More fangs gnashed at us from the wall as I stepped up to the archway leading to the staircase spiraling upward. Just before I crossed it, a giant black tentacle as thick as my own body reared out from the floor to swipe its serrated end at my neck. I continued walking forward, not slowing as it struck at my neck with lightning speed, so fast we all blinked. But when we opened our eyes, the limb was gone, as if it was never there, some kind of trick played by our minds.
Which, according to the knowledge imparted by Breaker, was exactly what it was.
We crossed into the archway and began ascending the spiralling stairs. I didn’t need to glance behind myself to know everyone was trying their best not go mad with terror, but they stuck close to me nonetheless, all thirty or so of my group. None of them dared to be left behind as we all slowly ascended the staircase, each making sure they stayed within the light of either Breena’s Dawn Fairy form or the Soulcurrent. The staircase turned out to be massive, wide enough for us to march side by side in groups of five, so it didn’t take long for us to pile inside the winding shaft.
Faces lined the walls once more, but this time they were far more familiar. These heads were the blue and green of Gabin’s race, Atlanteans devoured by the Flood. Unlike the invisible little girl at the harbor, these babbled incoherent nonsense that no one but me could probably make heads or tails of. Their eyes either stared straight ahead or rolled all about in different directions. To call them driven horrifyingly insane would have been a massive understatement.
And yet, they made perfect sense to me. Because I knew what they were saying.
I used to say it, too.
Please don’t step on my hand… please don’t step on my hand…
It wasn’t exactly that. It was probably some other traumatic memory that the Flood had given them. But I had been there, too, and their actions only served to further motivate me to keep putting one foot in front of the other.
“Hang in there, everyone,” I said out loud, so that those outside the mindlink could hear me. “We’re almost there. Just stay with me for a little longer.”
They probably thought my words were ridiculous, but maybe the calm tone I had spoken them with helped. Maybe.
But it didn’t matter, because the next five steps brought us out to the opening at the top of the staircase. We walked onto the roof of a tall tower, one over a dozen yards across. The blackness gathered all around us, above and below, like some angry storm of teeth and tentacles.
As it snarled at us, I walked to the chest prominently displayed in the middle, the one the Flood had been seeking to devour ever since it had been placed here.
The sword’s name was Colada. It was the piece of the blade that set fear to flight. It had been stolen after the last lord of Avalon passed away and Breaker had scattered apart. Then, at some point, it had been stolen again, by someone who feared the Destroyer’s power too much to dare use it. They had hidden it here, in the center of a world-warping madness, just in case another might dare to reassemble the entire weapon and take up Invictus’ mad dream. But they had errored, and done so because of the blade itself.
Unlike Claimh Solais, Colada was dangerous to the wielder, for it would drive out the fear in their bodies, and in those who followed them. But if the wielder was unwilling to cast off their fear, if they sought to wrap it around themselves like a comforting blanket, then they would flee themselves. They would follow their fear wherever it flew, into the depths of the oceans, into the Pathways between worlds. And thus, the last owners of the weapon had been doomed, for they feared the blade themselves. No matter where they ran or where they looked, no place to hide the weapon was ever good enough. Finally, they had come to the bottom of this world’s oceans, back when its heart, this city, had still been submerged, and forced open the seal that locked the Flood inside. Better for this world to be devoured, they thought, than risk another would-be king of Avalon and the return of its Destroyer god. And with the weapon, they had hidden the piece of the old king’s regalia as well, for a newly-anointed lord would know the weapon too well to lose it for good.
I was one such lord. And I had found the weapon, knowing it as I encountered it.
The darkness raged again, seeking to devour me. It needed to, if it was to survive. This was the piece of Breaker that was fatal to it, for the madness it was composed of survived off of fear. That was why it sought the learned and the wise, those who knew the most, and therefore could know even more fear. But Colada was the blade that set fear to flight. In the right hands, the weapon would overwhelm the Flood, even more so than it had with Avalon’s last Lord.
