Divine Apostasy Book 7 - Chapter 73

Chapter 73

The Red Forest got its name, Ruwen realized, from the blood-colored trees that surrounded a massive lake. Mountains circled them, but above the peaks he noticed giant plumes of smoke and ash. The ground trembled periodically, as if it had caught a fever. Whatever damage the small pressure wave had created, it appeared long term.

Tarot used his deck of cards like an air sled and bounced across the water in front of them, moving back and forth and leaving rings of waves with every touch, like some type of possessed skipping stone.

Sift stared at the giant fortress nestled between two mountain peaks on the opposite side of the lake. He turned his attention to Tarot. “When we met, you called me a Champion of two worlds. Is this one of them?”

“Are you asking for another reading?” Tarot asked.

“No, he’s not,” Ruwen said. “We don’t have time for that.” He shifted his focus to Sift. “It’s too far. We’re only here an hour.”

“You could jump there in a few minutes,” Sift said. “And I can fly.”

Ruwen glanced around at the class. Echo had disappeared as usual, but everyone else walked the sandy area between the trees and the lake, heads down, looking for pearls.

Ruwen turned back to Sift. “What’s your plan?”

“Find the Champion’s Throne and claim it.”

“And if the Champion is there?”

Sift grinned. “Fight him.”

Ruwen sighed. Sift studied the distant fortress and Ruwen glanced around again. The learning portion of the trials had finished. The Adepts had all become Masters, and Ruwen didn’t need to babysit them. It meant he could use his magic guilt free, and he activated Survey and Stone Echo, spreading his awareness in a five-hundred-foot sphere.

In addition to the information in Survey, Ruwen used his Diamond Perception to analyze the areas outside his Stone Echo bubble. Small animals in the forest, ground, and water were the only things he detected. Not anything to cause the remotest bit of worry. He spent another thirty seconds straining every sense to make sure. These Masters had become his friends, and he didn’t want to leave if any hint of danger existed.

Ruwen couldn’t find any danger, and the fact that Sift had only mentioned going to the fortress twice meant it really mattered to him. When things weren’t important, he used them to poke Ruwen. Significant things, though, Sift didn’t push. Maybe because hearing Ruwen say no hurt too much.

“How low can you fly and not constantly crash?” Ruwen asked. “Uru help me, I can’t believe I called what you do flying.”

Sift smirked. “Under the trees for sure.”

Ruwen doubted that. He used Survey to plot a route and calculated if he ran just below the air explosion speed, they could make the fortress in under five minutes.

“Let me talk to Prythus,” Ruwen said.

Sift nodded and Ruwen strode over to Prythus and Nymthus who walked together, smiles on their faces, unable to contain the excitement of going home in less than an hour. Nymthus would return to her husband, and Prythus to his niece and nephew, which were the only loved ones he had left after demons had murdered his family.

Ruwen felt immense satisfaction about the progress of Rung Four. They had in the short time here, under his and Sift’s guidance, caught up with even some of the Masters in Rung One. With the eight new schools these Masters would create, they could train fighters capable of destroying the demon plague, giving them a chance to reclaim their world.

Prythus and Nymthus placed their palms on their fists and gave a short bow as Ruwen approached.

“Grandmaster,” Prythus said. “How can we serve?”

Ruwen waved his hand. “Just Ruwen is fine. Hey, I looked around and we seem alone. How do you feel about Sift and I leaving for a while?”

“There are thirty Masters here,” Prythus said. “I can’t imagine what could cause us trouble.”

Nymthus nodded. “I trust you would have detected a large group. You and Sift should leave.” She grinned. “Don’t forget your five pearls, though. We can’t be carrying you.”

Ruwen laughed. “I understand. Sift tells me all the time what a burden I am.” He grew serious. “Keep everyone near the portal stone. If there is any trouble, immediately retreat. I don’t care about the hour or the five soul pearls. Leave.”

Nymthus and Prythus both mirrored Ruwen’s seriousness.

“We will, Grandmaster,” Prythus said.

Ruwen sighed. “Okay, then. I’ll see you soon.”

Nymthus and Prythus bowed, and Ruwen returned it.

Ruwen strode to Sift. “Okay, Champ. Let’s go.”

Sift grinned and turned to Ruwen. “Some days you are almost bearable, Starfield.”

“Funny, Hamma says the same thing,” Ruwen replied. He turned to Tarot. “Are you coming?”

“No,” Tarot said. “I don’t like the view from the throne. I’ll wait here.”

Ruwen turned to Sift. “I guess it’s just us.”

Sift’s golden eyes faded as white light covered them. His feet rose off the ground a few feet and Ruwen nodded, acknowledging Sift’s stability.

“Race you,” Sift said, and then shot headfirst down the beach like a siege bolt.

“Not fair,” Ruwen mumbled.

Ruwen ran near the tree line. Jumping would have gone faster, but he wanted to stay under the trees to avoid attention. It wouldn’t have mattered though, as he needed full control over his Gravity Shell to compete with Sift’s speed.

Only once did Sift almost crash, but he recovered and never even slowed. Ruwen had to admit Sift had gained real flying skills.

