[Book II Chapter 25] Nephrite: Mount Gull

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“We’ll take a pause over there.” Jayden pointed.

This twisted land had spaghetti-like strands intertwined with large chunks of bedrock. Huge warped trees grew between, their roots connecting the scattered landscape. In one a damaged airship had become entangled.

Nephrite dropped on the deck and slouched against the railing, ignoring the signs of violence. They’d been traveling non-stop since Talvi, desperately trying to match Jayden’s pace. The immortal would rush ahead each time they caught up, never giving them a moments rest.

Once she’d finally caught her breath, she examined the two nearby blood-stained carcasses. Their rib cages were split open, and their insides gone. The missing hearts means the work of Demonic Beasts.

“There are eleven more inside.” Jayden reported, coming out of the cabin. “We are near Basdrum. They must have been escaping there.”

He examined his collapsed subordinates. “Sorry for rushing you. Turns out it was meaningless: everyone at the village is likely dead.”

“Since we’ll have to face the ones responsible,” He continued. “we’ll recuperate here before proceeding further. The threshold is undoubtedly near.”

Tethered Realms were attached to Enera through rifts, and were governed by sovereigns, immortal level creatures capable of maintaining stable realities. With many being demonic beasts, most were hostile or neutral towards humans. The friendly ones migrate to Shangri-la. Around each rift was an area where creatures from the connected realms could exist without a summoner. This was called the threshold. The airship must have drifted here after being attacked.

“Gathering intel is a crucial skill.” Jayden motioned the deck. “Examine the bodies and tell me what we’re facing.”

The beasts populating realms reflected their sovereign, and there would be one dominant type. Jayden was testing them to figure this out.

Haron and Arika moved forwards while Light and Nephrite hung back. This is their field of expertise. As Haran held out a hand, the congealed blood turned fresh and flowed off the deck, providing a clear view of the carnage.

Nephrite watched the man bend over and examined the lifeless limbs. While his lower half was typical dark beige ninja attire, he was bare chested except for a sleeveless jacket. On his arms, rows of neat scars were surrounded by dark crimson tattoos, and around his waist hung two daggers with over-sized hilts.

“These two legs were crushed.” Haron said. “The beast likely landed on the man. What’s strange though is that the skin is intact, and the pants aren’t even torn. We’re dealing with something that doesn’t have claws, which eliminates a lot of possibilities. What did you find Arika?”

The ninja necromancer was peering closely at the other corpse’s upper torso. She had wide black rags rapped tightly around every part of her shapely body. Only her upper face and hands shown any skin.

“Have a look at this.” Arika said. “The beast cracked the rib cage and consumed the chest in one bite. Interestingly, the bones show no injury beyond blunt trauma. This beast has a huge mouth with no teeth.”

“They’re frogs.” Said Light, pointing to cabin’s shattered window. There was a faint red footprint with round dots at the end of each digit.

Jayden nodded, “Judging from the traces inside, we’re dealing with yellow frogs, though other amphibians are likely to show up. Let’s head to Basdrum.”

They reached the village and observed from a strip of land above. It was built at the center of on a mile-wide block of bedrock shaped like a drum. Hundreds of horse-size frogs clung to the mostly undamaged buildings. A dozen toads were also milling about in the streets, barely fitting between the walls. What really drew her attention was the rippling tornado of light in a field at the edge of town.

“Did a rift open within Basdrum’s wards?” Nephrite asked.

“That should be impossible, yet we have the evidence before our eyes.” Jayden shook his head. “Assuming they weren’t damaged or disabled beforehand, we may be looking at a new phenomenon.”

“Could something like this happen to Hearth?” Arika asked. A rift opening and hundreds of demonic beasts pouring out was nightmare scenario for any city.

“That’s what we’re here to find out.” Jayden answered.

“Poor sods never stood a chance.” Haron stared down sadly.

“Let’s get some revenge for them.” Jayden said. “You four clear the village. I’ll stand watch by the rift and make sure nothing more comes through. Show me what can do.”

Haron drew his daggers and crossed his arms, piercing his bicepts. When he retrieved the blades, he held two blood swords. “Lets make this a competition to see who can kill the most.” He declared.

“You’ll lose.” Arika laughed, bones growing out of her rags and forming a skeletal armor.

“Yellow frogs are poisonous, don’t touch their skin or you’ll be paralyzed.” Warned Jayden.

Nephrite drew her cloak tight, letting her existence fade. By her side, Light summoned a cloud of sand around himself. When it faded, he was gone. Not bad.

They dropped down, Haron and Arika releasing a barrage of blood and bone shurikens as they did so. The lethargic reptiles were slow to react, and most projectiles hit their targets. Nephrite pursed her lips at the result. Their hides are thick. A stronger force would be needed for a lethal blow.

Nephrite raced ahead. She didn’t care about the competition, yet she intended to win. Slay all enemies as swiftly as possible. This was her mantra, and the most efficient way to do so was from within the heart of the enemy forces.

