Chapter 24
Ethan awoke from his bizarre battle to find that he was still very much alive, although feeling very tired and drained. He considered himself lucky however, his opponent wasn’t faring so well. His body was falling from the sky like a sack of rocks and would surely make a nice splatter on the ground when it hit.
Ethan wasn’t focused on the Nephilim’s falling body, however. He was watching in curiosity with [Soul Vision]. The Nephilim’s soul had stayed “floating” in the air where he had died like an extremely bright cloud of radiant energy. Ethan continued to hover in the air where he was as he watched the strange swirling mass of soul. His curiosity deepened as it seemed to vibrate slightly, then it moved with great speed towards Ethan.
Ethan yelped, disabling his [Soul Vision] spell and trying to evade it, thinking that the creature wanted vengeance even in death. The bolt of spiritual energy shot right through him and into the pack slung over his shoulders. He felt heat emanating from his backpack and shrugged it off his shoulders in panic. Looking at his backpack he could see a light emanating from inside it. Quickly opening the backpack he saw where the glow was emanating from: his sceptre.
The Magicite crystal was glowing with almost as much intensity as the Nephilim’s soul, and enabling [Soul Vision] again, he saw why: the “cloud” of the Nephilim’s soul was rapidly being absorbed into the crystal. He gawked at the sight, but not for long. He heard a ding as the AI pushed an urgent notification to his vision, asking him to review his system log.
Reluctantly, he disabled the [Soul Vision] spell again and averted his gaze. Ethan started looking over the log and was amazed for yet another time in a single day:
You win the battle of resolve! [+400 XP]
Samayel’s soul is rent from his body! Samayel dies!
New title gained: Divine Slayer. [+1 SP, +2 AP]
The errant soul is captured by the radiant soul crystal. Its power is bestowed on the item.
The Divine Sceptre of Primordial Will has been completed. As the creator of this artefact, you receive additional experience. [+1800 XP]
New title gained: Divine Artificer. [+2 SP, +4 AP]
You are now in possession of a divine-grade artefact. Your halo will glow for all to see.
Congratulations, you are now a level 11 [Harbinger – Science].
Congratulations, you are now a level 11 [Magineer – Chaos].
64 other notifications pending.
That’s a lot of XP to spend, I’ll need to sit down and seriously think about what to do with it. He thought, Also, how did it know about the sceptre and its function? And what the hell was that about me GLOWING?
Moreover, he had used a Radiant soul crystal in the make of the sceptre? He didn’t know that. He just pulled the purest version he could from the earth at the time.
Maybe this was why the Nephilim was so hell-bent on stealing it? Did it resonate with his soul or something? He could not have possibly known its function to crave it so much.
The sceptre Ethan had made had a singular function: to express the will of the wielder as a magical spell. It was, simply put, a thaum ‘compiler’. It could interpret simple instructions and output the thaumic equivalent in real-time.
It didn’t come without risk, however. If the user did not know what they were doing, or did not focus well enough for the artefact to understand their will, it could – in theory – backfire and hurt them. Ethan was well aware of the risks, but he thought it would help him immensely when casting new spells. He would need to use analyse on it the moment he actually had some mana.
Another notification was pushed to his vision as the AI alerted him to the fact that his mana was running low. He should have been paying more attention to his mana levels! It seemed that casting and maintaining the “Battle of Resolve” spell had driven him way past his mana regeneration and had resulted in him incurring a mana deficit. It seemed that to compensate for going into negative mana the system would start to drain your physical energy, which was probably what was making him feel so tired.
Ethan sighed and floated down to the ground. He didn’t sink much further into mana deficit due to the low mana cost to maintain the flying spell, however it would take him a while to recover enough mana to do anything productive. Especially considering his battered mental state. His body and mind felt sluggish compared to usual. The mental drain of having to develop a somewhat complex spell on the fly (quite literally) based on an entirely new thaum also probably affected his mental state.
