Conviction, page 9
“You are but one man and we will not be your whores. Though, if you are looking to surrender to us, we could see about having a good time with you being the whore.”
“Sorry, but I am already more than spoken for, and do you really believe that I am just a single man down here? I am here alone, because if the rest of my group had come with me, you would have fled rather than talk with me as we are now. I believe you are still expecting two more of your sisters to return and they were ever so kind as to tell us what to expect here.”
“Ha, if you did catch one of us, we would be more likely to lie and tell you that there was either less to lure you in, or more to scare you away. As you are here, I believe that our odds-”
“There are only five of you who have reached tier-7 and a few dozen tier-6s,” interrupted Xeal. “But even if there were ten tier-7s, I alone would be enough to handle all of you. Now choose, surrender or face me!”
At that moment Xeal let out the full force of his aura and the five tier-7s came over the wall as they charged at him. All five of them were wielding short swords, that were practical for some of the tighter tunnels that existed in the area. Each was also chanting and Xeal could see that the core of each sword was a different material and if he had to bet, they also functioned as wands, or perhaps rods. Either way it seemed that he was dealing with five rather competent fighters, as he drew his swords and stepped forward to meet their attacks. As he did so, the rest of his party, save for Ceclie who was minding their captives, came charging in as they prepared to capture the dark elves.
The looks of fear that crossed all five of their faces would have been a fatal mistake had Xeal wanted to kill them, but he wanted information more and these five were the most likely to have anything of use. So, rather than aim his attacks at the five elves, Xeal focused on their blades as he used double upward and downward slash skills, paired with his transitional attack skill, to quickly move between all five of them. While he failed to disarm any of them, he did interrupt their chants and place himself between them and their village. It was then that they understood the true hopelessness of their situation and for a second, they seemed resolved to fight to the death, but then they saw the four dragonoid women and froze. Suddenly it seemed that they had lost the will to fight and they made to stab themselves, and Xeal used his elemental filtered dragon’s breath to hit them with electricity, which caused them to flinch for a second. In the next second Xeal’s reinforcements arrived and all five dark elves found themselves being restrained by two of his party members as a third bound them.
This just left the four dragonoid women unoccupied and they broke into the village while its occupants were currently stopped and looking at Eira and Enye, who were blocking the other two exits. As Xeal’s aura filled the area, he could see most of those present lose all strength, as only the tier-6s managed to remain standing. Though they all seemed to know better than to do anything but surrender at that point and so, the task of processing the village began, as Xeal thought about what he would do with them. From what Xeal knew from talking with Ceclie and Salfe, groups like this were usually doing their best to avoid other dark elves as they were too weak to contend for any real power. So, while they likely knew where other dark elves were, they wouldn’t have many details on current activities or numbers to expect in other areas.
Still, Xeal left Ceclie to extract any information she could from the five tier-7s, as the rest of the village found itself being restrained and lined up to be marched back to the main force. From there they would be processed and treated like prisoners of war, only to FAE and not Nium, or any other NPC entity. This pretty much guaranteed that they would be confused at their treatment, as he was sure they were getting ready for torture and forced labor at the very least. Still, Xeal wasn’t about to waste his breath trying to explain that wasn’t what they were about to face, as they wouldn’t believe him regardless.
Though the fact that there were only 20 males among them, with ten of them still being children, gave him reasons for concern. While men were looked at as subservient in their society and in many cases were treated as tools or simple property, he would have expected something closer to even numbers. This was just reinforced further as of the 21 children almost half were male, but only one in nine of the adults were. This caused Xeal to think that this group had sold off many of theirs, or something else was going on. However, he put that out of his mind, as he joined Alea and Rina as they searched through the settlement while ignoring the prisoners.
“I take it you two aren’t having quite as much fun as you had expected this adventure would be when it started,” commented Xeal, surprising the two elves.
“They just seem so terrified of us,” retorted Alea. “I know that there is bad blood between dark elves and all those who live on the surface, but the way they are talking, well, it makes me think about Salfe.”
“Oh, and what about her?”
“She destroyed her ability to ever have another child because of how things are done down here. It would take a phoenix feather for her to heal her physical damage after the lengths she went to and well, had her skills as a smith not been what they were, she would have never had the chance.”
Alea shuddered as Rina took over speaking.
“We may have bad blood with their kind, but that is only the ones who you would normally see in battle. Our time with you and having grown while surrounded by those who we normally would have never interacted with, has changed much of how we see things. The dark elves which we once saw as just a single faceless enemy, are not so black and white to us anymore.”
“I fear what the future holds for much of this world,” replied Xeal. “But if I have my way, dark elves will lose most of their cruelty in a few hundred years. While I don’t know what caused them to be as they are, I like to believe that surviving in the harsh world that is the subterranean realm is mostly to blame. With this operation FAE will be creating a more stable environment down here and them being placed under Aila’s rule before she hands power over to Alea here should help things to improve. At least that is my hope.”
