Gloominess +2: Congregation. A LitRPG series: Book 2

by Elian Tars

Leaving him and Una to their conversation, I went to the Lake of Grace that now looked like a restricted zone. No one was to come near the water; our chief medic Erg, together with a squad of medics that I’ve assembled after the last fight with the Decayed, looked menacingly at anyone who passed by. Those who didn’t get the hint were loudly told that this was a restricted area, and that only the people of Ilyenta were allowed in.

  “Greetings, Senior Disciple!” Erg greeted me cheerfully, putting a jar with Simple Tranquility of Darkness on the grass and standing up. The guys not only protected the Lake, but also portioned the precious potion. The “medic” collected all of the unnecessary phials in the village, gathered thick-leaved burdocks, and was now tying the leaves around the necks of the phials with a string. I personally approved of that idea when, during the field tests, Erg had proved that the potion didn’t spill even after turning the closed mug upside down, and demonstrated that it took less than a second to rip the strings and open the “lid”.

  Saying hello to the support team, I approached the water. The Lake grew three times bigger in volume in the last couple of days, becoming deeper and wider. Some of the tadpoles had grown up and were now the size of a grown-up Labrador.

  “You can stay in there,” I squatted beside the water.

  “A-a-all ri-i-ight, the succe-e-essor of the wi-i-ill of the a-a-ancient,” the keeper answered quietly, so that nobody except me could hear its gurgling voice. “Tha-a-ank you for st-o-stopping by-y-y. And tha-a-ank you-u-u aga-a-ain for e-e-everythi-i-ing you’ve do-o-one for u-u-us.”

  “Don’t thank me yet,” I replied quietly. “We have to live through this night first. Are you ready?”

  “Ye-es… But I wa-a-anted to gr-o-o-o-w by myse-e-e-lf. I wi-i-i-ish I ha-a-ad a cho-o-oice. But I’m gla-a-ad that I ca-a-an he-e-elp the wo-o-o-orld… And I was gla-a-ad to se-e-e-e the a-a-ancient for the f-i-i-irst t-i-i-ime in a tho-o-ousand ye-e-e-ars.”

  Last night, the Old Man promised to visit the Lake and had obviously kept his word. Today, when Glozeysk finishes his ritual, or his “scientific experiment” as he called it, the God of Darkness would visit the Frog again.

  “I think he was glad to see you, too,” I smiled. “Everything’s going to be okay. Just believe in us and don’t get out of the water, even when the fight moves to this very shore, all right?”

  “A-a-all r-i-i-ight,” nodded the amphibian.

  “And this is an investment for our further cooperation,” I looked around making sure nobody saw my hand. I materialized a small stone and, unclenching my fingers, dropped it into the water.

  “F-i-i-ine,” it drawled, looking at me fill a jug with today’s portion of the Storage of the Essence.

  When I left, Una joined me. In a few words the girl told me about the soldiers that arrived with the baron; one hundred and seventy level 50 men in total, and they were all Followers of Rugus.

  “Did you expect it to be any different?” I asked, surprised. “There’s an open war between Rugus and other Gods, isn’t there?”

  “There is,” Una nodded. “But that doesn’t mean that everyone is suddenly attacking common Followers of the Great One, even if they are barons. Until the Great One decided to make Gotz a Disciple a few days ago, he had no idea about the discord between the Gods. Perhaps he heard some of the rumors. Whatever the case may be, baron is now a Disciple, which means that he is a bearer of the will of the Great One. Now he’s a participant in our, let’s call it, ‘holy war’. He told his people that only those who worship the Great One can stay in his lands. The majority of them already were Followers of Rugus, but after his announcement there were no adherents of different faiths left. Those who didn’t accept the Great One left Shelt.”

  So if only Followers of Rugus were among our allies, then there were problems with healers in their ranks. Taking part in ordinary wars, the baron could have had, for example, a dozen of Followers of Healissa and the same amount of Followers of Guer-shui on his side. But now he couldn’t. Among the spells that Rugus gave to his fighters, there were no spells that could restore HP.

