70 Days Left for Brokering Peace in Sector 12,560


    I tossed Shael a nether protection crystal. “You don’t have to use it but keep it somewhere safe.”


    The half-elf stared incredulously at the object in his hand. “You’re taking me into the nether?”


    “Not quite,” I replied. “The void is present in the sector we’re going to, but we won’t be staying long.”


    “I don’t understand any of this—” Shael shook his head—“but alright.”


    Withdrawing a scroll from my backpack, I began casting. On the off chance an unknown player was hiding nearby, I deemed it safer to open the portal inside the tavern rather than outside. Admittedly, the possibility that someone would try to dash through the portal was remote, but it was still not one I wanted to risk.


    Item consumed.


    You have opened a greater portal to sector 18,240.


    “Let’s go,” I said, beckoning Shael as I strode forward.


    “Wait!”


    Checking my stride, I glanced at him.


    “Shouldn’t we buff or something? What if we run into stygians?”


    “Don’t worry, it’s safe,” I assured him. “And like I said, we won’t be in the sector long. Now, come on. The portal won’t stay open forever.” Advancing once more, I slipped into the luminous doorway.


    Transfer through portal commencing…


    …


    …


    Leaving sector 12,560.


    ? ? ?


    You have entered sector 18,240 of the Forever Kingdom.


    Warning: this region is under assault by the nether and is in impending danger of being pulled into the Nethersphere!


    The nether toxicity at your current location is at tier 4. Your health, psi, stamina, and mana are degenerating at a rate of 0% per minute (damage reduced by 100% due to void armor).


    I emerged out of the portal, at ease and relaxed.


    Like I’d told Shael, there was nothing to fear. The last few times I’d been this way there had been no stygians for miles around, and everything I’d seen and learned from Anriq’s scouting excursions—and my own—led me to believe the status quo would stay unchanged until the void claimed the sector.


    It took only an eyeblink for me to realize my folly.


    The space around me was not empty. It teemed with mindglows—some friendly, most not.


    We had walked straight into a battle.


    Damnit, I cursed. Ignoring the swords sheathed on my hip, I dug out my stygian blades from my bag of holding and glanced over my shoulder. Shael had yet to emerge.


    And isn’t he going to be happy when he does?


    I grimaced at the thought. Still, it was too late to rectify my error, and not wanting to compound my mistakes further, I spread my awareness and took stock of the battlefield while I wove psi.


    The sector had not fallen into the Nethersphere, that much was clear. But the status quo had changed. The two nearby gatherings of stygians made that much obvious.


    The first pack—the smaller of the two—was less than ten yards away and on the opposite side of the nether portal to the tundra. The group wasn’t close enough to stop us from escaping into the guardian tower but some of its members were already drawing closer and would soon be a threat.


    Still, it was to the second stygian pack, I turned my attention.


    They were about two hundred yards beyond the first group and congregated around four familiar shapes—Safyre, Anriq, Adriel, and Ghost.


    Why in hells are they so far from the portal? I wondered.


    Equally pertinent, was the question of what the four were doing fighting a pitched battle here in the first place. The idea had been for them to lay low and not risk the void learning about our invasion plans!


    It mattered little that the four seemed to be faring well enough. Despite the dozens of stygians surrounding them, my allies were untouched. Answers would have to wait, though, until the stygians were dealt with.


    Almost unnoticed, a shape reared up silently on my left.


    Stygian serpent.


    Whipping around, I lashed out with the sword in my right hand. My motion triggered the nether creature’s own attack, and it snapped at me with bared fangs.


    Too slowly.Stolen story; please report.


    My own blow landed first, the smoky blade cleaving through the stygian’s less-than-solid form as easily as through butter, decapitating it.


    You have killed a level 110 stygian serpent with a fatal blow.


    The snake’s head flew free, flying in the direction of my portal and for a moment I feared it would go all the way through—and what would Shael make of that?—but happily, it fell short.


    Less happily, the bard chose just then to transition through the portal. And, of course, he immediately noticed the head.


    “I thought you said—” Shael began, staring down in horror at the head resting against his boots.


    “I was wrong,” I replied tightly. “Get ready to move! The others need us.”


    “Others? What others? Who else would possibly—”


    I slashed my hand downward even as I eyed the pair of hydras approaching from behind the portal. “Save the talk for later! Buff up and put your back to mine!”


    “Got it,” Shael growled.


    I was being a little harsh on the bard, I knew. Unlike me, Shael couldn’t see through the mists to the beleaguered party two hundred yards away, nor for that matter could he perceive many of the stygians near the portal. And truly, it was not Shael I was annoyed with, but myself.


    The situation was less than ideal—for Shael in particular. One ill-timed attack and he would suffer final death. And I would have no one to blame but myself.


    Next time don’t be so cocky, Michael.


    “Prime!” Ghost exclaimed suddenly. “You’re back!” A fractional pause. “I can’t see you. Where are you?”


