Chapter 39
Green And Broken
With the night illuminated by the orange of non-magical fire, and bursts of blue from volleys of arrows, they stood back-to-back. Harper, Wolf, Terk, Beatrice, Doggy, and Addy had fought mostly flying enemies from their central ring of standing torches, but the occasional beast had slipped past the others.
Beatrice could no longer spare much more than glances to her allies as the sky filled with enemies between the flurries of arrows. Looking over for only a moment, she caught a glimpse of Loot racing toward them. Out of the mana required for Divine Judgement, Loot was retreating when he was rocked by the concussive force of an explosion near Nik and Ryan that sent the kobold flying.
Lana Harper’s screams filled Beatrice’s ears.
“Don’t! It will be too much! Nik!” A shadow raven cut her cries short as it dove on her.
Beatrice struck another flyer with her staff and Doggy shredded it to pieces on the ground. She looked over to where her kobold friend had been thrown only moments prior. Nik was coughing, and he had something in his hands. Then he started to glow, took a step forward, and blinked out of existence.
“Harper, please tell me you can explain that,” Beatrice said, already moving to strike the next shadow.
Fire was spreading around the side where Ryan snapped his jaws at shadow beasts. Their inner-circle would be safe with the fire line they'd dug, but the area between them and their front line of warriors would soon be engulfed.
The H.E.R.O. admin replied, “He consumed tower dust. He will have its raw energy coursing through him, and I think he went to face the first of the kings on his own.”
I really hope that little guy knows what he's doing, Beatrice thought as another beast descended upon her and Doggy.
They fought on as flames threatened to separate and devour the others. Pearl dodged airborne enemies and blue-flame arrows alike as she worked to keep the flames from reaching her friends.
Over the roaring of flames and the din of battle her small voice called out, “Retreat! Frontliners, Retreat!”
Beatrice exited the ring and rushed toward her brother. The lightning wielder was still throwing out small arcs of electricity into the sky as he stepped backward from the burning wall of heat. She threw up a column of vines to cover their escape.
Kath and Eric swung at the enemies that harried them as they joined Stics and Worik nearer the center.
By the time they regrouped, the spreading flames had created a shield from their enemies at the front and sides. Now that the ground attack was temporarily cut off, the winged shadows now loomed as the most immediate threat. For now, at least, they could focus their attention on the skies. Their unexpected, bow-wielding allies had made a difference, but still the shadows came.
One by one they were running out of mana and stamina, only able to defeat enemies by knocking them into the flames that were beginning to surround them now.
As the flames encircled them, both the volleys and the allies that had been firing them, vanished.
That can't be a good sign, she thought.
Cuts and scrapes had piled up minute by minute, one enemy after another having dealt minor wounds to the defenders before succumbing to the flames.
Beatrice went to swing at an incoming shadow, and it stopped short of her reach. They all did. Each of their enemies had simply paused their attacks to hover in place.
And then, as the ground began to shake, the sky cracked…
The echoing boom, like thunder, cleaved through the air to reverberate in her chest. Her ears felt like they were going to burst from the pressure in her head as much as from the sound. It was the sound of the night sky being torn into ribbons of crystalline light that stretched back to what had once been the Black Tower.
Piercing the starlit night and reaching into the heavens, loomed a structure remade. In place of the familiar black bricks stood a shimmering pillar emerald green.
The strange ribbons of iridescent light shed their soft glow over Kyraneth and the cloudless night began to rain. Even as the flames dimmed, the shadows retained their distance. Then, as if they hadn't just been at battle, the creatures of darkness returned to the shade of the forests’ trees.
Beatrice fell to her knees as exhaustion betrayed her will to remain standing through the vibrations which shook the ground beneath her.
A voice beside her began quiet, rising in volume to a low shout. It took a moment to register it as Harper’s as she said, “No, Nik… No, no, no! What did you do? What did you do to my father's tower?”
Almost as if in answer, the air rippled nearby, and Nik stepped back onto Kyraneth. The kobold was covered in bloody wounds, his tail was a stump, and he was wearing an emerald crown. Nik stumbled as he stepped forward and caught himself just before he would have fallen.
As abruptly as it came, the rumble ceased. Beatrice was too tired to move, but Nik's clan seemed to have enough energy to rush him. As they raced toward their leader, he removed the crown and stored it in his inventory.
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“You guys held the enemy off; that’s good. You’re all safe now,” Nik uttered in a half-daze.
He smiled a broad, but tired, smile. Then the kobold took a single step and collapsed into the arms of his guards.
* * *
The first of the kings is dead, I killed him. No respawning, just death. There's blood on my hands now that I can't wash off. He was a villain and a threat, and I put him down. So why does it feel like I'm buried under such a heavy weight? This feels like the type of moment where the architect's voice should be speaking in my mind, but these thoughts are all my own. Why does that make me feel so alone?
Four days had passed since the night of their battle. Nik’s wounds had healed by the end of the day following the battle, but his soul, it would seem, had needed more time.
Pearl had gotten him up to date on both the events of the battle he'd missed and what had taken place in the days after he'd gone to face the king. However, while he'd slept, broken visions had filled his dreams; memories of his own fist buried within the abdomen of the king interspersed with images of other worlds, places, and creatures unlike anything he’d ever seen before. They were flashes in his mind, with little context beyond the possibility of them being connected to the tower, his tower.
So strange… It's such an odd thought, but it is mine now, I can feel it. Green and broken away from the black.