He dismissed the log screen and looked around him at the desolate landscape, his battle with the Nephilim was devastating to the environment, it seemed. All around him were the burnt remains of the few hardy plants that grew this high up on the volcano and jagged rocks blown apart by explosions. Ethan hoped that no one had been hurt during the battle in this area of the volcano, although that was unlikely considering how many bolts of energy the Nephilim had rained down from above. There were probably going to be some very angry Krell hunters whose fields had been burnt by the various lighting strikes, some poor guy may even have to deal with a charred Roc corpse suddenly landing on his front porch.
Sitting down at this vantage point he could see across the large basin of the volcano, the Mother of Chaos was quite obviously the most noticeable thing, but he could just about make out the main Krell settlement across on the other side of the volcano and various other Krell towns and villages dotted around the place. Light from torches and a few magical lights glittered across the early morning landscape below. It was surprisingly beautiful, however this image was shattered as he spotted a few pillars of rising smoke and outright fires across the area, pretty obviously being the Nephilim’s missed shots. Luckily most of the land was covered in sectioned farmland which meant the damage had hit harmlessly into fields, the Krell probably grew a lot of the food that they ate within the volcano. Judging by the few open (but very well guarded) routes into the basin it seemed that the krell also traded with outside groups, they couldn’t produce everything within the volcano and would need to rely on outside trade to supplement their food supplies and other various equipment.
This place is a great defensive position, if they make sure all the entrances are guarded or sealed they could hold out for quite some time if the Polarii or anyone else besieged this place. They could technically hold out forever if I introduced them to the Haber-Bosch process and modern farming techniques.
Ethan shelved yet another thought for later. He studied the terrain below him for a few more moments and recovered some energy, he got up and walked to the Nephilim’s unmoving corpse, picking up his now non-glowing backpack and slinging it onto his back as he went. Getting closer he could see that the guy was most certainly dead, although there were no physical signs to tell you how he had died. Ethan figured it was time to loot.
After a few moments of rummaging Ethan was disappointed to find that there wasn’t much on the guy: just the rags the Nephilim had wrapped around his disfigured body, a few golden coins, and a very hideous face that matched with the vision he’d seen in his battle of resolve.
Curious, he picked the golden coins and inspected them, they were round and slightly bent. On one face was the image of a bipedal lizard-like creature holding a chalice, and on the other were different scrawlings that he could not decipher. It seemed the world-wide translation spell did not extend to written language, or what he was trying to read was no writing at all, or maybe languages that no longer existed couldn’t be translated? Although the coins and the beings they had on them were interesting, they were of little use.
Thinking on the subject of written languages, It was odd – he thought – that he’d not come across a single book since coming to this world. But then again, he was stuck with the Krell, and he doubted they valued reading so much. In fact, he didn’t even know what they called this world, or about any of the other nations and species in the world. He would definitely need some books to read.
He’d change the seeming lack of books and education that the Krell had, though. As for now, looting was taken care of. He got up and started to walk, carefully making sure not to lose his footing, even on a much flatter area like he was currently on.
He called up his character sheet as he walked to find a spot in the shade to rest in.
