Chapter 95 - Taen's Company

They were in the ghost-realm between amulets - a method of communication set up by their numen Maltetious herself.

“I am absolutely fucked.” said Taen as he paced back and forth in an anxious fashion. The young necromancer nervously bit his lip in the mist of the alternate realm between the amulets and tapped a finger hurriedly as he went back and forth. “I’m done. Dead. I can’t compete, there’s no way. Not if mine is anything like what I just saw.”

“Hold on, hold on. Stop panicking,” said Chris as everyone stood waiting for Maltetious to arrive. He was a long-time friend of Taen and Michael, and had been plucked off Earth with both of them years ago to enter this hellish existence of slavery to the numen. Unlike Taen - who was a necromancer, and Michael - who was a tanky ‘Juggernaut’ class, Chris was a ‘Celestial Paladin’. He focused on holy and celestial magics in combination with close combat, giving himself a good combination of healing, offensive and defensive spells.

Chris gave Taen a meaningful look with his arms crossed and flipped back his blonde hair. “Come on man, I’m sure there’s hope for you. I find it hard to believe you’re having problems. You’re probably the most capable out of all three of us.”

Michael, a raven-haired man who’d previously been a banker, scoffed while adjusting his heavy plate armor. “I mean, that’s debatable. I’d say the three of us are all pretty even.”

Chris gave Michael a glare, and Michael caught the hint. Chris was trying his best to provide moral support for his friend, and Michael wasn’t helping the situation.

Aiko - another young Japanese Earthborn the three longtime friends had just recently met - cleared her throat. “I’m sorry, I arrived late and don’t really know what you’re talking about. Why are you so worried?”

Chris tapped his foot impatiently as their numen was nowhere to be seen. “Apparently Taen has got himself into a little bit of trouble with some very dangerous… games? Uh, like he has to compete in these things and doesn’t have a choice in the matter. He thinks he’s going to die.”

Aiko’s brow slowly furrowed, then she grinned, and laughed. “Taen, I think you’ll be just fine. If you’re anything like Chris here you’ll be fine.”

Taen stopped and stared back at her with panic in his eyes. “You do NOT understand!” He pointed a finger back menacingly at the girl and began to scream as her demeanor changed from giddy to upset. “I am FUCKED! FUCKED! There is NO WAY I am coming out of this alive!”

“Can’t you just not do these games?” asked Erin, her short, petite and blonde figure stepping up to match Chris’ posture.

Erin, a native girl from the Highstone Mountains who was romantically involved with Chris, was usually pretty timid and shy. However after having her life saved by the three over the course of their travels before they split ways to undergo three trials of collecting specific items for Maltetious - she’d opened up a bit and felt comfortable speaking to the others on a friendly basis.

Now was not the time to try and talk sense into Taen though.

“WHY WOULD I BE SO WORRIED IF I COULD JUST WALK AWAY? TELL ME THAT?!” Taen looked like he was going to start hyperventilating.

Michael had never seen him like this before. Ever - and Erin immediately shut up. She scrunched and lowered her eyes, and tried not to look hurt. But she failed drastically.

“Look...” said Chris - now angry that Erin was under verbal attack. “I get that you’re upset, but you need to calm the fuck down. Right now. We will figure this out Taen, you don’t have to take it out on your friends.”

“Yeah well you’re all going to have one less friend by the end of tomorrow,” retorted Taen, visibly upset as he sat on the ethereal ground.

A long awkward silence ensued.

“So what exactly did you see that makes you feel this way?” asked Michael curiously. He had been the first brave enough to breach the subject. “You’re not being too specific here.”

Taen tapped his finger repeatedly, closing his eyes, and thought about what he was going to say before replying. Taking in a long inhale, and slowly exhaling, he calmed his nerves. “You know, if I had you two here with me… I think I’d be pretty confident about living.”

