Amdirlain’s PoV - Outlands - Xaos
The memory crystals provided by the surveyors sat in orderly rows along the suite’s dining table. Methodically checking each, ?Amdirlain combined the gathered information she needed into one crystal. Organising data was an old habit, even if her perfect memory now made this task potentially unnecessary. Having seen the consequences of missing seemingly insignificant items, however, Amdirlain took her time. Before setting each crystal aside, Amdirlain ensured she’d prepared songs for all the gates recorded within.
The worlds’ diameters ranged from eleven thousand to fifty-four thousand kilometres. The gravity alone on the largest ensured that nothing Human would live on it. Strangely, there had been one nearly twice the size of Earth whose gravity was close to it. However, there had been nothing that Amdirlain could use to explain why its gravity was lower than she’d expected.
Once the initial preparations for the next seventy-one worlds were complete, she expanded her examination. This time she focused Analysis on different information and gained some appalling details. One world with a massive death toll had her pause in her considerations before she forced herself to continue.
[World: Vail?
Age: 6.1 billion years
Sun: G-Type (white-yellow dwarf)
Landmass Type: Large continents and scattered islands.
Average diameter: 19.8 thousand kilometres. (Original state: Earth-type)
Planetary Orbit: 358.2 days
Tilt: 21.8%
Status: Dead
Peak local civilisation: Formithian
Peak civilisation advancement levels: Artificer-based technology
Incursion Status:
<ul>
<li style="font-weight: 400">Demonic Invader conquest completed 178,912 years ago</li>
<li style="font-weight: 400">Sentient Death Toll: 218,034,247,313</li>
</ul>
Local Pantheon Status: Driven off.]
Despite her issues with the formithians, the death toll was staggering. Amdirlain reviewed the memory crystals from the surveyors and found scores of skyscraper-sized gates. Those enormous gates, and thousands of lesser ones, served as distribution points for a planetary metropolis. A shell in the form of a massive demonic city covered the world, with demons and undead coexisting in a mockery of life—an eternal chokehold. The density of their presence made it one that Amdirlain had no hope of resolving soon. Among her surveyors'' reports, nothing showed why the demons were still present in such numbers, and Amdirlain set the mystery aside for now. It wasn’t one of her initial targets, but she sent Sage a message with the details and suggested avoiding it for now.
The next world Amdirlain checked caused her to pause with its crystal in hand for a very different reason. The mental impression of the species'' name was a lingering musical chime that slithered through a range of octaves.
Okay, I’ve seen some weird lifeforms in The Exchange, but this is the first world reporting one of them.
[World: Silivren
Age: 5.7 billion years
Sun: B-Type (blue-white dwarf)
Landmass Type: Large continents and scattered islands.
Average diameter: 49.8 thousand kilometres. (Original state: methane atmosphere, no free oxygen, once supported various silicon-based life.)
Planetary Orbit: 972.2 days
Tilt: 30.2%
Status: Dead
Peak local civilisation: Crillillathian
Peak civilisation advancement levels: Non-magical society with quantum technology
Incursion Status:
<ul>
<li style="font-weight: 400">Demonic Invader conquest completed 324,753 years ago</li>
<li style="font-weight: 400">Sentient Death Toll: 18,137,491,714</li>
</ul>
Local Pantheon Status: None.]
Did they open a Gate to the Abyss using technology, or were there cultists playing around?
Whatever structures their destroyed civilisations had left behind had been lost to the decay of time or were so alien as to be beyond recognition by the songs she’d established.
The world’s elven name and uniquely alien species spurred Amdirlain’s imagination. Though it wasn’t quite the oldest, curiosity brought the world to the top of her list. Amdirlain teleported away from Xaos and arrived under the shadowy canopy of some thick woods. Upon opening the Gate to her destination, its sun’s harsh blue-white light lashed through the Gate and banished the woods’ shadows.
Peering through the glare, Amdirlain looked over a landscape that wasn’t the desolate wasteland she’d expected. Thousands of multi-hued, glittering, natural crystal spires jutted from the planet’s surface. They provided a strange musical instrument for the wind. The spires emitted shifting xylophone tones that competed with whistling flutes as the wind raced across openings.
A step took her across the threshold, and gravity grabbed at her, quadrupling her weight. Amdirlain briefly considered closing the Gate but, with a long queue of work ahead, kept it open. Though the atmosphere left a strange taste in her mouth, Amdirlain sang aloud. She challenged her Power to control the songs, pushing her body to its limits. The first targeted gates unwound in a rush, and Amdirlain pushed on as the effort sipped at her health.
