The Invasion (Tower of Power Book 6), page 1
THE INVASION
TOWER OF POWER SERIES
BY IVAN KAL
Copyright © 2021 by Ivan Kal
All rights reserved.
No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods, without the prior written permission of the publisher, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical reviews and certain other noncommercial uses permitted by copyright law.
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, businesses, places, events and incidents are either the products of the author’s imagination or used in a fictitious manner. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or actual events is purely coincidental.
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Contents
PROLOGUE
CHAPTER ONE
CHAPTER TWO
CHAPTER THREE
CHAPTER FOUR
CHAPTER FIVE
INTERLUDE I
CHAPTER SIX
CHAPTER SEVEN
CHAPTER EIGHT
CHAPTER NINE
CHAPTER TEN
CHAPTER ELEVEN
INTERLUDE II
CHAPTER TWELVE
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
CHAPTER FIFTEEN
CHAPTER SIXTEEN
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
CHAPTER NINETEEN
CHAPTER TWENTY
CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE
CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO
INTERLUDE III
CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE
CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR
CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE
CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX
CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN
INTERLUDE IV
CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT
CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE
CHAPTER THIRTY
CHAPTER THIRTY-ONE
CHAPTER THIRTY-TWO
CHAPTER THIRTY-THREE
CHAPTER THIRTY-FOUR
EPILOGUE
INFINITE REALM - MONSTERS AND LEGENDS
PROLOGUE
The Guiding Force, or Iris to her oldest friends, was floating in a large room deep beneath the ground. Rather, a projection of her was—one that she used when interacting with most other beings. Her true self was a computer core the size of planets, with branches and relay stations spread out throughout the multiverse. A part of her was focused on the World, on maintaining all of its systems and monitoring it, but in truth it was a small part of her operations. Most of her processing was focused on the war, the never-ending conflict that they seemed to have been involved with for so long.
Yet it was a conflict that they had no choice but to pursue. Their enemies did not make deals, and they never stopped coming. Chaos and Order were monsters, seeking to devour everything. Iris and Heart of the Mountain were the only people in their way. Others who had the power to oppose them chose to cower and run away, and they blamed Iris and Heart of the Mountain for the war itself. So, they and theirs were all that was standing against the two beings that had the power to devour entire universes in moments.
In front of her was a large window, and through it she could see the being who slumbered in the center of the World, or at least a part of her. Moirai—named for Fate and Destiny—had entered a healing sleep, long, long ago. A coma, really, or so they had thought for the longest of times. Now, they knew that she was awake, or at least a part of her was. Morgan had sent a message through the Tower Master, Kai Zhao Vin: a message from Moirai that she was still there and waking.
And that was news that meant everything to them. She had been injured ages ago, in a fight against Chaos and Order, a part of her soul damaged, her mind and body mangled. Over time, Iris had managed to repair her body, but her soul was far harder to mend. The entire World was made, in part, to help her heal. Every ascended had a tether attached to their soul, through their soul-implants, that took a part of the energy that they accumulated through life, what they called experience—the energy that came from killing other beings or just accomplishing tasks. There was more to it than that, of course. Iris guided everything, she played with the energy generated through life and other means, and she used it to improve both the ascended and heal Moirai.
The World resided in a small universe, one where all life had died out. They had come in and taken over, bringing other races and building a research station on a massive scale. The main goal of their experiments were always two-fold: one, heal Moirai, and two, try and replicate the growth of a spirit artist.
Spirit artists were warriors who cultivated their power through knowledge and will, who took in the base energy of the universe into themselves and made it their own. They then used that to improve their bodies and eventually bind their souls to their body and spirit into a perfectly forged unit—it was something that made it impossible for any outside force to overtake a soul, to dominate a mind. A spirit artist was immune to outside interference; a stronger power could kill them, smother their souls like a tiny flame, but a true spirit artist of the seventh step could never be turned, never be forced to do something against their will.
The Heart of the Mountain, Oxylus, or the Great Lord to the people in this World, wasn’t a spirit artist. His power came from his own understanding of the universe; his will and soul were simply too powerful to be overcome in the same way. His connection to Moirai shielded him somewhat as well, but his people, his armies, were vulnerable to the enemy Heralds. True, Chaos and Order didn’t have many Heralds, but…it was an issue when they faced their forces. Only a few beings in Oxylus’ armies could match a Herald, and they needed more. That was why they were trying to replicate the spirit arts, which were currently the only known way of bonding a body and soul in such a way that they could no longer be influenced.
