Chapter 384: Void Monsters

Tauri watched in shame and regret as Plum flailed about in terror. Stryg held Plum in his arms and whispered comforting words to her until after a few minutes she began to calm down and remember who she was.

The mind-linking spell was always considered dangerous, Stryg understood that, but when Plum said it’d be fine Tauri had encouraged her.

How mistaken she had been. She should never have placed her former student’s life at risk.

Tauri gripped the sides of her pants and bowed at a ninety-degree angle. “I’m sorry, I shouldn’t have made you use a mind link spell. I should have been more cautious, especially regarding your safety.”

Plum smiled weakly and shook her head, “No, it’s not your fault. I chose to cast that spell.”

“But if I hadn’t—”

“—I said it’s not your fault, let’s leave it at that. Besides, I wouldn’t have known the truth otherwise,” Plum said.

“What truth?” Stryg asked suspiciously.

Plum held her head and winced, but stood up anyway, albeit with a bit of a wobble. She glanced at the unconscious human captive and felt pity for him. He had gone through so much.

Plum took a deep breath and exhaled slowly. Where to begin?

“...Two weeks ago Brom went to the Meeting of a Dawn, a gathering of all the valley chieftains. He was there serving as part of the Flarius Tribe’s entourage. They were discussing their ongoing war with Hollow Shade and the recent attacks on Undergrowth, both of which they blamed Marek of the Cairn for.”

“So Marek was the one who attacked Undergrowth?” Tauri muttered.

“No, I’m not sure. Marek denied it. They didn’t believe him though, not that it mattered in the end,” Plum grimaced.

“What do you mean? What happened?” Stryg asked warily.

“Marek brought some kind of monster with him to the gathering. I’ve never seen anything like it. It was supposedly some sort of ancient creature capable of destroying Hollow Shade’s walls.”

“Hah! That’s impossible,” Tauri laughed.

“I don’t… I don’t know…” Plum admitted.

“You can’t be serious,” Tauri said. “There is no creature or mage out there capable of destroying the Ebon Lords’ legacy. The shade wall is impenetrable. Even if you were to get past the army of shades, which no living being can, you’d still have to somehow penetrate the wall’s magical defenses, which not even Lord Noir could do.”

“You didn’t see the beast. You didn’t see what it was capable of,” Plum said. She raised her arms high and channeled purple mana into her hands. Purple light twisted around her fingers and expanded outwards in a smoky blur until it formed a coherent figure that loomed over the campsite.

“This is what Brom saw,” Plum said.

The dragonbane was standing on its hind legs, but its wide back was hunched over. Its pale grey wings were open wide, encompassing the entire area around them. Its black eyes were glazed over, as if dormant.

Even in the darkness of late night, the size of the monster was clear.

“This…” Tauri laughed shakily, “This is way too large. You didn’t have to make an illusion of this scale to make your point.”

“I didn’t enlarge the size of the creature. This— Unildyr’s beast, was this large, and still growing if Marek’s words are to be believed,” Plum said grimly.

“That’s not possible, it’s bigger than the scarlet dragon that fought Lady Ismene… Bloody Bellum, it’s bigger than a fucking house!” Tauri swore, her voice rising with panic.

“Just because it’s big doesn’t mean it can destroy the shade wall. Size isn’t everything, I mean look at me,” Stryg said.

“I don’t think you’re using that phrase right,” Plum said dryly.

“You’re not small either, Stryg,” Tauri said.

Plum smirked, “No way, professor! Don’t tell me you and your student already—”

“—His height! I was talking about his height!” Tauri said angrily. “He isn’t short anymore. He is already taller than you.”

“My mistake,” Plum winked. She glanced at the dragonbane looming over them as if frozen in time and a shiver ran down her spine. Her smile fell. “I only saw one of these beasts in Brom’s memories, but Marek claimed to have almost twenty of them under his control.”

“Twenty? How did he ever manage to catch even one of these things?” Stryg asked. It didn’t seem to him that they were particularly friendly, judging from the sharp rows of black fangs as long as swords.

“Supposedly Marek found them as eggs in this silver pool? That’s all I managed to gather from Brom at least,” Plum said.

Stryg furrowed his brow, “Silver pool?”

“Even if there were twenty of these things out there, they still couldn’t destroy the wall. The army of shades would consume them before they even got in range of the wall,” Tauri said.