| Name | Ethan West | Species | Human |
|---|---|---|---|
| Class (1st) | Harbinger – Science (Level 11) | Strength (STR) | 18 |
| Class (2nd) | Magineer – Chaos (Level 11) | Vitality (VIT) | 17 |
| XP (Deferred) | 656 (0) | Dexterity (DEX) | 23 |
| AP/SP Available | 11 AP / 7 SP | Agility (AGI) | 24 |
| Health | 161/173 (+1.7/min) | Intelligence (INT) | 28 |
| Mana | 0/296 (+0/min) | Wisdom (WIS) | 29 |
| Soul type | Will Power (WIL) | 122 |
| Title | Description |
|---|---|
| Divine Lawbreaker | You have broken a Divine Law and incurred the wrath of the heavens. Beware the consequences. |
| Runebreaker | You have transcended all forms of magic and unlocked the more mystic base elements behind it. You now wield great power over the arcane. Beware lest you err! |
| Divine Slayer | You managed to do what few claimed to do throughout the history of the world: to slay a higher being and live to tell the tale! |
| Divine Artificer | You have created a divine-grade artefact. Guard it dearly, lest it falls into the hands of your enemies! |
| Affliction | Level | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Mana Debt | 2 (26%) | You have spent more mana than your capacity. Mana regeneration is disabled until the debt is paid in full. |
| Skill | Level | Cost | Description | Origin |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Analyse (Active) | 9 (18%) | 5 MP | You analyse any object or living being, obtaining information about it. More details will be revealed as the level of this skill rises. | [Scientist, Level 1] |
| Lecture (Passive) | 5 (22%) | — | You instruct another character on a subject. The level of knowledge conveyed and the success rate are limited by the level of this skill. | [Harbinger – Science, Level 5] |
| Assemble Schematic (Active) | 2 (27%) | 15 MP | You assemble a schematic quickly and efficiently. 10% Less material wasted per level. | [Engineer, Level 1] |
| Adjust Entropy (Sustained) | 6 (78%) | ~ | Adjust the level of entropy in a system or creation. 10% To effectiveness per level. | [Chaos Engineer, Level 5] |
| Stabilise (Active) | 2 (88%) | ~ | Allows you to stabilise any chaotic reaction, quickly bringing down the energy of an unstable system, chemical reaction, spell, or machine. | [Chaos Engineer, Level 5] |
| Mana Manipulation (Passive) | 5 (0%) | — | The ability to manipulate mana is at the core of spell-casting. This skill governs how much mana your body can channel. 2% bonus to maximum mana per level. | [Magineer – Chaos, Level 8] |
| Rune Mastery (Passive) | 3 (56%) | — | The ability to construct and maintain spell models in one’s mind is what governs Rune Magic. Your mastery over runes will increase with the level of this skill. Can control +2 extra runes per spell model per level of this skill. | [Magineer – Chaos, Level 8] |
| Design Schematic (Active) | 2 (43%) | 100 MP | Allows you to design a schematic. | [Scientist, Level 2] |
Damn, I’m lucky that spell didn’t kill me outright. So that’s the downside of it, huh? He was never sure what happened when one went into the negative with mana, but now he knew. Looks like I’m out of commission for a while. At least it seems I have a high willpower, at least I have that going for me He thought grimly.
He inspected his new titles.
And I feel like I was courting death with a title like that… He thought. Maybe he was truly lucky? He had the feeling not so many managed to survive such an ordeal.
He almost tripped on a rock and decided to close the character sheet for now. He should pay attention to his surroundings, at least while walking. He was sure his battle must have attracted many a predator from all over the mountain as well. It wouldn’t do to survive such a battle then end up as a mountain cat’s next meal, or maybe more horrifically a Roc.
He soon arrived at a shady spot near the rocky mountain wall. He rested his side against the solid rock and deeply sighed. He was completely parched, and as he soon discovered: he’d lost his waterskin during the brutal chase.
He sat there for a moment, enjoying the cool mountain breeze on his face. It was the middle of winter, though, hopefully it would warm up quite a bit when the sun rose properly in a few hours. Without a fire, shelter, and a source of water and food, he had no chance of survival out here if he had to stay too long to recover mana. Until his mana debt was paid, he was basically stuck.
At least I have this sceptre! he thought on a somewhat bittersweet note. It wouldn’t be much use, considering he had absolutely no mana and no desire to test it out without analysing it first.
Ethan remembered about Kothar and hoped that the man was alright, hopefully the [Cultists] the Nephilim had arrived with hadn’t got the better of him. Ethan decided not to worry for a moment, he couldn’t do much apart from wait. He had no idea how long had passed since their little battle had started, but having not got any sleep before the Nephilim’s rude arrival he let himself doze to sleep, huddled tightly in his clothes and using a spare fur jacket as a makeshift blanket, the sceptre safely in his backpack to his side.
