Demon Lords (World-Tree Trilogy Book 2)

by EA Hooper

  Thinking fast, he equipped the Builder’s Tome and fed several shards of skyglass into it, since the glass had such a high alchemic rating.

  You’ve gained 12,493 Builder Points.

  Vincent imagined a tower rising below his feet, and the book’s pages flipped themselves open. The diagram of the same towering stone appeared with a cost for different materials. The strongest, 300-rated greystone, required over 4,000 BP. He willed the tome to activate, and the ground lifted below their feet. By the time the devils neared, the two players stood on a greystone tower twenty meters tall and five meters across.

  Xan looked surprised at first, but she understood once she saw the tome in his hands. She nodded, casting World Fountain at the center of the tower. After a few seconds, rainbow rain erupted from the middle, covering their platform. A small amount of rain fell to the devils below, and Vincent tried to scare away the monsters with Black Cinder.

  Several devils hurled fireballs at them, cracking parts of the stone. One fireball almost reached the players, but Xan stopped it with a Barrier Wall. Vincent caught a few more fireballs with Zero Field and redirected them back at the groups of devils below.

  Xan reabsorbed the light from her phantasmal blade and used it to fuel the creation of a couple dozen Light-Drain Butterflies she sent toward the devils. She drank ether while basking in the rainbow rain before making another swarm. At the same time, Vincent cast another Black Cinder to clear out a dozen devils attempting to climb the south side of the tower.

  More whispers called over the landscape as twenty new portals appeared. Vincent guessed he’d slain a few dozen monsters already, but soon a hundred more charged toward their tower.

  “We’re not winning this one,” he told Xan. “I’m sorry. This is my fault.”

  “Don’t say sorry,” Xan said, directing her swarm of butterflies to attack while blocking fireballs with barriers. “Just keep fighting until we’re dead.”

  Vincent nodded, but then he heard a closer whisper that made him raise his eyes to an apparition floating ahead. The ghostly figure looked like a devil, only larger, gray, and transparent. His scarred-over right eye and long, wild hair set him apart from the devils Vincent had seen so far.

  A devilish apparition would like to make a deal. If you accept his quest, he agrees to save you from your predicament:

  A Cold, Old Revenge (Devil Quest): Izrid, First King of the Devils, was banished long ago by the Nightmare Court on Elfry, but his spirit still haunts worlds where traitorous devils speak his name. If you help Izrid take revenge on the Nightmare Court, he will offer you a reward. | Quest Condition: Izrid’s apparition will haunt you until the quest is complete. If you seem unable to complete the quest, Izrid will leave you to find a more suitable adventurer. | Do you accept? (Yes/No)

  “Yes!” Vincent shouted, causing Xan to look at him.

  Izrid snapped his fingers, and a portal opened below the two players. They fell through a swirling vortex of green magic, then rose from an exit portal beside a Jump Gate enclosed by towering ruins.

  “What just happened?” Xan asked while looking around in confusion.

  “I made a deal with a devil king’s apparition,” Vincent explained. “He wants me to do a quest to take revenge against other devils on Elfry.” He checked around for Izrid’s apparition, but the ghost seemed to have left him for the time being.

  “Didn’t you say we shouldn’t make any more deals with devils?” Xan asked.

  “It was better than getting slaughtered back there,” Vincent said. “Besides, we can jump to Elfry from Styxis, and we’re already heading that way. Jim told me the Nightmare Court is the World Boss of Elfry, so I promise we won’t have to kill any more NPCs.”

  Xan looked unconvinced as she stepped onto the Jump Gate. “Alright, but whatever happens is on you.”

  Vincent followed, and they both equipped the crystals needed to make the very last jump of the Kai Run. Within minutes, he knew they’d be landing a short distance from the city of Guildhollow where they would set their next checkpoint. That would put them just a few months away from Quinn, and Styxis was only a few jumps beyond that.

  The thought of getting their original team back together put a smile on Vincent’s face.

