The elf walked around the table, still eyeing me. “We can’t have you doing everything yourself.”
I blinked. “But isn’t that pretty much how we’ve done everything else up till now?” I asked. “I don’t recall having a sidekick during my battle with the Dark Lord or the Time Lord. Heck, I don’t remember anyone helping me when the Alliance of Light attacked this village.”
“That isn’t the point.”
I leaned forward, resting my arms on the table. “Listen, Ijyela,” I said. “I’m not really sure what’s going on here. You’re going to have to be more blunt. Why exactly do you not want me to take down these enemies on my own?”
“Let’s forget about it,” Freya said from the other side of the table. Her eyes were cold, with the silver shade now icy. “We have more things to discuss.”
The old man beside me shifted in his seat. “Where the heck did those things come from anyway?” He scratched his full flowing beard, and let his hand drop to the robes of midnight blue.
“That’s the thing, Krof,” I said. “We’re not entirely sure. Acnologia spotted the beasts charging up to us — the Dragons at least — and I headed out after alerting Ijyela.”
“So we have no clue where those Dragons came from?”
“Well.” I looked at the black-skinned elf, and she stared at me too.
Freya glanced at both of us. “What?”
“We think its the Time Lord,” I said.
The elf sighed, and leaned back. “Figures.”
“These Dragons were not from Acnologia’s Ancient Dragon race, but they’re still Dragons. They haven’t been seen in centuries. And to see them now could only mean one thing.”
“Someone plucked them from the past and put them here,” Ijyela said.
“What about the skeletons then?” Krof asked. “Is that the Time Lord’s handiwork too?”
“We’re not entirely sure,” I said. “But if the Time Lord and the Dark Lord are in cahoots I don’t find it hard to believe that the Skeletal Army was also after us us.”
The old man frowned. “Didn’t you kill the Dark Lord?”
The sensation of blood coated my fingers and I rubbed them with my hand, trying to get rid of it. My skin turned red and tender, but the sensation still slithered around, unwilling to leave.
“Uh…Zoran?” Freya asked.
“Ah.” I looked up and dropped my hand to the side. “The Dark Lord is an Eternal, so it’s obvious he resurrected the last time I took him out. He probably isn’t as strong now though, given I broke that special armor he was using to power himself up.”
Krof sighed. “Why do you have so many enemies?”
“Well, what I don’t get is why those two are attacking this village now,” I said. “Of the last two attacks we’ve had to deal with, one was to find Acnologia, and the second was to gauge how much of a threat we were. Compared to those two things I can’t tell what the purpose of this attack is.”
“We need to find a way to respond to this battle,” Krof said. “I doubt this was just some coincidental strike. Something must have happened for this to have occurred.”
“Would the Alliances be aware that we’ve been attacked?” Freya asked.
I sighed. “Probably.”
There were two Alliances in these lands - The Dark Alliance and the Alliance of Light. Both of them hated each other. In fact, the only thing they hated more than each other, was me. Not a great position to be in. I know.
“Do you think they’ll respond to this?” Freya asked.
“I doubt it,” I said. “They’ve kept to themselves for a concerningly long time now. It’s almost like they don’t care anymore.”
“That seems a bit suspicious to hear.”
“I haven’t had any reports on what they’ve been doing,” Ijyela said. “They seem to have kept calm, especially the Alliance of Light. The Dark Alliance was mischievous with the whole Infinity Sword escapade that happened two months ago. But after that they’ve been silent.”
“Did you talk to your brother?” I asked.
She shook her head. “He hasn’t been responding.”
I blinked. “Should we be worried about that?”
“Not at all,” she said. “This happens quite often. If he doesn’t reply in another week that would be the time to start getting worried.”
“Fine.”
“So, do we have any information resources for this?” Freya asked.
“I don’t think so,” Krof said. “Everything we asked about the Time Lord has already gone unanswered. No one knows of such a man. And with the Dark Lord’s unstable state right now there’s nothing much we can learn about him either. Honestly we don’t even know what either of them are trying to do right now.”
“Exactly,” I said. “So far there have been multiple attacks on us, but no reasons for why. They’ve been treating me as a threat, but I have no clue why.”
“So we have no way of finding anything out,” the elf said.
I nodded. Silence took over the wooden room we were in, filling the walls. I stared at everyone for a few moments, then slid out my Ga’em menu.
DING!
A vertical column of seven circular icons slid down and I looked at the first one — a shadowy silhouette of a humanoid upper body with the shade contrasting against the translucent white background. I tapped on the icon and two screens slid out, expanding from behind it and taking space on either side.
The screen on the left contained the 3D full-body image of myself, and the one on the right was a sub-menu. My Player sub-menu
Stats
Items
Equipment
Skills
I tapped on Stats, and a new screen opened up in front of me.
