Chapter 355 - Now or Never

Note :

Chapter 356 hasn't been finished yet, but it is most likely going to be the end of book 9. Thus, even if it's not finished in time tomorrow, I'll put it out when it's done to wrap things up.

After that, I will most likely take a break. Things have...taken a turn irl, and I've been under immense stress lately. Honestly, had I not been so close to the end of the book I probably would have paused things several chapters ago.

I hope you'll enjoy the chapter guys.

Chapter 355

Myst Woods, Duchy of Sunrise

Barony of Truvor

"They're about to annihilate each other." Rook took a deep breath, and faced the six illusions. Stealth didn't matter anymore. "It's now or never, people. Let's do this."

The other members of the Seven nodded. And, one after another, they winked out.

A few seconds later, only Wonsnot was left.

"What about...what of the Custodians?"

"My ritual will trigger first. If they attack, it'll be on me." More importantly, destroying his part of the ritual would cause the other wink out, and give time for the others to escape.

"You can't take one of them on."

"I don't believe they'll even bother coming down if they decide to destroy us." Rook nodded at his comrade. "Good luck, friend."

"Good luck to you too."

The illusion vanished, and Rook, leader of New Raleigh, stepped in the middle of the gigantic runic circle.

He sat down, cross legged, and reached out. Through the runes, he extended tendrils of power. Tendrils that flowed through ingredients and artifacts.

He closed his eyes, and began to unwind himself.

His core, his very being as an archon, began to bleed out, as he simultaneously released mana into the runes.

He felt himself expand. He wasn't just Rook anymore. He was the ritual.

A pang, a foreign mind. And suddenly, they were two. Him and Wonsnot, their tendrils of power joining across the continent.

Then three. Then four. Five. Six.

Seven.

They began unraveling their power, each of the Seven supporting him, as he directed the most powerful ritual ever attempted.

The fabric of reality itself began to tremble as the energy coursed through it. Pierced through it.

He rose. And rose. And rose...

The planet shivered as the ritual unfolded itself, and endless bands of runes appeared surrounding it, like rings around a gas giant.

Something tried to stop him. For a heart shattering moment, something...else was there. Something embedded into the very fabric of magic.

It felt as if he was being stared at by the stars themselves. But just like that, it was gone. Not of its own volition. Something, someone, had ordered it out of the way, he could feel it. He could feel...benevolence.

He had no time to dwell on it.

He reached the final layer, the skein. And as the ritual's magic guided him, he twisted it.

No....reforged it.

Then, he was back in his body. For an instant, all of magic, the entirety Aether itself felt...wrong. Then all of his power, all of his essence, came rushing back as the ritual collapsed. He screamed, as his wounded core attempted to pull him back together.

There was a single, massive sound. Seemingly everywhere and nowhere at once, a sound that every one, no matter where they stood, heard. That of hammer, and an anvil, reforging a well used, and suitably warmed up tool in a single, perfect strike.

Then there was blessed oblivion, as he collapsed.

*****

The sorceress frowned as she heard the commotion outside. First that...bell? anvil? whatever it had been, then this? Couldn't the damned guards keep it professional for once? Some of them were working, not having fun.

Truly, one would have expected the largest slave market of Sunrise to have the best of the best, not a rabble of rejects left behind because even the army didn't want them.

She sighed, and double checked her work against her grimoire. Normally, this step would be handled by an assistant, but this was a choice piece of chattel, captured in the conquered territories out west and sent by the Baron of Mardigan as a gift to his wife back home. Given the slave's...attributes, she understood the impulse. She wouldn't have minded him servicing her too.

In any case, she was being paid a generous bonus to do it right, and that meant some extra attention.

The brand seemed perfect, and so she set the brush aside. Magical ink didn't truly necessitate to be injected under the skin, like some thought. The slave brand served to anchor the spell, not truly power it. Otherwise simply slashing it would cause the spell to collapse. In truth, it more fed on the slave's core, and one could erase the brand physically without removing its true power.

She laid her hands down on the slave's muscular skin, and smiled. Perhaps she could...delay the delivery. Just by a few hours.

She shook her head. No, no. That was a terrible idea. Rule one of any job: don't sample the merchandise.

The sorceress took a deep breath, and began pouring mana through her hands as she muttered the incantation...

And nothing happened.

The sorceres blinked.

What? How-

She tried again, and the magic just...didn't form. It was like she was trying an incorrect spell, the energy fizzling out into the air.

She looked at her hand, puzzled, and began flicking through the grimoire.

The sorceress was still checking the incantations when the door exploded inwards, and slaves rushed into the room, covered in blood, some carrying the weapons of slain guards and others carrying grievous wounds from those same weapons before they were torn from their owners' twitching hands.

She barely had time to scream before they tore her to pieces.

*****

"Your Grace." Said the Count, delicately, still looking slightly confused from the loud metal clang. "We are ready to attack at a moment's notice, but surely there is time for further deploying our artillery, and building a fallback position." He swallowed, heavily, as Satina glared at him. "That is, of course, just my advice."

"Of course." Said the duchess, coolly, before blinking as she saw his face going white. That answer hadn't been-

He was looking behind her.

She whirled around, to find herself face to face with one of her maids.

"Yes?" Said the duchess, slightly annoyed.

The only answer she received was the enchanted dagger plunging into her skull, and mad wailing from the maid. Wailing repeated by the others as they boiled out of her living quarters, some still trailing part of their broken restraints...and their own half destroyed, and regenerating body parts.

