LSRO: Chapter 159 - Usher in a New Age (Patreon)

Hi there everyone!

So - as you know both the audio and ebook release on July 2nd 2024. Today I'm announcing that the first book will stub as of June 24th - giving me a week between stubbing and release. I considered it for a long time, but KU is the most lucrative avenue for publishing in LitRPG - so I do need to put the ebook into Kindle Unlimited.

Anyhu! This chapter was fun to write.

It's not a complete cliffhanger but I hope you'll want to know what happens next.

~~

Chapter 159

Usher in a New Age

The Golem in front of her burned.

Quinn couldn't help but be fascinated by the way the white-hot flames engulfed its body. It writhed, the surface broke and cracked, and the rock or sandstone, or whatever it was, turned brittle and white. The massive construct crashed around, destroying seating areas, statues, and anything in its way.

Its arms flailed around even as portions of them broke away and it roared with frustration as it smashed a fist through the floor. The sound of its scream echoed throughout the room, rumbling it even more. She could feel it right through to her bones. Desperation and a tinge of sadness. The rebound of the action scattered the remnants of what had once been the esposian-driven guardians. 

Even though they'd attacked her, she knew that they had been commanded to do so, and she felt a wrench of anger toward their ruler.

Another piece of the ceiling crumbled away and fell. With a good 40-50 feet to fall, Quinn knew it'd damage whatever it hit severely. With speed she didn't know she possessed, she dove and pushed Geneva out of the way, rolling them both to safety. Dust and fragments were all that showered them.

"You have to watch out for the fallout. You can't just be mesmerized by it," she said to her assistant, panting with the aftermath of the exertion.

Geneva turned her widened eyes on Quinn. "How did you…?"

"I don't know. I just… I did." Quinn shook her head, getting herself back on track. 

Geneva gestured toward the giant flaming golem. "That's not just a simple light for you to see by."

"No shit," Quinn said. She turned her attention back to the flailing golem, even as it began to strangely disintegrate in front of her eyes. The power was whooshing out of it, but Quinn could feel the heat and despite the very obvious melting going on around the golem, not to mention its own fracturing, Quinn didn't feel wary of the temperature at all. 

It seeped through the air, ashes and debris flying all around with it, but it felt like home, like a reality she should always have known. Even so, the heat suffused her. It gave her close to a headache and a heady feeling, like she could do anything. She could make anybody talk. Anybody at all, including the person responsible for all of this pointless destruction.

More of the ceiling had fallen away. The entrance lane crumbled into ruins as the golem thrashed around inside the entrance hall, catching onto the only other support structures. Quinn was worried that they were going to get buried alive as well. But Geneva seemed like she could almost read Quinn's mind. She held up a hand.

"Don't worry, Librarian." She said, her jaw set with determination. "I've got this. I'll reinforce it."

"What do you mean, reinforce it?" Quinn asked.

Geneva actually raised an eyebrow. "Well, you saw me. I protected us from all those spikes. I will reinforce the area all around us and hope that... Well, let's just hope that the golem disintegrates before it manages to cause any more structural damage. I don't want to be buried alive."

Quinn gaped at Geneva. It was the first time she'd ever heard her truly commanding when she spoke to Quinn. She had an idea that perhaps Geneva had always been on her most polite behavior with Quinn, since her words had always been deliberately chosen. After all, she was the Librarian. 

Heat began to suffuse Quinn's body in an uncomfortable way. She immediately activated one of her ice skills and coated her hands and her forehead, trying to make herself cool down. She didn't understand anything about the fiery power she wielded. All she could remember was when Uncle Hal basically told her that she had a heat or fire affinity, and she hadn't believed him. She was definitely going to have to see him sooner than later, not that that was a bad thing.

It looked like she might have another couple of contenders for his interrogation.

Just as the golem began to crumble in earnest, Quinn and Nishpa realized at the same time that one of the Esposians trapped in the armor was actually still alive. Quinn darted forward to pull the small being out, while Nishpa darted around trying to leverage a little bit of her meager weight against the burning golem to leverage its direction a little better. Quinn slotted the information away. Apparently Nishpa didn't burn either.

Geneva kept them safe from falling debris, and Aradie and Lynx had darted over to help Malakai.

Finally, the golem crashed to the ground just after Quinn pulled the Esposian from the armor and managed to dash to safety. As it crashed, it exploded up into a shower of small, sharp, hot rock pieces. Geneva barely managed to get up a second shield in time, and because she was supporting the vast majority of the weight of the ceiling, the protection wasn't nearly as strong. 

