New Horizons (Emerilia Book 4)

by Michael Chatfield

  “Just put the Mana barrier up a little and then add a little safety.” Gray smoke seemed to stream ahead of Dave, a metal casing wrapping around him.

  The Arch Lich started to send out a tendril of Dark energy, the very library warping to try to stop Dave’s progress.

  “Well, fuck you too!” Dave yelled, placing his hands on the metal.

  Bulbs seemed to form underneath the bullet-looking mass Dave was in before a rigid funnel formed underneath.

  “Didn’t you know? I’m a rocket man, motherfucker!” Dave yelled, the bottom of his capsule right next to Induca’s flames.

  For a second, it looked as if he was going to be burned by them.

  “Hydrogen saturation is high, nozzles are saturated,” Dave said to himself, the words burned into his mind after years of saying the words.

  Dave felt the spark ignite as a flame lit underneath the capsule he was in.

  That torch had carried humanity’s hopes, dreams, and people across the stars and beyond. Dave had made a rocket. About twenty feet from the Arch Lich’s face.

  “Don’t fuck with a dude who makes rockets for a living,” Dave muttered. He looked out over the control panels he had seen for decades as he had built his own spaceships.

  “We’ve got rough combustion! Engine firing—looking good. These things are sweet. Okay, increasing the fuel consumption. Shit is costing a lot of Mana to make. Ugh! Fine, fuck it, jump-starting the engine.” Dave opened the fuel valves on the rocket by simply destroying parts of them.

  The Arch Lich had held on, and continued to pull Dave closer in his rocket as he had achieved engine start.

  That was nothing to him firing the engines.

  Cracks formed through the objects that held him. Dave let out a yell as he forced power into his construct, his mind and body wracked with pain from channeling Mana straight from his armor and through his body. The Dark Mana stopped pulling on Dave’s rocket.

  For a moment, everything seemed to stop, and then Dave was racing forward. He canceled the impromptu rocket. A big bouncy castle appeared in front of him, slowing him and allowing him to change his direction, right back toward the rare books.

  Dave felt like a damned bobblehead from the shaking. Finally, he stopped shaking around, hearing only the sounds of his fellow Stone Raiders battling their opponents. Dave used healing on himself as he looked around. He knew the phylactery was up here because of the heavy warding. There was no need for it other than to try to protect something.

  Being only made out of Mana with a high Dark Affinity checked all the boxes.

  The screaming Arch Lich was also a big checkmark.

  Dave cut through it with his spell formation and magical coding. He felt the Arch Lich recovering from receiving an impromptu rocket to the face just as he found the phylactery, hiding within a book on herb lore.

  “Personal choices?” Dave broke through the remaining enchantments, rushing closer to the book.

  Dave grabbed it, pulling it out, just as he fell to his knees. He looked at the Arch Lich, who seemed to be the epicenter of Dark Mana. It called on a Legendary ability. Fear pinned him to the ground.

  Dave closed his eyes as the Lich moved toward him, taking his time—as if enjoying the torment he put Dave through. Dave coughed. Blood fell on his breastplate as he held the book to his chest. Pain seemed to come from everywhere. Dave’s Mana barrier was failing as he worked.

  Dave knew the coding of his armor explicitly. Which was why he knew he had one chance to win.

  There was no time for anything fancy. He removed the fail safes power surged through his body. His gray runes shone so bright they seemed to be pure white. It made the Lich step backward as Dave stood.

  His mind was crumbling, fighting the creature’s aura, to be able to do what he needed to do: destroy his very body. The power that ran through his body—it was god-like. There was nothing he couldn’t do within those few moments.

  Dave laughed and jumped from the tall staircase and toward the bookshelves floors below. Dave activated a secondary rune and closed his glowing eyes. The darkness of the room turned to white.

  Half of the stored power in his forward soul gem, nearly thirty thousand mana, exploded outwards like a bomb, pain filled Dave as the book holding the phylactery disappeared.

  ***

  Malsour didn’t know what spell the Arch Lich was using as it closed in on Dave, but alarm bells went off in his head.

  Either Dave would destroy the phylactery or not, either way Malsour, knew that he would not come back from death like Dave, Deia, Suzy and the other Stone Raiders Players with them.

  “Run!” Malsour yelled out, black waves of mana seemed to billow out from his body, magical enchantments and the feeds that the Aleph were using were overloaded as Malsour grew in power and size.

  He finished his transformation, grabbing Induca with his right hand, Anna with his left and whipping his tail around Steve as his body broke through the library.

  If there was a power ranking for Dragons the Denur would be the absolute peak, but after her would be Malsour. He didn’t like to show off his strength, but in his Dragon form, he was a force of nature to be reckoned with.

  His wings threw off the roof that was breaking over his back.

  He used all of his strength enchantments, with one powerful flap of his wings he threw himself and his three charges out and away from the grand library.

  The Library seemed to disintegrate, as if it was going through hundreds of years, crumbling and rotting from the inside.

  It spread at an alarming rate.

  Steve spread himself out, catching most of the spell while he was on Malsour’s tail, sacrificing his material body so that they others wouldn’t be as affected.