The surrounding spires hummed an odd counterpoint, making it harder to keep her singing on pitch. Sound resonating through her body from every direction challenged her use of True Song, and she had to lock her focus on her music. When she completed the songs, Amdirlain was rewarded with three notifications.
[Planar Isolationist
Note: You’ve seen the details, but it’s a repeatable achievement, so enjoy the experience.
Reward: 20,000,000 experience points.
True Song Genesis [Ap] (23->24)
Perception [M] (78->79]]
Twenty million experience points for each world I isolate.
Looking around at the beautiful landscape, Amdirlain promised herself a more extended return trip. After altering the name of the sun and all its planets, Amdirlain returned through the Gate. The woods about her were unnaturally still, and after a moment’s consideration, Amdirlain face-palmed. It was the combination of her singing and the spires’ sounds had driven the Outlands’ wildlife away.
“Sorry folks,” murmured Amdirlain. After she set a sound barrier, Amdirlain opened the next Gate within it. The oldest world from the list matched her expectation; the once Earth-like planet was now a foul mess with a toxic atmosphere.
A quartet of red moons in different phases illuminated the wind-smoothed mounds around her. Though varied in size, the largest moon looked to be the size of the others combined. Catching a hint of malicious spirits, Amdirlain opted to eliminate them and allow herself time to recover from her efforts on the last planet.
The moonlit terrain didn’t hold the oppressive darkness of the tunnels beneath the Cliffs of Lust, but still concealed hundreds of ravenous undead. Below the mud, she could hear the shattered remnants of a long-destroyed city. The fragments now lay deep beneath the surface, covered in sedimentary layers. Conflict and time had returned the materials to the earth. Various undead swam through the long-buried ruins, looking for a sliver of life to consume.
A smile crossed Amdirlain’s lips, and she spun energy through her sigil before she stepped through the Gate. Immediately airborne, Amdirlain lifted higher before she unleashed a Ki Blast to skip across the muddy landscape.
The concentrated force would have stood out even in a world rich with life; here, it erupted into a near vacuum. While not on the scale of Abyss’ reaction to Yang flames, the shockwave was a dinner bell resounding through the stillness. As the first Ghost breached the terrain’s surface, Amdirlain had a different Power ready to greet it.
Daylight flared outwards from her, painting everything in its purifying energy. The undead''s essence frayed, and its momentum staggered; but—mad with hunger—it ignored the pain and moved forward again. Amdirlain lashed out with a double tap of Daylight to smite through it and into its fellows, already swarming from the ground behind it. The unleashed energy blasted through them, exploiting their intolerance for Radiant energy.
Waves of spectres, wraiths, and nearly a dozen more ghosts came to feed. When the last of those charging her were fading wisps, Amdirlain stretched Resonance through the murk to see if anything lay close enough for her songs to disturb.
[Combat Summary
Ghosts: 12
Spectres (various types): 234
Wraiths (various types): 723
Total Experience Gained: 397,290
Ostim?: +198,645
Ont?lin: +198,645
Daylight [Ap] (30) -> [J] (3)]
The time spent on obliterating the undead had allowed Amdirlain to recover from the last flurry of songs. To avoid attracting anything while she severed the gates, Amdirlain set a sound barrier around her before she began.
The amount of natural and artificial connections each world possessed stretched the time longer than she’d hoped. Though Amdirlain had needed to deal with hungry locals in her vicinity on a few planets, mostly her entry on worlds went unnoticed. Amdirlain checked her experience totals at the end, and the numbers showed nearly thirty million extra between the two classes.
The tower? But that’s over seventy per cent of last week’s total in three days. Did the monks from the monastery show up?
The Gate she re-opened to the crystalline world formerly known as Silivren looked out upon a wave-tossed sea. A ferocious windstorm came off a shining hillside behind her. Though its typhoon strength raced through the forest of crystal spires that jutted from the hillside, they didn’t so much as sway. With the wind rushing across flute-like openings, glass-shattering notes split the air.
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Hurriedly shutting that Gate, Amdirlain briefly considered her options. Having been gone longer than expected, she put off continuing for the moment.
Amdirlain cleaned the various worlds’ refuse from herself and established her concealments. Once satisfied that no local would complain about her presence, she teleported to Xaos’ boundary. Within Nolmar, she heard the presence of Livia and two celestials.
Livia told me she was coming but didn’t mention other guests.
Heading along Xaos’ main road, Amdirlain saw a short queue of soldiers outside the Alchemist’s store. Galasser and another green-skinned Elf were behind the counter checking the contents of vials and efficiently storing the contents. They mainly distributed copper and silver slivers in payment, though they handed over a gold piece for the contents of one large bag.
