Chapter 152 (let me know if the transition was too abrupt) (Patreon)

Chapter 152

3 months later…

“I love you Riven.  Don’t stay gone too long, ok?”

Those were the last words Allie had said to her brother as she’d waved him off with a warm, parting hug.  He’d vanished through the portal to the other side of the world, then their forces in Chicago had reported they’d last seen him departing along the coastline into the northlands.  She still remembered how he’d smelled, and it felt like it’d been so long now that she was beginning to become depressed.  He only had another half year to find the next to pieces to the Chalgathi set, and although there hadn’t been any notifications of his death - there’d also been no notifications concerning his success in acquiring another piece.

That worried her.  She should have seen at least one message about it by now, as she’d already seen notifications about two of the contenders already having acquired all 5.  What happened beyond that… was anyone’s guess.

Nevertheless, the gameplan was set.  Allie had her duties here to run their fledgling country in preparation for what would no doubt become a world-wide war.  Any one of the world quests could lead to billions of people dying, and she'd need armies to help get her agenda done - to literally save the world from catastrophe.  If that meant crushing a few local enemies in the process such as the elvish nation of Tereen, so be it.  Meanwhile, Riven would complete and succeed in Chalgathi's sub-section of the Apocolypse Beasts world quest.  And if he needed her help, they always had that means...

“Allie?”

Snapping out of her trance, Allie realized the carriage had come to a stop.  The zombified horses were becoming restless outside, and the black interior of the coach she rode in was still.  Mara had originally been assigned to maintain Brightsville, but she’d been so lonely that she’d replaced Mara with General Bruner - who was inbetween Wrightsville and Chicago on a regular basis now.

“Sorry.” Allie muttered, following Mara out of the carriage and wincing at the sunlight.  Stepping onto the cobblestone street just outside of the towering fantasy city, she gazed up at the many floors of elevated landscapes that supported different levels.  Airships, rocs and their riders, and even a couple small drakes were swarming the upper city levels like bees to honey.  “I just miss Riven.”

Mara nodded, smiling and gesturing her towards the opposite side of the road where another carriage, escorted by high profile warriors of Dawn’s 1st legion, waited patiently at attention.  “I know.  He’ll be back eventually, don’t worry.”

From afar, Dawn’s capital of Mandon looked to be an unbelievably tall stack of seven different cities - including the ground floor.  Each of the floors was built on a very thick plot of elevated landscape.  Mandon was a magnificent city that took up the entirety of a zone spanning exactly 109 square miles every layer according to the government.  According to the locals they had questioned, the city was a relic of the past when necessity caused them to conserve space to limit their outside contact with enemy forces in the early days of its existence - back before the integration had culled numbers of the population in the surrounding area.  3 levels of the city existed underground and 7 levels of the city existed above ground for a total of 10 levels - ranked in order of number from the ground level when being described by the populace.

Generally the upper levels were for the residents who were better off.  Order and safety, along with beauty and splendor could be found amongst the elevated gardens, farms, markets, trade schools and communities of the top levels.  The base of each top level had light collected from the sun passed down through a magical screen that let you view the sky even while underneath - and the only way you’d know that you weren’t looking up into the actual sky was the grid of the screen constructed with cables and stone, or the multitude of elevators, enormous pillars and even larger spiral staircases that led up to further levels.  In the very center of the city a circle had also been carved into the landscape, being many football-fields across in diameter, and you could actually look up to see the palace on the top floor as its waterfall poured over the sides and fell down through all levels of the city to pour into the sewers of under-level 3 where the water was recycled and cleaned for future use.  Aqueducts imbued with magic were commonplace and the pillars holding each level up often had tube systems designed for the transportation of water.  The poorer citizens could be found underground and slums were commonplace the further down you went.  Instead of magnificent grids with the sky overhead, artificial lights were used to brighten the under-levels during the daytime and dimmed at night - the only exception to this was the large hole the waterfall originating from the palace entered from the upper levels.

Unfortunately Allie had done little sightseeing throughout her brief trips her prior to today, but she was sure to do so now that she’d be spending more time here - if only temporarily.  The city truly was a magnificent sight to behold, and would no doubt have been considered the next wonder of the world if it’d been located back on Earth.

