Battleforged
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Chapter 446 - Nightmare Visions & Wondrous Creations
🕑 Added 2024-08-09 03:59:00 +0000 UTC“Please… help me!”
A desperate cry rang through the darkness as Eric came to with a gasp. Somehow he wasn’t surprised to find himself back in the concrete and steel bunker that stunk of rust, blood and death that had come so close to spelling his end, just days ago.
He gasped in horrified dismay, to see the girl who had come so close to killing him now bound in horrific chains of rust and blood.
“Why am I here? Who are you? What is happening to me?”
The girl’s melodious voice was the mirror of Elonia’s own.
Eric swallowed the awful lump in his throat, saying nothing, merely stepping back from the bars of the steel cage she was presently trapped within.
She trembled, kneeling before him, holding out her chained arms beseechingly through the widely spaced rusted metal bars, tears of blood leaking from her eyes.
“I know you’re there. Please! Say something? Anything?” She broke down in sobs. “Please help me! The last I remember I was at the beach with my brother and… wait. Something happened, right? Something big and… I can’t remember. Why can’t I remember!?””
It was all Eric could do to stumble back from the plea in her gaze.
“Why? Why won’t you help me?”
Eric clenched his jaw, gazing into desperate, pleading eyes, once more intact and whole. So like his twin sister’s own.
“I’m sorry.”
She sobbed at the sound of his voice. Clenching the bars with desperate hands, she gazed beseechingly out into what was, for her, perfect darkness. “Please, you have to help me! Help me get out of here. I’ll do anything, anything!”
Eric choked back the scream in the back of his throat.
It was all he could do to take another step back.
And another.
And suddenly there was light. The awful final rays of a dying sun revealing what seemed a third-world prison. Or perhaps a slaughterhouse, stinking of blood, offal, and awful pain, revealing rusted cages filled with dessicated bodies that were fit for neither man nor beast.
Wild, panicked eyes met his own. “You’re leaving? You’re going to leave me now? In this awful place?” She curled in on herself. “Please don’t leave me alone here. I couldn’t bear it. I couldn’t stand it! Why am I even here? Can you at least tell me what I did?”
Yet Eric refused to say another word.
Even when her desperate panicked eyes locked with his own.
Even when he sensed her fragile precious soul begin to unravel and fray… knowing that this awful nightmare place was as much reality as nightmare, and he still had one Perk point left as a Master Necromancer. One precious perk point to pluck free another miracle from the jaws of oblivion!
One final chance to…
Despairing eyes locked with his own, one last time.
“Please?”
It was the plea of a dying girl who knew there was no hope.
It was the final cry of a victim forced to endure the most bitter of ends when the desperately hoped for hero failed to arrive.
“Please, save me! I know you can. Somehow I know you can. And you’re… we’re family. Aren’t we? We are, we are! Right? So why won’t you… why?”
Eric could hold back his broken sobs no longer, forcing himself to endure the horror of his lost sister’s panicked final moments as her soul… a soul that maybe, just maybe, he could have grasped onto and SAVED! Pulled her FREE of oblivion’s clutches, FREE of her father’s machinations, given her a second life deep in his bosom, tied by strings of blood and kinship and the countless dozens upon dozens of bitter black strands of twisted fate and blasted karma that erupted forth when the final flickering embers of an extinguished soul faded to oblivion.
A thousand bitter black strands that would have been used to destroy both Eric, Elonia, and the sister he had been so foolish as to save, and everything he had striven so desperately hard to accomplish here on Earth. Freetown. New Arcadia. His ascension center. Everything would be corrupted, tainted, and destroyed. Every last good thing he had striven to create. All for the crime of trying to pluck free a happy ending from the final act of a monster’s bitter, tragic play.
And somehow, beyond any convenient skill check or interface note or clue at all… Eric had known.
Known as the air of that doomed moon even now being pummeled by a combined armada of forces erupted in the mad, manic laughter of an ancient Silver THAT SHOULD BE DEAD!
Just as he knew, in the heartbeat before his sworn foe’s mocking clap could crash against his ears… twisted words of mockery and derision that would scald Eric’s soul… that he had to wake up… to pull himself free of this nightmare right now!