The Human-looking soldier exiting the shop gave her a brisk salute and, taken by surprise, Amdirlain gave a relaxed wave in return. Nodding to the bag he had hefted in his off-hand, Amdirlain smiled. “A good run?”
Though he was a few centimetres shorter than Amdirlain, his broad-shouldered form supported a solid muscularity. Pale-skinned, he had the same lime-hued teeth she’d seen among other humanoid species at the keep. His irises sparked with a dozen different colours instead of a single hue.
“I made it onto the fifth level before I had to use an exit mirror,” boasted the soldier. Giving a pleased smile, he unfurled the handles and slung the rucksack onto his back. “Are the drops random, Elder?”
“That’s right,” confirmed Amdirlain. “If Galasser gets too many of some materials, I’ll stop providing them.”
“The run was both good and bad. I got so many I had to leave behind some that fell earlier. Are they meant to vanish after they’re left on the floor too long?”
“They should vanish if you get a couple of rooms from them, but dropped gear won’t,” advised Amdirlain as she considered ?the bulky rucksack. “Can I see your token?”
He quickly nodded and pulled a leather necklace out from under his armour. Amdirlain wove a dimensional hole and tied it to the token.
As she finished, the soldier’s eyes widened his attunement with the token having advised him of its new capability. “Ten kilograms of storage? How?”
“It won’t grow in capacity until you beat the tower, but it should mean you don’t have to worry about lugging a bag in soon,” clarified Amdirlain. “It will also mean you don’t have to go digging around for potions if you have any stored in it. The one you want will appear if you have a free hand to hold it. You can let the others know I’ll set up the tower to adjust their tokens next time they go through.”
“Do we touch the token to items to store them?”
“No, just touch the object you want to store and imagine it is going into the token,” explained Amdirlain. After her conversation with Cyrus about the Soul Space, it felt almost mischievous to hand out storage items to the garrison.
“How do you just do such magics?”
Ignoring the question, Amdirlain smiled and tweaked the token further. “Just don’t use it to try and steal something; the token won’t like it.”
With that warning provided, she nodded and walked away.
The soldier remained on the side of the road staring at the token.
Amdirlain found both the celestials in the initial courtyard and immediately recognised them. Klipyl had her hands tucked demurely behind her back, but her posture pulled the low cut of her silk blouse tight across her breasts. When the soldier she’d been talking to leaned slightly forward to take advantage of the view, she smiled brightly. Cocking her head invitingly, Klipyl shifted her balance and tilted one hip towards the soldier. The skin-tight fit of the leather pants accented the full swell of her hips and butt.
Beyond her on the stairs to the hall, Solveiga sat deep in discussion with Master Cyrus. While she appeared to be a petite brunette lady, True Sight showed the angelic wings contained within her adopted appearance. The vibrant energy in Klipyl''s playful melody made it clear her deeds in Sarah’s company had pushed her far ahead of Solveiga’s progress.
[Name: Solveiga
Species: Angel, Erelim
Class: Monk / Wizard / Priest / Ranger
Level: 76 / 76 / 76 / 76/ 76
Health: 33,896
Defence: 299
Magic: 276
Mana: 144,372
Melee Attack Power: 435
Combat Skills: Unarmed [M] (23), Spear [Ad] (55), Short Blades [Ad] (42) - Various affinities, multiple Spell lists, and native powers of species.
Details: One of the original members of Amdirlain’s Cadre, she died during the Green Tide War. Retrieved from Judgement by Amdirlain, she was also the first she promoted from Petitioner to Angel. She’s spent decades wandering across Veht? in the company of Frey, a Priestess of Lerina.
Together, they helped protect people and set them on new ventures. Solveiga contributed to the defence of hundreds of communities during her travels. However, she hasn’t played a significant part in any major conflict, despite helping the slave revolt in the Kingdom of Nova Roma. After learning of Livia''s travel plans, she recently parted ways with Frey in Eyrarháls.]
Klipyl had Sarah dragging her around into danger which power-levelled her, whereas Solveiga focused on protecting people rather than merely racking up experience. Being an Angel hasn’t changed her; Solveiga always kept a sharp eye out for her platoon mates.
“Hello, what brings you pair to Xaos?” called Amdirlain.
Her words had both angels abandon their conversations, and practically leap across the courtyard. While Solveiga stopped nearby to bow, Klipyl ran straight into Amdirlain, throwing her arms around her in a full-body hug.
“Boss! You had us so worried,” squealed Klipyl, and she showered Amdirlain’s face with kisses. “Oh, you’re all solid; that feels good.”
