Chapter 304 - Diplomacy (Patreon)

Zeke resisted the urge to summon Voromir from his spatial storage, largely because he instinctively knew that, if it came down to a fight against the creature in front of him, he would be incinerated in a matter of seconds. [Inspect] came back with only question marks, but if the huge monster before him was less than the maximum level associated with the Eternal Realm, he would have been incredibly surprised.

Fortunately, it didn’t seem angry.

Of course, Zeke was no expert in reading the emotions of giant, serpentine reptiles, so he might have been completely mistaken.

After a second, he found his voice and answered, “No. I killed a wyrm queen in the Mortal Realm.”

Zeke had been called a lot of things since being reborn – murderer, tyrant, and walking calamity, among others – but no one had ever rightly labeled him a liar. And he had no intention of veering into dishonesty now. For one, he didn’t think it would do much good. The creature – another wyrm, unless he was completely mistaken – could somehow sense his past, so denying his actions would be pointless. For another, he just found it distasteful. He’d spent his time since being reborn conquering one obstacle after another, relying only on his own strength to see him through. The idea of engaging in deception – even if it was probably prudent – just left a bad taste in Zeke’s mouth. He would rise or fall depending on his actual power, not on the strength of lies.

The great creature shifted, and the ground shuddered. To call it huge would have been a vast understatement. If it was smaller than a freight train, Zeke would have been surprised; even its head was the size of a locomotive. Serpentine, with scales of deep purple, it glittered with its own luminescence. With fangs as tall as a man and as big around as Zeke’s thigh, the creature was to the wyrm queen Zeke had defeated back in the Radiant Isles as that other creature was to its children.

That he’d unrepentantly slaughtered.

“Honesty. A welcome surprise,” the wyrm rumbled. “That is…surprising from one who bears the stink of demonkind. Liars, sadists, and fiends, all. I am pleased to find that you differ from your brethren. Perhaps that will be enough. Perhaps not. It does not matter. My children need you, and I lack for options.”

“Demons are no brothers of mine,” Zeke pointed out. “I am a cambion.”

“So it seems,” the wyrm replied, shifting her coiled body. As she moved, her scales scraped against one another, sounding like an avalanche. Zeke wasn’t certain why he thought of the wyrm as a female, but he felt certain his determination. “Yet the stench remains.”

“What can I do for the kobolds that you can’t?” he asked, eager to shift the discussion from the topic of his race. As used to being half-demon as he’d grown, he knew that others wouldn’t always be so understanding. And Zeke understood it, too – demons were cruel, malicious creatures who murdered unrepentantly. There was more to it than that, he was certain – after all, as far as he knew, all demons had been normal, if misguided, people before their deaths – but it was neither the time nor the place for such thoughts.

“You have the power to save them,” she said.

“How?” Zeke asked. “And from what?”

“From destruction,” she answered, raising her head and looking to the rear. Then, like lightning, she lashed out. Suddenly, the entire cave was filled with thick ropes of lightning. However, Zeke, Jasper, and Silik remained entirely untouched as the lightning gathered and raced down the tunnel to the wyrm’s rear. A moment later, an unholy screech filled the air, driving everyone but Zeke to their knees. For his part, he barely remained upright.

Then, as if nothing had happened, the wyrm returned to her resting state and announced, “From the blood wraith, of course. Ever hungry, he is held in abeyance only through my efforts. The day when I will not be enough quickly approaches, and soon enough, he will overwhelm me. When that happens, my children will be powerless to resist his corrupting influence.”

Zeke’s mind spun. The blood wraith was powerful enough to fight the powerful wyrm to a standstill? Then how could he have ever escaped his own encounter with the creature? It didn’t make sense, and he said as much, ending with, “I fought him off, and that was ten levels ago. I’ve grown much stronger since then. Surely, you’re far more powerful than I am.”