The spirit arts were the creation of Oxylus’ daughter, Ryaana, known to her people as the Lifebringer, or Ryu-Ana. She had invented them, mastered the way to forge soul, spirit, and body. The relationship between Oxylus and his daughter was…tense, to say the least. The rift between them was thousands of years in the making, and while they had repaired some of it, they were only just now back on speaking terms. Ryaana had shared the ways of the spirit arts with Iris, but her method was too personal, too focused on decades of learning and cultivating power. It was too slow, and too few people were capable of reaching the seventh step. The amount of spirit artists in Ryaana’s universe was merely a fraction of its total population.
They needed more for their war. That was where this World came into play: here, the ascended were meant to be grow more quickly. Nonetheless, their experiment hadn’t born fruit, not until recently. Morgan was the first who had managed to take that last step to bridge soul, spirit, and body. He had done so while his soul was under direct assault, indicating that perhaps it was pressure being put on the soul was required for the seventh step. It was not required for true spirit artists, but the ascended were not counted among them, as their method of advancement was too different.
Now, with Moirai waking and their having data on how an ascended could achieve the seventh step, things were looking up.
“I’m leaving,” Oxylus said, his eyes still looking through the widow at Moirai.
“Where to?” Iris asked as he turned around and started walking.
He gestured with a hand, and space split open in front of him. He passed through and disappeared from all the sensors she had on the World, but not really from her sight. A projection of her on the World remained where she was, while another appeared in front of Oxylus in another universe just as he stepped out of the crack in space.
“The fact that Chaos sent a herald to search for the World is worrying,” Oxylus said as he walked down a long corridor illuminated by white light.
Iris floated next to him. “My analysis indicates that it was only a coincidence. They are searching for all of our bases, and it was chance that they stumbled onto that one.”
Oxylus turned his eyes on her projection and gave her a look that she recognized intimately.
“Fine.” She sighed. “It is worrying. My data suggests that it truly was a coincidence, but… I have learned that data is often flawed.”
“We only know what we know,” Oxylus said with a nod.
Iris agreed with him. They couldn’t know what their enemies knew—not these enemies, at least. There was no way to infiltrate Chaos and Order, and their followers were fanatically loyal. They could only infer information based on what they were doing.
“So,” Iris started as they reached a large open room with a window taking up most of the far wall. “We assume that they know what we are doing, and that they know that we have a pocket universe dedicated to our experiments. Since they found it, but Chaos didn’t come spilling in, we also assume that this was a regular scouting force that stumbled on our universe by accident.”
“But why not call Chaos when they figured out they had found something?” Oxylus asked as he walk
“They had to have known that we have countermeasures in place, and that you would respond quickly. But they were attempting to follow one of the links from the Tower Floor to the World; if they understood what that was, then they were looking for Moirai,” Iris concluded.
Oxylus grimaced. “If Chaos struck while she was still defenseless…”
“Yes,” Iris agreed. “We can’t allow that to happen.”
“Which is why I am going to go to Hestia, to try and talk with the other Titans,” Oxylus said with a weary sigh.
“You sure you want to do that?” she asked. “Hestia might be willing to talk with you, but the others… They definitely haven’t forgotten your cracking Ethorria in half, and I doubt they will forgive, especially since you’ve been less than…respectful when speaking with them.”
“Because they are arrogant fools, and act like children despite being millions of years old.”
“Uh-huh, and you definitely don’t act like a child, ever.”
He turned his eyes on her and glared. She raised an eyebrow and waited for him to answer. When he wisely didn’t say anything, she nodded. “Right. Now, why would you want to talk with them?”
“I am sure that they have something that could help Moirai heal more quickly,” Oxylus said.
“Perhaps. It will take a lot for them to give it to you, if they even have something.”
“I can’t just sit there and wait. We know that she is there now, that she survived whole. Now it is just a matter of speeding up her recovery.”
“Very well,” she agreed. “And what do you want done with the World in the meantime?”
He thought about it for a few seconds and then spoke. “How long until you can replicate what Morgan did?”
“I’ve already started processing the data. It’ll take me a few months, maybe a year to build a new system. I can then push the updates to the ascendeds’ implants relatively easy. Then I’ll need to devise ways for their souls to suffer pressure, or attacks. I don’t know yet how to do that efficiently. Either monsters that can attack the soul, or something else…a disease, perhaps? I’ll think about it.”
“Whatever you decide is best. For now, I want you to take the barriers down fully and allow the continents to interact with one another. Release stronger monsters into the wild. It will force those who refuse to enter the Tower to face more dangerous foes; it’ll make them stronger.”
“It’ll make some stronger,” Iris corrected.
Oxylus nodded. “Yes, but we need them. Strength is required regardless if they reach the seventh step or not.”
“Yes. We do need them,” Iris said sadly.
