Chương 51: Chapter 48 - Cookie Jar

Lord Paladin Brexin glared at the looming mountains. The longer he looked at them, the higher those snow covered peaks seemed to grow. Muttering to himself, he pulled the furred cowl over his cape, freshly requisitioned from the local supply master. The man wasn't happy to part with it, but a gentle reminder of The Five's will helped steer him true. Letting it unfurl behind him, Brexin lifted his arms.

"My brothers! Ahead, a foul taint awaits us! Men of the north, of the Greensward, have forsaken the light. They've reached for the dark, and we must shepherd their return to the path!"

"Hu-hu!" thundered a hundred mighty paladins. A slow, but respectable stamp of the feet followed from the common footmen.

"By The Five, I swear to vanquish the coming darkness, and any that stand in our way!" Above, the brilliance of the horizon bore down upon the contingent. He let the proclamation hang in the air. As if it could bring a measure of warmth and protection over his men. Finally, he looked back.

"Arnold! Did you see to it that Neve, may The Five save his soul, was left as I prescribed?" A burly armored figure took one step forward, bowed, and straightened.

"As you instructed, Lord Paladin. His cleansing was thorough, and his mind laid bare." Beneath the metallic helm, Brexin's lip curled upwards.

"Good. The tainted man was clearly holding out on us. To be left in charge of the kingdom, only to know next to nothing of its true lord. Does he think us incompetent?"

"He must have, Lord Paladin. Beyond what we could save." A thud sounded in the distance, signaling the closing of the kingdom's northern gates. Guards peered down from fortifications, watching them in apprehension. Part of Brexin wanted to turn right around and lead his forces back. The last week had been so… fruitful. So many lost had been set upon the right paths. A growing temptation to continue the pursuit tugged at his very core. Yet, as a Lord Paladin, he had his orders.

He could only cleanse the kingdom for so long. Solari business in the North needed attending to.

"If our stay has made one thing clear, it's that the North may be beyond what even The Five can absolve. Wretched folk. And I assume that we still had no luck with our… discussions at the garrison?"

"No, Lord Paladin. After you finished your own attempts, many of the others still refused to speak. On account of Commander—" the paladin coughed.

"Sorry, heretic Ashlan's cleansing. And those that did…"

"They kept telling you those fanciful tales?" Arnold hesitated, before finally nodding shortly.

"Yes, Lord Paladin. Fanciful."

"By The Five. Remind me to put a word in about them with the arch bishopric. It's clear that our mission lies ahead, but we mustn't forget the darkness left in our wake."

"Of course, Lord Paladin." Sniffing regally, Brexin turned his gaze northward. To the week of travel it would take to get through The Pass.

"The maps?" A second, skinnier golden form came forth.

"Lord Paladin." Leaning down, he held out two rolled scrolls. Neve had given them up almost instantly, as if the act proved his innocence and devotion. Brexin knew better.

"Good. From what I was told, passage through the mountains ahead will need them. Without, we may not have been able to comply with The Five's will."

"Very true, your worship. Very true!" Before even the first boot could step upon the winding trail, a light erupted north of The Spine's highest peaks. A sonic boom sounded, loud enough that two weeks' journey away, every paladin could hear it. Brexin wheeled around, furs tangling in his haste. Paladins craned their necks, eyes gleaming with a tainted gold.

"By the Five, you see! Our enemy taunts us! Do not be fooled, good paladins. Our task will not be easy, but we shall not shy from it!"

"Hu-hu!" stamped the lines of soldiers. Behind, however, the Valdrens weren't so eager. Guardsmen gaped in horror, hands trembling on spears and swords atop the walls. A messenger boy had dropped his parchment, hand covering his mouth. A staff sergeant attempted to knock some sense into the rank and file, but it was doing no good. What could a spear do against that? Within the walls, townspeople cried out. Morning work and breakfast were all but forgotten to the taint in the air.

They stared openly at the sky, wondering just what evil was growing next to their kingdom.

