Chương 8: Omnimancer 8: The Emissary And The Butcher

Company Captain Taren Stormcrow of the Hearthguard Brotherhood's 35th raised his sword, bellowing a warcry roar as he spurred his horse forward. His company thundered out of the woods behind, charging in desperate pursuit of the nightswarm horde. Crossing the fields, Captain Stormcrow found devastation. Ruins of village defenses, bodies strewn across the fields. Nightswarm bodies. Bodies of werebeasts he knew only too well.

"Ride harder, men!" the Captain shouted, urging his horse even faster. Were they too late to save the village? The captain's unease only mounted the further he rode. The swarm had ravaged the place, destroying everything in their path. Yet where were the remaining nightswarm? More importantly, where were the villagers' bodies? The corpses of the bravely fallen? Not one creature lived. Not the werebeasts, not even the Ogrosh. A fully grown creature of that size was not so easy to miss…

Captain Stormcrow's unease swelled into full-blown panic as he closed in on the village proper, slowing his horse to a trot, his men following suit. The werebeast corpses weren't merely cut down. Lightning had scorched their flesh, and fire had cooked their bodies whole. What's more—his horse's hooves sprayed clumps of wet dirt. To have doused the land so thoroughly… This wasn't the villagers' doing. This was magic. Powerful magic at that. No fewer than two dozen High Mancers, by his estimate.

Captain Taren Stormcrow had been around for some time, after all. He'd grown quite proficient at gauging magical ability. Had a squad of veteran Mancers passed through by chance? A Crow Feather scouting party, perhaps? No. It would be an unthinkable coincidence. Captain Taren forced himself to remain calm. It was just his nerves, nothing more. At last, they reached the central square, where dozens of villagers stood crowded, battered, bloodied, but alive, their eyes vacant, their expressions hollow.

No doubt gathered for one last desperate stand. And then he saw it. The terrifying Ogrosh, lying on the ground, clearly dead. Taren stared at the great beast in disbelief. Refusing to believe. How could he? How could anyone kill a beast like that so easily? Not even the Crow Feathers had Mancers of this caliber… It took his entire company working in tandem to take it down. And only because they had so much practice.

"You!" a middle-aged man cried.

"Why did you not protect us, as you always do?" What an unmitigated disaster, Taren thought, ignoring them.

"Why did you abandon us?" another roared, raising a pitchfork. How are we to vanquish them now? Taren unclasped his helmet and set it aside, running his gauntleted hand through his sweat-stained hair. How are we to charge the protection money now? After all the effort he'd taken? After curating the swarm with such care? The mighty Ogrosh, especially. Did they even know how much trouble capturing that monster had given him? Even then, Taren's men had only barely managed to send it rampaging in the right direction.

A detail his report would naturally omit. He was supposed to vanquish the monsters, Lux damnit! Not the Feathers. Not anyone else. Had another group moved in and claimed their turf? Was this a declaration of war? Yet who would be foolish enough to wage a war upon them? The Hearthguard Brotherhood, whose name struck fear and respect into the hearts of all who heard it. No, Taren was thinking like a defeatist. This was not yet lost.

"Fear not, fair folk of Treewater!" Taren announced as his knights surrounded the survivors in a show of force.

"We are the Knights of the Hearthguard Brotherhood, and we are here to serve. Rest assured in your safety. No longer will the vile nightswarm terrorize your—""Oh, piss off!" one of the villagers spat.

"You sods didn't do anything! Next thing, you'll be demanding coin!"

"I, er—we would never—""It was him! He did everything!" a villager shouted. Several others spoke up after him.

"The Triple Elemental!"

"Made the nightswarm disappear, just like that!"

"The Emissary!"

"Protected us all!" Taren blinked.

"C-Come again?" Surely he had misheard. Not a squad of roving Mancers, but a single individual?

"That's right! A Triple Elemental saved us! He could fly!" Taren barked out a laugh, but it was shrill and tinged with doubt.

"Madness. Bloodshed's broken your minds. There hasn't been a Triple since…" Why are they prostrating? To us? The villagers had sometimes done so in the past, yes, in the depths of their cathartic relief at his knights' arrival. Taren had always enjoyed that part. But for everyone to? When he'd done nothing of note? A dozen fingers pointed to the sky.

"See for yourself! He's still there!" they said. Taren's head turned. Slowly. Against his will. He almost missed it—that tiny yellow speck in the sky. Too small to be a Piasa, let alone a Thunderbird. Taren's blood froze. His stomach dropped and his breath caught in his throat. It was a man, clad in all yellow. Flying! And u nassisted at that. The Triple Elemental. There was but one entity on the mortal plane capable of performing such superhuman feats.