No, she’d not had time to sightsee.  She’d been rather busy over the past season.  1 large city, 3 towns, and a large swath of land conquered - Allie had taken control over a third of Tereen by herself.  The war between Dawn and the elvish nation of Tereen was still raging fiercely, but the elves had been pushed back onto the defense and were becoming desperate thanks to the undead intervention.  Not only that, but black ops teams, assault mechs, tank groups, and fighter jet squadrons were working in unison with the undead swarms to crush any opposition quite quickly.  Trade between Dawn, Deepnest, and the Thane Necropolis had become the lifeblood of all three countries, with travel between them rampant even despite charisma clashes causing occasional conflict.  The trust between the three small empires was ramping up, and measures had been taken to curb the effects of the system-based charisma problems as best they could do.  It very much helped that Allie had essentially saved Dawn from either a long drawn out war, or complete annihilation, and the citizens were reminded of this constantly whenever their loved ones came back from the front line to tell their families of the undead who’d helped them survive the last battle or so.  Meanwhile, the ratkin of the underdark who’d been lacking necessary weapons, food and supplies after the dwarves had cut off their outlying farming posts were now back in business.  The Thane Necropolis had provided both local and system-based means of acquiring all those things, and the strategic advantage the dwarves initially had was now gone.  Caravans from the underdark regularly made it to the surface, and the tunnels outlying trade between Deepnest and Brightsville were extremely well guarded at all times by both sides.  Not only that, but Deepenest was so close to Brightsville it made travel very easy - with Brightsville already having sent some of its forces down below numerous times to help counter dwarven attacks.  The ratkin supplied the necropolis with bodies from both sides of the conflict, and Allie’s forces continued to grow.

Meanwhile on the other side of the world-spanning portal, the three cities of Chicago, Rockford, and Milwaukee were a centerpoint for attention by the surrounding factions rising there.  It was a well known thing that the Thane Necropolis was a rising powerhouse, and that Chicago was associated with Riven on the world forums - so the surrounding forces at play kept a wary watch.  Two newly formed countries waged war to the south of Chicago, with a very sketchy faction up to the northwest sending spies southwards regularly, and a couple scattered independent city states having formed along the coast or further inland.  Allie truthfully just hadn’t gotten around to exploring much over there yet, as she already had lots to do on this side of the planet.  As long as Chicago and its neighboring cities weren’t under attack, she’d let things remain as the status quo.

For now.

She closed her eyes and hummed to herself, trying to take her mind off the present and insert it into a more peaceful place.  It was time to relax, and she was finally going to try her best to do so after so much bloodshed and so much worrying.

Hopefully the king, who she’d only met in very brief passing twice now, was right on the money.  Perhaps attending college, or its equivalent at the academy, would be a good thing.  It would give her a needed break, an interesting lesson on the politics and histories of Dawn’s kingdom, perhaps would even allow her some insight on how to run her own kingdom, and would maybe even allow her to find some new theories on magic.  Her tutor at the Blood Moon Requiem was a very good teacher, but he was more focused on Dao theory than anything else and he often discarded energy based theory in favor of just ‘Understanding the Dao’ - which she didn’t agree with.  Magic had a rhyme and reason to it just like science did, even if Dao had a huge part to play.  It wasn’t just understanding the concept, it was understanding the intricate pieces that created a larger whole.  Usually and in many other circumstances she’d call someone like her a fool to go against the mainstream teachings of what an ancient empire had come up with for their young, but she had a 100% affinity with the Death Pillar.  It almost spoke to her, guided her in ways that were far beyond normal, and she’d take the Dao’s teachings and promptings at the source over anyone or anything else.  If it told her that there was more intricacies than what meets the eye through compulsions and feelings, she’d trust it.

Given, those compulsions and feelings only ever came from the Death Pillar - so perhaps this only applied specifically to the Death Pillar.  She couldn’t speak for the others.  Perhaps that really was how the other pillars worked.

“Allie, you’re off into wonderland again.”

Allie snapped out of it for the second time, getting her bearings and smiling at Mara - who wore a concerned look underneath the hood covering her patchwork ghoul features.  “Sorry.  Let’s be off then, shall we?”