It descended upon me, now. In full force. With a hundred screaming memories, each one a death that had nearly broken me once before. I would not be able to handle them all at once.
But I would not have to.
Use me, the voice insisted. I rage.
I looked up and raised a fist full of burning knuckles as high as I could.
“Let the lightning beget light and memory, and the memory beget more light!”
A mother’s voice spoke, instead of my own. One that had teetered on the brink of death with her children in the Woadlands. As her words carried through the air, the silvery images of two newborn babes floated into the hungry night.
The Flood fell upon them, bringing the entirety of madness in terror uselessly upon them. Images that no being, no matter how wise, could ever comprehend. Sounds that should not be, that any grown man would recognize as unnatural, and then go insane. And all of it was for naught, for to newborns, every sight, every sound, was new, foreign, unnatural. And yet, they did not care, as long as they were warm and fed. The terror struck their ghostly bodies, and burned up on contact with their apathetic innocence.
I did not watch for long. Breaker’s pull on Colada was too great. I approached the locked chest containing the blade, drawing Breaker’s handle, leaving the weapon in its bladeless form. The lock snapped apart, as if it were caught in the pull between two powerful magnets, and the heavy lid on the chest flew open. Breaker’s handle grew even warmer as I finally caught sight of the weapon that would save the Sun-Jeweled Seas.
It was a longer blade than Claimh Solais, though not by much. Perhaps two and a half feet in total length. Its hilt formed an elaborate basket, one that could completely guard my hand if I gripped it. Beneath it hung a band that looked like it was intended to go on my forearm, some kind of bracer that gleamed yellow in the dim light.
I lifted Breaker over its fragment, and the two weapons merged. The bracer gleamed as it fastened around the forearm of my non-dominant hand. The ground suddenly trembled, as I felt a connection to the world beneath my feet.
New Data found, the voice of the Well said to my mind. Connecting to planetary body of intelligence. Atlantis is back online.
Atlantis, I sent, transferring Colada into the hand of the arm adorned by the bracer. Can you help me finish this thing for good?
Confirming that new regalia can assist the patient, now designated Lord Challenger, in projecting recovery into the environment. Said recovery will be effective against current foreign contaminant.
Understood, I said as I crouched and drew my new weapon back. Activate now.
Then I leaped straight into the darkness and swung Colada with all of my might.
I felt something healthy wash out of me, channel through the blade, and smite the mad smog encircling me. Tentacles, fangs, and half-formed faces suddenly burned away, evaporating like mist in the morning light.
The Flood tried to draw back, but it had gathered too close in its desire to devour me. If the seal outside the city had been more cracked, it would have had a better chance to get away. But it had pulled the core of its mass before me, and now that mass was burning apart.
The Flood had taken the strike of a soul that had resisted its influence, one that had developed antibodies to its mental plague, and one who had delivered that strike with the blade of the Destroyer God.
It did n
ot survive.
Sunlight erupted all around us as the monstrous mist burned away. The purple barrier outside suddenly vanished, revealing the now-cleansed islands in the distance.
Foreign contaminant is dissolving, Atlantis intoned. Processing recovery of previously consumed denizens, including former Icons. Stand by, the planet informed me. A moment later, it began speaking again. First Icon successfully resurrected. Atlantean Icon Mithra is now recovering. Moving to stabilize newly recovered population centers.
I heard Via gasp through the mindlink.
They’re coming back, her voice quivered. They’re all coming back.
I didn’t know how she knew. Maybe they were all reappearing somewhere inside the city. But a cry of rage tore through the air, and I knew there was one last foe to deal with.
Secondary contaminant is nearby, Atlantis warned. Recommend that the Lord Challenger engage and destroy.
Agreed, I said, then sent over the mindlink. Everyone who can get down here, we have a job to do.
I heard the rush of air magic, and the next thing I knew, my entire retinue, along with Via and Gabin, had landed at my feet.
