Chapter 149

Lykan

Remnants of the Past

“Slow down.” Brenna called out from behind. She, like Lykan had received the warning from the gods. The details of which brokered no pause or hesitation. In their mind was a beacon that all but pulsed and summoned them with louder echoes every passing second. Every minute they waited; another pulse dinged loudly in their mind.

Even little Kosha heard the pings and had received the message. This was the only reason she had not been abandoned by the duo. Lykan had at first thought the mission would be too tough for her, but since she too received the pings, they decided to all go together. Despite having promised to meet up with the Cerusian members the following day. All Lykan could do was hope that their delay would be understood. He hoped that Frenna Vita, the leader of the Cerusan recovery team who first tried to rescue Kosha was understanding. Well, she had tried to take the girl from Lykan and Brenna, only after a group of trained mercenaries from Ajimal the Great’s army had been easily stopped.

Yes, they hoped members from all over had heard the message, that spoke of impending doom.

Given the fact that Brenna and Lykan both received the message at the same time. Then the way Brenna was able to confirm that Kosha at least heard the pings, if mildly subdued compared to the way Lykan and Brenna did, helped to confirm that she had been chosen.

In a way Lykan cursed himself for pushing Kosha so hard. He had wanted to make sure she was more than capable of defending herself, regardless of whether she stayed with Brenna and Lykan, or if she made her own way in life. Now it seemed that by his pushing the young girl so hard to be well over the halfway point for increased attributes across the board, it forced Kosha to have been chosen.

At least he hoped that was the case, the fact that the Gods somehow thought that Kosha was now capable of handling her own in a fight. The alternate was that anyone close to Lykan would be needlessly pulled into conflicts they were not ready for. Either way, this was not something that she could take lightly. These were the thoughts that went through his mind.

Given his speed of movement and ability to avoid danger, due to the fact he was currently flying. He flew with Kosha. Though rather than carrying the girl, he now trusted her increased Strength and Endurance enough to let her cling to his back. This allowed him to fly with his arms free to wield his mithril bo-staff as needed. Additionally, it gave Lykan a better way to lead the team, as he was the most familiar with the area of the high wood elves. As he had spent many years of his childhood in the area.

He easily made his way through the great jungle basin, cutting a path under the mountains where he first defeated the flame dragon Smet, much by accident. The battle caused the great volcano that the fire dragon had made its nest erupt, forcing him to leave the area. That was how Lykan first found his way into the Great Forest. From there, he met a band of high wood elves who were out patrolling for food.

That was also the first time he met Olivia, his first crush. Though he now knew such things to be childish, at the time he thought what he felt was love. Though only after experiencing the true relationship he now had with Brenna, did he realize how off his initial impression of love was. In a way he had originally put off going back to the great forest, to deactivate the ancient dungeon that the high wood elves had long ago converted into their own stronghold.

The dungeon of course were ancient structures brought here by the Titans, evil beings from space who wished to terraform the planet, and thus bring it under their full control. For the past seven years Lykan had been fighting a slow losing battle against time, where he tried to shut down the dungeons before they finished their task of terraforming the planet, at which point a beam would be sent into space, alerting other Titans to the new planet. A new planet that would be ripe for conquering.

While he did not know the true intentions of the next waves of Titans, he knew that as their planet was now, they could not exist with a terraformed planet. As such, stopping the Titans and their facilities that perpetually worked to release qi into the world was a must. The moment 100% qi saturation was obtained, the planet would officially be terraformed. At least that was what Lykan was able to gain from his interactions with the Titan dungeons.

All these memories and more flooded his mind as he began seeing landmarks from his childhood. He had spent a total of five years in these woods, as a ward of the high wood elves. There were political bands that had tied him with the high wood elves and with Octavia in particular. She was a priestess, a priestess who had over-exerted her powers and was forced by the high wood elves god, the Great Forest Spirit, to be by his side for a period of five years. During that time, she lost all access to her healing magic.

This was also a time when Lykan was able to gain vast insights into the literature of old, as his initial skill from his awakening Universal Literacy allowed him to read and translate the ancient texts of the high wood elves. Texts that had been denied from the high wood elves until Lykan’s arrival. Thus, his appearance was seen as a good thing, at least at first.

There were those who took umbrage with him, and the courtesies that were being afforded him. Ghane Everhart was amongst those. Looking back, it was clear that he had feeling for Octavia, feelings that were denied to him. Somehow Ghane got it in his head that Lykan was the new recipient of Octavia’s affections. Thus, in Ghane’s mind, a rivalry with Lykan was formed. A rivalry that came to a head a few weeks ago, when Lykan squared off against the high wood elf.

For his part Ghane had done quite well, he had managed to gain a lot of power and became a formidable warrior for Ajimal the Great’s army. When Lykan entered a city that had recently been conquered by Ajimal the Great’s army, it was Ghane who had been placed in charge of subjugating the area. The city in question had been built over the old ruins of dwarven settlement, that in turn had been built upon the remains of a Titan dungeon.