  But the God of Control wouldn’t have such a pompous name if he played by the rules. Una, being a Gleam, and all of his Disciples that reached the level 100, had spells that allowed them to control other people’s skills. A formidable skill, to say the least. I tried to find out the specifics of this skill, just in case I would need to take countermeasures, but the sorceress wriggled like a snake on a red-hot pan. She didn’t give me a straight answer, but after some thought and observation I came to the conclusion that one person could borrow one person’s skill.

  That was why Una could heal.

  And that was why she was now going to my house, away from prying eyes. I decided to give her half of today’s amount of the Storage of the Essence and let her make a “potion-copy” of her healing skill. Even if it didn’t work on the Old Man’s Followers, and even though it would have the opposite effect on them, we had to prolong the lives of our allies as much as we could.

  “Look! It worked!” the sorceress exclaimed enthusiastically, examining the jug with her creation. “Listen, speaking as allies, how much do you want for 30 oz?” She suddenly turned into a businesswoman.

  “We’ll talk about that later,” I said, making a Simple Tranquility of Darkness potion.

  “Fine,” she sighed and slumped on the chair. “Do you fancy a snack?”

  “Sure.”

  I took out of my inventory some pasties that Shawn’s wife had made, and poured us some wine. At first we discussed details about the upcoming battle and then Una asked me a question which, honestly speaking, I had expected to hear from her yesterday.

  “Tell me,” the sorceress said nonchalantly, “what happened on the graveyard, huh?”

  “Well, since you’re asking,” I calmly answered, “you know that all the gravestones are destroyed.” I fell silent for a couple of seconds, and then added: “And together with them my and your resurrection points.”

  “Right,” she nodded and squinted at me suspiciously. “Who did it, Daerk?”

  In fact, Una lost one of her resurrection points because of me. An unknown vandal-God, not knowing which gravestone had my rebirth energy, destroyed them all just to be sure. But she could’ve had a different perspective on the situation. After all, I had seen where she resurrected after our fight with Baron Tsunter, which meant that I was a potential suspect. But what would my motive be? Everyone was full of secrets, who knew what could make somebody do something that awful.

  “It wasn’t me,” I said firmly. “It was definitely a God. But we don’t know who exactly it was.”

  Una looked at me intently for some time, then chuckled and reclined in the chair.

  “I got it.”

  Just like that she ended this unpleasant conversation. But what exactly “she got” was a big question for me. Asking her to answer or to stay out of it would only make her more suspicious of me. Let Rugus decide should his Gleam interfere or not. I wouldn’t mind; if nothing, I would even be glad if Una found some information and shared it with me.

  Somebody knocked on the door. I stood up, unlatched it and saw Rira. Or so I thought until I noticed the girl’s heavy, imperious gaze. Glozeysk had come to pay me a visit.

  “Come in.”

  He waved his hand, welcoming Una, who came to us, and spoke to me again.

  “Thank you, Gleam-gan. But I’ll refuse. My Followers will soon be here. You should move your people away from the Lake of Grace if you don’t want to have to answer their inconvenient questions now.”

  I made a wry face and sighed heavily.

  “There will be questions anyway. Even if nobody sees swine in the cages, they will still hear them oink and, what’s more, many will hear their plaintive squeals. Not to mention that Tayon’s wagons will get into the restricted zone.”

  “Aren’t you smart, Gleam-gan? You’ll figure out what to say to the people,” Glozeysk chuckled.

  “There’s no getting around
it. Let’s meet your people. The fence has been built; no one will stare at you.”

  The caravan didn’t stay long in Ilyenta. Leaving the wagons with twelve huge swine and bargaining a bit with the baron’s people, the Followers of Glozeysk got ready to leave.

  “Now I hope we’ll go to Lenant,” Tayon smiled, outstretching his hand for a handshake before saying goodbye. “Good luck, my dear client. I sincerely hope that we’ll meet again.”

  “Me too,” I said in response.

  Everybody was ready for the fight: my Wolf-riders, medics, free Wolves, Disciples of Rugus and the baron with his people. Kane and Mara returned from the woods, proudly parading their five giant, level 50 Wight-Bears. We had another meeting, checked our supplies and were worried, truth be told. It seemed like many were glad that their waiting had finally come to an end.

