by Tony Corden
Leah tried not to let any shock show on her face. Instead, she put one hand on his shoulder and said, “Then welcome, Your Highness. Take your place on the edges, and we will continue this conversation when the worms are destroyed.”
“You believe me.”
“Sure! If I can believe I really am an Empress then you being a King isn’t all that hard at all. Now go!”
Leah teleported to various locations around the cavern and weakened some structures while strengthening others. When she could sense the worms were less than three minutes away, she teleported to the centre of the cavern and waited. A message appeared:
++Message/delay++atherleah-fqc3465278++/request/lockout/++/update
Atherleah, please note that the cancelled Quest item, ‘Trial of Den Meler’, has been reinitiated as a Unique Individual Event - Level 6 (Celestial) and renamed ‘Defeat the forces of Büyük’.
The demigod Büyük has become enraged by the Bell of Ascension which sought to obligate Büyük to recognise you as its superior. Büyük has collected one hundred of its Shamirii and seeks to destroy you and the Bell of Ascension which it believes to be a weapon left by the Gods to prevent it from attaining godhood. You must defeat the Shamarii and save the Bell.
Reward 1: 20000 EP x Player Level
Reward 2: 1 Diamond for every ten Shamarii killed
Reward 3: +5% to Experience Points
Reward 4: 5000 Fame Points
The AI which controls the classification of events, dungeons, quests and trials has rated the event as a Unique Individual Event - Level 6. Please note this classification has not been used previously and is under review.
Leah glanced at it briefly and then ignored it as she began to cast the spell of True Images. She’d managed to raise the spell six levels and could now make two copies of herself for a maximum of twenty minutes. She equipped the Amber Dragon in one hand and Merdiven in the other. She considered herself, her actions, the motivations which had brought her here. She ran her mind over her strengths and weaknesses and then as she felt the first of the worms vibrate the ground beneath her, she imagined copies of herself one metre on either side of her, each holding the two weapons, then cast the spell.
She felt the mana swirl through her body; it rushed through her. It examined every part of her in an instant and then she felt as if she had shattered like glass as Mana rushed from her pores and coalesced on either side of her. She could feel the earth begin to drop beneath her and she said, to herselves, “Make yourselves useful.” Then, she Misted.
The Shamir was half a pace in diameter, and all teeth, as it reared from the ground beneath the Misted Leah, rearing twenty paces into the air. Both ImageLeahs brought their Amber Swords forward to slice the worm along its length as it rose into the air. Leah could tell that the Sword met more resistance than before and wondered if its power was lessened after being split in three or if the Shamir’s skin was somehow hardened. Either way, she checked the Shamir’s HP, and it was under thirty percent, but both ImageLeah’s dealt with that immediately. The worm was over thirty metres long and segmented. The front section looked to be all mouth, with sharp teeth covered in thick slime. Behind the mouth was a circle of eyes which appeared to have no iris, only the sclera and pupil. The body was grey and was covered in what looked like large scales, each with protruding setae—these hook-shaped appendages were the size of a bent index finger and faced the back end of the worm.
SHAMIR (Level 340) 115600 HP (17000EP)
Leah un-Misted and said, “We need to spread out.”
She discovered that somehow she instinctively knew which way each was going to move. She checked the Amber Dragon’s statistics, and they looked unchanged, so presumably the Shamir had tough skin. Once more the ground beneath her feet began to fall away. This time she could feel echoes of that realisation emanating from the ImageLeahs and knew she was on her own. She unequipped Merdiven, and at the last moment she stepped to her right and turned halfway toward where the worm was already rising and using both hands brought the sword from head height, across her body and diagonally down. Each time the sword encountered one of the hooks, Leah felt greater resistance, but her momentum allowed her to finish the stroke and she was able to remove the top three metres of the Shamir. Before she could check if it were dead, she had to dive to her left as another Shamir came through the ground at an angle aiming straight for her.