  Anna grunted as she was hit by the spell that made it past Steve.

  Then a massive white light seemed to ignite the very air, spreading over the Dark shadows of the Arch Lich’s legendary ability, annulling any that was in the air.

  Malsour glided downwards, landing heavily before the grand library, his belly and tail were being affected by the legendary ability.

  He released his charges, focusing his Mana inwards.

  The Arch Lich might have been a powerful entity that revelled in the Dark Affinity, but Malsour was much older with a much higher magical talent in his Dragon form.

  He absorbed the curse, his mana destroying it easily.

  “Steve!” Malsour yelled out, looking to the metal man that was showing large amounts of decay through his metal limbs.

  “Looks like I’m a bit rusty at all this,” Steve said, as distorted grin showing as rust decayed his body.

  Malsour let out an annoyed sound. He breathed black flames over Steve, breaking the curse and the decay across Steve’s form. Since he’d destroyed it in himself, it was easier to just stop the material eating effects on Steve.

  “The others will need your help more,” Steve said, his voice odd. His body had decomposed, gears, soul gems and his Mithril protective plates showing in places.

  Malsour turned, looking to his little sister and Anna.

  Induca was the worst.

  He stabilized Anna as much as possible, slowing the curse from hurting her as he worked to free Induca from the curse raging through her veins.

  ***

  “Come to Daddy!” Jake yelled as a massive magical formation created from Dark Mana ignited under the second juggernaut’s feet as it moved to step on the same bridge its ill-fated brother had used.

  The juggernaut stopped, as if it was fighting through molasses. It tried to march forward, to try to follow its creator’s bidding.

  “Yeah, that’s it. You’re mine now! Mine!” Jake yelled out. Sweat poured from his face as purple and black swirled in his eyes.

  The juggernaut seemed to shake slightly before it stopped its movement. All resistance left the Bone juggernaut as it turned around.

  “Kill.” Jake pointed at the undead around it. It started to cleave through th
em.

  Another necro hit Jake on the back. “Dude, what did you do? None of the undead are moving,” they asked.

  “Stop,” Jake said.

  The bone juggernaut halted, looking out over the undead horde. It was eerily quiet as undead collapsed and fell over.

  *ting* A pop-up blocked Jake and all of the Stone Raiders’ visions.

  Quest: Aleph Homecoming

  You have defeated former Lord Alastair Montgoa, betrayer of the Aleph. His creatures and experiments have been destroyed.

  You have cleared the Aleph College.

  Rewards: Increase your technology advancements by 35%

  Access to the Aleph Libraries

  345,000 EXP

  Increased standing with Aleph people

  “Quick! Start claiming the best of the undead before they can be destroyed!” Jake said in a panic.

  The necros rushed to obey as the rest of the Stone Raiders let out a cheer that filled the Aleph College.

  ***

  The entire Aleph Council was in shock. All of them had seen Dave’s final actions. The power coming off him had been like nothing that they had ever seen before.

  Even dying through the Arch Lich’s curse, he burned his very life force in order to carry out one last and final act. He dove from the hanging library of the Aleph’s rarest works, like some kind of fallen angel. Brilliant light consumed Dave and the book he was holding as the Arch Lich raced toward him.

  Dave’s final act destroyed the phylactery. The Arch Lich disintegrated in pained screams.

  Debris and Dave’s floating tombstone were the only things to touch the ground.

  Hamdir couldn’t understand what the capsule Dave had been in was, or what grew from it. He had never seen such powerful magic in his life.

  Black smoke spread through the area with the Lich’s death. Everything it touched seemed to decay and wither in seconds. Old wards flared to life, trying to protect their books—only to be washed away in the destructive power. Half of the grand library seemed to be eaten from the inside. Stone Raiders fell down, the effect of the decaying spell making them writhe in pain in the remaining rubble.

  The feed went dead, the council members leaned forwards as if willing it to come back.

  With a flash it did, the Library now had a massive hole in its roof and was coming apart as structural members were disintegrated by the Arch Lich’s curse.

  Induca, Malsour, Anna and Steve were all laying on the ground outside of the library. Malsour and Steve had some bad injuries that seemed to be trying to eat through them. However while they were able to stop the curse, Anna and Induca were crying out in pain as it raged through their bodies. Power poured out of Malsour as he worked to stop the curse. Steve who was more parts than man, crawled over with one arm to help.

  Hamdir’s shaky hand wiped his face as he watched the Stone Raiders’ own necromancers running through the undead horde as if they were in a candy store: picking out the best conditioned creatures, controlling them, and making them gather other undead for them to use. Creatures they had been fighting just minutes ago, they were now turning into their minions.

  “I now know why people were so scared of making enemies of the Players.” Hamdir’s low and shaky voice carried through the silent room.

  “Trust is rewarded with trust,” Shard said, letting those words sink into their minds. There were only a handful of facilities that needed to be worked on before the Stone Raiders were finished clearing out the Aleph’s beleaguered facilities.

  We must become allies with them. They might not be the cleanest or know the proper etiquette but as I said: we must step forward into the future to see new horizons. With the Stone Raiders, they would give their lives hundreds of times, just to keep an agreement with us.