Knowing that there were some tragic tales he could never rectify, certain drowning victims he could never save, lest he be pulled into the deeps himself.
And if Malificent Bane’s mocking laughter was causing the ancient steel corridors that Eric’s soul had been stepping upon to erupt in blood similar to the blood dripping from the eyes and ears and mouths of the starship captains screaming with madness in the poisoned skies above before sending their dreadnoughts crashing into the moon that would be their mass grave… it no longer mattered. For Eric was awake once more. In the protective embrace of the girl he had actually been crazy stupid enough to make passionate love to before falling into an exhausted stupor, no matter that she was a Bronze-Tier mercenary with her entire crew just behind her, in Bronze-tier territory, and, if Eric’s foggy memory served… he had just declared war on the entire Terran Counsel.
Stupid indeed.
But he had been smart enough to assign a two-pronged patrol to keep them all safe from the native wildlife… with a certain hyper vigilant bunny who knew that should Eric die to his own stupidity, the likelihood of her ever being able to enjoy any future ARPG gaming sessions, or even a good table top Dungeons and Delves game, would be very slim indeed.
And he was smart enough to keep his body relaxed and his breathing shallow as Rising Sun slowly woke up from their stupor and made clear to Elly exactly how they felt about her lover, the Contender who had saved their lives, perhaps, yet was now the most wanted man in the Administratively run territories of Earth and those as of yet unclaimed by any faction, which was the great majority.
****
Lone groaned and tried to rub his eyes before his armored hand clinked against his face plate. He cursed quietly before looking up then leaping back and tripping over Captain Bennett as he beheld what was flying in rapid circles above them.
“Fuck, fuck, fuck! Did that just… captain, we’re surrounded by giant fucking mantises!”
“We know that, Lone,” Bennet snapped through comms. “Get your head together and take in your environment!”
Lone furrowed his brow, alarmed panick turning to tightly controlled anxiety, taking a cue from his elite peers to keep his weapon down and carefully observe their situation.
“Shit. I count over a score of giant wasps over our head… and over three score mantises! And those pincers…” He winced, meeting Svena’s gaze. “But that’s not the problem. Is it.”
Svena slowly shook her head.
“It’s Elly, no longer in her armor, cradling our former employer like her…”
“Mate?”
Lone winced. “And I just got a look at the info dump.”
System Alert!
Ernest ‘Edgelord Slaughter’ has achieved FIRST PLACE on the Northeast Sector Attribute Board with Soul Reserves in excess of 500! - Everyone be sure to commend and congratulate your new champion!
System Alert!
Terran Administrators have declared Contender: Ernest ‘Edgelord’ Slaughter an OUTLAW guilty of war crimes including terrorism, theft, murder, and attempted genocide!
Ernest ‘Edgelord’ Slaughter is to be considered EXTREMELY DANGEROUS and is wanted dead or alive for a 30 MILLION Credit Bounty!
All third parties who aid, abet, or truck with Ernest Edgelord Slaughter are committing CRIMINAL ACTS for which they will be prosecuted!
ALL treaties involving Ernest ‘Edgelord’ Slaughter are to be considered Nul and Void.
NOTE!
The Sylvan Alliance takes exception to this ruling! Safe Harbor Status has been extended to Ernest ‘Edgelord’ Slaughter within all territories that have sworn allegiance to the Sylvan Alliance! Please note that the execution of administrator-sanctioned bounties within this region may result in unforeseen legal complications.
Blue Federation takes exception to this ruling! Intergalactic contractual obligations supersede local strictures. Safe Harbor Status has been extended to Ernest ‘Edgelord’ Slaughter within Blue Federation managed territories. Please note that the execution of administrator-sanctioned bounties within this region may result in unforeseen legal complications.
Terran Counsel has placed Trade Embargo upon Blue Federation.
Terran Counsel has placed Trade Embargo upon Sylvan Alliance.
All parties who trade with these factions risk having their cargo seized and captured at all administrative-run ports and free-cities!
