nemorosus

Chapter 393: Gotta Serve Somebody

On the way back, Argrave consorted with each of the myriarchs, endeavoring to assess the sum total of Erlebnis’ presence. It was a somewhat cerebral task with Altan, Erlebnis’ faithful, among them. He had to act like he was acting that he wasn’t interested in how Erlebnis arrived. In reality, that was mainly what he was interested in.

From it, he concluded some things. Firstly, Erlebnis hadn’t been here long. The fighting force they’d just encountered had actually been smaller...

Chapter 392: Comparing Painting to Reality

Argrave had been hearing reports from Anneliese about how the reignited battle looked. She called it many things—chaos, indiscriminate destruction. Looking upon it with his own two eyes, he could think of few adjectives beyond that. Aspects of dragons, great chasms in the earth, titans formed of wind… it was a grand display of death. Spells of the highest order battered at the elven gods, cast without end.

From their spot in the distant canopies, the emissaries of Erlebnis almost lo...

Chapter 391: Kansas City Shuffle

“All of that work to return without finishing?” Ganbaatar stepped to Argrave, concerned but with anger held tightly at bay.

Argrave watched the ship docked with knights and his cousin aboard, then looked to Ganbaatar. Behind, Moriatran and Artur moved off, speaking to each other as they returned from the Mother’s Steppe. He waited a moment, then conjured a ward around himself and the elf.

“Kirel Qircassia is in league with another god,” Argrave said to Ganbaatar flat out...

Chapter 390: Salvage

Before Argrave stood his top ranks in this expedition—everyone who had some degree of authority. The three Veidimen officers, the Magisters, Mina and the Monticci family, and lastly his family, Orion and Anneliese. These were all people of proven trustworthiness and skill, and he needed precise delegation and execution at this critical juncture.

“Artur—you’re going to the Mother’s Steppe. I need you to contact Moriatran and Ganbaatar, tell them about a delay,” Argrave comman...

Chapter 389: Standoff

“Anneliese, please scout out where the elven gods watch the breach.” Argrave stared at Dimocles’ extended hand, not moving to shake it.

Anneliese was rattled enough she nearly sent her Starsparrow into the ward she’d conjured to block their conversation. After dispelling it, she let the Starsparrow go free and Argrave recreated the ward.

“Do I have something on my hand?” Dimocles pulled it back, studying it with his blue-green eyes.

“You say you know so much ab...

Chapter 388: Rules of the Game

Argrave, without ceremony or significant announcement, departed to do his duty. It remained a daunting task, but ever since he’d decided to play out that act in front of the centaurs he abandoned any notions of fruitful cooperation with them. He dealt with Sarikiz, not them, and he needed only the centaurs’ unwitting assistance to rouse her from her slumber. On the return journey, however, he saw the scope of the war not as a participant, but as a survivor of it.

The Bloodwoods had ...

Chapter 387: All For Clay

“Now that I know what comes, all of this looks so small,” Onychinusa marveled, one of the emissaries of her Lord at her side as she witnessed the march of the elven gods. They stood above the canopies of the redwoods, removed from the conflict yet central to it all.

“Everything can look small from the right perspective,” the emissary answered back.

What occurred down below certainly did not fulfill the definition of ‘small.’ Kirel Qircassia’s breach stood strong. It ...

Chapter 386: Whipped Into Shape

The crux of this operation was simple. Retreat, to spread the attackers thin in their single-minded pursuit. Gather, to enable a swift and decisive advance to the enemy’s heart. And lastly, strike, aiming right for the heart.

And strike they did.

The battlefield descended into utter pandemonium once the giants and Amaroks were freed of the illusion. When confronted with enemies on every side, it was instinct that led. And instinct dictated to each and every one of them two optio...

Chapter 385: War Against the World

That which came from the breach in the northern forest dominated all sight. They filled the gap between every tree, a disorganized legion of monsters.

High up in the branches, a purple fleshy orb with eight white wings on its center and one eye on its front flapped up and down, sagging and then rising like a jellyfish in water. Everywhere it went, black winged creatures poured from its bottom like sand from a cut bag. Though they all fell freely, in moments they took to life and darted ...

Chapter 384: Long-Distance Marathon

Argrave walked up to where Anneliese and Orion already stood. Even now, Anneliese was scouting with her Starsparrow in the distant elven camps, keeping an eye on the situation that they might time things.

“Received word from the elves,” Anneliese began before he’d said anything at all. “Nikoletta was taken far, far away from the frontlines, searching for her father with a group of elves.”

