presence in some way,” Regan said, amusement in his voice.
“What are we going to do? There is some mana-sucking . . . monster in my town,” I ranted at him.
“I have her mark now. If she tries to suck anyone’s mana, I’ll know. Besides, she must be in a hell of a lot of pain right now.”
“How was she able to go to mist form while in that much pain?” I asked, my anger fading some.
“People are capable of incredible things when they are prepared for it. I’ve heard that childbirth is one of the most painful things a woman can experience, but they still go through with it,” Regan said, glancing at me.
“I wouldn’t know, but fair enough,” I said with a blush.
“That aside, I think you should use your abilities to the fullest. You need to maintain a constant charge so if something like this happens again, the moment you lose control, it will all be blasted out of you and into them.”
“A Curtain spell. Tier three mages use them,” I said, thinking of the spell.
