Tier 3+ - Accidental Champion (Book 3) - Chapter 52 - The Cost (Patreon)

Xavier pulled out the rods for his Subspace Communications Area Blackout Array. He slammed them down into the stone, creating a semi-circle just outside the door of the tower. He had yet to see any Denizens entering or exiting the building. If he had, maybe he could have done this all a bit more quietly. Willpower Infusion would let him control them. A simple mental command would get that door open.

Unfortunately, that wasn’t an option, and he didn’t plan to wait around for it to become one. He didn’t want to spend any more time on this planet than was absolutely necessary. All he wanted to do was get the job he came here to do done. Ensure Justin was safe. And take everyone home.

The moment he’d shut off communications around the area, he’d launched an attack on the building. He’d refilled his soulkeeping reserve before coming here—doing so seemed prudent.

He cast Soul Strike. Not a big one. Just an infusion of five souls.

Allegra took a step back when lightning bolts shot from his scythe-staff. When the soul apparitions appeared, her eyes widened.

This woman had never seen Xavier in action before.

She still hasn’t. Not really. This is child’s play.

The soul apparitions formed. He didn’t have a direct target. The walls blocked him from using his aura sight on them, and besides, he wouldn’t have been able to sense the auras of E Grades even if he wanted to. Which meant he was attacking blind.

But spraying a machine gun blindly is bound to get someone killed. He figured the same would apply to Soul Strike.

The kill notifications—two of them—told him he’d been right about that.

The instant one of the people inside their died, he was able to sense their soul. He smiled. He’d been hoping he would be able to do that.

“I’ll open the door for you,” Xavier said, having to communicate with Allegra out loud now that mental communications had been blocked out. He cursed himself for not having gone to those elves back in Fronton and taking some of their radios—or whatever they were—like he’d been planning to. They would have been perfect for this mission.

But he hadn’t felt like he would have enough time for that. They had to move fast.

Xavier Soul Stepped into the building, glad his teleportation worked. He planned to ensure that it never got interrupted again, though he knew that might not be possible. Still, the last thing he needed was to get trapped.

He looked down at the corpse of the Denizen he’d just killed. A young woman. She wasn’t wearing armour, nor robes, but what appeared to pass as this world’s business-type clothes. A neat dress.

She doesn’t look like the enemy.

He banished that thought. No one in this building was innocent. Every single one of them was complicit in the crimes of the council. And the council was the one who led the Invasion Force Division. They were responsible for the death and enslavement of innocents on Earth, and on who knew how many other worlds in the Silver River sector.

Perhaps they were just following orders, but that didn’t mean they were innocent.

He wrenched his gaze away from the young woman lying dead on the ground and opened the door to let Allegra through. He could do this without her. In fact, he was about to. But he didn’t want to leave her outside.

Allegra took a step toward the door, but she hesitated on the threshold. Didn’t she want to come inside?

“You keep moving,” Allegra said, looking down at the rods in the stone. “Someone has to make sure these stay put. If word gets out that you’re here and this is what you’re doing…”

“Then we’ll have bigger problems,” Xavier replied.

She nodded. “Close the door. If anyone comes asking questions, I’ll come up with answers for them.” She brushed a hand over the emblem of Nasrien, still emblazoned on her gear, and muttered, “I hope this is all worth it.”

She may have defected, but no one around here knew that. They would simply see her as a First Lieutenant.

That was why he’d brought her along in the first place. He wondered if she regretted coming along yet.

Xavier didn’t hesitate. He shut the door and strode down the hall. No one noticed the two people he’d just killed. They didn’t have time to notice. Charon’s Scythe sliced through their necks and torsos before they had a chance to look.

~

Every member of the council bar one was gathered in the room, around the table. The man laid his hands on the wood, interlocked his fingers, and released a sigh.

“Do any of you think her plan will actually work?” he asked. Questioning that woman wasn’t something that he usually did. He knew what happened when she was defied, and he liked to keep his head on his neck. But he was beginning to think that she’d gone too far.

And besides, she wasn’t here.

The councilmembers were each supposed to have an equal say in what went on, but it was her who told them what to say. He’d never liked that.

The others looked at each other. It was a long moment before one of them spoke. “She has never led us wrong in the past. I am confident the plan will work.”

He inwardly sneered at the man who’d just spoken. Another suck-up. Not that he could confess to being anything else.

I hope the True Progenitor kills her.

Did she really think she would be able to keep a harness on a beast like that without getting bitten? He’d wanted to talk to him about this, but she was the only one with a direct line to the person in charge, and apparently, he’d approved of her mission.

Unless she hadn’t spoken to him at all. He might not be aware of any of this, considering his rarely around.

Maybe she’s just trying to grab power for herself. It wouldn’t be the first time…

The door to the room burst open. He stood up in shock. His sword appeared in his hand in an instant, however. It had been several decades since he’d actually fought, but old habits died hard.

And so will whoever interrupted this meeting.

A purple mist drifted from the intruder. A mist that he couldn’t help but recognise. Not only was he familiar with that spell, he’d heard it had been cast during the massacre the information packet detailed.

Somehow, the True Progenitor had made it into this room.

At least we’ll get to put him down. There’s no way he can take on the council.

That was what he thought until the first two members of the council nearest to the door were overtaken by the purple mist and turned around to attack their allies.

Pure bolts of white lightning shot from the man’s scythe. Strange, glowing, deathly apparitions appeared. They soared through every member of the council—including him—and he felt the pain rip into him.

Your health is at 70%.

Packs quite the punch. Not enough to take us down though.

Yet he couldn’t help but feel a shiver of fear.

