The Conciege
patreon
(TLO) Chapter 135: Beast Glades
🕑 Added 2024-01-19 05:51:51 +0000 UTCThe Dead Accords.
Not much was known of them. Their name was a product of an agreement between the powers of the world. But what they really were was something different. According to what everyone learnt, the world had once held seven continents, one of which was covered in ice and snow and uninhabited by humans. Now there were ten, two of which were uninhabited.
There were those who believed the extra three continents were the product of the world splitting apart due to every crack. Others believed the world was larger now than it had been before the first crack. Whichever it was, there were no scientific facts to support either claim.
Why? The continents uninhabited by humans remained so because humans could not survive in them. A Baron had ventured into one and never come out. Whatever was there, no scientist was willing to risk their life to find out. But speculations claimed these lands were so wrought with reia that no soul mage could withstand its force.
In a similar way, there existed pockets of such places in the continents humans occupied. There were small geographical locations scattered all across the eight continents where reia was dense. In this places humans could survive as long as they didn’t venture in too deep. As such, it was a good place to train and the Barons fought over it, squabbling over the little they could find with the government and the convents.
The chaos had led to a sit down. The Barons were already strong, standing at the pinnacle of soul magic, or what was perceived—at the time—to be the pinnacle.
So an accord was drawn, a treaty written. The Barons and those in power agreed to stay away from these places. Only in the event of a fissure did they come together to agree upon whose subjects or affiliates would be sent to close it. Most times they created a joint team to deal with it.
In relation with the uninhabitable continents already referred to as the dead lands, these accords were named the Dead Accords.
So it was confusing, as Seth stood with the rest of his team at the entrance to the nest, to know that none of the existing powers had addressed the subject of a fissure nest in such a place so close to West Blue.
Unlike most nests, this nest was located in what looked like an abandoned castle. Its walls were decrepit, fallen apart from cracks green with decay where it had likely once been a beautiful color. Its entrance was an open archway that had once hosted massive double doors judging from the rusted hinges on each side—or what was left of them.
Two massive pillars stood flanking the arched doorway like dying guards to an empty throne. On both sides of the pillars the castle of a building stretched as far as the eyes could see, so that Seth wondered just how much resources went into building it and what it had been used for.
New Quest: [Beast Glade]
There exists out in the calmness of a nest, a crack in the world. It is the world broken, unable to heal. From it spawns greater wounds and greater rewards. Find this crack and heal it before time runs out.
Time Remaining: 158:12:19:02.
Objectives: 2/8.
[Find a Clue of the Glades] 1/1.
[Find the Glades] 1/1.
[Play a part in Clearing the Glades] 0/2.
[Exterminate Soul Beasts] 0/4.
[Fissures Closed] 0/1
Reward: Possible Skill.
Consequence: Possible Death.
“What do you keep staring at?”
Jaola’s face popped through the notification.
Seth kept his expression stoic, his eyes staring as if looking beyond his teammate. Then he pushed the notification into nothingness with a shrug of will and reached for the hilt at his hip.
He’d come fully armed today. He carried his twin blades, fixed by some blacksmith with a touch of leatherwork expertise who’d gawked more at the blades than do any real work on its straps. It had taken the smith near an hour and cost him twelve coppers. Something told him it would’ve been done in shorter if he hadn’t taken the blades with him.
From the man he’d bought two longswords unworthy of a soul mage. But considering how little the coins he had were, he settled for them. Each one cost him a half silver and they hung from his waist uncomfortably. He’d have preferred a katana but the man’s prices were outrageous and his katana on display an insult to the Japanese art.
Hanging just above his twin blades was his rifle, properly oiled and cleaned. He would take no risk he could not avoid today.
“Come to think of it,” Tao Mei said, standing beside him as she always did. “You do that often. Just stare blankly at nothing.”
Seth wasn’t sure what response was appropriate. The response he needed would have to sway the direction of the conversation. Prevent an extending of it into the territory of the ‘why.’
If they ask why, just say you’re clairvoyant, a mind advised.
Seth sighed. Once more the voices in his head proved useless at human interactions. The only advise they gave banked on the precipice of lying. And even that, they often did poorly.
“Leave the kid,” Beth chided. “He’s standing on one of the Dead Accords. It’s only natural that—”
“You should learn to control your tongue,” an adventure passing by said.
He wore a bright steel armor that made him look like a knight. It was complete with a helmet and shuffled loudly with every step he took. In his right hand he held a jousting lance with a finely sharpened point. In his left he wielded a shield.
“You’re the new team?” From within the helmet his voice came out like a deep echo in an empty room.
The question came out as more of a statement so none of them answered. Instead, Drew held out his hand. “Drew Tarvish, leader of this team.”
The knight’s helmet tilted down slightly to look at the hand before shaking it. “Silver knight. I’ll be your guide.”
“I didn’t know we needed a guide,” William said.
“And I didn’t know any of the silver adventurers here knew this place was actually one of the…” Silver knight’s words trailed off as his helmet turned to take Seth in. “Is that an Iron?”
“Yup,” Tao Mei said brightly, taking half a step forward so that she stood in his line of sight. “He’s a part of the team.”
Silver knight paused silently, contemplating his next words. When he spoke again it surprised Seth to find the man’s paranoia did not lead him to demand an Iron adventurer be excluded.
“I have no problem with it. Though it seems as if you’re trying to get him killed.”
“Personally,” Tao Mei replied with a giddiness to her voice. “I think he’ll do just fine. Isn’t that right, Silver eyes?”
Seth nodded slowly and she beamed up at the man who thought himself a knight. There was something feral in her smile that did not escape his attention.
Silver knight nodded once, the simple action noisy, then turned and led the way.
“You don’t always have to go trying to pick a fight with anyone that looks strong to you,” Drew cautioned her. “He’s an ally.”