“No, they can destroy the shade wall, I’m certain of it,” Plum said with a defeated voice.

“How do you know?” Stryg asked.

“Besides the fact that its hide was so tough that not even steel could scratch it? It’s because this monster is immune to magic,” Plum said.

“What? Okay, now I know for certain this monster isn’t real. Your memories of Brom must have been damaged when you used the mind link spell,” Tauri said.

“They weren’t,” Plum said adamantly. “The monster is real.”

“Well, then how can it be immune to magic?” Tauri retorted.

“I don’t know, Brom’s memories are a bit blurred. But the creature attacked countless people at the meeting, dozens of mages included. Their magic was useless against the monster. It was almost as if it was absorbing the spells itself.”

“That’s not possible, not even Grey’s drain magic can absorb already cast spells. This creature is not impervious to magic,” Tauri said.

“Unless…” Stryg muttered thoughtfully. “Unless it isn’t like us, like any of us.”

“What is that supposed to mean?” Tauri asked.

“Plum, do you remember reading the book The Postulations of Void Energies in Professor Rime’s Magic Theory class?” Stryg asked.

Plum scratched her cheek and looked away abashedly, “Eheh, let’s just say I wasn’t the ‘greatest’ of students.”

“So that’s a no,” Tauri said flatly.

“There were more important classes than Magic Theory, plus Professor Rime was a grouchy old man and a world-class ass!” Plum said defensively.

“He still is,” Tauri grinned. “As for me, I took the class with Rime too, but it’s been so long I don’t really remember much about it. Not that many students really understood the material in the first place. Loh was the only one who ever scored high marks in that class back in the day.”

“So you and Plum were both terrible at Magic Theory, got it,” Stryg said.

“Hey! That’s not what I said!”

“Guilty,” Plum shrugged.

He shook his head, “The point is, in The Postulations of Void Energies there are several chapters written by an elf, Estelle Oakentheart, a true blue mage scholar. Several centuries ago Estelle encountered a silver pool that seemed to give off a strange ethereal glow. No one realized what the silver water was at the time, but Estelle’s work would one day form the basis of Void Theory.”

“You know, sometimes I forget Stryg is actually smart,” Plum said wryly.

“Agreed,” Tauri sighed.

Stryg glared at them and felt the urge to bite them both, but there were more important matters to discuss. “Estelle theorized that void mana could absorb other kinds of mana. While Grey’s drain spells simply pull mana from one host to another, void mana in just its natural state devours other energies, even life itself. Which is why it would be impossible for a void creature to ever exist. But if one did… hypothetically—”

“—It could devour magic itself, effectively rendering it immune to magic,” Tauri muttered in dawning realization.

“Even against the shades of the ebon wall,” Plum said grimly.

“B-But, void mana is just a theory. It’s never been proven,” Tauri said in a hopeful tone.

“That’s only because we have no way of observing it. Even true blue’s clarity sight is unable to see it because void mana absorbs the blue mana around it, effectively creating a negative space,” Stryg said. “We may not be able to see void energies, but we can see how it affects the existence around it. I believe Estelle’s theory.”

“So if the Cairn Tribe has an army of these void monsters with them what are we supposed to do?” Tauri asked. “Tell our city’s armies to retreat from the valley and prepare for some kind of siege against the Cairn?”

“It’s a lot worse than you think,” Plum mumbled weakly. “After this beast’s show of force, the other valley tribes have chosen to elect Marek as their new king.”

“If that's true... If the valley tribes have actually united then that means they’d have the largest army in the entire realm,” Tauri said with a worried expression.

“And now they have void monsters too,” Stryg said.

“ …A dragon rider is with them too,” Plum admitted.

“What!?” Stryg and Tauri said in unison.

“I told you, it’s a lot worse than you think. There was a dragon rider at the Meeting of Dawn. I couldn’t see his face, but he called himself Crow,” Plum said.

Tauri’s face paled in fear, “Crow…? That was what the Monster in the Dark called himself when we encountered him.”

“Who is that? Should I know him?” Plum asked anxiously.

Stryg glanced at the dragonbane, “Like these things, he shouldn’t be real, but he somehow is.”

