Chương 631: Coda

Ali stood in silence as the guild's finest raiders assembled within the Grand Library Arcana, their shuffling amplified by the clanking of their armor as they peered curiously – and somewhat confused – through the open door into the plaza of the mostly restored Dal'mohra beyond.

"So, Aliandra," Vivian said, keeping her expression well under control.

"What was important enough to muster the full raid team?" Ali met her gaze for a moment and then glanced toward the back where Ryn stood beside Lirasia's humanoid form, eyes sparkling with excitement.

"Um, I might have… done something," Ali said. Several outrageously exaggerated groans were uttered by some extremely rude people. After all, it wasn't exactly like she'd done it herself.

"You did something?" Vivian asked, glancing sideways to Lyeneru as if for support. The powerful Pathfinder managed to avoid meeting her gaze.

"Perhaps it's better to just show you," Ali said.

"Clarence?" The golden book spun himself into existence beside her, and immediately the doorway shimmered with a strange rippling light. Moments later, Ali found herself looking through a rift – or portal – into another realm. Gasps rippled through the onlookers as they registered what had just happened. Vivian's eyes darted to the portal and then returned to Ali with a raised eyebrow.

"Clarence advanced, and this happened. Ryn thinks they're portals to extra-planar libraries. Somewhere in a forgotten realm," Ali said.

"I thought it was worth exploring… maybe with a proper team for a change?" Vivian and Lyeneru exchanged glances and then the Pathfinder began barking orders.

"Scouts, form up. Check your escape options, three forms minimum."

"Tools that work across realms," Calen added.

"Right," she said.

"Buff up and move out!" Fresh energy rippled through the ranks as everyone fell into well-practiced roles, a ritual of preparation as reflexive now as walking. Immediately, spells began flying, and a large fortune's worth of consumables vanished – snapped, burnt, eaten, or crushed. Everyone with scout skills began vanishing and advanced through the portal. Ali waved her hand, and several invisible stalkers followed them, along with three floating sentinels and a shadow dragon.

Naia even bubbled off a few shadowy slimes and mimics and wiggled across the carpet to enter. As her awareness settled into the invisible ranks of powerful minions already past the threshold, she gasped in amazement. The space beyond the door was vast beyond belief.

Stretching off in all directions as far as her seven dozen exquisite eyes could see, were rows of tall, bright yellow, crystalline pillars that sprouted from a base of dark fibrous root-like mesh, flickering with darting lights of mana like motes or wisps. Despite the shining pillars, they rose up into a thick gloom, lost to sight before Ali could even make out the top.

As one of her sentinel demons approached a crystal, it began to flicker with rapid pulses of light and Sage of Learning instantly translated the 'words' into her mind.

"Oh, my! It is a library!" Ali exclaimed. A library unlike any her realm had ever seen. In the background, Ryn let out a chirp-like squeal of delight that sounded almost like a kobold before she clamped her hands over her mouth, blushing bright red.

"Threats?" Vivian asked.

"None so far," Ali said.

"Except that it's a library. Knowledge is dangerous, I know this Dungeon of Knowledge, you see," Mato opined, winking all around and grinning as he earned several groans.

"Let's move in," Lyeneru commanded, and the entire group galvanized into action, pivoting like a well-oiled clockwork machine. Tanks strode to the front, healers assigned themselves to various groups and mages unsheathed their wands.

"Damage!" Havok declared, leading the procession as everyone filed through the gate. It smells like a forest. It was the first thought Ali had as she entered the humid place. The gloom above was laced with a strange mana affinity, but the pillars seemed to overwhelm everything with the intensity and detail of the mana flowing within. Are they constructs? Or grown? Ali couldn't tell.

"I got the teleport location," Ryn said, confirming without a doubt that this was considered a library. Azryet was going to be ecstatic – well, after she figured out how to translate these 'books' and duplicate them into the more traditional format.

"Monsters incoming," Calen said, popping into view right above the raid.

"Three eldritch slimes. Low three hundreds." The instant the word eldritch passed his lips, glowing mind protection potions appeared across the raid, instantly consumed.

"Level three hundred slimes?" Vivian asked. Then three knots of mind-bending darkness appeared from up ahead, tentacles waving as they shifted in and out of corporeality. Even with Ali's deeper understanding of the eldritch, beholding them still made her queasy to the pit of her stomach. Elder Umbral Ichor – Greater Eldritch Ooze – level 308-312 (???) x3 The identifying text appeared in her mind as scratchy, ichor-stained black words that seemed to writhe uncomfortably under scrutiny, and Ali was certain that without her unfortunate run-in with Baaoht Yll'shuum and the eldritch title she'd been forced to bear, the text may have been unintelligible. As it was, it seemed to want to bite her, and from the queasy looks and blanched faces around her, she wasn't the only one. Stolen content alert: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences.

Mato charged forward, roaring loudly with his sizzling void shields snapping into place around him. Havok shouted, a shining, glowing force that slammed into one monster with obvious glee. Beside them, Sabri shouted, securing the third, while blocking several lashing tentacles warping through reality to rock her shield.

"Attack," Lyeneru commanded, and the raid immediately turned on its power. Spells flew furiously and fighters rushed in swords bared and blazing.

"Those are strong," Ali murmured, throwing out barriers as she began directing her minions. Her melee world walkers were immediately sent to the front with Joraa and Tol'brekk leading the charge, followed immediately by the shining Divine Archon.

"Slimes are the strongest!" Down by Ali's feet, Naia extruded a shining blue pseudopod and shoved it through a Wobbling Wormhole. In the middle of the melee, a tiny blue tentacle touched an Elder Umbral Ichor and the little mimic slime said, "Mine!"

"Naia! No!" Ali shouted, but the Elder Umbral Ichor immediately lashed out with two long tentacles, rapidly turning blue and she gleefully chortled.

