Aether Knight: Godslayer: A LitRPG Light Novel, page 1
Aether Knight: Godslayer
A LitRPG Light Novel
Tracy Gregory
P.W Hillard Fiction
Copyright © 2021 P.W Hillard Fiction
All rights reserved
The characters and events portrayed in this book are fictitious. Any similarity to real persons, living or dead, is coincidental and not intended by the author.
No part of this book may be reproduced, or stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without express written permission of the publisher.
Contents
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
Chapter Nine
Chapter Ten
Chapter Eleven
Chapter Twelve
Chapter Thirteen
Chapter Fourteen
A message from the Author
Chapter One
The Coming Storm
Alex parried with his blade, his opponent’s sword sliding to the side, giving him the opening he needed. He lunged forward with his shield, swinging the top edge towards his adversary. She was ready for him, hopping backwards to avoid his strike. Alex stumbled forward, the force of the swing pulling him. He felt a thud at the back of his neck, the hilt of a katana slammed against him, and he fell to the floor.
“I was ready for it this time,” Casey said, offering her hand to her fallen friend. “You still telegraph your attacks too much.”
“I have no idea what that even means,” Alex said, taking her hand and standing to his feet. “I just do my attacks as they come to me.”
“That’s the problem. You’re thinking about what to do and it slows you down, lets your opponent know what you’re going to do. You need to be thinking ahead. When you parry my sword, you need to have already decided about how you’re going to exploit that opening so you can go right into it.”
Alex just nodded. This had been his life for the past week, practising fighting in one of the training rooms that occupied the floor below the guildhall. This was all still new to him, fighting other people, but since Alex had returned from his most recent expedition it had become a necessity. Around him, other knights were doing the same. The guild had put a stop to all outgoing expeditions and issued a recall notice to the knights at the western frontier, the issue to the north was considered a more pressing concern.
Word had gotten around the Towers about Alex and Casey’s discovery, and it was easy to understand why. Nestled in the relative safety of a mountain range and warded to keep the deadly machines known as machina out, the people of the Towers considered themselves the last bastion of civilisation in the aether lands. It was simply thought impossible that anyone could have survived out in the constantly shifting and changing landscape, one filled with ferocious mechanical monsters.
It had come as a shock then when not only had people been discovered, but that they had managed to tame the machina to an unheard-of degree. Those people seemed to consist of several different tribes, though the factions were working together to build up a significant army located in the canyons to the north of the Towers. It was this that was causing the concern. The tribespeople had proven to be actively hostile towards the Towers, considering the settlement a defilement of a sacred site. They seemed intent on retaking it in a holy war.
Alex had done his best to slow them down on discovering this, setting fire to the camp they had established. He had no idea how long he had set them back, but it needed to be for as long as possible. It would still be weeks before the bulk of the guild’s knights returned from the frontier. Dealing with the enormous creature they were hunting would have to wait for now.
The return from that fateful trip to the canyons was not an empty-handed one. Alex and his companions hadn't returned without a prize. They had a prisoner in tow, one who had been injured by a large and dangerous machina known as a clawtooth. The creature had a virulent poison, and the captured woman, a warrior known as Anaya, was still in a coma in the Tower’s hospital. Alex had a thousand questions to ask, though he realised there was probably a long line of more important people waiting to ask theirs first.
“Any idiot could have seen that move with the shield coming.” Sat at the side of the room was Erwin. A relatively recent addition to the guild, Erwin was also from Earth originally. Like Alex and Casey, he had been under the impression he was logging into a groundbreaking VR system and had climbed into the pod as eagerly as anyone else. He had been resistant at first to the idea that this wasn’t a game, that he had instead been transported across dimensions to another world. A vicious smack from a machina had knocked that idea out of his head, along with shattering the bones in his leg.
The cast was off now, despite it being barely a week since the breaking of the limb. As a consequence of their trip across realities, visitors from Earth had a host of unnatural abilities. Increased strength and stamina along with the ability to intuit information that was otherwise hidden from the residents of the aether lands. These abilities were presented to their beneficiaries in a way designed to preserve the illusion they were in a video game. It seemed rapid healing was another thing to add to the list.
“Oh, any idiot, huh?” Alex said. “Fancy coming to have a go then? See how you do?”
“Ah, I would, but my injury see.” Erwin tapped his leg. “Wouldn’t be a good idea to make it worse.”
“You’ve nearly healed a broken leg in a week. I’m sure you’ll be fine.”
“No, no. Doctors’ orders. I'm not to put any strain on it.”
“Convenient,” Alex said, sheathing his sword as he did. “You think if this army turns up tomorrow to invade, they’ll accept a doctor’s note?”
“That excuse does have a very trying to skip P.E energy to it,” Casey said. She was pointing her katana at Erwin and grinning madly. “So, you going to step up?”
“Maybe another time. I’m learning so much watching you two. Mainly what not to do.” Erwin stood up, using his vampire scythe as a crutch. The weapon was in its staff configuration, the blade folded down against its side. “Come on, let's go get some lunch.”
“I could eat,” Alex said. In truth, he had been hungry for a while but hadn't wanted to interrupt the training. Erwin's statement had given him a convenient out.
“Ok, fine, but I get to pick this time. After yesterday's travesty, you've lost your lunch picking privileges.”