Milandera crouched down to pick another one of the small green sproutings, putting it into the bag she carried. She looked behind her, the sounds of the battle that had been happening had fallen silent after there was a bright flash of light. “Kothar”, the apparent name of the Krell warrior she was trying to help, had looked barely conscious at the time and had looked worried. He clearly wanted to do something but was much too weak, he’d struggled to even tell her his name in between his random conscious moments. He was truly lucky to be alive.
She stood for a few more moments trying to observe what had happened to Kothar’s strange companion, but in the darkness she could only see small points of light from the Krell villages below. That was another positive thing, for her at least. If she could help Kothar survive then she would gain the trust of the Krell and that would make getting some fruits from the Mother of Chaos a lot easier. First they needed to survive, which would be unlikely if she could not get Kothar back to a state where he could help her get down from the heights they were currently in.
Sighing and looking inside her bag, she saw that there were plenty enough. She started cautiously moving her way back along the rather steep mountainside she had just traversed over. Luckily she was somewhere near the top of the peak so the incline of the cliff face wasn’t too bad, unlike further down where it was a near vertical drop. Slowly but surely she worked her way back towards the outcropping that Kothar was on, and a few minutes later she let out a sigh of relief as she stepped back onto the flat and stable ground.
Kothar was asleep, or maybe unconscious, she couldn’t really tell. He was huddled in one of the fur jackets he had in his bag and she had used another waterproof jacket to make a small tarp above to help protect from the elements. Not wanting to interrupt his sleep she quietly stepped over and crouched down. He looked somewhat peaceful in his sleep and Milandera wasn’t ashamed to admit that she found him rather attractive. Peeling back the jacket covering him she exposed his various wounds that she had wrapped in makeshift bandages. The bandages had stopped the bleeding but without proper treatment he would be at great risk of infection. She hoped the plants she had gathered would help somewhat with that.
Hoping that he wouldn’t mind, she searched through his bag again for what she needed, eliciting an excited tone when she found one, a bowl! The plants would be useless on their own, they needed to be crushed up into a paste with a bit of water. She rested the bowl on the ground and picked up a nearby water canteen. She shook the canteen, listening to how much water was inside and felt the weight. There wasn’t much left in there, and as far as she was aware it was their last canteen. Milandera grimaced and decided to use some of it to mix up the plants. Hopefully the process wouldn’t use much.
Pulling the bag containing her leaves nearby she pulled out most of them and put them in the bowl. Quickly finding a nearby rock she started adding water and mushing the mixture together, being careful not to spill any of the water. The plants absorbed the water and inflated in size, and upon crushing them the mixture started taking the green paste-like look she was looking for.
I knew reading all those books on herbal medicine would help one day! She thought as she smiled to herself. There weren’t many people who would be able to recognise the plants from the various other similar ones out there. Seeing that the mixture was made she turned back towards Kothar and carefully started peeling back one of the bandages. The blood had somewhat stuck the piece of cloth to the wound, ever so carefully she removed it and used her fingers to scoop up a little bit of the mixture. If what she remembered was right, it would sting a little when applied to a wound, keeping this in mind Milandera carefully started dabbing the green paste onto the wound.
Kothar slowly slipped from his blissful sleep to feel a strange stinging sensation on his skin, he nearly thrashed out at whatever evil thing had decided to cause him more pain but his conscious mind kicked in a moment later and he opened his eyes. It was still dark and to his side the woman he vaguely remembered cutting free from her bindings was there applying a strange green mixture to one of his wounds. Kothar still hurt all over, but he seemed very much alive. He could feel various other bits of cloth acting as bandages over the rest of his body. She hadn’t noticed that he was awake, which was somewhat awkward considering she seemed to be admiring his well toned body. He coughed lightly and she looked up from applying the mixture to the wound on his arm, she noticed that he was awake and her face flushed red.
“Ah you’re awake! Can you understand me, Kothar? That's your name, right? You were barely lucid enough earlier to tell me your name…” She spoke fast, Kothar raised his hand telling her to slow down.
“Yes I can understand you. It seems that I’m sore all over, but it I haven’t yet bled out.” He looked around the outcropping and noticed a distinct lack of dead [Cultists], there was no evidence they were there apart from blood stains on some of the rocks, “I also see that you took the effort to move the bodies.” She smiled at this.
