The Eternal: Transcend - A LitRPG Saga (World of Ga'em Book 3)

by Dhayaa Anbajagane

  “So, you’re saying you think this is a repeat of what happened with the Dark Lord.”

  Kind of, I said.I’m not sure, but that’s the train of thought I’d like to pursue. Do you and Acnologia have a better stance on what you said?

  “Not really,” he said. “It is like you mentioned before. It is hard to place a tag on this Eternal when there are so many questions that have been left unanswered.”

  The forest loosened up a few yards ahead, with the trees spreading apart a little more now. A bear walked alongside me, occupying the extra space, and Irmeia was riding atop it. The Eternal turned to me, and a charming smile flashed on her face.

  “I’m quite astounded by the powers you possess, Diablo,” she said.

  “Just Zoran is fine,” I smiled.

  “Oh. Very well, Zoran it is then.”

  “Getting chummy with your Eternal lady friend, are you?” Nyx chuckled.

  I just don’t want her to call me Diablo, I said. Or Phantom Lord.

  “Oh,” the spirit said, and I could tell from the tone of his voice he had no clue why that was the case. Honestly, I wasn’t sure either.

  “So, Zoran,” Irmeia looked at me. “How do you think we’re going to get back to our time?”

  Our time, I chuckled, amused that she’d said that right after I’d discussed whether she really was from our time.

  “Don’t question her about it now,” Nyx said. “We don’t need her to get suspicious of us.”

  Okay, I thought. “I’m not sure, Irmeia,” I said. “There is a lot I still do not know about how things will turn out for us.”

  “That is fair.” She nodded. “There is much that we will need to figure out before we progress.”

  We rode in silence for what seemed like hours, but upon a quick check with Nyx, turned out to be about an hour in total. Soon, the forest began inclining upwards, and we followed the slope in the terrain.

  It’s a good thing we got the bears, I chuckled as the beasts moved us forward with ease.

  Oris said nothing as he sat behind me. I guess I’d frightened him too much.

  “Well you did threaten to burn him,” Nyx said.

  “That usually shuts people up quickly,” Acnologia chuckled.

  I smiled. I’m using Dragon-approved techniques now.

  The incline sharpened a few hundred yards later, and we found ourselves on a steep climb now.

  Okay, getting the bears was a really good idea, I said.

  “I know,” Nyx said. “Irmeia was clever to realize these things would help us.”

  A few minutes of harsh climbing later, I looked ahead and noticed that we were nearing what seemed like a large drop. The incline quickly flattened out into a large section of land. I rode my Volcanic Forest Bear up to the edge, and when I looked over a breathless sight welcomed me.

  We were on a high cliff, and below us stood miles and miles of open forest, but the greenery was a mere extension of these Alpinian woods. I could see a mountain range far off in the distance, probably a hundred miles away from us, and the forest beneath us appeared to stretch out all the way up to them.

  Although these were all things I saw, there was one thing that I did not see.

  Civilization.

  There seemed no trace of society or people anywhere within this forest, and that was precisely what we had been trying to find in the first place.

  Suddenly, a massive shockwave surged through the trees beneath us, and I heard the sound of trunks snapping follow right after. I looked down and saw many spots of dark green sink into the forest.

  What the heck was that? I froze. I couldn’t see anything from my vantage point, and I certainly wasn’t in a position to get down to the forest.

  Almost instantly, another shockwave sounded, the booming sound nearly deafening as it surged through the air. A man shot into the air, his dark silhouette flying high into the evening sky and dropping back into the forest.

  My eyes widened. Eternals.

  “I sense a terrible presence of power,” Acnologia said. “This strength is far stronger than all of us combined.

  I looked at Irmeia and I could see an expression of concern on her face as well.

  “Zoran, is everything okay?” Freya rode up to us, her face stern, but her eyes telling a different story altogether.

  “Diablo,” Acnologia’s tone changed. “I sense something…odd.”

  What? I asked.