“Indeed,” she answered. “However, you have never met the blood wraith – not in truth. As I said, I maintain a stalwart defense against his main body. However, he has subverted my efforts by sending pieces of himself out to feed on hapless creatures who are too blind to sense his presence and too weak to resist him. You are lucky to have survived even that brush with that detestable sliver of his soul, and if you ever found yourself in his true presence, your mind would melt before his might. The same would be true with me, had I not spent centuries honing my control, lest I overwhelm my children.”

“That doesn’t answer my question.”

“The blood wraith, may his name remain cursed, and I are at a stalemate. This has been true for nearly a century,” said the wyrm, her voice rattling the stone beneath Zeke’s feet. “That is changing, day by day. He grows stronger, while I steadily weaken. Soon, I will no longer be capable of holding him at bay. When that happens, he will devour my children before spreading his Will to the dwarves and spreading across the entire region.”

Her explanation was clear and concise, though Zeke suspected that there was far more to it than she had revealed. “And where do I come in?” he asked.

“A good portion of my power is expended in keeping my children safe,” she said. “The more there are, the greater the drain. If they are to live, then I will continuously weaken until nothing stands against the blood wraith. I wish for you to shoulder some of that burden.”

“I’m not sure I understand,” Zeke admitted. At first, he thought that the wyrm’s efforts to combat the blood wraith was responsible for the tipping balance of power. However, something about her tone told him that it went much deeper than that.

“Each of my children bears a sliver of my essence,” she stated. “It protects them and allows them to progress further than they could have otherwise managed. It grants them sapience as well as power, pushing a dream of a new civilization into reality.”

If Zeke understood it properly, the wyrm’s efforts – likely over decades, if not centuries – had pushed the kobolds from monstrosity into becoming a sapient race in their own right. But doing so had come at a cost, draining the wyrm of a portion of her power. Before, she might’ve been able to fight toe-to-toe with the blood wraith, but now? She’d have to give up her children if she wanted a chance at defeating him.

Or at least, that was the gist of it. Likely, there was plenty he didn’t understand, though.

“Where do I come in?” he asked.

“I need you to take my children far from here,” she stated. “Once they are safe, I can retract my Will and crush the blood wraith like the pest he is.”

“What will happen to the kobolds? Will they…regress?”

“No. They have bathed in my essence for generations,” she answered. “They will go out into the wider world and flourish. I wish for you to help them along the way, but I only require that you remove them from my presence.”

That’s when Zeke connected a few dots. The dwarves were the problem. Likely, there was nothing keeping the kobolds from setting out on their own. However, the way to the surface was impeded by the stone dwarves’ city. With his tower – or more importantly, its newly evolved ability to accommodate living creatures – he could escort them to safety. It was much easier for a single warrior to escape than for an entire civilization of kobolds to climb their way through a dwarven city.

“Pardon my honesty, but I’m not seeing what’s in this for me,” Zeke stated. Behind him, Silik hissed, and Zeke could practically feel Jasper’s blanch. But as he’d already established, Zeke wasn’t one to beat around the bush. Instead, he tended to speak plainly, and he wasn’t going to change that habit just because he was faced with an incredibly powerful creature like the giant wyrm.

“You do not fear my wrath, should you refuse?” she asked, a hint of amusement in her rumbling voice.

“Not really,” Zeke admitted. “You might decide to kill me, sure. But I’ve survived when I shouldn’t have before, and I like my chances now. Especially when you’ve already admitted that you’re not a full strength. I think that if you expended enough energy to do me in, you’d probably lose ground against the blood wraith. It doesn’t make sense that you’d take that chance – not when you still have time. Live to fight another day and all that.”

“Interesting,” said the wyrm. She raised her head and leaned forward until her snout – or more importantly, her giant fangs – were only a few feet away from Zeke. Then, she asked, “I do wonder what would happen if I were to reward your insolence with a quick death.”

“Then I’d be dead,” he said, standing his ground. “If you can pull it off, I mean. I’m skeptical. But again, even if you do that, what good will it do? You’ll still have all the same problems.”

“Perhaps it would make me feel better,” the wyrm responded. “The pride of the powerful is easily wounded.”

Zeke shrugged. “Maybe. But I think you’re different,” he allowed.