The way Klipyl rubbed her breasts against Amdirlain’s made it clear precisely what Klipyl meant. Klipyl''s mischievous, good-natured energy was far from the ravenous lust of the Succubus she’d first met. The difference took the heat out of Amdirlain’s automatic response, and she caught the point of Klipyl’s chin, bringing the shower of kisses to a halt. “Kli, I don’t know what name is safe for me to use for you. Please stop showering me with kisses.”
“Lovers shorten names,” observed Klipyl with a giggle, but she stepped back out of Amdirlain’s personal space.
“What name do you normally use where anyone can hear it?” enquired Amdirlain.
“Kli is fine with me,” offered Klipyl. “It rhymes with some interesting words, plus you’re my first using it.”
The last words came out in a breathy purr.
“Likely, it rhymes only in your imagination,” disagreed Solveiga.
“Clit,” countered Klipyl.
“That’s a stretch,” replied Solveiga.
Before Solveiga registered her words, Klipyl howled in amusement. “Only on good days.”
Solveiga sighed and rubbed her forehead. “I hope the soldiers that get you as an instructor have patience.”
“Patience, or a healthy libido. Though magic is different, that I take seriously,” advised Klipyl, giving an unconcerned shrug. “Am, do the others know you are setting up a school? Ras is here, so Eby certainly does, but I’m just surprised the sister squad isn’t here.”
“I had been trying to start small and see what I could handle myself, but others have already decided to help,” advised Amdirlain.
“Like when we set up that brothel, it had a tavern area and dance stage in the blink of an eye; popular things always grow,” crowed Klipyl.
A nearby soldier blushed and blurted out a question. “You ran a brothel?”
Though Klipyl had spilled the beans, his gaze directed the question at Amdirlain.
“I seized the building from raiders; Kli handled the operations,” clarified Amdirlain, not letting the interjection ruffle her.
“If you’re not setting us to work straight away, can I take another run at the tower?” asked Klipyl excitedly.
Amdirlain smiled at her enthusiasm. “Yngvarr is coordinating the magic lessons. I need to change the tower, but you can start.”
“What are you changing?” enquired Klipyl, excitedly shifting from foot to foot.
“I’m adding a storage capacity to the tokens, and defeating the final construct will expand it,” explained Amdirlain.
Klipyl gave an excited clap. “Excellent, I’ll lay waste to them again. Can we start on floor thirty and keep clearing rooms and corridors?”
Amdirlain gave an unconcerned shrug. “As long as you don’t steal groups. If others are on that level, they’ll need the practice to get strong enough to win the last fight.”
“Yeah, it''s a bit of a jump in strength for that construct,” agreed Klipyl. “But it''s not like any of them are close to getting onto that level.”
Amdirlain adjusted the tower’s token dispensing facility and the reward for the final construct. “Have fun playing.”
Klipyl leant forward and planted a single kiss on Amdirlain''s cheek. She whispered as tears glistened in her eyes. “Thank you; it''s so different being me now. It’s fun, instead of continual hunger.”
“Your choices made the difference. If you’d still been the being I first met, he would have let you perish,” replied Amdirlain, and she gently bopped Klipyl’s nose.
As Klipyl turned away, Livia came out of the residential courtyard. Looking between them, Klipyl laughed and raced for the stairs. “I got told I could circle the tip.”
Livia lifted a hand to rub her nose, but it didn’t entirely hide her smile.
Orcus’ Overseer PoV - Palace of Skulls - Uligor
The centre point of the command chamber''s cavernous expanse was a black basalt slab that floated some forty metres off the ground. Across its black surface, Orcus’ minions had filled thousands of precisely etched runes with mithril. The runes'' serpentine path ran along the serrated edge of the slab before turning spirals within the outer boundary.
The massive stone was roughly hewn, averaging five hundred metres from one serrated edge to another. Though it gave plenty of space for the overhead display, it crowded the air above it in spots. Gemstones whirled in the formation of the galaxies they represented. They were sparse compared to the living universe since the collection only showed those where Orcus’ forces had touched the system.
Skeleton-winged imps navigated the galaxies; their wizened faces shrouded in zombified flesh. Most were there to deliver additional markers into orbit around various stars.
The black pearls were to show where his cultists had established a substantial religion, and Elemental shards of Fire for those worlds where the consumption of life had begun. But dozens of others showed resources and progress in developing his cult.
Those demons who’d had the honour of setting the markers for new stars didn’t fly about so freely. Upon reaching their destinations, the table’s enchantments snuffed the demons out. Their gemstone and the table''s combined enchantments used the demons’ essence to tie the markers in place. Bound by their target’s name, they’d be in place until the planet ceased to exist.