    “At the nether gate to the tundra,” I replied calmly. “But don’t come to me, I’ll come to you. And warn the others.”


    The party could no more see me than Shael could them. Safyre had a purifying dome up, of course, but its outer edge still fell about a hundred yards short of our current position, and once again, I wondered why they’d ventured so far from the gate to the tundra.


    The question was of secondary import, though. My spell was ready, and just in time too. The hydras were almost in striking range.


    You have cast windborne.


    “Hang on!” I yelled to Shael.


    “Wha—?”


    His question went unfinished. Wrapping my arms about the bard, I yanked him onto the windslide and towards my embattled allies.


    ? ? ?


    You have trigger-cast quick mend.


    Twenty yards later, Shael and I dropped back to the ground. I’d only had enough time while on the windslide to cast one of my buffs, and I’d gone for the most defensive one.


    “Run!” I shouted, shoving the bard in the back.


    “W-which way?” he mumbled, staggering forward drunkenly.


    “Dead ahead,” I replied. I’d purposely set the ramp of air to deposit us in an area clear of danger, but the stygians near the nether portal were already turning our way once more, and we couldn’t afford to tarry. “Don’t stop when you hit the purifying field. Keep going! I’ll guard your back.”


    No doubt, Shael found my instructions confusing, but he didn’t stop to question me again and simply did as I bade. I raced after, blades out and scanning the mists.


    The safer option might have been to send Shael into the tundra, of course, but not knowing if some calamity awaited on the other side, I’d chosen not to risk doing that. As dangerous as the nether sector was, I was confident I could protect the half-elf until we reached the others.


    A bubble of dark energy sailed in from somewhere up ahead.


    It was a ranged magical attack and an atypical one for the stygians.


    But I’d already noticed a few unrecognized forms amongst the more familiar hydras and serpents, and it was a safe bet that the attack had originated from one of them. I’d not had the chance to analyze the ‘new’ nether creatures yet, and ordinarily, I would have simply blinked out of the unknown missile’s path. But the evil-looking ball was homing in on Shael, and the odds of him surviving a strange magical assault were not good.


    Angling left, I placed myself in the missile’s path.


    A voidball has hit you. Nether damage repelled!


    Void armor charge remaining: 83%.


    The spell’s dark energy washed over me, but thanks to my void armor, I endured none of its effects. That did not prevent me from feeling unclean, though.


    Shael stumbled to a stop, his eyes widening in horror—I was still close enough for him to perceive me through the mists. “Michael! Are you alright? What was that thing?”


    “Keep going!” I replied. “I’m fine.”


    Another voidball launched.


    This time, I picked out the source. Focusing on the creature, I scrutinized it intently. In most ways, the caster was identical to a stygian serpent. Only bigger. Much bigger.


    A giant stygian serpent?


    That didn’t sound too bad. The serpents were easy enough to kill, after all. But I wasn’t about to underestimate the threat level again, not so soon after being caught out by my false assumptions. Reaching out with my will, I analyzed the new nether creature.


    The target is a level 238 stygian naga.


    Stygian serpents are perhaps the most common and prevalent of all the nether’s creatures. Lithe and agile, they are feared for their speed and cunning. Yet even so, a single snake is usually of no danger to an experienced player.


    The same cannot be said of the nagas.


    Of all the creatures in the stygian serpent’s evolutionary chain, none is more feared than the naga. Larger than a hydra and faster than a serpent, nagas also wield the void’s magic with an ease that even nether wizards envy, making them deadly at both ranged and close quarter fighting.


    “Damnit,” I muttered. “It’s an elite.”


    Worse yet, there were four nagas accompanying the stygian packs. Two were behind us—with the first pack—while the other two flanked the besieged party ahead. I suspected that at some point there had also been a fifth naga, one that Ghost had killed. It would account for the two levels she’d so recently acquired.


    The picture was becoming clearer.


    Given the disposition of the stygians and the surprising appearance of elites amongst their number, there could be no doubt about what was going on.


    This was an ambush.


    And that meant that not only was the void aware of our presence in the sector, they had just seized the initiative, too.


    Caught unawares, Safyre, Adriel, and the others had likely been forced away from the tundra portal before they could regroup. That they had done so and were managing to hold the stygians at bay was encouraging. But I could not forget the lone stygian overlord that only a few days ago I’d spotted lurking near the river. At a guess, it was already moving this way.


    With reinforcements in tow, no doubt.


    The only thing in our favor was how slow the overlords were. The damnable thing would take hours to get here—if it hadn’t repositioned itself beforehand.


    But there was no way to divine that, not in the thick of battle. Gah. There’s no choice. We have to retreat.


    And before the overlord gets here.


    Dashing right, I moved to intercept the incoming voidball. In the process, another realization came to me. It was more than Shael’s life that was at stake. All our lives were.


    And quite possibly, my plans for the sector too.