That wasn’t okay.
I hadn’t forced the Dark Lord to leave us alone. That wasn’t what had happened here. He’d left of his own accord. If he’d actually taken me one-on-one, I wasn’t sure I could beat him. In fact, I would have probably lost.
Sure, I'd won this time. Ikarius had persevered. Yet, in my mind, only one overbearing emotion dominated my thoughts.
Defeat
***
CHAPTER THREE
“I need to find my third Spectral Spirit!” I slammed my fist against the table.
Ijyela and Freya sat before me, and beside them was an old man, dressed in robes of midnight-blue.
“Listen, Zoran,” he said. “I understand this battle was a hard one but—”
“The Dark Lord came back, Krof,” I said. “We all knew this was going to happen. But this soon?”
No one said anything.
“I’m not ready yet. I still haven’t broken through three parts of my seal. How am I supposed to take this guy on if he comes after us again?”
“But you said his level was in the 900s,” Ijyela frowned. “If that is the case we should be able to fight him off. It doesn’t seem like he actually achieved his full potential.”
“Exactly,” I said. “He’s not ‘grown’. He’s ‘growing’. He increased by more than a hundred levels between the start and the end of that battle. And his power is only going to increase the more we wait. As I am right now there is still a good chance, that even with Acnologia’s help, I won’t be able to take him down. And as time goes on, the probability of defeating him falls out of our favor.”
“Zoran.” Freya touched my wrist. “You’re letting your emotions do the talking. Calm down.”
I looked at her for a moment, just breathing, and then took my seat, sighing as I did. “Look. I took that guy out a few months ago,” I said. “I knew he was still alive, but I didn’t think he’d turn out to be this strong already. There is something weird going on here. Moreover, the Dark Lord will soon reach a stage where it’s hard for anyone to take him down. I need to find my other Spectral Spirits, and soon.”
My Spectral Spirits were basically parts of my existence that I had to recollect. A long time ago I had been put under a seal called the Seal of the Eternal. This limited my powers and split my full existence into five Spectral Spirits. I had to collect all five of them in order to raise my powers back to what they had been before.
At the moment, however, I had only found two Spectral Spirits. So there were still three of them left to discover. The biggest problem of course was that no one knew where exactly I could find these Spectral Spirits in the first place.
“So,” Krof said. “How soon do you think we will have to find at least one of your Spectral Spirits?”
My eyebrows furrowed. “In at least a week.”
“That will be…hard.”
“I know this is an absurd thing to go after in such a short while, but it’s not like we have a choice. We either do this now, or when the Dark Lord comes after us with his full strength.”
“It might be useful to learn of how he has become stronger as well,” Ijyela said. “The last I remembered, the man was somewhere around Lv. 500. Yet, now he is four hundred levels higher. And there doesn’t seem to be an obvious reason why.”
“I’m not sure why either,” I said. “But his power was rising even when he was attacking us.”
“Is it possible he also has some sort of seal on him that he’s breaking away?”
I shook my head. “From everything we’ve heard about him, it’s pretty clear that isn’t the case. However, I also do think the only thing that prevented him from becoming stronger was finding an adequate source of power to essentially ‘fund’ him.”
“Ah,” Freya said. “So the last time he was resurrected he wasn’t as strong because the power source used to resurrect himself—you—wasn’t too strong either.”
“Exactly.”
“Fine,” Ijyela said. “At the moment, we need to find at least one of your Spectral Spirits, correct?”
I nodded. “We have to.”
“Have you two heard of anything?” Freya turned to the others—our usual sources of information.
Krof shook his head. “I have heard nothing of any oddities.”
Ijyela on the other hand, fidgeted around, and tapped on the table. Luckily for me, she came out with it on her own instead of having us persuade her into revealing it.
“There is one contact that I have, far to the south,” she said, still hesitant. “She told me close to two months ago that there were some powerful energy sources that she had found, but wasn’t too sure about.”
I blinked. “You never told us about this.”
“Because I did a scan of my own and didn’t sense anything of the sort she had described. Neither did any of the other contacts I talked to about this.”
“So, it’s not real?”
She shrugged. “The only reason I’m even mentioning this now is because we’re in a desperate situation. So even a red herring is an attractive target.”
“Do you think you could contact this person again and talk to her about this?” Freya asked.
The elf bit her lip. “I don’t think that’s plausible.”
“Why?” I asked.
“There are certain…issues.”
“And?”
She looked at me. “It’s best you visit the place on your own Diablo.”
“Where is it?” Freya asked.
“Far south from here, even further than the Dargonian Empire,” she said. “Saliora, the underwater kingdom.”
Her eyes widened. “The lost mermaid land?” she exclaimed.
“So, you’ve heard of it.”
