EA Chapter 9 -War With the Gods

After being given time to dress, and drinking a concoction of fruit juices that her mother insisted on, Luna ventured outside with the stranger, who was flanked by a pair of guards toting halberd rifles. She'd been out cold for an entire day, apparently, and it was already dark by the time she'd come to.

But the old man wanted to see some of her potential with his own eyes. And she, in turn, wanted to see what strength her body had unlocked from her prior exertion.

And so she followed after the stranger as they made for the outskirts of town, the girl lazily adjusting her suspenders. The old man watched her curiously, looming over her like some great shaved bear. Well, Luna was sure he loomed over most folks. "You really are just some kid, huh?"

"So they tell me," Luna replied. "And who are you, exactly? Beyond being a soldier, at least."

"Commander Ordean Kask. But most of the rookies call me Old Scratch." He grinned, emphasizing the twisted scar that furrowed half of his face. "No idea why."

Luna gave him a flat look. He didn't seem too impressive. She briefly tapped her mana sense, only to wince at the sheer sledgehammer of pressure wrought from his presence. Old Scratch's qi made Helsen look like a newborn.

They came to a stop by a clearing just beyond Scaller's farm. Then, casually, he motioned to a rock a modest distance from where they stood. It was over five meters wide at the base, and little more than three meters high at its craggiest peak. "Give me a little demonstration of your abilities. Just to see how sincere Helsen's report was."

Luna raised her eyebrows, but decided to oblige the old timer. She took a few steps from his side and took aim with her right hand, electricity dancing between her thumb and index finger. Then, rather quickly, it blossomed into a bubble of crackling light larger than her fist. An Explosive Arrow, drawing on a modest portion of her qi.

It was a spell she had made ample use of in her youth in her old life, a bolt of destructive power that could cleave through stone and steel. No doubt it would dazzle the local bumpkins.

Old Scratch regarded her, his expression unchanging. Luna drew more of her qi into the pulsating orb. At that point the spell grew slightly unstable, the edges flickering and hissing. It was prudent, she thought, not to pour too much energy into that spell, going forward. It could easily blow up in her face.

She took aim and whipped her hand forward, firing the glowing arrow at the stone. It struck the rocky surface with a resounding bang, nearly deafening in its intensity, shattering it cleanly with a burst of light. The wave of force uprooted a swathe of the surrounding soil, flattening the rock and a chunk of the nearby land. The newly formed smoking crater was nearly twelve meters wide, and the boulder had been blown away without a trace.

"Huh," Luna murmured, sparing a glance to her fingers. The explosive arrows carried a nasty sting to them, with a good cost-to-power ratio that left only a small tingle of numbness in Luna’s arm. And, fortunately, Luna was no stranger to avoiding any potential splash damage from her own spells.

"Well now, colour me impressed," Old Scratch said, chuckling. "I've seen rookie arcanists older than you who'd struggle to do that much damage with a focused effort. You just look bored."

"I am bored," Luna bluntly replied. "I'm not exactly interested in fighting rocks. I want to kill monsters."

That made Old Scratch's smile broaden, a fire alight in his eyes. Luna was familiar with the look. She'd seen it in her prior life, from crime lords who were elated to see an ambitious kid who could summon fireballs with a thought. A useful asset for criminals eager to destroy their rivals.

She supposed this situation wasn't too different.

"You'll be able to kill plenty of monsters if you enlist," he said. "Someone as talented as you, I have no doubt you could rise to Silver rank before your first year is out. At least.”

"You don't need to butter me up, Commander. I already have every intention of joining. And rising through the ranks in the process," Luna replied. Well, why not become the ruler of this world while she was at it? She'd get around to it. From the look of things, this whole world would benefit from her benevolent reign.

So much work to be done. But dealing with the monsters besieging Elthreme was her first order of business.

"Just making sure," Old Scratch replied, hooking his thumbs into his belt. "Well, as impressive as that explosion was, I was hoping to see something a little more... flashy. Like, for instance, what you used to kill the dire crayfish the other night."

Luna smirked. "That? I didn't think it was anything special," she lied. "It's just something that came naturally to me."

"Is that so? Then you won't mind doing a little demonstration."

"Yeah, well..." Luna pretended to examine her fingernails. "That power takes a lot out of me. That's why I passed out earlier, you know." Luna gazed at Old Scratch with a playful glint in her eyes, her mind swirling with thoughts as she considered his request for a flashy demonstration of her powers. Inwardly, she couldn't help but revel at a chance to show off. So many years spent living the life of an unremarkable peasant, and now she could start to spread her wings.