“Good,” Argrave answered, though that wasn’t a pressing concern on his mind. ...

Chapter 383: Long-Distance Planathon

Argrave came upon Anneliese sitting in the roots of one of the giant redwoods, well concealed with several Veidimen on watch. She opened her eyes when he alighted on the ground, soaring from the trees as he did. A few heartbeats later, her Starsparrow took its place on her shoulder.

Orion and Artur followed behind Argrave, and he directed the both of them to give him some space. There was no way that his brother was leaking information to Erlebnis… deliberately, at least. Still, he wa...

Chapter 382: Dueling Perspectives

“Are they gone?” one centaur asked, clutching his bloody and bent leg as he languished in the rubble.

“Yeah, they’re gone,” one of the older centaurs said, peering out overtop the pit of that human’s making.

A pyrrhic triumph spread in the centaurs, battered and defeated though alive they were.

One strode to another over the loose dirt and rocks and pounded him on the shoulder. “Mother be praised, Matesh. You were right of that man, and what ill he spelled for ...

Chapter 381: Fabricating an Easy Choice

To speak to a king was not to know a king… and to know a god was not to understand a god.

The emissaries of Erlebnis knew this fact well. Though an extension of His will and bound together in an inextricable network of individual cognizance, they could never claim to understand how their Lord thought. To deliver His will was a step removed from the mind that bore it… yet over a millennium, and all those years before it, his emissaries knew He could not be doubted. Indeed, they exist...

Chapter 380: Gordian Knot

Argrave tried to talk with the centaurs for a long, long while. Their reply was rather consistent—namely, a barrage of arrows.

Despite Argrave’s restraint, they called him genocider, as they thought he came to kill their people in party with the elves. They called him defiler, as they’d witnessed Argrave removing a braid from Sarikiz’s hair to bridge the gap between realms. His name was a slur in their tongue, it would seem, and despite claims to the contrary his word never gain...

Chapter 379: Collision of Unstoppables

“You can hear them from here…” Argrave muttered, peering through the great Redwoods. Ganbaatar and a few other members of the Supreme Myriarch’s Kheshig had carried the royal pair up here, and now Anneliese and he crouched side by side. He watched with his eyes, while she watched with her bird.

The initial meeting with the elves had gone very, very well—that was in large part due to his intense focus on making sure that everything did go well. Meeting Chiteng, bringin...

Chapter 378: Hostage Situation

The Supreme Myriarch stared ahead at giants moving through the trees, trampling the overgrown roots of the Bloodwoods beneath their feet as though they were common twigs and not the redwoods comprising their homeland. From this far away, they almost seemed like normal-sized elves walking in one of the small forests beyond these lands, where one determined human with an axe could fell a tree in less than a day. But that image was ruined in seeing what rode on their shoulders—namely, people.<...

Chapter 377: Boxed In

“God damn it all… proxies, parables, metaphors, rituals—why can’t these damned gods just talk straight?” Argrave bit at his knuckle, stewing on what Anneliese had reported.

“Because then we would know what they intend to do. That might make their plans a little more difficult to enact,” Anneliese reminded him tactfully.

Argrave chewed a few more times, then looked to her. “I’ll tell you one thing, though. Dimocles… or maybe that was Erlebnis’ advice after all...

Chapter 376: Collector

“Should we meet with this man?” Anneliese asked, staring out across the sea of grass. “Who is Dimocles, even? You seemed to have knowledge of this name.”

“One of the player characters,” Argrave said shortly.

“Ah,” Anneliese nodded. “Then maybe we…” she stopped, then rephrased, “As I recall, you once said all of the player characters are good… more or less.”

Argrave put his hands in his pockets. “This guy’s the more or less part of that.”

Chapter 375: Too Much, Too Late

Argrave woke up early the next morning. He’d slept very soundly—it was one of those sleeps where it felt like he’d just blinked and the next day came. He stirred to his feet and woke up feeling fresh and pure. He stared at his hands and wiggled his fingers, each of them leaving behind a slight crimson echo that was much thicker than it had been yesterday. He’d accrued much practice and quantity with these blood echoes of his in the elven realms. He couldn’t say he was eager to try t...

Chapter 374: Proxy

“This is our favor,” Chiteng said, holding a silver coin out.

Argrave took it, examining it. It looked old and battered, more like something out of an archaeological dig site than something actually used as currency. Even the image was barely discernible as a face. Perhaps it was something sentimental to them—the last coin of the ancient elves, something like that.

“That is valuable. If you intend to cheat us, you have already received more than you offered as tribute,” ...