Rings: 2 | Corruption: 46/day Fervor: 58% | Sustenance: 100% -- CITADEL DISTRICT - - [X] Tower (Sovereign Eye) [X] Feeding Pit [X] Camp -- WRATH DISTRICT --- Ring 1 -- [X] Spawning Grounds [] Open Slot (x2) -- BROOD DISTRICT --- Ring 2 -- [X] Spawning Grounds (x2) [X] Camp []Open Slot (×6) -- VOID DISTRICT --- Ring 2 -- [] Open Slot (×9) -- Projects-- [X] Basic Stone Wall [X] Ashroot Plot (x2) -- POPULATION: 59/75 26 Brood Imps 29 Wrath Imps 1 City Lord 2 Major Demons 1 -- STOCKPILE -- Food: 493 (+105 in queue) | Stone: 13 Timber: 26 | Iron Ore: 0 -- VAULT -- Gold: 31 | Essence: 5 Kairon blasted from the citadel, going as fast as his frozen limp would let him.

Amidst breakfast, dozens of squabbling brood imps chittered and munched, clearly enjoying the new meal time. Ashroot was passed around, jerky was gnawed, and murky water was slurped. Hearing the quick stamps of his staff, the excitement paused. Dozens of orange pupils focused on Kairon. Shiny, however, was the only one to speak up.

"Master?"

"Oh! Good. Shiny, I'm off to do some tests. In the meantime, please see to it that all three batches for the feeding pit are to be on ashroot today. Just like yesterday, if you please." At this rate, the entire first harvest would be completely processed by tomorrow morning. Then, he would have Shiny begin funneling a portion of the corrupted timber for gold. Gold that they were going to need. Dearly, if his theories proved true.

"Yes master!" The little imp wiped some crumbs from his lips.

"Master okay?" The demon took a moment to take in the scene. Breakfast interrupted. Imps staring. Shiny concerned.

"Oh don't let me stop you from your day. Get back to it! And yes, yes. I'm good. Great, actually!" Waving dismissively, the city lord ambled forth, passing through the groupings of workers and warriors with gusto. His pace never slowed until he made it back to the rear of the tower. From here, the sounds of breakfast had become more muted and a measure of privacy granted. Stamping down his walking stick, he studied the stockpile in front of him. Seeing it made his stomach flutter.

Ideas, tests, and plans from last night snapped back to his mind. He took a moment, reviewing his formulated approach, before brushing down his scales and taking a deep breath. Okay. Time to see what this sigil's made of! This first test was perhaps the most ludicrous application. But, he needed to find boundaries, and experiment. You could be reading stolen content. Head to the original site for the genuine story. And if it works…

He pulled up his interface, focusing on a single line of text from the stockpile readout. Iron Ore: 0 Here goes… Diving into his mindspace, he tapped the dark sigil with one metaphysical claw. Gold -1 Gold -1"No, no, no! Why did you do that?!" he shrieked, immediately pulling away from the sigil, now two gold poorer. However, after only a moment of thought, he found the issue. I need a connection. Understanding of what the sigil does isn't enough. I also need to know how to fuel it.

And, he was fairly certain he should be able to fuel it with whatever had caused those golden notifications. Source, the system had called it. And below his tower, a pool of that stuff sat. Energy just waiting to be used. How to call upon it… On a hunch, he looked at his frozen foot. The one part of him that truly bonded, from flesh to bone, with this mysterious energy. Last time I made a connection with that energy, it was by touching Veron's torso. So maybe…

Gently, he tried pushing his frozen foot up against the stockpile. Where the limp toe claws touched the wooden post, they stopped. Magnetized. Like an unseen force was holding it hostage. Moments later, golden light flickered. A wisp of source energy seeped from the ground, coming from beneath the tower. His mind went back to the instinctive tugging he'd enacted when Elson had ridden into his domain. How he'd grasped the unseen string of what he now thought to be source energy, and pulled.

