The Apocalypse is a Side Quest: Book Three, page 28
Chapter Thirty-Seven
Nathan was currently directly between a bunch of angry, vaguely xenophobic elves and some of the most powerful humans currently in existence.
And they were all looking at him.
A droplet of sweat rolled down his back. Nathan was strong. Nathan was really, really strong. Especially after receiving a divine gift. But he would be lying if he said he didn’t feel at least a little nervous at the prospect of fighting basically everybody here.
Behind Emi, Nathan caught the faintest shimmer in the air—like heat waves rising from summer pavement. His stomach tightened.
“Worse comes to worse, I can try blowing up the entire island,” Mara whispered.
“How would that help?” Nathan turned his eyes over at her and dropped his voice.
“Well, they can’t cause trouble if they’re all falling into the infinite void.”
Nathan was almost tempted to accept the offer before he realized that it was a terrible idea and focused on trying to de-escalate the situation.
The shimmer behind Emi had grown more pronounced. Still subtle, but Nathan could feel the pressure building like the moments before a thunderstorm.
“Nathan,” Emi stared at him. “What are you doing here?”
Nathan laughed awkwardly. “I could ask you guys the same question. You guys got into a party without me?”
“There was no partying,” Grigor said. “They attacked us, we responded in kind.”
“That’s… what?”
“Hey!” Fliel shouted. “I saw the attack plain as day. You struck us first.”
“Oh, so that light beam just suddenly came out of nowhere?”
“You clearly attacked us with those fire spells.”
“How dare you accuse the queen of such cowardly tactics—”
The voices faded into each other, and the whole time, Nathan felt his soul leaving his body. The air around Emi was starting to distort more visibly now, like looking through water. Small pebbles near her feet began to vibrate against the ground. Nathan’s nerves stretched tighter.
Nathan needed the top ten on his side. The fact that they’d managed to cause so much damage was clearly a sign of their power. Besides that, he wasn’t sure if he could take them all on. What if he sided with Emi? Did he even want to side with her?
He was being ridiculous. She was his friend, right? Sure, things were a little bit hasty right now, but she came first.
Still, the best option was a peaceful resolution, somehow.
“Guys, this all seems like a big misunderstanding.” Nathan tried to put on his best conciliatory voice. “Why don’t we all put down the weapons and discuss this rationally?”
A low hum filled the air—so subtle that Nathan wondered if he was imagining it. But the way Emi’s hair had started to lift slightly at the ends told him he wasn’t. Whatever was building inside her was getting stronger.
“Several of our people are lying here, bleeding out, and you want us to be rational!” Fliel shouted.
Dr. Ada said, “We’ve been holding back on purpose to avoid a permanent breakdown in relations.”
“You were holding back?” Grigor shook his head. “It seems I was just lucky.”
Nathan shot a glare at the shield bearer. He seemed completely unconcerned by it.
The pressure in the air was mounting. It was pressing against Nathan’s skin now, and small cracks were forming in the stone beneath Emi’s feet. Her eyes had taken on an almost luminous quality.
The words spilled out of Nathan like diarrhea. “I get that you’re angry, Fliel, but do you really think this will end in any kind of positive outcome? No matter. Even if you win, it’s going to end in a lot of blood.”
Nathan was getting really tired of making that specific argument. But then again, there weren’t a lot of other ones that he could really think of off the top of his head.
Fliel ground his teeth together. “You’re so damned confident.”
“I’m just objectively stating the facts. I’m not on anybody’s side, here. I just want to avoid a disaster.”
Neither of them was backing down. Everybody was still tense, ready. The magical pressure radiating from Emi had become a steady thrum that made Nathan’s teeth ache. Whatever was about to happen, he needed to stop it now.
Fliel started to reach for his sword.
I need a show of force. Something to prove that I’m serious.
At that moment, Nathan held his hand up and muttered a few words under his breath.
“Basic Maelstrom.”
