Chapter 241 (Patreon)

Brief side note: I just wanted to say thank you all for the patience concerning my less frequent posting times recently.  I fully intend to get back to posting every other day at a minimum, but I've been absolutely hammered at work.  That will eventually change for numerous reasons and I'll try my best to continue posting on a normal schedule or even a make-up schedule that posts more, but 3 other doctors recently left the practice and it's been a nightmare juggling all their patients alongside my own.  In fact I just got out of the hospital after doing a bone biopsy and went straight here to finish the chapter I started last night, so don't think that I'm giving up or intentionally slowing down - this slower than usual pace is only temporary.  I promise, and again I'll try to fix it as soon as possible.  I appreciate your support :)

-Ranyin1 / Trent.

Chapter 241

Riven sat in a chair overlooking the city, while a bloodied Colonel Landers lay curled in the fetal position not far off.  The mental toll of having watched a fake illusionary replica of his wife undergo brutal torture for over twenty minutes had done him a real number, though he’d somewhat recovered after realizing it was faked just to get him to call off his men.

“The last remnants of rebellions in Chicago are nearly put down, it will be completed within the hour.” General Bruner stated plainly, hands clasped behind his back and standing next to Riven’s chair.  “Gaia has crushed an uprising stemming from where we kept all those Rippenvire soldiers.  A few of them held back, but all other vampires were killed.  Gaia wishes to speak with Allie about her changes when the queen gets back, your majesty.  I do not believe she is happy, but I don’t think she holds animosity towards your sister for what happened either.”

“What of Deepnest?” Riven asked, not taking his eyes off the city streets below where hundreds of rebels had been chained up in lines - more adding to their number as the hour passed.

General Bruner cleared his throat uncomfortably.  “Communication lines have gone absolutely silent from our forces in the underdark.  Both from the diplomats stationed in Deepnest right after they sent that final message, and from our forces occupying the two dwarvish cities we conquered not long ago.”

Riven clicked his tongue in irritation, standing slowly and holding out both arms.  Messenger vaporized behind him and opened up wide, clamping down along his upper body and sealing his head shut in the ivory helmet.  Jackal came next, jumping up from its squatting position on the floor and changing from canine to spear-staff form in an instant.  The metal greaves came last, and Riven turned around to eye the general with a calm and collected gaze behind the metal encasing his face.  “Repeat the last message those diplomats sent, just one more time for me.  I’d like to make sure I wasn’t hearing things.”

General Bruner grimaced, but kept himself composed and his posture straight.  “I believe it was ‘The ratkin queen seeks vengeance.’  That was the last relayed message before all coms were cut.”

Riven took in a deep breath, then slowly exhaled, turning back to the window one final time.  “I see.  Are there any other rebellions or betrayals I need to know about?”

General Bruner shook his head.  “No, my king.  Dawn and Tereen remain in a state of shock but have had no uprisings or social problems occurring, outside of a few pockets of very upset priests from one of Dawn’s temples.  The elves were more or less beaten into submission a while ago and have caused us no problems.”

Riven nodded then created a portal through Jackle’s perk.  “I’ll be back later.  Keep things under control in my absence.  Contact Gurth’Rok and Dr. Brass if you need any help, though I’ve heard they’re rather busy themselves at the moment.”

“May I start things off with a retaliatory strike first, my king?”

“I do believe that’s in order as long as we keep our losses to a minimum.  Those Russian mafia guys have it coming, you have my full permission to utilize whatever forces you desire to accomplish this - but don’t get too aggressive without me.  That’d just result in needless casualties, and they’ve built up a small empire of their own from the reports you sent me.  In fact…”

Riven gestured to Athela.  “She’ll be staying with you to help.  That way I’ll be sure your men have a real siege breaker in my absence.  Crush them into dust.”

Athela grinned widely with a clap of her hands and a giggle - and General Bruner nodded in appreciation.

With a snap of Riven’s fingers, his two other demons and Genua all filed through the portal - leaving General Bruner behind in the tower with Athela, a few officers and necromancers of the necropolis, and the sobbing colonel turned traitor.

Bruner snorted the colonel’s way only after a half minute of staring, then gestured to one of the guards.  “Get him in a cell, and make sure he doesn’t ever see the light of day.  Prepare the pilots for all able jets and helicopters.  Have the drone fleets activated.  Set up a perimeter around our lands on this side of Riven’s Eye Wormhole.  Get me King Arthur Brix of Dawn on the line - I’ll need to borrow some of his airships, rocs, and drake riders.”

