Emerilia Box Set, page 114
part #1 of Emerilia Series
Dave grinned, making sure that he didn’t misstep and fall down the stairs.
“Swan dive into the best—” Steve was abruptly cut off as he slammed into the stairs, going down them as only a human five times their normal size, made of three tons of metal and trying to impersonate a winter sled could.
Dave made out a few swearwords as Steve continued to bounce and get airborne after hitting a sharper step.
Fighters got out of his way as he once again went airborne. His knees and armor shot out, slamming them into the ground. He left furrows in the floor and came to a stop, kneeling, with the bottom of his axe planted in the ground.
“Oh, that just looked badass!” Steve declared.
“Until you opened yer damned mouth!” Baldur, an orc giant, said.
“Screw you, Baldy!” Steve got to his feet.
“It’s Baldur, you tin can!”
“Is someone in a bad mood?” Steve said in mock worry. It reminded Dave of some coaches just before they told their team to get a hold of themselves and go win the damned game.
“There’s more dents and scratches than anything.” Dave shook his head and turned away from Steve as he reached the bottom of the stairs.
“Fuuuuck stairs,” Dave said. Anjold, who stood beside him, nodded in agreement.
“Looks like we’ll have to work on that,” Deia said.
“Ahh, well, if you’re the one running in front of me—definitely a better view than Steve’s rendition of the Griswold’s family Christmas,” Dave said.
“The what?” Deia frowned.
“Not important. We’ve got draugr to kill.” Dave hoped that changing the subject fast enough would get her to forget about the whole stairs training thing.
“Everyone else is the damned hammer and we’re the anvil. We will hold and we will make these undead pay for screwing with us and turning this city into their home!” Dwayne said.
The Stone Raiders yelled their agreement. The mages were now able to hit the undead army with everything they had, now that the melee fighters were out of the way.
They started to come down the sheer stairs, having as much of an issue as the Stone Raiders, many tripping and falling. Those with spears near where they landed put an end to whatever crashed down.
Deia’s spell was working, glowing an angry red as the draugrs let out pained noises. They were getting burned with every step they took.
The bone creations seemed to take a lesson from Steve as they largely fell on their asses and tumbled down the stairs. However, unlike him, they were heavily damaged from the fall.
The melee fighters fell on them quickly, taking out their Health before they could regain their feet. They were a fearsome enemy, something that no one wanted to have right next to them as they were just trying to take out the draugr mass that poured down into the area around the elevators.
Dave hacked off a draugr knight’s head, ignoring the helmet that the creature wore.
The Stone Raiders now worked with practiced efficiency, taking out large threats and anything that was in reach before they could become a real problem. They fell back as the falling creatures mounted. It wasn’t long until the creatures that hadn’t fallen down the stairs made it to the leveled-out area.
As Dave and the other Stone Raiders pulled back slowly, the first of the Aleph traps activated. Twenty or so creatures turned to icicles. Mages dropped lances on them, tearing their frozen bodies apart.
More of the traps went off, each of them freezing all of the creatures within its area into ice sculptures.
The Lich, seeing his remaining forces draining away, let out an angered cry. The undead draugrs started to rise, turning into the Lich’s skeleton warriors and bringing any dead Stone Raiders back to life before they could accept their fate and remove their bodies from the battlefield.
Bone creations crashed with the main lines.
Stealth types leapt from the top of the stairs with abandon, crashing into anything that wasn’t looking for them. Their weapons found purchase as the last hundred or so enemies appeared.
“Dave, do it!” Anjold yelled.
Power surged through Dave from his internal reserves and his armor. He pictured the creation in his mind: five parts, not including a secondary Magical Circuit. His eyes blazed with power, finding the Lich’s.
It screamed, a spell forming in its hands as if it realized something was about to happen. It was too late.
A circular unit of dull steel rested underneath the Lich. Four others, these ones looking like half-circles, snapped up around the Lich on all sides. A second circular device fell from the sky, but seemed to rest in mid-air as the Lich’s screams were cut off.
Dave focused on the last part. Runes formed all around the Lich.
The Lich threw attacks, but they stopped just feet away. The semicircles were Mana barriers—a little trick that Dave had come up with when making his armor.
The Lich slowed as the runes around it ignited with power. The Lich’s Willpower was drained from it as it powered its own prison.
The newly risen undead collapsed and bone creations wilted, shedding bones that they couldn’t control as magi were targeted and pulled apart.
Summoned creations added to the fray as Dave gathered up his weapons. They still had around thirty or so fighters left from the draugrs, all of them heavies to have survived so long.
Dave’s mind was foggy with the power he had expended. Fighting was based on reactions and following the hints. He played defensively, waiting for the heavies to make a mistake and capitalizing on it. Much smarter than charging in, especially when his timing was off.
Suddenly, buffs made him faster than ever before as the openings seemed to just appear before him. The melee fighters with full buffs moved through the draugrs like so many farmers come to harvest wheat.
Dave watched as a draugr knight let out a startled look as its Health hit zero. It dropped, showing a rogue panting as they looked around with wild eyes for another victim. Dave looked around with them, unconsciously covering the direction the other wasn’t looking at.