They reached the outer wall of the fortress and Ruwen glanced back at the lake. He couldn’t see any activity and Rung Four along with the rest of the class were undetectable this far away. To see the distant Masters would take special skills. He didn’t like splitting from the group but knew he had drifted too close to becoming overprotective.

Sift levitated quickly to the top of the wall and Ruwen jumped the seventy feet. The wind gusts on top of the wall had a lot more strength than the breeze down below, and it whipped their hair around. They kneeled on the empty parapet and studied the city.

The fortress consisted of two and three story square buildings along wide streets that ran in straight lines. The city spanned over a mile but felt smaller because of the looming snow-covered mountains that surrounded it. Whoever had designed the city had made moving large numbers of troops quickly around the city easy. While ugly, it looked incredibly practical.

Demons ran around in small, armored groups, but Ruwen couldn’t make any sense of their purpose.

Sift whispered what Ruwen had concluded as well. “It’s like they’re all running around to look busy.”

Ruwen pointed at the largest building to their left. “I’m guessing that’s headquarters and the location of your throne.”

The streets between here and there had thousands of demons.

“Can you make that jump?” Sift asked, pointing between the fortress wall and the throne building.

At its closest point, three hundred feet separated the two structures. “Yes, but the issue is height. To make it that far, I need a running start, which means starting outside the wall. But my path through the air will take me pretty high. High enough to be noticed, probably.”

“I could carry you.”

“Sorry, I value my life too much. Plus, I’m not sure you could carry me. I weigh a lot more after the Gem transition.”

Sift puffed out his cheeks. “You should cut back on the sweets.”

Ruwen’s body fat percent, even before the transition to Gem, had hovered around five percent. Every muscle he had appeared on the verge of pushing through his skin. Not to mention, he rarely even ate.

“It’s your lack of strength I’m worried about,” Ruwen said, and squeezed Sift’s bicep.

While Ruwen had a more athletic build, Sift had always been lean. Sift flexed his arm, causing his bicep to bulge. “I’m a Springing Frenzy to your appah.”

“I don’t even know what that means,” Ruwen said and shook his head. “How did we get on this topic?” He pinched his heavy cotton jacket. “This hides me, but not when I’m moving fast, which probably makes jumping too dangerous.”

“Just use your jacket to walk through the streets.”

“That seems risky.”

“What about your gravity thing?”

“I have to be super careful not to use Spirit because my insides are really damaged. Anything that costs Spirit will drain my Mana bar first, and even if I use the Sublime Centipede of Solace Miranda gave me, I’ll only have another five thousand Mana banked there. If I blow through all of it, and tap my core, I could damage myself permanently, and I don’t know how much Mana the Gravity Shell consumes.”

“A simple no is fine.”

“Sorry, I have a problem with information.”

“No kidding. If you took all the time you spent explaining things and did something useful, you’d have a million skills.”

“A million? Really? I just want you to have the full context.”

“If every time you gave me the ‘full context’ you had planted a flower instead, you’d be a master planter.”

“I don’t think planter is a job.”

“It’s called farming.”

“So I could be a master flower farmer?”

“Exactly. Think how useful that would be.”

Ruwen rubbed his temples. “We did it again. Let’s focus.”

Sift returned his attention to the city. “You could hop from building to building.”

“That’s better than all at once,” Ruwen said. “Aren’t you worried about being seen?”

“No. I’ll be across that distance in a blink. It would be safer for both of us, though, if we had a distraction.”

Ruwen checked his Inventory to remind himself what the eggs he’d gotten from the Savage Seven level in Fractal did. He had seventeen of each colored egg. The seven colors corresponded to the colors of item quality, and the legendary purple eggs contained all the effects of the previous six eggs. It produced an explosion with bright light, deafening noise, thick smoke, intense flames, a concussive blast, and flammable gel.

“I have an idea for that,” Ruwen said.

“Of course you do. How about an idea to get into that building. Are you slow playing this so we need to go back without seeing the throne?”

“No,” Ruwen said, probably too quickly. The thought had crossed his mind. He glanced through his spells to see if a solution struck him.

Ruwen groaned.

“What?” Sift asked.

“I have an idea, but it’s terrible.”

“A terrible idea beats no idea.”

Ruwen tilted his head. “I don’t think that’s true.”

“Spill it.”

Ruwen sighed again. “I could use my jacket to hide, and use Move On to create a four-inch-wide bridge, three hundred feet long. Then I’ll put two spell points in a level six Worker spell Steady to enhance my balance and make falling impossible. I should be able to walk straight over.”

“You’re a Diamond Fortified Bamboo Viper Grandmaster and you’re going to put two points in a spell called Steady?”

Ruwen pointed at the sky. “It’s really windy.”

“Your plan,” Sift acted out planting a flower. “Is too complicated. Just create a distraction, and we go for it. If things go sideways, we retreat and hightail it back to the others.”

Ruwen considered that for a moment. “That is easier.”

Sift tapped his temple with a finger. “Simple, Brother.”

“Yes, you are,” Ruwen replied with a smile.