“Looks like it might start raining,” Nyx said.
I nodded.
DING!
The Death Lord finally replied back.
Diablo, I was attacked. A skeletal army fought me on my way back to Ikarius. I’ve managed to defeat them, but they were quite a force for to reckon with. They were on average close to Level 700 easily. I don’t think the Dark Lord could have summoned such a thing.
“That’s because the Time Lord did,” I mumbled. I typed back a reply.
Is the crystal fine?
DING!
It’s perfectly all right. It’s been in my inventory this whole time. I will head back to Ikarius in a few moments. Are you heading back to the village as well?
I responded.
Yeah, I am. I’ll see you soon.
The Ga’em screen closed.
“You’re not heading back to the village right now, are you?” Nyx asked.
I smiled. “I thought you said you weren’t reading my mind.”
“Well, it isn’t technically ‘reading’ if your thoughts literally just pass through me.”
“I see.”
“So,” I said. “Where exactly are you taking us? Should we call Acnologia?”
“It’ll take him half a day to get back here. And I can’t wait that long.”
“Fine. Where are we going though? You can’t use your Shadow Travel skill just yet and we don’t have a Dragon to travel one either, so I hope this is somewhere close by.”
“We’re going to have to find out a lot more on the Time Lord and his crystals.”
“That still doesn’t answer my question. WHERE are we going?”
I grinned. “To an Ally.”
“The Alliance of Light?”
“To the Time Lord’s ally.”
“Doesn’t the Time Lord work alone? Are you sure he has—” the spirit froze. “No way.”
I chuckled. “Yup.”
“You can’t be serious. Everyone else would kill you if they found out.”
“Which is why I’m doing this alone.”
“You, sir, are an idiot.”
“We’ll see.” I grinned and looked up to the skies. "Time to go visit the Dark Lord."
***
CHAPTER ELEVEN
“Are you serious?” Nyx asked.
I blinked. “Yes?”
“Why on earth would we want to go talk to the Dark Lord?”
“I just told you why. He’s the Time Lord’s ally.” My gaze scanned the rubble around us, the remains of the village.
“What’s the logic here?”
I sighed. “There are two things we’re looking for right now. My Phantom Heart as well as the Time Lord’s crystal objects.”
“Right.”
“Using our information on the Phantom Heart is a longshot, since even I don’t know much about it. The Time Lord’s crystals on the other hand, could hold many more leads.”
“Okay?”
“And the only man we know, who might be able to tell us about those crystals, is the—”
“Dark Lord,” Nyx finished. “THAT’S your reasoning?”
“Well, yeah,” I said. “Given the circumstances I’d say it’s pretty solid.”
“You realize you’re going to go visit a man who’s tried to kill you thrice now, attacked Ikarius twice, and has tortured Freya?”
My fists clenched. “You didn’t have to mention the last part.”
“I mentioned it because you’re acting like it never happened.”
“I’m acting like it never happened because if I do acknowledge it I’m going to kill that man. Again.” My voice turned quieter. “Even though you don’t seem to like it, the Dark Lord is in fact our only good lead on this issue. So as long as you don’t find someone else we could go talk to, he’s the one we’re going to depend on.”
The wind coursed through my hair, breaking the silence around us. A clap of thunder cracked above, and three more followed in quick succession. The clouds thickened, turning darker with every blink of an eye.
“Fine,” Nyx said.
“Look, I’ve already met the Dark Lord face to face,” I said. “Without the golden armor his powers are back to what they were before. He’s not higher than Level 1000. I can assure you that much.”
“So, you’re saying he won’t be too tough of a guy to beat if it comes to that?”
“Exactly.”
“You realize the Time Lord might be with him, right?”
“If the Time Lord was here, we’d have faced an attack from him. Trust me. That guy isn’t the type to just let us run around on our own.”
DING!
You have received a message from: Freya! Would you like to open it?
I tapped on ‘Yes’.
DING!
I’ve reached Ikarius. The Death Lord isn’t here yet though, and I’m a little worried about that. Acnologia left as soon as he dropped me off. I presume he’s coming to get you, but I’m not sure. How are things on your end?
I closed the screen.
“You’re not replying?” Nyx asked.
I looked up at the sky. Wonder how far away Acnologia is from here.
“Are you ignoring her because of what happened before?”
“What do you mean?”
“You know, when she said you’d changed?”
I groaned. “You’re just reminding me of all sorts of annoying things now, aren’t you?”
“Hey, it’s not my fault if you forgot,” the spirit chuckled. “That literally happened like an hour ago.”
“Yeah, yeah.” I waved my hand.
“So, is it because of that?”
“Do you think we can contact Acnologia from here?”
The spirit stayed silent for a moment. “I don’t think he can connect with your spirit space when he’s this far away.”
“Figured.”
“He’ll be able to find us anyway, don’t worry. He’s your familiar, so he should have a lock on where you are at a certain point in time.”
“Fine then. We can just leave now.” I turned, looking beyond the rubble, at the dark lands past the village borders.