“Sir?” The man replied, confused at the last statement the general made - but starting to pull Colonel Landers across the room with the help of one other man.  “I know it isn’t my place - but do you intend to bring the entire armada?  We’re still recovering from our battle against Rippenvire.”

General Bruner raised an eyebrow, and then nodded.  “We are declaring war, Captain Blare.  Of course we’re using the entire fleet, those Romanovs have it coming.  Who was it that said - and I quote: ‘I know not what weapons World War 3 will be fought, but World War 4 will be fought with sticks and stones’?”

“It was Albert Einstein, sir.  And I believe we’re about to find out what World War 3 is finally capable of given our Queen’s recent ascent.”

“That was a rhetorical question you imbecile.  Now get that traitorous bastard in a cell and get me Arthur Brix!”

***

Over the tunnel’s usually guarded entrance leading into deepnest’s main cavern swung two ghoul bodies, hung from the ceiling where they’d been mutilated beyond recognition.  Their skin was also marked with some kind of disease, almost like boils and pockmarks, aside from the deep cuts where they’d obviously been stabbed numerous times.

But the signet rings Allie had given them symbolizing a winged vampire skull each were worn on their otherwise stripped bodies - sending the message that these were indeed the diplomats of the Thane Necropolis.

It was one of many symbols that Allie had been considering as a potential flag for their budding empire, but she hadn’t decided yet and Riven honestly didn’t care what she chose.

Of more concern at the moment was the fact that they’d killed the two diplomats.  No other words needed to be spoken, he knew what it meant.

The other thing that bothered him was that this tunnel was absolutely deserted.  Usually it was bustling with trading caravans or at least had people posted here to make sure the traffic in and out of Deepnest kept a certain pace.  But there were no guards, no signs of conflict, and only a few signs of recent passage.  Moving further into the cavern that Deepnest resided in - the underground city that’d once been absolutely bustling with activity was dead silent and without activity.  Not a single thing moved down there, with the tunnel-littered mounds, buildings, scaffold roadways, lakes and streams all having been completely abandoned.

“They could have at least talked to us first instead of killing our people and abandoning the place…” Riven muttered under his breath, moving through what was obviously a hasty, scrambling removal of all valuables from the brood nests - one after the other.  Scattered baskets of spilled food, broken crates of alchemy ingredients and textiles, and a few trampled bodies lay broken in the streets.

He knelt down with Azmoth, Fay, and Genua at his back - waiting in silence.  The body of the ratkin was half-skeletal, half flesh, with smoke-like tendrils of green wafting off its body.  It smelled horrid, and when Riven got close enough to reach out and touch the broken creature’s corpse - his skin started crackling upon making contact with the green gaseous cloud.

Riven’s eyebrows furrowed, watching his vampiric regeneration battle the fumes.  At one point even a bubbling abscess took form and burst, before healing itself over and draining away.  It was very minimal damage, and quite disgusting, to the point that it was very likely other undead that weren’t vampires could likely survive in the presence of the fumes for a while, but long amounts of exposure would no doubt kill the average person…

His mind drifted back to the two diplomats hung over the tunnel’s entrance into this abandoned ratkin city, and his eyes widened.  “Those ghouls back there… the bodies - they were afflicted with whatever is coming off this corpse.”

“Blight.” Fay stated, promptly nodding in agreement as Riven stood up.  “It’s a rare type of undead, spreads plague.  But because you’re undead, if you expose yourself to enough of it you’ll become immune.  It won’t actually kill you though.  Even people with the Unholy Pillar can become immune to it, but that’s a bit harder to do than being completely undead.”

“Those two ghouls looked pretty dead to me, and they definitely were affected by this.”

Fay shook her head.  “They had a reaction to the blight but they were certainly immune to any lethal damage from it.  Those ghouls were doubtlessly killed by something else, like the dozens of poisoned stab wounds.  I promise you, your people have nothing to fear from the blight itself other than discomfort.  Think of it like… like having a mild allergic reaction.”

“Mild?” Riven mused, grinning slightly.  He held his hand out over the wafting green cloud oozing off the corpse, and made a gesture to his exposed hand as another boil burst pus and re-healed itself.  “That’s pretty painful.”