The ducal guards moved to attack them, frozen for a few seconds by sheer surprise...only for the slave soldiers, the 'truly' trustworthy troops, who were certain not to rebel no matter how disloyal they were, to fall upon them.

By the time they'd fought them off, the entire army camp had descended into pandemonium.

*****

Alexandra frowned as she received an alert from the Flickerlight's computer. A sensor anomaly? What-

SYSTEM ERROR - NODE DESYNCHRONIZATION DETECTED

Alexandra's avatar almost collapsed as she was suddenly in two places at once, before merging back together.

"What the fuck was that?" She cried out as the sound of the...anvil? Faded. "Seraph, status report!"

She'd been taking a few minutes off working on a prototype, trying to take her mind off of the battle to come, and then just...what the hell?

"Data unclear. Generalized failure of most systems across the board. Data coming in suggests failure to be...universal."

"Universal as in?"

"Everywhere. There..." Alexandra and Seraph saw the maximum priority alert, and the AI stopped talking as the dungeon core plunged into her ambassador.

"Wha-" Alexandra didn't even get to finish her question.

She could hear the screams and the clash of arms.

And they weren't coming from her people.

She looked at the direction Sunrise's army was in...and saw the clouds backlit by flames.

"Subtlety, are you here?" Called out the dungeon core as both the Flickerlight and Seraph began feeding her sensor data and analysis directly. Sweet Gods that was...the Flickerlight insisted that some kind of spell had encompassed the planet. Something so powerful its passive sensors registered it through hundred meters of rock.

The AI's hologram appeared in the command post.

"Functional, if confused. An unknown malfunction has occurred and-"

"I know! Get our blackbirds into the air, now! Something's happening. Has happened. We need to know what, immediately." Alexandra looked up at the capital ship hovering over them. "I'll get into the bridge. Get the entire army roused up, and ready to fight."

"Yes ma'am, right away."

"And Subtlety?"

"Yes ma'am?"

"Load the Old World missiles."

"Right away."

*****

Joachim rushed out into the streets. He needn't have worried about standing out, everyone was pouring out of buildings, hearing the screams and the city's alarm bells. People came out in panic, expecting another assault...

Only to see the soldiers on the walls pointing outside.

Joachim frowned, until a figure streaked through the sky, and the crowd held its breath as the Queen landed at the main gate.

There was a small amount of frantic gesturing, and then officers and messengers sped away in all directions.

The gates were opened as troops streamed out. They'd been assembled to support 'Crystal', according to his sources.

And they shouldn't have gone anywhere outside the walls.

Something had gone wrong. He'd felt it, but he hadn't understood what. Even the android had been confused.

He had a feeling that nothing like this had happened before on Alcheryos. That something monumental had just happened.

And he wasn't aware of it.

He pushed through the crowd, aided by his bodyguards, back to his lodgings.

He only had to pray it wouldn't jeopardize the plan.

*****

Alexandra looked wide eyed at the blackbird's datafeed. It was chaos, but Glitch was ordering and analyzing it as fast as she could.

One thing was clear, however.

"Is this...is this what I think it is?"

Glitch nodded.

"The slave troops are attacking the regular units."

"Did someone take control of them?"

"Unclear, but...some of the slaves are running for our army. Unarmed."

Alexandra frowned. This could be a faint, but...

That moment. It had happened everywhere.

"Can you spot any brands?" She ventured, and Glitch tilted, then shook her head.

"None are apparent. Curious."

"What does this mean?" Asked Manson, hopefully, the old Duke looking even more tired and frail than usual.

"I think...I think Rook succeeded." Alexandra looked at the icons of the slaves running for her lines. "Our troops were all dead anyway. Sometimes you have to roll the dice. Order all of our troops to move forward. If the slaves are free, we'll help them dispose of their captors. If not, well..."

"I shall relay the instructions." Said the duke. "Personally."

"Philia should accompany you, then. I think these people need to see the crown at a time like this."

"Of course." Said the Knight-Commander. They both knew the gesture was just that, a gesture, but it was another signal that Alexandra and Allya weren't there for their majesties' crowns.

Given the Republic's offer, it was more than worth reiterating.

"Then go." Alexandra turned back towards the hologram in the center of the bridge. "If Rook has given us the opportunity, we must take it. And the slaves will need all the help they can get."

They both nodded, and left the bridge.

Less than a second after the door closed, Alexandra had practically collapsed into her chair.

"Ma'am, all probabilities indicate-" Started Glitch, and Alexandra held up her hand.

"I know." She sighed, and repeated it, less harshly. "I know, Glitch. But...I must keep other possibilities in mind. That this may be a feint. I must."

Because, if nothing else, she needed to stay functional until they were all safe and Sunrise's force of regulars was no more.

"Yes, ma'am....permission to speak freely?"

Alexandra blinked. Since when had she asked for permission for this kind of stuff? Had Seraph distributed her collection of holovids to the other AIs?

"Granted."

"The slave troops are not going to take prisoners, if they have been freed."

Alexandra met the AI's gaze, and the intelligence officer took a step back.

"That's good." Whispered the dungeon core. "Because neither are we. I gave them chances. Again, and again, and again. Some, like the Brigadier, partially took them. I will spare them. These ones will get what's coming to them. I gave them their chance, they pissed it down the drain."

"What of those that gave the intelligence to their majesties?"

The dungeon core closed her eyes.

"If the king wants them alive, he can order Philia to resurrect them. Otherwise? We are not going to waste resurrection capacity on any of these scumbags until every single slave is brought back. Consider that a standing order."

The AI saluted.

"Yes ma'am. Understood."

"Good. Then let's get to it."