“My mother will rule them!?” almost shouted Alea.
“Yes, and then you will, and I suspect that the day when you rule is quickly approaching.”
“I am still too young and-”
“I want to marry Aila already.”
“Can we not talk about this right now?” interjected Rina. “We are but teenagers, or perhaps young adults to our kind at this point. Alea’s first few years of ruling would not be smooth or easy, as she doesn’t have the respect that her mother does.”
“Which is why she is here, though perhaps staying at my side will hinder her ability to gain the respect that she will need as they attribute her success to me.”
“Is it not?” questioned Alea. “Even having become what I have, can I not attribute the leaps in power that I have experienced to you?”
“I may have opened the door, but you stepped through it on your own. If you feel like your power is still tied to me somehow, I would appreciate it if you fully claimed it before we finish subjugating the dark elves. Also, for good measure, I might leave their queen to you two.”
As Xeal said that, he walked away before either of them could protest and just smiled as he knew having Alea defeating the dark elf queen would check off several boxes. Though, he had his concerns about just what the final result of things would look like as if she failed, or needed his help, it would backfire. Still, Xeal just knew that he would have to build her up and make sure that when she did face off with the dark elf queen, it would be an easy fight for her. Following the short exchange, Xeal made sure everything was in order before he led the group back to the main force and once there, he left to check in on things up above once more.
Like this more time passed as Xeal pulled double duty, and kept pressing forwards and capturing the small groups that were on the fringes of, or just outside dark elf territory. Through the integration of these groups, Xeal learned a fair amount about the current situation. Apparently there was a real shortage of males currently, as the current queen and many of her closest matriarchs seemed to be devouring them. At least that is what Xeal saw, as the curse that afflicted Queen Aila Lorafir’s descendants was seemingly being allowed to run rampant. The only saving grace was that each was only doing so three out of every nine months, as the other six were spent with child. From the sounds of things, it seemed that the current queen was actually exclusively feeding on the descendants of Queen Aila Lorafir. Though these descendants were being born from an ever-growing group of Queen Aila Lorafir’s female descendants, who were treated as just under the queen at this point. Xeal worried just what effects this would have beyond the eternal life they got from the deal. So, he found himself seated across from Queen Aila Lorafir and asking questions he wished he didn’t have to.
“I am sorry, Aila, but I need to know just what the effects of the curse your descendants got was like, when the few who were consumed by it were active.”
“Xeal, I have read the reports as well and all I can say is that I have never dealt with anything like this before. The few times that it happened, no body counts rose above 50. Now the dark elves’ leaders are brazenly embracing it.”
“Alright, did you get anything besides an extended life from when you-”
“Slept with the fathers of my children. Xeal, power exchanges are never clean, but nothing I got lasted more than a few weeks, but just like how the waters of youth can accumulate boosts to a certain extent, I expect the same is true here.”
“Alright, so I need to find another source of the waters of youth and have Aila drink it until she has been boosted like none before.”
“Xeal, if this queen has been acting so reckless, I fear what facing her would do to Alea, even if you boosted her and-”
“I will not let her face an unknown on the level that the dark elf queen is now. As much as I don’t like it, I may have to take this fight myself, depending on the situation. Still, I feel like if we just left them alone, the dark elves are on a path to their own destruction currently.”
“Not if their queen reaches tier-8 and they bring their full force to bear on an invasion of the surface. I dare say that your kind would fuel them eternally if they are given the chance.”
“I have a very bad feeling about this, after knowing what we do about the demonic weapons.”
“Xeal, you are not pulling my children from this fight.”
“Aila, your children all know what to expect and have one near them to restrain and evacuate them should things escalate. Beyond that, I am going to trust that they can maintain control until proven otherwise.”
“Good. Now keep me informed on the situation and if you know who makes an appearance.”
“Part of me wonders if they are already waiting for us among the dark elves.”
“No, they may be hoping to use them to get here, but we would know if they were already.”
With a nod, Xeal gave Queen Aila Lorafir a kiss and reassured her that everything would be fine, as he returned to the duties he had in front of him. Though progress on all fronts remained slower than he would like and he knew that he had other obligations that would need his attention before long. So it was that as the now level 247 Xeal logged out on day 105, he found himself wondering just what the next few months in ED had in store for him.
(*****)
Morning April 21 to Evening May 11, 2269 & ED Year 9 Days 106-168.
Alex once more found himself trying to enjoy the latest of the short breaks he was getting from the constant action that was his time in ED. Though, he found that the limited time he currently could find was wearing him thin as he felt mentally exhausted all of the time. While he was familiar with the signs of burnout as he had experienced it a few times in his last life, this was the first time that he felt it so heavily and he couldn’t rely on his normal strategies. That being, to take a break and reduce the workload he was under, as no other could accomplish his current tasks. It was this fact that was worrying him more than any other, when it came to the plans for him to stop being so crucial to day-to-day operations in just over two months.
