Harvest, page 42
Filled with equal parts trepidation and determination, Aspen turned toward the curve in the narrow road ahead. “Then let’s go. We have a villain to slay.”
Akuji stood atop a small watchtower. The building was only two stories high, and it had been shoddily built from piled stone, rather than wood, since wood was a far scarcer commodity in these arid climes. A narrow stone staircase wound around the outside of what was essentially a rocky mound, and the lich lord had climbed up so that he could more easily see the results of his handiwork.
Zombies and animated skeletons milled around the base of the tower. They shuffled aside each time a newly summoned monster clambered from the gaping sinkhole. It looked like the army had attempted to simply fill the hole in using the stones knocked loose by the avalanche, but had quickly discovered that the hole was far too deep, and the stones too massive to move easily. The lingering traces of the attempt made it easy for even these uncoordinated undead to escape their charnel pit.
Honestly, while the shambling undead were dangerous in large numbers, Aspen knew that he, Khor, and presumably Motte had experience dealing with them. Once their limbs were severed, or their heads crushed, they weren’t much of a threat. It was the ghouls that made Aspen hesitate.
Ghouls rose from the bodies of those who had had greater than average power in life. Often, that meant they had been mages, and some trace of their former abilities usually lingered past death. While they were still as mindless as the simple zombies, they could follow more complex commands, and, more importantly, their touch could drain life points and skills just like a lich, though not as quickly. If they were able to grasp a victim for more than a few seconds, however, the depletion would begin, and it was rare for someone to escape without assistance.
::Motte and Khor, take the zombies and skeletons. Your axe and hooves will take them down the fastest. Khor, once the ones up here are gone, focus on keeping any more from coming out of that hole.:: Motte nodded, but Khor rolled back a lip from his square yellow teeth.
::I hate zombies. The gunk gets in my fur.::
Aspen gave the goat a flat look, and Khor huffed. ::Fine.::
::Rouge, is your Mambele holy?::
Rouge blinked. ::Um, I don’t know? I mean, my [Examine] skill isn’t that great, and no one else can touch it, so I haven’t had it appraised or anything. It is a gift from Gina, so, uh… maybe? Why do you ask?::
Aspen looked at the weapon she held, which glowed faintly in his Life Sense. He’d noticed the effect several times before, but had always been distracted by something trying to kill them before he had a chance to mention it. ::If it is, it should be able to do extra damage to the ghouls, and be able to hit any ghosts Akuji manages to summon. It’s worth a try.::
A broad grin stretched across the girl’s face. ::That would be so cool! I mean,:: her eyes went calculating, ::haven’t I used it on undead before? That Panginoon, for sure.::
Aspen nodded. ::You would have dealt more damage to those than an equivalent weapon without the Holy attribute, but it could be difficult to tell for certain. You’ll know as soon as you attack one of the ephemeral undead, though. A normal, non-silver weapon will pass through them or do negligible damage.::
Rouge flipped her weapon from hand to hand gleefully. ::This is gonna be epic.::
Aspen just shook his head. ::Don’t be overconfident. It’s not a certainty yet. If you can’t hit them, then focus on the more tangible enemies, and I’ll try to come up with something for the ghosts.::
He looked at Sumi, eyeing the scurrying patches of darkness on her body dubiously. ::Sumi…::
::I’ll bind the zombies and ghouls,:: the spider said firmly. ::Don’t worry about me.::
Finally, Aspen touched Silus’ soft back. ::I need you to be our eyes, Silus. Let us know where the enemy is, especially if one is coming up behind someone.::
Silus squeaked her understanding, small chest puffing out proudly. ::I can do it!::
Aspen turned toward their foe, gripping Stick firmly and rolling his shoulders in a vain attempt to release some tension. Just before he could take the first step into the open, Motte reached out and grasped his shoulder. “You don’t have to face him alone,” the big man rumbled softly.
Aspen looked around. “I’m not alone any more.” He grinned, feeling strangely light-hearted, and ran toward Akuji.
The lich lord saw them almost immediately. “I wondered when you’d come, Iorgas,” he called, raising his bony arms. The heavy folds of his tattered red velvet robe fell backwards, and moonlight turned the skeletal limbs to silver. As one, his summoned minions turned to face Aspen and his friends, then began stumbling forward. Motte and Khor moved to the front of the group.
