Amazon Apocalypse 6: Chapter 65

Slaying the Void City Eater went about the same as before, though without Sharky to help I ended up breathing a lot of fire on its insides until it finally dropped out of the sky. With it slain, a few waves of magical projectiles took out the rest of the monsters on the wall. Toward the end of the battle, I saw Frank and his adventurers coming up the road after clearing out the previous town, and I waved them on to help take care of the rest of the monsters in the area.

"You get them to sign your paper?" Frank shouted up at me.

"Yup! All good. Show 'em who's boss." I jerked my thumb over my shoulder at the city, giving Frank the all clear to protect it from void monsters. Once Crownhill itself was secure, he'd no doubt call in more of his adventurers to help out, which would help establish his guild as a force for good in Camlaan.

Frank flashed me a thumbs up, then took off.

With the Sages of Camlaan loosely in hand, the only people left on the shard to deal with were the Order of Sorcery.

The question was how to deal with them. And naturally, the answer to that was Myrina.

Truthfully, I suspected this wasn't even my plan. Sorcerer Mourningstar had given Doomblade the position of Knight Commander of the Black Knights, then sent his daughter away along with the knights. He knew full well that most of the knights were fresh recruits, and had even given orders to recruit more. By the time they were fully armed and trained would have more loyalty to their Knight Commander and resident sorcerer than to the Order of Sorcery as an institution.

I knew that Sorcerer Mourningstar had planned on reforming the Order of Sorcery from bandits, brigands, rebels, and criminals into an organization worthy of respect. But for new ways to take hold, the old ways had to be firmly purged. And that meant getting rid of the Sorcerers who didn't agree with his proposed reforms.

I accessed Myrina's recent data logs. Doomblade's Armory had a note taking function that I had used to bring her up to speed with what I'd done in the armor. Myrina hadn't exactly kept pace with keeping notes, but the armor logged enough data automatically that I could piece together where she was and what she was doing.

She had already led the Black Knights back to the Order of Sorcery's citadel shortly after the fighting began. She'd made decent time under Sorcerer Mourningstar's request to return, but when I had given an order of my own to return to the citadel, she'd turned her troops' march into a sprint.

They made the trip in one piece, despite the void monsters. That was mostly thanks to having two B-Grades in their group, Myrina and Liliana, more importantly known as Sorcerer Mourningstar's daughter.

With the return of the Black Knights, and with the natural defenses of the citadel they used as their headquarters, I felt certain that the Order of Sorcery would have fared the best out of all the settlements on the shard. Because of this, I was quite surprised to find the place in chaos when I arrived.

The outermost gates had been smashed down. Most of the defensive towers were unguarded. In the streets, I spotted several Black Knights fighting off void monsters as they held the gap leading to the civilian wing of the citadel's lower circle.

One of them had his helmet off, and I recognized him by the cat-like ears he had at the top of his head. That was Katar. He'd been briefly killed once during our early raids, but I'd put him back together again thanks to being nearby when it happened.

He was wearing real armor now instead of a black tunic full of holes, and he wielded the sword in his hand with surprising skill, considering how I'd seen him fight not long ago.

I landed beside him, and he jumped back with his sword drawn.

"Report. What's happening, Katar?" I asked.

"W-who are you? How do you know my name?" Katar waved his sword at me, expression firm, but only barely masking his nervousness.

I realized then that he'd only ever known me as Doomblade. Since Myrina was wearing the suit now, I was a stranger.

I'd have to introduce myself for the first time.

"I am Carter, the Shardlord of Crownhill. I'm here to save this city, if your Sorcerers will let me." I looked around to the burning citadel. Hopefully I wasn't too late. It looked like a lot of what I'd come to save was already trashed.

Katar had seen me flying and eyed me up and down. "So you're a sorcerer too? On the same level as Liliana?"

I chuckled. "No. Not on the same level as Liliana."

I snapped my fingers. As one, all the nearby void monsters exploded. I'd peppered most of them with spells moments ago to collect some extra stat points with Soulchain Nexus in case negotiations turned violent. Under circumstances like these, I used as little mana as possible to inflict a Corrupting Mark and wait until it had spread enough for me to kill the monster in a detonation. It was the most mana-efficient way to wipe out large hordes.

"Uh..." Katar gaped at the army of void monsters I'd exterminated with a snap of my fingers. Perhaps I'd been a bit too showy with that.

"As I was saying, I'm here to help," I held my hands out with empty palms up.

Katar and the other Black Knight next to him didn't seem put at ease by my gesture of good will. Fortunately, Katar had a good head on his shoulders and at least knew when to point me in the direction of someone higher in the chain of command.