He stopped to collect his thoughts again, and glanced about expectantly. Maltetious still wasn’t here. “So this lich has me locked in a tomb with a bunch of other people treasure hunting in the Deadlands. Once you enter the tomb, you have to compete in his games to get out. We didn’t know that though upon entering... They’re games designed to kill the participants, but if you live through them you get these amazing rewards.”

Rewards? This piqued Michael’s curiosity. “What type of rewards are we talking about here?”

Taen made eye contact. “It depends, but this lich said that some of them are as high as god tier weapons. They’re randomly pulled from his vaults.”

Michael whistled, his ghostly visage putting its hands behind his head - blurring briefly to match the bleak surroundings of the artificial landscape.

“So anyways… the group that I’m competing with is full of people ranging from level 19 to level 156. Some of them are what I would normally deem as capable, but not for this.” Taen shook his head with despair evident in his voice and expression, and he put his head in his hands with a loud sigh. “It would be hard to describe to you without seeing these games for yourself. My party and I were allowed to watch as another group was forced to fight in these games too, and they actually ended up winning it. Kind of.”

“Kind of?” asked Chris, confused.

Taen nodded. “It’s complicated, in the end the dungeon boss was subjugated by the summoner with some sort of trick I don’t really understand. I can’t even believe this lich let them do it... But… they were also stronger than the ones I have with me. My partners, for a lack of better words, are comparatively weak. Even if there are more of them. Out of all of them, even with higher level bonuses on their side, there are maybe three that could hold their own against me for a decent amount of time. Maybe.” Taen had a look of both shame and regret overcome his features. “The strongest of the other team were an ifrit and his master, and infernal summoner… at least until that dungeon boss joined them. The summoner wielded Talsh’Noc’Un of all things.”

“WAIT!” screamed Michael as he held up both hands. “HOLD UP. You’re talking about THE Talsh’Noc’Un, right? The sword of ruin? The super-fucker-upper and mother of all weapons right?”

Taen nodded, still looking at the ground and failing to meet Michael’s enthusiasm about the legendary weapon. “He definitely has a long way to go in terms of unlocking its potential and hasn’t hit its peak yet, but that’s what it was. I’m sure as the wielder grows it will grow to what it should be.”

Itunu, Aiko, and Erin all looked to Chris questioningly. He put a finger up to his lips and motioned for them to just listen. “I’ll tell y’all about it later.”

Michael laughed as he laid back on his haunches, his handsome features curling into a grin despite his friend’s predicament. “I have faith in you bro. So this dude’s a summoner? Did he have other demons with him under his command? I always found that stuff fascinating. And he had Talsh’Noc’Un? He must have wiped the floor with whatever he came across. I would have paid good money to see a fight with that weapon involved.”

“Wrong.” retorted Taen swiftly. Michael and Chris both raised their eyebrows. “He had 12 others with him if you include the ifrit’s familiar, most of them were at least competent. In particular he had an ifrit, a really tall red-skinned demoness with an unfamiliar breed, a fire elemental, two minotaurs, some sort of demonic toad the size of a pickup truck, a demihuman rogue, an alchemist who was fighting as an archer, a high-level wind-ranger, a priestess of Alkir, a primal imp, and a steampunk girl who had some sorta cannon she used to fight with. I saw them fight two separate times in these games. The first game I saw had this swarm of metal insects come at them with an enormous angel-like machine throwing them around like rag dolls and beating the living shit out of them until they pulled out a win with some form of tier 2 dark miracle from the priestess I’ve never seen or heard of before. In the last fight, which is apparently always some sort of uber-strong champion you have to beat, they were pitted against a pureblood succubus.”

“Wow. Had she evolved into her queen form yet?” asked Chris.

“Nope.” replied Taen. “But she STILL killed half of them, wiped the floor with the rest too but was subjugated somehow in a weird twist at the end. She was level 705. 705!!! I know levels don’t necessarily equate to power all the time but holy shit! She wiped the floor with all of them until the very end. Then they were declared the victors after that and she’s joined their group… as she’s sitting on the floor next to them and across from where I’m camped out right now.”