For the next few minutes, it was all a matter of staying one step ahead of the frenzied Shamirii as they rose from the earth and then began writhing on the ground in an attempt to crush Leah, catch her on their hooks or bite her if she was in range of the teeth. The Shamirii worked together to try and attack her. They would crawl over each other, build barriers, form bridges, and even catapult each other toward Leah or one of her images. She felt the moment one of her images was cornered and missed the worm attacking from behind. The teeth sheered through the Image’s torso, and Leah could feel the slime begin to eat at her dying flesh.
Leah had been waiting to make sure that all the worms had risen but knew she’d run out of time. She equipped Merdiven and cast the light spell she’d used in the Kraken Cavern. The Shamirii made the first sound she’d heard beyond the scraping and clashing of their hooks and scales; they screamed as a light brighter than anything they had encountered before filled the chamber. Leah then cast three Changing Attraction spells at the parts of the roof she’d discussed with Lagimci. The entire middle section of the roof began to fall towards the mound of Shamirii which even in their agony, tried to reach Leah and the surviving ImageLeah. Both Leah and her Image Misted just before the roof collapsed. Leah un-Misted on one side of the mound of crushed and twisted Shamirii and equipping the Amber Dragon she cast Dragon Fire using the sword as a wand. She wasn’t surprised to see a similar wave of flame coming from the other side of the mound.
Leah and her image poured all the Mana they had into the spell, and it was amplified by the swords. Leah could see the Elfauns fleeing from the cavern and into the tunnels as the mound turned white and both rock and Shamirii burned, melted and mixed into a molten pool. Leah found the heat oppressive and could feel her skin blistering, but she maintained the fire until her Mana was exhausted. She stumbled to the nearest exit and took some of her remaining restore potions she’d made way back in Ticareti.
As she waited for her Mana and Ki to fill, she could feel her Image moving toward her. She looked up and saw herself with blistered skin, hair burned away, and armour scraped, scorched and torn. She raised her hand to touch her head only to feel similar evidence of the conflict. Before she could respond to her situation, she was surprised when the Image said, “Büyük.”
Leah felt for the vibration and finally discovered it heading away from her. It wasn’t fleeing but heading for the City. Leah said, “You stay and make sure the worms are dead, I’ll deal with their maker.” She took a health potion, but before it could even take effect she teleported to the throne room; she was sure Büyük was going for the Bell.
She arrived in the Throne room to find it empty of life and the door torn open; the torn and burnt bodies of guards and several Lords littered the floor. The Bell of Ascension still hung where it always did, untouched. Through the open door, she could hear screams of pain and panic. Leah ran from the room and could see a line of debris and bodies stretching along the corridor. As she raced toward the sounds, she realised that this was the direction she’d been taken that first night when she’d been shown to her suite. She teleported.
She arrived beside the balcony to find her door destroyed and a head similar to the Shamir, though five times the diameter, just inside the room. The partially dissolved body of Lady Yar was just in front of it. Zarif was nowhere to be seen. Leah checked Büyük’s information.
BÜYÜK (Level 8431) 71081761HP (421550EP)
Leah stood still, waiting, and as she did she carefully tried to search for Zarif.
“Ah, the Empress I have heard so much about since I awoke.” A dr
y cold voice echoed in her mind. “You search for the child? I heard that about you; that your compassion for lesser creatures knew no bounds. My creator said that this would be your downfall, your weakness, and your death. Behold, here is what remains of your tasty little friend.”
And Büyük’s body convulsed slightly and spat out a small Elfaun form. Leah couldn’t even tell if it was Zarif or not, but she sank to her knees in horror, loss and pain.
“He was right! Oh, what ecstasy! Already he feeds from your despair as I will from your body. I know when I consume your tasteless, soft, useless flesh that you will be able to return to this world, you accursed Traveller. Know that I will be waiting to consume it once more, it and so many of your useless subjects. Your only hope is to renounce your throne and bow to me.”
