Long Live the Emperor: Chapter 18 (Patreon)

Clover wasn’t the only one to sense Alvin’s presence. Magus Terrance was no fool, and even though Alvin couldn’t see the man himself, the trembling earth and the raging fire were clearly his work.

“Clover, jump into my arms!” Alvin shouted.

Clover obeyed without hesitation. She leaped through the flames, though they licked her pale legs. She landed in Alvin’s grip, and he caught her and held her tight.

“Cover your face. This is going to hurt.” Alvin closed his eyes and barreled through the flames as quickly as he could. The flames almost felt like tiny mouths digging into his flesh and taking out little bites. The earth itself felt the same. With a grimace, he realized both were demons.

If he didn’t push through fast, he knew he never would. His entire body hurt, but soon he was out the other side.

He felt fire licking up his legs, and the earth itself tried to wrap itself around his feet and bind him in place, but he stepped quickly and shoved hard, forcing the flames and rocks aside. He emerged in the ruined clearing he’d seen before.

Clover fared worse than him in the fire. If his body burned as one might expect from flesh and bones, she burned as easily as if she was made of wood. A few flickering flames still lapped over her skin, and Alvin patted them until they were out.

But as fast as Clover burned, she was even faster to heal. Now that she was out of the fire, fresh patches of skin crawled up and down her body to repair the damage, and within a moment, she looked weary but in perfect health once again.

“Master, you’re hurt,” Clover mewled. She pressed her lips against his scorched cheeks, and soon Alvin felt his body healing just as fast as Clover’s had. It was like she was breathing fresh life into him.

“Thank you. But we have to go quickly. I want to be out of here before--“

“Wait just a moment,” Magus Terrance’s voice echoed out from the other side of the clearing. “I recognize you. You’re that brat, Aldrich. How in the great spirit’s name did you get in the Dreamrealm?”

Alvin didn’t bother turning or replying. Those two creatures under the Magus’ command were powerful, and Clover’s powers seemed to be entirely countered by them. That meant the only thing Alvin had to fight with were his own fists, and that wouldn’t be enough to take on a pair of hungry demons and their mage.

So, he did the best thing he could think of and ran as fast as he could. If he was lucky, perhaps Magus Terrance would think his eyes had deceived him. While running, Alvin shouted to Clover.

“Can we return to the real world and slip away?”

“No, he can hunt us there even easier than he can hunt us here. Me especially,” Clover replied. “The Dreamrealm is where souls reside. If we aren’t here to fight back, he could do as he pleases with us.”

No wonder Clover had abandoned her body to fight for her life in the Drealmrealm. It was her only option. And that meant Alvin’s only option was to get somewhere the magus couldn’t find him.

The path Alvin and Mabel came through was far narrower and more overgrown in the Dreamrealm, and he had to watch his step as he ran. The forest teemed with far greater life as well. There were plants and insects aplenty, but many of them were larger than life, and as he ran, he had a keen sense that he was being watched by something more than just trees.

The forest was alive in the same way Clover was, and it was watching him. The sensation was like spiders creeping up his spine, and he knew if they sensed weakness, those trees would strike just as quickly as Magus Terrance would. He’d spent enough time in the Dreamrealm with Clover to know that there were plenty of dangerous things lurking around in any given section of the forest. Most were weak enough that even Alvin could overpower them with his bare hands, but not all of them.

He wouldn’t worry so much if Clover was healthy and whole, but healing both herself and him had taken a lot out of her, especially since it had come mere moments after a fight for her life. She’d probably exhausted herself keeping the fire at bay as long as she had. She looked like she was barely keeping her eyes open.

“You can’t run from me!” Magus Terrance shouted, voice fading into the background as Alvin ran away from him. For all his shouting, it seemed like his fire spirit and earth spirit were both rather slow.

“Give up. You can’t escape!” Magus Terrance shouted again, this time his voice a little quieter as Alvin got further away.

Behind him, Alvin heard the mage curse and hike up those long, flowing robes as he chased after Alvin and Clover on foot. The image wasn’t particularly fast, though, and even cradling Clover in his arms, Alvin sensed his presence growing more distant as they wove through the forest. At this rate, he would lose his pursuer in no time. Once gone, he and Clover could return to their bodies and get those out of danger as well.

But just when Alvin was starting to feel like he had things under control, Clover spoke with worry in her voice. “Master, something’s following us in the air.”

Alvin looked up, and sure enough, there it was. A giant eagle with a wingspan like a plane. It let out a long call, and Magus Terrance replied.

“Yes, you stupid bird. The human and the nymph! Stop them!”

The bird dove downward, but the forest was crowded enough to keep it from swooping down, especially when Alvin kept to the side of the path. As the eagle dove, a few vines reached up from deeper within the forest, as though they intended to drag the flying demon down.

The Dreamrealm was a wild place, and demons devoured one another even more voraciously than wild creatures in the real world preyed upon one another. The eagle was clearly wary of becoming prey itself and was having trouble obeying its master’s orders.

But with eyes from the sky locked onto them, Alvin realized they’d have a much harder time losing Magus Terrance’s trail than he thought, even if the man himself was slow.

The next few minutes were a relentless pursuit, and Alvin felt himself growing winded. Clover placed a hand on his chest, and the healing power took the edge of the burning in his lungs, though it didn’t abate it entirely. He couldn’t keep this up forever.

