[Present Day]When Alexei emerged from the depths of the tapestry's vision this time it was without any pain at all. Whatever process had happened to him to make him immune to the debilitating effects of the first time he had immersed himself in the Demon Lord’s past. He wasn’t sure if he liked that fact, it implied that there was something going on behind the scenes that he wasn’t aware of. “What did you see that time?” Risa asked, “Did you gain any more insights onto what the Demon Lord was doing, or how this place came to be?” “I think I can figure most of it out now, yeah,” Alexei sighed, “And it’s as simple as it gets really. The Demon Lord was attempting to wipe out anyone who used the Power Divine, as they were the only ones who really stood a chance against him… but…” Alexei trailed off, he hadn’t seen the end of the fight that the Demon Lord had ended up having with whoever had attacked him and blasted him through a mountain, but Alandria still existed and this was the D
[Present Day][Analysis Complete!]Alexei came back to reality with a snap, a seeping horror sinking into his mind. The Demon Lord… wasn’t dead at all. He was alive. Biding his time. For all Alexei knew the mad bastard already knew that they were there. What was even worse was the fact that the Academy had been corrupted. They weren’t being groomed to fight the Shades, they were being groomed to be fed to the shades. It was like all his worst fears were being confirmed at once. [New element: Darkonium discovered!]He couldn’t think about his power right now, even if it had picked up something from his time with the tapestries. They needed to focus. “We need to get out of here,” Alexei hissed, “and we need to get out of here right now, back to the Mage Temple in Alandria… we need to tell them, warn them.” “AnD wHaT WoUlD yOu Do ThEn,” A voice boomed throughout the room, seemingly coming from everywhere and nowhere at once.“Alexei… Who was that?” Risa asked, she was terror-strick
Alexei paced back and forth across the sand.He'd been trained for situations like this, but now he wasnt sure how strongly he trusted any of his training. All of that had been a ruse to fatten him up for the Shades, after all. If he were going to follow those instructions he would have hunkered down, made a defensible base of operations, and waited for assistance. It sounded logical when he thought it out, but it also sounded like a trap. Waiting would just allow Shades to creep up on you in the dark. He looked around with wild eyes at that thought before immediately calming back down. He was being paranoid now. Seeing potential traps and ploys where there probably were none. Either way, they still couldn't stay where they were. Someone had to warn the Mage Temple about what was happening. They were the only ones who could stop the plan of the Demon Lord and the Administrar."Any thoughts?" Alexei asked, "We cant just sit around here waiting to be rescued, too much is at stak
The caravan came to a skidding halt just before the stone path came to an end. The final rays of sunlight were just beginning to dip below the dunes, which Alexei knew meant the sand wyrms would be stirring soon. He couldn't help but grin at the insanity of it all. It wasn't like he was having a good time or anything like that. Not with Demon Lords resurrecting themselves from the dead and betrayals stabbing him in the back. But their plan to get back to the village? Or rather, his plan to get back to the village. If he didn't laugh about it Alexei thought that he just might scream."If you can propel this blasted caravan like that with your power divine then why the hell do we need a wyrm!" Risa said, which was followed up by a swift punch to his shoulder. "Ow! Uncalled for!" Alexei retorted, "and besides, the only reason I could use my empowered air like that down there was due to the sheer concentration of manacules the tomb is putting out, back up here it's as desert like as
The final rays of sunlight had passed over the horizon, and Alexei could hear rumbling deep below the sand. He took a long slow breath and then said, “It’s time, Risa.” “Are you sure we have to do this?” Risa asked, “We can’t just hang about until the morning?”“The Mage Temple needs to know what’s coming,” Alexei replied, “We have no idea what the Demon Lord will do now that we know of his existence. He might do nothing or he might begin to wage war against the kingdom anew. We can’t be responsible for all those deaths, but we will be if we don’t try to at least warn them.”"And if we die without ever making it to them? Who's going to warn them then?" Risa shot back.“If we die then there’s no helping them, but if we don’t get back in time then there’s no helping them either, don’t you at least want to give them a chance?” Alexei said. Risa scowled, when the argument was presented like that there was no way that she could turn it down. “If we do die I’m going to be really annoyed
There were many parts of Alexei’s plan that could have gone wrong. The wyrm may not have shown up. More than one wyrm may have shown up. Risa may have been killed by the worm. Risa may have killed the worm. There were so many points of failure that Alexei had stopped trying to count them, because if he had it may have made him too leery of the plan to go through with it. But that meant he’d overlooked one fatal flaw in the plan. He had no idea how Risa was going to get onto the caravan now that it was moving. Moving fast, too. The moment he had managed to loop the harness around the sand wyrm’s meaty head it had gone wild, thrashing and tugging at the thing to try and get it loose. That resulted in the caravan being yanked along in its wake, leaving Risa behind. Fortunately for Alexei, Risa was neither stupid nor slow. The moment the caravan started moving Risa was off like in a blur of burned atmosphere and arcane lightning. She zipped across the sand, making her footsteps
"Well, I can't believe that actually worked!" Alexei exclaimed as he stood up from his heap in the sand. "I don't wanna hear it!" Risa snapped, she shot him a glare from her own position on the ground. "that was a genuinely terrifying experience and I never want to even think about it again!"Alexei fought the impulse to roll his eyes, he was sure that would make an angry Risa even angrier and he didn't really want to risk something like that. "Alright, alright, fine," Alexei said, "I'll defer to you now, then. What should we do next? Head straight back to Alandria or tell the old man what happened to his dragonhorse?"Risa stood up from the sandy ground and shook her head, which made sand fly in every direction. "Obviously we need to tell him what happened," Risa said, "otherwise he'll never know whether his dragonhorse is dead or not and I find that quite sad."Alexei nodded, he didn't disagree with her.It had seemed like the old man had a pretty strong relationship with both of
