Emerilia Series Box Set 4

by Michael Chatfield

  “Shouldn’t have left me on Emerilia, you Jukal assholes.” Bob laughed and a smile split his face as he let out a laughing cheer of victory. He looked to the racks of capsules that were within the moonbase. “Well, once we get this all set up on the ice planet in the Nal system, we’ll be good to go. I never thought this day would come.” Bob smiled.

  The ice planet wasn’t under observation and was far safer than the Emerilian system. There, Bob could freely create the bodies of the players who were being stored within Emerilia.

  “Soon, they’ll wake from their dream.” Bob had a complicated look on his face as he wondered what those who woke up from the Earth simulation would think and do.

  He patted his pocket and pulled out a thin crystal.

  “With this uploaded, we’ll be able to start pulling people from the simulation without anyone knowing about it.” Bob had Jeeves working on the program for months, using all of the Datskun’s servers in order to complete the complex code that would trick the AI watching over the players.

  “Those AI controllers might be able to see everything that’s going on in the players’ lives when in the simulation, but they’re weak to outside attacks. Just change their orders and they’ll broadcast whatever.” Bob tucked the crystal away and watched as a cart moved into the moonbase, taking a rack of capsules and putting it into its storage. In other areas, soul gem constructs were being “grown” from the original soul gem construct of the moonbase.

  The fusion plant hummed and customized repair bots worked on the massive greenhouses that had been erected to fulfill Bob’s needs for organic materials.

  It was the sign of progress and a sign that they were indeed succeeding.

  Bob frowned. “Even with all of this, it will be useless if the people of Emerilia are killed off in this event.” Even though he was tired and fatigued in the extreme, instead of heading to rest, he pulled out some jerky and water, consuming them as he checked the moonbase and headed off to Pandora’s Box.

  They were all holding back their power. Although Bob couldn’t fight, he would do his best to be prepared for when they were truly backed into a corner and had to use their full strength.

  Chapter 5: Onto a New Dawn

  Dave held little Koi as he looked out over the modified citadel Steve, Malsour, and he had worked on tirelessly.

  The wind around Dave was cut down by a Mana shield, keeping Koi warm as she looked around in interest at the goings-on of the citadel.

  With every minute, the soul gem construct that acted as the veins and arteries of the citadel grew. Since Dave had visited Earth, the resources had been coming in.

  Soul gems by the ton were being poured into the citadel’s soul gem construct. The exchanger system was complete, pulling in more power from the surrounding area every hour.

  The metal roots within the ground were being quickly covered by the soul gem construct that now permeated the ground, converting the rock around the roots into a soul gem.

  The walls of the castle seemed to have been brought to a polished finish, cold and hard. Now soul gem weaved through these walls, keeping that same polished finish but adding to it veins that glowed with power.

  Dave looked from the citadel to Koi. He could feel the power that filled the citadel, the domineering force that would be at his fingertips when the modifications were complete. The Blood Kin, with their mother Yemi, worked tirelessly to modify the other citadels around Goblin Mountain and expand Terra and its supporting facilities. Supplied with as many blood essence crystals as they could need, their power was even greater than Malsour’s when backed up by these kinds of resources.

  Dave smiled at his daughter. He had come to this world to escape Earth; he had found friends and started a family. He had fought in the name of friendship and according to his own beliefs. At first, it was to fight against the injustice, to regain the freedom that humanity had been denied for so long. A thought rooted in defending his friends, his family.

  Now, he not only fought to regain that freedom, he fought to gain it for his daughter, so that she didn’t have to see the violence of the world, to be scared of the what-ifs and maybes that plagued the people of Emerilia.

  In Dave’s heart, she and Deia were the most precious people to him. He would not let the Jukal continue to lord over them. He wanted to spend his time with them without the pressures and uncertainties of tomorrow. For that—for his family, for their future and their freedom—he would go to war with the galaxy if he had to.

