Divine Apostasy Book 12 - Chapter 30

Chapter 30

The leprechaun with the staff burst through the foliage twenty feet in front of Ruwen. Its eyes glowed with emerald fury as it raised its weapon. Green runes appeared across its desiccated skin.

Ruwen knew attacking the leprechaun was useless, and he’d located the treasure stash. He decided to take a few seconds and let the mage attack, curious about the leprechauns’ magic.

Green glyphs in the shape of a two-foot circle appeared in front of the leprechaun mage. It didn’t hesitate to cast, and a swarm of green hornets surrounded Ruwen. Instead of stingers, these wasps had six razor pinchers.

Fifty of them latched onto Ruwen and easily sliced through his Shade gear. To his surprise the trace amounts of Creation Essence allowed the attack, after some sawing, to penetrate his Fortified skin. When he’d fought the Zealot, Ruwen had absorbed very high level Soul Power. It had become diluted as it soaked into his body, but it had advanced him from Archangel to Demigod.

The hornets would twist the skin as they pinched, and as this happened in a hundred places at the same time it quickly suppressed Ruwen’s curiosity.

Ruwen didn’t know if the Void consisted of essence, energy, or something unknown, but his human body and Saraph form both contained ten percent of the substance. He kept it spread throughout his body as anytime he concentrated it anywhere it tended to make him sick.

He took a fraction of this Void power and willed it toward the surface of his skin.

The hornets all spasmed and died, falling away and dissolving into green mist before hitting the ground.

The other four leprechauns were almost here, so Ruwen quit experimenting. Using his Divine Domain he levitated the pot of coins into the air. The staff wielding leprechaun’s eyes went wide, and it hissed.

“That pinching spell is irritating,” Ruwen said. “I think I figured out how to kill you.”

The leprechaun looked frantic, and it hopped from foot to foot in some sort of bizarre dance. It had its hands outstretched as if trying to reach the floating pot. While the leprechauns had too much Creation Essence in them to be affected by Ruwen’s Architect Role, the pot and gold coins were all from the Material Realm.

Ruwen transmuted the gold into dirt and upended the pot, spilling the contents onto the tree roots.

The leprechaun screamed, the sound so heart rending it made Ruwen flinch. The leprechaun threw its staff to the ground, fell to its knees, and wailed. It was the most overdramatic response Ruwen had ever seen.

Ruwen had thought the uncontrolled sobbing had caused the leprechaun to shake, but when it turned violent after three seconds followed by green light erupting from its eyes, mouth, and ears, he knew it was something else.

The other four leprechauns burst out of the jungle as the staff wielding leprechaun gave a final scream of agony and with a hateful glare at Ruwen, exploded.

A counter briefly appeared on the right side of Ruwen’s vision.

Desiccated Leprechaun Scouts (1/25)

Green leprechaun blood coated a ten-foot circle, and four-leaf-shamrocks rapidly grew. The sudden silence was jarring, and Ruwen prepared to fight the other four to a point he could find the next stash without them immediately following.

None of the four moved. They seemed frozen and Ruwen glanced at them. They all stared at the location of their exploding friend. Or more precisely at a slowly rotating rectangle.

As one, the four leprechauns turned their stares on Ruwen. One of them whispered something in a Creation Realm language Hey You couldn’t translate.

The leprechaun with the dagger turned back to the clover patch and the others immediately mirrored him.

The four of them squatted as if readying for combat and looked warily at each other. Ruwen felt the mood change through his Sacral chakra but didn’t understand what it meant or what had caused it. Then to his shock, instead of attacking him, they all dashed toward the small patch of clover.

When the four met they savagely attacked each other all while trying to claim the rectangle that remained rotating where their companion had died.

“Are they fighting over my loot?” Ruwen mumbled, confused why the leprechauns would attack each other.

Indecision filled Ruwen. This was a perfect opportunity to find the other stashes. These leprechauns had completely forgotten about him. On the other hand, it looked like they wanted to steal his loot.

Ruwen decided on a compromise. He’d try and Identify it and then decide whether to search for the next stash or join the fight. Identify didn’t trigger after a second of intense focus and his worry increased. If he left the card here, there was no guarantee he’d get it back as a drop from whichever leprechaun successfully nabbed it. Even though the smart thing to do was use this distraction to find the other stashes without interference, he didn’t want to lose that loot drop.

