My Best Friend is an Eldritch Horror - Chapter 296 (Patreon)

The support team filed into the portal, and it wasn’t long before the only people still standing outside it were Damien, Sylph, and Dredd. The professor let out a weary sigh.

“It might be wiser for the two of you to head the other direction,” Dredd said, glancing at the churning disk of energy. “I do not think meeting the Queen will go well.”

“Isn’t suggesting that treason?” Sylph asked. “The Queen’s orders are law.”

Dredd’s tired face creased in faint amusement, and he let out a short laugh. “I’ve broken more laws than you’ve lived years, Sylph, and Delph has done ten times worse. You don’t stick around in our field without learning which fights to take. I can’t say for certain that the Queen holds you ill will, but she’s going to suspect something, especially after reports of what you and Sylph did to the Corrupted army reach her – if they haven’t already. No Year Three could do what you have. Add that to the rumors of Sylph’s incredible speed and green blood, as well as your arrival when you returned from the Void…”

“You think we should just run?” Damien asked. “Won’t that just make the Queen even more suspicious of us?”

“I’m not telling you what to do. I’m giving you a choice,” Dredd corrected. “I won’t force you to come through this portal. Just be aware of what’s waiting on the other side. Maybe it will go well. I don’t know. Just make your decision. I can’t justify waiting here for long.”

“Hil – my mom is there, right?”

Dredd nodded. “Somewhere.”

“Then I’ll go. I promised I’d see her again, and I’d be putting her at risk if I tried to avoid the Queen. I don’t think it would be beyond her to try to do something if she felt I was truly a threat to the Kingdom. It’s better to deal with the problem before it arises.”

Dredd just nodded toward the portal. Damien didn’t bother asking Sylph if she was certain she wanted to join him. By now, he knew the answer.

The two of them stepped into the swirling red Ether and vanished, yanked away by Dredd’s energy and sent hurtling toward the other end of the portal. The trip didn’t last long, as the base camp was a relatively short distance away.

They were spat out in the large tent in front of Whisp’s diorama of the battlefield. A large ring of heavily armored mages stood in a ring along the edge of the tent. Damien spotted Kat speaking with several students. Xil and Venus had joined Quinlan beside the rest of the support team.

Mark and Elania both sat to the side of the room, inspecting what looked to be the clawed foot of some monster that one of them had liberated from the battlefield. Aven and Cheese stood just behind them, locked in a heated argument with a guard. Damien was pretty sure that Cheese was trying to challenge him to a fight.

But, through all the controlled chaos in the room, Damien’s eyes were drawn to the far end of the tent. A regal woman wearing matte gold armor stood with her palms resting on a shimmering sword planted in the ground. Stains and scratches on her armor showed that she hadn’t sat the battle out, and every piece of equipment she wore exuded Ether. Stormsword stood beside her, whispering something into her ear. At her other side sat Yui and Carson, both slumped over their chairs and covered with small wounds that hadn’t been worth a healer’s time to fix.

The gold-clad woman’s eyes broke away from Stormsword as Damien and Sylph arrived in the room. He followed her gaze, and his features tightened as he spotted Damien and Sylph. His eyes flicked down to Damien’s tattoos and they narrowed. He leaned over to the Queen and whispered something.

Dredd stepped through the portal behind them, and it snapped closed. He thumped his staff on a stone jutting out of the ground, drawing everyone’s attention to them.

“That’s everyone that was on the Southwestern front,” Dredd said.

“Report on the status of the Corruption in that area,” the woman said, her eyes not straying from Damien. “Acting Dean Whisp’s artifact appears to have failed in that area. It lost track of the majority of the Corruption’s force in that area.”

“There do not appear to be any issues with the artifact. The Corruption’s forces on the Southwestern front were decimated,” Dredd replied. “Only a small portion of them survived the battle.”

Mutters passed through the room, silenced as the woman – who could have only been the Queen – raised a closed hand.

“My commendations to you and Kat as well as your teams,” the Queen said. “I am pleased to hear the training was effective.”