  Chapter 9 | Year 29

  Player: Noah the Fierce

  Location: Lavrin (World) | Bloodrun Maze (Region)

  Class: Ranger

  Subclass: Warden

  Vitality*: Lv 258

  Spirit: Lv 235

  Resolve: Lv 232

  Perception*: Lv 262

  Agility: Lv 232

  Strength: Lv 230

  Before Isaac even finished explaining his experiment, they found a hell ant. Noah approached it while the assistants circled around, preparing to jump in and help. Isaac kept a relaxed position, watching intently as Noah dealt with the creature in the manner he had asked.

  Within seconds, the fight was over, and Noah picked up the decapitated head by its antennae. When he held it up for everyone to see, the monster continued to snap its mandibles angrily.

  Devon took a closer look at it before reeling back in disgust. “That’s horrifying,” the young man said. “How long until it bleeds to death?”

  “It won’t,” Noah replied. “I left the head of one in a pit once, and it regrew its entire body in a few days.”

  “Hell ants make for an interesting specimen because they’re so hard to kill,” Isaac noted. “Most monsters die if you deal enough damage to their brains, hearts, or total body area. Or even if you cause enough blood loss. However, these things only seem to die from massive brain damage.”

  “You have to destroy at least half their brain,” Noah told them. “I’d know. My wife and I have probably killed more of these things than every player in the game combined.”

  “Can you do me a favor and break open its head?” Isaac asked. “Just try not to damage its brain.”

  Noah placed the head on the ground and cracked it open with his hatchet with a surprising amount of control. The chitin split apart, but he didn’t harm the surprisingly large organ.

  “Kind of big for an ant’s brain,” Devon said, staring with almost as much curiosity as revulsion.

  “But surprisingly simplistic,” Isaac said, taking a closer look. “Only a few different sections. ARKUS designed this thing with efficiency in mind. If anything, the size is just to make it easier to hit.” The developer equipped a small, metallic box with a crystal on the side. “Noah, would you please scoop out the brain and place it in this box?”

  “They don’t come out in one piece,” Noah told him.

  Devon squirmed. “You’ve ripped out their brains before? That’s gross, man.”

  Noah replied with a shrug.

  “It’s okay if you damage it,” Isaac said. “Just be quick.”

  Devon turned away, gagging as Noah pulled out the monster’s brain and shoved it into the rune-lined box. Once the torn organ had been placed inside, a flash of white light within the box caused the brain to reappear, whole and undamaged.

  Isaac shut the box, activated a rune to seal it, and then picked it up by a handle on the top.

  “What is that box exactly?” Noah asked.

  “You remember when I gave you that tour of the Moderator Academy?” Isaac responded. “I showed you the training rooms where we were using restoration runes to let people fight each other endlessly.”

  “I remember,” Noah said. “We practically had to drag Ezra out of there. That place was like a dream to him.”

  “This brain box is based on a similar idea,” Isaac explained. “However, it can’t regrow the hell ant’s body. It just keeps the brain alive, indefinitely, for me to study.” He handed the box to Devon to hold. With the monster’s brain inside it, Noah assumed it could no longer be contained in an inventory.

  “Doesn’t that take a lot of power?” Noah asked.

  “It’s powered with an alchemic creation of mine,” Isaac said. He equipped a white cr
ystal like the one attached to the box.

  Hearth Crystal – A non-naturally forming crystal made through alchemy. It’s charged with world magic and contains an enormous amount of power. (Current Charge: 100%)

  “Normally, world magic is very unstable,” Isaac said. “I’ve experimented with various alchemic creations while trying to store its power. This end result is costly, requiring about ten thousand gild to make a single crystal. It can be fully recharged in seconds at the Foundry, however.”

  “That’s a lot of time, effort, and gild just to study a bug’s brain,” Noah replied.

  “Luckily, I have plenty of time to waste on such studies,” Isaac said.

  “Yeah, but this won’t help us beat the game—I mean escape,” Noah argued.

  Isaac smirked, catching Noah’s slip. “My friend, understanding the game is the key to beating it. Right now, I don’t think you even know the point of this game.”

  “What’s that supposed to mean?” Noah asked.