Chapter 373: Conspiracy Against the Divine

Artur sat in the dank and smelly altar, where the iron and rot of the blood pooling on the floor pervaded every inch of this place. He had refused to follow Argrave into the other realm not once, but twice. He didn’t think the king judged him for that fact, but it still weighed as his mind. He could not quite say why he followed the man into the portal leading to the vast steppes yet not the elven realm… and he hoped that would not make the king hold a grudge.

But waiting here was d...

Chapter 372: Truth to Omnipower

They walked through the verdant palace that marked the elven gods’ meeting area, following just behind the red-robed woman. This place was clearly a collaborative effort—the stones were beige and pleasant, the place was overgrown with greenery likely furnished by the god of agriculture, and it was all kept temperate by the bright pyres of the elven god of flames and war. Servants of Chiteng’s make wandered, tending to various things as they kept this place pristine. Great elaborate foun...

Chapter 371: Blood Test

Argrave rode back on the ivory whale for the island where the rest of his companions resided. He was ferrying back and forth often enough it felt like a waste of time, somewhat… but then, this would be the last time they’d step on its back, he supposed.

“Argrave… I want you to know that whatever happens in this place, this damnable forest… I’ll always be your woman,” Nikoletta said as they neared the island.

Argrave narrowed his eyes and turned his head slowly. “I ...

Chapter 370: Collision Course

“Are you talking about the god’s blessing within me?” Argrave asked with a firm voice—he was proud of himself for staying steady given the walls themselves were shaking.

“You admit, then, that you have the favor of another god,” Chiteng’s red eyes narrowed somewhat.

“No. I was blessed, but I have no favor from him,” he shook his head. “We traded. Bartered. I had something that he wanted, and in return for it he lent me access to his power. I will admit he did e...

Chapter 369: Superimposition

Argrave stared at his hand as they drifted across the sea. Not his first or second, but his third hand. There was one small benefit to active ascensions over passive ascensions—the effects were immediate. Anneliese had needed to wait a few days, but Argrave already saw the fruits of his labor before him. It was quite a small and singular fruit—a faint dark red hand projected out from his own, so translucent it was invisible when placed before the red ocean the whale took them across. His ...

Chapter 368: Crushed From Within

Argrave laughed enough that it seemed like everything was okay. But with blood pouring from his body in waves every time he threw his head against the wall, and his clearly involuntarily grunts and shouts of pain, Nikoletta could tell that everything was the opposite of okay. What he did caused pain great enough it was hard for him to even speak. Yet every time he crumpled, in perhaps half a minute he raised his hand up and cast that spell once again, renewing the process from the be...

Chapter 367: Not the First Time

“I was surprised when you contacted me,” said a tall blonde man, a steel helmet depicting a boar resting in the crook of his arm. The rest of his equipment was laid out before him, polished and ready. All that remained was putting it on.

“Surprised I could, or surprised I would?” Durran asked, leaning up against the wall with his glaive to his left. He was fully armored in gray wyvern scale, seemingly ready for war. Off to the side, his gargantuan black bear slept peacefully. 2023-05-02 06:55:49 +0000 UTC View Post

Chapter 366: Die if You Try

When Argrave finished demanding cooperation from Chiteng, he felt a little lightheaded from the rush that brought on. He managed not to do anything foolish or embarrassing in the wake of that, though he furiously replayed what he’d said in his head to make sure he’d said nothing overtly disrespectful. He hung on every word uttered, thinking of how it might be interpreted… then wondered if his interpretation was fruitless, because he couldn’t think as a god could.

Still, Argrave ...

Chapter 365: Coalition of the Unwilling

The lone call of the whale had been a haunting thing from the shore alone, but as Argrave and Orion sailed out deep into the open sea that call of theirs became more numerous. A faint red mist shielded one from seeing too far, so the harrowing noise of distant foghorns penetrated the bloody ocean’s fog as the giant Chiteng watched on from above, staring.

“No matter what happens, I’d ask that you stay quiet,” Argrave said. “It’s safest for both you and me.”

He waited ...

Chapter 364: No Man Is an Island

Argrave waded through the thick, viscous blood flooding the underground altar. He’d thought going through the wetlands of northwestern Vasquer had been torturous, but to walk through heavy red blood was far more unpleasant. Fortunately, the source was not too far from them.

Ahead, there was a circular rock wreathed in roots. The blood flowed down the plant life almost artfully, yet it all began from the stone. The rock was unadorned and unmarked, yet blood flowed in three places. With...