“It was,” Dredd confirmed. “We accounted for approximately fifteen percent of the Corruption’s losses.”

“Fifteen percent?” Stormsword asked. “What killed the rest of them?”

“They did,” Dredd said, nodding to Damien and Sylph.

“Who are they? They look like kids,” one of the guards said, staring at them with undisguised surprise. “Do they have some special ability that works against the Corruption better than everyone else’s?”

“Delph’s protegees,” Dredd replied. “Though they have already surpassed both him and I in many ways. They were able to fight the leader of the Corruption’s force to a standstill in Forsad.”

“Then they have done a great service to the kingdom,” the Queen said. “What magics do the two of you wield to possess such power? What companions have you bonded with?”

Ah. There it is. What do you think, Henry? Lie?

“I’ve got a pretty convincing appearance, and the warding circle on your head should keep anyone from sifting around in your thoughts. Can’t hurt,” Henry said. He slipped out of Damien’s shadow, taking up his cute and spherical form.

“Space magic, mostly,” Damien said. “This is Henry, my companion.”

“And I use Wind and Dark magic. My companion is Human,” Sylph said. The tiny fairies shimmered to life in a shower of small white sparks and fluttered around Sylph’s head before vanishing once more. “She’s a little shy in large crowds.”

A few guards chuckled at Sylph’s name for the sylph, but neither Stormsword nor the Queen looked amused. Several of the guards around her shifted, picking up on the mood but failing to see what was causing the disturbance.

“We have more than enough time to deal with introductions later,” Dredd said. “Right now, even though the Corruption has pulled back, their forces are still there. We should prepare for another siege. As all of us saw, they were far more aggressive in the last push than we were used to. If they continue throwing themselves at us like that, we’re going to get pushed back. We need a new plan.”

“You are Stormsword’s son, correct?” the Queen asked Damien, ignoring Dredd.

“Hilla Vale is my mother,” Damien said, inclining his head slightly.

“Very impressive. He says you possess some abilities that are beyond any of your peers. Your victory in the Year Two intramurals was also very impressive. What plane is your Companion from?”

“The Plane of Darkness. He’s an undiscovered species, as far as we’ve been able to tell.”

“Fascinating. And Sylph – I believe Stormsword is familiar with you. He’s told me about how you first met.”

Sylph stood mutely beside Damien, not responding to the Queen’s words. Yui looked up from her spot beside Carson, squinting at her mother in confusion.

“I think Professor Dredd is correct,” Damien said. “We should be focusing on the threat to the kingdom. Sylph and I don’t matter here. We’re just two more warriors.”

“Your worry for the kingdom is admirable,” the Queen said. “Fear not. Its best interests are always in my heart. I ask this line of questioning specifically because of the war we find ourselves in. It may come as a surprise to you, but we are actually waging it on two fronts. The Corruption is only one half of the battle.”

“What do you mean, mom?” Yui asked. “Are you talking about the normal monsters with the Corruption’s army?”

“No. There is another group of monsters that seek to destroy the Mortal Plane,” the Queen said. Her gaze sharpened. “Information of their existence has been restricted heavily. They are called the Void. While they number fewer than the Corruption, they pose an enormous threat to all of us. They are just as great a threat as the Corruption – and perhaps greater, as we do not have a tangible enemy to face.”

Damien kept his face straight. “That does sound like a serious threat, but the Corruption are the ones knocking on Blackmist’s doors.”

“Both must be dealt with. Stormsword, where is Delph? The Void is his area of expertise.”

“He left right after you arrived to push the Corruption back,” Dredd reported. He sat down in one of the chairs scattered around the room, grimacing in pain. “He told me to say that he’d return shortly whenever you asked for his whereabouts.”

The Queen’s eye twitched. “Insufferable man. No matter. His presence is not required. Stormsword, I believe you had something to share.”

