Chương 91: 153- This Is A Bad Idea.

Vraxious – Outskirts of Hope's End Vrax held up his hand placatingly as the beyond frustrated, probably fifth-tier time wizard stood up, staff in hand, waving the first of two letters he had sent him. Chronus stepped closer, waving the letter like it had personally offended him.

"You found Cormag? You fucking found Cormag, and your first thought is, I can handle a necromancer that brought down a fifth of the empire on accident!" Chronus breathed heavily for a moment, gathering himself. Vrax just let him have the moment out of self-preservation. Chronus reached into his robes and pulled out another letter that was frayed at the edges. Probably from a time wizard losing his cool while he read it. Chronus returned most of the way to his normal calm demeanor.

"And this one, Vrax…" He waved the second letter again.

"I had to come just to make sure this wasn't some forgery because of how utterly unhinged it was. Please, please tell me this is a forgery and I haven't aligned myself with yet another damned madman."

"Whoa, no, no worries there, first I have a question about an even more important matter." Vrax said gravely. Chronus's greying eyebrows shot up.

"What could possibly be more important than you trying to adopt the fucking necromancer?"

"Did you hang out in hopes end for like a month going by the name Leyland and dating Martha?" Vrax said with a boldly teasing tone considering the situation.

"What, how? Why does that matter right now?" Chronus sputtered, "Yes, it was a great vacation. I'm allowed fucking vacations because normally I'm dealing with people like you who are actively trying to give me a stroke!"

"Okay, just checking. Martha was talking about you."

"Wait, really? What did she say?" Chronos suddenly seemed a bit more interested in this line of questions. Aha! Everyone has a weak spot, and if budding geriatric love is yours, then who am I not to exploit that utterly bizarre turn of events? Vrax smiled conspiratorially now that he had managed to hopefully get the king slightly less murdery.

"I'll tell you after…we discuss the second letter if I'm not sand..." Chronus couldn't help but roll his eyes and laugh at that, sitting back down.

"It is him I went and looked in person…it's him, but he seems…" Vrax cut in.

"broken? Like the saddest sap you've ever met in your life? Yeah, I've had people following him day and night; the man was crying in an alleyway holding a pastry like two hours ago. He obviously hates himself for what he's done… And if you already saw him and he isn't dead yet…" Chronus looked up, conflict evident on his face.

"If he can really close the portals, I can't afford to kill him again yet. It's been thirty years, and all we have come up with is sealing them off and fighting what comes out until they close on their own." Vrax looked a bit pleasantly surprised.

"So you agree with my proposal?"

"No, I think it's one of the stupidest ideas I've ever heard, and I don't even know if it will work. I would prefer to lock him in a cage and haul him from portal to portal until they are all closed…but out of respect for an old friend." He looked sadly towards the town.

"And in an attempt to work with my insane new neighbor, I would love to hear why you think him remaining free to gain power while you do the same before taking on the portals is a remotely good idea." Vrax started counting off reasons on his fingers.

"We have a lot of portals to close from what Crixus tells me, and having him willingly help versus screwing us over in a hell realm is a pretty big one. Secondly, Dude fucking hates whatever demon has infiltrated Rembrand's order; that's an all-of-us problem right now. Thirdly, holy shit, I feel bad for the guy. Whatever monster he was, I just don't see it. And finally Lurk picked him, that asshole of a Nightmare Conductor is going to die alone otherwise."

Chronus looked confused by the last statement but didn't even bother asking for clarification. Chronus frowned mightily.

"While I agree having him as a willing participant would be far preferable and lessen the odds of him somehow worsening everything behind our backs. We have no way to know what his true motivations are if he really is this broken shell, or if it's just some façade. I would love to believe my friend is back and not the man he became but…" Chronus paced thoughtfully for a moment. He stopped straightening up as if he had made a decision.

"I need to prepare before we take on the portals. It is a massive undertaking. Also, I need to firm my realm against our vaunted church of order... if anything goes wrong or hell, even if it goes right when we strike against the portals in full force and stir that particular hornet's nest. It would be the perfect time for the Holy Father to make a move." He practically spat out Rembrand's church leader title. Vrax shifted uncomfortably, waiting for a list of caveats. Instead Chronus looked at him curiously.