Name
Zoran Diablo
Level
1562
Health
23950
Constitution
2395
Mana
28340
Intelligence
2832
Stamina
19090
Endurance
3119
Strength
2518
Wisdom
3561
Agility
4013
Dexterity
2108
Charisma
1004
Luck
34
Meh. I put my finger to the screen and flicked it to the side, sliding the old data away and letting a new set of information come into my vision.
Name
Zoran Diablo
Race
Eternal
Abilities
Resurrection
Spirit King
Re-animator
Fear Uprising
Living Nightmare
Resistances
All Arts
Class
Necromancer
Alignment
???
Titles
Phantom Lord
Undead Emperor
Necromancy Demon
Master of Ikarius
Lord of the Night
Reputation
Infamy Level 10 - “The World shakes in your presence”
“What are you even trying to look at here?” Nyx said. “You’ve been doing this pretty often now.”
I gazed at the contents. No, I haven’t.
“Yes you totally have.”
Fine, maybe I have. So what?
“Why are you doing that.”
I stayed silent.
The door creaked open and all eyes turned to the entrance. The Death Lord walked in, with his dark robes swishing as he shut the door behind him.
“Hello.” I turned around, closing my screens as I did.
The man nodded.
“We were just talking about what this attack could have meant,” Ijyela said. “Do you have any input you could give us?”
He pulled an extra chair and sat down a few feet away from us. “I do
n’t think this was meant to be an attack.”
“Eh?” I blinked. “This wasn’t an attack?”
He shook his head. “To me it seemed more like a large set of creatures accidentally brought back from the past, and with no clue of what they should do. A completely random set of events.”
“Wait.” I held my hand up. “The attacks were all in formation though. Was that some kind of wild luck or something? That we found the enemy in such a state?’
“The Dragons were not in any kind of formation as far as I remember. I am sure Acnologia can attest to that. As for the Skeletal Warriors, even wild beings hold some kind of formation when they’re attacking. But what we saw was certainly not an army formation of any sort.”
“What exactly are you saying then?” Ijyela frowned. “That this attack was just a simple mistake?”
“Do you remember what Ikarius used to be before?”
My eyes widened. “A Dragon City. An Ancient Dragon City.”
“Exactly. Those Dragons you saw were attacking a place that felt threatening to them since it held the traces of their mortal superiors — the Ancient Dragons. As for the Skeletal Army, I do not need to tell how undead beings like them feel against the Phantom Lord.”
“They wouldn’t attack you though, would they?” I asked. “Don’t Skeletons kind of fall under your realm.”
The man’s violet eyes stared at me. “That is not a relevant question for this discussion.”
I frowned. Ouch.
“Death Lord,” Ijyela said. “So, you’re saying this attack was just a mistake? That there’s nothing to it?”
He shook his head once again. “The fact that both those beings are here implies someone is messing around with powers far beyond your comprehension.”
The elf blinked. “My comprehension?” she asked. “So, you can tell what these are?”
“I can tell to a certain extent,” he said. “Someone is messing around alongside the Time Lord. A fluctuation in the Time Lord’s powers is what would have caused something like this to happen.”
I blinked. “Why would there be a fluctuation?”
“That…do not know.”
“This is intriguing,” Krof crossed his arms. “I did not expect that to be the cause, but it does make sense to me.”
Freya nodded. “If this was an attack from the Dark Lord, we surely would have seen a small force from the Dark Alliance backing him up at the very least. He probably didn’t have much to do with this, if anything at all.”
“Indeed,” the Death lord said.
“This is a new perspective for us now.” Ijyela leaned against the back of her chair. “What do we do?”
“Pardon me, but I will take your leave now. There are a few things I wish to think about.”
I nodded. “I’ll come get you later once we decide things.”
He quietly walked to the door, and then stopped, holding it half open.
I looked at him. “What?”
“You must think of whether the ends justify the means, Diablo.”
The sensation of blood on my fingers grew thicker.
I grit my teeth. “Is that a threat?”
“Only if you want it to be.” He walked out, closing the door behind him.
I turned around to the faces of three very confused people.
Freya stared at me. “Zoran, what was that?”
“Uhhh,” I said. Damn it.
“He’s threatening you?” Ijyela asked.
“Oh uhh,” I hesitated. What am I supposed to tell them?
“Can we really trust that man?” The dark-skinned elf moved to the empty chair beside me.
I frowned. “Eh?”
“He did come from the Dark Lord’s side, didn’t he?”
“But he also did help me a ton in that battle.”
She nodded. “However, I feel this certain unease he has shown whenever he’s around you. That bothers me. It’s like he has something to hide.”
That’s not it. The actual reason had nothing to do with him, and everything to do with me. I certainly wasn’t going to open up a conversation about that here. And definitely not now.
“He’s just a different person,” I said. “I trust him. Don’t worry.”
My body stiffened, and a shiver tore through my spine. I jerked around, looking out the window.