The skill flooded with energy, and he maneuvered it and manipulated it to create a vertical slice of storm, not more than about a foot or two in width—it was like a hurricane in the shape of a vertical disk. Nathan slammed his hand down, and the disk followed, slicing through the island and splitting it in half. The two sections of the island started to float away from each other, and Nathan let out a breath.
The sudden release of his own magic seemed to break whatever had been building around Emi. The shimmer faded, the pressure lifted, and she blinked as if coming out of a trance.
He glared at both parties.
“Have I made myself clear?”
On one side, the humans, the top humans of the apocalypse. On the other side, Emi, Fliel, and a handful of her guards.
But this time, neither were staring at each other with weapons drawn. Instead, they were now in the council room of Nathan's soulbound town, which he had offered as a neutral spot to discuss the terms of the treaty. Fliel had been worried, but Emi—in a rare moment of assertiveness—had glared at Fliel and said that Nathan would be neutral.
Nathan had wanted to speak to her about it, but she persistently ignored all his attempts to gesture at her or communicate with his eyes.
“One hell of a town you’ve got,” Arika said. “My place has a bunch of rock people, not mushroom people.”
“It’s all dwarves for me.” Grigor shrugged.
Nathan rubbed his chin. There would surely be room for discussing trade treaties later? If the stereotypes were true, each race would have different advantages that they could use to work together and reach the Ninth Circle.
“Can we cut to the chase? I believe we’re here to discuss compensation for the injury of our soldiers,” Fliel said.
Dr. Ada’s nose twitched. “That seems entirely provocative. I thought we were here to discuss the cessation of hostilities.”
“Same difference.”
Nathan rubbed his forehead. This was going to be the last time he ever intervened in this freaking peace-deal bullshit. This was incredibly stupid.
“I really don’t see why we’re even here,” Grigor said. “We both know that only one race is reaching the bottom, anyway. We’re wasting time.”
Fliel growled and reached for his sword on his hip. “Finally, someone with a lick of sense.”
Nathan banged the table before stopping both parties. “Why are we just assuming this?”
“You received the welcome message, the same as everyone else. The wording clearly implied that only one race would reach the bottom.”
Dr. Ada raised a hand. Nathan nodded at her.
“If I recall correctly,” Ada said, “it simply stated that we will compete with other races. It did not state what the stakes, rules, or objectives of this competition were. Indeed, it did not even imply that there would only be one winner.”
“It seems to me that you’re struggling with basic reading comprehension,” Fliel said.
Dr. Ada’s eyes flashed. “I have five PhDs, all of them from top universities. I’ve contributed dozens of scientific papers during my time as a scholar.”
“So this is the smartest the human race has to offer? Sad.”
Nathan ground his teeth together. This was not exactly a great situation. Dr. Ada had tried, but everyone else seemed fully unmovable—and Emi wasn’t doing anything!
“Fliel, we’re here to seek a resolution,” Nathan said. “May I remind you that you’re still outnumbered? I will, of course, attempt to defend you if they aggress first. But is that a risk you really want to take?”
Fliel coughed and turned his head, not answering.
“Nathan, dear,” Arika said. “Why are you protecting them? It seems like a rather odd thing for a human to do. Why do they trust you, anyway?”
“I knew Emi back on the First Circle. We’re friends.”
At that, Arika’s eyes narrowed before the expression disappeared, and she resumed her normal smirk.
“I see.”
Grigor stared at Nathan. Dr. Ada raised an eyebrow. It seemed each of them was somewhat suspicious. Not good for building trust.
“I’m beginning to think that the elf is correct.” Ada shut her eyes. “I doubt that a peaceful resolution is possible.”
Nathan’s fingers crackled. Maybe a little bit of lightning would calm things down?
“Don’t bother,” Arika stared at Nathan. “You do that, and this time we’re just going to attack.”
Nathan bristled. Dammit, he had to fix this! This was in his town; the damage could be enormous!
He was starting to regret agreeing to use this place as a neutral territory.