Aiko, the Japanese woman, took this moment to interrupt with a question. “Yeah… I thought levels didn’t really matter all that much though. I’m just curious is all, but why do you make it seem like such a big deal that they were all so high in level? Don’t the levels just give you bonuses? They don’t actually increase your real skill in anything, right?”

“Two things,” replied Michael as he held up two fingers. “You got it partially right. Levels only give you bonuses. A level 1 minotaur will generally be able to crush a level 10 dude with no problem - because a minotaur is naturally built bigger, stronger, faster, can take more hits with more base HP, the list goes on. But when those bonuses become stacked to a high enough point, you get massive advantages over other people that would otherwise be at the same skill level as you - or even get you so stacked that you can take on things that would have been much bigger and badder than you. If two people have the same skills but one is simply just stronger and faster and his or her magic abilities are amplified to do double the damage because their intelligence is scaling it up, well the person with the higher level is going to obviously win. But coming back to my earlier statement, a level 1 minotaur is likely going to have a very hard time taking out a level 80 bro just based on body enhancements alone - skill aside.” Michael cleared his throat. “The second thing you’re not considering is this: Yes you can simply TRAIN to grow in levels, AND level doesn’t necessarily equate to true skill. But as you get higher in level, it becomes a lot harder to grow to the next level - requiring a lot more xp points. Not just in the level of the person or thing, but that goes for leveling skill sets too. Right?”

Aiko nodded, listening intently.

Michael raised an eyebrow. “So, if this pureblood succubus is level 705, do you think that she just TRAINED to get up to those levels?”

“What Michael is trying to say,” interrupted Chris, “is that they likely have all killed a LOT in order to get to where they are. Especially after leveling past 200, it becomes increasingly difficult to grow in levels off of purely training. The higher XP will come from actually killing things and that’s often how people get to the higher levels. The more dangerous your opponent, the more XP you’ll get. Some rulers in ages past have slaughtered by their own hand many captured soldiers from enemy countries to grow levels… but as soon as they hit level 200, it doesn’t work as well anymore. At that point the All Spirit will begin to judge your XP gains more on the merit of your kill and how it challenged you; rather than simply just giving you XP for killing people. You still get the XP but it’s significantly diminished if you don't put effort into the kill.”

“What’s an Ifrit?” whispered Itunu as he leaned in so Michael could hear him as Chris continued.

Itunu was the last of their group outside of Maltetious. He had grown up in an impoverished country somewhere in Africa, used as a child soldier in his early years until he found a way to the United States with a stroke of luck. He’d been a cashier at a grocery store up until the All Spirit had torn him from Earth with Aiko and her sister.

Back before Aiko’s sister had been killed.

“A very rare and powerful type of fire demon.” Michael replied. “Almost extinct from what I’ve been told.”

There was a long pause.

“So you’re saying she survived a lot of tough fights to get to this stage...” murmured Aiko.

“Exactly,” replied Chris. “To be fair though… Taen, Michael and myself would all be a lot higher in level than we are too if we hadn’t died so much over the course of our training. We would lose levels every time we died. So our actual skill in using these magics and weapons that we have is much more impressive than our overall levels signify. That’s why I think Taen is overreacting. He’s a lot better than he gives himself credit for.”

“Well I have faith in you!” exclaimed Erin as she tried to comfort Taen again. “You’ve got your undead minions after all! That other group would still struggle against something like your flesh golem, Butcher! Right?”

Butcher was a colossal minion Taen had recently created from the corpses of 17 men, and she was damn right. That thing could take a real hit.

“It isn’t them that I’m worried about, it’s the things they fought that they had a really hard time with that I’m worried about.” Taen moaned. “If they had a hard time with these games, I’m likely going to have a hard time myself. If I had to compare myself to them, I’d guess that I’d be right around where the summoner is when it comes to how capable I am. But I’m likely going to lose people very early on, something that didn’t happen to them until the champion fight at the end. I’ll probably end up having to babysit these people I’m with in order to try to get as many of them past this as I can. They’ll be more of a hindrance than a help.”

