EG Book 7 Chapter 35 (Patreon)

*** AUTHOR’S NOTE ***

Chapter 4/5 today!

*** AUTHOR’S NOTE ***

Just before the time was up, I approached King Craesti. “Sir, we still have the staff. Knight Kaminski was unable to damage it. Can you, Master Narwan, or another of similar power, meet us outside Craesti City to attempt to destroy it?”

He looked at me severely for a second, then nodded. “I will speak with Casmir. At least one of us will be there.”

“Thank you, sire,” I said with a deep bow.

He snorted, then smiled. “Soon you will be as irreverent as my daughter. We will speak again soon.”

With that, Connecting the Myriad Peoples ran out of Aether, and I opened my real eyes. Vaya was still sitting next to me, and I could feel a thin thread of Growth Aether carefully massaging my left iliotibial band. Microscopic tears in the tendon healed, and I knew she was being careful to maintain full functionality of my leg.

“Thank you,” I said. “King Craesti or Librarian Narwan should be on their way. Help me outside?”

She nodded. “Of course.”

I grabbed onto her extended arm and she lifted me one handed out of the bed. It was yet another example of how utterly strong we had all gotten. I tentatively put weight on my legs before wrapping my arm around her shoulders. She reciprocated with an arm around my waist, and we three-leggedly walked out of my room.

Aleks walked behind us, a frown on her face as she shook off the lingering effects of the medallion. We’d noticed last time that it took everyone else a few seconds to recover from sending their consciousnesses to another place, at least those below Soul Strengthening in power. “Hopefully dad comes,” she said. “I would like to talk to him.”

“Everyone, either King Craesti or Librarian Narwan should be here shortly,” I announced, breaking everyone out of their gathering trances.

“Woo, we can finally take a break!” Jon said cheekily.

I just shook my head. “Come on, outside!” Vaya helped me to the door.

Once the door was fully open, Librarian Narwan appeared in front of us. I blinked while Vaya let out a little ‘eep’ of surprise. He snorted, a grin on his face, while I heard King Craesti chuckle off to my right. “Master Narwan, King Craesti,” I said calmly. “I apologize for not bowing, but I doubt I would be able to without falling.”

“No need,” King Craesti said. “Alright Casmir, you had your fun. Let them out.”

Librarian Narwan laughed, then gestured with one hand. A film of Air Aether wrapped around me and pulled me out of Vaya’s grasp. He moved backwards just as fast as I moved forward, and I found myself standing in front of King Craesti, Knight Kaminski, himself, and a third older man with graying blonde hair, blue eyes, and a sharp nose wearing a shining red hauberk over a black tunic. The red was replicated in the greaves and vambraces he also wore, which made me think of the bracer I’d outgrown a while ago. I really should get a better set of armor, I thought, something to protect and empower me. Add that to my list of tasks in the city.

“Champion Krigare,” Aleks said, walking up behind me with the others.

“Princess,” he responded, his voice a bit higher than his built frame made me expect.

“Where is the staff?” King Craesti asked.

“At the front of the Skysurfer, Aiden’s flying device,” Aleks answered. “We were unwilling to bring it inside the shack. It is tied to the device and wrapped in several layers of blankets, so that none of us would accidentally touch it with our hands if we had to move it.”

Librarian Narwan pulled the bundle to us the same way that he had me. It floated about a meter away. The Air Aether formed a tiny hand and unwrapped the blankets from around it, until it floated in its malevolent glory. After a second, it dropped to the ground as Librarian Narwan hissed in pain. The edges of the Air Aether had corroded green, and he severed them with a burst of white Fire, Purity Aether, I thought. “Never have I seen anything as foul as this,” Librarian Narwan said. “I can sense the Aether inside it. You are right, we must destroy it. Krigare, protect the children.”

A wall of Fire formed in front of us, reinforced by molten Metal and Lava. Champion Krigare stepped forward, while King Craesti and Librarian Narwan vanished on the other side.

They reappeared about a hundred meters farther down the plain we were in. A blanket held the staff which was placed directly between them. They both unfurled their auras, letting them use their power to its fullest extent.

Even through the protection of the Champion, I could feel the aura try to crush me down. I pushed against it with my own, and then saw Champion Krigare nod. Of course, they’re using this as a training opportunity, I thought. I’m one hundred percent certain that Librarian Narwan is behind that. Light and Darkness! The last exclamation came when runes started to form around the strongest people in the kingdom. Millions of runes, more Aether than I could express in a year right now, bloomed out of both of them. It was bright enough in my Aether Sight that I had to blink away an afterimage as I tuned it down.