“How so?”

“You’re strong. Ridiculously so,” Zeke answered. “The gap between us is probably wider than I can even comprehend. I accept that. But to me, it looks like you’re just a mother who wants to protect her kids. I have no doubt that if it were the blood wraith standing in front of me, he’d have already killed me. He also wouldn’t have asked. He would have just told me what to do, and then if I resisted, he’d end me and move on to the next item on his to-do list. I don’t think you’re like him.”

It was a shot in the dark. Zeke really didn’t understand anything about the blood wraith. Instead, he chose to see the wraith and the wyrm as complete opposites. As such, he felt confident in the veracity of his conclusions.

“You have no idea who I am or of what I am capable,” said the wyrm, her breath rustling Zeke’s hair with every word. She paused, but only for a couple of seconds. Then, she withdrew, adding, “But you are correct. I am not the wraith. Neither was he, once upon a time.”

There was a story there, Zeke was certain, but it was one he wasn’t interested in hearing. He’d already had his fill of ancient history, and he didn’t think a creature such as the blood wraith could ever justify his actions. Still, he couldn’t help but ask, “You knew him?”

“I did. We were mates, once,” said the wyrm. “We would have raised mighty children. Instead, he turned to forbidden powers. He was inevitably changed, retreating to the deepest parts of the world. Years passed, and I found a new purpose with my children. I raised them from beasthood, nurturing them until they…”

She trailed off, and Zeke asked, “What?”

“He comes. You must leave this place,” she said. “Please. You are the last hope of my children. They will serve you well. All I ask is that you save them.”

“I don’t –”

“Go!” she shouted, nearly knocking him from his feet before she turned back toward the tunnel. Zeke caught a hint of thick, red mist billowing in the distance, and the memory of his futile fight against the sliver of the blood wraith’s soul made the decision for him. Without further hesitation, he turned, and upon seeing that Jasper and Silik had both collapsed, grabbed the both of them and ran.

The moment he reached the exit and began the spiraling climb up the stairs, Zeke felt a surge of energy behind him. He turned his head and saw that an opaque wall of shimmering purple energy had erected itself at the bottom of the stairs, effectively cutting him off from the wyrm’s chamber. Or more accurately, from the impending clash between the pair of titans.

Almost as soon as the through crossed his mind, a massive tremor shook the earth, nearly knocking Zeke from his feet. However, he pushed himself to keep climbing even as the intensity of the quake exploded in one wave after another. He ran, climbing the steps with as much alacrity as he could manage until, finally, he burst forth into the circle of menhirs. The second he did, the tremors ceased and he stumbled to his knees.

On all fours, he muttered, “What…”

That’s when he noticed that his skin had split apart in a hundred places. The cuts were shallow, but they were so ubiquitous that his entire body was coated in flowing blood that had already soaked through his clothing. Zeke embraced [Metallurgical Repair], sealing the wounds in an instant. His companions weren’t so lucky, though.

Jasper, in particular, looked terrible, but Silik wasn’t much better.

As Zeke saw a pair of kobold shaman rushing in their direction, he forced himself to his feet. Summoning his hammer, he readied himself for battle. But he need not have worried, because the two shaman passed him by and knelt beside Jasper and Silik. A moment later, they were casting some sort of healing skills. The skills weren’t terribly powerful, but Zeke watched as, over the next twenty minutes, the wounds were healed.

“What happened?” he asked.

“You are lucky,” said one of the shaman. “Most cannot bear the chief’s presence. Being so close when she fights the great evil is…suicide for most. The savior is well-named.”

Zeke shook his head. “I’m not your savior,” he said. “But I think we might be able to work together.”

“As you say, savior,” said the shaman. “I am called Kiam, and I will serve you with diligence and fortitude.”

“Diligence and fortitude,” echoed the other shaman who was still tending to Jasper’s wounds. Silik, who’d barely regained consciousness, repeated the same phrase.

Zeke could only sigh. He wasn’t a leader. He didn’t want followers. But it seemed that he didn’t have much of a choice in the matter.