The Scarecrow Aspect reappeared and Ruwen created a hundred clones around the leprechauns all standing shoulder to shoulder. He Blinked to the spot thirty feet above his loot and used an old level four Worker spell, Retrieve, to snatch the small item to himself.

The loot turned out to be some type of playing card, but Ruwen couldn’t read any of the writing and the picture on it was either abstract or blurred on purpose. He dropped it into his open Void Band and then Blinked three times in rapid succession.

There was no point in trying to lose the leprechauns as they could track him. He just wanted to buy himself some time.

Taking out the cursed carrot again, Ruwen, now fifty feet in the air, rotated quickly trying to locate the direction of the closest stash. He still channeled Harmony through his Sacral chakra and when the carrot led him four hundred yards to the east he detected a mixture of obsession and possessiveness.

The Scarecrow clones did their best to get in the way and slow the remaining four leprechauns, and it only took them a few seconds to guess Ruwen’s strategy. He watched through the clones as the scouts scattered, presumably each racing toward their own hidden treasure. Ruwen dismissed all but four clones. He used those to follow the leprechauns. Hopefully he could stop using this carrot if the leprechauns didn’t notice the clones.

Ruwen dropped to the ground near the river, the sunlight reflecting dully off its brown surface. Harmony and his Sacral chakra pointed not underground this time, but into the water. It appeared this second stash was hidden in the side of the riverbank.

The river was deeper here, and Ruwen dove into the water, careful to keep his mouth firmly shut. The warm murky river wanted to pull him downward, and he didn’t fight it. He used his Divine Domain to accelerate through the water, following the sense of possessiveness.

Wedged into the rocky riverbank glowed a small leather pouch, a pile of stones keeping it securely in place. The dagger-wielding leprechaun arrived—its movements surprisingly fast underwater. The dagger rushed toward Ruwen like a striking eel doing its best to reach his throat.

Ruwen twisted, the blade narrowly missing his neck. He snatched the leprechaun's wrist, his Divine Strength easily overpowering the creature despite its supernatural speed. With his free hand, he grabbed the leather pouch.

The leprechaun thrashed wildly, its mouth opening in a scream of rage that released a stream of bubbles. The Scarecrow Aspect protected Ruwen from the dagger attacks, and the leprechaun’s eyes bulged with panic as Ruwen released the scout’s wrist and ripped open the pouch. A collection of silver coins mixed with bright river pearls filled the bag.

With the Architect Role, Ruwen melted the silver coins, and transformed the pearls into sand.

The leprechaun thrashed, its body collapsing in on itself. Ruwen released the scout and winced when it exploded into a swirl of green particles that the current immediately swept away.

The counter updated.

Desiccated Leprechaun Scouts (2/25)

Ruwen snatched the three drops before the current took them. He created a bubble of air to see what he’d grabbed.

The first was another card, the same size as the first, but with a different color. He focused intently on it and after three seconds Identify finally returned something.

Name: Unknown

Type: Unknown

Tier: Unknown

Deck: Unknown

Suit: Unknown

Set: Unknown

Effect: Unknown

Description: Rare crystallization of Creation Realm magic. This card has manifested one or more elements of the source entity. Cards are prized for their ability to be added to any deck, bypassing all restrictions and limitations.

While most of the information had no value, the description made up for it. Ruwen knew very little about the Creation Realm, and he’d lumped all their magic into what he referred to as Conceptual. Because it also seemed related to the mind, he’d also called it psionics.

The Destruction Realm magic had centered on the body, specifically the blood. To gain power a person needed to open the Arrays and Nodes in their blood. It seemed Creation Realm magic had similar concepts except they centered on the mind which must use cards like this. Ruwen had no idea how that worked or the purpose these cards served. They might be one-time items like spell scrolls or the equivalent of Destruction Realm gems.

The description referencing a “deck” reminded Ruwen a lot of blood Arrays. He’d need to figure out a way to read those cards so he could gather more information. The description had also called the cards “rare” but he’d gotten two of them in as many banishments.

Ruwen glanced at the next two items.