Executor Rising: A GameLit/LitRPG Adventure (Magnus Book 2)

by Vowron Prime

  If the reception at the gate was overblown, it was doubly so within the hall, where the few Contractors and staff all gasped at his arrival, almost falling over themselves to create a new plaque for him.

  “W-we also owe you your bounty of twenty-two thousand gold for exterminating the Trilnyth threat in Dervegen. Please forgive us; it will take some time to gather such a large sum. I swear to you that we will have it ready for you by the end of the day!”

  “That’s fine. We’ll be here until tomorrow.”

  MC’s party idled for a few minutes while one of the Hall mages magically scribed his plaque, giving MC an opportunity to peruse the Contract board—not that he had any reason to take on a contract. At this point, his participation was largely honorary, so the whole exercise felt hollow. Thus, it was to his great dismay that the shiny gold card they finally handed back was frustratingly flamboyant.

  Before he could pocket it, Nova snatched the plaque to examine it closely.

  Name: Emsy, the Hero of Dervegen, Savior of the Zevan

  Rank: Tier Two

  Issuing Branch: Kyron Headquarters, Sorath Empire

  “Pfft!” Nova giggled, desperately trying not to laugh. Nina was less refined about the matter.

  “HAHAHA! Oh my god! This is so great. Savior? What a riot! Ahahah! Magnus, you have to tell us this story.”

  He snatched the plaque back. “I never asked for this. It’s... there’s nothing funny about this. This is—”

  “That makes it even better! I don’t think I’ve ever seen you squirm so hard before. I now know what I’d like my gravestone to read: ‘Sister of Magnus Cromwell, also known as Emsy: the Hero of Dervegen and Savior of Everything.’”

  “Very funny. Now if you two have had enough, we should get going. We’re not on a fucking sightseeing tour.”

  His reaction only served to encourage their laughter as they followed him out of the hall.

  Yet their jubilee came to an abrupt halt when they walked out only to find themselves surrounded by fifty armored knights, protected by barrier mages and phalanxed tower shields—a sea of spears pointed right at them.

  MC immediately moved to shield the girls, putting them behind him, even though the energy dampener was already active. His highest priority was to suppress the enemy mages, who were safely nestled at the enemy’s backline.

  Yet unlike before, he now had several options to deal with these enemies, be it the slung rail rifle hidden under his heavy cloak, and relocation—he could send them all into a subterranean oblivion. Then again, he could simply drop a massive slab of rock on their heads, squashing them instead.

  The only problem was all of those options were lethal, and the last thing they needed was to explain to the empress why they’d just massacred a company of her royal troops. The parasite wasn’t making things easy for him in that department. The sudden mass hostility towards those it considered fodder triggered some instinct within him that he fought to squash. The effort required more concentration than he remembered.

  The parasite is growing.

  He took a deep breath, and with a concerted force of will, suppressed the little horror's killing instincts. Then he considered what to do about the troops. Magnus Cromwell wasn’t one to take shit lying down. He activated the relocator, except instead of targeting the enemy, he selected a large volume of empty air just in front of his group.

  Imparting velocity onto the air, he relocated it in place, then again, and again. After the fifth relocation, he moved the air just in front of the enemy before releasing it to form a compression wave of wind that blew his foes off their feet, shattering their formation.

  As MC made to gather the girls for a teleport, Nova grasped his arm to stop him. “Magnus, don’t. If they meant to kill us, they would have already loosed their arrows. Look!” she said, pointing to a familiarly dressed amoeba that rode atop a mount, “she is a friend.”

  Empress Xikanika made her way through the formation, surrounded by some elite-looking mounted guards of her own.

  “You sure about that?” he replied. “If I recall correctly, she sold you out.”

  “She had no choice!” Nova hissed.

  Empress Xikanika of Sorath broke through the encirclement, stopping her Gyris just behind the frontline of her troops.

  “Emsy. Hero of Dervegen. I would appreciate it if you did not harm my troops.”