“That is ABSOLUTELY NOT what you will be doing!” a feminine voice roared from the abyss. A second later and Maltetious had materialized into their midst.

Maltetious - the ‘mad numen’ - was a semi-crazed woman many hundreds of years old… though she looked to be in her early 20’s and had an unhealthy obsession with Taen. She was incredibly beautiful, with light radiating from her skin and long golden hair whenever she didn’t suppress her powers - but depending on the day, her personality was often a stark contrast to her looks. “You are right to be worried Taen. I am worried too, I didn’t foresee any of this happening… but you are to put YOURSELF over the lives of all the others.” She hesitated as the rest of the people present stood or sat quietly by. “It is likely that they will all die, Taen. And there’s a good chance you will die too.”

Taen immediately put his head in his hands and groaned, depression quickly overcoming him. “I knew it…”

Michael and Chris turned white. If Maltetious was telling him this news, it was likely a very real possibility. He was the obvious favorite, and she wouldn’t lie to him about something like this.

“I have a contingency plan though,” said Maltetious softly with a sad look in her eyes. Taen looked up and waited for an explanation, but it never came.

“What contingency plan?” stated Chris for the rest of the group.

“Hmph.” Maltetious crossed her arms defiantly. “That is on a need to know basis, it is still very possible that Taen doesn’t NEED my help! But if the time comes where it IS needed, I will provide an alternate path of sorts.”

Taen looked skeptical but the others seemed to cheer up at her encouragement.

Maltetious walked to the center of the group and then faced them to hold up one hand. Three visions appeared. One of the summoner and his companions as they camped out in the tomb across from Taen, one of a city ablaze with a horde of undead and monsters massed in the center, and lastly one of a fleet of ships upon ocean waters bearing the insignia of Yorr.

“I will address the most important item first.” Maltetious enlarged the image of Trey and his friends. Trey sat with his back against the wall and was speaking in English to Jason, Ashe, and Izumi as they laughed and drank liquor from a pouch - passing it amongst one another to take turns. Ezdeath was asleep next to them on the ground, curled up in Trey’s fluffy blanket with a content smile on her beautiful features.

“Holy SHIT!” exclaimed Michael loudly and pointed to the succubus. “WHO is THAT?!”

Michael did a double take as he saw Rivia next. “TWO of them!?”

Chris was going to comment but thought better of it when he saw a look of jealousy cross Erin’s face.

“The one with white hair. She’s the succubus pureblood I was talking about,” sighed Taen. Michael just laughed.

“I’d let her kick MY ass ANY day! Same for that other purple skinned demoness. The other girls are hotties too! Wow. What a group!” Michael whistled again loudly and looked Ezdeath up and down before switching gears. “Is that guy with the glowing eyes, tail and horns the summoner?”

Maltetious was obviously annoyed, and as usual - her undertone of disgust when speaking with her most unruly subject (Michael) was evident. “Yes he is. Do you notice anything ELSE strange about them? ASIDE from the pretty women and the man’s demonic features?”

Suddenly it hit him. He’d been so preoccupied with the other aspects of the vision that he had completely missed it.

“FUCK!” screamed Michael as he jumped to his feet. “THEY’RE EARTHBORN TOO! THEY’RE SPEAKING ENGLISH!”

Itunu didn’t buy it. “Can an Earthborn be a demon though? He looks like a demon. Why does he look different if he’s human like us?”

Maltetious smiled to show her perfect teeth and beamed out at everyone. “Well let’s just say I’ve done my homework, and confirmed that he is indeed from Earth. He just happened to get incredibly lucky with the cards he was dealt when coming here. Apparently, a very large sum of Earthborn were sent to our world as well as the rest of the Nirvana Worlds in six waves over the course of five months. Both Eleknar AND Talsh’Noc’Un have bound themselves to him.” Maltetious’ smile turned into a dark and serious glare as she made sure her three champions were paying close attention. “I’m sure you all understand the gravity of this situation from the lessons I have taught you all about the histories of our realms.”

