Chương 513: AF Chapter 512 – Death of the Prince

Prince Geraine had never been hit for so much raw damage, so hard. Yes, the Dagger's Death Attack had been monstrous, but that was one attack alone. This one attack by the young woman wielding the Lost Light had done upwards of ten thousand damage in one blow. It should have blown him to less than ash, but all it did was vent some of the monstrous amounts of Health Qi he had available. He had a Dagger thirsting to burn his soul in his head, but he had no problems laughing at her.

"Foolish mortal girl! I am Prince Geraine! You think you have any chance of killing me?!" he shrieked at her. The response was another cut at him, and this time, the damage was even higher, the Thunder in the air fairly booming with condemnation and a Light from a high and mighty place that he never dared go, that he wanted to destroy as soon as he felt it for daring to look down on him.

"TREMBLE." The word was in Necrus, and his entire frame rocked with its meaning. For the first time in thirty millennia, Prince Geraine felt fear rock his body and soul, and turned disbelieving eyes on the woman who grasped his right arm so thoroughly he couldn't do anything. Manifesting sizzling energies to throw her off and release him from her grasp didn't do anything to her at all.

"Life is weak, and you gave it up For Death's slow grasp and creep. Time flew past, and souls went down To the dread that lays beyond sleep. It comes, you see, see it clear, the end of your Eternity. Scream your spells, burn your soul, The door awaits, and She has the Key! TREMBLE, SHE COMES!" Power. Such incredible, undead-killing power. He'd never felt lashing power like this, ripping through him on levels physical, mental, spiritual, even temporal.

It was like existence had ignited, eternity was on fire, and the unlife that was supposed to stretch out forever was now burning, blazing, being consumed and feeding backwards, second by second, as impacts of magic stronger than any combat magic he'd ever seen were slamming into him, raging through him, and only growing stronger!

"The Chord now rises as your Cord is cut. Feel the power as your Time grows short. Life to unlife, unlife to death, here to witness your last breath, As the Land takes you down, you come to court, And Judgment is upon you!

"TREMBLE!" The remorseless hands shook him, not allowing him to writhe, to dodge, grips stronger than steel, impossible to move despite his own very supernatural strength, keeping him in place as that blazing Soulglaive sheared through his magical robes effortlessly, and dumped anathema to all that he was into him.

All of magic seemed to be gathering here, pouring down into that Glaive, turning against him, blazing brighter, brighter, with Lights beyond that was Lost, to things Higher and greater yet, things he had no words now, only screams as they flared at him.

"The Heavens cry! TREMBLE! Your Doom is NIGH! QUAVER! As you sowed, now you reap! QUAVER, and your Sentence Keep! Feed the Land, and Down you DIE!

"TREMBLE, SHE COMES!" Ten thousand damage. An ungodly number for one blow. Twenty thousand damage, the next blow twice as devastating. Thirty thousand, somehow increasing even higher. Forty thousand damage! Impossible! Too devastating! No mortal should be able to channel such overwhelming energies! His Health Qi blew away at impossible speed before the clinically precise, steady tempo of the blows.

No magic would come to him, his fingertips Burning trying to touch the Chords of solid steel that were thrumming with so much damn power, overwhelming him, turning the world into a blazing feast of Lights his dark and withered soul could not withstand. He was Burning, at least six different Flames were eating at him, at his magic, at his Health Qi, which found itself under assault from so many directions at once. Destiny blazed around him, and only Doom found him there.

The Light was falling upon him like a mountain, and Below him, Below was only shadows and darkness and many, many years of deals made. Pacts forged, Contracts signed, and debts he had never expected to pay were rising, rising as eyes Elsewhere became aware of what was happening. Geraine screamed his horror at what might happen here, what was coming for him. Disbelief, existential fear, broken arrogance, the realization of just what he'd done to himself if this was allowed to happen…

No human being should have been able to keep hold of him, endure the pain of holding him, resist his strength, his desperation. The towering brute on his left was completely unperturbed, it felt like he was trying to make a mountain shift. The woman on his right had him wrapped up and levered so hard he simply could not get the leverage needed to throw her off as she bound up his arm and leg alike with wiry limbs that felt more like steel than flesh and bone.

"TREMBLE. A Hag, a brute, and a lass too cute Have come to your end, at the last. You are now beaten, your Time is eaten, And your future has now passed! The Land will feed, and you will need The mercy you never show As the Hands you've spurned, the Fate you've earned Comes on Doom's dark flow!