Mara nodded, took the laptop she’d been using for administrative purposes out to check her private messages, and then waved to the undead escort who’d been riding in on zombified horses as well as the tanks and helicopters hovering overhead.  Putting away her laptop again, she spoke into the comms unit attached to her ear she’d been given by the techies from Chicago and patched in to speak with the pilots nearby.  “Thank you, we will be fine from here.  Good hunting.”

“Roger that.” The voice of the escort leader came through.  Shortly after that the carriage turned around along with the dozens of deathknights, death-attuned mages, and heavy mechanical units turning around to make their way back into the north.

Heavily armored knights bearing the insignia of a yellow sun saluted Allie as she walked forward, and a decorated veteran with a feathered helm hopped off his own warhorse to address Allie with a low bow.  “Queen Thane, my name is Sir Reford the Second - a Captain in the king’s service.  It is my pleasure to escort you into the capital, the City of Mandon.  Our destination is the tenth and top floor where we have your accommodations prepared for your attendance at the academy.  It may take an entire day or more for the journey up if we go by land.  Would you like me to call down an airship?”

Allie glanced over at the pristine white carriage waiting for her, embroidered with gold and decorated with flowers.  Then she looked up to the different layers of city reaching high overhead, and the swarms of air traffic.  She smiled, then shook her head.  “No.  I was hoping to see the city on the way up.”

The feathered knight nodded, then stood up to his full height.  “That’s what I was told, I just wanted to make sure.  We’ll be certain to stop at many of the more interesting sites on the way, there’s a lot to do and see here - and it will be my honor to act as your tour guide for the day.”

***

He had traveled far across an entire continent, and he was finally closing in on not one - but multiple other Chalgathi paritcipants.

The desert sun beat down across the horizon, a barren wasteland of flat cracked land with extreme heat.  The only sound was that of the slowly flowing river nearby, the laughter of his two female minions as they splashed around, and the slow breathing of Azmoth and Luke beside him.

Riven hovered three feet up above the ground, cross-legged in the air with a meditative pose.  Light gleamed off the heavy steel armor that supplemented his Chalgathi outfit wherever it wasn’t covered by his cloak - metal encasing his hands, arms, legs, feet, and even the chest surrounding the maw in the center having a cutout in the breastplate.  It was all custom made, courtesy of a blacksmith he’d saved 2 months into the trip.  Hands steepled in front of him as wisps of blood mana spiraled gently off his body, the bodies of dozens of bandits lay plastered around them - drying up under the blazing heat.  They were merely husks of the bodies they’d once been, especially after Riven had drained them to satiate his thirst.  His hunger was becoming ever more ravenous.

And on Riven’s lap was his spiritually bound weapon, finally coming out of its shell.

“Focus.” Luke stated calmly, hovering beside Riven and opening his one good eye that showed an eerie red.  It was one of the effects of having become a thrall belonging to a pureblood, as opposed to a normal vampire that couldn’t often get results such as this.  It’d only been only two months ago now, and though his pillars and divinity channels were still damaged even after eating the soul mending pills and divine dao treasure - it would probably be soon that he started to get a grasp back on his abilities.  Things like manipulating his divinity, much like Riven manipulated his mana, were trifling things and easy enough to do for someone with as much experience as Luke.  “Let your energy peel the layers back, but do not force them.  With a transformation like this, you can think of it very much like you would your own dao visions.  Only that for the weapon, you are the guiding force - for you can mold these changes to be what you wish them to be.  Feel it out, warp the essence stolen by this ‘Richard’ person you slew, and let the weapon grow in ways that you feel would most benefit the build you want.”

Flickering wisps of red and black coalesced, forming intertwining strings that slowly began to dig at the already cracking crystalline lattice encompassing his weapon.  It’d been 3 months since he’d been able to use the staff, but now - behind the capsule closed around it - Riven could feel the staff calling to him.  Pulling on Gluttony’s shard and imbuing it into the weapon, Riven visualized the characteristics of what he wanted - and Gluttony replied.

It was finally time.

First the crystalized pieces began to flake off one by one, falling into dust as they touched the ground like red petals.  Riven’s strings of mana continued to gently nudge the capsule apart piece by piece, with small chunks falling off next - until entire sections began to flake and disintegrate.  An audible sigh, like the wind on a night’s breeze, escaped from the capsule as it finally vanished into nothingness - and in its place, a new weapon had emerged.