"Not even a brief burst of power? What's the harm?" he asked. As he spoke, his two guards took a hesitant step back. They watched Luna carefully, their faces concealed by hounskull helms. But their eyes were concerned, wide and fearful as they watched the mysterious girl. Old Scratch remained fearless compared to his underlings.

Luna raised a hand and waved it dismissively, trying to act annoyed by all of this. But, in truth, how could she not relish having people enamoured by her power again? It made her feel young again, truly young, to when she'd been a street rat wowing the rulers of the criminal underworld with her potential.

In time, the soldiers of Elthreme would come to understand her to be their superior, and their ruler.

She strode a few paces from Old Scratch, who stood level and watched her with a calm gaze. Her qi hummed beneath her skin in anticipation, burning within her chest. She closed her eyes in concentration, while her aura swirled around her in flurry of pale purple wisps. In the past, her frail body had barely produced a glow at all. Now, however, it was as if a dark flame was engulfing her.

She raised her hand, aiming for a hillock a short distance from where the rock had once stood. This time, calling upon Null, she sculpted a smaller target in her mind. A tiny bubble of vacuum, like a pinprick in space. She snapped her fingers.

The sudden rush, the absence of atmosphere, released a snapping boom that echoed across the town. In an instant the hillock furrowed, partway collapsing under the flash of swirling starlight, leaving a deep gulley where the peak had once stood. Luna exhaled, her breath strained and shaky. The kick hadn’t been as severe this time, but she still felt a dull ache lingering in her mucles.

Old Scratch whistled, folding his arms. "Impressive. Helsen was right, you are prodigy. You know, dire crayfish are highly resistant to qi, even when they're not reanimated by the Mire. A qi technique shredding one like that isn't something done casually."

"Guess I'm just unique," Luna replied, feigning an innocent smile.

"Unique. Aye," the old man replied. His gaze grew distant, briefly lost in thought. "People like you, you're... a rare breed, to put it mildly. You ever hear the stories of the Sacred Era? Can't imagine the tales you've been told are all that accurate."

Luna shrugged, stuffing her hands in her pockets. "Can't vouch for how accurate the stories are, but Mother told me plenty of bedtime stories about it. An era from centuries ago, where five noble heroes rose up to protect humanity from the wrath of the gods."

"That's the broad strokes version," Old Scratch replied. "The gods, at some point, grew displeased with our world and sought to destroy it. Not just Elthreme, but whaever lay beyond in the rest of Aquilonia. Save for one deity. Zehud, lord of knowledge. Unwilling to stand idly by and let the world be destroyed, he gave his divine essence to empower the five heroes who would grow to become the Quintessa. But for all they managed to accomplish in their war against the divine, it's clear their work remain unfinished. After all, our kingdom is still besieged by the machinations of the old gods."

Luna nodded along, mildly intrigued. While she was an emperor at heart, she had spent a portion of her old life as a scholar. Arcane mysteries simply appealed to her, and the analytical part of her brain wanted to properly study the Mire, and the enigmatic Ashlands to the east. And then, ideally, weaponize them to her own ends.

"Why tell me all this?" she asked.

Old Scratch was silent for some time, and Luna could feel the scrutiny behind his otherwise carefree expression. "Just so you understand the gravity of our situation. If you join us in the army, you're joining a conflict that will decide the fate of our entire nation. A conflict that's already shaped and reshaped the world, where the prospect of doom is always on the horizon. I don't doubt your potential, but your mental fortitude will need to be harder than adamantine"

There was more to it than that, Luna knew. She looked him in the eye, and could almost see the gears turning inside the old man's head. He knew more than he was letting on, but he was in no hurry to let her in on the details. Well, she could live with that for now.

"So, we're fighting gods?" she asked. Maybe that was what Tulpa had so cryptically referred to earlier.

Old Scratch shook his head. "If the gods were still around, we wouldn't be. Nobody knows quite what happened when the Quintessa waged their campaign, but... both they and the divine seemed to vanish toward the end. And now here we are, still living in the aftermath of that conflict."

Luna nodded at the explanation. She had to imagine that the old soldier had a better grasp on the situation than the bumpkins around here. "It's an interesting situation," she admitted, sincerely. Poor fools. No wonder the world around her was still suffering. They'd yet to find a strong ruler to unite and guide them to prosperity.

Well, Luna was sure she'd do them a favour and help them. Whether they wanted it or not.

"Look." She turned toward him, resolve firm in her amethyst eyes. "Whatever's out there? You can bet I'll take it on. It's a problem that needs to be dealt with, after all." For her sake, more than anyone else's. But the thought was there.

That got a grin from the older man, highlighting the gruesome scar that framed his face. "You'll go far in the Citadel, kid. Count on it."