"TREMBLE, THEY COME!" And they did, looming in the aether, the Chord ringing and calling them out to them, the essence of his soul Burning and lighting the way as they waited and reached out in expectation.

"TREMBLE, and hear the THUNDER! TREMBLE, be rent ASUNDER! TREMBLE, for now you BURN! TREMBLE, it is your TURN! LOOK DOOM IN THE EYE SCREAM BEFORE ITS SIGH AND TREMBLE AS YOU DIE!" He was less than bones, his clothes and flesh eaten away by vivus, by Holy energies, by Light and Fire and Thunder across all the spectrums. Gently, the hands of the Land reached up to grasp his soul and turn it into less than dust, into oblivion, and he screamed, wailing for it to do so. Anything to escape the price he had to pay...

Darker things that were not hands reached out, grasped him with Words and Compacts he'd made and could not resist, and Prince Geraine, arrogant ruler of all the undead of Dereth and Aubarean, wailed in dread and terror as he was hauled off into darkness he'd thought he was the master of, and now found he was less than a passing mote of dust to. The hallways of his Sanctum exploded with vivus and Light, and took all signs of the Undead Prince with him…

save for a screaming skull with a certain Sword in dagger form stuck into its ear. ============= Time passes…

"Still no reaction from the undead?" Kris was amused as she watched the last stone of the next Pyramid slide into place. Runic circuits completed, the Pyramid trembled, Light leaking from between the blocks as everything locked infinitesimally tighter in place, and then the magic began to circulate through it. This tale has been unlawfully lifted without the author's consent. Report any appearances on Amazon. No Gate to open this time, so it was just a Domain to build up and expand.

"Not hearing from their Prince for months and years is pretty damn normal. The only ones who might suspect something are his mouthpieces, and they might not even realize they are actually free of his control after so long, the way such magic has likely warped their minds." I sat back and watched the tiers begin to light up from the bottom, slow and careful tapping of the ley lines starting to fill the thing with real unified power, and its Pyramid Power Field to grow around it.

Fourth one since the death of the Prince. The wilds of this area in the north had already been swept and mostly Sealed. Certain areas were kept 'active' for later generations to use and abuse, and also as vents for the System to expend extra power if needed.

If monsters other than golums and elementals started dropping stuff, we'd know there was a build-up of power, but I rather didn't expect that to happen, as these Pyramids were fine-tuned to dissipate a lot of energy into the manafield with an underlying hum to the Sublime Chord.

"Have they found Thorsten yet?" I asked her calmly, watching the expansion in the thaumaspectrum.

"No, but there's over two hundred new Isparians of Clan Enpiisi, and the number is growing. Same with the Aun, Briggs is handling most of those," she assured me.

"Harlune almost has the Circles done at Holtburg. You really are going to Summon that thing atop the Pyramid?" She was gravely amused at the idea.

"It can't possibly hold her, and every second we hold the Portal open, it's going to Burn and be leaking torrents of power as the vivus in the PPF eats it hungrily. It'll give her back and slam the Portal closed in a great shit-fit, then maybe order some of its servants to attack us." Which was going to be kind of hard.

The shades didn't hold nearly as many secret Dungeons as the undead, having come along MUCH later, and all the known Dungeons and landscape spawns held by them had been aggressively hunted, cleared, and Sealed. We had no use for Shadowed things of any kind here, and the Land thought they were delicious.

"Let's hope they give us an excuse." The Lost Light was damn good at killing Shadows, as well as Undead, with the right Infusion helping it out. The PPF's of a dozen Pyramids were now throwing out a LOT of dimensional stabilization, too, so the odds the Shadow in the Void could open a Portal and do the shit like it had in Tou-Tou were pretty damn low… and it would have to be out in the Direlands, where I didn't have another Pyramid yet, beyond the one near Candeth Keep… and at the Singularity Caul.

"This isn't a long-term solution, and we both know it," she finally said, watching this newest Pyramid in the northeast of Dereth filling up and expanding.

"No, the long-term solution is to bring in the attention of the Good gods, eliminate or Divinely Seal the thing beneath us, and remove the need for the System entirely. Then it becomes just a leech on the planet and we can get rid of it in clear conscience," I agreed with her. She eyed me as I sighed.

"You can't do that?" I shook my head.

"That's a matter of accumulated Faith and getting their attention from another multiverse. I can't reach that far, and even when I complete Pyramids covering the whole of Dereth and all its outliers, the Formation won't reach that far with pure strength. The amount of Faith needed is immense, at the scale of planetary populations. Even with all these Pyramids forming a boosting Formation, that alone is not enough." Kris tilted her head.