Nathan stood up. “Don’t you people remember who the bigger enemy is? It’s not each other, it’s not the elves or the humans. It’s this damn System! It’s this apocalypse! It’s the boss monsters we were all clearly gathered together to defeat!”
Dr. Ada paused. He could see his words rolling behind her eyes as she registered them.
Just as he thought it had succeeded, Fliel stood up. “We’re done here.”
Nathan’s jaw dropped. “What?”
“I made myself clear. During the boss battles, we may consider a temporary alliance. But outside of that, you and the human race are our enemy.”
Emi didn’t so much as look at Nathan before she stood up and walked away.
For a moment, Nathan had been worried that the rest of the human top ten would take advantage of his situation to attack him. But instead, perhaps out of respect, perhaps simply because they didn’t want to fight him on his own territory, they chose to leave peacefully. Chad, Mara, Bree, Gius, and Fuge joined him at the table for an update.
Nathan explained what happened and the circumstances. Everyone looked annoyed—though Gius and Fuge looked unsurprised.
“It was a long shot,” Gius said. “The stakes are too high, and the species difference is too big of a gap to overcome.”
Nathan sighed. “I guess this one was just outside of my expertise.”
“It was outside of anyone’s expertise. I doubt there was a person in the world who could’ve prevented such a fallout.”
“Why do you think he’s so hell-bent on a fight?” Chad shrugged. “Just seems kind of stupid to me. Like Nathan said, we’ve got bigger issues.”
“It’s hard to say,” Fuge said. “It could be that he has an ulterior motive. Perhaps this is simply a negotiation tactic. Or he truly, earnestly believes that only one race will get to reach the Ninth Circle. Either way, his motivations are irrelevant. What matters is the outcome and how we’re going to respond.”
Nathan rubbed his face as he tried to wrestle with his thoughts.
“I don’t see that much of an issue,” Mara said. “Yeah, it sucks and all, but it’s not like we have to be involved, right?”
“We’re going to need every scrap of strength and knowledge we can get to reach the final circle,” Fuge said. “Every circle we’ve gone down, the challenges have gotten worse, the battles have become more intense. What will be waiting for us at the bottom?”
Nathan knew exactly what was waiting for them at the bottom. And that’s why he needed the elves. They had something, some way that had allowed them to survive when it should’ve been impossible. But what was it?
He didn’t know, but until he found out what the elves could do, he needed them on his side.
“Emi is going to get caught up in the middle of all this,” he said.
Mara crossed her arms and pouted. “I tried to say hi, and she just ignored me.”
“We both know she’s under a lot of pressure,” Nathan said. “I’m sure if we could just get her alone, she’d have more to say.”
“Then we need to do that,” Chad shook his head. “We need to get an opportunity to speak with her, one-on-one.”
“So what’s going to be our policy going forward?” Bree said. “How are we going to handle this?”
Nathan thought back to what Gius had said about getting each of the humans on his side.
“Divide and conquer,” Nathan said. “We’re going to get every single person in this conflict under us. We convince them one at a time. That’s how we’re going to handle things.”
At that, everyone nodded and stepped out. As Nathan was walking away, Bree tapped him on his shoulder.
“Bree?” Nathan asked. “What’s going on?”
“Was Dr. Ada there?”
“Yeah, she was there.”
Bree’s eyes shot open wide as dinner plates. She gasped dramatically. “I’ll need to step out and talk to her! It’s been so long!”
“She’s looking forward to talking to you as well. You should see if you could hunt her down.” Nathan paused. “Right, you said she’s a researcher.”
“One of the best,” Bree said. “She managed to figure out a massive amount of information regarding the System and magic. We need her on our side.”
Nathan internally took note of the information. “We’ll try.”
Nathan was about to step out of the office when a sudden bout of wooziness hit him. It struck him that he hadn’t slept in probably days.
That’s definitely not healthy. I should probably get a quick nap.