Oxylus turned his eyes back to the window, and looked out at the massive black hole surrounded by countless stations and ships moving from one to the other. Half of the stations were made out of artificial materials, metal and ceramics, compressed matter that was nigh indestructible by all but the greatest of technologies. The other half were organic, pulsing pieces of flesh and uneven growths. The ships standing guard were as massive as some of the stations, the largest being hundreds of kilometers long. Some of those were empty of all life, being drone ships that she controlled personally. The last group of ships, standing guard across from the ships made out of metal, were the eldritch horrors, beings of flesh and bone floating in space. They were the Great Beasts of the Krashinar people, Oxylus’ greatest allies and friends.
They comprised most of his armada.
The Krashinar were above all the other races that served him, their loyalty and might being without question.
Other races had presence here as well. The Children of the Mountain were among them, as well as what was left of the Erasi, the old Empire. Different factions from different universes, ships running on high tech and those build with magic, even those that were the meld of the two. Too many of them had lost their homes to Chaos and Order, and now called this wretched and cold place their home: the safe haven that Oxylus and Iris had created to harbor them all, to prepare and build up their forces for the last battle against their enemies.
“And I’d like you to send a message to the Seventh,” Oxylus said. “See if he would be willing to bring Araxi to the World, to see if it could reach Moirai.”
Iris tilted her head in surprise. The Seventh was the leader of the Krashinar, and Araxi was the Great Beast that the Seventh used to travel the stars, but Araxi was also more. The Great Araxi was, in many ways, Moirai’s sire. It was Araxi’s genetic material that was used as blueprints for Moirai’s creation, a melding of human and Krashinar genetic knowledge. She was unique—but perhaps Oxylus was right. Perhaps now that Moirai was waking, Araxi might be able to reach her where he himself couldn’t.
“I’ll send the messages immediately,” Iris said.
“Thank you.”
They remained there for a few minutes more, just looking out at their home, at their people—knowing that all of their lives rested on their shoulders.
CHAPTER ONE
Morgan was blinded, his highly sensitive eyes hurting as if he had poked them with burning rods.
“Gahh!” Morgan screamed as he fell to the ground and rolled over the grass, evading an attack coming from above, as his other senses informed him of its coming. He heard and felt the attack impact the ground, followed by a loud yell and the sound of something striking something else. He was too busy screaming to really pay attention.
“Morgan! Get up, you idiot.” Lucius’ voice pierced through the noise, followed by more sounds of battle.
Morgan grimaced and then switched his forms, going from his Combat Form to his Hunting Form, replacing his eyes and healing them in the process. His mind took a moment to adjust to a much different body and he managed to get up on his knees as his bones cracked and his joints changed.
His eyes were now those of a predatory cat that he had found, killed, and consumed some three years ago. Its vision was great both in the dark and during the day, and also allowed for him to see heat. He looked at the monster they were fighting, a terrible and powerful monster that was level 75: an Elder Glitter.
It was just as terrible and horrifying as the name suggested. A massive creature the size of a school bus, it had a body that looked as if it were covered in glitter. It had wings that resembled those of a firefly, though its main body was squat and almost bean like. Its head looked like that of a bowhead whale, except that it had wicked teeth like a shark, and claws that could rip a person apart on the ends of its feet.
Vestella bashed its head over with her big tower shield, then struck with her emerald mace, and then her bear summon swiped at the glitter’s side. It was massive, at least three meters long and two tall when on all four legs. The bear was also altered with eldritch parts; around its neck was a mass of tendrils with wicked hooks on them, looking like a disgusting mane. Its jaw was unhinged, and the lower part split into two that opened sideways to show a maw filled with sharp teeth. Its claws were elongated and sharp, and its fur pure white. The bear was covered with blood-red ice, making it look as if it were wearing armor.
The glitter jumped away right into a barrier raised by Clara. Lucius swooped down from above and swiped his two swords, sending two arcs of air down on top of the glitter. The monster…twinkled, the colors on its hide shifting as it expelled something that stopped Lucius’ attacks. Everyone cursed as they quickly covered their eyes, the secondary effect of whatever the glitter was doing coming with a blinding light.
Morgan turned away before the light flashed, and ran toward one of the nearby trees at the edge of the clearing. His Hunting Form had six limbs, each ending in three-fingered limb that ended in thick claws, most suited for ripping into something or climbing—which was what he used them for now as he climbed on top of a tall tree. This form wasn’t typically suited to fighting; it was more of a stealth and ambush kind of a form.
Quickly, he found a place in between two branches and looked out at his team fighting the monster.
Clara was keeping it on the ground by creating barriers every time it tried to fly up. Hexna stood next to her and was throwing her black fire at the glitter from afar while also protecting Clara in case it tried to get to her. Ves kept it occupied with her summon and kept stunning and interrupting it with her shield, while Lucius harried it from above.