"An Emissary…?" A Demigod, granted divinity by Luxor herself.

"No," Taren whispered.

"No, no, no, it cannot be… not now, not here!" A being so rare they might as well have been myth. For one to have appeared now could not have been mere coincidence. If it was true, then it could only mean that the Goddess was watching. That judgment had come. Yet, the Emissaries of Luxor were reasonable. They always had been fair arbiters of justice. Surely, they would understand. Taren would spin the tale. Their group had simply arrived too late. They would ask for no money this time.

They earned their keep, after all. It was no lie, either. Taren and his men truly risked life and limb to subdue the monsters under orders straight from Bidzi himself. Taren straightened up, a spark of hope returning to his eyes. And then the Yellow One landed. Slowly, as was befitting one who had mastered the Tier III art of flight, and Taren beheld the true face of this Triple Elemental. The colored glass in place of eyes. A mirror so bright that Taren saw his own reflection in it.

That black contraption instead of a nose and mouth. The heavy, alien noise as the creature breathed, promising death. In and out. In and out. To say nothing of that strange hose that ran to the cylinder of metal on his back. He recognized it all, as did each of his men. How could they not? What with the defaced statues and the terrible tales parents whispered to children at night. An Emissary would have spelled certain doom for him and his company. But at least death would have come swiftly and without pain.

They were, after all, enforcers of justice. Taren knew then that all hope was lost, for he'd have no such fortune with this creature. For this was no Emissary of Luxor at all. It was something far, far worse. Taren's knees gave out and he slumped off his saddle into the dirt. He clasped his hands, shaking despite himself.

"Goddess help me!" he muttered under his breath.

"I will make amends, I swear it! Spare me! Please!" His men glanced at each other with unease.

"It's… It's him! He's back!" one muttered in a quivering voice.

"No! No this can't be! How?" Another cursed under his breath, falling to his knees beside his captain. Yet another broke entirely, sobbing as he pressed his head to the earth. Panic spread like a contagion. Half the company dropped where they stood upon deducing the true identity of this Triple Elemental, slamming fists together in prayer. Some cried aloud, others mumbling feverish confessions. If you encounter this story on Amazon, note that it's taken without permission from the author. Report it.

"I stole coin from the temple once! Please forgive me!" The villagers threw them looks of disgust, but Taren's men hardly noticed.

"I killed a man in battle when he begged for mercy. O Great Herald, don't damn me!"

"I have a family!" Taren shouted.

"Children who need me! Please, Vanguard! Forgive me!" The figure in yellow said nothing. His head turned, his mirror-mask eyes opaque. Judging. Condemning. He spoke strange words in some terrible tongue. Words of power, of a language not made for the ears of mortals and the tongues of men. The very air seemed to weigh down on Taren, forcing him to clasp his ears, lest his mind be overwhelmed. The men fared little better. One tried to run, stumbling into the mud before collapsing.

Another prostrated, begging for forgiveness. And then, without a word, He turned and flew away, vanishing into the horizon. Taren collapsed, feeling like he'd just aged a dozen years.

"We…we live," he whispered, before breaking into manic laughter.

"Haa! Hahaaaa! He spared us! The Butcher spared all of us!" His men weren't as optimistic. Whispers rang out, wondering if He would return to finish them. Deep down, Taren knew the truth. That no amount of prayer would ever wipe away the dread that festered in their hearts. For he had returned. From the dead. He of many names. Vanguard of the Apocalypse. Herald of Chaos. The Heretic. And he had spared them.

"Why?" his second-in-command asked.

"Why did he spare us? He, who defied the goddess?" Who waged war against her… and nearly won. Not dead or maimed, as all of Wakanya hoped, but very much alive and well. It terrified him even to think of it. Taren shook his head.

"There isn't a soul alive capable of guessing the unknowable thoughts of a being so high above us." For who could divine the mind of a god? Damn, I could really go for a burger right about now… Congratulations! For killing [Lvl 88 Ogrosh] x1, Luxor, Goddess of Light, has granted you 50 Aurum. Maybe even a sloppy joe… Congratulations! For killing [Lvl 35 Nightswarm Wolf] x7, Luxor, Goddess of Light, has granted you 240 Aurum. Wait, no! Those cheap gas station hot dogs.

The greasy ones that've been in the heater a few hours. Foods popped into his head one after another, and it was little wonder why. Weeks of dehydrated meals made damn near everything taste delicious. Jax sighed, genuinely contemplating whether the villagers knew what a burger was, let alone a dog. Surely at least burgers? Two buns and a patty? Some veggies for the health?