Hooves splashed over water nearby. A familiar burning orange shape, now devoid of its misty covering, was galloping toward us across one of the canals. A creature of overpowering anger, made even greater by what it had just lost.
My own anger answered it.
I felt my battleform engage, and then heard my companions mutter in surprise as power awakened over them as well. Their own Ideals activated, or their other magics, such as Breyn’s Woadtattoo, and the scripts on Gabin’s spear, suddenly surged with power.
Universal law discovered, my mindscreen informed me. Processing.
Teeth suddenly roared. He had been quiet for most of this time, giving me the space I needed to heal my own corner of our mind. But now he was answering the challenge to our territory. The dragon armor activated, and this time, a few of the scales flaked off. I saw them land on my companions, already altered by their own version of the Battleform. Now their own weapons and armor gleamed, as if my dragon scales had coated them with a faint, glittery red and gold sheen.
This guy is so boned, Teeth said as we stepped toward our charging enemy.
Damn straight, I said back. And with Colada drawn, I charged forward.
Air magic helped me clear the hundred feet of distance between the monster and myself. The Nuckelavee screamed again in range, meeting my strike with a giant, burning fist. Colada crashed into the limb with a sound like a thunderclap, and I was forced away. I landed directly on top of the water, my own magic letting me stand on the surface. My arm burned, and I felt like I just had the wind knocked out of me, but when I looked up, I saw the Nuckelavee scream and clutch its bloody hand.
The waves behind me surged. I saw Via whirl her whip over her head, propelling my entire retinue forward by commanding the canal to carry them into the fight. Eadric threw a storm of rocks at the monster’s other shoulder, making the creature rear back in surprise. As he did so, lightning and smoking arrows impacted his other flank, turning it into a charred mess. Then a burning green javelin struck the beast directly in the upper torso, followed by a score of fiery darts.
Both cyclopean heads howled in distress as the Icon-vanquishing monster struggled to determine which foe was the most dangerous, and why all of us were currently a greater foe than any it had faced before. Val and Via struck at it together, gliding through the water and slicing it on either side with their respective blades and whip. Then a pillar of light came blasting from Breena as she let loose her full Dawnblast, powered further by her wand.
The Nuckelavee shrieked again as the pillar incinerated the muscles over its horse head. The monster turned and began to run, faster than we could catch, its equine head hanging limply from its skinless neck. Via whirled her whip again, commanding the water to aid us in chasing it, but it proved unnecessary.
Elder Icon Mithra requests permission to engage the foe on the Lord of Avalon’s behalf, Atlantis informed me.
That was the second time he mentioned the name. I knew enough of this world to know that there was no Icon named Mithra currently in charge, not since I became a Challenger, at the very least.
Granted, I said with a shrug.
Two giant, feminine arms suddenly rose from either side of the Nuckelavee, and slapped it like a mosquito. The monster crumpled and screamed as it was dragged far below the waves, never to be seen again.
Confirming that Icon Mithra has successfully terminated foreign contaminant, activating use of grudge-based powers to slay the monster permanently. Confirming that the final Tumult of the Sun-Jeweled Seas, as well as previous Tumult responsible for sealing Atlantis, has ended in victory. Stand by for resurrection of world.
Power washed over me from all sides. I turned to my retinue and gawked in wonder as Oceanfolk and Atlanteans suddenly appeared all over the streets.
“They’re back,” Via said to me as she looked at the resurrected tens of thousands. “I got them all back…” her eyes fell over the aquamarine skin of this world’s oldest natives. “I gained back more than I lost…”
She shuddered. I put my arms around her, my bracer glowing as it touched her body.
Atlantis, I told the Well. Continue projecting recovery into the nearby environment.
I swept my other arm out to grab Breena, Val, and anyone else of my retinue that was nearby. I let the experience of having overcome something that should have broken me flood out from my core. It wouldn’t replace their own victories, and it definitely wouldn’t replace their own Challenges, but Via and the others would know that they were not alone, and that I was not special. Anyone could heal. Anyone could get back up. Anyone could win, if they got just a little help.