Taen perked up, going rigid with the name of the void essence she was talking about. “... Eleknar? You’re talking about one of the greater evils, right? That’s sinister shit. Are you sure?”

“BOTH?” Chris interrupted. “How could he have found BOTH? And how would BOTH choose to bind to him? They would have had to individually choose him right? It isn’t a package deal?”

Maltetious shook her head no. “It is not a package deal Chris, you are correct. The odds are beyond a billion to one that he would firstly find them, and secondly be chosen by both of them as their carriers. It makes me seriously consider whether or not there is divine intervention at play here… perhaps one of the Infernal Crowns if I were to guess. On top of both of those events, he is Earthborn and his magical aptitude is tremendous even compared to other Earthborn standards. It is unthinkable, and if I had not looked into it myself since finding this individual I would have never believed it to be an even faint possibility. This situation is absolutely ludacris.”

She paused to mull over her thoughts. “To see that he has begun his transcendence so early after uniting with the void essence… is amazing. His evolution has only just begun. He isn’t that impressive now, but he is bound to get much, much stronger. It is not a question of if he becomes stronger, but a question of when he becomes stronger, as long as he survives. Doubtless, the celestials would come to kill him if they knew of his existence...” She pointed a finger at Taen. “And it is now up to you to get him to join our side.”

Taen stared back awkwardly and then laughed a little bit in hopeless depression. “What makes you think he’ll help me? Don’t you think I already thought of that?”

“You are Earthborn, just as he and his group are. Doesn’t that give you a connection to work with?” replied Maltetious. “You are likeable, use it to your advantage. Find out what he wants. What his goals are. Pick his mind. If you are able to acquire his help - the games will become that much more winnable. Afterwards finding the Ring of Shadows would also become much easier. If he declines to help you, and as a last resort only if need be, threaten him and say your peers will let the heavens know of Eleknar’s new Heir. That should get him to do what you want.”

“Why do you want these artifacts anyways?” commented Michael while scratching his head.

Maltetious turned, folded her arms, and snickered. “Twofold. The first is they are items of great power, and would increase your powers for the fight to come.”

“The fight to come?” noted Chris.

He was ignored.

“That reason is a secondary reason,” stated Maltetious. “The primary reason is this: each of these items, along with the redwood staff, have had something hidden within them. Something that Agnude nor any of the other gods would have guessed. That is all I will say about it for now.”

Michael shrugged. “Whatever.”

Taen still wasn’t in the best of moods, and didn’t think this would work. With his head still in his hands, he just slowly shook it back and forth. “I’ll do my best Maltetious, and for both of our sakes I hope they take a liking to me. Do you have anything I could use to bargain with them?”

Maltetious’ beautiful features frowned, and she cocked her head to one side. “What do you mean?”

“Well they’re here in the Deadlands right? Why else would someone come to the deadlands other than to look for treasures and items of power?” Taen rubbed his chin thoughtfully and began to look up. “I think it would help to provide them with payment, or at least offer it ahead of time. I find it hard to think they’d help me undergo such a dangerous set of trials after one of their own was just killed in their own set. That… and I really don’t think threatening them is a good idea.”

“Why can’t you just offer them your prize at the end of these games?” stated Chris. “You’d lose out on the major prize, yeah, but you’d likely live. And they’d have a better shot at winning than the first time too with you and the others of your group.”

Taen paused, and it looked like a lightbulb went off in his head.

“That’s not a bad idea!” exclaimed Taen excitedly. “That might actually work!”

“Glad to be of assistance!” laughed Chris. The look of approval Maltetious gave Chris was obvious and it seemed like she thought it may work too.

“Unfortunately I do not have much left to give,” stated Maltetious. “Otherwise I would have provided you all with these items already. I had to forge your weapons from what little I did have left, as Agnude stole most of my valuables in the age past.”

“Well, at least I have somewhat of a plan now. I think I have a chance at doing this.” Taen calmed himself down and bobbed his head. “I just really hope it works.”