Until the current spate of plunging gems, there had been only one recent abnormality: a diamond had plunged out of its orbit and bounced across the table. After its initial impact, the sharp spike of noise from every bounce echoed through the stilled chamber. The room’s overseer had sent that diamond away for examination. She’d expected to hear one of the rare but usual events consumed the planet wholesale. Though, with only a planet’s gem having fallen, the possibilities for it narrowed.
Now, the oddity of that single planet had paled into insignificance among extensive losses.
Gemstones representing entire systems had plunged from the display. The pace and scattered origins of the fallen markers had ruled out a Super Nova cascade eliminating neighbouring systems. The first few systems had plunged before they’d noticed the regularity of the failures.
A few dozen of them had fallen hourly for a time, and then there had been a pause where she dared hope the event was over. Even now, two hours after the last had plunged from the table’s constellations, she was still concerned it would resume.
Casting a shadow across the slab, a massive red-skinned Demon watched them work. Despite looming high above the table, his form was nearly humanoid. The most visible exception was the goat-head with ridged horns sweeping back to protect his skull, and bat-like wings. His face was bare of flesh, and only exposed ligaments and threads of energy stopped his lower jaw from falling away. The bat-like wings seemed to have no substance, merely blackness moulded into the memory of a form.
Orcus’ gaze rested on the Succubus’ assistants as they tried to open gates to the worlds the markers represented. The occasional teeth click from the liches’ skeletal visages was the only sign of their nerves.
Having found five entries among the codex of oblivion, the overseer turned and bowed to the towering figure of her dreadful Liege. The mummified membrane across her wings creaked as her wings spread wide to either side as she bowed low.
“You have information?” asked Orcus coldly. The glowing red motes in his otherwise empty eye sockets turned towards her and latched on with grinding force.
The overseer’s voice was a bare whisper that concealed the pain she was enjoying. “I’ve found five of the dislodged markers in the codex. Only a single world in each of these solar systems possessed life. Your forces had stripped them, their only remaining function was to harbour decaying forces.”
“Do I still need such harbours for my reserves?”
“Perhaps not, Dread One, given the Necropolis no longer diverts energy or forces from your realm. Reports show increased legions and abominations on the fringes,” advised the Overseer.
Orcus reappeared atop the hovering slab, standing right before the Succubus, his vast height shrunk to barely reach her shoulders. His cloven feet cracked hard against the stone as he stepped close enough to snatch a gem from the Succubus’ grasp and shove her away with his portly gut.
Lifting the gem briefly to his eye, he dismissively cast it upon his rising subordinate. “The link broke because the Songbird has isolated this world from the Planar Wheel.”
“How did you determine this, Dread One? Can we check the others?” enquired the overseer, having scrambled to recover the gem.
“It is a Skill none of you possess, and I’m not of a mind to teach it,” dismissed Orcus. “Identify the gems related to harvested worlds, and have someone deliver them. It seems the Songbird has awakened to struggle against the inevitable.”
The overseer growled. “What do you want us to do about this Songbird?”
“Have all our agents listen among the dead for news; we shall have to encourage the Songbird to return to wherever it’s been hiding,” declared Orcus.
“What do they need to listen for? How would we kill it?” enquired the overseer carefully.
“Buildings and life forms appearing out of nowhere? with unexplainable magic effects where no Mana is present. Especially anything where unbreakable crystals are involved. As for killing it, baiting it to a location and causing the sun to enter its death throes is one option; there are others,” instructed Orcus.
The overseer nodded. “I’ll spread the word to the interrogators,”
“Any other matters for my attention?”
Frowning slightly, she scrambled through some memory crystals to find what she sought. “The fighting has renewed on a few worlds where civilisation no longer exists. The resistance comes from Celestial factions that have deployed troops and some strange towers-”
“Towers?”
“They rise from the ground and, after a time, there are explosions of Celestial energy around them. The towers pause when that occurs, but the ground is too dangerous to assault the towers before they resume throwing spells at the troops. There wasn’t a Spell detected in the towers'' construction. However, the weaponry atop the towers shows normal enchantment activity,” informed the overseer. “Spectral troops sent at them underground don''t return. ”
“Anything else?”
Shaking her head, the overseer handed over the memory crystal containing the report she’d received. “I’ll get the involved generals to brief you, Dread One.”
Orcus vanished, and the overseer’s shoulders slumped in relief. Looking up to spot the affected locations, she hissed in frustration. Spotting the prior locations of the fallen gems amid the busy display was impossible.