"You don't seem particularly worried…" I nodded.

"Aelryinth is coming." Kris blinked at me.

"Time is random, but he's coming home, jumping along the path to each of us soulshards as he does. So, he'll be here, and he can definitely light a way for the Faith to reach its destination back along his path."

"And once he does that, he expands the writ of the Aruan Pantheon to another multiverse and world…" Kris whistled.

"Mithar is such a clever bastard…"

"Two, if you include Ispar. And all those many, many worlds the Empyreans know of."

"You expect to be drafted to go worldwalking!" she accused me.

"You and Briggs got a whole planet to look after. You don't think you'll be coming with me, do you?" I had to ask her. She grimaced and coughed.

"Well, we do want to have a family…"

"I'll be scouting out new worlds for them," I promised sagely.

"You two just turn this one into a powerhouse for Good, and I think we'll be set." Kris shook her head.

"This almost feels anti-climactic. Shouldn't it all end with a big fight?"

"We've got undead free of Geraine and Aerefalle. If they move out together, they can kill our whole civilian population, even if we kill them off in turn. Self-defeating premise. We can only get strong enough that they can't do that, and I expect if that happens, Rytheran might just be able to leave the island, especially if the System is shut down and there's no force compelling him to remain."

"That's making them someone else's problem," she pointed out ironically.

"Not if I follow them."

"What about you and Master Ten?" she asked archly.

"His training in the Seven Dragons is in no way complete, you've too much work to do with him. Train him up, I'll need a good sword at my side." She just arched an eyebrow at me.

"And I'm in no hurry. There's far too much build-up work in Dereth and the islands to do, and then I'll have to oversee a new generation building up to expand back to the continents… and if the undead just move off here back to the continents, I will be VERY happy to start picking them off."

"Huh." Kris considered what the times ahead were likely going to offer her.

"It's like the big hurrah is over, and we're going to be doing a whole lot of downtime work now." She tilted her head to the side.

"Dammit, it feels off. Like there should have been a big knock-down, drag-out fight here at the end."

"We might get one of those from the Shadowed, and who knows about the undead. But most of the rest… yeah, we've dealt with it. It's going to be a lot of peacetime work, having families, repatriating those caught in the System… and expanding to the continent, in time."

"Moving the paramounts off so they don't become targets for harvesting again," Kris nodded along to that.

"How long to reclaim all of the dead?"

"Years. The System doesn't use souls all the time, just some of the time. That's why you could have thousands of human worshipers on the Tusker Islands, when clearly not that many lived there, especially adults."

"Well, a good problem to have. Ain't like there's not a shitload of infrastructure to get back into place, and organizing the re-leveling for Matrix Levels is definitely going to be some work."

"Plus possible immigration from Ispar. I'm pretty sure your folks don't want Paramounts heading back there to dominate everyone, you know?"

"That would never, ever strike anyone's mind as a possibility and opportunity, I am absolutely sure." We shared a look.

"Martine's wife is still alive there. My mother looked her up, and has taken her under wing. She's not a Seven yet, but if she can make it, she and her kids are free to come here when you pop that first Gate."

"Understood. They've got plenty need for people of their own, I know. Lure of a whole new world to explore will be hard to fight, however." I had to smile at the thought.

"World? Worlds!" Kris snorted with emphasis.

"Also, are there any souls who actually escaped the System?" she asked narrowly.

"Those who died of old age or were Contracted to Mythos Entities. Any who died by violence or otherwise before their time were all eligible to be snatched and used by the System," I informed her coolly.

"With no true gods to contest matters, there is nothing to contest the System's authority." Kris' fists popped their knuckles.

"Like to meet the fucktards who designed the thing," she grinned harshly.

"Yeah, well, powerful Casters taking it upon themselves to overstep mortal limits and grab for power and authority they think they are more qualified to use is pretty much right on trope, no?" My own eyes glittered.

"If Aelryinth finally getting here brings the gods in, and the gods deal with whatever is under this Seal, fair chance the makers might come here to investigate once it collapses. Whatever is under here, it is excessively powerful, and you don't Seal things like that without extremely good reason. They aren't using it as a power source except in passing, to reinforce the Binding. It is definitely a prison for something, and none of the others seem at all interested in letting it go free."

"Which doesn't actually say anything about it. Our only measure is how it wanted to take control of you during your one attempt at a Commune," Kris pointed out, "and anything wanting to get free of here might have treated a mortal poking it the same way."