"What level are you even? I can't tell with your damn armor on."

"56 currently, but I have a vast swath of essence to spend after…" He just gestured vaguely towards hopes' end and the slight smoke still rising from the field beyond.

"So I'm guessing nearly 70 after I spend it." Chronus nodded.

"Alright, because honestly I don't know if locking him up would even work or if he would steal some poor fucker's body, and because we aren't ready for a full-force strike on Hellmaw yet, here's my compromise."

"I knew you would come around!" Vrax said a bit too enthusiastically.

"Don't push it," Chronus grumbled before continuing.

"Cormag stays with you in your lands with your awful kingdom-wide effect. It should stop him from easily secretly raising an army. And he has a minder at all times, someone unimpeachable in their beliefs and willing to do what needs to be done if he turns. Also, it really would have been nice if you included a little synopsis on the fact that your entire kingdom pisses on immortality. That was one hell of an unpleasant tingle until I shielded myself." Vrax lamely tried to defend himself.

Chronus was totally right; he had just flat-out forgotten to tell him about his kingdom effect.

"Well, I didn't know you were going to go all wrathful time wizard and sneak in to personally confirm it was him."

"Had to make sure, and make sure you weren't just some damn thrall of his after this one." He waved the second letter again.

"Wait…how long were you freezing people and looking around town…?" The thought of Chronus pausing him in time and space whenever he damn well pleased and just wandering around to make sure he wasn't a traitor with Vrax none the wiser was…disconcerting. Chronus ignored Vrax's concerned question with mild amusement and kept going with his proposal.

"Use the time while I prepare to at least get yourself to the second tier. Whatever pissant portal you entered is nothing compared to Hellmaw. And you and Cormag honestly probably aren't strong enough to survive what we would be doing. He is… diminished from what I remember. I assume a cost of his return." Alright, that's not bad at all. I can absolutely work with that. Go exploring, get things shored up at home, and kill a few eldritch monstrosities the normal.

I don't even want to know what kind of things he has to prepare if he's expecting Rembrand to try a damn coup when we are busy at Hellmaw. Vrax finally offered up what Martha had said about "Leyland."

"Okay so... Martha said Leyland was a sarcastic old shit of a battlemage, and she has been worried sick since you suddenly disappeared on the eve of the battle. She keeps checking ruins and casualty reports expecting to find you among the dead." Chronus suddenly looked very guilty and stood up, snuffing out his fire with a boot before gesturing towards town. Vrax cocked his head quizzically.

"Uhh, you're going to town? Don't we need to keep our dealings hush hush?"

"Leyland is going into town. And I'm going to go talk to Cormag in person, but don't you worry about that bit." Vrax looked slightly concerned, but he literally couldn't tell him no. Well, he could, but he didn't feel like having a king laugh in his face and then plop him on a mountaintop or something equally inconvenient to prove a point. They started walking from the edge of the trees to a well-worn path leading to town. Chronus sighed suddenly and stopped in the road." Vrax, one more quick question."

"Yeah?" Vrax looked back a bit confused; Chronus had his head cranked back, looking up at something in the sky. This narrative has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road. If you see it on Amazon, please report it. Chronus raised an arm and pointed where he was looking.

"What the fuck is that? And why is it heading towards my kingdom?" Fluffy was soaring through the air in the distance, engaging in a titanic battle with some horrible many-winged beast that looked like a bat and evil had a baby roughly the same size as Fluffy. Feeding tendrils flailed through the air, impacting the creature across its wings and body. It responded with a sonic screech that made Vrax clutch his head in pain leagues away.

The swarm of devourers around Fluffy descended like an evil flock clamping on all over the creature. Then Fluffy dived, picking up speed at a concerning rate before impacting into the ground near the edge of the forsaken lands hauling the bat-like beast down below it. The ground shuddered like an earthquake had struck. Tree fragments and blood showered high into the air in such a vast quantity that they actually cast a shadow across town briefly.

And then finally Fluffy bellowed a victorious war cry that shook Vrax's bones.

"Ha... oh, don't mind him, that's just Fluffy out for his morning hunt. He won't wander into your borders he's a real homebody." Chronus closed his eyes and shook his head before just continuing on towards town without another word.

