The Pantheon Moves

by Michael Chatfield

  “Yes, mistress.” Daeundra backed away from Light before she disappeared.

  The generals who had died were already replaced. However, Khanundra hadn’t; instead, Daeundra had taken over her position, passing on Light’s orders to her legions and followers.

  Daeundra knew that Light didn’t care about Khanundra, but the loss of such a powerful figure who was so completely devout was not a small loss.

  Now Daeundra’s mission was to find out where the Dark Lord and his forces were.

  The legions had killed all of those who were even Dark magic practitioners on Markolm, their anger incensed by Dark’s actions.

  When they did find the Dark Lord’s base and his people, Daeundra knew that Light would not stop unless she, or Dark, were killed.

  Chapter 17: An Island Moves

  Upon receiving the instructions from his master, Boran-al had stopped with all of his projects and moved to organize the Alturarans. The Dark Champions under his command all started to move from their different locations. All of them knew what was to come next and were eager to see their lord rise in power. As he did, so would they, changing Emerilia into a world that was their master’s.

  First, the divine wells that were being held in different locations were moved to the base that Dark’s champions and the Alturarans who followed him had created. Then the Dark Champions moved to where the corresponding portal on Emerilia was, to make sure that their preparations were all correct and everything was ready. Riding a wave of Alturarans, the last of the divine wells appeared in sight as hundreds of Alturarans of all kinds raced forth.

  Darkness shrouded Boran-al, protecting him from the harsh sunlight that baked this world. He walked over what seemed to be empty ground; behind him, the sand started to shake. Alturarans who had been waiting for months shook off the sand that covered them, rising from the ground.

  Boran-al reached the portal that stood untouched on top of a pedestal. He stepped into range of it. A screen appeared in his vision:

  New discovery

  You have found a portal. On the other side, new locations and adventure await. Do you wish to open the portal?

  Y/N

  “Yes.” Boran-al’s voice sounded out as all around him the bare ground revealed Alturarans, while hundreds of others came from different directions, ready to obey their Dark Lord’s orders.

  The portal’s different Magical Circuits started to move as Boran-al waited. The other Dark Champions rose from the ground, or appeared from the shadows, or descended from the sky. All of them had been on this planet for months, carrying out their master’s bidding. Now it was time that they would start down the road of reaping the rewards.

  The portal’s Magical Circuits finally stopped moving and power started to surge through them all.

  One second, there was nothing and then the next, they were looking into a dark area instead of the endless sands of Alturara.

  Boran-al stepped forward. The Dark Champions moved as well, carrying divine wells with them. They entered the portal and exited into a low-light room.

  Boran-al took in a deep breath of the damp room, feeling at ease.

  Shadows turned into a vortex before dissipating. The Dark Lord stepped out from the black smoke. “You’ve done well.”

  Boran-al and all of the champions put down the divine wells and bowed to their master.

  “We will destroy these islands of enlightenment and study. Those who dictated which ways to do your experiments, putting human life above advancement, who hunted many of you down, I will leave them to your care,” the Dark Lord said.

  “Yes, master,” the Dark Champions said.

  Glee filled Boran-al in anticipation of the slaughter to come.

  Behind them, more and more Alturarans slowly moved through the portal, filling the vast underground area.

  ***

  Alamos frowned as he looked to Jelanos. “Does something feel off?”

  “Hmm?” Jelanos looked up from the report he had been looking over.

  “Does something feel off?” Alamos repeated.

  Jelanos looked out of the windows. “Kind of feels like a storm has come in with the slight rocking we’re having, but there’s no storm nearby.”

  Alamos looked to reports from the different sectors of the islands. “Seems that the main island is moving around. The lead technician is saying that it’s happening because of increased weight changing the center of gravity for the island.” Alamos seemed even more confused.

  “Well, how the hell did we gain so much weight?”

  “Maybe an experiment?” Alamos said.

  “I’ll run a scan. Might as well check that it’s not something too major.” Jelanos moved to a mirror and pressed a few buttons; information appeared on his screen as he activated different things. A detailed scan of the Per’ush islands appeared with it, zooming in on the main island that sat in the middle of them all.

  “Doesn’t look like there’s anything down there to do it,” Jelanos said.

  “It looks a bit too clean down there—there aren’t any readings from the power stations that relay through to the Magical Circuits that power the island,” Alamos said with a growing sense of apprehension.

  “Like that time in the Eda ruins when there was that covert Magical Circuits that hid the treasure room away!” Jelanos said with a solemn expression, adjusting his reading glasses, making him go from looking like a scholarly reader perusing a book to a warrior with scholarly pursuits.

  “Send down some war mages to check out what’s going on down there. In the meantime, should make sure that people are—” Alamos’s words stopped in his throat as new items started to move out of the irregular and perfectly clean area under the island.

  Creatures in the hundreds were plodding through the island and headed toward the surface.

  “Alturarans!” Alamos and Jelanos said. They had been to Alturara a number of times and were familiar with the creatures that called the sun-bleached planet home.