Tauri’s eyes widened, “When we fought him, our spells fizzled before they reached him. At the time I didn’t understand what was happening, but if void mana is real, then…”

“He is also a creature of the void,” Stryg realized.

“And if he’s got a dragon under his control then he’s far more dangerous than any of us realized,” Tauri said.

“There was a rumor going around, I’m not sure it’s true, but Brom believed it,” Plum hesitated, “They say the rider and his dragon decimated some of Hollow Shade’s armies that were roaming the valley.”

“No…!” Tauri gasped.

“He could do it,” Stryg muttered. “If it really was the Monster in the Dark and he had a dragon and these void monsters with him, then I think he could have defeated our armies.”

“Stryg, you don’t understand what you're saying.” Tauri swallowed hard, “It wasn’t just a few armies out there. The bulk of House Veres, Glaz, and House Goldelm’s armies are in the valley. If even one of the three armies were to be destroyed, Hollow Shade’s fighting power would be weakened tremendously. And if a siege is coming then we’ll need every soldier we can muster.”

“Wait…” Stryg narrowed his eyes. “Are you saying Lord Veres and Lord Goldelm could have been killed?”

“They were leading their own armies, so yes, it’s very much possible,” Tauri said.

“Then that means Cal’s and Freya’s fathers would be dead…” Stryg muttered.

“Along with countless more fathers and mothers,” Plum said weakly.

Tauri took a deep breath and shook her head, “This isn’t the time to be mourning. We need to get back to Hollow Shade as soon as possible and warn them of the truth about these void monsters.”

“You’re right. I need to protect my tribe, I need to protect my family,” Stryg said resolutely. Feli, Maeve, Rhian, Nora, little Kamilo. He had to keep them safe.

Plum bit her lip, “Hollow Shade may not win this war, perhaps it would be better to get your family outside the city?”

“Where?” Tauri frowned. “Where could they go? Dusk Valley is filled with enemy savages. And for some reason, Undergrowth seems to be working with Marek and his lot.”

“What about Murkton? Doesn’t your House have connections with House Morrigan?” Plum asked.

“Sure, but Stryg is an Ebon Aspirant, that changes everything. I have no idea if Lord Morrigan would grant haven to anyone related to Stryg.”

“No,” Stryg said quietly. “I won’t take my tribe and run away. If I leave then I’m basically abandoning everyone else in Hollow Shade to die.”

“Well, what else are we supposed to do?” Plum asked exasperatedly. “It’s not like your leaving would make any difference. You may be an Aspirant but even you can’t fight these monsters, let alone stand up to the entire might of Undergrowth and the valley tribe’s armies!”

“You’re right,” Stryg admitted. “I can’t fight them all by myself. I don’t even know if Hollow Shade’s combined might can… but perhaps we don’t have to fight them alone.”

“What are you saying?” Plum asked.

“The Sylvan people have been preparing for some kind of imminent danger for the last year. Maybe this is it?” Stryg asked.

Tauri laughed bitterly, “You think the Sylvan tribes are preparing to go to war to help Hollow Shade? The city that destroyed Lunis and its people? Yeah, I don’t think so.”

“Okay, fine,” Stryg conceded. “But… they wouldn’t be going to war to help Hollow Shade, not really.” Stryg nodded to himself, thinking it through. “The Sylvan folk would be fighting to protect the thousands of goblins in the Commoner District. The descendants of the Lunisians that were left behind when the armies of Lunis fled to Vulture Woods 300 years ago.”

“Stryg…” Tauri stared at him. She hadn’t thought of the commoner goblins like that before and the realization that she hadn’t bothered her more than she’d like to admit.

“Ahem,” Plum raised her hand, “That sounds like quite the noble cause and all, but do you really think you can convince the Sylvan leaders to go to war for such a cause? I mean, they abandoned those goblins in the first place, didn’t they?”

Stryg sighed, “You’re right. I don’t think the Lunar Elect would ever listen to me. Why would they? They don’t even know who I am, I couldn’t get an audience with them even if I wanted to…” Stryg’s eyes suddenly lit with hope, “But they would listen to an actual Sylvan chieftain and a First Mother. Together they could petition for a proper audience in front of the Lunar Elect.”

Plum's eyes widened, “Then—?”

“—Are you really saying…?” Tauri frowned.

Stryg nodded, “I’m going back to the Blood Fang village.”