  “Oh, nothing,” Isaac said with a smile. “I’m probably just overthinking things.”

  “Isaac just enjoys being theatrical,” Devon remarked. “This man can’t make a cup of tea without talking about the journey the leaves have taken from the plant to his cup.”

  “It’s called roleplaying,” Isaac defended. “If I have to be stuck in this fantasy world, I might as well play my part well. Just like Noah and his crazed lumberjack look. You can’t tell me you don’t do that on purpose.”

  “I use axes because they’re good for killing,” Noah replied.

  “Fair enough,” Isaac said, starting through the maze again. “Let’s get five more heads, then we’ll leave you to your power-leveling.”

  “Five more?” Noah questioned. “Didn’t you say one of those crystals cost ten thousand gild? How many do you have?”

  “We’ve already produced a dozen, but I plan on making a lot more,” Isaac told him. “You might not have noticed since you leave Risegard as soon as you respawn, but around fifty total teams have made it there. Most only pushed themselves that far because they know developers are there, and they’re trying to find answers or ways to escape. There’re a lot of deals in the making with these new groups, and I have most of the top players in the game allied with Iijin Industries.”

  “So, you are putting your time to good use,” Noah said. “I was starting to worry you’d completely fallen into your mad scientist act. How many of those new teams are preparing to help me fight the angels?”

  “Well, that’s kind of the problem,” Isaac replied. “Those teams only pushed to Styxis because they thought ARKUS’s developers would have all the answers. Whenever they find out we’re powerless, most lose the will to keep climbing. I’ve tried to convince them to come to your outpost to power-level, but none are interested.”

  “That’s a shame,” Noah said. “You’d think at least a few would be up to the challenge.”

  “Well, there’s one team farming Elfry right now that wants to make a push for Cryasal,” Isaac said. “The one with Worldly Ryker and Fynn the Wolf Lord. I’m sure you’ve heard of them.”

  “Yeah, my team met them on Valahym when we stopped to farm nearby worlds. They never caught up to us again, but I heard from other mods that they showed a lot of promise.”

  “I hope you don’t mind I gave Ryker one of the World-Map Crystals you gave me,” Isaac said. “His team will likely use it to bypass many of this world’s challenges, thanks to your expert mapping.”

  “Just warn them that the hell ants change things around a lot. The workers have the most powerful shaping magic I’ve seen in the game. I tried to add as many alternate routes to the map as possible. If they want to reach Cryasal, their best bet is to go the opposite direction of my outpost. The tunnels through Darkhive are scarier than they are dangerous. The team will be more likely to run into workers than knights.”

  “I’ll be sure to let them know,” Isaac said. “He also wanted me to ask if you’d help them along the way.”

  “I’m not a damn tour guide,” Noah replied. “If they want to power-level, then send them to my outpost. If they want to make it to Cryasal, then that crystal is all the help they’re getting.”

  Noah heard the familiar hiss of a worker spraying acid. He turned, then immediately cast the negative energy spell he’d finished ten years ago.

  Negate (Warden Only) – Mana Usage: Medium+ | Creates a box-shaped forcefield around a non-living object or spell up to ten meters away. Cannot target objects or spells touching players or monsters (example: a sword in a person’s hand). The target is bombarded with negative energy until it’s destroyed or escapes the forcefield.

  The spell deleted the acid spraying in Noah’s direction, but some outside his range struck the man to his left. Noah didn’t know the poor guy’s name, but he sure felt sorry for him as the acid melted through the man’s Mana Shield, armor, and flesh.

  Isaac raised his hand, casting a spell that formed a twisting sphere of water around one of the two workers. The remaining guildsmen hit the second ant with Mana Cannons that did minor damage.

  Noah went for the ant that was getting struck by cannon fire. He cast Flatten, raising a gravity wall in front of himself as the ant spit again. The acid got stuck in the powerful gravitational field, which Noah sent crashing into the worker. It smashed the monster against the wall, cracking the two-meter-thick marstone. The ant’s bodily fluids, including its brain matter, oozed out of breaks in its chitin. With a little extra push, Noah’s spell turned the ant to mush and even demolished the wall.