  He smiled into those innocent eyes. Koi smiled as she reached out for her dad with excited hands.

  This is what I’m protecting. Dave couldn’t help but smile as he looked down at that face.

  “Dave, Citadel Three’s root systems have been completed and the soul gem construct is already growing according to plan.” Malsour walked up behind Dave.

  “It looks like we’ll be ready to start using this thing soon enough.” Dave kissed Koi’s head and then once again looked over the city. “There’s not much for us to do here. Shall we go meet up with the rest of the party?”

  “I think it’s time,” Malsour said.

  Dave took a big breath and looked at Koi once again, unable to not smile. “Okay, little one. Going to have to leave you with your grandmother for a bit. You and Desmond will have a lot of fun. Daddy is going to help Mommy kick the bad guys’ butts,” Dave said in the exaggerated tones that people used with dogs and small children throughout time.

  Koi made a happy noise as Dave stepped off the tower, descending slowly. Malsour followed, his hand sticking in the wall as the wall moved to allow him to descend with Dave.

  ***

  With the Erach being cleared out, Party Zero had been shifted to the castles surrounding a portal within the Densaou Ring of Fire, south of Egas Nation.

  These were the same series of castles that Esa and her forces had been holding. Esa was alive once again, feeling her loss of stats as she had returned to command of the castles. At the beginning, the Xelur had only controlled two of the castles, with the Terra Alliance taking control of the six remaining castles.

  Thinking that these Xelur were like the ones coming out of the portal on the Heval continent south of the city Aygasse turned out to be incorrect, instead of working together they were at one another’s throats fighting among themselves.

  With their forces divided, the Terra Alliance found it much easier to fight the pockets of uncoordinated

  Xelur.

  In Ashal, the portal had been within one clan’s controlled area. As such, they were much more coordinated and they didn’t have any troubles advancing into Ashal. They had consolidated their strength and only when they were confident did they start sending out lightning-fast raids that would hit the other surrounding castles.

  They had taken two more castles: one within the inner circle and one in the second ring. With this development, more people were moved to the castles in order to stop the Xelur.

  This had turned from a defensive operation into a castle capture.

  Now the final castle within the inner ring was fighting off the combined attacks of three other castles.

  The Terra Alliance was firing on these Xelur-controlled castles with all that they had, but they were unable to grind the Xelur defenses down. Fighting at long range was not working so they were going to have to get in close.

  The atmosphere within the command room was tense. The sounds of spells and artillery could be heard through the large walls as Esa stood at the front of the room.

  “With this, we’ve got to play the objectives. We take out the Xelur—they can just hide in their castles and recover. We need to get into those castles before they improve upon their defenses or get more capture points and take them. Once we control the castles, we give the Xelur less options to work with,” she said. “Party Zero, I want you to spearhead this. This is going to be a player guild-only attack. We can’t drop Onos in areas that we don’t have a drop pad placed. We don’t care about killin
g off all the Xelur. As long as we can capture those castles then the mission will have been a success.”

  “Dragon!” someone yelled as a shadow passed over the castle.

  “They’re on our side!” Esa yelled over the command channel, not wanting to have an incident on her hands.

  “So we’ve got Dragons for support?” Lox asked.

  “Well, they do call the Densaou Ring of Fire their home—it wasn’t hard to ask them to help clear out the Xelur.” Esa smiled. She was clearly tired but there was a tenacity and unwavering energy that came from being the leader of all that was going on.

  “When do we leave?” Deia asked.

  “We’re going to get the dwarven artillery, Dragons, and DCA aerial forces to soften up the target some, get them scared. You will move under the cover of this bombardment to the eastern inner castle from the secondary eastern inner castle. The northern inner castle will provide close support. As you get to the eastern castle walls, the other outer castles will shift their fire to the other Xelur-controlled inner castles so that they don’t mess with you. At that time, it will be up to you and the other players to gain entry into the outer castle walls, then force your way into the central castle and the capture point,” Esa said.