Name: Jackson William Collins [Human] Gift: Omnimancer [Transcendent] Level: 1099 Vitality: 163/163 Lux: 341, 476/1, 000, 000 Aurum: 18, 876, 590 Peaks Ascended: — Luxspire Peak (Altitude: 101, 301 ft) After that slew of messages, hunger was the last thing on Jax's mind, and he began to salivate for a different reason entirely. Congratulations! You have reached Level 1000.

Your decades of effort and absolute, single-minded dedication to the depths of magic at the cost of all else have made you the first human in history to attain this dazzling summit. As a testament to this historic accomplishment, the Goddess Luxor shared with you a portion of her Divine Soulfire. [Luxor's Divinity]: Imbues Soulfire with an Aspect of Divinity. Congratulations! For entering four schools of magic, you are now a Quadra Elemental.

Nearly unheard of among the Lesser Races, Quadra Elemental Mancers stand in a league of their own. The Goddess Luxor bestows you +100% Potency for all Elemental Magic. Hell yeah! Now that's what I'm talking about! But uh… what's Soulfire? And what does making it Divine do? The description had nothing more to say, yet whatever it was, he bet it was pretty damn impressive considering how absurdly powerful [Lux Compressor] had been at Level 500. Jax began to sweat. Well, no, he'd been sweating all along.

The highly optimized cold weather suit hadn't been designed for everyday temperatures. He was practically being boiled alive. It was that, and also because shortly after he'd left Luxpire Peak's summit ridge, he'd received a second System Message from the teddies warning not to make himself 'too bright'. Apparently predators in this world hunted based on how powerful a being was, and Luxor had alarms for this sort of thing too. Staying hidden to both had been high up on Jax's priority list ever since.

A priority he'd been failing spectacularly at, if he was honest. It all began a few hours after he'd left Nimashi's hoard and pointed his way inland. He'd been flying through the night above a forest looking for a place to set down and take a nap when he'd spotted the village. Perfect, he'd thought. A chance to ask the locals for some directions, maybe bathe in the cool stream nearby, and dare he dream about a soft bed and juicy burgers?

But then the monsters burst out of the forest, paying no heed at all to his humble wishes. He hesitated at first. What if the villagers had this well in hand? The last thing they'd need was a meddling outsider adding chaos to a well-oiled defense. The ensuing confusion might've put people in real danger. That hesitation vanished when a villager had nearly been skewered by a beast. After that, he'd flown into action. Fired off a storm of spells and cut them down without mercy.

The Auxilary spells [Vitality Meter] and [Threat Radar] gave him perfect awareness of the monsters' locations in the dark, though he had to pick up the [Aim] ability for another 10, 000 Lux to actually hit anything. It worked like a magical targeting system—guiding his ranged magic so long as he fired in roughly the right direction. It even hit any vulnerabilities his [Weakspot Targeting] ability found. However, helping that many people had proven a more difficult task than he thought, even with all his power.

There were just so many of them, and even with their outlines highlighted, Jax could only be in one place at once. Several times, monsters had slipped by, nearly killing people before he could move them to safety. The problem was, he just didn't have the right spell. The School of Space had nothing he could use, and under pressure with little time to spare, Jax bought the School of Time. It didn't have what he needed either, but their Sixth Tier combination did. Two, in fact.

A spell called [Voidstep] and another called [Farcaster], which allowed him to create persistent Gates. The catch, of course, being that he could only make Gates to locations where he'd placed an anchor, or the destination would be completely random. Jax had immediately bought [Voidstep] for a cool 2, 000, 000 Aurum. The spell consumed an obscene amount of Lux to fold space, moving either himself or others nearby a short distance. Just enough to clear the village.

He'd left the ones in the city square and a handful of other places alone. It cost too much Lux to move everyone—he'd have to dump another million or two more into that—and their position was fairly well defended. Once the rest had been relocated to a safe area and the immediate danger had passed, Jax found himself unable to resist the opportunity the remaining monsters represented. The opportunity for experimenting with his new powers that was…

[Arc] and [Fireball], which were almost useless on their own, had proven the most effective of his arsenal when overcharged with [Lux Compressor]. Moreover, when he'd fired off [Lesser Deluge] from the School of Water right after, he'd even managed to create a tiny steam combustion explosion. The only issue was the Water spell's slightly longer chant meant that it was difficult to fire them off at nearly the same time. Still, the possibilities made him giddy.