Still standing on one foot, he tried to do the same. I'm a conduit, the source the energy, and this stockpile the output. That picture in mind, he reached out, pulling on that golden thread. It spooled out, slowly growing more taunt. Contact made, a pool of yellow light bloomed beneath the tower. A small puddle, now vividly visible. Still and waiting. Nodding, he tried to spend it. Picturing a wireframe in his head, he made his best guess of how.

Kairon threaded the gold around his foot, and then into the stockpile. Like connecting a battery with a wire. Nothing happened. He pulled. Something happened. He pulled harder. And harder. And harder. Finally, with a massive yank, the golden thread vibrated, releasing an eager buzz of restless power. Quickly, he focused hard on that same line from his city's interface again. Iron: 0 In his mind, the sigil quivered, twitched, and flowed. Then, like water, it became a golden moat of light and flowed out of him.

And, like he'd spilled his drink, it sloshed over his city's interface.

"Yes!" He was practically teeming with excitement when to his disappointment, the sigil slid right off and fell back into his mind. With a slurp, it slotted back into place. Failure. Frowning, he tried again. And again. And again. No matter what he tried, or where on his interface he chose, the sigil wouldn't stick. Like it didn't belong where he was trying to put it. Even the golden energy, which connected to him just fine, didn't reach out to his interface.

Maybe the connection between the demonic realm's interface and the source just isn't strong enough. Despite that, he didn't slump. His shoulders didn't sag, and his smile didn't disappear. He was testing, experimenting, and learning. It was all part of the process after all. Alright. Round two.

Shiny was concerned. He decided to follow master. Master was smart, and did things for a reason. Yet, today… Shiny wasn't so sure. No matter how hard he tried, the little imp couldn't understand what he was doing. The black scaled demon had gone up to the brood spawning ground, kicked it with his bad foot, muttered something nonsensical, and then started laughing. Shiny noted that down to be checked on later. Can't have the brood spawner damaged.

Master then limped over to the wrath district, and did the same thing to their spawning circle. In their case, twice. Shiny nodded in approval. Stupid wrath. No need to check on that one later. Then, Master went to the feeding pit and gave it a good kick too. If Shiny would admit one thing, it was that Master could balance really good on one leg. He just wished he knew why he was doing it. That was, until the ground started vibrating.

It took some testing, but he'd finally figured it out. And, after visiting every building, he was ready to try it. Whatever connection existed between the two systems, it was only strong enough between the physical structures his domain had, not just his readout. Something more material had to anchor it. Once again, Kairon pulled that string of golden energy, wound it from the puddle to him, and willed his sigil to flow from his mind into the brood spawning grounds.

A fountain of yellow trembled within him, the fluid sigil morphing, before spilling over the text of the brood building's interface. This time it didn't flow off like it had with his system readout. Instead, it stuck. A new notification appeared. Cost: 25 Submit query? Y/N He still found it a bit odd that just like Veron's body in the tower, it phrased this as a 'query'. Either way, Kairon had over sixty source. So, mind made up, he spent it. Kairon selected 'Y'. Like plucking a string, the yellow strand vibrated.

Beneath the tower, the metaphysical puddle began to drain at a prodigious rate.

"It's working! It's working! Yes, yes, yes." His claws clenched in excitement, witnessing something truly wondrous take place. What came next was… exhilarating. When he willed it, his fluid sigil moved. Like a spreadsheet.

"I'm doing it… I'm doing it..!" This idea was one of his more clever ones. And, from everything he'd learned, one he was sure should work. Select Spawn: 1 Brood Imp --- 1 Day One a day. A good, round number. It was just a bit small for Kairon's liking. With the smile of a naughty child sticking their hand into the cookie jar, he plopped the one right in front of the other one. For several tense moments, nothing happened. The menu still displayed one brood imp spawned per day of time.

Then, like reality was flickering, everything went black, white, and then flickered back into color. One moment, there was a spawn rate of one brood imp. The next… 1 1 Brood Imp --- 1 Day He tilted his head back and laughed. A pure, delighted sound of ecstasy and joy escaping his maw. The demon was so happy he actually fell over.