“Yeah… they were damn heavy to move. Didn’t really fancy staring at a bunch of decapitated bodies for the rest of my stay here, they were also starting to smell really bad. Their bodies were rotting away really quickly. And before you ask, I took a look to make sure there wasn’t anything on their bodies,” Kothar cocked an eyebrow in curiosity, “Unfortunately there was nothing apart from those weapons and the clothes they are wearing though.” There was silence for a moment before Kothar decided to strike up more conversation.
“Well, you seem to know my name. Who are you?” Kothar asked casually. She continued to peel back some bandages and apply more of the healing mixture as she spoke.
“My name is Milandera, I’m from a guild. The Gilded Spears,” she answered, seemingly wanting to keep it short. Kothar was curious.
“A guild? What circumstances led to you being dragged here by that crazy thing and his thugs?” She seemed reluctant to answer.
“Well it seemed that he wanted something from my brother, Normand, and was trying to get me to tell him where he is. Unfortunately I have no idea, he’s probably dead…” She paused and her face grimaced, “Well, I’m certain that he is dead at least because we were ambushed by some Arachnapes and our group was split up… we were then ambushed by, err, your people. I escaped and got back to Uli, our guild's main city. I have no idea if Normand survived.” Kothar thought for a moment after hearing her explanation.
“My question to you then, is what exactly were you doing trying to sneak up on us?” Before she answered he continued “Wait! Let me guess, you were after the fruits on that damn tree.” He nodded his head towards the massive tree that grew from the center of the basin. She stopped fiddling with a bandage on his leg and sighed.
“Yes! It is foolish, isn’t it? You lot know this place like the back of your hands, unless you are literally able to go invisible there is no way in. We have to follow what our guild orders us to do though. You’ll be glad to know though, the guildmasters are in massive disagreement on what to do. Hundreds have been lost amongst the guilds in their attempts to acquire even a single fruit from the Mother of Chaos, some of our best.” Kothar shook his head.
“Well, I’m sorry to hear about the loss of your friends. It is unlikely that they were captured alive. I can check through our prisons just in case, if we get down from here though.” Her eyes lit up at the small sliver of hope this brought her and she looked like she was about to express her thanks. Kothar continued before that.
“More importantly, are you still going to try and get one of the fruits from that thing at the first opportunity?” He asked her frankly.
“I don’t care about the damn fruits!” She lied, “I just want to get out of here and go home– could you please stop wiggling so I can take this damn bandage off?” Kothar did as she requested, holding his leg still as she worked. He still maintained a healthy dose of distrust in her motives, however. He doubted that she had lost interest in the Mother of Chaos considering that was part of what lead to her current predicament.
“How do you know that stuff you're using is even going to help.” he grimaced his face as she started applying more of the stuff to a wound on his leg.
“I read it in a book.” She replied.
“You can read?” She seemed offended by the question.
“Of course I can! Well, it’s not like many in Meerenva get the chance to learn. I guess there aren’t many in the Krell who can read.” Kothar frowned.
“Where is Meerenva?” He asked, ignoring her comment on how few Krell can read. She looked at him in shock.
“Really? You people must be really isolated in here, it's the name of the continent we all live on! How can you not know that? Every kid knows the name of the place they live in and are at least aware of the other nations in Meerenva.” She seemed genuinely offended by Kothar’s lack of knowledge.
“Well, outside of the nations that surround our home, we don’t really have much care for the rest of the world.”
“You truly don’t care?”
“It’s not that simple. Although, I personally would like to know more.”
They continued to talk as she treated Kothar’s wounds, Kothar had quite the eye opening experience as to what other things actually occur in the world, and plainly saw why the Krell needed to pay more attention to Meerenva’s politics.