“How could they do this?” Risa breathed the question more than said it. “I don’t know,” Alexei replied, his voice was as hard as steel. “He was old… He was just trying to make some money where there was no money to be made,” Risa said, trying to rationalise what had happened, “And why did the dragonhorse have to die? The beast hadn’t done anything.” “Because the old man helped us, I imagine,” Alexei said. There was a wave of anger bubbling up in Alexei’s chest the like that he had never experienced before, not even when he had been cast out of the Royal Defence Corps and the Academy. He had never expected the world to be so… cruel. He and Risa had never done anything to the people of the village, and yet here they were doing anything they could to destroy the two of them and anyone who had helped them. Just average everyday people, corrupt and dark. Almost as bad as the Demon Lord. Alexei wondered, just for a moment, if perhaps the Demon Lord had been right about humans. Maybe
After his last encounter with the Proto Lord Alexei had never wanted to hear the hoarse croaking laughter of the creature ever again. Now that he had the hairs on the back of his neck and his arms were all standing to attention and every fiber of his being was telling him to flee, run as far away as he could, and never look back. But he couldn’t do any of that. He had a mission to complete, people to save, and a kingdom to protect. “Show yourself, Proto Lord!” Alexei called out, his staff held defensively in preparation to ward off any attacks, “I’m not the man you faced before, I’ll take you out myself this time.” “So you say,” The Proto Lord wheezed from somewhere in the dark, “And yet you still bring so many users of the Power Divine to fight alongside you. So many snacks for me to feast upon.”That was the final straw for Alexei. With a pulse of arcane power, Alexei slammed his staff down onto the ground. A sphere of light erupted out from where he stood, a magery spell desi
Nerves had seeped into the hearts of the men that Alexei and Harold had chosen to take with them into the underground sanctum of the Proto Lord the moment they took their first steps into the tunnel system that the creature had made its home. They all looked to be strong and full of heart, but Alexei could sense it. The fear was electric and it was all he could do not to get caught up in the worry himself. Instead, he drew his staff and allowed it to shift forms into that of a magery wand, perfect to be used in enclosed situations and easier to maneuver with so many bodies around. With a flex of his will, Alexei summoned a ball of light at the tip of the wand and sent it out ahead of the group. It illuminated the dank depths of the tunnel that they were slowly descending into. Once upon a time, Alexei could have imagined the tunnel being used for mining and most likely to serve as a lower down access port to the well that he had originally sensed the malaise of the Proto Lord seep
As Alexei explained what the Proto Lord was to Harold and the other members of the Royal Defence Corps he could tell that their willingness to fight such a creature was waning further and further. Alexei could understand. After being told to go to the front line and expecting to die in combat defending the kingdom the shades had all disappeared. That had given them all a second chance at living. Being told that they instead had to fight a being that was well on its way to becoming the next Demon Lord? Something that, just like the shades, could kill you and then perhaps use you to fight the rest of your friends? That wasn’t something that a lot of people were keen on. Harold, though, was a brave man and always had been. “Very well,” He said as Alexei came to the end of his explanation, “If that is the case then this so-called Proto Lord must fall before the Proto part of the wretched thing's name becomes Demon instead.“I will not order anyone to join myself or Alexei in this f
Alexei placed his hand onto the Warp Gate and sent a pulse of magery through the system. He’d never actually had to operate one of the things before, but thanks to his more innate relationship with magery it was a bit like opening a book and simply reading from the pages. He placed his palm onto the stone and it fed information directly to him and allowed him to open a temporary link between the gate he was standing next to and the gate that was back in Alandria. It opened with a sputter at first and then, as Alexei made the link between the gates more solid, it blazed into life with a swirling blue glow. “You really are full of surprises now, aren’t you,” Harold said with a shake of his head, he couldn’t believe how different his friend had become compared to the last time he had seen the man. “Just a bit of advanced magery,” Alexei shrugged, “What did you expect me to do when I got kicked out of the Academy, go become a merchant somewhere?”“That probably would have been the sm
Alexei worked his way through the woods until he was able to catch up with the soldiers of the Royal Defence Corps. These were all men and women who had gone through the training at the Academy and come out the other end, each of them with a Power Divine powerful enough for the previous Demon Lord to want to absorb it. Perfect for fighting against a Proto Lord who hadn’t fully come into the powers that Eldreth was offering them. At first, Alexei wasn’t sure who he should approach, but then he noticed someone who looked just a little bit familiar. Without any doubts, Alexei was sure the man he saw walking in the centre of the column was none other than his old friend from the Academy, Harold. “Harold!” He exclaimed, “Is that you?” The column of marching soldiers froze instantly, like a rabbit caught in the path of an oncoming dragonhorse, before turning on Alexei with their powers at the ready. It took only a moment for Harold to realise who had called out to him. “A… Alexei?!