  All of a sudden, a massive roar exploded through the skies, and wind flowed through the forests in response. My eyes widened. No way. I recognized the sound, for I had heard a similar one numerous times before.

  “Oh my god.” Raffyr’s voice trembled behind me.

  I looked up at the sky, just in time to see the silhouette of a massive Dragon fly down to the forest, its long wings letting it glide toward the green.

  I sat upon my volcanic steed, my body still, my thoughts frozen within my mind.

  This wasn’t just the age of the Eternals. It was the age of the greatest war ever — the war between the Eternals, and the Dragons.

  This was the age of the Eternal Dragon War.

  ***

  CHAPTER NINE

  The wind howled all around me, and the blades of air splashed into my face. The sun descended deeper behind the mountains, turning the sky from orange to red in a few seconds. Shockwaves continued blasting through the trees beneath us, felling trees and branches as they pleased.

  The Dragon from before was no longer in the air and had now descended beneath the patches of green. I could no longer hear the roars of the great beast, but the shockwaves of a battle continued unhindered.

  My mind lay in a state of shock as well. In the span of ten seconds I’d sensed two Eternals fight it out, and then seen a Dragon head down to join them.

  That was way too much to handle at once.

  I turned around and saw that everyone else was just as surprised, including Irmeia, which I found particularly odd. I’d presumed she’d known this was the Age of the Eternal Dragon war as well, but it seemed she didn’t.

  “Even I did not know that this was the Age of the Eternal Dragon War,” Acnologia said. “And I’m a Dragon.”

  A part of me still assumed Irmeia could be from this past, I thought. However, if she was from this past, she’d have known this was when the Eternals and the Dragons were fighting.

  “That is true,” Nyx said. “This reaction of her does weaken that train of thought.”

  Honestly, I don’t care what time she’s from, I said. I’m more concerned that we’re in the age of the Eternal Dragon War right now.

  In the history of the Eternals, there were two events that stood out greatly. One was when the Eternals all turned against me and sealed me away, thus repressing me with the Seal of the Eternal. The other was the Eternal Dragon War, a great battle fought between two of the strongest races in all existence — the Eternals, and the Dragons. Hence the name.

  I’d heard a while ago, that the war was sparked by an unease within the Eternals in knowing there were beasts looking to be rulers of the land. And from the Dragons’ side, they were powerful creatures that wanted to rule the lands as well. Each side basically wanted to assert dominance over the other. It was a big ego fest was what it was, I thought.

  “Zoran.” Freya sounded anxious. “What do we do?”

  I looked at her, and then the faces beside her. They were all terribly worried. Facing off an Eternal was scary enough as is. Being caught up in a war between them and the Dragons was exponentially worse.

  “What do we do?” I repeated, and looked down at the forest once again, listening to the sounds of the battle happening underneath us. “Well, we’re going to have to avoid that for sure. Does your map show any paths around this place?”

  Freya shook her head. “It just shows me that there is a river close to those mountains.”

  “Ugh, that’s not good,” I said.

  “We can establish that even with these bears, we won�
��t be able to make it to the river by nightfall,” Irmeia said. “Especially considering we have about a hundred miles of forest to traverse within maybe the half an hour of sunlight that we have left.”

  Probably lot less than half an hour, I thought as the red within the sky slowly died away.

  “What do you suggest we do then?” Raffyr asked. Viola poked her head out over his shoulder, but her gaze was fixed onto the other Eternal, not onto me.

  “We must find a good place to use as shelter for the night,” Freya said. “Unless you all think traveling through the forest is a more viable option.”

  “Actually,” Irmeia spoke. “These Volcanic Forest Bears are much more apt at travelling than I expected. It is completely viable for us to keep travelling on them.”

  “I really don’t think that’s a good idea,” the elven assassin said.

  “I beg to differ.” The Eternal pushed back. “If we try moving fast enough, the bears will take maybe three or four hours to traverse this distance. It is perfectly possible for us to make it to the river by midnight if we keep moving.”