“Of course I’ve heard of it!”
“Your contact is a mermaid?” I asked.
“A mermaid priestess to be exact,” Ijyela said. “She was one of the people I contacted back when I was searching for clues into who the Time Lord was.”
“Ah,” I said, remembering that info-fest well. Hopefully this one didn’t end similar to how that had.
“So this mermaid priestess—”
“Voora.”
“Voora,” I repeated. “Is she the one who might know something about the Spectral Spirits?”
“I am unsure,” she said. “However, from what she had described to me back then, this oddity did seem similar to the ones we have traced before.”
“But the oddities we trace have never been Spectral Spirits,” I said.
The elf shrugged her shoulders.
“How likely do you think it is that this oddity actually is the Spectral Spirit or at least something related to it?” Freya asked.
“Again, I am unsure,” Ijyela said. “But it is definitely possible this oddity has nothing to do with the Spectral Spirit at all.”
Silence echoed through the room after the last word.
“We’ll just have to take a chance,” I said. “This is the only lead we have at the moment. It’s either take this or just sit and wait for the Dark Lord to grow stronger.”
Freya nodded. “Fine, we’ll just go with this plan then.”
“Good. Ijyela, where exactly is this place?”
“I have pictures,” she said. “You should be able to use your Shadow Travel skill then, correct?”
“Uhhhh.”
She raised an eyebrow. “Problem?”
“If you use it now, you can’t use it for another twenty-four hours, right?” Freya asked. “Do you want to save it for a more dire situation?”
“No, it’s fine.” I shook my head. “That’s what I was thinking, but this is a dire situation as is. Ijyela, it’d be great if you could give me pictures.”
The elf nodded. “I will compile them in a few minutes.”
“Sounds good.” I stood up, and accidentally knocked over the chair as I stepped back.
“Careful.” She picked up the furniture. “What’s the hurry?’
I nervously t
raced an imaginary line down the wooden table. “I’m uhh…going to go to the healing chambers.”
Freya raised an eyebrow.
Ugh. That wasn’t good.
Nevertheless, she remained quiet as I walked over to the wall next to my door and put my hand on it. A section the shape of my hand sunk into the wood. A panel slid off the floor behind me, and revealed a staircase underneath.
I quickly descended, and entered a stone room bathed in the yellow light of the crystals studded to the walls. Three beds lay in the room—made of stone as well—and on the one in the middle lay a woman. She had smooth, dark skin, and curled, darker hair. Her body was dressed in gray robes, and her hands rested at her side, lifelessly.
I walked up to her and put my hand on the crystal casing that sealed her in. A chilling—almost freezing—sensation met my skin.
Looks like the Cryo-Stasis is still functioning well.
The lady stayed as she was, and not a single movement came from her body. My heart ached, but I didn’t dwell on the feeling.
I smiled. “Maybe you’d help us if you were awake.”
“Diablo…” Nyx said.
“I know, I know,” I sighed. “I’m sorry.”
“By the way, we’ve got some Village Menu prompts to go through as well. They were all held back by the Ga’em since you were in the middle of battle.”
“Good for the Ga’em,” I muttered.
The Ga’em was basically a hidden entity that helped everyone interact with the world around them. It was an invisible power that bridged a connection between one, and everything that they could do. The screens that I used were all examples of how the Ga’em interacted with living things, and gave them information about the world around them.
Now, there was something else called the Ga’em menu, which was a powerful interface between an individual and the Ga’em that helped them customize themselves and things they owned, like say a village, completely.
“Do you want to check the notifications?” Nyx asked.
“Yeah, let them all pop up.” I said.
“Got it.”
DING!
Congratulations! Ikarius’ level has increased!
Level 7!
You just jumped four levels in one shot. I guess that’s what happens when you defend your village from the Dark Lord himself. You have obtained 8 special skill points to use on the development of your village. Spend them wisely!
DING!
Congratulations! You have unlocked a new upgrade:
Border Extension!
You have shown great prowess in saving your village from invaders. Extend the borders of your village and gain new land to develop!
Congratulations! You have unlocked a new upgrade:
Army Barracks!
One cannot run an army without having a place to host them. Build Army barracks and increase the capacity of Knights your army can hold.
TRING!
You have unlocked a new village special skill:
Earthen Thunder!
Thin pillars of solid rock will rise from the ground, blocking easy entry into the village. Skill will activate only when enemies have been spotted within the border.
You have unlocked a new village special skill:
Hurricane Fence!
Strong gusts of wind surround the regions just outside the border of the village, pushing away anyone too weak to make their way through the circular gales.
“That’s a lot of upgrades,” Nyx said.
But not enough. I closed all my screens. I put my hand in the air and swiped down, opening my Ga’em menu.
