Quote 14
Though we Lykos speak of three tribal spirits, the three wolves for which our Vale is named, the truth is that there is only One power that represents our united purpose, the true source of harmony. As long as we stand together as one pack, the power of the One shall be limitless.
From a speech at the Western Lykos's forum
14
We stood on the edge of a circle of light as if we were being lit up by an unseen celestial spotlight. Said circle was huge, hundreds of yards across at least and nothingness was across the border of darkness. Below us was a floor of white marble slabs, perfect squares in shape, while above was an endless field of twinkling, starry lights. There was a stillness in the air, a peaceful feeling that was the complete opposite of the tense silence of death at the end of the battle.
As I said, we weren’t alone in that circle. Opposite us, a titanic white wolf sat, the kind of beast that would make a kaiju jealous with its immense size. That wasn’t the extent of the creature either as it had three perfectly formed heads like Cerberus right out of Greek mythology. Unlike our recent experiences with wolves, this one seemed serene, at total peace with its surroundings. All three heads regarded us with bright golden eyes as it held its chest out proudly, radiating an aura of cozy warmth that belied the obvious sharpness of its claws and fangs.
“Thank you, Promised ones,” three soothing voices called into our heads in vocal harmony, “and welcome into our presence.” It didn’t take a genius to realize that it was the huge magical wolf in front of us doing the telepathy. Here and again, I was struck at the oddness of having more NPC interaction without the proper interface. “We are the One, the spirit of our people, the Lykos, and without your dedication to the bond you wish to forge, our Vale would still be a broken place.”
“Thank you,” came out of both of our lips at almost the same time. Kayla and I shared a glance and a grin before she prompted me to continue with a nod. Looking back at One, I did so.
“We are happy to have been of service and been in the right place at the right time to help.” With the quest update in the forefront of my mind, I asked, “Though I must ask, now that you are restored, why haven’t the Rings also been fully empowered?”
“I was thinking the same thing,” Kayla added as she held up her right hand. “Not that we wouldn’t have done all this, fought the battles we did, without our own goal to strive for but we originally came to your valley for a specific reason.”
It was hard to sound both thankful and questioning at the same time, to try not to sound greedy when you’re asking a logical question. I couldn’t tell if we did or not but I hoped we pulled it off. The One was quite honestly the largest creature in EO I had personally set my eyes on and while I knew there were things as big and powerful in some of the raid encounters, those things were meant to be faced by ten champions, not our little duo. I did not want this thing angry with us.
“Your question is a fair one.” The voices were as gentle as they had been, a certain alien pensiveness to their tones. “You deserve an answer and we will give it, as well as the truth of the Vale of the Three Wolves and the rings you bear.” The mighty spirit lowered down onto its front paws, the three heads not twenty paces away now. This thing could easily swallow a person down in one swift gulp. “As you must know, you are not the first to seek the Rings, to find your way to our people, to undergo the trials of the Lykos.”
I was frowning in thought. We did know that but I decided to respond with the more story-specific one. “We know. Alizhard told us his story, about his own quest for the Rings, and his tragic end.”
The laugh was a throaty, growling thing as it came out of the building-sized wolf. “There is no need to think so small, my friends. Do you not think we, spirits of friends, family, and love, know not of the greater Elementalis? Though rare, our Rings are found throughout the world, binding souls together in harmony and granting them the strength to face the Darkness.”
Kayla cut in, her eyes wide in realization. “Alizhard said that time was funny here, that it had been years for him.” She stepped past me and pointed at the One. “You’ve set this place up, this little pocket dimension, as some kind of loop, a place that tests those who seek out the Rings! How many times has that man suffered the same heartache for this? What about the Lykos?”