Halfway into the village, Nephrite brought out her scimitar, the blade growing longer and thinner. In four swift motions she decapitated the frogs on one roof, jumping to the next.

Her shimmering figure could be seen now, and angry croaking rang out around her. She had time to end one more life before the counter-attack begun. Tongs shot out like bullets in her direction. However, each struck a spike-covered metal ball. The frogs cried out in pain and retracted their tongues, the metal balls still attached. Once they’d done so, their eyes went wide and distant as the spikes tripled in size.

Nice, Nephrite smirked. She’d developed the technique to deal with some annoying chameleons in a dungeon and was glad it worked here too.

Trying a different approach, three frogs leaped at her. Nephrite summoned steel javelins and, after a split second calculation, planted them in the ground before moving on. Unable to change course, her assailants impaled themselves, flailing widely as they swung back and forth.

Having negated their primary means of attack, the reptiles followed helplessly as she carved a path of destruction across the roofs.

“Blood Cleaver.” Nephrite heard. She turned to see a wave of blood split a giant toad in half. He’s doing fine.

She risked a glance to see how the others were managing. Arika was in a square dancing around while controlling three spinal columns flying through the air. Under her guidance, these bone spears drilled holes in one foe after another.

On the other side, a sandstorm was sweeping the village leaving dead amphibians in its wake.

There was a crash as a toad landed next to her. Its tongue shot out like a canon ball. Nephrite jumped and watched the roof’s tiles disintegrate under the creature’s saliva. Yeah, the usual methods won’t work for this guy.

Channeling hard, an enormous buzzsaw blade grew in her hand. She released it as she landed, and the disk of death spun faster and faster. She’d infused the metal with a blade spirit, a short-lived summon which could manipulate weapons. The toad was sawed down the middle an instant.

The action slowly died down as their opponents thinned out. Then an unearthly sound hit Nephrine’s ears. A toad the size of a building had come through the rift and croaked a battle cry, rallying the accompanying horde of frogs. It never got the chance to do more than that.

A thin transparent stake fell from above, piercing the monster from top to bottom. Jayden Zuto, The gemstone ninja. While having earth and air affinities, their leader’s special talent was precious gems.

From atop the diamond stake, Jayden called down, “The little ones are yours to deal with.”

Five minutes later, the battle was over, and they regrouped. Jayden seemed satisfied, “Though I’ll have some pointers for you later, overall well done. By the way, Nephrite won.”

Arika grimaced, “I saw what you were doing with those spiked balls, Nephi. Very efficient. I tried imitating you, but you had too big a head start.”

Despite herself, Nephrite felt a measure of pride. Jayden approached her, “I’m appointing you as Gladiator’s captain. You’ll issue orders and make decisions in my absence. Any objections?”

There were none.

Kailen turned to the rift. “Now the dangerous part of our mission begins. We head through and get some answers.”

On the other side, they discovered a lush tropical forest at the bottom of a wide valley, with a dense haze overhead. It was unusually quiet, with no life around.

“This is a tethered realm normally found close to the barsal empire.” Jayden declared, looking around. “And its sovereign has apparently fled. I suppose swiftly dispatching his lieutenant may have spook him. Let’s do some reconnaissance before he returns with reinforcements.”

A sudden tremor shook the ground around them. “What was that?” Haron asked.

“I don’t know…” Jayden frowned, examining the cliff wall surrounding the jungle, “It’s lowest over there. Catch up as soon as you can.”

With that, the gemstone ninja disappeared, moving too fast for their eyes to follow. Fortunately, little impeded their progress as they chased after him. We slew the majority of this realm’s creatures. With the sovereign gone, the rest have scattered.

Jayden was waiting atop a rocky peak, staring off arms crossed. The sight that awaited them when they joined him was astounding. Never have I seen anything like it.

Below them, off into the distance, spread out a mountain. Intertwined with the downward slope were valleys filled with different environments. Nephrite saw sandy desserts, pine forests, snowy plains, and tropical jungles like the one behind them.

“Those are the missing tethered realms.” Light stated the obvious. “What is this place?”

“It’s Mount Gull.” Jayden answered. “Originally, five sovereigns combined powers to created one giant realm. The ruler is a celestial tiger called Kaigren.”

“Aren’t those extinct?” Light objected.

“They are on Enera, but nothing is ever gone in the Ether.” Jayden explained. “Every creature imaginable, past or present, is summonable. Kaigren is a demonic version of the celestial tiger and is far stronger than they ever were. He also hates humanity to his very core.”

A tremor struck again. They turned and Nephire was shocked to find the haze covering the jungle had actually been a cloud which had drifted aside. Now stretched out above them, the mountainside continued upwards farther than could be seen.

Jayden nodded, “So we have our answer. To wage war, Kaigren has been collecting tethered realms from all over Enera and has created a mountain the size of a continent. Luckily, this place is still unstable. These earthquakes, which are the result of that the sovereign fleeing, are the proof. It should be a couple of months before they are ready to launch an all-out invasion.”