Chapter 90 (Patreon)

Chapter 90

Captain Vros Kinal stood on a large hovering platform that loomed above his marching legions.  Their heavy armor gleamed in the bright rays of sunshine illuminating their glorious planet.  The soldiers chanted, slamming their spears into the ground in unison time after time - an act that caused the very city around them to quake due to their numbers.

Meanwhile the crowds in the stadiums on either side of the military parade were going wild.  They screamed, cheered, and roared their approval for the invasion to come, for they - the glorious Empire of Dying Suns - had been granted an invasion token by the system.

Kinal’s gaze shifted under his helm to his right, where the emperor and three generals that oversaw different areas of their intergalactic territories stood side to side chatting idly while they watched the oncoming soldiers march happily to their deaths.  Those deaths would be worth the blood they paid though, as long as they were successful in overthrowing the other invaders and securing planet Panu for the glory of Dying Suns.  Panu was on the other side of this sector, and would give their empire a much needed foothold for expansion on the rim that wasn’t so boxed in by competitors.

“Captain Kinal.” one of the generals stated absentmindedly, turning from his talks with the emperor and putting the spotlight on the one who would be leading the invasion on Panu.  “Are you excited for your first expedition into the outlands?”

Kinal did not hesitate, and his blue cape shifted with the winds as he gave a quick salute.  “Sir, I am honored to be chosen to lead this expedition.  I will do the empire justice and bring this planet under our control without fail.”

The general smiled, and even the emperor seemed pleased with his response.  Kinal was only level 80, which was the cut off for any invading armies that set their sights on the integration trials.  Every newly integrating planet had a number inbetween 1 and 10 world-wide integration trials, and this planet - Panu - had dice rolled “Invasion” as one of theirs.  “Invasion” was a classic of the multiverse for integrating planets, but it didn’t always show up.  When it did, the system offered bidding wars to various nearby factions in the sector and sometimes even more distant ones depending on circumstances.  Invaders, this time numbering just 5, could bring in a certain amount of soldiers with a max level of 80.  Kinal was what the empire considered their most competent leader that fit this description, and thus he’d been chosen as the one to lead their invasion.

This could only be done after the designated tutorials were over and an orientation period was complete, but the time for the invasion of Panu was nearing.  Captain Kinal didn’t know what other integration trials the Empire of Dying Suns would encounter there, or what the locals were like, but he did know of the other 4 invading groups.  All of these would be hostile factors he would have to crush, but he did have faith that their legions would prevail.

“I remember when I led my first expedition.” The emperor stated, fondly gazing into distant memories with a wide smile on his face as he stroked his long gray beard.  “Had to slaughter entire cities by the dozens until the locals finally gave up.  That was back when my father was still emperor, rest his soul.  How I do wish for the youth of my younger days… But I am sure you’ll be fine, Captain Kinal.  I have faith in your abilities, and your superior officers all have nothing but praise for your past performances.”

“Thank you my liege.” Kinal bowed low.  “Your words humble this poor servant, I will perform to the best of my abilities.”

The emperor nodded, and placed a hand on Kinal’s metal pauldron.  “I pray you are right.  This is a big opportunity for our empire, and your name will go down in the history books once you succeed.  Hopefully Elysium opens up the gates sooner rather than later, for I can tell that the bloodlust of our soldiers is growing.  Heroes will be born here, Kinal, so make sure that you are one of them.”

In the abyss, the vision of these future enemies flickered and began to fade.

From beyond their plane of existence and in an entirely other dimension, Chalgathi remained caged by Elysium’s Administrator.  Yet he still saw the preparations of the Empire of Dying Suns, and he heard the words this ambitious emperor spoke.
Thus Chalgathi cackled wickedly in the abyssal black of his temporary prison.  “We will see, humans, just how many of your heroes are left when I am done.”

Closing the scrying image entirely and refocusing on another, Chalgathi set his gaze upon his chosen few.  In particular, there were three that interested him most.  The two vampires, Riven and Allie Thane, and another man who was rapidly gaining power beyond even Chalgathi’s expectations.