“I did. I had been observing the students train over the past few weeks, before the Corruption made its move,” Stormsword said. A tiny crackle of lightning arced between his fingertips. “Sylph displayed abilities that vaguely resembled Matter magic, which she does not possess. They strongly resembled the appearance of many Corrupted monsters. It was determined that these came from her merger with a Corrupted monster during a previous investigation. I spent a significant amount of time speaking with healers to determine if such a thing was possible, but not a single one of them believed it even remotely within their realm of strength.”

“Get to the point, Stormsword,” the Queen said.

“The amount of skill required to bind a Corrupted monster is beyond what any mortal could possess – but it is within the domain of the Void. I have only just now confirmed my suspicions today. The samples of the Void that I was researching had broken runes – just like the ones that Damien has on his skin. I am forced to see no option but the most likely. My son is possessed by a Void creature and is a threat to us all.”

Conversation erupted around the tent as everyone started trying to yell over each other. Many of the people that knew Damien and Sylph didn’t look all that surprised at the revelation that his companion was more than just something from the Plane of Darkness, but Derrod’s accusation wasn’t something that anyone could easily ignore.

“What, me?” Henry asked, touching a tentacle to his head in exaggerated shock. “I could never. I’ve never harmed anything that didn’t deserve it in my entire life. I’m as sweet as a goat.”

“Silence!” the Queen snapped. Her tone didn’t raise, but every single conversation in the room slammed to a halt. “I have no reason to doubt Derrod’s research. My expert on the Void has run off on me, as usual, but it changes nothing. Possessed or not, Damien Vale is a threat to the kingdom.”

“I’m doing nothing but trying to protect the kingdom,” Damien said, not letting them get a rise out of him. He kept his stance neutral, not making any quick or threatening moves to avoid having to kill one of the Queen’s guards if they thought he was about to try to attack her.

“The Corruption is a threat to the Void. It may also be your enemy, but that does not mean you are our ally.”

“This is a pointless argument,” Sylph said. “We can go in cycles for ages about who is trying to defend what, but it doesn’t change the threat of the Corruption on the horizon.”

“But it does mean that we have a potential danger standing at our backs instead of in front of us,” the Queen said. “We have sufficient force to repel the Corruption. Your strength, while significant, is too great of a risk to harbor.”

“With all due respect, I do not believe Damien is possessed,” Dredd said. “Delph and I have tested him, and we are certain that he is in control of his own body.”

“You knew?” the Queen asked, narrowing her eyes.

Dredd shrugged. “I know much, Queen. There is not room to report everything. Delph was more closely involved with them than I was, and good luck getting him to report anything.”

The Queen pursed her lips. Several terse seconds of silence passed. Then she shook her head. “No. The threat is too great. Our greatest warriors are gathering here. A blow from the back could spell our end. I cannot allow it. If Damien is truly in control, then he will do the right thing and allow us to do what is necessary. The Void is a threat that we cannot permit to exist.”

Sylph exchanged a glance with Damien out of the corner of her eyes. She shifted her stance slightly, and Damien let a tiny amount of Ether churn within him, preparing to Warp Step away.

Oh well. What can I say? I tried. I’m not going to let myself get captured or killed just because the Queen is paranoid.

“I can see by the look in your eyes that you have no plans of resolving this peacefully,” the Queen said, her hands wrapping around the hilt of her sword. “I thank you for your service up until this point.”

She started to pull the blade from the ground, but didn’t get to finish the movement. The temperature dropped sharply and a sheet of frost appeared over the Queen’s hands, freezing them in place around the hilt of her blade. The chill spread downward, freezing the blade into the earth.

Everyone spun toward the source of the attack, only to find Yui standing, her hand outstretched.

“You’re making a mistake, mother,” Yui said. “Leave the sword in the ground. Damien is on our side.”

The Queen’s eyes narrowed and the ice covering her shattered. She turned to fully face Yui, but the princess didn’t lower her gaze.

“Do you have any proof?”

“Everything Damien has ever done has been to protect people. I’ve spent a lot of time with him – more than enough to know that neither he nor Henry are working against us,” Yui said, crossing her arms and setting her jaw. “I won’t let you start fighting him.”