Leah didn’t pay him any attention. Instead, her mind replayed each interaction with Zarif, her smile, the inquisitiveness, the hugs, the fear, and the feeling of love the girl had shown, a love that Leah had returned. She knew that Zarif had only been a small part of the code that made up this world, only a tiny semi-autonomous piece of intelligent code that had no value to anyone. No one, that is, except to her. The code had no real point except to populate a world for her enjoyment and the enjoyment of millions of others. She understood that in the whole scheme of life this small piece of code was so insignificant as to be unnoticeable, and yet her heart broke. Finally, she raised her head and looked at Büyük.
“I took the role of Empress on a whim. I sat on the throne to make a point to people far removed from this situation. I played the part because it achieved my purposes and it furthered my goals. Under the right circumstances, in fact, under almost any circumstances I would gladly have handed the throne to someone else.” Leah used her hands and wiped her eye, smearing ash over her cheeks. “For the first time, I begin to understand what someone meant when he said, ‘I say to you, as you did it to one of the least of these, you did it to me’. Büyük, you might eat me, and you might kill me, but be certain of this, there is no place on this world or under it where you can hide from me. This little Elfaun, whether Zarif or another, she was valuable to me. I would die a hundred times to defend her, and just as many to prevent another suffering her fate. These are my people. Your god, and I assume it’s that degenerate Suzluk, he only uses you and he will not shed a tear at your death. This dead Elfaun, even in death, has more value to me than you do to him.”
Knowing she was destroying one of the best chances she had to win the competition, Leah palmed the vial of Utsal’s blood and swallowed it. She equipped the Amber Dragon and said, “Tell Suzluk that next time he should come himself.”
Büyük surged forward as Leah teleported sideways and then raked Büyük’s side with the sword, but to no effect as the sword merely scraped along the scaled skin. As the demigod thrashed left to crush her, she teleported onto the canyon floor and casting an amplification spell yelled, “Büyük, Suzluk’s pet, you legless grub, I’m waiting for you.”
With a mind-numbing screech of anger, the immense creature broke through the outer wall of the canyon and made its way down the wall using its large setae to grip the wall and lower itself to the floor. Leah took several deep breaths as she saw the size of the creature. Its diameter was easily two and a half paces, and its length over fifty times longer than that. She waited until it was on the canyon floor before equipping Merdiven and saying quietly, “Help would be appreciated.” She teleported onto the back of Büyük, just behind the head and brought the Morningstar down as hard as she could on one of the monster’s numerous eyes. She both felt and saw the Mana burst from Merdiven in a vibrant triadic blend of red, yellow, and blue and then rush through the broken organ into Büyük body. Whatever the spell was, it began to change the structure of the flesh around the crushed and now sightless eye—the scales started to show small cracks and then a rancid bright yellow fluid began to seep from within. The spell began slowly but had begun to spread faster when suddenly the Morningstar exploded. Leah was blown off Büyük and landed over thirty paces away. When she landed, she not only broke an arm but shattered her ankle when it became impaled on a low-lying branch.
The regenerative potion took hold, and her HP rose rapidly, fixing her arm and taking the pain from her ankle. She reached down and pulled the branch from the broken flesh. She stood, already back to ninety percent of her health. She also discovered several new tears in her armour where the Morningstar’s spikes had been blown straight through her. Merdiven was lying behind her, snapped in two. Büyük laughed in her mind and said, “See, my creator does care for me. He broke your little toy and now he commands me to finish you.”
Leah, now fully healed and replenished with Stamina, Ki and Mana, stared up at Büyük who had raised its head high to drop onto her. She took a deep breath and as the open mouth dropped she raised her hands and double cast Dragon Fire straight into the open maw. A beam of white-hot fire, the diameter of her spread hands, shot out and turned the inside of Büyük's head to ash. Büyük’s body dropped to the ground and flailed in agony. Leah slowed the amount of Ki and Mana expended through her hands until she saw the icons stabilising with the hundredfold replenishing buff replenishing that used by the spell. Büyük's HP had dropped to ninety percent and she played the Dragon Fire over the scales and eyes but they would not burn. The demigod’s HP rose to ninety-one percent as it began to regenerate. Leah moved to focus the beam into the wide open jaw. Slowly the HP dropped. She had to walk inside the massive worm to reach the next section of flesh. Ash, steam, and other gases rushed past, scalding and poisoning her till she had to slow her advance to let her HP and SP regenerate as fast as they were being taken away. Over the next ninety minutes she slowly walked the whole length of the convulsing, dying creature. She made sure that every section of the massive beast’s insides were turned to ash and she didn’t stop until Büyük's HP dropped to zero; even then she flamed it once more because she didn’t want anything to regenerate. When it was finally finished, she made her way out of the long empty lifeless tube and headed to Merdiven. She gently picked up both pieces but she wasn’t shown anything when she tried to identify them. She placed them in her bag and turned toward her room, only to see a figure clothed in darkness and chains standing and watching her in early evening gloom.