Lone whistled, shaking his head with dismay. “What the hell did Ernest do to get the entire global council after his head?”
Naje shrugged. “We all know that a certain pair had a definite hard-on to make a certain Silver tyrant look clean by pinning the blame for what could have been a world-ending event on the best patsy they could find. I guess they’re no longer going for subtle?”
Svena sighed. “This isn’t our first rodeo. His only crime need be shining so brightly that he takes the spotlight away from the favored pawns of a counsel full of would-be king-makers. We all know how desperate they are to secure their own favored scions Terra’s gilded throne… or at least an important rank and office within the future regime.”
Lone chuckled wryly. “And it doesn’t help that Elly’s glaring at us like we’re the one’s screaming witch. And how ironic is that. Right, Svena?”
Svena glared at a suddenly wincing Lone.
“Sorry. I maybe went a little too far, there?”
“Every witch I took out was a genuine threat, Lone. I redeemed more than a few. And when things got uncertain? I left. As you damn well know.”
“Sure, Svena. But that doesn’t exactly help us with Elly, does it?”
The pair gazed at Elly who was glaring daggers at a now upright Captain Bennett, even if he seemed mostly focused on the blood trickling from his nose.
“Elly? We need to talk.”
She held the sleeping boy she had clearly claimed in protective arms.
“Like hell we do, Captain.”
Bennett sighed. “Elly, none of us are stupid. We all know it’s just politics. Hell, we fought by the kid’s side. He saved our lives. Some of us, more than once. We sure as hell aren’t selling him down any river. But we need a plan because we have the advantage of knowing him personally. The other mercenary corps we’re working with? Might not see things the same way. And if our employer gets wind of his presence…” He sighed. “Yeah, honestly, I’m not sure how that’s going to play out… Myl?”
Myl looked up from the crackling transceiver he was tinkering with. “No luck, Captain. Unlike the armor and weapons we claimed from that rift… all of our standard electromana gear’s been completely fried in what’s now a definite hot zone.”
The captain sighed, rubbing his temples, all of their face plates open at that point. “Well, the good and bad news is that any other power armored company is either out of this jungle… or will soon wish they were.” He shifted position to gaze at the devastated strip of land that looked simultaneously scorched and frozen before looking up to scowl at the swarm of half-step Bronze mantises and darting mosquitoes that were ostensibly watching over them, clearly, before turning to catch a still scowling Elly’s gaze. “If you wouldn’t mind clarifying what you saw, Elly? It might help us plan our next move.”
Elly’s scowl eased to a pained smile, though she continued to hold Eric close, dressed in nothing more than the archaic linen wrap she preferred whenever she wasn’t wearing her skin suit and mana-powered armor.
Bennet frowned, not blind to the way the wind gently caressed her form, or the recliner of vines she rested upon, making full use of ancient arts she hadn’t used in over a century.
“What happened is that we almost got slaughtered just as utterly as the Silver Wolves did.” Her cool features took on a grim cast. “That Contender cleaved off their heads as effortlessly as Lone playing at being an imperial champion slicing through bamboo shoots.” Her features paled. “A very human Contender, dressed in the carapace of the mantises she clearly enjoyed hunting… and very clearly insane. When she caught my gaze… she moved so fast… I knew that we were as good as dead. All of us.”
Bennet scowled, gazing at their battered forms. “When I check my interface logs… all I get is broken code. How exactly did she manage to stun us all so thoroughly? From what I can tell, we were out for at least an hour.”
Elly sighed. “As to that, I don’t know. All I know is that when I saw my death in that girl’s killing glare, Ernest had slammed to the ground right before us. Then the two fought so fast that I didn’t see anything save for blurs and flashes of color and the taste peril so rich, wondrous, and terrible in the air.”
Her eyes took on a haunted mien. She shook away the dark thoughts clearly plaguing her, continuing her report. “Then, like a miracle, Ernest struck that Contender one final time and, well…”
“Yes?”
“She exploded, pelting half the forest with slivers of blazing ice.”
Bennett frowned at the devastation. “Quite an explosion.”
“It was.”
“And the pair of Silver Wolves that were caught in the backblast?”
