Grand Game 579: Gray, Black, and Blue

Note from Tom: This the final chapter of Book 8. I hope everyone enjoyed the story. Let me know what you think of the book and the ending :)
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I spun around, fleeing once more, with Ghost by my side. But this time, I didn’t plan on going far. Drawing psi, I began renewing my buffs.

The three harbingers raced down the hill, moving faster over land than their passage through the water suggested they were capable of. Blue came straight on, while Black veered left and Gray cut to the right. 

A classic flanking maneuver.

I slowed a touch, deliberately allowing the trio to catch up as we headed toward our ambush spot—which was the selfsame spot Elise, Ghost, and I had used during our training. I timed it just right too, and as we reached the center of the shallow dip, we found ourselves surrounded.

You have cast wind daemon. 

Ghost and I skidded to a halt.

The three half-cats prowled closer.

“Why does it smell so funny here?” Gray muttered, lowering his head to sniff at the ground.

Blue ignored him. “This is the end of the line,” she crooned.

“It is,” I replied impassively, “but not the way you mean.” Drawing stamina, I cast.

You have cast vanish. You are invisible. Duration: 5 minutes. 

Ghost has unmanifested. 

3 hostile entities have failed to detect you.

Ghost and I disappeared simultaneously, leaving the harbingers absent of any targets. 

The creatures reacted quickly. Springing forward from a standing start, Blue landed on the spot Ghost had so recently occupied and found… nothing. 

Copying her, Gray and Black charged my last known location. But they were a hair’s breadth too slow. I’d already shifted position, leaving the duo with nothing but air to find.

Drawing psi, I retreated steadily.

“Find him!” Blue screeched.

I laughed, using ventro to cause my voice to emerge twenty yards away from my actual location. The trio spun around at the sound, giving me the previous few seconds I needed to complete my spell.

You have cast slaysight. 

A level 341 stygian harbinger has resisted your spell.

A level 301 stygian harbinger has resisted your spell.

A level 303 stygian harbinger has partially resisted your spell.

You have paralyzed 1 of 3 targets for 30 seconds. 

“Now,” I instructed, speaking rapidly to the others across the farspeaker bracelet. “Leave the black one, Saf. It’s disabled.”

Blue and Gray, meanwhile, had realized something was amiss. Striding up to Black’s side, Blue nudged him—hard.

The harbinger toppled over.

Blue spun around to face Gray. “Oblivion!” she ordered. “Now!”

Paying the harbingers no heed, I concentrated on my next casting. At the same time, the rest of the ambush team finally made their presence known.

Adriel has dispelled a tier 6 concealment field. 

Adriel has cast blood of the dead. Blood of the dead is a lesser blood memory that resurrects the remains of any recent dead in the vicinity, up to a maximum of 100, transforming them into a ghostly army that fights on the caster’s behalf.

Adriel has raised the ghosts of 25 nagas and 75 hydras to fight on her behalf.

Ceruvax has cast rampaging pack. Rampaging pack is a greater blood memory that buffs all allies around the caster in a 100 yard radius, adding fire damage to their attacks. Rampaging allies will deal 3x fire damage in addition to their normal attacks. 

You are now rampaging (will deal 3x fire damage). Duration: 2 minutes.

Safyre has cast tornado of light. Tornado of light is a tier 5 Force ability that traps a single target in a vortex of light for 30 seconds, dealing sustained light damage to it.

A level 301 stygian harbinger has partially resisted a tornado of light and is storm trapped. Duration (reduced): 10 seconds. 

“Focus your attacks on the gray and black ones!” I yelled as surging winds of pure Light descended from the skies and plucked Gray off the ground. “Get gray and black,” I added for the benefit of Farren and Adriel who were not on the farspeaker network. “You have ten seconds.”

My own spell completed, and I released it too.

You have activated fearsome aura. Range: 23 yards. 

1 of 3 foes have failed a mental resistance check!

A level 303 stygian harbinger has been petrified (frozen in fear and unable to act). 

My jaw snapped close in frustration as fearsome aura affected the same target as paralyze, leaving Blue unaffected. 