SUZLUK, GOD OF DESPAIR (Level 11743) 137898049HP 587150EP
Leah waited, and Suzluk said, “I have come myself, just as you requested. This time you will not take me unaware. You have already expended your greatest spells and weapons. This time, you cannot escape.”
Leah nodded for a moment then said, “You keep telling yourself that, Slug Lord. You should know by now that my death, here and now, it means nothing to me—I will return. And yet here you are, and instead of trying to kill me you try and take away my confidence, to destroy my view of the future. I think that the only one who is filled with despair right now is you. You’ve run out of options, haven’t you? You couldn’t break me on the Road of Kings, nor by taking the ones I care about. I am now more focused, not less, on bringing hope to this world. Your servant is nothing but ash. It will be used by my people to fertilise their gardens and clean their waste. So, bring it on. The next move is yours, Suzluk.”
Before she could blink a beam of dark brown Mana shot from Suzluk’s hands. She hadn’t even raised her hands when it collided with a bubble of silver and green which formed around her. As the brown Mana hit the ground, it hissed and boiled before sinking like a thick tar into the now blackened soil. Lord Umut appeared and said, “Suzluk, my brother, this is not permitted. You are only permitted direct action against those who have given in to Despair. You may not act directly against my Champion while in this plane of existence.”
“I shall have my revenge!”
“Be that as it may, you may not take it here or now. Do not forget the Precepts.”
“The Precepts are antiquated, and they become more powerless each passing cycle. Even now they depend on you to save this contume
lious upstart. They unduly restrict both us and our growth.”
“Despair not my brother, these restrictions are for our betterment, not for our demise. They help to bring to fullness that which we are.”
“Useless drivel.” Turning to Atherleah Suzluk said, “Don’t think this spares you from my wrath, it only increases your eventual suffering. I leave you with this thought, ‘What will happen if I get your mother in my hands?’” Then he disappeared.
Leah’s shoulder’s slumped a little, and Umut said, “Take heart, my Champion. His words never have power on their own, their power always comes from you. It comes when you begin to believe his words. I would encourage you, though, to be less bellicose with him and his allies. Their particular outlook on life makes them immune to the subtleties of mockery and irony. But I digress, I came to say that though your willingness to expend your most precious resources for the sake of a dead child was viewed by many in my family as foolishness, I am proud of you. Now, I must take my leave, but I suggest you have this patch of ground cordoned off. Anything that grows in its cursed soil will destroy rather than nourish. And don’t forget the skin, you might have need of it sometime.” Then he disappeared.
Leah shifted her shoulders, and after casting a small light and checking the ground, she cast Changing Attraction repeatedly until she could find no trace of the tar or blackened soil. Instead, there was a substantial semi-spherical depression in the ground and eight small black spheres resting in the bottom. They refused to even glitter in the light of her spell. She looked at them, and Gèng said, “Leah, you have a message concerning the spheres which are now called ‘The Llanetli of Atherleah’. There are other messages that I have withheld, what order do you wish to see them in?”
“I don’t, Gèng. I don’t want to read them. Maybe I’ll read them when I return, but not now. What should I do with the stones?”
“I suggest you collect them, but do not touch them. I’d put them in a small bag and store them in the Tower for now. When you read the message, you will understand how dangerous they could be in Dunyanin.”