Radon strode confidently into their commander's tent, the various Polarii soldiers and assistants turned their heads to pay him heed. Nodar followed him in meekly, not wanting to draw as much attention to himself. He was lucky to not have been killed by Radon for his incompetence during their interrogation. It wasn’t very often that someone strode around with confidence in front of [Commander] Yulra. Yulra was well known to be one of the harshest, but most effective, commanders in the Polarii Empire. One tale which circulated around the Polarii soldiers was that he once had an entire Tenth-March (100 men) executed simply because they showed up one minute late for a celebration of a recent conquest in the Polarii capital, Hijavak.
Hijavak is exactly where the commander had travelled down from, even with him and his entire guard Quarter-March (250 men) riding the best Yulirri that the empire had to offer it had taken them a month to travel all the way to the front lines. He had been waiting a week for information from The Hands on how [Commander] Talius had been killed, and was getting somewhat impatient.
Radon and Nodar stopped walking when they were within 5 meters of the long table that Yulra currently sat at, he was on the opposite side of the table to where they both were now kneeling. The commotion caused all of the other various aids, [Officers] and [Generals] currently sat at the table to turn and look at them. Dead silence persisted for a few moments, before Yulra spoke up.
“What is it you two imbeciles have decided to bother me with? It better be worth my time, for your sakes. You’ve just interrupted a rather important strategy meeting after all.” Yulra was displeased with their sudden appearance and was making that well known. As much as he wanted to know how [Commander] Talius had met his doom, planning their next strategic actions to take against the Odetta Republic was much more important.
“Yes, I believe what we have found out will be very much worth your time, Commander.” To give credit where due, Nodar still gave off an air of confidence and wasn’t letting Yulra intimidate him. “We have finished our interrogation of the coward Jarrett.”
“Ah good, something interesting for once, did you find out how Talius’ cowardice lead to his demise?” Yulra sounded fairly confident in his view of what had happened. Nodar regretted that what he was going to say next would ruin that confidence.
“I’m afraid not, Commander… the crazy fool actually ordered his men to flee. He stayed to face a single foe, alone.” Whispers flew around the tent as it fluttered in the wind. Yulra raised an eyebrow.
“Is that so? What on earth was so terrifying about one single foe that he wanted his men to flee?” He questioned.
“Well… he seemed to have judged that the foe was unbeatable, she was a dragon! Or at least partially, or could transform between the two. Jarret wasn’t exactly clear. Regardless, it seems he sent his men to safety so they could warn others. He was killed after he used an ability called [Commander’s Sacrifice] to try and kill her. Unfortunately it didn’t seem to, see, this woman wasn’t just anyone, she was Eragoth, Matriarch of the Krell.” The whispers raised into full utters and Yulra’s face soured. Nodar started to worry that he would soon be finding his way to a grave for whatever reason Yulra fancied.
“Silence!” Yulra shouted at the occupants of the tent. Their conversation died off instantly, all fixing their eyes on Yulra.
“This information… clearly complicates issues. Dragons are supposed to have been dead for centuries, although it seems that perhaps she isn’t a full Dragon. We need to focus on wiping these Krell from the face of Meerenva.” The silence persisted for a few moments.
“What are you suggesting we do, commander?” Asked a seated [General]. Yulra started pacing around the table towards the still kneeling Radon and Nodar, talking as he went.
AN: Relevant Map
AN: Improved Map, thanks to /u/last657
“These damn savages have been a roadblock in our advance against the Odetta Republic for years, their defensible volcano serves as the perfect protection for them due to the way the damned thing sits on the borders of 4 nations, us included. It is not simply possible to go around the Krell to continue advancing on the Oddetians. We would need to go through territory that belongs to one of the guilds in order to get to the Oddetians on the other side.” He stopped walking as he stood himself in front of Radon, “Stand” He commanded to both of them. Radon gracefully brought himself to his feet while Nodar took a second to react, awkwardly pulling himself up as quick as possible. Yulra looked between the two, ignoring Nodar’s gracelessness.