Crown them, Invictus echoed through my mind. And write unconquered love all over their arms.
Projecting my presence out, I reached for the lives of everyone around me, guided their own weights into their spiritual hands. I felt the bewildered former captives of the Flood all suddenly do the same, without even knowing why. Then, as one, tens of thousands of people gripped the burdens inside of them… heaved…
And pushed.
Chapter 21: Distant Shores
Chris’ perspective
“Fucking…” I gasped as I rolled onto the misty ground. “Wes… Malcolm.”
People shouted all around me. I retained the presence of mind to check every voice. Do a quick count to make sure I had gotten everyone. Christina’s voice, check. Andre’s voice, check. Himari, check. Davelon, check. Mr. and Mrs. Brown, check. Rachel, and Mrs. Malcolm, check. Good. Both groups had made it in. I had no idea how Wes arranged for Davelone’s group to meet me at the facility.
Also, the asshole scientist I had needed to bring along to tie up a loose end, and who I couldn’t just kill outright, because I had to bring a fucking cop with me to Avalon. Final check.
They were all shouting, asking where they were, and what was this place, and why did everything glow faintly.
“New arrivals confirmed,” a voice said from the talking mists. Yeah, everybody, I thought as I struggled to rise from the ground, bruised all over from the last fight with the facility’s goon squad. That’s right. We got talking mists up in here. For no reason. Suck it.
“Hmm, yes,” a familiar feminine voice said as I picked myself up off the ground. It belonged to the woman in front of us, a mature, raven-haired goddess, clad in a misty gown that did all too little to cover the most perfect feminine rack I had ever seen. “These were the people he had said to expect. Hail, travelers. I am Guineve, Guardian of the Mists. I welcome you all to Avalon, beloved of Wes Malcolm.”
“Except for you.” Her dark eyes narrowed and locked onto me. I froze, suddenly needing to forget how to twitch or breathe too loudly. “You are not quite his beloved, are you? Chris Rhodes, of the… what was it…” she tilted her head. “...the Crushed Rooster? The Blocked Cock?”
The portal sw
irled shut behind me. I did my best to make eye contact with the woman my people had once offered to Cavus, and tried to think of the words most likely to save my life.
“Hi,” I said lamely. “I’m here to help Wes Malcolm kill my dad.”
End of Book 4.
Afterword
Hello everyone! I hope you enjoyed my book and I really appreciate you reading up to this point. This is my fourth published work, so I would love for you to leave feedback on a review on Amazon, especially if you liked it. Reviews are the lifeblood of indie authors like me, helping our books get the exposure readers need to find them. If they can’t find our books, they can’t buy them, and then we authors starve and die, instead of continuing to write. Is my writing still good enough that I should keep going? Please leave a review and let me know what you think!
You can also join my facebook page for more information on dates for my work and also meet other people who read my stories. It will be my primary method of communication, so that no one gets lots of email spam. Barring that, you can also follow me on Amazon by clicking the button here. I can also be contacted at the email address [email protected]
Thanks to all the people that helped me polish my book: Dantas Neto, Ezben Gerardo, Adam Shook, Sean Bradley, and Brock Daniel. I greatly appreciate both your feedback and time spent reading my drafts. Special thanks also to Stephanie King, who has worked tirelessly to save this story, wearing three different editing hats at once due to matters that were entirely my fault, and no fault of my normal team. Finally, thank you Antti Hakosaari for your phenomenal cover art, and May Dawney Designs for your excellent typography.
Copyright © 2018 by Nathan Thompson
LITRPG is a growing genre, and there are a number of places to find more books like mine. One of those is the facebook group, LITRPG Books. You can find both authors and fellow readers there, who can help you discover this genre. https://www.facebook.com/groups/LitRPG.books/
Lighting Distant Shores (Challenger's Call Book 4) Page 55