"One in front of one makes eleven!" he shouted, rolling over on the dusty stone.

"Eleven! Didn't think of that did you, greedy system?! Eleven!!!" His laughter died as he slowly realized why he'd fallen. It wasn't from happiness. It was from the vibrations. The ground near the spawning ground was… quaking. Kairon cocked his head.

"Oh?"

"Master!!! What happening?!" squealed Shiny. He came scampering up, pointing a claw at him.

"What do?!"

"Just some experimentation. Nothing that should cause any alarm. Honestly, I think this is all part of the process." A large, muscled form came stomping over from the wrath district.

"Fledgling! Not again! What is happening?!" he roared. Around, the quaking was picking up in intensity. Imps began dropping to the ground, claws held over their heads.

"Its part of the process! Just some growing pains. Let's all just calm down and give it a minute to settle in."

"Make it stop! You are meddling with things again! This is not good!" His wrath councilor looked back and forth, as if trying to decide whether to run or hide. Hellscape, stone, and imp shook in equal measure. From the citadel, Sythara peaked her head out, sapphire eyes glowing. Shadows stretched out, tasting the air. Her gaze landed first on Kairon, then on the building, and finally at the sky. Moments later, the city lord found out why. A beam of golden-purple energy erupted from the brood spawning grounds.

It shot upwards with the force of a cannon, climbing up and up until it blasted a hole through the clouds above. There was a supersonic boom, followed by a rush of air and dust that covered the city proper.

"Is THIS part of the process?!" shouted Vorathrex, wiping the dust and debris from his form. Around him, other imps were doing the same. Claws were tinted orange and brown from all the displacement, making their eyes water and mouths fill with dirt. From a distance, the sight was truly spectacular. A black walled city of stone in the middle of a barren wasteland, a column of pure violet connecting ground to sky. A beacon telling the world that something entirely unprecedented was happening.

Sythara stared in wonderment at the little child. Such an assuming, dexterous creature. Her sisters had been a reclusive bunch, but she'd still met her fair share of elders. And not even they could do something like this. She'd seen the child's bargains and attempts. Sythara knew what he was attempting. Yet, even lacking comprehension and understanding, he was melding with forces that not even she understood. That golden energy was all but a mystery. And here was this child, all but harnessing it.

Her shapes could positively feel that fascinating energy at play. Defying all logic, that black-scaled demon had called upon it. Looking up at the hole in the clouds, she breathed in sharply. And it answered. To him? This child keeps managing to bring me more and more than I could have ever expected when I took the pact. While the ground around was shaking like a leaf in the wind, Sythara's mind was doing the same. Once again re-evaluating the owner of this budding little city.

It couldn't decide what to make of him. The one that had bound her, ruthlessly revised her pact, and now… this. Amidst her deliberation, a new, peculiar thought entered her mind. Events were shifting. Maybe she didn't need her sisters. Maybe, just maybe, Sythara had found a brother instead. She shook her head. No. What's come over me? Just look at those horrendous amendments he forced upon our agreement. Even if I did get a little carried away, was it truly warranted?

Watching the proceedings in front of her, Sythara decided she wasn't sure.

Kairon watched as not long later, that gorgeous beam winked out of existence from far above. Gone to wherever distant place it was off to. With its departure, the whooshing air calmed. And, to the relief of all but one individual, the ground stilled.

"See? It worked!"

"Fledgling," ground out Vorathrex.

"What worked?!"

"Math, my friend. Math." For in front of him, a notification still remained true. 1 1 Brood Imp --- 1 Day Math that had just drastically accelerated the growth of his city.

Unbeknownst to all, in the middle of a dark tower, a vault winked violently. Over and over. Demonic scripture glowed, then dimmed, and then glowed again. And, just like the shaking, it stopped. Orange lights going still. This time, they stayed on. Glaring intensely.