Elly’s expression grew pained. “If anyone cared to look, they’d find that they had been completely dismembered and disemboweled right through their armor before the final confrontation. We aren’t White-tier Contenders native to this newly ascending world, Captain. We both know just how significant such injuries would be. Especially before we were reforged by the System itself. A torment and a glory most would kill for. And I don’t have to remind you of who we have to thank for that! And considering the three that were decapitated already…”
Bennet nodded. “Understood. As far as any formal report will be concerned, they died as a direct result of this unknown Contender’s actions.” His gaze grew thoughtful. “I don’t suppose Ernest talked to you before he… fell asleep?”
Elly’s cheeks flushed, her lips curving in a bemused smile. “I’m afraid our minds were on other things, Captain.”
This earned a snort. “Well, considering what we were about to run up against, we’ll say no more on it. You know what our next move has to be, I take it?”
Elly stiffened and glared for only a moment before her shoulders eased back in a less than happy sigh.
“Yes, Captain.”
“Good.”
If the man sensed a certain rabbit’s ears perk up with odd intensity, he made no comment, merely turning to the men beside him.
“Alright. As soon as our former employer finishes getting his beauty sleep, we’ll give him a head’s up about what to expect, should he encounter any other mercenary band… for old time’s sake. Then we’re heading out of here to give Lord Song the intel we have so far.”
Lone scowled. “We’ve lost Silver Wolf Company despite our best efforts, nearly lost our own lives, and we don’t even have the location of the Delve. Somehow, I don’t think we’ll be getting a five star recommendation from him anytime soon.”
Bennet snorted. “Well, that’s his prerogative. Our job is to report our findings without letting anyone trade our lives cheaply. This entire region’s elevating to Black so fast and hot that even quality powered armors and guns are shorting out in record time. No matter how badly our employer wants to give his charge a golden ticket to greatness, no matter how grateful we are to share those first clears by their side, all those revelations do neither us nor our employer any good, if we’re all corpses rotting in a wild, unstable delve.”
“Did someone say wild, unstable delve?”
The air filled with curses, snorts, and laughter.
“Captain, it’s a talking bunny!” Naje said with a twinkle in his eye.
“Witch’s familiar,” Svena noted. “Cute, though.”
“Necromancer’s, certainly,” Bunbun said, polishing her paw on her fur before flashing them all a toothy grin and gazing up at Elly’s brilliant emerald orbs. “So, what’s this about a wild delve?”
“It’s our objective, little one. We’re clearing as many delves as we safely can for the sake of our employer’s charge… and we’re benefiting considerably ourselves,” Elly said with a sigh as Eric yawned and mimed waking up.
Eyes filled with gentle warmth and a teasing smile met Eric’s own. “Did you enjoy your nap?”
Eric grinned and nodded, gently reaching down to squeeze her hand before standing once more. “Immensely. And it’s all thanks to your exquisite mastery of druidic arts that gave us a fern mattress worthy of a king.” He then turned to the too intent looking mercenaries and gave them all his most innocent smile.
“It’s good to see you all in one piece! How are we feeling?”
Lone chuckled. “Man, you are something else. Aren’t you, kid?”
Eric winked.
Svena laughed. “According to your girlfriend, you just saved all our lives. And for some reason, the entire Terran Counsel wants you dead.”
Eric’s smile turned hard and cold. “Yup. Funny how that worked out, isn’t it?”
Bennet’s dark grin matched Eric’s own. “Damn right it is. This entire world’s ascension stinks of backroom deals and shadow alliances.”
Myl glowered and nodded. “And you just know half the fucks in power are vulture capitalists that just want to see it all burn.”
Eric nodded. “I can’t tell you how refreshing it is to work with people whose Perception stat is above ‘I don’t have a fucking clue!’ So, I’ll give you three guesses about how they feel about a wildcard like me actually trying to make a difference and clear out territories erupting from Orange to Red to Black like fucking California Wildfires before they set the whole county ablaze.”