Vrax needed to level up, he had a laughable amount of essence sitting in his sanctuary. He would have liked to do it in his old room. A comfortable familiar place was by far his favorite for when he sunk into his sanctuary. But well… his dad had blown the house up, so he had to look for an alternative. The hog's trough could have worked if it wasn't utterly overflowing between people displaced by the damage and others just looking to get drunk.

He tried the stables, but the newly adapted horses kept looking at him hungrily, and he didn't think it was wise for him to leave his unconscious form there for them to try and nibble on. In the end Vrax settled on an old favorite of his. He squeezed through the slightly stained and bloodspattered front door of the library. He had to dance around piles of spilled books. They were always in questionably safe, head-high piles while Tom "sorted" through them eventually.

But with all the shaking the building had sustained in the battle, damn near every tower had come tumbling down. Vrax looked around from his sort of clear spot on the floor. The amount of dust wafting in the air was actually impressive, he wouldn't even be able to breathe in here without his increased defenses. Frankly, it was a shit show. The library was always a shit show, but this was on another level. He could even hear Tom muttering curses across the room, though he couldn't see him behind the mound of books.

Vrax shouted a greeting, which was met with a shrill, "Don't move anything. I have them where they need to be!" Uhuuu... Sure. Good luck with all that, Tom. Vrax resisted the temptation to use his cistern and coat the floor in vegetation to make it easier to navigate. Instead, he painstakingly shuffled his way sideways up the tiny staircase to the second level and the comically small desk he had used so many times before. He chuckled after wiping the grime off a book cover.

It was the same ledger he had read months ago that pointed him towards Vurune's ancient grove. He leaned back in the chair, ignoring its questionable creaks, and folded his hands behind his head. Vrax took a good few minutes to himself. He had been nonstop adventuring, exploring, and creating horrors for months now. All of it had been done for the ability to have moments like this. Surrounded by things and people he held dear, with a life of exploration stretching before him. What do I really want from all this?

The kingdom and my new powers. Rembrand forced my hand far more than I would have liked. If they hadn't rolled into town deciding we were their next conquest, no one outside of Hope's End would even know my name. Actually, what am I talking about? That's not true. The dungeon copying my creations would have earned me infamy regardless of my other exploits. Okay, so I would have been "less" infamous if the church hadn't popped over for tea and treachery. But now… The town is at least safer than it was.

Stereos is dealing with all the bureaucratic and logistical difficulties of a kingdom that I very much so don't want to run but enjoy the benefits of. And the portals loom in the distance. Honestly, Chronus's plan works… focus on here and now until I reach the second tier. I bet by then I'll have whipped up some real good monstrosities. That sounds pretty nice, actually, a return to what I really want to do: pet some things that probably shouldn't be pet and explore the Forsaken lands.

Maybe I'll even carve a little bit bigger piece of it out for myself. Ahh but what else… Oh crap, that's right. Have to go have that formal non-aggression ceremony with Chronus. I have no idea if that will be fun or a nightmare, but I do know I'm going to try and get the king drunk because that… that sounds like a fun time. Vrax let his wistful thought of future adventures drift away as he sank downwards into the familiar horrors of his sanctuary. He jumped a bit as it materialized around him.

And an almost incomprehensible being flashed overhead, flying too fast to even identify. Yep, that's right. The creepy bastard took the tint right on off my sanctuary don't know how I already forgot about that. Damn it's been a busy few weeks. Inside his sanctuary all was normal if active. The lake literally roiled at the base of the waterfall, the verdant green waters bubbling with energy as they overflowed the edges of the lake, transforming the surroundings into marshland.

Fluffy bobbed overhead, seeming too big for the space in Vrax's sanctuary even though it had increased tenfold in size since his first level. The devourers hovering along behind it dipped down in a thick cloud over the lake to play in the waters. Daisies flung themselves madly across the rolling grass, hunting and fighting. And Gobbles, of all things, stopped to stare at him with its dead beady eyes before snatching a passing pigeon with its hands.

Egh, gobbles, you still win the creepiest thing I've made award, and that's really saying something. Vrax glanced at where sunshine was crashing through trees with psychotic abandon, chasing down the world's most terrified rabbit.