Nathan wandered back over to his chair at the head of the table and sat down. He folded his arms on top of the table and rested his head on them. His consciousness rapidly faded away. He realized how tired he was. His thoughts slowed to a crawl, and he felt himself fall asleep.
“You finally accepted my gift! I thought you would never get around to doing it!”
Nathan’s eyes shot open.
Chapter Thirty-Eight
Nathan rubbed his eyes. Around him, the familiar scent of the salty sea flooded his nostrils. Waves beat against his legs and the surrounding shore. The sun shone brightly up above, not a cloud in the sky. Nathan, in spite of himself, found a grin starting on his face. Was she cryptic? Annoying? Yes. Had she also saved his goddamn life? Absolutely.
She smiled at him. “Nathan.”
“Thalassa, it’s been a while—”
“Intruder!” a shrill voice screamed. The ground shook. “Get out!”
Vines erupted out of the spot where Thalassa was standing. Before they could touch her, Thalassa vanished with a blue flicker and reappeared on the ocean.
Nathan jolted. Lily?! She was awake?!
The faint smile that Thalassa wore was replaced by a frown and a condescending head tilt upward. Out of the ground, the half-black, half-white chimeric rose poked out and seemed to almost stare at Thalassa.
Nathan’s eyes widened. “Lily, I thought you were dead.”
“Not dead, just… resting. But then I saw her!”
The last word reminded Nathan of the noise someone might make when spitting.
Thalassa clicked her tongue. “So she finally has awareness of what’s going on here? Took her long enough, the insufferable brat.”
“Who are you calling a brat? I’m going to use you as plant food!”
Roots streamed out of the ground and shot toward Thalassa like bullets. Thalassa simply flicked a finger up, and a wall of water intercepted them, sending them off to the sides. Lily was undeterred and shot forward twice as many roots, all coming from different directions. Thalassa slid her fingers from left to right, and the water wall intercepted them, crushing them and turning them into splinters.
She let out a little yawn and covered her mouth. “Was that supposed to do anything—?”
Her eyes shot open as she teleported right before a root appeared from under her—it must’ve grown all the way from the ocean floor directly into where she had been standing. Thalassa was now hovering in the air, a wide smile with teeth grinding together.
“I ought to use you as fertilizer.”
“Go ahead and try, useless blue-haired minx!”
Before things could get any worse, Nathan decided that it was probably time to intervene. He dashed forward and held his hands up in both directions, a droplet of sweat rolling down his forehead. “Hey, maybe we can settle this peacefully?”
If I had a nickel for every time I’ve had to do this freaking stance because of two ridiculously powerful groups of people trying to kill each other, I would have, like, four nickels.
“Nathan, she’s an intruder!” Lily said. “Stop being ridiculous. I was here before you were.”
Thalassa scoffed. “Your… father?—Master? whatever—possesses my divinity. You can’t tell me that you’re unable to sense it.”
Lily’s vines twitched back and forth, but she remained unable to respond.
“This is why I hate dealing with children,” Thalassa muttered.
“Don’t call me a child!”
Nathan shot a glare at Thalassa. “Can you not incite this, please?”
Thalassa let out a puff of air through her nostrils. “Fine. But tell the brat to keep it under control.”
Lily’s vines shrank away from the beach and back underneath the ground. “I know how to avoid causing trouble.”
“I would say that it was a pleasure to see you again, but I’d be lying to your face,” Nathan said.
He adjusted his position in the chair that Thalassa summoned. Off to his left, Lily was watching them with what he could only assume to be a baleful glare. Thalassa had summoned the chairs and table, stating that she needed to sit down after all that action.
“That was almost a disaster,” Nathan said.
“I don’t understand what’s happening, do you? You should’ve ripped her out long ago.” Thalassa shook her head. “You think that having another living being wrapped up inside of your soul like this—a divine being, much less—will be without consequences? This is in addition to the changes that are currently happening to your body, too. Your insides are a complete disaster.”