  The sarcasm dripped from her voice. She sized him up from on top her monstrous mount.

  “What are you to us? A friend, or a foe?”

  “Depends on what you are to me. And I’m no hero.”

  “Magnus, shut up for a sec, will you? Before you screw us over?” Nina whispered before lowering her head to the monarch. “Your Highness, it is an honor to meet you.”

  Both Nova and MC’s heads snapped to stare at Nina as she delivered her line in the Zevan tongue with perfect fluency. Though it had only been a few days, she spoke with a level of polish that they could scarcely comprehend.

  “Please forgive my brother. As a regular—a commoner—he has no knowledge of etiquette, and I apologize on his behalf for any indiscretions.”

  The empress nodded, while Nova and MC stood shocked.

  “We come to you in peace, bearing no ill-will to you and yours. On this, you have my word, though perhaps you do not need it. Look closely. Do you recognize Nova, our mutual friend?”

  Xikanika took a moment to size up Nova, who stepped out from behind Magnus to allow the empress to see her. Nova glanced upward to make eye contact, which was apparently enough for the empress’s attitude to do a one-eighty.

  “Have they harmed you? Are they keeping you captive? Please, tell me! I shall have them executed at once!”

  “No! Xika, these are my friends. I owe them my life! They truly mean you no harm. In fact, we have journeyed to Kyron just to meet with you.”

  “Truly? Please, my godd—Nova, you do not have to fear.”

  Nova shook her head. “Everything is all right. It is good to see you, my friend.”

  “I have reservations, but the feeling is mutual. In truth, I am deeply ashamed of my actions. But come. Let us discuss these matters in a more suitable setting.”

  The trio followed behind the mounted empress and her entourage. MC stayed ready to retaliate and teleport out with Nova and Nina at the first sign of trouble. Yet, true to her word, they made it to the empress’s keep without issue.

  The Frozen Keep, constructed purely from magical ice, where Eiga had crash-landed and where he’d first met Nova, though he hadn’t known it was her at the time.

  It all felt like ages ago. Given how much he’d been through since then, it may as well have been. MC steeled himself for what was about to come as he stepped foot into the frigid castle’s icy embrace.

  Twenty-Seven

  Empress Xikanika’s royal throne room was—to put it simply—bizarre. The party had marched through tall tunnels and grand archways to get there, and the massive chamber was no different from the rest of the great castle. Namely, it was constructed entirely of blue ice.

  MC had previously navigated its halls after having crash-landed with Eiga, though he’d always assumed that the primary parts of the castle would be built with something a little saner. No such luck: the floors, the walls, the pillars—even the ceiling—were seamless and blue, as if someone had constructed the castle by taking a chisel to a ginormous block of ice.

  Royal Knights in plumed plate helmets lined the stairway up to the throne—also ice—though they’d thankfully laid rugs over the surface to provide a modicum of insulation.

  Fires blazed from steel braziers, providing the hall with both warmth and light, yet despite the comfortable temperature, the ice refused to melt. MC suspected that magic held the entire structure together—impressive, to say the least.

  The empress took a seat on her throne while the trio stood at the bottom of the steps leading up to it.

  “Now, I shall hear the circumstances around your presence in my
city.”

  Nina took a knee and Nova immediately followed suit. The empress appeared to be greatly agitated; she’d clearly not expected her goddess to kneel before her.

  MC stood.

  “Magnus?” his sister asked.

  “I’m not one of her vassals. I’ve got no reason to kneel to her.”

  Nina shook her head in exasperation, giving up on convincing her hard-headed brother.

  “Your Highness, we come bearing news. Important, sensitive news that we feel will be of great use to you. Would you hear us?”

  The empress nodded for her to continue.

  “It concerns certain abnormalities that we have seen in some Zevan. Your Highness, it would be best if we confide this information to you in private.”

  The empress stared at them in silence for a long moment. Longer than MC liked.

  “Do you trust them?”