“That is why I have a new task the two of you. Our [Mages] will send word of what we have discovered about the Krell to whom they can, and you two will contact all those we are not able to contact with [Wind’s Messenger]. Tell them what you have discovered and tell them that on my orders as many men as they can spare are to march to here. I, meanwhile, will inform the Emperor of what I plan to do. If I can get him on board he might send us a few Whole-Marches (1,000 men) of his personal Decima (50,000 men).” Yulra looked over the rest of the Polarii in the room, Radon and Nodar had taken the opportunity to retreat to the sidelines, “All said and done, I will assemble a Polarii force like never seen before, six Decima worth of men! Together we will wipe the Krell from the face of Meerenva!”
Under normal circumstances the room would have erupted into applause or celebration, those assembled in the command tent knew that Yulra was a wise and practiced man and would not tolerate such things. Instead they presented stern and proud looks, some setting off to start the efforts that would be required to assemble an army of six Decima.
Yulra smiled on while nodding. Six Decima of men would mean at least 300,000 men at his disposal, the largest single concentration of force ever assembled by the Polarii. He had good reason to be a happy man. With that much force at his disposal he would stand a very good chance on taking the imperial throne if he marched on Hijavak, after destroying the Krell of course.
Uvak visibly shook after what he had just heard. For weeks he had been observing the Polarii lick their wounds from their ill advised assault on the Krell, from the safety of a nearby hill that is. His spell had collapsed as he was taken over by shock and anger at what the Polarii had been discussing. He wanted to listen in and hear more, and tried to focus again on the spell, but it would collapse moments after he tried to cast it. After yet another failed attempt he gave up trying to cast the spell. He let out a sigh and looked over the camp, dark red tents dotted the cleared out forest while torches or magical lights flickered outside the tents. It gave the place a very imposing look, the large scale of the camp was much more apparent at night.
He had been dispatched by Elder Ro, she was counting on him as one of the best spies the Krell had to monitor the Polarii and report back on anything significant. After listening in on “Yulra” in his tent he had heard plenty enough to constitute a hasty return to the Volcano.
The Polarii were planning to systematically wipe them out! There would be no way they could defend against an army of 300,000 Polarii, even in a position which is as good of a natural defence as the volcano is. He needed to let them know the bad news, badly.
Quietly he got up from his hiding spot, the shrubbery attached to his clothes moving with him, and forced himself to stop shaking in anger. The time for anger would be later. After he brought his emotions back under control he cast his cloaking spell, through the clever combination of the spell and the various plants he camouflaged himself in, he would be practically invisible to the Polarii.
After carefully sneaking past a few patrols he started his arduous journey back to the Krell home. He was determined to not fail them, it would take the Polarii months to assemble an army of that scale, and every day of warning they got would be of benefit.
Memeta had quite enjoyed her visit to Ethan, he had quite a few curious items in his imaginary space and she dearly hoped he would introduce the people of the world to his knowledge. That would come later, she practically couldn’t wait for him to hopefully lead the Krell. He would be able to get a lot done then. He certainly had the balls to be a leader from what she had seen, the way he had defeated the Nephilim, by literally beating its soul out of its body, was quite spectacular. Most of the divines had been glued to watching the battle take place, most letting out annoyed sighs or bouts of anger when Ethan won against all odds, yet again. All completely unaware of her involvement, of course.
Worryingly, Memeta hadn’t seen Crypto for a few days, even when she went to taunt him over his minion being killed she could not find him. No-one had seen him in fact, it seemed that he was probably hiding somewhere and conjuring up a scheme. Memeta would set out to find him when she really couldn’t resist harassing him some more. There were only so many places you could hide in the Celestial plane after all.
Crypto, despite his absence, had certainly been busy. Almost all of his followers had mobilised and seemed to be converging on a guild city, Uli. From the small amount of conversation Memeta had been able to hear from the cultists it seemed that they were going to meet up there to then move as one to join the Polarii assault that was still at least half a year from happening. Memeta had been surprised at how many followers Crypto had. Almost 1,500 of them were on the move from her last count, or at least the ones she was aware of. Memeta also had plenty of followers… they weren’t exactly trained and deadly soldiers like most Divine favoured, this allowed Memeta the capacity to have tens of thousands of followers. The majority worked as Librarians, book shop owners, lecturers or in other knowledge related roles. They were overwhelmingly female as well, which bucked another trend among the followers most divines had. Due to this, her following was so widespread that it would be unlikely that you’d find a bookshop that wasn’t run by one of her paladins.