[Vampire’s Escort has evolved into an ascended legendary weapon.  As an ascended weapon, this item gains true intelligence and an awareness of self beyond what any other kind of totem, awakened item, or enchantment can produce.  Most crafters only dream of creating such a masterpiece, and you have successfully done so.  By utilizing high high grade materials, a piece of your own soul, dao insights, a piece of original sin, and by absorbing the essence of a high tiered enemy for your level, the system has granted this weapon access to ascendancy.  As an ascended weapon, Vampire’s Escort has given itself a True Name, one imbued with power, that will forever remain a permanent fixture on the item.  Ascended weapons cannot be soulbound, soulbinding has been nullified.  Vampire’s Escort has given itself the True Name: Jackal.]

[Jackal (Ascended Legendary Weapon. Type: Vampiric Artifact, Sin Artifact, Sorcerer’s Spear-Staff): 894 average damage on strike with each physical strike dealing additional shadow damage.  Each physical strike steals health from the enemy and heals you and repairs this item.  Mana regeneration is increased by 305%.  Stamina regeneration increased by 8%.  All Shadow and Blood abilities cost 10% less mana while dealing 36% additional damage.  This item has an abnormally high endurance and is hard to destroy.  Requires Vampiric Heritage and a piece of Gluttony’s Original Sin to wield.

• Sacrificial Kill:  Killing strong opponents has a chance to imbue this weapon with additional attributes, stats, or bonuses.
• Gluttony’s Riptide: Passively builds up an elongated blade of sin energy that can extend by swinging this weapon in an arc. Recharge rate and damage output depend on control and insight concerning Gluttony.
• Black Lightning: This staff can passively build up charges of black lightning.  Power of black lightning depends on the amount of charge emitted.
• Jackal’s Lunge: Point this weapon in any direction and activate this innate and unique martial art, charging the blade with blood mana to create the visage of a jackal’s maw and blasting forward.  When your blade strikes an enemy, the red jackal will close down on them to deal additional blood and sin damage.
• Portal Master: This weapon can sync to any stabilized portal you permission to use by the maker and master.  Current locations available for access:  Dungeon Negrada, Riven’s Eye Wormhole.  Takes 1 week of channeling in the same place to use this ability.
• Beastform: This weapon can turn into a shadow jackal.  This form is not offensively compatible, but is a way for the weapon to experience the world around it outside of combat - matching the will of the blade.]

Many questions came with the awakening of Riven’s weapon.  Why was soulbinding not allowed?  What was sin energy?  What exactly was an ascended weapon - other than one with self awareness?  Or was that all there was to it?

Regardless of these things, Riven was not disappointed in the result.  The damage had increased almost 9 times over mana regeneration had over doubled, each strike now leached life off enemies to heal him, all blood and shadow abilities had even more umph than before, and scorpion’s sting had been replaced with two new weapon-infused abilities: a riptide and a lunge.  It now even gave him a very small of stamina regeneration, which was kind of funny because he really didn’t use stamina much other than while sprinting.  But it was well received.

Why it had named itself ‘Jackal’ and why this was considered a ‘True Name’ were also a little odd.  But the weapon certainly had that flavor, and it could apparently even turn into one?

What Riven had once considered a true staff with a pointy end now was more like a Kwan Dao, or a Chinese halberd.  It was a lot longer now, just slightly thicker, and was still made of black wood all along the shaft.  The bottom end of the shaft was blunted with a cap carved into a jackal’s closed mouth, while the opposite end had another and larger jackal’s head that produced a pitch black blade.

In fact the entire weapon was a deep black, except for swirling patterns of blood that trickled along its surface.  It hovered above his lap horizontally just like he hovered over the ground, and when Riven reached up to grab it and clasped his hands around the polished black wood - the rushing streams of blood adapted and started flowing over his hands.  The streams flowed along and into his skin, sending a jolt of awareness from the weapon as the mental entity touched Riven’s mind, and Jackal’s eyes along its carved faces began to glow crimson in a very similar way that Riven’s own did.

The weapon shuddered, and a pulse of shadow swept across the land to blot out the sun for an entire five seconds over three miles in diameter.  Then the darkness retracted, and Riven felt a feeling of acceptance wash through him.