  “I do,” Nova responded, recognizing that the question was intended for her.

  “Guards, leave us.”

  “Your Highness, are you sure that—” The guard froze at Xikanika’s glare. “Very well, Your Highness.”

  The knights all shuffled out of the room, save for one massive guard dressed in blood-red armor. A helmet completely covering his—or her—face, the guard stood as still as a statue.

  “What about…” Nina began, only to be interrupted by the empress.

  “She stays. I trust her with my life, and that of my nation,” Xikanika replied in a tone that brooked no argument.

  The instant the other guards had left, the empress flew off her throne, leaping down the steps to throw herself upon Nova, hugging her tightly.

  “I’m so sorry, my goddess,” she said through a veil of pained tears. “They tortured you and I could do nothing to stop it! The Legatus threatened to raze the city! Still, what I did was unforgivable.”

  Nova patted her head. “I understand, Xika. It is all right. I escaped, and your city is safe. That is all that matters.”

  “She still sold you out,” MC stiffly said. “Perhaps the correct decision for a monarch, but the fact remains.”

  Xikanika rounded on him. “You! I ought to have you publicly executed for what you’ve done.”

  “And what exactly was that?”

  “Where to even begin? Should we start with how you murdered a platoon of my elite troops in cold blood? Captain Brunshir was both a loyal vassal and a close friend. And you massacred him,” the empress seethed.

  “That alone would be grounds for a public execution. Yet that was merely the beginning. You killed the Trilnyth that Baron Zeikon had been colluding with at Dervegen.”

  MC’s jaw clenched. “You’ve got no proof.”

  “Proof? Oh, I have all the proof in the world.”

  “Xika, these accusations can’t be true!” Nova shouted. “Magnus has done nothing but act in the best interests of everyone. Besides, a Trilnyth in Dervegen would have been a menace! Did he not do the city a service?”

  “My goddess, I see that he has tricked you! Had he stopped there, yes, his contribution would even have pardoned some of his earlier crimes.”

  She circled MC like a predator sizing up a dangerous animal.

  “But you see, while you may have been able to fool that pathetic baron, my spies came to me with shocking details of your many atrocities. One of my agents witnessed you kill the trilnyth Ren’idul Bi’sakh. He tells me that you used its very skin as a disguise to kill thousands of innocents! And as if that wasn’t enough, your actions even precipitated a war between the Trilnyth and Dervegen City! Do you realize how many citizens died in that conflict? Under any normal circumstance, you would already have been tried and executed.”

  Her words were like venom.

  “Oh God… Magnus, is that true?” The shock was evident in Nina’s voice.

  “I—I do not know if this is true, Xika, but Magnus has a... condition. He was not in his right mind at the time. He did not believe that any of this was real! He cannot be held responsible for his actions,” Nova said, refusing to leave MC’s side.

  “That’s right,” Nina followed up. “Until now, Magnus was operating under the assumption that this world wasn’t real. He can’t be held responsible for his actions.”

  The empress considered their words. “I see you two vouch for him. Of course, he is a being of vast and incomprehensible power, and I would be idiotic to anger him. But thousands of my citizens are now dead at his hand. As a ruler, his actions have put me in a most difficult situation.”

  MC kept his silence. Even if he’d had reasons, the lives of a quarter of Dervegen’s population were now extinguished. No excuses would ever change that.

  “What’s worse, you even turned in the dead Trilnyth heads to the Contractors Hall! Half of Sorath loves you now!” Xikanika threw her hands into the air in exasperation. “You are nigh-untouchable. Even without your powers, not even I could punish you. To do so would be political suicide, such is your fame.”

  MC had all eyes on him at this point, and he was starting to sweat.

  “Look, we didn’t come here for a fucking deposition, all right? We came here to help you. Your so-called gods are poisoning your water, slowly turning you into mindless zombies. It’s all part of their plan to transform every last one of you into some sort of drone army. And if you don’t do something about that right now, you and your empire will be well and truly fucked.”

