Amazon Apocalypse 4: Chapter 35

I cursed at the realization. What were our enemies doing with the Torchdragon? And how was a mass sacrifice involved?

I had a lot of questions, but only one answer. Whatever they were planning wouldn't be good for me.

I tapped the radio again, sending out a message to all my forces.

“Everybody, drop what you’re doing. We have a new mission. Report to the wall between our shard and the Torchdragon’s shard. You know the one. A lot of remotely controlled excavators, bulldozers, and mannequin robots have been building a wall there recently. It’s got several towers with defensive enchantments on it and is impossible to miss.”

I received a chorus of yes sirs in reply. They could hear the urgency in my tone and had heard the earlier exchange between me and Frank. Something foul was afoot, and it would get much worse if we didn’t stop it now.

I turned to my companions. "How did the naga even get to the Torchdragon's shard? And how did the necromancer's get here, for that matter? It wouldn't have been impossible for one or two naga to slip past our patrols, but all of them? And make it all the way to the Torchdragon shard?"

"They likely set up a teleportation array, just as you have. That way, only one of them would have needed to sneak through. Both had patrons from the same faction, after all. They probably coordinated off-world, exchanged coordinates, and then bypassed your security completely. It's a common enough enough smuggling tactic," Reluna suggested with a shrug.

I didn't like the thought that the defenses I'd worked so hard on had been so quickly bypassed. But if our enemies were truly Chaos Gods, then who knew what items or abilities they had access to.

Though we were deep in the swamp when I sent the call out, my companions and I were faster than most others and were among the first to reach the wall. The only other group there was a party consisting of Kyle, Marcus, Frank, Kerrie, and Rick. The lot of them were a group of Crownhill’s true elite, and to put so many in one squad, Frank must have really been worried about a scouting trip through the Torchdragon shard.

“We need to move quickly,” Frank said as soon as we appeared. “The ritual is still underway, but maybe one of you knows how to break it?”

We all glanced at Reluna, who nodded. “Yes, so long as it is not too close to completion, even the mightiest of chaos rituals can be disrupted.”

“I can’t fight the Lich King, and I’m pretty sure he’s the one in charge of it all. But you can, Carter.” Frank glanced at me.

“And the Torchdragon?” I asked nervously. Sure, I could fight the Lich King. And probably whoever was in charge of the naga as well. But not while fighting off the Torchdragon.

“In some sort of trance. Her young are in hiding. It looks like our enemies had to subdue her, but had a few tricks to help them do so. I’m voting for a preemptive strike while they're weak and before they finish whatever they're doing, but it’s your call.”

I frowned. Sharky was currently running my experience farm. Perhaps I should have come up with a remote shutdown switch for that.

I turned to one of the mannequins, which was still working on the wall we now stood upon. “Hey, if you can take verbal instructions, power down the solar panel array in the center of the farmhouse complex.”

The mannequin made no sound of acknowledgment. Perhaps I’d just have to trust in the back up barriers I’d set up around the experience farm. There was no reason they couldn’t hold against a few dozen phantoms for a day or two. Gobgob knew how the thing worked, so maybe she could figure out how to turn it off if things started breaking down.

Despite not being able to reply to me, the construction mannequins had done quite a bit. It was quite an impressive wall to build in so short a time. More impressive than the wall that surrounded Crownhill, in fact. This one was easily three stories tall with enchanted defensive towers, a shield barrier, and a barrier of concrete and wood fifteen yards thick. Even a C-Grade dragon couldn’t burst through such defenses easily, which was exactly the sort of conflict I’d designed this wall to hold up against.

But now it seemed we’d be abandoning these precious defenses. Was interrupting the ritual worth losing the defensive advantage? Frank seemed to think so. And I trusted his judgment.

“Alright, whatever ritual they’re casting on the Torchdragon is bad news for us. We’re going to try to shut down the ritual with a preemptive strike. Elites, with me. Everybody who isn’t at least level 100, you’re staying behind to guard this wall and give us a path to retreat if things go wrong.”

“Yes sir!” came a chorus of yells.

And just like that, the decision was made. My C-Grades and I jumped down the wall, ran through the magical barrier, and covered ground at a sprint as fast as a car driving at highway speeds.

The forested region we were familiar with on the outskirts of our shard rapidly transitioned to rock and mesa. If this chunk of ground had come from Earth, it had probably come from somewhere around New Mexico.

The trees grew sparser, before fading away completely toward the end of the tunnel connecting the two shards. All that was left in these parts were blackened husks and broken branches. The last time I was here, we’d watched the Torchdragon burn the nearby landscape to cinders and ashes as we fled its wrath after killing a few of its young.

“Feel that chill? It’s what Reluna described,” Frank said.