‘I remember you… father…’ A voice called out to him from the spear staff like a whisper.  ‘I remember you… and I see you now.’

Riven smiled, sending a pulse of warmth back through his connection and stood - gently touching down as he placed his feet on solid earth.  “Show me.”

Abruptly the spear staff shifted and warped, knowing what he was asking for, and formed the shadowy figure of a dog with red eyes that looked up at him from the ground.  Slowly the shadows retracted and vanished, only to leave an abnormally deep-black dog that was kinda creepy staring at him.  It was half the size of a fully grown golden retriever, and would have perhaps been rather cute if not for the ominous aura and lack of a wagging tail.

Still, Riven felt only good intentions coming from the bond that he still felt even despite having lost a soul connection with the item.  Somehow he could still feel its intent, and knew that there was something that kept their consciousnesses touching even at an arm’s distance.

Azmoth looked up from where he was contemplating the infernal daos and grunted in approval before turning back to meditation, and Luke smiled at the dog - reaching over to pet it before rapidly drawing his hand back when a sense of dread swept over him with a look his way.

“That feels rather dangerous.” Luke chuckled, only for Jackal to look back to Riven and warp into the weapon form again - flying into Riven’s hand without delay.

Riven silently nodded, approvingly running his hands over the black weapon and the flowing rivers of blood along its surface that constantly shifted positions into different sigils or no sigils at all.  Without warning Riven lowered the spear westward, activating Jackal’s Lunge - and his body shot ahead with a shockwave left in his wake.

*BOOM*

Desert sands were blown apart underneath his feet and the image of a jackal’s maw, formed from blood magic, flashed forward ahead of Riven’s blade before snapping down onto thin air with a shockwave of power when the lunge stopped.  Then with a blurring vertical swing, Riven activated Gluttony’s Riptide.

The visage of Gluttony’s toothy maw roared from behind him with a flash of power.  A black and red blade, sharp and fast, extended for dozens of yards off his spear-staff and crashed into the ground ahead of him.  The blow created a fissure and caused the ground to violently shake, getting the attention of both Athela and Fay who’d been doing who knows what in the River further off.

“HEY!  RIVEN!”  Athela called with cupped hands over her mouth, wet black hair plastered to her face as she laughed alongside Fay while half submerged in the water.  “COME JOIN US AND SHOW US THE NEW TOY!”

“AGREED!”  Fay intentionally turned around and stood up, topless, while extending her wings and winking his way with a playful finger-tug to motion him forward.

Turning, heavy armor glinting in the sunlight, vampiric horned pauldrons flaring along the eyes and his porcelain mask turning all 7 feathers in their direction - Riven snorted their way.  “Put on some clothes and stop flashing me, and maybe - just maybe I will!”

“THAT’S NO FUN!”

“Yeah well neither is being teased, and I can’t even truly bathe with this stupid outfit on!  SOOOO fuck off.”  Riven ignored Fay’s laughter and Athela’s scowl, and began to walk back to where his new elvish tutor sat.

Tutor?  Thrall?  Slave?  Luke was all those things.  The man was thankfully very knowledgeable about all sorts of things.  Weapons, hand to hand combat, magic, martial arts, and divine miracles were all things that the man was unusually knowledgeable of.  According to Luke he’d been trained in all of them too, but he’d had a major focus in miracles and combat with various types of weapons as some sort of battle priest.

“Mind giving me another sparring lesson?” Riven asked as he walked over and held out a hand to the one-eyed, silver-haired elf.  “Another lesson in staves and spears?”

Luke grinned, accepted Riven’s hand and pulled himself up from where he’d also been hovering above ground.  “Of course.  But remember that I am still very weakened, and have not had the opportunity to grow levels like you since getting here.  Remember to pull punches, the last time you almost killed me on accident.  Even though I have the skills, I do not have the speed or power to repel any true attacks in our sparring sessions - so go easy onto his old fool.  Especially now that you’re going to be using a real weapon and not this old stick.”

The old man bent down and picked up a walking staff he’d been using, then motioned for Riven to follow his example as he struck a pose.  “Just like in previous lessons, go through the five combinations I taught you first as a warm up.  Then the three defensive stances.  I’ll come at you during the defensive stances, and after that we can really begin.”