“No, you didn’t,” Aspen returned mockingly. “You ran here, abandoning your army when you saw there was even a chance they could be defeated. As soon as you thought you were clear, you started building a new army. All to protect you, because you’re a coward, Akuji. You know that with your rock shattered, and having lost Chester’s soul, you’re finally vulnerable.”
Yellowed teeth clacked angrily, and Akuji opened his right hand. His enormous sword appeared in his palm, and he gripped it and raised it high. “I am wise, Iorgas. Only a fool chooses to face even possible doom. Yet here you are, again.”
Motte and Khor tore into the front lines of the enemy. Motte’s axe took the legs out from under swathes of zombies, while Khor’s lightning-quick hooves crushed bony skulls like balloons at the fair. Flickering, filmy shapes appeared in the air, and Rouge’s Mambele flashed out. The girl’s triumphant shout told Aspen his guess had been correct.
Akuji’s skull whipped around, the golden flame in his eye-sockets flaring as he watched one of his revenants vanish into the ether. Aspen cursed himself for not realizing that Rouge’s weapon was a threat to Akuji himself, as well. There was no way the lich lord would ignore someone who could injure him from a distance. As much as the lich hated Aspen, Rouge was now Akuji’s top priority.
As Aspen watched, Akuji’s long fingerbone raised to point directly at the Traveler girl. Instantly, every one of his undead spawn turned toward Rouge, who went a little pale, but then simply firmed her grip on Codswallop’s reins and bared her teeth at the oncoming multitude.
Motte, who was standing between the mob and his daughter, saw what was happening and pulled a massive Pavise shield from his inventory. His two-handed axe vanished as well, and he raised the shield in both hands, bringing it down so that its bottom edge buried itself in the soft earth. A brilliant flare rose from the shield, and Motte bellowed, his deep, powerful voice carrying over the entire killing field. Instantly, every one of the enemies refocused on him, and the horde took a few stumbling steps in his direction.
Akuji’s burning gaze flared, and he clenched his skeletal fist. His minions stopped, then split, attempting to circle around the warrior so that they could reach Rouge. Rouge, seeing that the taunt had failed, leaned forward over her ostrich’s fluffy back.
Time seemed to slow as Codswallop’s throat swelled hugely, and he released a booming sound that eclipsed Motte’s earlier bellow. The bird took two long steps, then launched himself into the air, his short wings spread wide, and Rouge raised her Mambele, obviously readying herself to attack Akuji directly.
Akuji flicked his hand almost nonchalantly, and wraiths formed from the air as though summoned from the Chaos Pool itself. The diaphanous creatures swirled around Rouge, wrapping her in a gossamer blanket that Aspen knew from experience was made of pure pain. The girl screamed, sounding surprised and frightened.
Everyone moved toward her at once. If the wraiths weren’t driven off her in the next few seconds, they would begin draining her. Not only would she be effectively eaten alive, but her torment would increase a hundredfold. Motte summoned a long, silver broadsword, which glowed with violet ether. It was clearly enchanted, but Aspen knew such weapons, while effective, would also be quickly worn down by the power of the wraiths.
Khor, suddenly left alone to face the zombies, lashed out with hooves and horns, flinging undead bodies everywhere. He would fall, soon enough, brought low by the sheer number of mindless foes he faced. Sumi spun her webs as quickly as she could, entangling legs and closing gaping maws with gobs of sticky fluid, but there was no way she could trap enough of them to save the goat.
High above, Silus saw what was happening, and dove, mouth wide as she used [Screech]. The disorienting attack wouldn’t work on the unintelligent zombies, but a few of the wraiths wavered, then turned their attention toward the little bat. They flew toward her descending form, and Aspen saw the tiny winged shape falter as the first wraith wrapped its insubstantial form around Silus.
Something inside Aspen snapped.
“GINA!” he shouted, and threw wide both his Life Sense and his Spirit Sense. Instantly, he was flooded with the horrible, almost viscous scum he’d felt each time he used his Spirit Sense on anything touched by Apofis. He choked, struggling to breathe through the clammy muck that seemed to fill his lungs. This was why he hadn’t wanted to use this power, though he knew it might let him ‘see’ the undead in some way.