A draugr magi’s shield failed; three melee fighters planted weapons into the creature.
Only the Lich Lord remained, floating listlessly in its prison.
A yell rose from someone’s throat, a visceral thing. They had won! Dave’s voice added to theirs as he hoisted his sword. He shifted his weapons back to their original batons and hooked them to his belt. His arms were tired from the day’s fighting.
“Stone Raiders! Stone Raiders! STONE RAIDERS!” They all took up the chant, renewing their vows to the guild and to one another and basking in the glory of the moment, of what they had all come together and done.
“See to the wounded!” Josh bellowed out.
The Stone Raiders spread out. Healers came down to the first floor. Health potions were expensive, but they didn’t care, using it to numb one another’s pain or bring back someone from the edge.
Dave looked for the different statuses showing people who had been knocked out, stunned, or close to death. He used healing where he could and potions where people were close to death.
There had been just sixty-seven melee types fighting down on the first floor. Fourteen were still standing, another seven were saved through healing, five were close enough to just dying that the higher-leveled purpose healers could bring them back from death.
CPR worked in Emerilia; even the recent dead were given a Health potion to see whether it would do them any good. Three did make it back from the brink with their ministrations.
“Congratulations, you have cleared your first Aleph city. Go forth and repair the city’s systems in order to gain larger bonuses and aid for your forces. You have three hours of power left with current reserves. New missions have been added to your quest.” Shard’s voice rang through the tower before it disappeared.
“All right, Party Zero, you know how these things work. I need two more parties to aid them,” Josh said.
Slowly, but surely, other volunteers put their hands up. All of them wanted to relax and sit back.
The raid has only started. Dave grinned to himself.
***
Sato once again sat in front of his Mirror of Communication. Now, it was not just as a communications officer; it was as liaison to Emerilia. Dave’s information made it clear that there was a lot more that they could learn from the planet than just what the Jukal were up to.
Everyone watched the main screen, which relayed what Sato’s Mirror of Communication showed. A human male with glowing green eyes and a nondescript background answered the Mirror of Communication. He was larger than most humans, with a heavy build and pointed ears.
“Ah, you must be Mister Sato. Dave said that I might get a call from you in the future. Sorry, I am answering his calls as he is dealing with a task that I have given him.” The man looked to Sato.
“Who might you be?” Sato asked.
“I am Shard, I am the—as you would term it, AI of the Aleph people,” Shard said with a small, proud smile.
“The Aleph?” Sato asked.
“They are the race that created me. Dave showed me the information that he sent you. Are there any questions you might have? As he has showed, it might be best if we make sure that we are on the ‘same page,’ as one might say.”
“I am sorry, but we cannot share any information with parties that we do not know,” Sato said.
“Ahh, that inner paranoia.” Shard smiled wistfully. “You remind me a lot of my race. First of all, I guess to confirm and make sure that we are on the same page, I should tell you of how Emerilia was created and humanity grown to populate it. Dave and I do not believe that this alliance will be a short-lived one as there is much to get you up to date if you are indeed using the level of technology Dave saw last time. It is very exciting!” Shard’s smile grew.
Sato agreed, but he wasn’t willing to say anything. He didn’t need anyone to remind him what he should and shouldn’t say to people when using the communication mirrors. “Well, shall we start with the history of Emerilia and any items that you find interesting?”
“Certainly. I will also gift you access to a number of different systems, including the nanite software that allows one to quickly absorb information in various texts. It will take time to get you to a stage where we might be able to interact face-to-face,” Shard said.
“How might we be able to do that?” Sato asked.
“Well, the Aleph are masters of portals. There is nowhere that they cannot reach.” Shard smiled happily.
“Portals?” Sato kept the anxiety that he felt in his gut from spilling over into his features.
“How did you think Emerilia interacted with the aggressive species? There are portals that connect Emerilia to multiple worlds. Each one harbors creatures that wish nothing more than to destroy. Players are grown and trained over three years before these portals start opening and they start cutting down the populations of these aggressive species. The Aleph, interested in all things of information and technology, studied and learned. They became masters of teleportation magic and installations. They used the teachings of the portals to expand all of their knowledge and science, creating great underground cities completely cut off from the outside and prying eyes. Just like you, the Aleph’s cities and homes are a well-guarded secret. Even being inside one, a person would not know where they were on Emerilia.” Shard looked pleased with himself.
Sato had heard about the portals, but Alexanderi had never wanted to get close enough to them to check them out, saying that all manner of Demons and creatures came from them.
If they’ve figured out a way to reverse engineer that kind of technology, maybe Dave was right. If Emerilia is the birthplace of the Jukal Empire’s technology over the last few hundred years, we could get it right from the source. No cottage production to hinder us. We could ignite the factories and mass produce in a year what the Jukal Empire produces in five.
Sato remembered to keep his expression neutral; inside thoughts and ideas were sparking, thoughts of the future no longer hazy, half-cooked up dreams. He could start seeing a path, a possible future.
Chapter 25: First Step of Many
Josh looked at the simple black box that his people had found. “So, this is the phylactery?” Josh turned the thing around in his hand.