Fay rolled her eyes and adjusted her witch’s hat.  “Yes, mild!  Because no matter how long you or any other undead sits in it, that blight isn’t going to kill you!  Those reactions to the blight will go away after you expose yourself more and more.  And the reactions that living people have in its presence are FAR more volatile than what you’re experiencing right now.  It’s believed, theoretically, that World Quest 1 - ‘The Lich King’s Plague’ - is referring to this exact thing: Blight.  The forums talk about how people on the outskirts of the lich’s territory have sent in scouts and spies, and they think he’s preparing some kind of weapon or army related to blight.”

Riven’s frown deepened.  “Does Blight really make such an impact that he’d try to spread it like a plague?”

“It IS a plague.” Fay corrected, booping him on the head with a finger and giving him a playful wink.  “The plague of undeath, created by followers of The Scythe back in the 2nd era far before this universe was ever created - with The Scythe being the first ever god of death.  And yes, because when mortals die to blight they have a high chance of self-spawning as undead soon after.  It’s also highly contagious, and can be cured but it takes a significant amount of healers, priests or shamans to cleanse it from the population when it starts spreading.”

“Wait, hold on.   You’re saying that humans will not only die from it, but then spawn as undead too?  Are you being serious?”

“I’m absolutely serious.”

“That’s very seriously not good.”

“Not good for the rest of the world!  But your population is undead now!”

“No, MOST of my population is undead now.  But we have three entire cities on the other side of Riven’s Eye Wormhole that are human-based.  This could pose a very serious problem. “

Genua raised a hand to get their attention.  “Not to mention you need mortal people to feed on, along with the other vampires of Rippenvire who have not abandoned their pact of non aggression.  If this blight kills all the living mortal races, then vampires in particular will be starved.”

Riven froze at the thought.  “Yeah there’s that too, though I doubt we have many vampires left after Gaia reported in with her slaughter right outside Brightsville’s borders.  And what about Genua?  Is she going to have a problem by being here?”

Fay shook her head.  “No, she’s a thrall and is partially undead as it is by technical standards.  She’d likely have a more severe and painful reaction than you do, but would still not die from it after prolonged exposure.”

“I see…” Riven rubbed his chin thoughtfully, looking around at the abandoned city with growing concern.  “I still can’t believe they just got up and left though.  Why would they kill our people and just move on?  And for what?  Because they were mad about Allie’s change to the world so the took it out on us by murdering the diplomats?  Our men talked about how they were seeking vengeance before they were strung up - but I don’t see them anywhere and we’d have seen them coming if they were aiming for Brightsville through known tunnels.  And the dwarvish outposts went radio silent…  Do you really think they did it?”

“Attacked Charathigog and Reathian, the dwarvish cities?”  Fay shook her head.  “Possibly, but they’d have lost a lot of people doing it.  The communications were probably cut off because it’s so far underground and we don’t have access to the communication crystal network we’d set up through Deepnest’s territory.  We had large garrisons in each dwarvish city to maintain the peace and Allie had doubled it recently because of unauthorized raids on dwarvish civilians by hostile ratkin.  My guess is that the ratkin just cut their ties and ran.”

“Because they know they can’t win in an all out fight against us?”

“Yes.  They knew it would be suicidal to fight out youright, and the same can probably be said for Allie too now since she just took the number 1 power ranking.”

“That still doesn’t make any sense.” Riven argued.  “Why abandon everything you’ve ever known?  Where would they even go?  I wasn’t going to attack them to begin with until they murdered our men and hung their bodies as a sign.  Their behavior is very rash, especially without any chance for diplomacy.”

“They were just turned into plagued abominations.” Genua stated with her hands clasped in front of her, red eyes staring at the broken corpse on the ground.  “Of course they’re angry.  Angry people to irrational things, and though Allie may not have been the direct source of their dilemma - she is certainly the cause of it.  They want someone to blame for their misfortune.”

Azmoth, who’d remained silent up until now, abruptly shifted his stance and pointed to a bright ball of light hovering over a nearby building.  “What is that?”

A blinding brilliance lit up the miles-wide cavern in an instant, and the entire city of Deepnest exploded with a shuddering boom.