  “It’s possible, if we don’t encounter anything on the way,” Freya said. “And I doubt that is really going to happen. The Alpinian forest does not seem the most docile outgrowth in this world.”

  “We are a group of strong individuals,” Irmeia said. “With two Eternals on your side I doubt you will find any problems here.”

  “And a Dragon,” Acnologia added.

  “She can’t see you,” Nyx said.

  “Okay,” I said, turning to Irmeia and then to Freya. “Irmeia is right. I think it’s best we keep moving. Even if we find shelter for tonight, I doubt we’re going to be much safer. It is like you said Freya, the Alpinian woods don’t seem a safe place for us. It doesn’t matter whether its daytime or nighttime, the amount of danger we’re in doesn’t differ too much. I think we should try to head for the river before midnight.”

  “Thank you, Zoran,” Irmeia smiled.

  Freya, on the other hand, stared right at me, her eyes icy cold. “Very well,” she said, with no emotion in her voice.

  “Yeah, you’re going to pay for that,” Nyx chuckled.

  Thanks for the encouragement, Nyx, I sighed.

  “Anytime,” the spirit said, still laughing.

  “It is good we decided on this.” Raffyr nodded. “But how do you propose we get around this situation in front of us.”

  As if in remainder, a shockwave passed through the forest beneath us once again, and the boom of falling trees echoed right after.

  I turned back to everyone else. “We’re going to have to improvise.”

  “You realize I could just fly you to the river, right?” Acnologia said. “Do I have to remind everyone that I am a Dragon?”

  “See, the thing with Diablo is,” Nyx said, “He’s not very bright.”

  I rolled my eyes. I didn’t want to bring Acnologia out before because I knew the Eternals had a strained relationship with the Dragons, I said. I wasn’t sure how Irmeia would react to such a thing. And now that I know we’re in the Age of the Dragon War, I most certainly am not going to let Acnologia out unless we have to.

  “So, you’re imprisoning him?”

  “Zoran, can you focus on the situation at hand now?” Freya’s voice was still cold.

  “Ah.” I snapped out of my mental conversation. “Sorry.”

  “It’s fine,” the elf said. “We just don’t have too much time left here, and we need to make a decision fast.”

  “Boy, she doesn’t seem happy,” Nyx said.

  I know. I turned to Irmeia. “I presume you don’t have any thoughts on this?”

  She shook her head. “I do not know the landscape of this forest,” she said. “I cannot help you here.”

  I leaned over the cliff and gazed — not at the hidden battle beneath me, but at the cliff’s sides instead, searching for a slope that we could use. I saw a hint of a usable slope far along the edge, about a few miles right of where we were right now.

  “There,” I said, pointing to the landscape. “There’s a slope we can use to get down to the forest beneath. Once we get down to the forest below getting to the river will be straightforward.”

  Irmeia followed my gaze. “Ah, that slope,” she said. “Very well. Let’s move then.” She tapped on her bear and it shifted position, slowly backing up and moving to the slope I had pointed out. I traveled by her side, with Freya, Raffyr, and Viola behind us. Oh, and the riderless bear as well.

  Suddenly, Oris began chuckling, still bound and seated right behind me.

  “What?” I raised an eyebrow

  “Ahh, it’s nothing, Diablo,” he said. “It’s nothing.”

  “Maybe we should exchange those handcuffs for a straightjacket.”

  The Knight shut up.

  I sighed. “You know Oris,” I turned around. “I try to be nice to you and your faction. But you people always push me past the limit. Every single time.”

  “Is that what you tell yourself when you see all the bodies you murdered lie frozen on the ground?” His words were sharp.

  I ignored the knight and focused on our path ahead. I didn’t have the tolerance to be taunted right now. I had many things to worry about.

  “Sure, ignore me,” the knight said. “You know what—”

  I jerked my hand up, and let a dark flame emerge from my fingertips. “Losing control of this is becoming more and more enticing with every word you speak.”

  The knight shut up immediately, and not a single sound came out of him after that. I extinguished the flames and quietly chuckled to myself.