“Yes, sir. It looks like once the Lich was incapacitated, all of its wards and magical traps were deactivated. Our running theory is that due to it using soul energy to fight and sustain itself, when that energy was pulled from its body, then the other spells weakened,” Luke, the party leader who had found the box, said.
Josh looked down at the floating creature that bumped into the side of its Mana barrier prison, floating away. The Lich was still contained in the prison Dave had made, its energy fueling the tower.
“Very well. I’ll keep a hold of this. If that thing starts giving us any troubles, we’ll break this thing,” Josh said.
“Yes, sir.” Luke nodded.
“Now, go—get some food and rest. We’re going to be moving out to check out these new locations tomorrow.” Josh clapped the man on the shoulder.
“Why do I have the feeling that you’re going to send me and mine to go and find out if there’s anything lurking in those cities?” Luke drawled.
“Shit, I didn’t think that they had mind reading in Emerilia,” Josh said, trying to look thoughtful.
Luke snorted at Josh’s antics. “See you in the morning.”
Josh waved his good-bye and sat down on one of the food crates that they had brought with them. He accessed his interface and opened a channel to Dave. “Hey, how is it going?”
“We’re bringing one of the B class power stations online. It should be enough to get most of the systems we need to survive online. I think that we will be able to get the other power stations in the section of the city online as well. That damned tilt is a pain in the ass—some of the coal is just falling off the conveyor belt,” Dave muttered darkly.
“You said that this thing spins. How long until we can get that and start turning on systems in other parts? I really want to see these guardians in action.”
“I think it would be best if everyone was out of the city when we did that. It’s not uncommon that a few things will get free when starting or stopping the city’s rotation. It will probably take a day or two to get the city enough power stored up to start spinning.”
“Okay, I’ll plan to have everyone out on missions for then. Speaking of missions, I have a few for you and your party.” Josh manipulated his interface and opened a channel to Deia as well.
“So, for your mission tomorrow, it looks like we’ve got an experimental facility and a remote power station. I don’t know why they’re not in a city—makes me think of things that go boom. I’d like to have you all there, warning others to not touch a damned thing. I don’t want to blow up a damned facility by accident.” Josh sighed. He trusted and respected his fellow guildmates, but sometimes they didn’t do the smartest things.
“Okay, we’ve got it,” Deia said.
“Good. Once you have those power stations, get back here and get some sleep. Lucy will have rooms and all of that sorted out for you.”
“Steve, don’t touch that!” Dave yelled, cutting the channel.
“I’ll leave you to deal with that,” Josh said.
“Thanks,” Deia said dryly as she ended the voice chat.
Josh looked over the new information that had come with the quest now that they had taken control of the city.
Quest: Aleph Homecoming
You have returned control of an unknown Aleph City to the Aleph.
The more work you put into the city, the more resources and aid you can call upon in your quest to clear out the Aleph installations.
Return power to the city.
Start the City’s rotation cycle.
Activate automatons to repair the city.
Other locations have been made available to you. Based on the power you have returned to the city and your group’s skill level, you can travel to the following locations:
x3 Aleph Power Station (Increased power generation)
x2 Aleph Portal Factory (Ability to fix portals in different locations)
x5 Aleph Greenhouses (Access to Herbs and Food)
x4 Aleph Mining Facilities (Repairs continue at faster rate)
x2 Aleph Automatons Workshop (More automatons to assist you. Ability to improve automatons)
x1 Aleph College (Knowledge on the Aleph areas you will be entering and different systems to repair)
x13 Aleph Housing complex (Increases in all areas)
x5 Aleph Forges (Access to weapons, upgrades, and automatons to buy for your own use)
Rewards:???
“What you looking at?” Lucy drifted by on her floating carpet.
“Just, all of these different locations that we can go to. Makes me think that this is some kind of mini game, like those games where you collect resources and then you can have more troops, upgrade those troops and so on until you defeat your enemy,” Josh said.
“When you put it that way, it does look like that. So, what do you want to focus on first?”
“Power station, automaton workshop, and housing complex.” Josh looked to Lucy for her opinion.
She tapped her chin in thought. “I agree. We need more power and faster if we want to be able to get this city rotating. Once it’s spinning, then we can start up different systems here that will aid us. We don’t want to be doing all the repairing ourselves. With the possibility to improve the automatons’ abilities, it will mean that we spend less time on fixing things and will have more people capable of clearing different areas. The housing complexes give us boosts in all categories. I think after we’ve got one of each under control, we look to the mining facilities, forges, and colleges.”
“Why?” Josh asked, curious as to her reasoning.
“The mining facilities so that the Aleph do not run out of supplies. It would not be good if we get all of these power stations running only to find that there are no resources to feed them. We will also need materials to fix different areas, create more automatons and fuel the forges. We’re going to need the forges sooner or later because of the fighting. Our weapons and armor aren’t going to fix themselves. This is not going to be a short fight. The colleges could give us more information on the Aleph, allowing us to know how to fix their different installations or maybe helping us to become stronger as we fight.”