“Which way to the Dark Lord?”
“Straight south from here.”
“You already looked it up?”
“Yeah.”
“You were planning on doing this the moment we found the crystals, weren’t you?”
I smiled. “What are you talking about?”
“You’re kind of scary, you know.”
“Likewise.”
I strode forward, heading into the desert lands. Far away, on the horizon, stood small landscapes—a cluster of trees to the left, a few buildings and a large tower standing the right.
My eyes narrowed as I peered at the sight. Probably a small town.
The dusty desert air kicked up, swirling around me in a gentle twister.
“No super speed?” Nyx asked.
I chuckled. “Hold on, would you? I’m getting there.” I hunched down, recoiling my muscles. My legs sprung back, and I shot forward, surging through the lands. The tailwinds behind me kicked up mud into the air, making the already dusty wind even worse.
The horizon rushed towards me, with more buildings emerging from the shadows. Yup, definitely a town. Surprising that there’s one this close by.
“Please don’t tell me we’re attacking it,” Nyx sighed.
“We’re not,” I said. “For the moment.”
I sped up the closer we got to the town. A few yards away from the border I took a heavy step and pushed myself high into the air. I soared into the night sky, floating beneath the clouds, and came down a good fifty yards away from the town, but on the other side.
“Wow,” Nyx said.
I grinned. “The world’s greatest long jump.”
“I wonder if any of the townsfolk saw that.”
“Oooh, I could become part of a legend. The ‘man who leapt through the night’.”
“The only legend y
ou’re going to be a part of is of the guy who brought all the dust with him.”
“Hey, it isn’t my fault this place is so dusty.”
“You haven’t gotten all your memories yet. Maybe the Dargonian Empire was actually colorful and lively, and then you brought it down.”
“Please. Azmuth is more than capable of bringing this place down on his own.”
“I don’t think he’ll appreciate us talking about him like this.”
“What can he do about it though,” I chuckled.
“Are you sure he’s weaker now?”
“Positive,” I said. “I know I didn’t use an Analyze skill on him when we saw him in that tunnel but trust me. He was pretty weak. Compared to his normal self that is.”
“Can’t believe that armor buffed him up so much the last time.”
“The Eternity Armor,” I chuckled. “Should have seen the connection to the Time Lord when I heard that name.”
“It’s in the past now.”
Past, huh? My breath caught in my throat. “Yeah.” I squeezed out the words.
I pushed forward, to the horizon. Soon, a line of trees emerged before me. I frowned. I don’t remember seeing a forest on the map.
“Must have been too small to be visible,” the spirit said.
“Wouldn’t you at least name it a grove then? Also, this definitely doesn’t look small enough to not be called a grove.”
“Well, we’ll see when you actually get there.”
Thunder whipped through the sky yet again, and the winds rushed past my face, howling inside my ears. Chills struck through my body, piercing my fingers and rising up to my heart.
A storm was coming.
“Where exactly is this tower?” Nyx asked.
“Vertically in the center of the Empire, but more towards the west than the east.”
“That doesn’t help me figure out how long it’ll take.”
“Maybe two hours or so.”
“That’s pretty fast considering what you just told me.”
I grinned. “I run a good pace.”
I saw more of the collection of trees the closer I got to the horizon. It wasn’t really a forest, but a dense grove nonetheless. I rushed in without hesitation, confidently striding across the ground. The surface no longer had dust layered on it, and so my tailwind dust-storm finally ceased.
Another clap of thunder struck the skies, and a drop of water fell onto my cheek. Uh oh. I looked up.
A crack of lightning broke through the clouds, and before I could blink rain came pouring down on us. My visibility went down in an instant as the sheer volume of the pouring water blocked my vision. I could see ten yards around me, but that was it.
“What do we do?”
“Keep going,” I said. “This isn’t too troublesome.”
Drops of cold water sprayed onto my face, edged on by the strong gusts blowing against me. The wind howled in my ears, with just it and the sounds of rain blocking out all other noises. The howling prolonged, lingering for a few moments even when the winds paused.
“That isn’t coming from the wind.” I stopped, sliding over the slushy ground and slamming into a tree. The trunk snapped at the base and fell over, knocking another one down as it crashed to the ground.
Oops.
The howling resumed once again, even though the wind stayed still. I glanced through the rain, but saw nothing but more water. My visibility had deteriorated quite a bit in the last few seconds, so I couldn’t tell if there was something I wasn’t seeing. The sounds of howling loudened.
I cupped my ears, isolating the noise.
Wolves.
“We should probably just run for it,” Nyx said. “Odds are these things aren’t strong enough to warrant a battle anyway.”
Eyes of red flashed through the rain, bright and radiant. And then more showed up, totaling about twenty pairs. I stood still, eyeing them through the falling water. The specks of color showed, but the shadows they belonged to didn’t.
Ugh, this rain is annoying. I stepped forward.
A howl resonated into the sky and the eyes all shot to me. I hunched down, lowering my center of gravity, and pulled out Dawnbreaker and Dearthsoul. A grin curled onto my face. This was going to be fun.