  Jelanos smashed an alarm near his desk as he and Alamos started to raise the war mages and evacuate the main Per’ush island. Jelanos charged toward the doors of his balcony. A cutting wind sliced them apart with ease as he and Alamos charged into the air, their Mana circulating as frigid expressions covered their faces.

  The ground erupted in places as Alturarans, with their gem-like bodies, broke through the surface of the main island.

  Alamos shook his sleeves. Dozens of water darts shot through the Alturarans, so fast that the creatures didn’t even know that they had died for a few moments before their bodies collapsed.

  Jelanos called down lightning that into one of the holes, noises of metal being scraped against one another made even him grimace.

  People were screaming as war mages took to the sky.

  More and more Alturarans came from the ground in seemingly unending waves.

  Alamos, now using a sensing spell, could even see some of them were carving a path to the outside of the island and falling into the water—they weren’t creatures that needed air—and started to move toward the shoreline. Alamos started communicating with the Gudalo kingdom as well as the Terra Alliance.

  Shadows seemed to shoot out from the holes where the Alturarans were emerging. These shadows formed into people with a cold and powerful aura.

  Jelanos and Alamos moved closer to each other. Their Mana moved faster and faster as they recognized the auras of the Dark Lord’s champions.

  A sickly-looking elf laughed and rose into the air on a pillar of stone and metal. Seeing the man rising to the sky, the others turned into shadows and once again rushed forward.

  Jelanos and Alamos were kept rooted to the spot, knowing that the man in front of them was much more powerful than a dozen of the other Dark Champions.

  “Ah, Archmage Jelanos, Alamos, thank you for the great gift of your island and college. We will put it to great use in the future,” the elf said with a dense smile.

  “Boran-al,” Jelanos said. Fo
ur other Dark Champions also rose behind Boran-al.

  “I was beginning to think that you people had forgotten me after all these years,” Boran-al said, a mocking smile on his face. “No matter. We’ll be happy to educate you on the proper way to address someone of the Dark Lord. Offering your bones up for my experiments!” Boran-al waved his hand; smoke appeared in the sky as the four mages with him shot out curses and Dark Mana bolts.

  “Holy ray!” Alamos yelled. A pillar of light descended from above to smash into Boran-al and his lackeys.

  Two of the mages were caught unawares, not able to compete with the man who ran the mage’s guild. There was not even any time for them to scream.

  The other two looked in bad condition but they moved to be on either side of Boran-al to support him as from the smoke, a roar could be heard. A creature stepped out of the smoke, followed by another. Each looked as though it had been formed from the body parts of a dozen other creatures and then somehow given sentience. The pain of being put together seemed to have driven them wild, their eyes filled with rage and pain.

  Each was bent over like a dog, with tentacles on their backs and wings on their shoulders. Its tail was a serpent’s and its faces were humanoid, but devoid of any possible emotion other than rage and hatred. Their mouths were filled with vicious teeth as dark smoke poured from their bodies.

  “That smoke is a kind of poison,” Jelanos said.

  “Well, then we better do something about it!” Alamos said

  The first two controlled creatures moved, their speed alarming as Jelanos and Alamos both cast spells from their hands.

  The creatures were hit by the spells. A visible shock wave came from the point of impact between the creatures and the spells. They had been thrown backward, Boran-al’s experiment shaking its heads as wings flapped and they moved forward again.

  From Boran-al’s hands and his bags of holding, he was able to pull out a large winged beast that seemed to have metal gems stabbed into it. Boran-al fed it power; the creature flapped its wings, looking like a velociraptor, as it raced up into the sky and turned, aimed down at Jelanos.

  Arrows made from shadows shot forth from its wings. Its power was considerable, making Jelanos have to split his attention between the dog-like creations and the velociraptor.

  More creatures started to come from Boran-al’s bag. The sky became darker as black clouds rolled in.

  War mages from the rest of the islands rushed in to save as many people as possible and try to drive back the Alturarans.

  Alturaran worms, as big as the portals and able to reach fifty meters in length, cruised out, eating through the island. Some fell into the ocean below, while others destroyed the different Magical Circuits that kept the island above the ocean, making it tilt. Others ate upward through the basements and research labs inside the island and through those in the city above.

  While many of the people from other islands were coming to help, those who had flying abilities moved them back and forth. The war mages started to use their power to throw back the Alturarans, getting into heated conflicts of magic when the Dark Champions started to emerge. They were much stronger than the Alturarans and they loved fighting. To the Alturarans, it was simply a process till they had destroyed all life.

  They appeared from shadows, their blades sweeping out and cutting down those in front of them. Others came behind them, laying down incantations, the dead rising once again. Summoners called on beasts from the dark; some pulled the materials from the buildings around them, creating bodies of stone and metal.

  Some used a mixture of spells and poison to create massive roiling clouds on the ground that would eat through all that lay in their way. Others simply enhanced their own power with the Mana, their bodies radiating a black miasma as they attacked.

  The sky continued to darken as black clouds seemed to come from nowhere and locked upon the Per’ush islands.

  “Shut down the teleports and onos on the main island,” Jelanos yelled over a party chat, a magical sword in his hands as he tore through another one of the dog-like creations in two, its master already throwing more and more onto the ground.