The blanket wrapped around the staff as it floated ten meters straight up, into the middle of a sphere of runes. All eight Elements flowed into the construct, a carefully choreographed display of power and control. Streamers of each Element separated and joined into others, with dozens of secondary Elements forming. All of them had something to do with destruction or a means of breaking things, such as Flame, Forge, Decay, Rot, Erosion, Abrasion, and others that I only vaguely recognized or could only guess at what they were from the way they felt.

The massive sphere, over fifty meters in radius, slowly started to contract. As the outer edges collapsed inward, they picked up speed. Every second, it doubled, until they flared with breathtaking power as every bit of the Aether surged onto the staff at the same time.

An explosion of light and sound pounded on the shield in front of us, causing it to shake. Cracks formed even as Champion Krigare poured more Aether into it. He grunted and curved the shield. The bend let it shed the force still pounding onto the Aether construct. Finally, thirty seconds later, the wave passed.

The shield now ended on the lip of a hundred meter wide crater, dipping into the ground just under ten meters at the center. Dirt, rocks, and plant roots were visible on the edges, until the very middle of it. Librarian Narwan and King Craesti both floated a few meters apart, and they both were looking down with nearly identical frowns on their faces.

The staff stood proudly, its tip plunged into the ground. I looked closely and saw that it bore no damage from the attack, though the crystal stuck to it was gone.

Glancing around, I found it. The crystal that had adorned the staff was now embedded in the side of the crater just below us. The shield of Aether vanished as Champion Krigare relaxed. Immediately, I felt the crystal calling me. Something within my heart, my Core, cried out for me to take the crystal, to recover it before the staff could consume it again.

I didn’t even notice myself moving before the gem was in my hand. A surge of knowledge blasted into me, freezing me in place.

“Aiden! “ Aleks screamed, slamming her arm into mine and making me drop the crystal.

I staggered to the side, slipping on the slope of the crater, and dropped to one knee. Unconsciously, I raised a tiny platform of Earth to catch my slide. Aleks was at my side in an instant, I blinked a couple of times, then looked up at Aleks. “Thanks, but it wasn’t hurting me. I wasn’t sure how to not make a decision, though, since this isn’t a good location for it. Dropping it worked, so that’s good.”

“Make what decision?” Vaya asked, sliding down next to me. Jamila and Jon were looking over the side.

I glanced back to see Librarian Narwan and King Craesti were both now standing near the implanted staff, examining it with frowns of concentration on their faces. Master Narwan looked over at me and nodded before turning back to it, so I knew they were listening as well. “Uh, the crystal is a Dungeon Seed, or at least it can be. Someone can plant the Seed and channel Aether into it to create a new Dungeon. I got the feeling that doing so would make you the Dungeon Spirit, so you might lose your body entirely. Maybe someone who was already dying could use it? Not the best option anyway, I think.”

“Options?” Aleks asked.

I nodded and continued, “The Seed could also be given to an already open Dungeon, strengthening it immensely. If we gave it to Bruno, for example, I think he’d be able to open two or more new instances, and make the highest power one stronger too. The last option is the most interesting. Somehow, the Seed searched my memories and saw the design for the portal to the Divine Territory. It could be merged into a portal like that to create a link to a known Dungeon, the Jungle Arena in this case, from anywhere in the world! Not entirely sure what that would mean, exactly, but it would be awesome to link together Craesti and the Askhas Baqiya like that.”

“So, if you wanted to do that, why were you having trouble not making a decision?” Aleks asked again.

“Uh, when I tried it rejected my decision because there wasn’t a portal already built,” I said with a frown. “Not sure why, but we should decide where to put it without touching it again, just in case.”

“Interesting,” King Craesti said, his voice carried over to us on a gust of Wind Aether. Another line of Aether created a shell of Stone around the crystal and floated it over to the king. “I will make a decision about this soon. You will be rewarded for the crystal, on top of everything else you will be receiving.”

I nodded, “Of course, sire.”

Aleks and Vaya both reached in and grabbed my arms. “On three,” Aleks said, then counted up. At three, they leapt into the air, dragging me with them, and landed in front of Jamila and Champion Krigare. Jamila looked at me questioningly, seeing as I was nearly dangling from the arms of the other two young women, so I gave her a reassuring grin.

“I do not believe that pure brute force will destroy the staff,” Librarian Narwan said after nearly an hour of examining it. We’d sat down and started a meal while he and King Craesti had conferred. “I will explore some of the older tomes in Azyl’s library, as it is still better than yours, (Name).”

“Yes, yes, though Aiden’s printing press will let us create more of them now,” King Craesti said. “Still, it is time for us to go to Craesti. Per, Casmir, assist the youngsters with their travel. I will be waiting at the square for you.” He leapt into the sky, then blurred away.

“All right, everyone, onto the Skysurfer,” Librarian Narwan said. We all piled onto the front. “Aiden, shrink the shack please.”