Following a map provided by a dwarven king, Brenna and Lykan found their path cross Ghane’s. At which point, Ghane seeking redemption, challenged Lykan to a duel before the heavens. One of the most sacred forms of conflict. During the duel Ghane was easily outclassed, causing one of Ghane’s men to attempt to cheat on his behalf. This was looked down upon by both the God’s eye that had been called to observe the fight, along with Lykan who ended the fight quickly after that point. At the time he had been allowed to heap additional prizes, due to the flagrant cheating that had been conducted during the duel. As a punishment Lykan had demanded that Ajimal the Great’s men find out the true creators of the dungeons. This was meant to be a wakeup call to the world. A call that to Lykan was more important that merely being heralded as a king of a kingdom. For what good was being king, if you were only going to be dethroned when invading Titan’s came to claim a newly habitable planet.

Thus, Lykan for his part has been avoiding politics. Instead sticking to trying to save the world. Originally, he thought he was destined to carry this burden alone, this was due to a misconception he had. The problem with dungeons is that anyone with mana would die when entering them. Looking at it now, he had been denied the ability to use mana, not as a curse, as he originally thought. Instead, it was a blessing, one that allowed him to enter dungeons without fear of harming himself. He originally thought he was unique in this regard but has since found that others also share this anomaly. In fact, every dwarf suffers from the same problem, of being completely cut off from Mana. This is partly why dwarves have made their homes on the top layers of titan dungeons, so they can easily retreat to lower lands, during times of invasions. Also, during these times, the invaders who are unaware of the dangers of mixing mana with qi, often blow up from such interactions.

This immunity to qi, is what is key to the survival of the planet. Lykan first began working with Brenna, on getting her the full complement of blessings from the gods. Originally this was done to have someone who could carry on when he inevitably passed away from one of his perilous excursions. This also served to give root to the idea that Lykan no longer needed to do this alone, that he could find other people like him, who were immune to qi poisoning from dungeons.

With this, he could then take these exceptional people and help them gain blessings of the gods. Thereby making more people that could then follow him and Brenna into various dungeons. Kosha was just such a person, as she too had been classified as a Null, someone who was immune to magic.

Humans and other races have thought of these people as being aberrations, monsters to be eliminated from society. The main reason for this is the previously mentioned Cerusians, the group who was founded by other nulls, and for nulls. Cerusians have gained a bad reputation, one that was well earned, in that they are often the silent hand of justice against tyrannical magic wielders. When kings and queens grow too powerful, and wield their power without any limitations, it is the act of the Cerusians to silence the threat.

For this reason, Cerusians are known to be perfect assassins against mages. Their immunity to the elements and powers wielded by magicians, makes them perfect candidates to exact justice on behalf of the downtrodden.

Even knowing this, Lykan has certain hopes to keep communications with the Cerusians. If Frenna Vita, a person with the same original last name as his family was to be believed, his grandmother yet existed. That meant that somewhere within the order of the Cerusians, he might have some clue as to who his mother truly was. He knew who his father was, as that was the only caretaker, he had for the first eleven years of his life. He was also the person who taught Lykan to be the man he would ultimately turn into.

But for the first time in many years, he finally had a trace of where someone in his family might be. He lost track of his father, after Ajimal’s forces burnt his home village to the ground. Despite having been cast out, the sight of his home in flames caused him to go into a rage. One that ended with him discovering his first dungeon. That was also where he learned the art of harnessing qi to form cores within himself. Basically, smaller batteries that could be wielded to help him not only gain speed, strength, and power. But also allow him to harness the power of air.

He found that Brenna too had a talent for qi cultivation, though her prowess lay within manipulating the earth. Given her dwarven heritage this made sense. He also wondered if all elements could be replicated through qi. This was something that most mages had. Most mages had a specialty, a particular field of magic that they excelled in. Lykan’s field of magical expertise had always been manipulation of other’s magic.

While he was now cut off from being able to wield mana outside his body, he had advanced enough that he could take in any ambient mana that targeted him directly. Mana taken in through this process would then be converted and able to be used by his body. He also had his meridians, which were now mainly used for the sole purpose of flying. While he could perform similar effects with his qi cores, he found that he was more adaptable if he used his meridians for flying, while using his cores to hide his presence and other actions.

He had recently gotten proficient enough that he could mask Kosha and others who were in direct contact with him. This was good, as it meant that the two were able to fly, mostly unmolested by dragons and other aerial predators, as they made their frantic pace towards the spot highlighted in their minds by the gods.

As they approached, the spot they were supposed to observe was readily apparent, as a giant smoking crater sat where the high wood elf stronghold once stood. Seeing the sight, caused a tremble of sorrow to traverse his soul. Once again, he was reminded of the way his own home had been burnt to the ground when Ajimal’s army conquered the village, then realized they would not be able to maintain control over the area. Rather than calling for reinforcements, they decided to burn the village to the ground and salt the fields.

At the time, that was the worst Lykan had seen. Still, what he saw now was far far worse. This was devastation on a scale that even caused the gods to panic in alarm, and rightly so.

Below him, was a burning crater, that looked like the impact site of a meteorite that fell and destroyed everything in its wake. Despite this, there was already activity, as a flying mage was in combat with a dark figure on the ground.

Immediately Lykan’s blood ran cold, as he realized who, or rather what the mage was battling. Realizing what the creature was, also brought to life, why everyone had been summoned, as that was a Titan. A living breathing Titan was above the surface and battling with the lone mage.

Seeing the mage in action, Lykan charged forward. There was no time to put down Kosha. Instead, he figured if she had received the call from the gods, then they thought she was ready for what was going to happen. The only problem, he hoped he was ready, as well.