"Given the structure of this multiverse, Aru and company might be the first real gods to come in here, so they would have no knowledge of truly non-finite powers. I expect beings that can Bind Mythos powers will not be happy at the new universal rankings." Her eyes glittered.

"Eternals picking a fight with true Deities? That'll go over well."

"And if they do it, we're going to have to pick sides. Us, and every mortal alive."

"Huh. Big choices. The shites who treat mortal souls as a more efficient means of gathering an ectoplasmic form for their Summoned xp bundles, fertilizer for growing a crop of paramounts whose life energy they can use to maintain their machine, or those who maintain the afterlife as the reward or punishment for the deeds you do in life.

"I'll take the fate I'm responsible for inflicting upon myself. I'm sure there's a whole lot of folks who would prefer NOT to Go Down, however, and are perfectly willing to punish the rest of us to not do so."

"Which tells us pretty much all we need to know about the Makers, such as they are… unless the Afterlife here is pretty much a shit-hole. In which case, this artificial version is actually a step-up. At least you can train up your descendants to survive, right?" Kris groaned at the implications I was making her see.

"Fine, fine. We don't know how the Afterlife works here, I get it. I'll be taking an artificial Purgatory over an uncaring tormenting Hell any day of the week, and so would you. That presupposes that the Makers are benevolent if absentee, and that Sealing the creature below is a service rather than a punishment of a vanquished enemy."

"We won't know the truth of it until we're Eternal-plus. The Empyreans never found out, after all. So we're talking Twenty-Five, Thirty before we could learn the truth on our own, given the power of what they've left behind." She gave me a weird look.

"It won't take you that long to Cast Fifteens, will it?"

"No," I admitted.

"But I'd really prefer to make Eternal before I start messing around with Eternal spellcasting beyond Raised spells, you know?"

"Yeah, I understand." She narrowed her eyes as the Pyramid's empowerment reached its height, and unseen pulses of magic began to push out from it, slowly establishing its Domain and Power Field. We turned around to watch them spread out.

"I should really start training up some Forsaken for that kind of fight, too, but all Isparians have magical potential. It's really going to be up to me and Fuzzy's kids, you know?"

"The true wild card in a world of powerful magic is those who aren't subject to it," I agreed, giving her shoulder a slug, which bounced as normal.

"Yeah, they won't see us coming," she agreed.

"Not sure any Isparian with any brains would choose Forsaken, given access to Isparian System Stat raises, and Forsaken without brains don't get anywhere in life."

"Also true, they'd give up a lot. Even minor magical ability is too useful in real life. I guess you'll have to settle for being uniquely skilled revered arse-kickers. Make sure to keep a pyreal reserve for yourself and your kids, aye?"

"Oh, of course!" she grinned, given that Forsaken used money for their magic.

"You know Briggs and his tracking every penny…" We had pyreal veins to exploit, the Elemental Fields, and anyone could stalk the Dires and wilds and kill either golums or elementals, or attend the Dungeons that spawned either. Ongoing money for magic wasn't going to be hard to come by. Nothing like before, however, especially given how fast it was used up.

"Then I guess I should be happy we had our great run of Karma and made it as far as we did," she finally sighed.

"Mom and Dad both expressed interest in visiting for Dungeon runs. Took them near fifty years to hit the Matrix Teens and pass Isparian 200, you know?"

"Well, don't take the next step up until you are totally ready to throw off your downtime. Eternals stir up a whole shitlist of new interests, they attract conflict just by being what they are. Their power means they are always going to be at the center of big things, and the examples they set inspire others to greater heights. If we hit Eternal, then things are going to get exciting for us and all others around us, once again."

"Good to hear. I don't mind having a big family, but at some point, I'm-a have to go out and put my Sword into the guts of something bigger than me for a Good Cause, or I'll get really antsy."

"Antsy Ranthas are prickly to be around."

"We are!" she agreed cheerfully.

"I hope Fate thinks so, too…"

"High-Level folks are never more than a few steps from adventure, when it comes down to it. It's the downtime they don't get enough of."

"Eh. Eternal. Downtime will come in spades, just wait."

"Also true enough. On to the next phase of our lives, then?" I offered a hand, and she shook it in bemusement. She bent forward.

"I'm gonna have more kids than you," she promised.

"Eh, you need them to keep you busy, overactive hyperenergetic hag that you are." Princess Kristie Rantha laughed, and a Pyramid Power Field took another bite out of the dominion of the System here on Dereth…