I nodded, then reached out to touch the doorway. With a thought, it shrank down. We’d decided that hiding the Portable Home completely wasn’t really feasible. So we were pretending it was just a six by six room that shrank down for transport. Nothing beyond that was told to anyone but King Craesti and Librarian Narwan. I was also to hide my ring’s abilities as best as I could, so I had a large Inscribed storage bag sitting on my waist.

With the Portable Home out of the way, we were able to spread out. “Aiden, control the Skysurfer to float twenty meters off the ground,” Librarian Narwan commanded once we were situated.

I reached out with my Aether, sinking it into the control Inscriptions. The Skysurfer smoothly ascended into the sky. Once we hit twenty meters, I held us steady. Librarian Narwan and Champion Krigare moved to either side, and a bubble of Air, Speed, and Stability Aether encompassed the entire thing. Without so much as a lurch, we shot off at nearly a hundred times the speed we could normally have achieved.

Of course, the massive Aether investment made it so that was a short ranged boost, but it was enough to shave the half a day journey into only ten minutes. Both Soul Strengthening gatherers were winded by the end of our shortened trip, revealing why we didn’t just use that to get from the Ashkhas Baqiya back here.

Once we could see the walls, Champion Krigare stopped adding his Aether to the structure, and we slowed down. Librarian Narwan deftly brought us to a near halt, then told me, “Land us by the gate.”

I nodded, and we descended as smoothly as we’d ascended. The little traffic that had occupied the road was stopped nearly fifty meters away from the gate, Craesti City Guard holding the merchants to allow us clear space. Five meters from the massive gates leading into the city from the road heading towards (City Name). Just as we set down, the gates opened.

A stream of chariots, guided by more City Guard, rushed out and turned to allow us to enter in an obviously choreographed display. It was awesome. Most of the chariots were plain, used for training and war, but three of them were ostentatiously decorated with silver, gold, and the Craesti symbol. (Did I ever define this?)

“Princess Aleksandra, Knight Aiden, you are on the closest chariot,” Champion Krigare said, only the second time I’d heard him speak. “Miss Vaya, Miss Jamila, you are on the second. Mister Ming, Mister Xaio, you are on the third …” he detailed the rest of everyone’s positions. “Knight Aiden, be careful to show strength, not weakness.”

“Thank you, Champion Krigare,” I said, bowing my head and offering my arm to Aleks. “Uh, is someone going to collect the Skysurfer?”

“I will bring it,” Champion Krigare said.

I nodded, “Thank you again. Shall we, my dear?”

Aleks giggled, then took my arm. Most people wouldn't be able to tell that she was effectively holding me up, but I did my best to walk anyway. My Aether flowed through me, and I basically used it to manipulate my legs and keep my body straight, with Aleks’s support keeping me stable.

Thankfully, it was only a few meters to the chariot. The driver, a captain of the Guard, reached out to help Aleks first, and then myself. I put one hand on the side of the chariot, and the other looped through Aleks’s. Through the open gate, I could see thousands of people lining the roadway, cheering for us.

“King Craesti instructed me to tell you, you are still human,” the captain said with a frown. “Not sure why.”

I nodded, “So we do not let the cheers go to our heads, and we stay vigilant and humble. Thank you, Captain …”

“Menghao,” he said with a grin. “I am Captain Menghao. Thank you for asking.” I nodded, and a horn sounded from the end of the chariots. “We are ready. Hold on, then be sure to wave to the citizens!”

The horses pulling the chariot, sleek fifth level Beasts with an Air Element, took off at a slow trot when Captain Menghao flicked the reins. A few seconds later, he pulled gently, and they slowed to a walk, letting the people cheering see us.

I carefully pulled my left hand off the side of the chariot and raised it to wave at the crowds. At my gesture, the cheering redoubled. I saw young boys jumping and waving at us from the front while younger women flashed smiles and kisses, trying to attract attention. Families stood, little children waving on the shoulders of their parents.

The vast majority of people I saw were only in the Aether Gathering stage, even the parents and grandparents in the crowd. I kept the frown off my face, but I redoubled my desire to help everyone advance. “A nation of Condensation Gatherers,” I said. “That is mine and Librarian Narwan’s goals.”

“We can do it,” Aleks said, gripping my arm tighter and waving with her other one. I saw young men trying to get her attention too, which was somewhat comforting. At least its not just the girls, I thought, though the power dynamics still needs work in this kingdom. We can fix it, it will just take time.

“Only with your support,” I said aloud, dismissing my concern for now. Something to think about later, and act upon. I know I’ll have Aleks’s support. We continued through the city until we arrived at the same square where I’d been Knighted, only it was even more crowded than it had been then.