“For now,” Tao Mei said. Then she turned to Seth and asked, “Do you think my mallet could dent his armor?”
Seth wasn’t so sure. He’d seen her bash in a lot of powerful things with her mallet, but there was something about Silver Knight’s armor. Something he couldn’t put his finger on.
“Maybe,” he answered.
Tao Mei pouted. “I swear sometimes I think you have no faith in me.”
That’s because we have no faith in you, one of his minds thought simply.
They followed Silver knight quietly behind. Influenced by the chaos of grating sounds his armor produced with each step, they discarded the usual sense of stealth that was the advised way when approaching a nest.
Inside, the castle was as spacious as the outside advertised. The ground was covered in moldy green carpet, tattered and putrefying from age and disuse. Yet, it was obvious it had once been a beautiful velvet rug that extended from the entrance to the top of the wide royal stairs that stood before them.
The light of the outside sun streamed in through cracks and blatant holes in the walls and roof, illuminating the entire place in its warm daylight. Inside columns were raised equidistant from each other on both sides of the massive hall. Their color was as distraught as the rest of the building walls, stained with the distasteful beauty of verdigris that climbed the length of each one.
The columns were clearly built not just for their beauty but for the practical purpose of supporting the weight of the building itself. So it was unfortunate to find them cracked and broken. A few were cut off from themselves so that the roof of the building held them up with enough space between what was left of them and the ground to fit three tall men.
Clearly accustomed to the sight, Silver knight did not go through the same motions. He did not turn his head to take in the place or slow his pace in simple acceptance of the sad death of what must’ve once held artistic beauty.
He marched on and they were forced to follow. He took the steps two at a time, the power of his footfalls threatening to collapse it so that they walked cautiously behind him.
He took a left at the top of the stairs and led them so that they traversed a lengthy hallway were the light of the sun existed in rays of bright beams leaking through holes in places none of them could see. The hallway was narrow. It lacked enough space to swing a longsword, leaving Seth wondering how they fought the reia beasts that ventured out this far. And from the walls on each side of them were collages of pictures too aged to discern what they had ever truly displayed, hanging from termite infested wooden frames with cracks and breaks and decay.
Whatever grand structure this building had once been, it wasn’t even worthy of being called a shadow of its former self.
As they approached a corner, sounds of violence and battle began seeping into the air, burdening it with the clashing of steel and the tearing of flesh and shrieks that could come from a variety of reia beasts. There were people shouting out incoherent commands and shrieks of pain.
Eventually, they took the corner before them and disgorged onto an elevated corridor guarded with a railing of spaced balustrades as high as Silver knight’s waist. Silver knight stopped there and they stood beside him. Down below, in another open hallway more disheveled than the one before, adventurers went to war against what looked a battalion of spike-tailed shrikes.
There was an adventurer who danced around a shrike, soloing the creature in some bodacious arrogance. He ducked a swipe from its spiked tail then leaned away from a vicious slap. The beast screamed its rage at him and charged forth.
Around them other adventuring teams took on their fair share of beasts, but he fought his as if they did not exist. Weaving and ducking, he lured the beast as it chased him through the hallway, disrupting the rhythm of other teams and stressing the collective assemblage of adventurers.
As he fought his creature, he mixed in punches and kicks that left the creature only inconvenienced and angry. As for the adventurer, he seemed to enjoy himself and Seth’s minds observed him with a touch of interest in the way a child watches a particularly odd leaf ripple in the wind.
Then, as if tired of the farce, he ducked another attack then leaped back. The jump carried him back a good distance and he turned in the air, supported by the momentum of it. Soaring through the air, he raised a hand and activated a skill with words Seth couldn’t hear. Fire gathered to the hand in tiny countless motes like moths to a flame until he held a spear of fire with a large head shaped like a barbed arrow.
He launched it at the beast before he landed and it struck true.
The beast had ducked to the side but the lance pierced through its shoulder. The burning spear was long enough that its point burst through the abdomen of the beast and the shaft protruded from its shoulder. The skill sufficed to slow the creature but not stop it, and it lumbered forward to an unperturbed adventurer who watched it with a curious half grin.
It took two struggled steps before the flaming lance ended it quite thoroughly. It exploded within the creature in a burst of spikes that did not shoot out. It was like a mound of orange red stalactites had erupted from the beast’s core. It died impaled and pooling blood from multiple wounds. The cause of its demise was what fire would be if it ever congealed and froze in place.
“Show off,” Silver knight mumbled. Behind the helmet his words were loud enough to be heard.
Then the chaotic solo adventurer went after his next shrike.
Their guide turned to them loudly. “Do you think your Iron can survive in this?”
“I think…” Tao Mei began, falling silent when Seth unslung his rifle from his back and stepped up to the balustrade.
He lifted the rifle and rested it on the railing, supported and steadied his aim. He picked his target. A shrike aiding two others in proving difficult for a team of four adventurers. It weaved around and had the added perk of firing spikes from its clubbed tail, forcing the adventurers to an unfair defensive position.
Aiming, he waited. Behind him silence filled his team and their guide. He breathed in once, then twice. Steadied his finger. Then he held his breath and squeezed the trigger.
The shrike fired off another round of spikes from its tail, then released a powerful shriek at its opponents as its spikes grew back. During its shriek its maw was wide open and the fleshy interior of its insides were clear to see. Seth’s rifle boomed in its gunshot and his bullet thundered through the distance. It took the beast in the mouth.
It fell to a single shot.
Seth hefted his rifle and rested it on one shoulder. He turned to Silver knight even as he garnered the momentary attention of a few adventurers and shrikes. Behind his shawl he smirked proudly.
Tao Mei laughed, then patted their guide on the armor on his shoulder.
“I think Silver eyes will do just fine.”