Elly flashed Eric a jaded smile, her ancient eyes now the farthest thing from the innocent maiden with her heart on her sleeve, though Eric was awed to sense that adoration just a single smile away. “No guesses needed at all, Ernest. I once tried to walk the Hero’s Path myself. Only to be cut down by monsters eager to watch my realm crumble and profit from its decaying corpse.”
Eric trembled, eyes squeezed tightly shut, surprised by how visceral a reaction he felt after what had been trading lighthearted quips with dark undertones, and no more than that.
His heart ached for the quenched light of what would have been another Sylvan jewel, crushed by darkness and decay and the mocking laughter of coldblooded tyrants and the helpless screams of Eric’s people…
His soul writhed and howled. Eager to erupt and soar the skies. A blazing phoenix that would send all the enemies of his people blazing into hell.
Just as he and his mother had done before.
Over two thousand years ago.
Just a few short days ago.
Two sides of the same fiery coin. And somehow… equally true.
“Ernest!”
He gasped, swallowing back the ache for people, so many broken souls he had never even met. Surprised and maybe a little bit dismayed to see the fear in so many pairs of eyes. Even, for a heartbeat, Elly’s own.
He flashed an apologetic grimace. “Sorry! It’s just that… the thought of those unelected administrative assholes declaring themselves tinpot dictators and selling us all out to alien vultures just makes my blood boil.”
Myl and Lone exchange a look and a soft chuckle. “Damn. Talk about a killing aura!”
Svena forced a wan smile. “I think It’s pretty damn obvious why the Council is so eager to put a stop to him.”
Bennett nodded. “He’s a Contender who’s worthy of the title. A kid who can actually shape the world in his image. A living fortuitous encounter, for us at least. And he’s the last thing that jaded kingmakers want, one of the very few players who might actually shed some light on their rigged game.”
“Pretty much,” Eric agreed, stepping back and cracking his neck before summoning soulbound gambeson and mithril mail in the blink of any eye.
He then closed his eyes, clenched his will, and dared to take it all a step further, making full use of the shockingly resilient chitin shells that would serve as the perfect base for treasures he had kept close to his chest for far too long. Treasures that would serve him far better on his chest as Battletime, hyper focus, and the casual daydreams during a certain dreamlike cross-country drive with his friends crystallized into a work too long put off for so many other things.
Not now.
Now, he would take a moment to focus on what actually mattered!
No matter how much his soul screamed as he dared to stretch in ways he had heretofore dared only in his dreams.
You have successfully bound Titan Wyrm Scales to Shadow Mantis carapace!
You have forged: Bronze-Tier Reinforced Chest Plate with Titan Wyrm scales of Impermeability!
You are attempting to infuse Chest Plate with Runes of Dominion, Strength, and Resilience!
“Ernest! Are you alright?”
“Elly, get back. He’s glowing!”
Eric closed his eyes and tuned out the world as he dared to chase down the sudden fleeting glimpse of inspiration he had been struck with. Shivering with a sudden sense of profundity. On the cusp of inspiration.
Even as the inexplicable pressure built up in his chest.
A pressure so wondrous and brilliant that he thought he just might erupt in a brilliant flash of insight.
Sufficient to obliterate an entire city.
“Bennet, his leaking Hyperion radiation! We have to get back… now! now! Now!”
A phoenix’s distant cry.
Eric took a ragged breath. REFUSING to spread wings that ached to blaze free, no matter how he ached to soar the heavens.
Instead, he applied all that hot, furious pressure into the forging of his most wondrous toy yet.
Finally making use of 35 Scholarship in the only way that mattered for a goofball like him.
The exquisitely pristine recollection of blacksmith John Smith’s masterwork suit of scale mail that somehow, in one form or another, had been with him since the very start.
Armor reforged in the fires of his own mind’s eye.
Scales forged of armor far tougher than any cave lizard.
Scales infused with the runes of Strength and Resilience. Scales infused with the very essence of Dominion. Dominion which grew in complexity and insight as the scales grew absolutely Impermeable to any and all outside elements that would attempt to violate their integrity as their aura of Dominion effectively became Impermeable as well.
Eric choked back a scream that set the nearby trees ablaze, lit as he was with the fires of creativity and destruction as he dared to reforge his armor and himself.