But I had more cards to play. Darting forward, I leaped. “The blue one is mine,” I snarled, weaving stamina as I rushed through the air. “Ghost, take Black.”

“On it, Prime.”

You have cast ponderous step. You are now heavy (causing the ground to shake with each step) Duration: 1 minute. 

Ghost has cast explosive manifest.

Farren has cast scythes of darkness. Scythes of darkness is a lesser blood memory that manifests 2 dark blades into being for 1 minute.

As I arced through the air toward my target, I spotted the archlich’s summoned blades appearing over Gray who was still trapped in Safyre’s tornado. First one blade, then the other slashed down.

A dark scythe has critically injured a stygian harbinger.

A dark scythe has critically injured a stygian harbinger.

Adriel’s ethereal army was moving too. Their limbs and jaws glimmering red—courtesy of Ceruvax’s buff—they passed through Blue to converge on the paralyzed and petrified Black. Ghost was already there, attacking the helpless harbinger with tooth and claw and raking deep furrows in his sides. The female harbinger, meanwhile, was still casting, her lips moving rapidly. 

But I soon put a stop to that.

Passing through the top of my arc, I rushed groundward. At the last second Blue looked up, sensing something amiss. But by then it was too late, and I landed directly atop the harbinger. The breath whooshed out of her lungs and her limbs splayed outward as she collapsed beneath my overbearing weight.

I didn’t give her a chance to recover.

Bringing my clawed right foot down, I swatted Blue across the face. At the same time, I closed my jaws over the back of her neck.

A level 341 stygian harbinger has partially resisted your stunning paw and has been stunned for 2 seconds.

A stygian harbinger has failed to resist lacerating bite.

Your target is bleeding. Duration: 23 seconds. 

I didn’t release my hold on Blue’s neck. Instead, I ground my teeth further into the wound I’d already inflicted, gnawing deeper. Nor did I let up with my paw attacks. My clawed forepaw rising and falling, I kept swatting at the downed harbinger.

Ceruvax has ordered a naga to attack a level 301 stygian harbinger.

Farren has ordered 18 undead nagas to attack a level 301 stygian harbinger.

I acknowledged the Game messages with barely a flicker of emotion. At this point, the introduction of Farren and Ceruvax’s minions was overkill. 

This battle could have only one outcome.

✵ ✵ ✵

The three harbingers put up surprisingly little fight.

It appeared I had misjudged my own strength and that of my allies. Even without Adriel and Farren using their strongest spells—as death casters themselves, the three stygian Powers were immune to the lichs’ death magic—we still managed to keep the harbingers disabled for prolonged stretches of time. 

Or perhaps it was simply surprise that carried the day. 

Gray, Black, and Blue did not manage to get off a single spell, and it was possible the complexion of the battle would have changed completely if they had. But I doubted it. We were prepared for the harbingers’ death magic.

In any case, the end proved anticlimactic, with alert after alert scrolling through my mind while my foe lay largely senseless beneath me. But eventually, the Game messages I was waiting for arrived.

You have killed a level 341 stygian harbinger.

You and Ghost have reached level 273!

Your dodging has reached rank 23, your two weapon fighting rank 21, and your thieving rank 18.

Ghost’s death magic has reached rank 14 and her nether manipulation rank 13.

You’ve slain a tier 7 creature, deepening your Power Mark. 

Congratulations, Michael! You have slain your 3rd tier 7 creature, thereby advancing another step down the paths of Power and acquiring the Powerful Acolyte Mark. 

As a result of your new Power Mark, your higher evolution trait has advanced to higher evolution II. This trait allows you to evolve your ascendant Class to rank 2. But before you can do so, you must either deepen your Wolf Mark further or reach level 300. Note, once you acquire a legendary Class you will be prohibited from attacking players who themselves do not bear a Power Mark.

I stepped off the dead harbinger, my muzzle bloody and dripping gore. Looking up, I surveyed the battlefield.

The others were still fighting Gray and Black but appeared to have matters well in hand. Ghost had her jaws locked around Black’s throat while the undead nagas and Adriel’s ghosts beat at him. Farren, Ceruvax, and Safyre, meanwhile, were pounding Gray with spells.

“Michael?”