  The Volcanic Forest Bears moved deeper into the forest, leaving behind the cliffside and the sounds of battle that surrounded it. A part of me wondered where exactly the Dragon we’d seen before had disappeared to. I’d most certainly seen it go down into the tress below. Specifically, I’d seen it go down to right about where the battle should have been happening, and yet I hadn’t really heard anything from that Dragon since.

  You don’t think it was defeated, do you? I thought.

  “I doubt it,” Acnologia said. “A Dragon would not accept defeat that quickly. No matter what kind of battle is presented to it.”

  “And we didn’t even hear a single Dragon roar,” Nyx added

  Which makes it all the more weird, I sighed.

  “Indeed.”

  Acnologia, you remember what is supposed to be happening around this point in time, right? I asked. During the Eternal Dragon War?

  “I’m unsure of what specific point in time we are in,” the Shadow Dragon said. “However, I remember almost all of the Eternal Dragon War, so all that is needed is for me to know when in time we actually are within the war itself.”

  Do you know what ends up happening to this region? I asked, looking at the forest.

  “It is destroyed.”

  What? I blinked.

  “The Battle of the Alpinian Forest was one of the more disastrous ones for my side,” he said. “You see there are many Dragons that wanted to take control over these forests, specifically because of the rich source of energy that this place had. Herbs and springs existed all around the forest, and these were precious resources — more so to the Dragons than to the Eternals.”

  I sighed. But the Eternals didn’t want to give it away.

  “Indeed,” he said. “Part of the fault lies on us Dragons of course, because our mindset was not ‘Let us share these lands.’ but more of a ‘Leave. These are our lands now’. That did not prove a good tactic.”

  I’d imagine, I said.

  “Anyway,” he said. “In the end, an Eternal by the title ‘Fire Lord’ was brought into battle, and he summoned his strongest mass spell, blasting an unstoppable wildfire through this whole place.”

  My eyes widened. That’s terrible, I said.

  “That was also a waste of everything that this forest possessed,” he said. “Every single medicinal herb growing in this place was lost foreve
r in that fire.”

  Wow, I said.

  “That was not even the worst tragedy that happened during the wars, Eternal,” the Shadow Dragon sighed.

  I felt the urge to ask him what the worse tragedy was, but I was not that inhumane. I glanced ahead and noticed flowers blossom on a creeper hanging next to a tree. I plucked one of the colorful growths as I passed under it.

  DING!

  Name

  Red death

  Rarity

  Super Rare

  Special effect

  Eaten alone, the flower has no effect on the user. However, when paired with a catalyst, it can cause an excruciatingly painful death. Victim is left immobilized and non-responsive to all senses but pain when poisoned. Death is achieved slowly, but painfully.

  Holy hell, I tossed the flower away, hoping nothing ate it along with whatever this ‘catalyst’ was. That was a frightening Special effect summary to read.

  DING!

  Congratulations! Your skill: Herb Lore, has increased to Level 2! You can now pluck more delicately structured herbs from the ground with ease. You can now determine the condition of herbs and plants that you find. Consumption of a poisonous herb will now give you heightened capabilities at finding its antidote.

  Heightened capabilities? I wondered. I’d rather just not get poisoned, thank you.

  Even as an all-powerful Eternal — or an all-powerful Eternal with his powers pretty nerfed — I was still susceptible to status effects, and poison was the worst of them. The Desert Snake ordeal had shown me I should be more careful with things like that.

  Suddenly, a massive growl ruptured the air. However, this cry sounded less like a beast, and more like a…bird?

  The parade of bears stopped, and the creatures looked around them, at bushes and treetops. That cry hadn’t sounded friendly in the least.

  A tree a few yards away from us snapped, and a massive creature dropped to the ground, its wings spread out wide. It was nearly as large as the Volcanic bears. Its grey feathers shone in the dull light, and its dark eyes stared at us angrily. I quickly used my Analyze skill on it and a screen popped into my mind.