  “Sounds almost easy.” Gurren snorted.

  “I’m glad you think so. The assault will begin in the morning, when most of the players are online.” Esa tapped the desk with her hand, announcing the end of the meeting.

  Party Zero and the others left the room and headed out toward the walls once again. There was a long night ahead of them before they could put Esa’s plan into action.

  “Let’s go take over a castle,” Lox said.

  “Not even going to send us an invite?” a familiar voice said.

  Deia looked down a hallway where a massive man with glowing eyes, a half-dwarf, and a human walked toward them.

  “Well, they’ve got no chance now with all of us here.” Gurren laughed.

  “How did the citadel go?” Anna asked as Deia and Dave greeted each other with a hug.

  “It’s nearly ready—just needs more power. We should have three more ready soon,” Malsour said.

  Dave and Deia kissed quickly, the two of them in their own world.

  “Miss me?” Dave said with a cocky grin.

  Deia hit his chest and rolled her eyes. “I missed Koi. You’re simply a side benefit.”

  “Why, thank you.” Dave shook his head, his grip on Deia not lessening in the slightest. “Before you ask, Koi is fine. I left her with your mom and dad. Seems that she and Desmond are having a lot of fun within the mountain. Your mother also told me to tell you that Koi already has a high Affinity toward Fire and will be quite the little mage when she grows up.”

  “Someone’s a proud dad,” Deia said. Dave’s face looked as though it would split apart with his wide smile and the glow in his eyes.

  Dave picked Deia up and whirled her around. She let out a surprised and adorable shriek at his actions.

  “Just a little!” Dave laughed.

  “Big oaf.” Deia hit his shoulder but she, too, was smiling with him, happy and excited for their daughter.

  The rest of Party Zero had been talking among themselves, getting up to date on what everyone was doing.

  An alarm rang through the castle.

  “Looks like the Xelur are leading an assault,” Jung Lee said, his senses better than Dave’s as he had come to understand and control his Free Affinity spirits.

  “Check your gear and let’s go see if we can’t help out. The more we weaken the Xelur now, the less we have to fight tomorrow,” Deia said.

  Dave released her.

  She would cherish the moment that they had but they were still within a battlefield and they couldn’t let themselves be too distracted from what was going on around them.

  “Grand Demon Lords!” someone yelled out. Beams of light that looked like the light contained within a soul gem tore through the night sky and slammed against the Mana barrier of the castle.

  The entire barrier shook with this impact.

  “They must be some of the more powerful Xelur Demon Lords!” Induca yelled as Party Zero exited the castle. Looking up, they saw as another pillar of light formed from the souls of the Xelur Grand Demon Lord’s victims tore through the night sky, making Party Zero shield their eyes at the sudden brightness as the Mana barrier was once again shaken with the impact.

  These twin beams didn’t fade but continued to burn away the castle’s barrier.

  Smaller, less powerful beams started to add to the two initial attacks, filling the sky with light.

  “Get to cover! The barrier can’t take much more of this!” a commander of the outer wall’s defenses called out.

  “Artillery, get me those Grand Demon Lords! Just need to disrupt them!” Esa yelled out over the command chat.

  “We’ve got incoming!” someone on the wall called out on the information chat.

  Deia’s ears perked up as over the sounds of hundreds of people moving, a rumbling noise built within the air. There was no way to see outside of the castle as the Mana barriers and attacking soul-formed beams fought against the mana barriers. Even though they couldn’t see anything, the defenders could still hear what was happening on the other side of the wall.

  “Xelur forces!” someone yelled out on the chat as the rumbling noise of thousands of people charging across the open ground around the castle was overtaken by the bloody war cries of the Xelur as they charged.

  “It’s like a tide of darkness. I...I don’t know how many there are. There has to be thousands—maybe twenty or thirty thousand!” A scout at another castle sounded as if they were in a state of disbelief at what they were seeing approach the last remaining inner castle controlled by the Stone Raiders.