Nik let the thought go as he went over his list of notifications.
You have defeated 23 Shadow Puppeteers
Experience gained 805!
Congratulations!
Quest Completed!
You Have Defeated Corvin the Onyx King!
Experience gained 1,200!
I should say something snarky here, but I'm honestly just impressed that you're not dead!
Rewards:
Title Received!
The Emerald King
Tower Functionality!
Limited. Current commands must resolve.
Additional resonance energy required for further commands.
Current Resonance Rank: Bronze
Resonance energy 10 of 50,000
2,005 Total XP Gained!
Congratulations!
Level Up!
You are now a LEVEL 7 KOBOLD ELEMENTALIST!
Congratulations!
Level Up!
You are now a LEVEL 8 KOBOLD ELEMENTALIST!
All Stats Gain +2
Unallocated stat points 2
XP 645 of 900 to Level 9
I need everything I can get to help me through leading a burrow. Intelligence +2, Nik thought as he upped the stat to 16.
As much as gaining a level and increasing several of his skills felt well earned, the bits about resonance were what really drew Nik's attention. That was only true until he dismissed the boxes that had been layered above one glowing with red light.
Warning:
Tower Destabilization 30%
That can't be good… I need to get some fresh air and figure this out, he thought.
Nik stepped outside of his tent, hands shaking lightly enough that he hoped no one would notice.
The sky, regardless of whether it was day or night, now shone with the tower's light. While it had put the clan in a general state of unease, most of them had spent very little time viewing the sky before it had formed a massive, iridescent groove. So, they'd collectively decided to move on. The Stormclaws had chosen to start with construction while he was recovering from everything that his body had been through.
The soft buzzing of wings rose in volume, followed by a very welcome and familiar voice.
“Well, back on your feet and ready to see the sights, then? Since your guards and the adventurers are all out hunting, I suppose that leaves me to be your escort,” said Pearl.
“I would very much appreciate the company, Teacher,” he replied to his oldest friend.
She accompanied him as he walked the grounds of what would be, what was, his burrow. The beginnings of new walls already formed a perimeter around a large portion of the clearing. They would have more than enough space for growth. Spots for the foundations of homes and communal structures had been marked and sectioned off, and much of the ash had even been shoveled into a pile for later use. In an area near the middle of their would-be town was a round depression of earth with stairs descending in a curve toward its flattened center.
“Here you are at last,” declared Elder Terk, whom Nik had failed to notice beside a wooden table at the edge of the depression.
“Here I am,” he replied.
“Now that you’re here, do you have any requests for it?” the wrinkled goblin asked.
Nik’s brows creased. “Any requests for it? I’m sorry, but I don’t even know what it is? I’ve never built a burrow before, so I wouldn’t even know where to start, honored elder.”
Terk barked out a quick laugh, before he regained enough control to speak. “The ‘it’ we’re referring to here is the site of your new office, and additionally, your home.”
“My home?” Nik said, his voice cut low as he was struck by the statement.
“Your home. We did it. We found your place,” Pearl confirmed.
Silence clung to them as Nik took in the sight that he'd been searching for since he'd left the halls of the sunken castle. A smile lit all the way to his eyes. This was it, everything he'd fought and bled for, and he could finally reach out and touch it. It was his place to be welcome, safe, and surrounded by people who cared for him. It was almost enough to make him forget about the notification that displayed a warning.
His grin soured, and Pearl said, “Nik, what is wrong? Your smile should not be faltering now.”
“It's the tower. I did something to keep us safe, but I don't know what the consequences will be. I need to talk to everyone when the others —”
“You! What did you do?” a voice, raw, angry, and panicked, screamed across from the cluster of tents where the adventurers had made camp within the short walls of the burrow.
The three of them turned to see Lana and Wolf marching toward them.
Of course she wouldn't be gone on the hunt with the others, she must have stayed behind for answers, he thought.
Before Nik could form a response, Kath appeared between the two groups, swords drawn, and faced the screaming elf. She held her ground as both the Elf and her Lupine friend slowed to a stop. The tension was heavy in the air, but Nik was so caught off-guard by the appearance of the goblin warrior that he failed to speak before she did.
“Careful with your tone, Vassal,” she said, her voice as even and sharp as a balanced blade.
Nik stepped up to Kath, put a hand on her shoulder, and said, “It’s okay. She’s just scared. Things haven’t gone the way she expected them to.”
“Haven't gone the way I expected?” — Lana released a manic laugh before she continued. — “Just scared? I'm terrified! Whatever you did to the tower, something went wrong. We should not be able to see its light in the sky, and that means that whatever changed, it wasn't natural. You did something, and the effects are on display for all to see. You were supposed to just take the crown, but that would have only increased your bond with the tower. So, Emerald King, what did you do?”
Nik's heart began to race, and he replied, “I did what I had to do to stop the other kings from coming!”
He held up a hand as he caught himself rising to meet the emotional state of the admin.
“Look, I’ll explain what I can, but some of it is beyond me. We all need to stay calm and figure this out together. You have more knowledge of the tower than I do and I appreciate your insight, but panicking will not help us find solutions. Let’s all go down into this hole that will be my office soon anyway, and we’ll talk. You too, Terk. We’ll call this a council meeting, and everyone else who needs to know can be caught up later.”
Warning:
Tower Destabilization 45%
Well, that's just great, Nik thought.
“Everybody down the steps; we need to finish this up and get a rush on the outer walls. Something is happening now, and I don't think I can stop it.”