The ears of the One’s central head popped up at the accusatory finger but the telepathic voice stayed calm and harmonious. “You are correct, Kayla, and we are pleased to see that your heart is in the right place. Put aside your indignation, though. No one in the Vale does what they do without consent. We all play our parts to ensure that more can benefit from the gifts we have to bring and often that requires our sacrifice.” Its ears flattened as its heads settled onto its forepaws. “Even I suffer, splitting my essence into three parts and letting the Darkness gain a foothold inside us. You have felt its corrupting chill before you came to this valley. You must understand the agony we suffer every passing of the trial, then.”
Kayla put her hand over her heart and lowered her head, letting that sink in. For us, Darkness damage was the worst kind of damage to take, the NSAF gear did a great job making it feel … wrong … to take into the body. I don’t think we could understand how horrible it would actually be to experience if the game was, well, real.
“This may sound ignorant to ask but … why do this?” I asked anyway. “Why go through this pain and suffering, subjecting those who look to be Promised to no small measure of that same pain, to have it end up like this in the end?”
The answer seemed obvious to me, but I didn’t need to know what I was thinking. I wanted to hear the real answers from the horse’s mouth or, in this case, the wolf’s muzzle.
“We can smell that, in your hearts, you both know why.” The One huffed as its body rippled with a gigantic sigh. “We will make it plain nonetheless.” A head each focused its golden eyes on each of us, boring into our souls. “Think back to but a few of cycles ago when you first came to this place. Both of you in the throes of what you thought was love, eager to pursue a closeness of spirit that few ever know, yet totally ignorant of the true depths of that bond. Should we have blindly given you that gift, the couple that you were then?”
I was already shaking my head before the question had even finished and Kayla was doing the same. The One was right, of course. It would have been a relationship founded on initial crushes, nascent desires, and flat-out ignorance. I was pursuing some made-up perfect image of a woman and Kayla saw more of a cause to champion instead of a man. Now, we both knew better.
The three heads nodded in agreement with our gesture. “So, every step on your quest has been prepared to divine the truth of your feelings, to both test and educate you. The trial of the Maw tested your resolve in the face of the unknown. Following Alizhard’s bidding to bind yourselves here and all that entailed forced you to realize the level of commitment a relationship requires. The trial of the Shades unveiled harsh realities about one another while also promoting understanding of your partner’s capabilities. Battling our three corrupted aspects at once showed your ability to work together in harmony in harsh conditions.”
The One seemed to smile and there was certainly joy in its telepathic chorus. “You have learned, you have come to understand one another, and you have grown together in ways you would never have without these trials set before you. We are happy for you, to see you together at the end of this road, ready to begin a new one together.”
Kayla glanced at me for a split-second before looking back at the multi-headed wolf. “But we’re not done yet, are we?”
I tightened my grip on my shield and banner without thinking as the spirit wolf raised back to an upright position. “No, my friends. There is one final trial, one final lesson to learn. You have seen the three pillars of harmony, the three heads of the Lykos, yet there is one principle that runs through those bonds, one that must be tested to ensure your union is truly meant to be.”
&n
bsp; Expecting a fight as always, no matter how gruesome the prospect, I took a step forward in front of Kayla, into the classic tank-support formation. “What is that principle? You can just tell us and we can get this out of the way.”
I really didn’t expect an answer of any kind, but I got one anyway. “It would defy the purpose of a trial to reveal the point of it, would it not?” Each of the three heads shook in turn and then the rest of the thirty-foot-long body followed. “Your task is simple, champions: discover and master the final principle. Oh, and you should do your best to survive until then.”
The One’s outline shifted from friendly green to deadly red as its heads tipped back and let loose a terrific triple howl. Unlike the corrupted wolves, the One did indeed have both a listed level and threat grade. Level 60 (ten above the level cap) and Grade S threat, something that would make a fair few raid bosses blush in shame.
While by all rights the Life Crystals in the Vale were clean of the Darkness, making the One's little quip about surviving likely pointless, I wasn't sure exactly what would happen if we were to die here. Frankly, I had no idea where we were or how we would get back. Would we be able to restart the encounter? Would something else happen, new trials the Filter AI would whip up us to force us to do?