  “Don’t kill them!” Isaac shouted. “I need their brains.”

  The hell ant in the water sphere shot pressurized acid that melted the lower half of the man beside Isaac and Devon. He screamed in horror for several seconds, but then Isaac shot him through the head with a mana blast to ease his pain.

  “Not these ones,” Noah said, finishing his ether. He cast Flatten over the remaining hell ant, then dropped it on its head. “They’re not as fast or strong as the knights, but their acid can melt anything weaker than basteel, and even that gets warped by it. Whenever I encounter them, I either hurry past or kill them immediately. Playing games with the workers is suicidal.” He glanced at the dust remains of Isaac’s assistants.

  “Well noted,” Isaac replied. “I’ll follow your lead more cautiously and try to keep my rambling to a minimum. Devon, if an ant launches acid at you, be sure to toss the box to safety.”

  “Oh sure, no problem,” Devon said with a hint of sarcasm. “I wouldn’t want my horrific death to slow down your research. Good to know your priorities, boss.”

  Isaac chuckled but didn’t reply.

  The three men continued through the maze for another hour before they’d collected six total brains. Devon struggled to keep hold of all of them at once, especially when avoiding attacks from the monsters. Several times, Isaac was forced to step forward to save the young man. The developer even healed Noah between battles, and soon they backtracked to the Jump Gate, which was a thirty-minute jog from the outpost.

  Isaac and Devon thanked the bearded man, and Noah gave them a nod before they took off to Styxis. He stopped to check the timer on his HUD, noticing his wife would soon respawn.

  Might as well rest here and wait for her. She always hates trying to find me in the maze.

  Noah sat at the edge of the platform. His vision fell on the towering wall that encircled the area and the six paths that branched from it. He’d been down each path so many times he could walk them in his mind’s eye. Even the alternating routes popped up in his head as he imagined himself traveling through the maze.

  Amelia and I could make it to Grubhive in an hour if the paths line up right. Two, if the ants have really messed with the tunnels. That’d be a great place to farm next. We haven’t been there in a while, so it’s probably repopulated since the last time we cleared it.

  He sat for a couple more hours, growing bored. To pass the time, he tinker
ed with different abilities, trying to think of what spell he might design next. He tested a few different combinations, attempting to merge various spells with negative energy, but each showed zero percent.

  It would save me years of effort if the game would just tell me if something won’t work. Flatten was stuck at ninety-nine percent for years. Any other player would’ve given up on it, but I’ll never defeat the angels if I act like all those other players. They lose hope so easily. I need to be more like Ezra. That man won’t quit—not until he reaches the top.

  The sound of walls sliding caught Noah’s attention. He recognized world shaping in action, but in all the years he’d been there, he’d never seen it at the Jump Gate’s intersection. His eyes fell on an opening passage, a seventh tunnel, as a worker ant appeared. The hell ant ignored him, instead spraying a chemical mixture on the ground. Noah knew the different hives used their own scent to keep away other hell ants, but he couldn’t even guess what hive that ant belonged to.

  Grubhive? No, not this far north. Then it must belong to Darkhive. Wait, no. Its chitin is too pale. In fact, it has almost a green tint.

  The hell ant returned through the dark tunnel, and the wall closed shut. Noah saw the ant’s body glowing a subtle green as it disappeared in the darkness.

  The man sat and stared at the wall. No one would’ve ever guessed a passage lay hidden behind it, and Noah knew from trying to climb the spike-tipped walls of the maze that there was nothing above ground that way. That meant the tunnel could only go downward, but to where, Noah had no idea.

  There’s a seventh path I never knew about, he realized. It must lead to something I’ve never seen before. I can’t wait to tell Amelia.

  He waited eagerly for another hour, and then his wife descended from the sky. She landed on the platform, her eyes falling on him.

  “Oh, there you are,” she said, brushing aside curly blonde hair that had been ruffled as she flew between worlds.

  “Honey, you won’t believe what I just saw,” Noah said, standing to his feet with an excited smile.