Grand Game 380: A Guardian’s Work (Patreon)

“Adriel?” I repeated when the lich did not respond.

Tearing her gaze away from something only she could see, the spirit turned about to face me. “What?” she asked, sounding annoyed.

“Do we chase after him?” I asked equably.

Adriel’s mouth opened then snapped closed, and for one moment she struggled silently with herself.

I didn’t blame her for being out of sorts. Anyone would be after having their expectations so rudely upset. It had taken centuries of planning to bring her to this moment, and now… now, I wasn’t sure what Draven’s surprising behavior heralded.

The spirit sighed, visibly releasing her pent-up tension. “There’s no point. We won’t catch him.” She paused. “Besides, he will be back.”

I tilted my head to the side. “He will?”

Adriel nodded, pointing to the stone plinth sitting forgotten in the ground. “The Emblem is here. He has to return to retrieve it.”

I rubbed my chin thoughtfully. “I see. Any ideas of how we get him to listen to us the second time around?”

“Oh, he heard us. He just chose not to listen.”

My brows lifted. “How can you—”

A flurry of Game messages interrupted.

A guardian has killed a 163 stygian weaver with a fatal blow!

A guardian has killed a 154 stygian crawler with a fatal blow!

A guardian has killed a 170 stygian hydra with a fatal blow!

…

…

“What is it?” Adriel asked tersely.

“He’s killing stygians,” I replied.

“How pointless,” she muttered. “The damn fool is wasting what little time we have.”

Wisely, I refrained from pointing out that that was the self-same thing she asked me to do only a few minutes ago. “On the bright side... Draven seems lively enough.” I glanced at her. “What does that mean for you?”

Adriel fell silent for a moment. “I don’t know,” she said quietly.

I waited to see if she would go on, but the spirit appeared lost in her own thoughts. Deciding to let her be, I turned my attention outwards. I could still hear the clatter of hooves in the distance and Game messages continued to scroll down through my vision. Draven was certainly making the most of his ‘new life.’

I shrugged. The guardian would return when he did, and until then there was nothing to do but wait. Striding forward, I walked over to the spot formerly occupied by the void tree.

Now that the marble statue was no longer there to obstruct me, I could inspect the ground more closely. Kneeling down, I lowered my arm into one of the many seams left in the earth by the void tree’s roots.

My hand came back full of stone shards. Impressively, the sapling’s roots had burrowed through solid rock—no mean feat. But other than for revealing that little tidbit of information, my investigation yielded little else.

I wasn't sure what I expected to find—bits of broken off roots, perhaps—but after repeatedly shoving my hand into multiple cracks, it became clear that the void tree had left nothing of itself behind.

Disappointed, I rose to my feet and moved on to my next subject of interest: the harbinger. Walking a slow circle around the corpse, I inspected it closely.

The dead Power was as ugly in death as he had been in life. There was no blood, and although the corpse had deflated, it still made for a colossal creature. Harvesting it would yield significant rewards.

Withdrawing my alchemy stone from a pocket, I tossed it in my hands while I wondered where to place it. At the head, I decided, kneeling beside the harbinger’s crow-like beak.

“Don't.”

Hand hovering over the corpse, I glanced over my shoulder to find Adriel watching me. “Why? Is it dangerous?”

She shook her head. “No, but if you use that stone, you will lose out on the most valuable reagents.”

Which was true enough. The hunter’s alchemy's stone was a tier four item and wouldn’t gather reagents of higher tier. But it was also the only means I had of harvesting the corpse. “Then, how—”

“Let Farren do it.”

I frowned.

“I would do it myself,” the lich added, “but I can’t, not in spiritform.”

Returning the alchemy stone to my pocket, I rose to my feet. “It could be a couple of days before I manage to return here,” I warned her.

“Don't worry. Nothing in this dungeon will dare to touch the body.”

“Alright,” I agreed reluctantly, trying to calculate how long it would take to return to the lich’s court and escort Farren back here. Without the dracolich to fly us, we would have to make the journey on foot. A couple of days might’ve been an overly optimistic estimate. “Is it worth going to all that trouble?” I asked dubiously.

Adriel’s lips twitched. “Definitely,” she pronounced.

Before I could ask what she meant, the clatter of hooves in the background grew louder and Adriel’s gaze flitted past me.

“He’s on his way back,” she said with a relieved smile. Floating forward, the spirit placed herself atop the plinth holding the Emblem, and folding her arms, waited with ill-disguised impatience for the approaching guardian.

✵ ✵ ✵

Draven’s steps slowed as he drew closer. A good sign, I thought. At least, he didn't mean to run me over. What with everything else, a mad guardian was the last thing I wanted to deal with.