Chalgathi’s grin grew wider.  “We will see just how many of your soldiers remain on Panu when I am finally set free, invaders from beyond.  For this new fledgling world is not yours to conquer.  It is already spoken for.  It is already claimed.  It is mine.”

***

Riven opened the long rectangular box in the basement of the hospital without much effort, and there in the bottom of the box was a single item.  It was a rod, beautifully crafted with golden trimmings along a porcelain shaft.  A mesmerizing white jewel was also fitted into the top.

[Elysium Altar planting rod: Plant this rod into the ground to begin creating an Elysium Altar.  An altar requires at least 3 square miles of space in all dimensions in order to place it.]

Huh.  That was neat.  It appeared the altar was actually not fully formed yet, rather that this rod would create it when planted.  But 3 square miles?  Just how big was this thing supposed to be?

He took the rod out and examined it in detail, feeling the warmth of the item underneath his fingertips.

[Please select the planting area and insert the rod.]

He ignored the prompt and put it back in the box, closing the lid and passing it over to Azmoth for the moment.  “Looks like we get to choose where we plant this thing.  It’ll be nice to finally have access to Elysium’s system stores.”

“And others!” Athela chimed in happily.

Riven and the others all looked her way with confused expression.  “What do you mean, others?”

“Other factions across the multiverse.”

“They have stores accessible via Elysium altars?”

Athela vigorously nodded her head.  “Oh yes!  Though you have to unlock them first.  That usually includes a sum of money, a trade, or an alliance of some sort.  There’ll be some smaller and weaker factions that allow anyone to use their system registered stores, but they’re usually desperate and don’t have much to trade with.  The Elysium Administrator’s basic store is more expensive than other ones most of the time, and it also doesn’t have any exotic stuff, so it’s in your best interest to acquire access to other stores too.”

“What’s the point of not allowing other people access to your store if you want to sell it?”

“To prevent monopolies and make sure you have materials for friendly factions mostly.  There’ve been circumstances where larger factions will completely buy out everything and skyrocket prices across the board, making it harder for all the smaller factions in a galaxy or sector.”

“I see.”

Athela cleared her throat and rattled the medium-sized wooden chest in her lap.  “So… if that was the original quest prize, what’s this?”

Riven nodded her way.  “Why don’t you open it and find out?”

She grunted, then tried to open the latch.  “This is my third attempt.  It isn’t budging.”

Frowning, Riven took the chest from her and inspected it.  It seemed like an ordinary treasure chest out of the medieval ages, but was rather heavy.  Clinking of glass or metal could be heard inside, making him wonder what exactly was contained.  He gripped the handles on either side of the lid and pulled, but just like Athela he had no success.

“You can probably bash the lock open.” Athela muttered after a while of frowning.  “It’s likely just a monster drop.”

Monster drop?  Riven only ever seen monsters drop sacks of coins.  Those were probably considered monster drops too, and the system probably gave more due to the way this monster had been particularly hard to kill.  Shrugging and peering into the front lock, he didn’t see anything that looked out of the ordinary.

“I’ll just pick the lock, I don’t want to potentially damage whatever is inside.”  Riven made a helicopter motion around the room.  “Anyone have anything I can use as a lockpick?”

Luckily they found a small piece of metal that did the trick.  A minute later the lock swung open, revealing hundreds of Elysium coins.  They were about the size of a quarter, and were a mixture of platinum, gold, and silver.

“Oh… Even more money.”  Riven picked up one of the platinum coins, examining it thoroughly.

[1 Platinum Elysium Coin (Equivalent of 1000 Bronze Coins)]

He picked through the small chest, suddenly realizing just how much money he really had now.  There were hundreds of coins in here, about half of them were platinum and the other half gold.  1 Platinum equaled 10 Gold, 100 Silver or 1000 Bronze.  After killing hundreds of dream creatures that dropped smaller bags of money, he probably had just earned somewhere in the realm of  a couple hundred thousand elysium coins in flat bronze value.  The excitement at seeing so much of them was somewhat amplified by the fact that he would soon have access to goods via the altar.