***

• Blood Oath (Blood)(Tier 3): This miracle requires your vampire master’s permission to use.  Roots the user to one spot, significantly increases the amount of damage taken by the user’s vampire master, and grants invincibility to yourself unless your vampire master dies.

Genua managed to get the incantation and knelt in prayer just in time for Riven to accept it before the shockwave of raging energy crashed into their party like a tidal wave.

Azmoth’s hellfire barrier held for only a brief two seconds before being crushed underneath the absolute magnitude of a city-destroying blast that tore the cavern’s ceiling and floor apart like wood into a grinder.

Her body immediately burned a bright red and she stood helplessly rooted in place as Riven, Azmoth, and Fay were swept away.  Genua saw Fay scream before her body was ripped apart - no doubt being banished to the nether realms a split second later.  Azmoth got lost in the swirling storm of debris and thundering energy only a moment later, and Riven was flung into a similar direction so fast that it looked like he’d been shot out of a cannon.

Then, she was alone.

Genua’s heart thundered in her chest, and she remained in her position of prayer, head bowed and blood mana swirling about her in an impassible, protective layer that covered her entire body.  The ground underneath her tore and ripped, the winds about her howled, and hundreds of thousands of pieces of rubble collided with her in a maelstrom that lasted for nearly twelve seconds without pause.

She’d been only a split second away from death, and both she and her unborn child had barely managed to come out alive.  That thought alone had her adrenaline spiking, and she honestly couldn’t thank Riven enough.  This power was on the magnitude of his own when he’d destroyed Daskus.  He’d knowingly taken the hit to save her life at the risk of his own due to the miracle increasing his own damage taken by an unknown amount.

Her chest rose and fell with rapid breaths, and soon the storm had passed - leaving a smoldering crater twice the size the cavern had originally been in place of what had once been Deepnest.  The floor beneath her boiled with magma from the sheer heat of the energy used, every single building was long gone, and both Riven and Azmoth were nowhere to be seen.

She was alone, in a hellscape created by magic of some variety in a likely attempt to assassinate Riven or his sister.

Genua could only hope that the Ratkin hadn’t succeeded, and not knowing where to even start looking in this vast sea of smoldering, melted rock - she began to call out Riven’s name when she quickly stopped and dropped to the floor from her floating position.

Hiding behind a cooling mound of raised stone and gritting her teeth while her flesh began to burn, she watched in horror as dozens of figures started racing out over the edge of a hill that’d somehow been protected from the blast - and if she was right, was also the likely origin of said blast.

There were too many for her to handle, and she was at a loss for what to do.

***

Gluttony began to stir in Riven’s soul.  The primal hunger it experienced at all times began to rise up as it watched its host have high quality, mana-suppressing shackles placed along his wrists and ankles; before Riven was dragged off by a warband of blighted ratkin in a rush of scampering feet.  Clouds of plague left trails in their wake, and the undead creatures soon took to the tunnels with their prisoner being dragged unceremoniously along with them.

The great maw may be weakened by an indescribable amount by what he was about to do, but such was the price of freedom.  Too long had Gluttony and his brethren been trapped, shut away from the light.  Too long had he fed off nothing but hope that one day, one day he would finally find the vessel to bring him back.

Back from being a mere shadow of the monster that had once terrorized the cosmos, the monster that had once devoured entire pantheons of gods.

Back when the sins and commandments had been free.

The multiverse would once more know fear.

Gluttony stared at the last piece of Riven’s fragmented soul, the last shard that had yet to be placed, and gingerly held it with building glee.  This was merely a reset button, that was all.  Per Elysium’s contract, Gluttony would lose most of his power and knowledge while inhabiting a host and would have to level up through the ranks just like everyone else.

But it was worth it.

It was oh, so worth it!

It was a new chance at life.

“Take me to your leader… My unwitting servants…” Gluttony whispered into the abyss while watching the ratkin who were unknowingly delivering a catastrophe in the form of a prisoner to their people, finally placing that very last piece into place - finally having finished rebuilding the damage Elysium’s tribulation had done.  “Take me to your people… For it has been too long that I have truly tasted flesh.  One day, far into the future, it will be marked down in the history books that it was this day, here on Panu, that Gluttony finally returned.  That it was Gluttony who was the first of the original sins to claw his way back out of the abyss.  And that it was here in the underdark of the world that he finally feasted after millenia of starving, the first meal of many to satiate his hunger!”