  “They’re coming from the eastern and western castles!” the scout continued.

  Without a clear line of sight, the defenders of the northern castle could only hold their positions, looking up at the Mana barrier that was being burned away and listen to the unseen enemy and the reports coming in from the other castles.

  An angered roar filled the air as one of the two strongest beams was cut off.

  A Dragon’s roar came from the sky as golden light filled the sky. A spell formation appeared in front of the Dragon. Their mouth opened as golden spears of light appeared from the center of the overlaid spell formations.

  The golden light was overbearing as the spears shot through the air in a blur. It was only because of Deia’s high understanding of magic and high stats that she was able to see the spear and the buffing spell placed upon it.

  A massive fifteen-meter tall Xelur Grand Demon Lord leapt from the castle where he had been, stepping upon the air as if it were a stair, and launched himself toward the Dragon.

  His progress was slowed by the Dragon’s attacks hitting him, making him defend and be pushed back down toward Emerilia.

  The Grand Demon Lord deflected the attacks, letting them pass by. Where they hit the ground, ten-meter-wide craters would appear. The wall of the castle would crack where it was strong, and explode outward where it was weak.

  The attacking beams reduced in numbers as the Xelur had to now focus on defense. As the beams dimmed, the artillery on the northern castle and the ranged attackers were able to see some of the enemy approaching.

  Spells and artillery were unleashed on the oncoming Xelur soldiers and their more powerful masters. Even through these attacks, the spears of light from the Dragon continued to cut through the pitch-black night sky.

  Xelur that were in the path of these light spears were nearly all wiped out.

  Xelur Demon Lords of the lower ranks and even two Grand Demon Lords by the power stored within their bodies and overall height chased after the first Grand Demon Lord, who was just getting into range with the golden Dragon in the sky, wielding a massive war hammer with savage blood-red runes on his weapon that would draw out one’s Willpower and pull on the soul
energy of whatever creature it hit.

  Soul-fueled beams shot out from those following the Grand Demon Lord, hitting a dazzling Mana barrier.

  Just as the Grand Demon Lord was about to hit the Golden Dragon it let out a cry of pain as a ranged spell from the Golden Dragon hit it in the back. In a flash, the Dragon moved out of the way, unleashing golden flames from its mouth and the Grand Demon Lord was hurled across the sky. He stopped after being thrown nearly two hundred meters, golden flames across his body.

  Soul energy grew around the Grand Demon Lord. His aura increased in power as he charged forward to meet the Dragon again. The golden flames around his body died off as the soul energy defeated them.

  “Looks like the Grand Demon Lord is burning his soul energy to enhance his attributes,” Deia said to the others as they stood in the open area between the wall and the castle, ready to react to any breaches or where the worst attacks came from.

  The golden Dragon and Grand Demon Lord clashed in the sky. Spell formations appeared on both sides as they came together in massive clashes, the impacts of which resounded through the sky.

  The aides to the Grand Demon Lord, seeing the power displayed, paused in their advance. The battle had reached a level at which they could no longer help their leader.

  With roars of anger, the Demon Lords quickly moved to catch up with the assaulting Xelur army.

  Four more Dragons roared as they cleared the mountain range that made up the Densaou Ring of Fire. They were part of the force that would help the players retake the inner eastern castle.

  They were supposed to arrive during the night so that they could surprise the Xelur, but with the ongoing battle, they had increased their speed in order to help repel the oncoming assault.

  Grand Demon Lords unleashed attacks at the Dragons, some were as strong as the one that was fighting the golden Dragon in the air. Most weren’t and were only distract the Dragons, many of them perishing in the act.

  The Dragons were proud and powerful creatures. These four combined their power into spell formations that appeared over the Xelur-controlled areas. When combining Mana and having multiple mages working to cast a single spell together, the spell didn’t simply become easier to cast. Their power increased dramatically.