“This does have the feel of a powerful Chaos God ritual,” Reluna confirmed.

“I see them. Hold this position. I’m going to summon Sharky. Kerrie and Artemis, you two have sharp eyes. Can you see what’s going on?” I threw down Sharky’s summoning circle while everyone with the sight to see our enemies did their best to describe what was going on. I listened in while summoning Sharky.

“There’s a big naga skeleton directing the ritual. I’d guess that’s the Lich King in a new body. There are about thirty undead naga warpriests, along with one that’s a bit bigger than the others. Probably their leader? We never faced him ourselves. He took some wounds that look like they were left by a dragon and might be an easy kill. They’re chanting around a big puddle of blood,” Kerrie explained.

Reluna cupped her chin in her hands. “The naga must have sacrificed their flesh and blood to power the ritual. They are quite the devoted little cultists Still, I’m surprised the Chaos Serpent and Chaos Raven are working together this closely. Normally, the various chaos god faiths are somewhat at odds. I wonder if the naga gave up their blessing from the Chaos Serpent when they became undead.”

“What do you need to do to break the ritual?” I asked as Sharky’s head poked out of the summoning circle.

“This late in the process, I would need to distort the symbols on the ritual diagram and cause a mana reversal. That would likely be enough to trigger a chain reaction that would destroy whatever they’re trying to do and perhaps cause enough backlash to kill those who participated in the ritual as well.” She nodded slowly, seemly coming up with a plan.

I gestured to Reluna as I stood, this time with Sharky looming behind me. As always, he wore a hungry smile.

“Alright then. The plan is to rush in all at once and take the enemy by surprise. We need to hold our ground long enough for Reluna to modify the ritual circle and wipe out the cultists. Let’s move!”

We spread out, circling the area as we closed the distance between us and the summoning circle. The icy feeling grew stronger, and with my extradimensional aethersmith senses, I saw what was happening. There was a shift in the higher dimension where our souls interacted with the System, and something new was crawling around that space. It had thousands of small, string-thick tendrils, and they wrapped through the air. As I watched, they latched onto me and others around me, draining a tiny bit of our souls off with every passing moment. That was where the odd chill was coming from.

I waved my hand through the air, severing the tendrils near me. I liked my soul undevoured by unholy chaos god rituals. My allies likely felt the same, so I helped them out as well. Reluna seemed protected by a bubble around herself in a higher dimension, which likely signified a protective talisman of some sort.

A fighter I didn’t recognize stepped on something and the ground lit up beneath him. Too late, I realized he’d triggered an alarm ward. If I had stumbled across it, I could have identified and disabled it, but he hadn’t noticed until he already triggered it.

A burst of fire shot up from the ground, consuming the warrior in flame. He ran out of the geyser coughing and spluttering, and worse, undead heads turned in our direction. We’d lost the element of surprise.

“Charge!” I yelled, hoping to make the most of the moment. They were in formation for a ritual, not for battle. I activated Awakening the Inner Beast, empowering me and my allies as we rushed in for the kill.

I scanned for the target Kerrie suggested and found a soot-blackened naga skeleton in long robes and wielding a staff.

Undead Naga Warbishiop (Level 161)

I targeted him first and used Voidling's Embrace to disrupt his defensive spells. Before the others could defend him, I attacked with reckless ferocity. I bisected him twice over with my new enchanted rapier, then followed it up with two mana bolts into either empty eye. Before he could respond, I twisted my sword upward and thrust it up under his jaw and out the top of his head.

Just like that, the leader of the naga died. It was surprisingly easy, considering his level. Perhaps he'd been even more heavily wounded by subduing the Torchdragon than Kerrie thought.

I scanned the remaining undead snake people and identified three of the strongest close to me.

Undead Warpriest (Level 142) x3

Sinister spells flew in my direction, but I twisted as I moved to evade evade all of them. I stayed light on my feet while simultaneously conjuring more mana bolts, but while rushing in like this, the best way to take care of enemies fast was with my Arcane Blade. I sliced the three undead warpriests to ribbons in the blink of an eye and was standing over the destroyed body of the third when I felt a sharp and sudden sense of danger from off to my left.

I reacted instantly and cast my new defensive spell, Aegis of the Void.

A winding serpent of dark, blood-colored power shot toward me. It felt like a killing spell with some dead war priest’s entire mana pool behind it. Even against me, it would have been a devastating blow. But when it struck my dark portal shield, the entire spell was swallowed up and vanished into the maw of a bottomless black hole.

My barrier faded. A portal to a black hole wasn’t exactly something I could sustain for long, so deflecting a spell with it required perfect timing. But when that timing was right, I could block almost anything.

The spells caster appeared a moment later, and I knew he would demand my full focus. Fortunately, the dragon was well and truly dazed. I could see it trapped in magical sleep nearby as the focus of the ritual. I could put all my attention into dealing with the enemy before me.