A stone hoof stamped down on the plinth, passing heedlessly through Adriel’s spiritform.

“Draven,” Adriel began.

“WAIT,” he ordered peremptorily.

Adriel’s lips tightened, and she opened her mouth again, a sharp rebuke on the tip of her tongue no doubt.

But Draven had not waited to see if his command was obeyed. Before the lich could speak again, a litany of words like a roll of thunder floated down through the mist.

Adriel’s eyes narrowed, but she didn't try interrupting the guardian.

I glanced at her. “What is he doing?”

“Casting,” she said absently.

I frowned. “Casting? Casting what?”

The spirit waved me to silence. “That's what I'm trying to figure out. Now, shush and let me listen.”

I sighed. Allies are all well and good, I thought, pinching the bridge of my nose, but sometimes, they can be trying indeed. Leaving the lich undisturbed, I turned my attention back to Draven or at least the parts of him I could see.

The guardian’s mind was still hidden, but the little bit of him that was visible would suffice for an analyze attempt. Why not? I thought with a shrug. Reaching out with my will, I inspected him.

You cannot analyze your target! This entity is immune to this ability!

Huh, I thought dumbly. I'd only received a similar message from the Game one other time. On that occasion, I had attempted to inspect Loken. But then I'd only used a tier one analyze. This time my analyze was a tier three ability—and not even my failed analyze attempt on the harbinger had produced a similar response.

So what is the guardian? I wondered. A being on par with Loken, who was himself a supreme Power? I shuddered. The guardians couldn't be that powerful. Could they?

My musings were interrupted by a message from the Adjudicator.

Draven has cast purifying storm.

On the tail end of the Game alert, howling winds descended from the sky. I staggered, pushed back by the sudden gusts of air. “What's going on?” I yelled, shouting to make myself heard over the magical storm.

Adriel laughed. She, of course, was unaffected by the winds. “It's Draven. He is expelling the fog.”

My gaze darted to the side, and sure enough I saw the pale mists swirling upwards. Presumably they were being sucked back into the Nethersphere through the breach in the barrier. “That's a relief,” I said with a smile of my own as I switched over to mindspeech. “That leaves only the smaller fog banks to deal with.”

Adriel chuckled. “No Michael, it doesn’t. Draven’s spell extends to every corner of the dungeon. He is banishing all the nether. By the time he is done, the sector will be entirely cleansed of the void.”

✵ ✵ ✵

It took all of five minutes before Draven’s work was complete and the dungeon purged of nether.

I sucked in a deep breath. For what felt like the first time in ages, the air tasted clean and fresh. Turning my gaze upwards, I considered the horizon. There was no sign of the sickly pale strands of mist anywhere. The centaur guardian’s grizzled and bearded face was finally visible as was the violet dome surrounding the sector.

But so, too, was the deep scar directly overhead.

That’s the breach, I thought. It was the spot at which the stygians had penetrated Draven’s defenses and entered the sector. Even now, I could see more clouds of thick, billowing nether massing in the void beyond.

The guardian was not done yet, though, and as soon as his first spell was completed, he performed a second casting.

Draven has cast breach mend.

Before my eyes, the breach shrunk, then vanished entirely. My smile broadened and I laughed. I couldn’t help it. The sector was finally rid of the void once and for all!

As if in confirmation, a Game message unfurled in my mind.

You have completed the task: Cleanse the Corruption! You have purged sector 73,102 of the nether. Thanks to your efforts, the denizens of Draven’s Reach no longer need to fear its vile touch. Wolf is pleased.

It was not the only alert though, and on its heels, a plethora of others followed.

Your Wolf Mark has deepened!

Congratulations, Michael! Your Wolf Mark has advanced to Wolf Protector. Alphas are the protectors of the Pack, responsible for shepherding their charges and seeing to their welfare. But an Alpha’s charge is only one Pack, and ultimately his reach is limited. Beyond the Alphas are the Protectors, roving guardians responsible for the safety of all wolfkind.

As a result of your new Wolf Mark, your Class trait, wolfwalker, has evolved to voidwalker!

Your deepening Wolf Mark has unearthed a rare, but not insignificant aspect of your lupine heritage, granting you the trait voidwalker. In addition to enhancing your senses in all environments, this trait additionally grants you the ability to see through the obscuring fog of the nether.

As an anointed scion of House Wolf and a Powerful Initiate, your new Wolf Mark gives you the option to evolve your existing master Class into an epic Class.

Do you wish to evolve your voidstealer Class now?