My head turned westward. The call had come from Anriq, speaking to me through the farspeaker bracelet. “What is it?”

“I’m not sure,” he replied uncertainly. “But I think something is happening with the tree.”

I inhaled sharply. “He has joined the battle?”

“He—? Never mind. But, no, that’s not it. The ground around the Power is churning. And I think I see… roots.”

“Roots?” I repeated blankly. “Why would—”

I broke off, realization dawning. 

The tree was uprooting itself. I’d seen the sapling in Draven’s Reach do the same thing. And the fact that the tree was digging himself up could mean only one thing.

He had decided to run. 

I was sure of it. Despite the void tree’s earlier evinced arrogance and all his talk of ‘alone sufficing,’ Blue’s death must have shook him. 

“They’re definitely roots,” Anriq added, unaware of my churning thoughts. “More have appeared, lots more.”

“It’s not just that,” Nyra commented. “The Power is rising too.”

“The trees can fly?” a baffled Terence asked. “Why didn’t it do that before?”

“He’s fleeing,” I said numbly.

“Fleeing?” Teresa asked skeptically. “Why would you think that? Maybe it’s on its way to help the harbingers.”

“He’s not,” I said confidently. 

Sector 18,240 was not Draven’s Reach. It was a Kingdom sector and only reachable by the void through a rift—the very same rift that the young tree was anchoring.

Or had been anchoring.

Because there was a cost to a tree uprooting itself in a Kingdom sector. And that cost was the rift linking the sector to the Nethersphere. Without young void tree’s roots to anchor it, the rift would not be able to sustain itself.

I lifted my gaze to the rift peaking above the top of the intervening foothills. It had shrunk—was shrinking still. The change was noticeable, leaving me in doubt that the rift was contracting. Its closure was inevitable.

And that meant we’d won.

No matter what happened from this point onward, the rift would close, the safe zone would reappear, and the mists would vanish. 

Most importantly, though, it meant the sector was ours to claim.

But…

I couldn’t see the tree, but I knew that he wouldn’t be uprooting himself if he didn’t think he could traverse the rift before it was destroyed. The last thing the stygian Power wanted was to be stuck on this side of the rift with the foes that had hurt him so much.

The void tree was going to flee to sector 30,199.

Where even now the brotherhood was likely still embroiled in battle. The stygian Power would drop out of the rift and directly into their midst, leaving him close enough to strike at the brotherhood’s army with his powerful mental abilities.

Enthralling some.

Killing others.

Doing to them the things we had been so careful not to let him do to our own forces. Even if the brotherhood managed to kill the void tree, they would lose hundreds in the process.

Turning my head to the left, my gaze found Safyre where she stood beside Ceruvax, Farren, and Adriel. I could see from her expression she already knew what I intended.

“I have to chase after him.”

She sighed. “I agree. We can’t let the brotherhood pay for our failures.”

I’d promised Kartara that her people would not have to face the void tree. Knowing the huntmistress, she and her people likely already had contingencies in place for such a scenario.

But no contingency was perfect.

And while many of the brotherhood might get away, many more would still die. Their deaths would be on my head. “Unmanifest, Ghost. We have other prey to hunt,” I said quietly before turning back to Safyre. “You know what to do.”

She nodded. “We will see the sector claimed.”

There were other things I wanted to say, but this was not the time for a protracted goodbye. Leaving things as they were, I dashed up the slope of the western hill, spinning psi as I went.

Ghost has unmanifested.

Cresting the rise, my eyes darted to my distant foe. 

The void tree was fully airborne now and, flying fast, was almost at the rift. I couldn’t delay. Releasing the weave I held ready, I blinked out of existence.

You have teleported into the shadow of a level 340 young void tree. 

I emerged from the aether, nestled amongst the tree’s branches once more, and not a second too early, either.

A heartbeat later, the tree made contact with the dark doorway and our transition into the void began.

You have entered a rift.

Leaving sector 18,240 of the Forever Kingdom. 

Transfer commencing…

✵ ✵ ✵

The End.

Here ends Book 8 of the Grand Game.

Michael’s adventures will continue in Webs of Power. 

Coming 01 October 2025!