Quinn, Nishpa, and the poor wretch they'd managed to salvage from their otherwise fiery tomb of armor were all inundated with small, stinging, hot shards.

Quinn cried out in pain, and then it vanished. 

Not that the rocks vanished from her skin, just that the heat they provided felt sort of comforting. She didn't understand what that meant, but right then, everything inside her and around her needed to be hot, hotter than she'd ever felt anything before in her life. Everything suddenly seems too cold, despite the smoldering ruin of a golem in front of her.

Quinn needed heat, sort of like she needed air.

"Quinn?" 

Lynx's voice broke through to her, and yet it sounded distant, so far away. She pushed herself up from the ground and stumbled away from the Esposian she'd rescued while Nishpa attended to the wounds that they'd both suffered. Quinn yanked at the rocks, tugging them out of her skin, ignoring the fact that blood flowed freely from the wounds. With a thought, she exerted just a tiny bit of healing in the direction of all of the small puncture wounds in her arm. It healed up, and yet the heat still remained, like it was running through her veins, as if she'd lit a fire with an ignition switch that was burning through all of her blood and turning it into molten lava.

"Lynx, I'm hot. Really, really hot." Quinn fell to the ground on her knees and her hands, like that cat pose in yoga. She didn't know where the vague thought came from, just that her insides were turning into fire.

"Breathe, Quinn."

But that wasn't Lynx's voice, that was Malakai, and even he sounded out of breath. Wait, hadn't he just been fighting? 

Quinn was burning.

"Ice, Quinn, ice. Form the ice." Malakai's tone soothed like a cool breeze on a hot day.

She did. She formed a thin layer of ice all over her body, and not just any old ice, hard like arctic ice, like something that had existed for millennia. It worked, just a little, at first, like somebody had put a cold compress on her head. It helped, a lot, but not as much as she needed. Her body still felt like an inferno, like a volcano, but at least now she wasn't about to erupt. She shifted and sat down, putting her head between her knees, panting.

"Whoa," she said, "that was a lot of heat."

"Yeah." Malakai touched her shoulder briefly and crouched down next to her. She looked up at him, realizing that she still had a layer of ice all over her body.

The sensation ran under her skin and clothes, as well as on her hands, her face, her neck, and any part of her body that was visible. Malakai was grinning, sort of like a fool, but he wasn't a fool. He was much nicer than that. Quinn flashed him a grateful smile.

"Thanks. For just a second there, I think I forgot breathing was possible."

"Likely," he said. He tapped her hand, still encased in ice. "Now, now I know why you smell like ice."

"What do you mean?" she cocked her head to one side, looking at him with curiosity.

"Well, you need the ice. You have a strong affinity to it because of your water affinities. You know, like the Lunar Dragon." He paused as he thought over his answer. "But it's also a defensive mechanism to help keep the heat that will probably suffuse your body a lot now you're awakening. You know, keep you cooler. It's like a built-in air conditioner, isn't that what you call them?"

Quinn blinked at him. "Oh, yeah, that really does make sense. Kind of, I guess. Wouldn't I just be, like, impervious to heat?"

"Yeah, you'd think so." Mal smiled. "But they did mix in some other elements that might make that a little bit difficult. Still, I think you're holding it together pretty well."

"Gee," she said, her voice coming out flat. "Thank you so much."

Regaining her equilibrium, Quinn pushed herself to standing and brushed off some of the ash and debris. "How are you holding up, Geneva?"

"'m holding up fantastically, as is the dome above us," Geneva said, the strain showing in her voice.

Malakai raised an eyebrow. "Wow, what happened? Did you bloom into a beautiful butterfly, Geneva?"

"No, I'm just short-tempered today. This whole fiasco has frayed my very last nerve!" She bit out the words like they were distasteful in her mind, and that's when Quinn realized just how right she was.

"I have to agree with you, Geneva." She handed her a couple of energy supplements to help her maintain the shielding above them. Her mind was already on a plethora of other things, especially a traitor.

The illusions had long since dropped from the city. But even more so, everything around them began to crumble. It was all Quinn could do not to gag at the smell of seared flesh and hair. The poor pool of molten golem even tugged at her heartstrings. 

She turned on the now prone and bleeding Adrito. He had blood pouring from his eyes and ears and his body was emaciated. He looked like a dying fly. Latia was out cold, blood streaming from a couple of wounds that had been partially healed.