"Mine! Mine!" she said. Out on the field, the thump of detonating spells and the crash of steel faded as the adventurers glanced at each other in confusion.

"Err…"

"What just happened?"

"This thing just stopped attacking," Devan said, poking the unresponsive eldritch monster before her.

"Naia, that's an eldritch monster. It will destroy your mind!" Ali exclaimed.

"You shouldn't have done that!"

"Mind? But I don't have one of those, Ali-friend," Naia said.

"Besides, it's an ooze. I'm the Ooze Overlord. Look…" And she summoned a fresh one, all eldritch and warped, but not quite as high level, of course.

"Did she just… take the mind-rending monsters?" Lyeneru asked.

"I… yes," Ali said, staring at Naia for a long moment.

"They're cute," Naia said, bobbing up and down.

"I have so many questions right now," Ali muttered.

"But I guess they can wait for later."

"Frustrating when someone acts impulsively and does something dangerous, right?" Lyeneru said.

"Yes…" Ali said and then caught her barely repressed smirk.

"Hey, are you making fun of me?"

"Me? I would never…" Ali coughed at the chuckles and outright laughter that met her deadpan lies.

"She kinda got you with that one, Ali," Malika said.

"Come, let's see what else is in this weird place." No sooner had the words passed Malika's lips than a huge, shuddering impact rocked the ground beneath their feet. A moment passed and then another impact sent strange bugs skittering for cover while dust shot from the fibrous ground in plumes.

"Err, what the fuck is that?" Vivian asked, staring off into the impenetrable gloom." It's big," Mato sent, clearly itching to dive into action.

"And supremely powerful," Calen added. Another massive impact sounded as a leg the size of an ancient oak struck the ground, and a behemoth the size of a barn loomed into view. It was as black as pitch, and despite its immense bulk appeared to be creeping forward on four twisted legs. Where any self-respecting monster's head might have been, a thousand warped tentacles sprouted, waving delicately in the air. It froze. Every single tentacle strained forward as if sampling the air, shimmering in and out of reality.

Then the tentacles parted and from the center a massive round maw opened, revealing a gullet lined with endless fangs fading away into a void far larger than the monster itself. Are those… stars in there? It roared, a shattering sound that felt like glass dragged through granite and would have made Baaoht Yll'shuum himself run quivering to his own nightmare. Ali tensed up as she identified it. Vorlagg [The Librarian, Render of Realms] – Eldritch Atrocity – level???? (???) Despite the best mental protection money could buy, several of the raiders collapsed unconscious at the sight." That's one ugly librarian," Mato said.

"Run?" Vivian asked, her voice trembling with the strain of beholding such a monster.

"It's stronger than Azryet," Calen yelped.

"Damn right we run!"

"Damage!" Havok yelled and charged the monster, followed closely by Mato and Sabri.

"Not ooze," Naia said, helpfully.

"You get this one, Ali-friend." Ali stared at Naia, but Clarence shot forward in a golden streak, outpacing the mad tanks and growing rapidly larger by the moment. By the time the book reached Vorlagg, he was bigger than Artur Dragonsworn in his elder red dragon transformation. The tentacles around the great maw shivered, darting toward Clarence in a ripple of attention, like an immense carnivorous sea anemone.

The book cracked open his covers and jagged shards of glinting golden barrier magic appeared like fangs the size of trees. Vorlagg let out a hiss that would have peeled paint at a thousand yards.

"Now you choose to get involved?" Ali muttered.

"Uh, what happened to running?" Malika asked.

"I don't think we should be anywhere near a battle between two four-marks."

"Right, pull out!" Lyeneru shouted as an immense showdown loomed.

"Get to safety, everyone!"

"Ali-friend?" Naia said.

"Come, we need to run, Naia!" Ali said, reaching for the slime. But Naia thrust her pseudopod through the Wobbling Wormhole a second time, and this time she came back with something round and blue. The size of a small melon. Ali stared at it for a moment before she registered what it was.

"Ali-friend, use this," Naia said.

"Good weapon."

"Are you serious? They're about to destroy everything?"

"Use," Naia said, thrusting her offering into Ali's hand. Ali took it and raised it overhead, and as she did, both four-mark monsters froze. The scrambling raiders froze too, all staring at her with every shade of surprise and confusion written upon their faces. Ali switched her Empowered Summoner to Tol'brekk, drastically increasing her strength and threw the ball. It sailed across the raid, flying between the two frozen titans and hit the ground beyond them, bouncing several times and vanishing out of sight.

Clarence twitched, turning slightly in the direction of the ball and then immediately back to Vorlagg. The Eldritch Atrocity's tentacles spasmed, craning in the direction of the ball and then snapped back to Clarence. Slowly, as if gauging his opponent's every response, Clarence began to shrink. The flesh on Vorlagg's torso scrunched up and it collapsed in on itself as if being consumed from within, and in seconds both monsters had shrunk – Clarence down to normal, and Vorlagg to the size of an ordinary house cat.

In a flash too fast to register, both monsters vanished. An immense bang followed, and then a vast splintering crash shook the ground. Silence reigned for about eleven seconds and there was another series of thumps and bangs which resulted in a distant cloud of smoke rising into the gloom, and then both monsters streaked back toward Ali. Vorlagg arrived with the ball gripped in those tiny tentacles while Clarence circled it angrily. Gently, the Render of Realms dropped the ball and backed up.

Gulping, Ali reached out and reclaimed the ball. Shudders of excitement went through both monsters at the sight. Then she lobbed it again, further this time. Both of them vanished in pursuit, and then Ali's chime sounded. You have earned the title: Vorlagg's Eternal Friendship. Oh, boy. What the heck have I gotten myself into, now?

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