Which it did, at least for those in which some spark of spirit still remained. The zombies were as empty as ever, but the wraiths, ghosts, and even Akuji, now that his soul was returned to him, were horribly apparent in this altered vision. His Life Sense was as blind to their undeath as ever, but to his Spirit Sense, their spirits were visible as leprous masses, dripping with foul contagion and putrefaction.
Aspen couldn’t force words from his throat, blocked as it was with bile and corruption, but he cried out mentally. [Winnow]! [Clarity]!
The fetid masses that monopolized his vision froze, and the weaker ones flickered, edges shifting from inky black to charcoal gray. The dimming cascade of ones and zeroes that represented Rouge was briefly visible through the leprous darkness that engulfed her. Motte was still moving toward her, his light like a beacon in the growing gloom.
At the edge of Aspen’s terrifying, sinister vision, the tiny, brilliant light that represented Silus flickered and vanished. Whether she was dead or merely fully engulfed by wraiths, Aspen couldn’t tell, and it barely mattered because one would become the other momentarily, and he couldn’t…
Aspen reached out to the life he knew was all around him. The darkness concealed it, but he had been in this place before, and he had touched a million, billion, minute spirits. He had urged them to safety as the sinkhole opened, and they knew him. They accepted him willingly, as one of their own.
Saplings bent and twisted, swelling into trees in an instant. Vines writhed and reached for the foul things that invaded their home. Worms, grubs, spores, seeds, beetles, lizards, even field mice and voles eagerly joined together. Plants of all kinds shot into tumescence, grasping and ripping at Aspen’s enemies, while all the tiny, forgotten lives took in the mana that flowed from Aspen like a raging flood breaking through a battered dam.
Light ate the darkness. The polluting clouds of evil were shredded by uncountable smaller sources of life, and Rouge’s bright column reappeared, slightly dimmer, but intact. To Aspen’s great relief, Silus, too, came into sight amidst the tatters of shadow, though her light was significantly dimmer, and flickered dangerously.
Aspen poured power into his tiny, precious child. She was not his blood, not even his species, but she was his to love, to protect, and yes, to someday let go, when she was ready, but that day was not today. Silus lit up like a small sun, blindingly brilliant, warm and clean.
There was only one source of darkness remaining. Aspen turned his bizarrely inverted gaze toward the lich lord. After losing his soul-gem and Chester, the monstrous form was strangely diminished, reduced to a hard core of obsidian so deep that not a single mote of light could touch it.
Rouge’s binary pillar moved toward that seed of darkness. The clear, pale glow of her Mambele left her hand. Dimly, Aspen wondered if he had somehow made Akuji’s rotten soul manifest, because Rouge’s odd, goddess-given weapon spun directly for it.
Weapon and soul met, and the soul shattered. Splinters of decaying corruption flew out in a spray of malignant shrapnel, but the cage of light that had formed from those small lives that answered Aspen’s silent cry for aid caught each one, subsuming it in a bioluminescent flood until it dissolved and was swept away, carrying Aspen with it.
Darkness defeated, the light rejoiced. Billions of small souls touched, danced, sang in delight. Aspen distantly felt the corners of his own mouth turn up, and he was inundated with alien delight and satisfaction. His perception filled with untold shades of colors he had never known existed, and, too exhausted to resist, even if he had wanted to, Aspen slipped into the cacophony of elation and was lost.
CHAPTER THIRTY-FOUR
ROUGE
Rouge called her Mambele back to her hand. As she watched the nasty, glowing ball of blight that apparently represented Akuji’s soul dissolve into dust, she felt almost suspended above the scene, as if she was watching and not participating. It was the most surreal experience she had ever had while playing Veritas Online, and she briefly wondered if killing the unkillable Lich Lord had broken something in the program.
Then she snapped back into full immersion, and was instantly overpowered by the smell of mold and rot mingled with the sweet scent of frangipani and coconut that had accompanied Aspen’s full-bore life attack. Her whole body hurt, and notifications of damage, as well as level ups and skill increases were still scrolling by in the corner of her vision, moving so quickly that the only thing she was sure of was that killing Akuji had pushed her up at least ten levels.