“Okay, wish me luck you two,” Alexei said, he was standing in front of a Warp Gate, one that Risa had told him led to a town that was very close to the front. Neave wrapped her arms around him as best she could and he returned it by holding her close. “You better come back safely, yeah?” Risa said, she held his gaze with a stern look. “Hey, if the Shades are running wild then you have my promise that I’ll be jumping right back into that Warp Gate,” Alexei said, “This is a recon mission, nothing more nothing less. Promise.”She gave him a critical eye, “You know, every time you’ve ever said that you’re just going to look at something or do a bit of recon you’ve come super close to dying.” “Yeah, but those times I had no idea what I was going into, this time it’s either going to be one of two things, and only one of those two things could actually be dangerous. Pretty good odds if you ask me,” Alexei said with a grin, though he could tell he was only annoying Risa with his banter.
Waking up in the morning Alexei realised that, despite everything that was going on, he actually felt pretty good. Not only was the threat of the Demon Lord technically dealt with, he’d also met with the Administrar and had basically engineered a situation where the man would no longer be able to send people after him. All things said and done, that was two of his major problems dealt with already, even if he did still plan to get his revenge on the Administrar in one way or another. The man couldn’t be allowed to continue in his post, not after he had sacrificed so many Initiates to the Shade Front for no good reason. When everything had concluded and everyone was safe, Alexei intended to go to the Royal Household and speak to the Emperor, perhaps he would listen to reason, if Alexei could get an audience with the man of course. Alexei pulled himself out of bed, wrapped a towel around his waist, and walked off to the shower room. He shivered as the cold water streamed onto his
“So, let me get this straight,” Lyla said, “You’re going all the way to the front to maybe take on a massive Shade Army that you have no hope of actually fighting against just in case they’ve gone wild now that the Demon Lord is actually properly dead.” It was a pretty succinct way of explaining the situation, but Alexei was glad that Lyla had grasped the broad strokes of what was going on. “Yeah, pretty much,” Alexei shrugged, “Though I have a feeling that it’s not going to be nearly as bad as you’ve just made it sound. In fact, I think it’s going to be a wasted trip, but a necessary one just in case.” “A wasted trip?” Lyla asked. “Well, after first meeting the Demon Lord and being given a sliver of his powers I’ve always been able to sort of… you know, sense them,” Alexei said, “Just as a kind of dark fuzz off to the eastern border. Can’t feel that anymore.” “What, as in they’re just gone?” “That’s what it feels like, yeah,” Alexei said, “It feels like the Demon Lord had one l
While Alexei had made it seem as if he were going to be running off to the front lines as fast as he could, there was one thing that he needed to take care of before he left Alandria again. He was sure that if he left the city without at least swinging by The Trout’s Gills at least once then Lyla would have probably ripped his head off with her inhuman beastkin strength. Once again Alexei was struck by a distinct sense of de ja vu. The day had receded into night, with the final glimmers of the twilight sun just about peaking over the very top of the mountain. It was dark, and the streets of Alandria had drawn to a near-empty silence. The only thing that guided his way was the lamplight from the many torches that hung off of the sides of various buildings. The water lapped at the underside of boats and barges alike, and he knew that somewhere deep down under the water there was the body of the very first assassin that he had dealt with, now likely stripped of flesh to the bone by