TRING!
A list of seven icons came down, and I tapped on the third one on the lot—an icon with a house displayed on it. The Village menu. A new screen popped up.
Stats
Upgrades
Mass Inventory
Special Skills
I tapped on Upgrades, and another screen opened.
Upgrade
Cost
Time
Village repairs
1,000,000 Sol
7 days
Border Increase
1,000,000 Sol
5 days
Army Barracks
560,000 Sol
7 days
I quickly tapped on everything. Money wasn’t an issue for me anymore.
DING!
Congratulations! You have increased your village borders. Ikarius is on the path to becoming bigger and better than before. Reward: 1,000,000 XP.
“We should probably get those special skills as well,” Nyx said.
Yeah. I went back to my Village menu screen, and this time I delved into the Special skills menu.
Skill Name
Level
Buffs
Mirror Shield
Level 1 (19% to next level)
Renders village invisible to enemies. Effect wears off if any damage is inflicted on it
Sundown haze
Level 1 (96% to next level)
Has a 10% chance of surrounding intruders and disorienting them for a few seconds
Earthen Thunder
---
Creates barricades of stone pillars at village border, preventing intruders from entering
Hurricane Gale
---
Creates a strong wind current outside village borders, preventing intruders from entering
The italicized text and the lack of a level meant those were skills that I hadn’t obtained yet. Furthermore, the background behind the skill was not translucent white but was instead more of an opaque grey, which further added to the sign that the skill was locked.
I noticed a small section at the top right of the screen, on the same level as the screen title.
Unassigned Special Skill Points: 8
That’s more than enough, I thought and tapped on the Earthen Thunder and Hurricane Gale special skill options, activating them both around the village.
“That should keep everyone safe,” Nyx said.
“Unless the enemy is flying in.” Acnologia’s laughter rumbled inside my mind.
“Oh.”
It’ll be fine. A part of me still worried about leaving the village behind now. Things were starting to get tense. With the Dark Lord’s appearance, there were certain groups that would also start panicking.
“You just mean the Alliance of Light,” Nyx chuckled.
“Yeah,” I said. “They’re the only other group that was actively pursuing the Dark Lord.”
“They were also pursuing you.”
“Well, yeah. But that’s just a small detail.”
“Zoran?” A voice came from behind me.
I turned around and caught Ijyela’s form at the bottom of the stairs.
“Ah,” I said. “Hello.”
She smiled. “Taking a look?”
I glanced at the lady on the table. “She’s still the same.”
“She’s been healing well,” Ijyela said. “She is an Eternal after all.”
I nodded.
“Anyway,” she said. “I came down to tell you I found all the images you need. If time is an issue then leaving soon would be for the best.”
“Thank you.”
“Freya is waiting for you upstairs.”
And with that she climbed back up the staircase. I spent a few more seconds in the healing chambers, looking at the lady before me, then sighed. “I really need to start focusing.” I took one last glance at her, and then followed Ijyela up.
She, Freya, and Krof were sitting at the table when I walked up, and were actively discussing something. They noticed me, and the conversation stopped. Ijyela opened her Ga’em menu, and worked through a few options.
“Here you go.” She reclined back on her chair, and five different images displayed on her screen.
I leaned in, and took a better look at the images. I saw a sandy beach, with a forest of palm trees behind it. An ocean of dark blue laid before the sand, and the moving shades resembled
ink-filled water.
“This is where we need to go?” I asked.
“Yeah,” Ijyela said. “It’s about two days if you ride Acnologia, and probably a lot more if you go on foot.”
“Doesn’t matter. I’m using Shadow Travel anyway.”
“We can leave now if you want to,” Freya said. “Like you mentioned before, we don’t have much time to waste.”
I nodded. “We should leave immediately then.”
“What do you want us to do in the meantime?” Ijyela asked.
“Try to see if you can find anything about this oddity,” I said. “No matter who tells us about something, you and Krof always come up with a more in-depth analysis anyway.”
“Very well.” They both nodded.
“And as far as defenses go,” I said. “I’ve upgraded the village. So, we should have more protection now. If anything, ask Raffiel and Oris about it.”
“Understood,” Ijyela said.
Acnologia, where are you?
“Right outside your house,” the Dragon said.
I looked out the closest window and saw a beast of midnight-black reclined on the ground outside, resting peacefully.
I turned to Freya. “Let’s go.”
She nodded and we both headed out the door, toward the Dragon. He stood up when we neared him. “Another adventure?” he asked.
“What do you think?” I smiled.
“Where to this time?”
“A mermaid kingdom,” I said as Freya and I stopped at his side.
The Eternal: A Boxed Set (World of Ga'em Book 6) Page 76