“Princess, I know it’s hard to believe that a friend could be working against you,” Stormsword said. “He’s my son. I understand. But–”

“Shut up,” Yui said. “Listen to the words coming out of your mouth. I can’t believe you. And really, anyone that’s met Henry knows he has no interest in doing anything other than minor pranks. The worst thing I’ve seen him do is steal my hat.”

“I made you a new one. Don’t slander my name,” Henry protested.

“He did,” Yui said.

“The Princess is correct,” Quinlan said, taking a cautious step forward. “He rescued my sister from what would have been a fatal coma.”

“He fights too honest to have any plots against the kingdom,” Mark added. “I trust him more than Stormsword.”

Gaves swallowed, joining Mark and Elania with Bella’s help. “With all due respect, Your Highness, I do not believe Damien is working against us either. He has had numerous opportunities to kill Princess Yui, which would have done massive damage to the kingdom. Damien is dangerous, but not to us.”

Aven and Kat both stepped forward as well, but before either of them could speak, a dull thrum filled the room. A whirling gray portal snapped open in the center of the room. Every one of the guards drew their weapons and Ether surged.

Nolan stepped out of the portal, followed by Delph. Glittering green armor covered his body, and he carried his massive stone sword over his shoulder like it weighed as much as a feather. He glanced around at the bristling mages, then glanced over his shoulder at Damien.

“Reporting for duty,” Delph said with a sloppy salute. “I brought a tagalong.”

“I was informed that my presence was needed here,” Nolan said. “And I think I might be picking up on why. I would like to make it clear that House Gray, with its full force, stands behind Damien Vale and Sylph. We will consider it an affront to our house if anyone attempts to challenge them.”

“The Queen is not beholden to the noble houses,” Stormsword growled. “Especially not yours, usurper.”

“I killed my father because he was a fool,” Nolan said. “I looked up to you, Stormsword. Now, I’m just glad your son is nothing alike you. I repeat my earlier statement. Anyone that attempts to raise a hand against Damien will find me and my house their enemy.”

“Are you certain of your words?” the Queen asked. “You are asking me to bet a Kingdom on them.”

“You may ask my father’s corpse how serious I am about the safety of those I have come to care about.”

“I’ll throw my own bit in,” Delph drawled. “You’ve always been a dense idiot, Stormsword. Latching onto one little idea it like a dog with a stick that it won’t let go. While Damien does indeed have a Void creature as his companion, he is not working for the Void.”

“Did anybody not know about this?” the Queen asked, a dangerous note to her voice. “If you knew Damien had a Void companion, why did you not tell me?”

“Because you’re too worried about the kingdom,” Delph replied. “I was having fun. Simple as that. Keep your hands off my students.”

“You’re certain they pose no threat?”

“Oh, they pose a threat,” Delph said with a chuckle. “But not unless you provoke them.”

“Why did you not tell me this earlier? Do you understand the magnitude of this? The Void is not a toy, Delph. You should know that more than anyone.”

Delph snorted. “I waited to make sure this exact scenario would happen. Look at everyone that knows Damien and Sylph as people. Not a single one of them believes that they’re a threat to the kingdom. But what would have happened if you’d received this information during a fight? You might have tried to act, and that would have been quite unfortunate.”

“You admit to manipulating the Queen?” Stormsword asked, his eyes narrow. “You withheld vital information, Delph. This is no joke.”

“If you knew half of what I withheld from your pea-sized brain, it would probably pop,” Delph said. “Keep that tiny sword of yours in its sheathe. As stupid as you are, the Corruption is enough of a threat that I don’t want to waste resources.”

The Queen clapped her hands and a blinding flash of golden light washed through the room, silencing everyone.

“Enough of this. We will be talking about your inability to report information,” the Queen growled. She turned to face Yui. “Are you absolutely certain of your words? I find myself unable to trust any of my actual advisors.”

“I am,” Yui said.

The Queen’s knuckles whitened, and her lips pressed thin, locked in an internal debate. Despite the situation, Damien didn’t envy her. She had to choose between her daughter and right-hand man.