Memeta frowned as she looked at her faith points, she had spent quite a few in helping Ethan. It had been worth it, though. It looked as if that was going to pay off. An investment well spent as far as she saw it. She planned to use her remaining points. If Crypto wanted to mobilise his paladins, she would do the same, although not to as much of a stupidly large scale.
Instead she looked through all her followers and selected a few peculiar ones. Soon enough she had a list of her six best followers, and sent each a personal message telling them to meet up with each other and head to the Krell, or rather to Ethan.
Most Divines prefered brute force, or powerful magics. However, Memeta was well aware that a powerful pen wielded by the right person could do more damage than any sword or spell ever could.
She smiled as the six chosen followers received her message and immediately lept into following her instructions. Soon enough, chaos would reign and their skills would be put to the test.
| Name | Ethan West | Species | Human |
|---|---|---|---|
| Class (1st) | Harbinger – Science (Level 11) | Strength (STR) | 18 |
| Class (2nd) | Magineer – Chaos (Level 11) | Vitality (VIT) | 17 |
| XP (Deferred) | 656 (0) | Dexterity (DEX) | 23 |
| AP/SP Available | 11 AP / 7 SP | Agility (AGI) | 24 |
| Health | 161/173 (+1.7/min) | Intelligence (INT) | 28 |
| Mana | 0/296 (+0/min) | Wisdom (WIS) | 29 |
| Soul type | Will Power (WIL) | 122 |
| Title | Description |
|---|---|
| Divine Lawbreaker | You have broken a Divine Law and incurred the wrath of the heavens. Beware the consequences. |
| Runebreaker | You have transcended all forms of magic and unlocked the more mystic base elements behind it. You now wield great power over the arcane. Beware lest you err! |
| Divine Slayer | You managed to do what few claimed to do throughout the history of the world: to slay a higher being and live to tell the tale! |
| Divine Artificer | You have created a divine-grade artefact. Guard it dearly, lest it falls into the hands of your enemies! |
| Affliction | Level | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Mana Debt | 2 (26%) | You have spent more mana than your capacity. Mana regeneration is disabled until the debt is paid in full. |
| Skill | Level | Cost | Description | Origin |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Analyse (Active) | 9 (18%) | 5 MP | You analyse any object or living being, obtaining information about it. More details will be revealed as the level of this skill rises. | [Scientist, Level 1] |
| Lecture (Passive) | 5 (22%) | — | You instruct another character on a subject. The level of knowledge conveyed and the success rate are limited by the level of this skill. | [Harbinger – Science, Level 5] |
| Assemble Schematic (Active) | 2 (27%) | 15 MP | You assemble a schematic quickly and efficiently. 10% Less material wasted per level. | [Engineer, Level 1] |
| Adjust Entropy (Sustained) | 6 (78%) | ~ | Adjust the level of entropy in a system or creation. 10% To effectiveness per level. | [Chaos Engineer, Level 5] |
| Stabilise (Active) | 2 (88%) | ~ | Allows you to stabilise any chaotic reaction, quickly bringing down the energy of an unstable system, chemical reaction, spell, or machine. | [Chaos Engineer, Level 5] |
| Mana Manipulation (Passive) | 5 (0%) | — | The ability to manipulate mana is at the core of spell-casting. This skill governs how much mana your body can channel. 2% bonus to maximum mana per level. | [Magineer – Chaos, Level 8] |
| Rune Mastery (Passive) | 3 (56%) | — | The ability to construct and maintain spell models in one’s mind is what governs Rune Magic. Your mastery over runes will increase with the level of this skill. Can control +2 extra runes per spell model per level of this skill. | [Magineer – Chaos, Level 8] |
| Design Schematic (Active) | 2 (43%) | 100 MP | Allows you to design a schematic. | [Scientist, Level 2] |