“We need to take out that bird,” Alvin said.

“My vines won’t reach that high,” Clover said.

“Can you throw those thorn things again?” Alvin asked hopefully.

Clover tried to make a few thorns and fling them at the eagle, but she clearly was running on fumes. The thorns were half-hearted at best, and the eagle waved its wings to blow them off course long before they landed.

“I’m sorry I’m so weak these days, master. I know you’re disappointed in me,” Clover said, wetness beading up in the corners of her eyes.

“None of that now. I’ll just have to take the thing out myself.”

The forest was growing thin as they reached the end of the path. Just like in the real world, the forest gave way to a grassy plain. Once upon a time, East Water had probably been completely forested. But the humans living in the settlement had cut down most of the trees for timber to build their homes, and after that, the open fields became farms or grazing land, so they never took hold again. That change had carried over to the Dreamrealm, and the forest abruptly turned to grass and farmland at the edge of human civilization.

Alvin realized he’d need to serve as bait for a moment. He could only hope that the giant eagle swooping overhead was no smarter than an ordinary eagle because if this didn’t work, he wasn’t sure what he’d do.

“I’m going to set you down a moment,” Alvin said to Clover. “If you see a giant eagle about to stab its talons into my ass, do whatever you can to stop it.”

“Okay, master. I will definitely protect your ass,” Clover said, brows furrowed with both weariness and concentration.

Alvin placed her at the base of a tree, just out of sight, to an eagle looking down from above. Then he ran into the clearing.

Magus Terrance’s orders echoed out from a distance just in time, repeating the same demands he’d made of the spirit bound to him that he had since their chase began.

“Get them, you stupid bird!”

The eagle swooped down, and its shadow flickered over Alvin, reminding him of just how large this thing really was. Those talons were the size of his arm. He sensed wind flapping just behind him, and he felt like a mouse might feel after catching sight of its natural predator. Every instinct told him to dart back to the woods where the eagle wouldn’t have room to fly, but he kept his course a little while longer.

He looped back around in an arc toward Clover again, and he turned just in time because the bird’s claws swiped by him, missing him by a hair’s breadth. It swerved for another pass, this time almost level with the ground as it swooped in for the kill.

That provided the perfect opportunity for Clover. A pair of huge thorns shot out of the forest, followed by a dozen grasping vines. The first of the thorns missed, but the other struck one of the eagle’s wings. Its feathers were blown out of alignment long enough for it to tumble and swerve toward the ground. It tried to catch itself and would have gotten airborne again if not for the grasping vines that followed the first attack. One of Clover’s grasping vines got a grip around one of the eagle’s talons and pulled it toward the forest.

The giant bird squawked like a chicken on the chopping block as it was pulled toward the forest, and more and more of Clover’s vines wrapped around it.

“Bye-bye, birdy,” Clover said as she gestured with her hand and shot a root the size of her head up from the ground and straight through the giant eagle’s skull. The spirit instantly froze, then toppled over and died.

Alvin scooped Clover back up, and she seemed even more tired than before. He gave her a pat on the shoulder as he carried her to keep her awake.

“Hey, Clover, I need you a little longer before you can rest. We need to get somewhere safe.”

“Mhmm,” Clover nuzzled her cheek against Alvin’s chest. “The castle. That’s a safe place.”

“What direction?”

“Inward.”

Alvin looked up, down, and side to side. What direction was inward supposed to be? “Clover, I don’t know what that means.”

“Sink into yourself, and your spirit will fade from this part of the Dreamrealm. You will go to your special place,” Clover explained.

To Alvin, that at least explained why he entered the Dreamrealm in the same place and different locations. The castle was inside him all along or something.

But Alvin was used to following Clover’s instructions, and he focused inward just as she instructed. He felt the world fading around behind him even as he continued to run to just put that much more distance between him and Magus Terrance still in the forest behind him.

Just as he felt himself starting to fade away, Alvin let himself fall face-first into the tall grass. He hoped Magus Terrance was too far behind to see where he went and would spend precious time looking for him in the Dreamrealm. If Alvin was lucky, he and Clover could get back to the castle before he woke up.

Familiar white light washed over Alvin, and when he opened his eyes again, he was standing in front of the ruined castle once more. Their firepit was still burning nearby, burning brightly from when he lit it to purge himself of Magus Terrance’s curse. Strange, he would have thought it’d have gone out by now.

“We made it, Clover!” Alvin said.

“Yay! I knew you could do it, master! Now I’m going to take a little nap...” Clover yawned and rolled out of Alvin’s hands and right into the dirt in front of him.

“I have your body with me,” Alvin said.

“Mhm... sounds nice...” Clover mumbled as she closed her eyes.

“What should I do with it?”

“Put it in your bed...” Clover mumbled. “That sounds warm and cozy.”

“Clover, I can’t--“ Alvin was going to say he couldn’t sneak Clover into the castle, but from the looks of things, she was already asleep. He’d never seen her this tired before. “I suppose I’ll just figure something out.”

Chuckling, Alvin closed his eyes again and returned to the real world. Faintly, he heard a voice calling him. It grew louder as his physical senses returned. He realized it was Mabel’s voice.

“Aldrich! Aldrich! We need to go!”