Rouge sent her Mambele back to her inventory almost on auto-pilot, then found herself toppling sideways, with the ground coming at her head with terrifying speed. Strong arms caught her as her feet slipped from her stirrups, and Motte’s rumbling bass reached her ears as her vision swam.
“It’s all right. I have you. Hang on, Zoe,” he murmured, and she distantly wondered if she’d logged out without noticing, because her dad never slipped up and used her real name in-game. Wally’s hard beak bumped her chest as Motte swung her limp body into his embrace, and the ostrich warbled in concern.
“S’okay, Wall,” she slurred. “Be fine inna minute.” Her eyes flickered closed, and then popped open again. “Silus?”
::Silus!::
::I’m, okay, I think,:: the blessedly-familiar voice replied a moment later, sounding as shocked and disoriented as Rouge felt. ::I was hurt, but I think Aspen healed me.:: The bat hesitated, and Rouge felt her small friend’s light weight settle onto her chest. ::Rouge? Aspen won’t talk to me, and he looks really strange. Is he okay?::
Rouge blinked hard, jerking around in her father’s grasp, trying to see what Silus meant. Motte sounded concerned as he said, “I’ll let you down, but hold onto me.”
Distractedly, Rouge nodded, and a moment later her feet hit the ground. She stumbled, and probably would have fallen, but she was firmly bracketed by Motte on one side and Codswallop on the other. Her fingers dove deep into warm, dusty feathers, while her right hand closed on the hard metal of Motte’s gauntlet. With their assistance, she managed to look behind her, where Aspen had been standing before every living thing in the area suddenly decided to grow at a pace she would have sworn was impossible.
Khor and Sumi were already standing near Aspen’s rigid form, and the towering goat, who stood at least half a foot taller than before, nuzzled Aspen’s hair with concern he was usually too curmudgeonly to display. Sumi was tapping at Aspen’s boot with her forelegs, and the arachnid’s jerky movements betrayed her worry to anyone who knew her.
“What’s… going on?” Rouge asked, her voice rough. She cleared her throat and tried again. “Aspen?”
Aspen’s eyes, now nearly as golden as Silus’, were still fixed on Akuji’s corpse. Reluctantly, Rouge turned to look at the macabre sight. Plants had sprung up all around the Lich Lord, and bloated vines wound through his bones as if his skeleton had been standing there for a hundred years. His skull leaned back, and a tangle of creepers protruded from his jaw. One side of his lower mandible had broken loose, and it dangled, resting on a cluster of blooming flowers that Rouge vaguely recognized as evening primrose, a night-blooming flower that grew around her yard in the real world.
One of Akuji’s dangling arms twitched, and for a terrible moment, Rouge thought the undead king hadn’t actually been defeated, in spite of the notifications that still glowed red on her interface. Then a green snake peeked out shyly at her from between the radius and ulna, and she shuddered and looked back toward Aspen.
As far as she could tell, he hadn’t moved, and she began to feel a twinge of apprehension. “Is he injured? I don’t see any blood.”
Motte gently transferred Rouge’s right hand to Codswallop’s side, and stepped around their motionless friend. His helmet vanished, and she could see that her dad’s expression was as disturbed as Rouge felt. “I don’t see anything,” he rumbled. He reached out and set a firm hand on Aspen’s shoulder. There was no reaction.
::He’s gone too deep.::
Sumi’s voice startled Rouge, and the girl looked down to see that the spider had dug a shallow hole in the ground beside Aspen’s foot. Something brown was visible in the small pit, and as Rouge watched, it shifted deeper into the soil.
“What is that?” Rouge knelt shakily, reaching out to touch the thing. It was rough and fibrous, and she realized it was some kind of root. Following it back up, she saw with rising horror that it had punched out of Aspen’s boot. The leather was splayed open, and other root tendrils were trying to emerge.
Rouge looked at Sumi. “What do you mean, he’s gone too deep?”
The spider shifted uncomfortably. ::When Gina accepted Aspen as her Champion, it affected us, too, since we are bonded to his soul. Gina gave us the choice of staying with him or leaving. When we decided to stay, she told us to watch over him, because there were some… risks, to what he was becoming.::