A dark hunk of fur emerged from within the rain as the wolf jumped at me. I sent two slashes at it with both my weapons and it quickly fell to the ground, in three separate pieces drenched in blood. I stepped forward, and slid through the slush, towards the rest of the pack.
Multiple eyes shot toward me now, and howls echoed through the air as they did. I pushed myself even lower, solidifying my lower body, and kept an eye out. The last thing I needed was to lose my balance.
Though it probably wouldn’t be too troublesome to take these things down even if I did.
“I told you they were too weak to bother with,” Nyx said.
Well, they’re the ones who attacked me. Got to reply back then.
Five shadowy figures jumped up. I impaled one, and swung my sword, slamming the blade and the wolf through the other beasts. My free sword cut through the only one that got through my swipe, and sliced its head off clean.
“Did we really need to do all this?” Nyx asked.
“Fine.” I rolled my eyes. “I’ll finish it.”
I thrust my hand toward the last few wolves. “Tritus Oceanus!”
A blast of water surged from my palm, and struck the shadowy figures. When I cut the attack off, just the rain remained.
DING!
Congratulations! You have defeated:
Wolf Pack (Lv. 280)!
Less of a battle and more of target practice. Why did you even bother taking them on? Reward: 270,000 XP. Reward: 100,000 Sol.
Wow, they really were weak.
“Well excuse me, mister level 1500,” Nyx chuckled. “Also, I repeatedly told you they were weak.”
Yeah, but I didn’t think it would be this bad. When you said weak I was thinking Lv. 400 or Lv. 500. This is close to just half of that.
“You took them out anyway. Nothing you can do about it.”
“I know.” I moved forward. I took a few uneasy steps through the slush and then jogged. The branches and leaves flailed in the rainstorm, with a few of them falling onto me as I made my way underneath them.
I sneezed.
“Uh oh,” Nyx said.
“I won’t get sick, don’t worry,” I said. “Eternals heal pretty fast.”
“I’m not nursing you back to health if you do though,” he said. “Mainly because I have no body, but even if I did, I still wouldn’t.”
“Okay,” I chuckled, and sneezed once more.
A minute later I reached the end of the forest and stepped out. The slushy ground transformed into just a damp, bouncy surface now. The desert lands ate up most of the moisture pretty quickly, leaving just traces of it on the ground.
I picked up the pace once again, rushing through the lands. The rain thinned down, but not by much. Instead of ten yards, I could see past twenty. Maybe even thirty. But thunder and lightning still ran amok between the dark clouds and the surface.
“Didn’t you have a weather clearing spell?” Nyx asked.
“I still don’t really understand how to use it,” I said. “Plus, this weather is charming.”
I sneezed again.
“Yeah, I can see the charm working on you already.”
I pushed through the water, striding confidently over the ground now. The surface had hardened around this region. Either that or the rain hadn’t really poured down as much in that part of the lands.
I gazed towards the horizon, but couldn’t see anything up to it. The rain was still blocking all my vision. “Ugh, that’s annoying.”
“You know which way to go right?”
“Yeah, I’ve got my general direction bearings,” I said. “At least I’m not heading in the complete opposite direction.”
Nyx chuckled. “We don’t know that yet.”
�
�Thanks for the confidence,” I sighed and kept moving. The rain thinned down more a few minutes later, and I could make out vague images, even if they were far off.
I think the storm is letting up.
“Seems like it.”
Minutes later the sounds of battering water died down, as did the thunder and lightning from the skies. Specks of light emerged high up in the black of the night.
Starlight.
The storm let up right after, and the sounds of the sky disappeared. The land emerged into my vision once again, and I looked right at the horizon. There was nothing ahead of me, but to my right stood a wide strip of black.
“How far does that seem to you?” Nyx asked.
“Maybe a hundred or a hundred and fifty miles?”
“Probably more,” he said. “If it’s visible from there then it’s a pretty big place.”
I grinned. “Yup.”
My legs throbbed but I pushed forward at an even faster pace, kicking mud and dust behind me. I switched directions quickly, and moved right towards the object on the horizon.
“Nyx, where exactly are we on the map?” I asked.
“A little east to the center of the empire,” the spirit said.
“And heading east too?”
“Yeah, for the most part.”
“Good.”
“That place is the Dark Alliance’s headquarters, isn’t it?”
“Nope.”
“Eh?”
“The Alliance’s headquarters are a little further south than this,” I said. “If we found something else here, then it’s something we were not aware of.”
“A humungous building in the middle of nowhere that we weren’t aware of? Sounds suspicious.”
I grinned. “Of course, it does.”
I ran with gusto, and about another fifteen minutes in, the structure I’d seen before appeared bigger on the edge of the horizon. We were getting close.
My steps thudded against the ground. Sets of towers emerged from the dark strip and rose plenty high into the sky. They were all made of dark stone as well, with nothing else differentiating them from the black of the night.
The Eternal: A Boxed Set (World of Ga'em Book 6) Page 105