“I haven’t got time for this,” the True Progenitor, Xavier Collins, said as he dodged two attacks that had come his way. He was wearing dark robes that swished around him as he moved. It might have looked ridiculous on someone less powerful.

On this man, it was simply terrifying.

For the next few seconds, the True Progenitor focused all of his efforts on a single councilmember. The woman was perhaps the weakest of them all when it came to Toughness. She’d been a healer—a strange choice for a councilmember, he’d always thought.

He had no idea what the man was doing to her, but it looked like she was burning up from the inside.

It wasn’t long before she died.

The other councilmembers tried to attack the True Progenitor, but he was a slippery bastard, never where their attacks landed.

It all happened too fast.

A grin split the face of the True Progenitor. He looked to be in the thrill of the fight. Eager for more blood.

“Another level,” Xavier Collins muttered.

Then the True Progenitor cast a spell—and the next moment, a dragon appeared. One too big for the room and yet at the same time standing within it. The dissonance of the image made his head hurt.

But not as much as the dragon’s jaws clamping over his head.

~

The councilmembers head was ripped free of his body. Blood sprayed from the wound.

Xavier had been prepared for the sight. Hell, he’d separated several heads from their bodies making his way to this room. But he couldn’t help but wince at the sight of the savage brutality.

Xavier was glad his plan had worked—hitting one of the D Grades hard and fast and taking them out quick enough to gain a level so he could refresh the cooldown on Summon Otherworldly Spirit.

Otherwise he would have had to wait an entire week to use the damned spell.

Honestly, it had been easier than he’d expected.

These D Grades are soft.

That wasn’t a thought he’d ever expected to have.

The Spirit of Vengeance had been elated when Xavier had summoned it. A look of pure glee had entered its eyes at the prospect of more fighting. He’d spoken to it briefly, in that colourless, timeless world that they shared before the spell came into effect.

Three members of the council were dead, and there were several more to go. He’d already gained a level from the carnage that had been unleashed. He had a tentative control of a couple of the enemies with his Willpower Infusion spell, but it was a control he knew wouldn’t last long.

Still, he was confident. The councilmembers were nothing like the D Grades he’d fought previously. They didn’t even dress like fighters. They moved like fighters, but their reaction times were slow. They hadn’t attacked first. They’d clearly once been used to fighting, but they weren’t anymore.

And they certainly hadn’t been expecting to get attacked here, of all places.

The dragon spirit tore into another one of the enemies. That look of glee still alighting its face. It was terrifying in its majesty. There was something old, primal, in the way it fought. The beast—spirit—felt absolutely ancient.

Xavier couldn’t help but wonder what the Otherworld was like. Couldn’t help but wonder how the spirits there came to inhabit it.

He’d also noticed that the spell hadn’t yet reached Rank 2, despite having used it before on D Grades. All of his other spells ranked up like crazy when he killed D Grades, and his lower ranked skills ranked up when he just looked at a D Grade funny.

So what was different about this spell?

Not the time to think on it.

Two of the councilmembers came for him. One was a man carrying a warhammer with a haft taller than him. It looked a little unwieldy in the space. The other was a woman with a pair of long, wavy daggers and a lips-pulled-back snarl.

Xavier Soul Stepped out of the way, glad he had that kind of mobility in this fight. Then he cast Heavy Telekinesis on the two of them, throwing them off balance before he struck them with his scythe-staff and a two-hundred-infused Soul Strike simultaneously.

They didn’t go down, but they were certainly weakened.

Another kill notification came—the dragon roaring behind him—and Soul Strike’s cooldown was nullified as he gained a level.

Xavier infused a thousand souls into his next Soul Strike, aiming it at the two councilmembers in front of him.

Then he unleashed it and watched them both die.

I’m getting stronger.

He whirled around to fight whoever came next, but everyone in the room was already dead. His shoulders slumped. Honestly, he’d been expecting a better fight than that. The Spirit of Vengeance was still summoned. The last time he’d used the beast it had disappeared before all the enemies had been killed, but this had been a much faster and easier fight.

He had—apparently falsely—expected the councilmembers, being the ones that made the decisions for the Invasion Force Division, to have put up more of a fight. To have been, well… more formidable.

Am I really disappointed that I killed my enemies too easily?

He looked at the Spirit of Vengeance, frowning at the massive dragon, whose bulk couldn’t even fit within the room. Summon Otherworldly Spirit still hadn’t gained another rank. Xavier tilted his head to the side. There was no way that he would have been able to manage all this without that spell. Without this dragon.

“How is it I’m able to summon you?” Xavier asked. “You’re far more powerful than I am. Shouldn’t there be some kind of… cost? Beyond Spirit Energy.”

The Spirit of Vengeance grinned. It was still a strange sight, seeing a dragon grin. Its massive, sword-long teeth were covered in the blood of its enemies. “I wondered whether or not you would ask that question. Summoning me twice in one day. Very bold.”

The dragon lowered its head, its face now close to Xavier’s. He couldn’t feel its breath. Did it have breath?

“Bold?” Xavier didn’t like the sound of that. It made him think maybe there was a cost he wasn’t aware of after all.

The dragon seemed to consider him, its face still inches away from his own. Then it dipped its head once. “You have a strong soul. Two summons isn’t going to make much of a difference. But perhaps you should wait for it to heal before summoning me again.”

The Spirit of Vengeance didn’t say another away. It dissipated, its form shifting into a smoke-like substance. It drifted away into a non-existent wind.

Xavier stood there in silence for a long moment, contemplating the dragon’s words.

Summon Otherworldly Spirit damages my soul?