If he could figure out how to shorten the chant or speed through it faster, there would be no end to the new effects he could create using just the most basic, fastest-casting spells in each school. Pound for pound, none of the more expensive spells compared. A bit unfortunate since he definitely hadn't panic-bought School of Land, the School of Wind, and a handful of spells in each for good measure. The Schools had been 40, 000 Lux Bux a pop.

And while the Apex variants of [Stone Spike], [Earthenwork Wall], [Rolling Tremor], [Quake], [Wind Scythe], and [Gale] might rarely see use, considering he got all of that—including the Lesser and Greater variants—for just 365, 000 Lux Bux, it made little sense not to. Then there was the +25% physical damage reduction he got from spending the entering the School of Earth and the +25% to all mobility magic from the School of Wind.

When combined with his level 100 perk, [Luxor's Boon], which made all of his spells 25% more potent [Luxor's Wrath], the level 250 perk which reduced the cost of each consecutive spell by 5% to a max of 50%, it was all starting to add up. Even still, Jax realized he'd made a rather common mistake. As nice as all those perks were, they were mostly incremental. These monsters… they're just really weak, aren't they? It tracked, given how he'd killed the big guy with a single [Arc] spell.

Overcharged to 10 times its normal output, but still… The monsters he'd fought coming down Luxspire had been far more deadly, and Jax didn't think for a second there weren't more powerful creatures in the world. As the saying went, there were always bigger fish. As for spell efficiency, his sizable reservoir meant Jax didn't technically have to worry too much, but the short cast of [Arc] was what made it valuable. The low consumption was just a nice perk.

Still, maybe he'd indulge in some of the flashier spells for fun, like that Pyrohydro [Ember Rain] dual elemental spell he'd cast earlier. Or when he needed a spell to fan out to multiple targets. Quite the spectacle that was. Almost too much to handle, but damn did it feel good. Jax recalled the rush of firing that force of nature even now. Almost as intoxicating as summiting a tough peak in the middle of a snowstorm. Almost.

And if that was what a dual-element Tier II spell felt like, what did that say of the Tier III Triple Elemental [Devil's Playground] he hadn't yet bought? Or the Tier VI Spatiotemporal [Event Horizon]? While his base Schools only went up to Tier III, it seemed the hybrid spells' tier was the sum of their constituents. A good hint at the sort of power scaling going on here. It was a good thing the hybrid Electrohydro school had the [Squall] spell to douse the flames, though.

To his horror, he'd nearly torched the village with [Ember Rain], but now he had the ability to both start and end mass-scale fires on demand! Well, mostly… All told, his little shopping spree had cost him over 5, 000, 000 Lux Bux, getting him all the way to Level 1, 099 and leaving him with a grand total of 18, 876, 000… and 590. The 590 being the sum he'd earned from all the monsters he'd taken out. Jax couldn't help but cringe at that.

He'd known splurging would cost him in both points and make him more visible, but he was at least off Luxspire Peak now, so there weren't any immediate threats of all-powerful monsters. It was Luxor's attention he was more worried about. Still, he couldn't just leave those people to their fates. He'd rather risk her wrath than have to live with the knowledge that he could've done something and didn't.

After ensuring all the remaining monsters fled back into the forest, he descended to the outskirts of the village, hoping to treat their injured. His excitement at First Contact had been utterly squashed when the able-bodied bolted at the sight of him, screaming frantically. The injured didn't have that luxury, and so they had no choice but to stay put as he worked his Life magic. That didn't stop them from muttering what sounded like prayers under their breath, treating him like the devil. Poor people.

It was only very belatedly that Jax realized his mask and goggles must have given them a heart attack. Ah well. He'd worked his way through the injured one by one, healing them one after another. Most ran shouting in terror the moment they were healed, but one or two gave him a nod. He did not melt inside when they did, and he certainly did not puff out his chest. It was only when he flew over to the village proper that things really went south.

Some had fallen to the ground, crying, but others began chanting, thrusting their spears and pitchforks at him. Some even clasped their ears, like he was speaking words of the devil. Without knowing the language, deescalating the situation seemed all but hopeless, and there were over a hundred languages in the over two-hundred Auxiliary shards the teddies had loaded into his Gift. He didn't have the time to buy them all, let alone do what he did with old Nimashi.

Nor did he feel like blowing another million Aurum to grab a ton of languages he'd likely never use, especially not after that shopping spree. With how little Aurum killing beasts gave him, he'd be well served by conserving his cash. Deciding he'd caused enough panic for one day, Jax backed away and took the sky, his heart heavy with the weight of unfulfilled dreams. Of comfy beds, hot baths, and most of all—sloppy, juicy, burgers.