Refusing all flaws.
Any violation from his ideals.
Infusing his conceptual understanding of Dominion to be utterly Impermeable to all those who would attempt to bend his will, challenge his might, or question his resolve.
Congratulations! You have had a breakthrough!
You have SUCCESSFULLY INFUSED Concepts of IMPERMEABILITY into your understanding of DOMINION!
You have saved versus shattering!
You have stayed true to your own path!
The Golden Phoenix RISES ASCENDANT!
Her Dominion is beyond any mortal’s ability to break!
Essence of Dominion is now RANK 5!
Your Comprehension of Dominion now includes the lesser sphere: Impermeability! The physical manifestation of your inviolate will!
Yet as awed and humbled as he was by his own revelation, he was jolted by another message that put him in his place, reminding him that he was just a fish in an absolute sea of ravenous Contenders.
You have FAILED to earn <HIDDEN TITLE> For you are NOT the first Contender to redefine the very building blocks of reality to heed his will!
It chilled him to think that there were other powerhouses out there that, for all he knew, had absolutely dozens of essences or powers just as unorthodox as the pair of brothers who had nearly claimed his life and made a walking puppet of him in a version of Freetown that was no more.
Even so, his mind continued to sing with System praise and happy messages and a forged wonder that made full use of scales shed from a half-step Silver Titan Wyrm that he feared he might never be able to bring to Earth again, lest Recall Familiar recall a Wyrm literally glowing with the radiation that had destroyed an entire world.
But nothing said he couldn’t claim a few scales.
So he did.
Scales now fused to a masterwork set of articulated armor worthy of Smith the smith and the half-step Bronze Paladins that were all that stood between his sister and peril.
Runic Lore is now Rank 32!
Potency Binding is now Rank 6!
Flesh Sculptor is now Rank 29!
Flesh Sculptor is now Rank 30! You have PERMANENTLY gained 9 points in Willpower and 18 points (further modified by all attribute boons!) in Soul Reserves! (Note! Your limited cognitive potential prevents further natural skill evolutions in Scholarship… but the SYSTEM is always here for you, should you choose to put your System Approved class points into evolving this crucial stat!)
Skill evolution automatically chosen: Necromantic Armorer! - You might never have quilted together a gambeson or hammered a breast plate on an anvil, but when it comes to shaping the souls and shells of the creatures you have defeated and claimed, your talents reign SUPREME!
Your Flesh Sculptor rank counts as your Armorer rank when forging ANY armor out of the remains of revenants you have raised OR foes you have personally defeated! NOTE you may only use your skill at its peak in your Extradimensional Storage Space when said armor mirrors blueprints you have personally studied or armor that you have worn! SIGNIFICANT bonuses apply when mirroring the fitting and joint articulations of armor that you have personally bound to your soul!
You have SUCCESSFULLY forged: Bronze-Tier Cuirass of The Underlord! This armor protects your torso with Dominion-Infused armor that resist all spells and attacks with the equivalent of Tier-II Impermeability! Essence of Sharpness and other penetrating perks MUST be of greater rank to penetrate Cuirass of The Underlord! Silver-Tier potency is needed to destroy this armor without relevant Essences or exceptionally powerful class perks!
Note. This artifact was personally designed and created by you, using material tied to your personal kills and Underlord! You may Soul Bind this artifact for minimal cost! (Blood Orb may additionally cover toll!)
Chapter 447 - A flood of foreboding.
Comments
Eric Morisch
Just finished reading book four and couldn't get enough, so got into the Patreon to read the fresh chapters... No regrets! Looking forward to seeing how this story continues to evolve, and to also reading the Silver Fox series as well... Well done!
Trevayne
Thanks for the chapter with its obvious goodies and the reminder that there are other players Eric/Ernest still doesn't know anything about.
Iain Grubb
Sweet thank you :)
M.H. Johnson
Yes there absolutely WILL be Silver Fox this week, Ian ;) Right now I'm just blitzing everything together and linking all the chapters together for everyone's reading enjoyment.
Iain Grubb
No Silver Fox this week?