I figured it was best to simply win and not have to find out.
The One enters Watchdog Stance! All three heads appear to be waiting for something!
As much as I was expecting something like this, I was a bit dumbstruck. Maybe it was the soothing tones in my head or the fact that the wolf didn’t immediately gobble both of us down in two bites. Kayla was more on the ball, though, immediately reacting with a quickly cast Ice Shield on me as the glowing white beast lowered itself into a feral crouch, all three maws showing their full arsenal of body-chomping teeth as their lips pulled back into snarls.
The icy, spiked coating crackled to life around my armor and shield prompted two things in rapid succession. First, as my attention flicked toward my buff bar for that fraction of a second to affirm the protective spell had landed, I noticed a Boon that hadn’t been there before, the icon being some sort of gold-bordered shield. Second, the leftmost wolf head barked in almost perfect timing with Kayla’s spell cast, the vibration of the sound rippling up and down the One’s body and leaving behind a glowing golden sheen.
The Spirit of Love lets out a Guarding Bark! It heals 0 (+389 overheal) Health Points and gains a 389 point Damage Shield. HP ?????/?????
I’d look at that new Boon in a moment. Strange the system didn’t give me an immediate update on it but that was one of the least strange moments of the past few days. Kayla’s spell would draw aggro from the start and there was no guarantee she’d survive even one swipe of this spirit’s claws. As the One settled back from that bark, tensing as if to move, I interjected myself as I focused on the Solar Shield array in my shield. The blast of light would snap the aggro to me and hopefully knock down the One’s defenses so Kayla could score a solid hit. The pulse of pure Primal Light erupted forward, catching all three heads in the cone of energy.
As with Kayla’s spell, there was a nigh-instant reaction from the One. It was like an ancient video game from the Twentieth century that used input-reading programming, an old trick used to create false difficulty for the opponents instead of a properly complex artificial intelligence. The right head let loose a howl even as it disappeared in the burning flare while the central head growled, one of the giant wolf’s forepaws swatting at me in an almost chastising manner, a blow I barely caught with my shield.
Your Solar Shield engulfs the area! The One takes 0 (-58 shielded, -450 resisted) Light Damage! The Blind is resisted! HP ?????/?????
The Spirit of Family lets out a Punishing Howl! Everyone in the area loses one additional stack of Harmonic Aegis.
The Spirit of Friends’ Chastising Swipe hits (blocked) you! You take 0 (-195 shielded, -195 blocked, -2,210 resisted) Physical Damage! HP 3680/3680
There was a corona of golden light that surrounded me as the paw cuffed me. Considering said paw was the size of a compact car, it rightly should have obliterated me in one shot. It probably would have if not for whatever that light was but there was still enough force to skid me sideways a good three feet. The glow was gone as fast as it had intervened even as I stopped my slide.
Kayla: What was that?!
Smart as always, she was wisely sticking to private channels to keep the One from adapting to our tactics, not that I was sure that would help.
Shale: The instant reactions or the total lack of damage we did to each other?
Kayla: I’m pretty sure the reactions are from that Watchdog Stance. Like an all-purpose riposte ability that mirrors what we do, I think. My big question is how you resisted over eighty percent of that hit.
Shale: I’ve got a weird buff on my bar. Maybe that’s it?
The wall of white fur circled us slowly during our brief conference, adding some credence to Kayla’s theory. I’d encountered riposte-style abilities before but nothing as universal as this. The plus side was that we weren’t likely to die if we waited it out. Of course, we certainly weren’t going to win that way, were we?
Of course, I wasn’t sure at that point if the ‘usual way’ was going to work either. I risked a moment to bring up the tooltip for the out-of-place buff and read it.
Boon: Harmonic Aegis (17 stacks) You gain +5% Resistance to all types of Damage per stack. Stacks are gained and lost by embracing or denying the final principle of harmony and the number of stacks is shared between both supplicants.