On the other hand, Kate was all smiles as she entered the last stages of being pregnant while all her duties were in the hands of others. It was why she had the time to join in on the subjugation of the dark elves. While she still looked things over and sent out directions to others as she saw fit, she was working only a few hours a day and could ignore things for a few days if needed. That was save for the legal side of things, which she refused to allow anyone but her to oversee as if she were Abysses End, it would be when she handed all of that over that it would be time to make a major move.
That was the other troubling thing that was going on. Kate had expected that the lawsuits would start slowing down in frequency, but they were just speeding up. However, now one small claim after another started to come in. It seemed Abysses End was having every member who had their gear destroyed by Xeal’s attacks file a claim. Their argument was that Xeal’s attacks were overkill and constituted a malicious act of destruction of personal property outside of the normal scope of playing a VR game. The fact that the lawyers on his side, who were in charge of what was quickly becoming an actual class-action lawsuit, had failed to get the notion dismissed gave Alex and Kate pause. The most worrying part was how it seemed that the law was ambiguous on the matter, as no case like it had ever been tried before. While there had been some who had sought damages after a few isolated events and had failed, never before had it been on this scale and repeated multiple times.
It was due to this that Alex actually found himself forced to release a public message and address the situation directly. For this they went with a prerecorded message, that had taken ten attempts to get right, as they released it on first the official FAE forum, where it was then reported on by several news agencies. Thankfully, Kate had enough back channels developed that most of the news sided with them, and pushed the stance that war is a terrible thing and his actions had all been taken as part of the wars in ED. The images of the massive cannon, that they had destroyed during the war in the Huáng empire, was also shown as an example of just what type of weapons some were willing to unleash. This helped in that it was clear that the NPCs of ED were just as capable of the same levels of destruction that Xeal was. Even so, Abysses End was hard at work waging their own public opinion campaigns and it seemed that they had finally found something that was going to cause FAE trouble.
When Xeal returned to ED on day 106, he made his way to the quest world and in turn to Austru’s side, as it was the day before their anniversary. With the current plan for him to spend the whole day and the following one alone with her, many things had been done to try and ensure their time together would be uninterrupted. Even so, Xeal was almost expecting something to interrupt them and it was only a few hours in when a request for aid on the battlefield was made. Sighing, Xeal slipped away for 30 minutes as he simply used his lightning form to travel and then unleashed a single massive attack before retreating. In the end he had to do this two more times on day 106, but as he lay next to Austru before logging out, she was all smiles as she looked like she was fighting laughter.
“Care to tell me what is so funny?” asked Xeal, feeling the exhaustion of the day wear on him.
“My love, you are always so busy and the few visits I do get are only for a night together and were it not for the hour I get each week with my sisters, I would think they were keeping you from me. Yet watching how you are unable to even escape your duties for more than a few hours at a time, reassures me that everything is fine. Yet, it is also funny to see you beating yourself up over the fact that today wasn’t perfect.”
“That is funny to you?”
“No, the fact that I can’t help but enjoy having watched it play out all day is funny to me. Part of me was annoyed by the first one and the second one was frustrating. After the third time I became resigned and just happy that you promised me two days rather than one, knowing this would happen. Though what is really funny to me is that I know all I need do is ask and you would give me a third day over the fact that any interruptions occurred at all, yet I won’t ask for it.”
“I appreciate that and I am just wondering when I will be forced to claim more of it for myself.”
“You are waiting for the others to force that conflict and the lack of action on your part has been worrying you.”
At Austru’s words, Xeal let out a sigh as he responded.
“It has taken too long already and I feel as if I need to take control of it. Yet from the information that Fire Oath has given me, they only knew half of those who remained after I defeated Iarcale. The only thing they know for sure is that Abysses End, Salty Dogs, Dragon Legion and Jingong are all still in the mix. Worse yet, they are only sure of Djimon’s identity of those that are left and I expect he has been working hard since I last faced him.”
“He was the one you went demonic Christmas elf on according to Gale, right?”
“That would be him, but I am more worried at the fact that the others have managed to keep who they are quiet. It means that they either have some way to conceal themselves during the matches, or that they were just that unknown of a player. Either way, I don’t like that all the ones Fire Oath had solid information on have been defeated, as it speaks to things being harder than I would like.”
“I expect that the reason for that is that Fire Oath was trading info with these other guilds and only Abysses End was arrogant enough to trade their own champion’s name for Fire Oath’s champion’s name.”
“No, Djimon is just too well known and in the public eye is seen as only weaker than Amser, Takeshi and myself. As such they can use him as a tool to ensure that each of the other guilds is willing to make a deal with them when negotiating deals, like the one I have with Fire Oath for continued access. Honestly, it is concerning that none of the others have come to me to secure similar deals as of yet.”