But he stopped short as he rummaged around and noticed yet another item.  It was a card of some sort, colored black, green, and yellow with various scribbles that he could describe only as the equivalent of a child’s unruly drawing.  The edges were hard and firm though, and it glowed when he held it up in the light.  Turning it around he squinted, and then read the description aloud.

[Ascension Card: The Carnivorous Maw, TRAIT – acquire the curse of the carnivorous maw.  Grow appendages that can extend and retract (even completely), and whatever they eat rejuvenates your health - healing you from any wounds at accelerated rates.]

Oh.  This brought up an entirely new area of exploration.  He’d never heard of Ascension Cards before, and he’d had no idea that one could use a thing like this in order to evolve a trait of all things.  Thus far his traits had been his vampiric race, his vampiric bloodline, and his class.  So realizing now that he could actually get more of them was a bit of a shock.

“The carnivorous maw…” Riven chuckled slightly, imagining those things growing out of the nightmare’s back on his own body – then he shuddered.  “Well, do either of you want this thing?”

He was addressing his minions.

Athela shook her head.  “It wouldn’t work for me, it counts as a back modification and would likely replace the blades I have.  Azmoth might want it though.”

Riven’s head swiveled, and Azmoth was curiously looking the card up and down.  The large demon gestured for it, and Riven handed it over without a word.

Scrutinizing it some more, Azmoth slowly nodded and looked back up with his sightless, armored head.  “It will cost more Willpower.”

“How much?”

Azmoth looked back down.  “17 more points.”

Riven did a quick check concerning his willpower cap and the minion stat demands.

• Minions:] Athela, Level 29 Arshakai [36 Willpower Requirement].  Azmoth, Level 30 Hellscape Brutalisk [27 Willpower Requirement].

It was a little more than Riven had thought, but it was still very doable after growing so many levels.  He currently 112 Willpower, and if he let Azmoth take this upgrade it would boost the demon’s willpower requirement to 44.  Combined that would mean 80 willpower was needed for the contracts of Azmoth and Athela combined, leaving 32 willpower left over for his final contract.  If need be, he could even go and grind some more levels to put more points into the stat - but it was still enough for at least some contracts based on their original costs before evolutions.

“That’s not bad at all.  If you want it, go ahead and use it!  Having maws that can eat enemies during batle to regenerate your health will only better your tanking abilities.”

Azmoth grunted his acknowledgement with a smile and abruptly snapped the card in half - and the card vanished into dust.  Immediately he began to absorb the particles, and seconds later the armored demon began to shudder.  He leaned forward and looked like he was going to vomit, letting out a gasp as he clutched his sides with thick obsidian claws.

“You alright?” Riven asked with a little bit of concern in his voice.

Azmoth didn’t reply – but instead puked and then gasped again.  Bubbling masses of flesh began to flex and pulse along Azmoth’s back with disgusting popping noises, and everyone slowly backed up when it began to look like it was going to explode like two grotesque pimples.

Then the demon’s back exploded – revealing two long, eyeless, snake-like appendages with toothy maws a lot like the nightmare creature had sported.  Again, it was only two – unlike the numerous ones that the nightmare had borne, and these ones were made of dense red muscle instead of the sickly gray that the clown had.  They were also slightly larger than the multitude of smaller ones present on the dream creature, but they were exactly the same otherwise.

Azmoth took a minute to adjust to the new appendages, looking them over curiously as they looped around to the front.  He opened them, closed them, felt how sharp the razor-like teeth were, and opened up the throats to examine the inner tubing.  “I like these.”

“A man of few words.” Athela stated with an eye roll while tapping her foot against the ground.  “Azmoth, what new ability did you get?”

The titanic creature shifted his attention from the new appendages when they resorbed into his back.  “Shockwave.”

“Shockwave?”

Azmoth nodded.  “Remember goat man we fought in hell?  I take his ability, new martial art.  I learn shockwave when stomping!”

Riven’s eyes widened.  That was actually a really damn good ability to have!  It’d torn up his crimson ice in the mini-boss fight and send both him and Athela flying with each detonation.  “Wow, congratulations man!  Happy for you!  Is it normal for the system to hand out abilities that you’ve already come across, or is it just coincidence?”