"You're a nice opponent, aren't you?" She said to Malakai, who shrugged.

"I wasn't going to leave them to bleed out. I don't need a universal diplomatic incident because I decided to kill the leaders of one of the factions." He shrugged.

"Yeah, probably not a good idea," Quinn said. "Still, I think it just makes you nicer."

"Careful, Quinn, I'll almost think you like me."

"I'd never go that far," Quinn said. "I'm just being nice too."

Malakai chuckled. "Good, good."

Quinn noticed Lynx standing guard over Adrito, who wasn't out cold despite the bloody appearance. He was writhing in pain, curled into a tiny ball. She walked to the top of the dais stairs and stood over him, which was quite easy to do given his diminutive stature. She looked at the prime minister. He was much paler, more transparent now than he had been when she'd initially met him. She wanted to be angry at him and yell at him. 

She was pretty sure she could work herself back up to there, but right now her logic was winning out. He was prone. He looked small, forlorn, broken and feeble. Nothing like he'd made himself appear when they first arrived. All his power was gone. Frankly, it looked like a pretty heavy wind would blow him away, even with his wings. Speaking of which, the ends of them were in tatters. She raised an eyebrow at Malakai and he shook his head, so he hadn't done it.

"What did you pull on so much power for?" Quinn said, and realized her voice sounded angry. She took a breath, centering herself, thanks to all of Milaro's teachings, and tried again. "Why? Why was it so important to finish us, to keep us from healing Eugea? Or whatever your reasoning is. You've destroyed the city. You've destroyed the lives of many of your subjects. Did you realize you've made multiple islands plummet out of the sky?

Adrito opened his eyes. They were almost colorless now. He coughed and it wracked his entire small frame. Blood gathered on his lips. Quinn felt a pang of sadness for him, that he had been slightly regal when she saw him but forty minutes ago and now, now he was a wreck, because he'd pulled on too much power. Malakai knelt down to infuse a bare minimum of healing despite the fact it wasn't as effective on Esposians as their own magic. At least it was something.

"Don't you have an answer?" Quinn asked gently.

"I don't answer to you," Adrito spat out.

Quinn rolled her eyes. "Listen," she said, taking a knee in front of him so she could be a little bit more on his level. He struggled to sit up. 

"There's no need to sit up, you can just listen to what I've got to say. This, all of this, is wrong and you know it and I know it. You've killed people, your own people. Because of your actions, people who depended on you for their safety have lost their lives. You've destroyed a magical world, for what?" Her disdain for him grew as she spoke, with each realization of how despicable he actually was.

"You wouldn't understand," Adrito spat out again.

"Of course I wouldn't, how about you tell me and try me, maybe I will." She hated the way villains vagued everything up, like, oh no, let's disasterize it all. What if he just told her, maybe she'd understand.

Adrito laughed. It was a light sound, not pretty like she was used to from Geneva, not even like she'd heard Nishpa laugh. There was a rasping quality to it. "You don't understand. I'm not alone. We aren't alone. There are many species out there who don't agree with the filtration of chaos, who don't agree that everybody should have access to magic. The strong need the magic. We can funnel its power and make the right choices. We are the people who should have access to it. We will usher in a new age," he coughed, spluttering, spitting out blood.

"You will usher in a new era?" Quinn asked, skeptically. "You're not looking so strong right now..."

"An era that allows us to make sure that those most capable among us become the strongest."

Quinn raised an eyebrow and gestured emphatically at the crumbling surroundings Geneva was barely able to keep from burying them. "You call this capable?"

Adrito actually paled, but scowled and didn't say another word.

Quinn threw her hands up in the air.  "Are you happy?" She said, "What could possibly be worth all of this destruction? Destroying those who trusted you, keeping them in the dark, to use the power of your world, of your planet so recklessly? How was any of this? How was destroying me and my companions? How was any of this worth it for you or anyone?"

She'd raised her voice. She was angry, her fists clenched at her side. Malakai touched her shoulder lightly, just briefly, just enough to take her away from that edge, the edge that made her want to smash Adrito to pieces. She calmed herself and gave the Esposian a smile that promised nothing nice. "You may not want to tell us what you know. But I know somebody who can make you," she said and gestured to the two leaders and the esposian guard they'd saved. "Gather them up."

"You okay, Quinn?" Malakai asked with concern.

She nodded. "I'm better than okay. We're taking them all back to the Library. And then... Well, we're visiting Uncle Hal."

~~

Some people can be so selfish.

Much love

KT