“Out.” I rushed to the door. “Now.”
Everyone else scampered behind me as I ran onto the streets. I turned my eyes upward, and then I froze. An aurora of jade-green and solar-gold resonated through the evening skies, sending its light into the clouds that hung over it.
“The Time Lord’s colors.” My fists clenched. What the heck is going on?
“No clue,” Nyx said. “I can’t tell what this is supposed to mean.”
“I cannot sense anything either, Diablo,” Acnologia said. His dark form flew down from the puffs of white, hovered under the aurora for a few seconds and then strafed around it.
“Does this mean the Time Lord’s done something?” Freya asked.
“I don’t know,” I whispered. “I just felt something odd though.”
“There are no enemies in the vicinity,” Acnologia said.
The colors of gold and green folded within each other, merging into a mysterious shade one second, and splitting back to normal the next.
I followed its dance. Just what are you?
DING!
DING!
DING! DING! DING! DING!
Tens of screens opened up before Krof and Ijyela in a few instants. The two of them took one look at the content, and then they froze.
“What?” I held the sides of my tunic and stared at them.
“These are from our contacts within the Kingdom and the Empire.” Ijyela looked up from the screens. “They’ve just sensed about thirty strong presences come up, out of nowhere. And they’ve all determined the exact same thing about what they are.”
My stomach knotted. “Don’t tell me…”
The elf nodded.
“Eternals.”
***
CHAPTER THREE
“Great.” My fists clenched, and my nails dug into my palms. “Just great.”
“Are you guys sure?” Freya asked.
Krof nodded. “If these many people are saying the exact same thing, it’s hard to disprove it.”
I frowned. “But these are the same people who couldn’t help us with my Spectral Spirits.”
“Spectral Spirits are a lot harder to find,” Ijyela said. “To the experienced eye the difference between the two is like finding a needle in a haystack and finding the haystack.”
“Tch.” I clicked my tongue. The aurora of green and gold still glowed over us, with the black Dragon hovering alongside it.
“I don’t know,” Nyx said. “That’s a lot of Eternals to be showing up. And all at once at that.”
“Do you think the Time Lord is behind this?” Krof asked.
I nodded. “It seems implausible to think these many Eternals would show up for no reason. The Time Lord must be sending them here from his past.”
“Which means all of them are at full strength.”
“Not exactly. The summoning process should have sapped them of a lot of their powers. They’ll be as strong as I was when I was first summoned here, and a lot will be much weaker.”
“Oh.”
“Where exactly are all these places located?” Freya asked.
“All over the lands.” Ijyela looked back at her screen. “They’re almost evenly spread between the Kingdom of Aingard and the Dargonian Empire.”
“Really?” I blinked. “That’s odd.”
“It is? Why?”
“If I was the Time Lord I wouldn’t summon an Eternal into enemy territory. That seems like a silly thing to do.”
“Maybe there’s something that causes them to be summoned to those spots.”
“Do you think you can look that up?” I asked. “It might help us figure out if more of these Eter
nals are going to show up. Do we know the exact locations of where these Eternals have emerged?”
She shook her head. “I just have a general five-mile circle for each location. No pinpoints.”
“Fine. Try to see if you can find one with more accuracy. The moment you do, we’re heading for it. I need to check this out myself.”
“Understood,” she said. “I’ll go talk to our contacts. Krof, come along.”
The old man nodded at me and then left, following the elf down the street.
“Freya, can you check up on Oris and Viola for me?” I asked. “Nazu too. I wasn’t exactly…nice to them when I found them all on the battlefield.”
“You weren’t kind to a lot of people.” She walked away.
I frowned. Well that definitely didn’t have any subtext to it.
“If you weren’t able to tell that it did, I think we’d have to hold an intervention for you,” Nyx chuckled.
I rolled my eyes. Sure, why not?
“Now then, why did you actually send the elf away?”
“What do you mean?” I headed back into my house.
“Oh please, you didn’t actually do that just so she could check up on those three.”
I opened the door and turned to face the wall right beside it.
“You wanted to be alone didn’t you?”
I pressed my hand against the wall. A piece of wood sunk in, and a trap door opened behind me, revealing a staircase inside.
I hate your perceptiveness sometimes.
“Freya is not going to like this,” Nyx said.
I know. I walked down the staircase and to the very bottom level. The air was chilly and dry. Flakes of frost collected on my skin, sealing up my pores. Specks of ice floated through the air, and settled down onto the stone floor.
What the heck? I stared ahead of me.
“Is that supposed to happen?” Nyx asked.
No, it isn’t.
Large crystals of frozen water covered a stone bed that sat in the middle of the room, completely sealing it up. I leaned over, looking through the mini frost storm, but saw just fragmented reflections of myself in the ice.
The Eternal: A Boxed Set (World of Ga'em Book 6) Page 97