  “They are coming!” cried the necromancer, connecting to one of his scouts.

  “Get ready!” Baron Gotz shouted at once.

  “For the Great One!” Una supported him.

  “For the God of Darkness!!!” the villagers roared in unison.

  Chapter 30

  The Battle

  Carl Tsunter, escorted by twelve high-leveled fighters, rode forward, leaving the main troops behind, and stopped some eighty feet from the village fence. The baron said loudly:

  “People of Ilyenta and the people of Shelt who joined them, give us the Disciples that are now in the village and choose yourselves new Patrons! I swear on my honor that if you do this, we’ll spare your lives!”

  “Don’t fret, Senior Disciple, we won’t ditch you!” Shawn whispered fervently, standing beside me on a plank that was nailed to the boards of the fence and resembled something like a bench. Just in case, the chief glanced menacingly at the rest of the villagers over his shoulder; both at those who peered anxiously from around the corner of the houses, and at those who watched what was happening over the turned-over carts.

  “Don’t believe Tsunter,” Gotz smiled, raising the visor of his polished helmet, speaking to the Followers of Rugus, “he won’t waste his time saving you and your families from Decay”.

  “Exactly!” the chief nodded, looking at his people. “Listen to what the clever man says! Nobody, but the Disciples of Darkness and this… How’s he called…?” he looked guiltily at Gotz, but remembered immediately: “God of Control cares a bit about you!”

  I kept a hold on myself and looked absolutely calm. Perhaps I managed to do it, because I was a Gleam. I could die and resurrect; at any moment I could teleport to any chosen resurrection point with the help of Elusive Darkness. But for those who had only one life, it was much harder to control their emotions. Till the very end they risked being stabbed in the back. Yes, common soldiers and villagers had their reasons to fight on our side, but few could keep their cool staring death in the face.

  “I’ll repeat!” Tsunter’s voice echoed through the night and Ilyenta again. “Give us the Disciples, and we’ll spare your lives!”

  I was glad that only the leaders of our allied squad, who were also standing on the “benches”, could see dozens of torches appear at the edge of the forest. My villagers would’ve gotten scared at the sight of so many enemies.

  “I can offer you the same, my dear Carl!” Alv Gotz answered amiably. “Take your friends, leave the village, and we’ll spare your life.”

  Even from afar I could see how the baron of Leronta frowned. He materialized a massive black helmet and put it on.

  “Then so be it,” Tsunter unsheathed his sword and, lifting it up in the air, slashed the air in front of him. “Fight!!! Let’s crush them!!!”

  With a ferocious roar, the enemy rushed to assault the weak fence.

  “Take the Disciples alive!” the baron cried after the warriors. “Especially Daerk and Una!”

  We got down from our benches that were good only for surveillance and totally useless for deployment of defense troops. Still, frail boards couldn’t be compared to a rampart, which are built to protect a village from wild animals and small groups of brigands.

  “Get ready!!!” Alv Gotz roared at the top of his lungs.

  “Boom!” The first axe attack made a breach in the fence. A few more strikes followed it.

  “Shoot!” Alv Gotz commanded, pointing at the holed fence with his sword.

  A burning arrow whizzed past, easily piercing the wood soaked in oil. The baron of Shelt didn’t bring only his fighters, but also experience he had in commanding large-scale battles. For example, this “lighter fluid” he brought with him from his castle, thinking that it might come in handy. I hoped that after the fight Alv Gotz wouldn’t charge us a bill for all his expenses.

  “A-a-a!!!” came a cry from behind the flaming fence, followed by the smell of fire and burning flesh that filled my nostrils.

  “Kane,” I said curtly, but the necromancer had already begun fulfilling his part of the deal.

  With a squeaking noise, a cart, loaded with some junk, passed us by. The zombie-Bear that was pulling it fearlessly directed it at the burning fence boards. They crunched and got blown to smithereens; the cart, soaked in oil, and the Bear’s skin flared up momentarily.

  “What the hell?!” cried one of the enemies.

  “Retreat! Why are you standing?!!”