Behind me, Kayla took the initiative while I read, deciding to leave behind the Light Spells and stick with pure Water damage, her best elemental synergy. No doubt thinking the same thing as me, that each head might be damaged separately, she conjured up a huge ball of ice at the tip of her staff. It balanced precariously atop it for a moment before she grabbed the staff in both hands and swung it upward like a golf swing. The primed Ice Bomb detached at the height of the swing, hurtling in a perfect arc straight for the One’s collective noggins.
I would swear that the wolf straightened up into it as if embracing the attack as it came in. My eyes stayed glued on the buff bar, however, as a niggling theory began to worm into my head. Everything seemed to slow down as I intently focused on the exploding Ice Bomb, the One’s reaction to it, and the Harmonic Aegis.
The crystal-clear sphere burst into countless, razor-sharp shards that flew into an even spread of death. Instead of seeing a million bleeding gouges in the One’s pristine fur (maybe even a few splinters into the eyes for good measure), the shards seemed to shatter as if they had struck the hardest Elohjin steel. As with our actions before, the spirit wolf reacted, moving forward with alarming speed for its size but something else reacted as well.
The Harmonic Aegis Boon dropped to sixteen stacks the exact moment the Bomb showered attempted murder on the wolf.
Not that this knowledge helped at that precise second. There was no time to dodge, especially with my razor-sharp focus on that buff icon, as the One pounced straight through us, gnashing and slashing as the celestial spotlight silently slid to keep the scene perfectly lit. As the sheer weight of the thing bowled us over, that same gold barrier flashed into life, the intensity a notch darker than before, but still strong enough to prevent immediately fatal injuries.
The One’s Rebuking Pounce cuts a swath through the area!
You take 39 (-305 shielded, -1,376 resisted) Physical Damage and are Knocked Down! HP 3641/3680
Kayla takes 116 (-400 shielded, -2,064 resisted) Physical Damage and is Knocked Down! HP 2284/2400
The One’s claws caught on the pristine tiles, gouging a groove into the stone as it skidded to a halt past us. As we picked ourselves up off the ground, it spun back to face us content to continue its low, ready stance. Of course, that ‘low stance’ only brought it down to the height of a two-story house, no less intimidating than before.
Kayla shook her head as sh
e steadied herself, not bothering to use the group channel this time as she spoke. “This isn’t working.”
Yeah, it was stating the obvious, but it’s exactly what I would have said in our current situation if the hunch I had wasn’t starting to become more solid.
Before I could put that idea into words, as I automatically moved back into defensive position in front of her, the spirit’s melody of voices echoed in our heads again. “What isn’t working? Is this not some problem that disappears in a wash of elemental forces like those you face in the Crucible? Can you not strike us down as you have so many other beasts and adversaries? Is strength not the final principle of harmony?” Though the words themselves sounded like mocking, the tone remained that same warm, soothing honey in our mental ears.
“Well,” Kayla shot back, a little unsure of herself, “no, I guess it isn’t. I mean, I never thought it was but …”
“You’re right, Kayla, it absolutely isn’t,” I assured her, my confidence in my theory growing by the second. “How could it be? Fighting is one of the least harmonious things you can do, right?”
“I get that, Shale, but fighting is ninety percent of this game.” She wasn’t wrong, that was for sure. “We’ve had to fight to get everything we have here …” Her voice trailed off as something clicked. “Except in the woods and those poor people.”
And, par for the course, Kayla was right again. No more than a week ago, we had been shown that sometimes the better solution wasn’t to slaughter every NPC in our way. The Dark Rider’s minions had been relatively innocent, after all. Banished Craggar, forced out of the Earth Kingdom for nonconformity, they had been deprived access to a Life Crystal, denied the gift of reincarnation most everyone else shared. When we offered mercy to them, we gained valuable insights and information to open the way to Crystalfire Keep.
The Vale of Three Wolves: A LitRPG Adventure (Elements of Wrath Online Book 2) Page 17