“So what are those other two images of?” Aiko asked as the small Japanese girl pointed up at the visions. “Why’s that city burning?”

“Looks like it got sacked,” commented Itunu.

The vision she was talking about did indeed have a medieval city aflame. Fire roared to life all about for miles, and plumes of smoke drifted skywards to blot out the sun.

“You’d be right in thinking so.” Maltetious enlarged the vision of the city, and as it did - she focused it onto a large man-like creature covered in sinister spiked boney plates. He carried just as sinister of a sword, and he seemed to be commanding the rest of the undead around him as corpses were being mulled over to either be eaten or used in rituals to awaken more to their number.

“Is that what I think it is?” asked Chris. “I thought these things were supposed to be rare?”

Erin nudged Chris in annoyance at being left out. “What are you talking about?”.

“Another living weapon, just like Talsh’Noc’Un.” murmured Taen. “Vorganoth is the name of this one. This one is called ‘The Sword of the Dead.’ Is this vision a live feed?”

“It is happening as we speak,” replied Maltetious. “A lot has happened in a short amount of time.”

“I can see that. What’s the deal with the undead horde?”

Maltetious grimaced. “Creations that Vorganoth and it’s new wielder command. Along with their cronie necromancers, cultists who’ve joined him to bring about a new age of undeath. Within a week of finding the sword he has destroyed multiple villages. As you can see, just recently he sacked the city of Ebbeth in south Yorr. He is growing very strong and is doing so very fast. Far faster than normal people, because he kills people relentlessly without reason and has already cleared his way past level 200 within weeks. This new Earthborn wielder has the highest affinity of any that has ever held Vorganoth, increasing the potential for its use drastically. If Yorr fails to suppress this uprising soon, I fear a wave of rising undead will blight these lands unlike any since the fall of Ornthas many thousands of years ago - and it will start with what you see here.”

Taen thought back to Telnoc, Telrid, and the other villages in the High Stone Mountains that may be caught up in the fighting if it were to spill over the border from Yorr. He didn’t like the idea one bit. Michael, Chris and Erin all had the exact same thoughts as they exchanged glances.

“I will continue to monitor the situation in Yorr, but if things get out of hand… We will have to change our priorities and make for Vorganoth.” Maltetious motioned to the last vision of the fleet as it grew larger. Eventually it focused on a hooded, brown-bearded man who stood in at the helm of a galleon. Aiko and Itunu both gasped at the sight of the familiar face.

But Maltetious didn’t seem to notice and continued without a second thought. “This man, Bajorn of Yorr, is leading an expedition into the deadlands.”

Maltetious stopped as Aiko suddenly jumped to her feet and pointed a trembling finger of rage at the hooded mage in the vision.

“THAT BASTARD KILLED MY SISTER!” screamed Aiko as tears flooded her features. “HE’S THE ONE! HE’S THE ONE!”

All of the others, save Itunu, were shocked at the accusation.

“This man killed your sister?” repeated Maltetious slowly.

Aiko just stood trembling in fury as she continued to point but could not muster the will to speak again. It was Itunu who replied for her.

“I saw it with my own eyes. This is indeed the man that killed Naomi. He also murdered another friend of ours, and another friend too… Lady Beth. He is evil.” Itunu shook his head sadly. “Chris, the necromancers you killed who had chased us to Yorr’s shoreline were his men.”

“YOU SAID YOU WOULD HELP ME GET MY REVENGE!” screamed Aiko, half pleading and half demanding. “I WANT HIM DEAD!”

Maltetious was taken aback by the sudden forcefulness of the usually timid girl’s demeanor, but she understood what it was like to have ones you cared about ripped away from her. Before long a gleam in her eye showed as she grinned widely to put a hand on Aiko’s shoulder.

“My dearest servant...” replied Maltetoius sweetly as she opened a palm upwards to the vision as if to present a fine dish to the Earthborn girl. “I was just about to tell you all that I plan to have this man’s head!”

Maltetious’ grin became a full on gaping evil smile. “It seems like we had a common enemy even before introductions were made!”