  While we were developing this seemingly simple plan, we realized that we wouldn’t achieve much just by burning the fence to the ground. Sure, some of the enemies would be wounded, but most of them would just retreat to a safe distance and wait until the wood got burnt down, providing them with an access into the village. Such outcome didn’t suit us, which is why we needed the cart and the zombie.

  “What is this beast?!”

  “Come on, kill it!!!”

  The sight of a burning Bear that felt no pain suddenly coming at you wasn’t for the faint of heart. Our warriors knew about this “little stunt” of ours, but some of them still looked at the Wight with horror. The enemies seemed petrified.

  “They’ll kill him!” Shawn gasped, commentating like a fan watching his favorite team’ play an important game.

  “They won’t have time to,” I felt my lips stretch into a satisfactory smile.

  “BOOM!!! BOOMM!!! BOOOOOMM!!!” My ears popped from the deafening explosions. Shrapnel flew past me, almost scratching my cheek, and someone’s bloodied hand dropped at Una’s feet.

  “I have to compliment you on your idea…” Gotz said, dumbfounded.

  “Not bad. Pretty harsh though,” the sorceress said.

  I looked at the consequences of my idea with mixed feelings. In my “real” life, I used to play a marine themed MMORPG, and I was familiar with a notion of “fire ships”. I was me who suggested we stuff the Bear’s stomach with grenades, put a fuse through its dead flesh to make sure that they would go off, and mellowed the belly with pitchfork. It was all done pretty roughly, but we achieved the desired result — a dozen of enemies had been turned into a bloody mash, and even more of them were wounded and scared to death.

  “Daerk,” Kane said quietly. “It’s just as we thought, the enemy has divided their troops. A squad of Iron Faced went round. They will strike from the west.”

  I looked at Una, who understood my silent gaze.

  “Alvin, lead your people to the western border and greet our guests!” she ordered to one of the Disciples of Rugus.

  “Got it!” a man in a helm answered dryly.

  Almost a quarter of our united troops — we divided people into fighting squads beforehand — went with Alvin. Connecting with his zombie-scouts, Kane told that seventy men, sent to meet the Iron Faced, should be enough for now.

  Meanwhile, Tsunter’s main forces recovered from the shock and rushed into the fight again.

  “Archers, shoot!” Alv Gotz commanded. Arrows and crossbow bolts filled the sky.

  The enemy wasn’t slow to answer. A few seconds later, a hail of arrows poured down on us. Some hid under the shields, some stood behind the buildings, but stil
l…

  “A-a-a…” sounded the stifled cries as not everyone managed to avoid the enemy’s arrows. Our side suffered more damage, because we had only Followers of Rugus and God of Darkness on our side, none of which were specialized in far-range combat. The enemy, however, didn’t have that issue as they had rangers among their ranks which were Followers of the Gods of Hunt.

  The enemy got into Ilyenta.

  “Close the ranks!” Alv Gotz shouted. A few seconds later, the bloody slaughter began.

  The enemy exceeded us both in numbers and level average. Followers of Rugus fought on the front lines, and the sky over the village got filled with lilac sand. Fighters with skills that allowed them to control their enemies, gathered in one place, and were a force to be reckoned with. Every now and then they would take control of an enemy that would then attack their own people. At first, the enemy tried to use the “ol’-reliable” tactic, shooting a Common Crossbow Bolt Soaked in the Potion of Supreme Will into the ground, but the villagers would quickly pick up the bolts and hide them in their one-slotted inventories.

  The enemies began to use the Soaked Bolts less often, but every time they shot an arrow that shone like a star, they cured their people of “control”. Followers of Rugus spent their precious mana, but unfortunately didn’t get to control their puppets for long.

  Among the members of Tsunter’s army were also those who could influence their opponent’s mind. Followers of Kiriana, clad in distinctive white robes similar to the ones the enemy healers wore, hid behind the main forces so that we couldn’t get to them. From time to time they would “switch off” one of our men, making the poor guy spend all of his stats dispelling the delusion. It took lots of mana, HP and energy, and the vilest thing about it was that the enemies mercilessly hacked at the bodies of whoever was trying to fight off the illusion.

  “Come on!” cried one of the warriors, catching up with me, and spread his sword and shield aside.

  Bimmy used “Provocation” on you. You cannot attack for the following ten seconds.