"Knight Commander Doomblade is over there," Katar pointed up the hill.

I nodded in thanks. "Thank you. As a reward, have a helmet."

I tossed Katar a helmet from Doomblade's Armory. Looking at him gave me flashbacks to seeing a warhammer buried in his skull. Giving him a good helmet would reduce the chances of that happening again. I'd given him one from the battlefield last time, but since he wasn't wearing it now I could only assume it had already taken a blow for him. This helm could take more than one.

I took off in Myrina's direction. She was likely at the heart of things and could hopefully fill me in on what was going on if I could get a moment alone with her.

Thanks to Katar's directions and location data from Doomblade, I soon caught up with Myrina. I planned to drop in and figure out what was going on, but she was in the middle of a fight with both void monsters and several enemy Black Knights.

Any enemies of Myrina were enemies of mine, so figuring out what was happening could wait until they were dead. Between the two of us, we soon took care of both the enemy knights and the Voidlings, the strongest of which was a weaker version of those harpies that had attacked Cyra.

"Carter!" Myrina said excitedly. Her voice was muffled by the suit, but the tone was unmistakably hers. I began to worry she hadn't been able to disguise herself as me as well as I'd hoped.

"No time for pleasantries. I was planning on putting our Black Knights to use, but I see something's already happened that didn't make it into your logs," I said.

Myrina's shoulders slumped. In such bulky armor, it made an audible clatter.

"I've had important ass-kicking to do! And don't worry, I haven't done anything you wouldn't!" Before I could ask for any clarification on what that meant, Myrina quickly redirected the conversation. "As for what's happening? Liliana's dad called us back for some scheme of his."

"What scheme of his?"

Myrina looked up to the tallest heights of the citadel. "I think he was trying to force the other sorcerers to accept his reforms and reorganize the Order of Sorcery into something good. I don't think it went well though. I'm actually on my way up there to crash the execution party they're holding."

From Myrina's words, I pieced together what happened, and it was much as I'd theorized. Liliana's father got very unlucky with the timing of his rebellion. It just so happened to take place at the same time as the void attacks. As a result, the Black Knights he thought would support him in his political play were instead forced to defend civilians from monsters.

Since his whole plan for a new Order of Sorcery involved taking people in, he couldn't exactly abandon them to be eaten by void monsters. His fellow sorcerers had no such restrictions.

Given the urgency of the situation, we couldn't delay. "I'm going to check it out. Catch up with me when you can."

I sprouted dragon wings made of magic from my back, then took flight to reach the top of the citadel. I couldn't afford to lose the only two people in the Order of Sorcery I felt certain I could work with.

I reached the top in short order, with Myrina bounding over roofs as fast as she could behind me. Several more void monsters tried to bar our way, but none were powerful enough to slow me down.

As we reached the top of the citadel, signs of a B-Grade battle grew more prevalent. The Sorcerers of the Order of Sorcery were truthfully cultivators relearning the ancient traditions their ancestors abandoned, so the battle reminded me a lot of what Mimiko left behind after a fight.

Big scorch marks covered most of the walls, which were a clear sign of somebody who liked to play with fire. Some of the deeper blasts were probably lightning attacks, and the gouges in the stone probably came from an earth-aspected ability.

I'd arrived just in time. Liliana and her father had both been soundly defeated. Sorcerer Mourningstar lay wounded on his back, while Liliana was behind him with a defiant look on her face. Her father had probably told her to run while he held the others off, but she'd refused.

"Any last words?" asked a B-Grade Sorcerer. He was one of five circling Liliana and her father. I wasn't sure if this was the rest of the sorcerers or if some had died in the fighting or if this was the full might of the Order of Sorcery turned against one of their own, but if I didn't act, both Liliana and Sorcerer Mourningstar would be finished soon.

"Fools, all of you! Our days of banditry and rebellion are over. The Sages of Camlaan are no longer the greatest powers in the realm, and their reach will never span the world again. We can build the kingdom our founders envisioned, but we must have the strength to embrace the weak and raise them up! Give up on raiding villages and pillaging cities." Sorcerer Mourningstar wheezed from his back. His daughter held him up, and that seemed to be the only reason he could talk as he coughed up a mouthful of blood. Despite the clear pain he was in, he continued.

"The world has changed. The civilians we've taken in are our future. From now on, let us be known as protectors rather than plunderers. Defenders, not defilers. We—"

"You never knew when to shut up, Mourningstar. I asked for last words, not a last speech. We've heard it all before. Now, die!" The B-Grade Sorcerer who'd spoken before revealed himself as the fire wielder as flame sprouted from his hands and swirled around him in twisting coils waiting to be unleashed.