  “My goddess, is what he says true?”

  “Xika…” Nova whispered. “It is all true. I have witnessed the evidence firsthand.”

  Xikanika snapped her head at Nova. “No. The gods would never betray me. You must be joking.”

  “I swear to you, this is no joke.”

  “Then what we’ve seen…”

  MC locked on to that. “What have you seen?”

  Xikanika hesitated. “Very well. We shall defer the matter of Magnus’s crimes due to extenuating circumstances. But know that I mourned the passing of Thargold Brunshir for a very long time. I expect adequate compensation from your Resistance for these actions. Now, come with me.”

  The empress’s oversized knight opened the door, gesturing for the trio to follow. She led them through progressively smaller and dimmer tunnels of ice until they ended up in the same dungeon where MC had found Nova.

  The angel subconsciously slowed down, but MC squeezed Nova’s shoulder, giving her a nudge.

  “Thank you, Magnus. I will be all right.”

  They finally reached their destination—a hallway that ended in a solid ice door, guarded by four sentries.

  “I assume that it is restrained?” Xikanika asked.

  “Yes, Your Highness. The monster is secure.”

  “Open the door.”

  It took all four guards working together on the frozen slab for it to crunch and rumble open.

  The room beyond was shrouded in darkness. The dim hallway didn’t do much to illuminate the emaciated, shackled figure within. Xikanika chanted, suddenly bathing the room in light, revealing the creature and all of its hideous deformations. The prisoner wailed and screamed in an otherworldly voice that chilled the soul, sending shivers down the visitors’ spines.

  Thick chains bound its wrists and ankles, but MC had seen enough. This abomination both looked and behaved identically to the ones in the underground tunnels in the north.

  “We found this one by chance in the far north, roving the frozen wastes of the Ells Mountains. There were more, but they had all frozen to death.”

  “A friend of ours called them failed experiments,” Nova whispered. “If successful, my people will be able to command these mutated Zevan like mindless puppets, or so Sareen believed.”

  Xikanika locked eyes with Nova. “But what can we do? If that is true, we have no means of going up against the gods! What choice do we truly have?”

  “They aren’t gods. They’re called the Dyn, though Harvester is a better word for what they are. They’re just more technologically advanced than the Ze
van,” MC said after they’d exited the prison, leaving the poor creature in darkness once more. “And they don’t have magic; that’s unique to the Zevan. Still, you’re right that going against them would be suicide, especially considering how your castle butts up right against their HQ.”

  “Then what should we do? Must we to accept our fate?”

  Nova shook her head. “No. Magnus and I will do everything in our power to stop this, though we will need your help. Your first task should be to identify your cities’ water sources. The water is being poisoned by our mutagenic trees, the white ones all Zevan are cautioned never to approach. We can provide you with the locations of each tree. It will be a difficult task, but you must have your people stop consuming the tainted water as soon as possible.”

  “But my goddess, that is an unreasonable task! Even if we had the hands, such a monumental construction endeavor would take years—if not decades—to complete!”

  “Please, Xika, do everything you can. We may be able to assist you soon, but for now, you must try!”

  The empress fell silent, mulling over Nova’s words. “At least in the northern regions, unadulterated snowmelt could be used as an interim water supply. It would have to be boiled, but that is nothing new for us.” She silently paced back to her throne room.

  “I shall see what I can do, though I fear this will only delay the inevitable.”

  “I can’t make any promises,” MC said, “but I’m hoping we’ll be able to do better before long. Consider it reparations for any damages we’ve incurred.”

  “That you have incurred. You will be paying for your sins for your entire life.”

  MC averted his eyes. “I know,” he whispered to himself.

  “Ahem,” Nina put in. “Empress Xikanika, we have journeyed far. Might we impose upon you for a few rooms and rest for the night? We intend to depart tomorrow at sunrise.”

  “But of course! It would be my honor to host you two for the night.”

  MC noted how he wasn’t included in that calculation. “What about—”