  Hamdir felt assured in their final reward. It was not the largest they could give, but it was one that showed the Aleph’s trust, thanks, and hope for both of their groups to grow in the future.

  After what he had seen, he doubted anyone would argue it was too much when the Aleph people were just starting to get their feet under them.

  ***

  Dave sighed and looked at the white that filled his vision.

  You have died in Emerilia

  You have been returned home.

  You have 5:59 hrs (game time) until you can respawn at (Alephir)

  Or

  1:59 hrs in real life

  Would you like to play a different game while you wait?

  He sat up from the simple couch he was resting on. Dave sat up in a rush opening his interface, connecting to his party chat.

  “What’s going on? Is everyone okay?” He demanded.

  Dave felt a thread of fear in his heart. Bob said that Deia was now a Player, but a part of him was still scared that she wouldn’t respawn.

  “Dave, what the hell is going on?” Deia asked, panic in her voice.

  “We died. That Arch Lich must have used one of its Legendary attacks. Want to come over to my home?” Dave asked, his hand shaking from the anxiety of possibly losing her.

  “Is that what this place is? It looks just like your house,” Deia said, her tone filled with interest instead of worry, making Dave laugh dryly, putting his nerves at ease.

  “It must’ve taken an imprint of what you think of as home and turned it into reality. Send me an invite to join you,” Dave said.

  “Damn, I need to do some renovations,” Suzy commented over the party chat.

  “Everyone, go to your interface panel. Go down to home options. You should have the option to join friends. There should be an invite to the Stone Raiders’ guild hall. Click on that and we can meet up with the rest of the Stone Raiders,” Dave said, following his own instructions.

  Dave appeared in the lobby of the guild hall.

  Stone Raiders cheered as he and the rest of Party Zero and the Stone Raiders who had come with them to the grand library appeared.

  Dave and the others laughed and smiled. Word seemed to have come back from the Players online. The Arch Lich was dead.

  It took more of us than I would like to think, but we got him. Dave was just starting to realize how terrifying respawning was.

  He grabbed Deia, bringing her into a deep kiss.

  She tensed, embarrassed about kissing in front of so many other people. After a few moments, she stopped caring. She gave herself into the kiss and grabbed onto Dave. The exhilaration of the fight and the fear of death were a powerful aphrodisiac.

  Dave checked his timer.

  You have died in Emerilia

  You have been returned home.

  You have 4:08 hrs (game time) until you can respawn at (Alephir)

  Or

  1:37 hrs in real life

  Would you like to play a different game while you wait?

  “What do you say if we go back to your place?” he asked, their foreheads together, sharing the same heated breath.

  Deia’s face lit up in a smile as she bit her lip. She pulled back and rested in his arms that were holding her. “What makes you think I’d invite you back to mine?” she asked playfully.

  “Well, I can’t very well be saying that in present company.” Dave grinned.

  “Good to know someone noticed me even if it was for the slight inconvenience that I present,” Suzy said dryly.

  Deia’s eyes thinned, her teeth teasing her lower lip. Finally, she brought up her interface; after she punched a few buttons, they disappeared from the guild hall and reappeared in Dave and Deia’s house in Cliff-Hill.

  ***

  “Oh you beautiful lady.” Josh fell onto his bed, still fully clothed.

  “Josh, we’ve got more people coming back from their respawns and the Aleph are asking if they can help in anyway,” Dwayne asked.

  After dying, he was now the section leader with the most energy.

  “Tell Lucy,” Josh said, his face buried in his bed.

  “Will do,” Dwayne said.

  Josh kicked off his clothes, wr
estling with himself about having a shower. He marched over, luxuriating in a quick shower before he made his way back to his bed and pulled the sheets over himself.

  There was still all of the college to sort out. The amount of loot was incredible and there were all kinds of drops over the place. There was still a mining facility and the portal factory to be fixed but they would be the last two facilities.

  The Stone Raiders who had respawned were taking over the duties of those who had survived.

  Josh pulled his cover tight, a pleased smile on his face. He’d deal with the rest in the morning. They’d taken on the strongest raid yet and won.

  ***

  “So, what are we doing next? Helping the Demons?” Dave asked as Malsour cut down massive metal structures that seemed to have grown throughout the mining area organically.

  “Once we have the Demons also able to build instead of just react to what is going on around them, we’ll start to see them and the Beast Kin working together into a new force in Ashal.

  “Few forces have really flourished in Ashal. The land promotes small kingdoms where people can control everything that goes on in it. They come for the highest-level dungeons and raids. The prizes they gain are more than Opheir earns in ten years. It’s led to many people fighting in the area instead of coming to the table and talking of an alliance. The Demons are strong, but they are not as strong as those around them. Once they defeat the Dark Lord’s forces, they will have the time to train, establish themselves and grow in strength,” Malsour said. Darklings appeared and took away the pillars of metal and stone Dave had cut down by conjuring items into the pillars and destroying them.

  There were other teams of Stone Raiders helping out with their Dark magics or their brute strength in other places.

  There was a celebratory feeling in the air. They had defeated the Arch Lich and now they just had to do some repairs and they would have completed their quest.