I figured now was the time to make my appearance. Mourningstar had bought me enough time to conjure some spells, which I had been keeping hidden just beneath the edge of the upper level of the citadel. I flew over that wall, but left my spells just out of sight.

A huge fireball flew toward Mourningstar and Liliana, but was snuffed out a moment later by a shimmering portal that swallowed the fireball up and cast it into the void. Then I made my presence known.

"Hold on, I think he was on to something. I think his vision would lead to better neighbors than what the five of you have in mind." I hovered behind and above Mourningstar and Liliana.

"And who are you supposed to be?" the fire-wielding sorcerer said.

"That's him! That's Emperor Carter! Of the new kingdom to the southwest of us!" Liliana said. Mourningstar tried to crane his neck to look at me, but with his wounds he struggled.

"Well, Emperor Carter, was it?" The fire sorcerer eyed me warily. "I don't know who you are, but stay out of the internal affairs of the Order of Sorcery. I will—"

I cut him off the same way he'd cut off Mourningstar. "I'll make this short and simple. Whichever side signs my treaty gets to live."

"Just who do you think you are? There are five of us and one of you! I suggest you mind your words," the fire sorcerer spat.

I chuckled as I tossed out two copies of my treaty. One fell to the ground next to Liliana. The other flew toward the fire sorcerer, where it was promptly incinerated. I guess I had my answer there. Unlike with the Sages of Camlaan, it looked like I might actually get to clean house here.

The five hostile sorcerers squared up, looking to one another for support. They saw my level and saw I was beyond them individually, but I suspected they didn't realize how far beyond them I was. Levels in the B-Grade counted for far more than those in all the grades beneath it. And I liked to think I was no ordinary B-Grade.

The fire sorcerer prepared another burst of fire, but at its heart the sorcerers practiced a form of cultivation. At its best, cultivation was still slower than abilities from the System, and the reinvented version of cultivation the Order of Sorcery used was far cruder than the ancient traditions practiced by Mimiko and Jade.

By the time the fire sorcerer had readied a spell, I drew up the spells I had conjured earlier and flung them at the sorcerers.

I couldn't kill these guys in one hit, but it did bring an abrupt end to any attempt at offense they might have had.

While the sorcerers dealt with my rain of spells, I drifted lower and peered at Sorcerer Mourningstar's wounds. He was in pretty bad shape and wasn't even able to sit up to read my treaty, which simply wouldn't do.

I knitted a few bones together, drew some of the blood pooling on the ground back into his body, and generally brought him from the edge of death to merely in pretty bad shape.

"Eat and drink," I said, tossing down one of Bridget's biscuits and a healing potion. Between the two, Sorcerer Mourningstar would hopefully be in good enough shape to read and write.

My rain of spells ended around then, and the five sorcerers shrugged off their defenses. The fire sorcerer had encased himself and several others in a fireball, while another had conjured a shield of earth drawn from the ground at his feet to protect him. All the sorcerers were channeling more mana now as they prepared to attack, but they were taking me much more seriously now.

"Your ultimate attack was not enough to finish us, Emperor Carter! It's too late to make amends. First, we'll kill you, then we'll pay this kingdom of yours a visit and pillage it to our heart's content!" The fire sorcerer spread his arms wide to draw forth more tendrils of fire.

I chuckled. "If any of you are smart, you'll run now."

The fire sorcerer snuffed his spell out, and his face went suddenly pale. A moment later, the sorcerers scattered. I blinked. I hadn't expected them to actually take me up on my offer.

I turned as a shadow fell over me and realized I wasn't the one who'd scared the sorcerers away. It was a void monster, and Myrina had already engaged it in battle. I'd been wondering why she hadn't joined me up top yet.

Void City Eater (Level 234)

I cursed. These void monsters really had terrible timing all around. I was fairly certain the Grand Sage of Camlaan was going to cause me problems later, but I knew those rogue sorcerers were definitely going to cause me problems.

Since I would hopefully take possession of this citadel in just a few minutes, I couldn't let its people be wiped out. Saving the city took priority over chasing down those sorcerers.

"Throw me!" Myrina jumped toward me, giant sword raised overhead.

I'd done this for her before, though this time her armor made throwing her a bit awkward. I ended up just hauling her up to the Void City Eater's head and dropping her. Once there, she began the lengthy project of hacking a giant city-eating monster into pieces one slash at a time.

<Note>

Sorry for the delay guys. I thought I had this uploaded last night, but maybe I dreamed it or something. Or Patreon's servers decided to forget about it.

Skipping this fight too. We've seen Carter take it down already, this is just with Myrina's help. The important fight comes later.