“My powers have doubled since we last met, lord of Crownhill,” the Lich King rasped.

He certainly looked like he’d gone through some changes. He’d lost his human skeleton in exchange for the skeleton of a large naga. His robes were simpler than what I’d last seen him in, but unlike those purely decorative costume shop things, these actually had defensive properties.

I chuckled in reply. “Good. Twice the pride, double the fall!”

He reached out and shouted. “Grasp Heart!”

My chest turned cold as bony fingers wrapped around my heart. True to the Lich King’s word, his spells were stronger than before. But I was stronger too. A quick slip into the shadow realm severed the connection between my heart and the Lich King’s spell.

Last time, I’d focused on the Lich King himself, but right now, stopping this ritual was the priority, so I ignored him. I reappeared over the head of another undead warpriest, and with one swing, slew him before the Lich King was on top of me again.

He flew spells, and I returned fire with a hail of Mana Bolts. He cast a barrier, and I redirected the mana bolts to the other undead while I shifted to a Void Cannon. The Lich King hastily dropped his forming barrier, only for my Mana Bolts to suddenly swerve back the way they came and swarm him from all directions.

“Enough! Don’t think you can toy with me! Nullification!” The Lich King shouted, and a burst of darkness shot from his body like a growing shadow. It swallowed up all my incoming attacks in a way that reminded me of my new Aegis of the Void spell.

“You will know the true terror of death!” the Lich King spread his arms wide as dark power flowed all around him. Meanwhile, I sliced two more Naga Warpriests to ribbons and was able to get a good look at the rest of the fight.

Things were not going well for the undead and naga, but they were going smoothly for us. I hadn’t been the only one to grow in strength over the last few weeks. My forces had grown as well, and what had once been a mere handful of C-Grades were now more than two dozen high-level warriors.

Myrina, Sakura, and Bridget were wrecking balls even greater than before, each a match for two or three of the strongest combined naga and undead. But the real heroes of the day were all the others who’d reached C-Grade while I was focused on crafting and visiting Glacia. Frank, Rick, Kerrie, and others had been working tirelessly to slaughter monsters in preparation for this day and even combining the tattered remains of the naga, and undead armies were no match for them.

With me striking down some of the naga and undead elite with every moment I had to spare from my own fight, we would soon overwhelm them. I wasn’t sure we’d even need the mana reversal that Reluna was cooking up, though she was certainly scurrying as fast as she could as she pointed a wand at the ground and froze over patches of dirt and blood in esoteric patterns that clashed with what was already there.

The movements she was making were things not even I could discern, at least at a mere glance. She'd told me her official job was as a scribe, but I suspected she'd understated her skills. Much like how I sometimes described myself as an enchanter, despite being far more than that.

Behind both warring armies, the Torchdragon slumbered blissfully unaware of the fight happening over it. Somehow, the naga and undead had put it to sleep. If I had time, I would have studied the spell to figure out what exactly they were doing to it. Anything that could knock out a beast as strong as that one was something worth learning. But the Lich King didn’t appreciate me ignoring our fight to slaughter his underlings. He was doing his best to keep my attention.

“Fight me, damn it! I am your opponent.” He waved his arms and sent me another burst of dark energy. I evaded it with ease, then retaliated with a few Mana Bolts.

He rushed me, throwing spells at me I’d seen during our last fight, only now he was pouring more mana behind them. I responded in kind with a simple series of spells. As he turned up the heat, I did the same. I slowly climbed from the first to the third layer of Mania. I was still wearing my rings of protection from Good, Evil, Order, and Chaos, and could use the fourth layer of Mania if I needed it, but I kept that in reserve.

“Reluna!” I called.

“Almost done!” she yelled in reply.

“You are a tricky foe, Lord of Crownhill. I do not know how you defeated me before, but you won’t get lucky again. Chaos Raven, lend me your strength!”

He spread his arms wide, and dark energy flowed around him. This again? I’d seen it already. What was he—

I moved to dodge, but the sacrificial diagrams beneath me flared to life. The blood that had previously formed symbols all along the ground wriggled and writhed like a nest of serpents, wrapping around my arms, legs, and entire torso.

“Haha! I thought you might come, so the Chaos Raven and I prepared a little something extra! The possession ritual always required a living sacrifice of the highest quality, and I think you will do nicely, Lord of Crownhill!”

Suddenly, the ritual diagram that Reluna had spent so much time reversing was wiped away. Underneath it, there was a second, entirely separate, and far more complex ritual. And worse, this one was just a few moments away from completion.

<Note>
I know people were curious about how the naga and Lich King regrouped despite how Carter had most of the area under guard. They cheated and teleported around.