  Alamos rushed past him. In front of him, blades of Air tore through what lay in his path, as two velociraptors chased him. He flickered over and shot lightning from his hands.

  “Get the other islands moved away and cut their tethers with the bay floor. We can’t let them be boarded by Dark’s forces,” Alamos said. His lightning hit one of the pursuing creatures. Turning into nothing more than a charred body, another let out a cry, its wing pierced through. It tried to recover but smashed into one of the buildings that they were weaving past, killing it.

  “The Terra Alliance has been alerted,” Jelanos said, returning to the channel with just him and Alamos.

  “All of our overseers and protectors are out and dealing with threats. We’ve only got a few here. We need to cover the people’s retreat back to the other islands. We’ve got copies of everything here—we’ll be fine,” Alamos said. It hurt him to leave it all behind but lives couldn’t be returned unless one was a player—knowledge could always be regained and developed.

  Jelanos let out an enraged cry. Spears of light appeared around him, stabbing into a half dozen creatures and exploding, killing them off as one of the mages on Boran-al’s side shot poison snakes from his hands.

  Alamos swept his hand out. A stream of fire turned into a small dragon that consumed the snake before it could hit Jelanos, who thrust his sword out, ice shards shooting out from him.

  The mage had no time to escape, being hit by a half dozen of them; a look of pain and shock etched their face as they turned into a block of ice.

  A creature that seemed to have demon origins was thrown out by Boran-al. It was much larger than normal demons and had soul runes all over it.

  “This is one of my latest experiments, using an Alturaran core, the body of a demon, and the blood runes of a Xelur,” Boran-al said with excitement.

  An Alturaran core was the center of their power; it was like their internal soul gem. They could, however, fill it with energy over time, sapping it from the area around them.

  In Alturara, there hadn’t been much Mana but the density in Emerilia was much higher.

  The mutated demon raised his hands as powerful Mana streams shot toward him. His aura became more and more powerful.

  Alamos and Jelanos unleashed attacks at the demon at the same time. One hit the demon in the chest, the other in the face. The hit on its chest left a bloody crater, the hit to its face was much more devastating, parts of its skull showed, covered in thick coagulated blood. It let out a mangled roar as other sections of its body were consumed in order to form another head, replacing rather than repairing the damage. It unleashed a bloody light from its right claw.

  Jelanos created a shield, holding his sword up in front of him as the stream of blood-like Mana slammed into the ice shield and shot off in every direction. As it hit the ground and the surrounding buildings, it cut grooves into all it touched.

  Alamos, who had been gathering Mana for an attack, rose up from behind Jelanos. From his hands, a red rock shot out. This rock was covered in a magical spell formation. As it rushed forward, the Fire Mana in the air shot toward the rock that seemed to be sentient as it raced through the air, carving out its own path. A powerful and terrifying aura came from it, making Boran-al raise his eyebrow in interest.

  The red rock turned into a miniature sun, the spell formation around it becoming more vibrant and powerful. The air around it became hazy with the energy that was pulled into it. The mutated demon, sensing something was wrong, started to cut off its attack against Jelanos when the rock sped up.

  A cracking sound could be heard as the rock shot forward and slammed into the mutated demon. It hit with such kinetic force, the rock was implanted into its chest.

  Boran-al’s eyebrows rose higher before his lips pressed into a cold expression that promised blood.

  The red
rock exploded and shot outward. Every building within forty meters was leveled. Alamos let out a cry, creating a shield that contained the blast and directing it back in so that it wouldn’t get those who were trying to escape the island.

  Everything inside was turned into a wasteland as the shield was struck by the debris of all the once valiant and proud towers of the island. These buildings had been here for hundreds of years and had seen the passing of countless generations of mages and types of heroes and legends. They displayed the Per’ush islands, legacy the proud and upright mage’s college and mage’s guild who’s influence spread across Emerilia.

  Boran-al threw his hand forward. Thick streams of Dark and Earth Mana lanced through the mutated demon, increasing the speed at which it regenerated and pushing out the red rock’s secondary spell effects that burned through the mutated demon.

  The dust cleared under the swirling maelstrom of Mana in the air, showing the mutated demon in rough shape and its chest open, revealing the Alturaran core fully.

  With a grunt, Boran-al’s Mana expelled the spells that had been laid upon the red stone.

  “Flames of Mana!” Jelanos yelled out. The powerful spell needed a chant in such a short time period. Red flames seemed to shoot out in a bolt at Boran-al’s Mana.

  Alamos continued to contain the destruction as Jelanos shot out what looked like three feeble flames that looked as if they would go out at the faintest breeze. These flames landed on the stream of Mana that connected Boran-al to his mutated demon as well as the mutated demon.

  The demon cried out as the flames, upon hitting its blood runes and Alturaran core, lit up with a brilliant light.

  These flames might have been familiar to some people. These were flames that burned Mana! They took a lot of power from a mage to create them, as they were basically reversing the flow of the laws of Mana in their bodies.

  However, as it struck the thread of Mana that Boran-al was connected to the mutated demon with, it was like a line of gunpowder. It raced up that pure stream faster than Boran-al could react, racing into his body.