"Like, sure, Sunshines scarier. But you are just… worse." Vrax pointed at gobbles. Gobbles let out a meaty gurgling cluck before turning around and strutting off towards another victim. Vrax stepped up to the lake and looked into the waters. It was a shit ton of essence ready to be used. He glanced from statue to statue, trying to decide where to start. He had at least learned his lesson on upgrading the Stigmata.

That would always be done last so Vurune couldn't keep hijacking more than his fair share even if his additions were usually useful. Vrax nodded to himself and went up to his core statue. It was about time he put some more into his basic attributes so he didn't fall too far behind his companions and foes. So far he had been very heavily investing in his skills, and it was certainly paying off. He wouldn't have gotten where he was without his creations.

He was still absolutely one really skilled assassin away from damn near instant death. Especially at his current level. Anyone he fought from here on out that was his level or higher would more likely than not at least have superhuman durability and strength. They were almost ubiquitious for obvious reasons among anyone who wasn't leaning into the more arcane class paths. And with those magic-wielding bastards, well… as Vrax had experienced.

Spells got very, very scary very quickly once people left the first tier behind. Honing them into custom things that were more a sum of all the mages' skills and talents rather than just a bigger firebolt. Monster and human foes alike. Although the monsters did tend to wield it quite a bit differently. The statue hadn't changed much after the battle for Hope's End, still showing him clad in his armor, spear in hand. It did show his bandolier of smelter moss across his chest and the new spear.

The biggest change was in his cloak. His ever-thirsty cloak was reared up behind him, dramatically reaching in different directions for unseen foes. Alright, I put some into base stats last time, and it at least kept me alive. I'll never be a match for a straight-up melee combatant, but I would at least like to be able to survive long enough for my critters to save me. Vrax quickly pulled up his enhanced stats. Improved Attributes Mental Defenses: 2. 2 Reflexes: 1. 4 Physical Strength: 2. 2 Mana Capacity: 3.

0 Mana Regeneration: 1. 4 Physical Defense: 2. 6 Total Mana: 306/306 The ones he was building on were still a good base for how he fought. Mana was still arguably his most important stat next to mental resistances. Since it directly capped how monstrous his creations could be and how many smites he could throw around willy nilly. He needed it for his cistern as well, but the mana draw there was minimal comparatively, and the life stored in the cistern was the main limit.

Technically speaking, Vrax didn't need mental resistances for his class, but considering he would have been dead at least a half dozen times without it, as far as he was concerned, it was still more important than physical defenses. He could dodge a sword slash. He could not dodge a random monster's gaze attack or a tree that hummed him into submission. Also, it seemed to at least sort of directly combat Vurune's manipulation of his stigmata changes.

Vrax began gathering streams of essence from the lake behind himself as he had done many times before. It had gotten so full again that the essence writhed and roiled like a hungering thing barely restrained by his will. He struggled against it until the essence formed into a fine point that he began wrapping around his statue's mind over and over in waves of power. Reinforcing the mental barriers that were already in place.

Then Vrax directed it into the mana pathways his body held, searing more and more branching pathways for mana to pass through. Finally, he turned the remaining essence he had gathered up behind himself to his body. He let it wash over the statue in even waves, making the changes rather easy to contain. Focusing not just on strength or defense but a holistic improvement to both. The mana that had gathered slowly ran dry, and the air around him steamed with green vapor.

Vrax let out a deep breath and checked to make sure the changes he was aiming for had gone through properly. Improved Attributes Mental Defenses: 3. 0 Reflexes: 1. 4 Physical Strength: 2. 4 Mana Capacity: 4. 0 Mana Regeneration: 1. 4 Physical Defense: 2. 8 Total Mana: 408/408 He let out a relieved sigh. That was by far the most essence he had spent at once on his core attributes. But it had paid off. He was now another twenty percent stronger and tougher from his base line.

His mana had increased from threefold to fourfold what it was the day he started out. And almost more importantly, he had bumped his mental resistances even higher. Let's see, anybody below high tier two brainwash me now! He looked at the lake of essence; it wasn't overflowing anymore. It had receded back to be slightly less than half full. Plenty there for some skill upgrades… maybe even an evolution… only one way to find out.