Athela paused, then hesitantly nodded.  “It isn’t necessarily about things we’ve come across, rather than what you’ve accomplished.  Azmoth probably got the option for that upgrade because he was able to help kill the satyr, and the system deemed it an appropriate prize because of this.  Just like how we got the ascension card from this dream creature.”

“Hmmm.”  Riven steepled his fingers thoughtfully and leaned over his legs - elbows on his knees.  Meanwhile the elves and Dr. Brass just remained silently by, watching the warlock and his two minions discuss their winnings.  “I see.  What’d you get then?”

“You’re not going to guess?” Athela replied with a wink.

Riven thought about it a moment.  They’d fought a necromancer in the Chalgathi trials, his zombie wolf, a bunch of undead and demons in the Negrada hellscape dungeon, wargs, goblins, slavers, Allie and her skeletons, the crusaders…

No, wait.  Athela had been sent back to the nether realm when he’d killed the new-world crusaders.

He shrugged.  “We’ve killed a lot of creatures, but I can’t think of anything that stands out in terms of abilities.  Unless you’re going to be shooting blue fireballs or black orbs of destruction like the jabob demons and their lurker demon master.  But I doubt the system would give you those as options, because you use stamina and martial arts instead of magic and mana.  Right?”

“You’d be correct.”  Athela nodded with an amused smile.  “I’m proud of you for coming to that conclusion all on your own, you’re taking my lessons seriously.  I ended up getting an ability called ‘Flurry.’”

Flurry.  He’d heard that somewhere before…

“That was an ability offered to me with the Reaper class, a class I turned down in favor of being a warlock adept.” Riven eventually stated after seconds of thinking.  “Is that right?”

“Oh.”  Athela shrugged.  “No idea, I don’t remember.  But yes, my new ability is ‘Flurry.’  It’s a pretty common one but it’s very useful, it gives me a burst of damage and speed - empowering my attacks and negating damage to my limbs when I strike during the attack.  I can use it to block attacks that’d otherwise be far too strong to block, or I can use it offensively to barrage a single target.  The problem with it is I don’t actually control my limbs when I use Flurry, I have to pre-program the ability to attack a certain way.  I can change up the pre-programmed motions, but the motions are otherwise always the same.”

Riven pooched his lips with another nod.  “That’s actually pretty interesting.  Do I get to see it in motion?”

“Haven’t programmed it yet.  I’ll let you know when I do, but I have to think of a combination attack that will hit all angles and give me the best chance for a successful hit.”

That made sense to him.

Meanwhile Azmoth was extending his carnivorous maws again - reaching up above to about a twelve-yards reach beyond his back, maxing them out and stretching them before retracting them completely into his skin – burying them away within his back as if they’d never been there to begin with.

Decent range, definitely not bad.  They’d almost function like scorpion stingers.

Riven put all of the Elysium coins from the chest on their pile of money, then threw a pondered a bit on what they were going to do in terms of carrying all that cash.  They couldn’t just leave it here, but they didn’t have any real containers.

“I think it’s time to take a look at the potential new partners we have available…” Riven eventually said, motioning for Athela to come sit next to him before the demoness plopped down beside her master.  “Any advice on what to expect?”

“You’re contracting your third demon right now?  Azmoth, get over here!”  Athela chuckled with a hand motion towards the hellscape brutalisk  She rubbed her hands together and let on a seriously sinister smile.  “Oooohhh boy I can’t wait to see that list.  As for advice, certainly.  The big points are these:  Number 1 don’t sign any contracts until Azmoth and I read them over.  Number 2 is don’t sign any contracts until Azmoth and I look them over.  Number 3 is definitely DO NOT SIGN any contracts until we look them over.  I encourage you to go to these interviews on your own at first as a courtesy to them, but we can look at the contracts and talk to them afterwards; and you do NOT have to say yes or sign anything in any timely manner regardless of what those stupid bastards tell you.  This is your first time signing a contract the normal way, so be careful.  My kind are ruthless suckers and they’ll try to steal your soul away without you even knowing it using complex verbage or loopholes, and you’re not going to be manipulated by some dumb twat if I have anything to say about it.  Go on, pull up the list, and we can start looking it over together!”