“It wasn’t that bad.” Alex and Casey had an agreement with a local tavern owner. They provided ingredients found on their expeditions, and in return got free room and board. The aether contained in the food provided tangible enhancing benefits and Alex had become slightly obsessed with cataloguing them all. The night before he had convinced Esmerelda, the tavern owner, to let him try his hand in the kitchen. The resulting concoction was not pleasant.
“I'm not sure it was even cooked all the way through,” Erwin said. “It's bad enough there's no meat here.”
“Well, you won't have to eat that particular meal again. The buffs on it were pretty bad. I'll try to come up with something a bit more effective next time.”
“Please,” Casey said, starting to walk across the training room towards the exit, “please no next time.”
***
Cassius sighed, leaning against the makeshift battlement before him. He had hoped that his foray into the canyons would excuse him the rest of his time on guard duty, but on his return, he had been shuffled right back onto it. There was normally four assigned to the gate up the mountain pass, with two assigned to the gate that led down into the area known only as the infinite. With most of the higher-grade knights away on a mission, that left the Towers’ guard contingent woefully undermanned.
Guarding the pass wasn't a strenuous job. The hundreds of crystals dotted around the bases of the various towers kept the majority of machina away. This paradoxically meant that the duty was reserved for knights grade three and above, the only machina that dared come close were rarer and often more dangerous than the ones native to the plains and forest. For a while, there had been a monster trying the path about once a week, pushed out from their native habitat by a Deus, a larger and more dangerous kind of mechanical creature. With the one terrorising the area dead, things had returned to a more normal level.
That meant Cassius was bored.
His attention turned to the people working around him, dozens of tradesmen hammering away at a hundred different things. The potential threat of an oncoming army demanded that the Towers be protected from enemies who weren’t kept at bay by a few glowing crystals. Large rows of wooden spikes were being arranged around the entrance at the base of each tower whilst the doors themselves were being reinforced. Even the gate Cassius was standing on was being shored up with extra panelling at the front.
There had been some grumbling from the craftsmen. They were already being pushed to their limit repairing the damage to the walkways that connected the towers, the results of a battle against a flying Deus. Those repairs had been stopped for the time being. Enough of the walkways had been restored to allow some flow of traffic between the towers to resume, and the defences were considered more important.
There had been a vocal call amongst the ci
“Daydreaming will do you no good up there,” said a voice.
Cassius looked down to see Artemis. She had her arms crossed and was staring up at him. Strapped across her back was a dual bow, a weapon that Cassius knew Artemis was a devil with. Currently, it was in its bow form, capable of launching arrows as long as a person’s arm. Up close it could split in two, the sharp top half remaining attached to the bottom by the tough string and used as a bladed whip. It was a difficult weapon to use, but impressive if done right.
“I’ve got to do something to stave off the boredom.” Cassius stepped across to the ladder next to him and slid down it in one motion. “Gate duty feels like a punishment sometimes,” he said, dusting off his hands.
“Getting paid to stand around and do nothing? Nah, that’s a blessing if you ask me. I would rather this than having some beast trying to nip off my head. Speaking of which, I heard you offed a clawtooth the other week.”
“Not on my own. I had help.”
“Oh, right, from the two new recruits that keep impressing everyone.” Artemis knew what she was doing. News about the two new knights that had already gathered an impressive list of accomplishment had spread through the guild rapidly. Knights loved a good rumour as much as anyone did. “The one’s that killed that Deus.”
“That’s right.” Cassius sighed, this wasn’t the first time the conversation had drifted onto Alex and Casey. It seemed everyone wanted to know about them.
“That was really impressive. I was there, of course, working one of the cannons on Orix tower, but it’s not quite the same thing. Don’t get any accolades just supporting like that.” Artemis sounded slightly bitter. All knights had a streak of glory-seeking in them, it was one of the few sane reasons to hunt giant monsters. “Is it true? This thing about an army coming here?”
“It is. It doesn’t sit right, to fight other people. They’re pretty intent on taking the Towers though. Even if it feels wrong, I’ll fight to defend my home. I would think most of the knights think the same.”
“You heard the latest? Someone on the council proposed a civilian militia to help defend. An army of our own.”
Cassius shook his head. He hated the sound of that idea. “And who is going to equip them, train them, get them ready to fight? That enemy force is going to be here soon. We slowed them down but make no mistake this battle is happening pretty quickly. We don’t have time to get people ready. Besides, something about having armed soldiers in the Towers feels…wrong. Do you know what I mean?”
“I don’t see how it’s any different to having more knights personally,” Artemis said with a shrug.
“We’re hunters, not soldiers. There’s a world of difference there.”
“If you say so. It looks like we’ll be both soon anyway.” Artemis grabbed the ladder and put a foot onto the first rung. “You’ve even got a foot up there.” She tapped her foot on the ladder. “Get it, a foot up?”
“Yeah,” Cassius said starting to walk away from the gate. “I get it.”
***
“You’re late,” Casey said as Cassius took a seat at the table. Since the events at the canyons the knight and his cannon had been a welcome part of the small group. He had already agreed to go on expeditions with them on a more permanent basis once his time as a guard was over.
“Had to wait until my relief got in. You'll learn what it's like, once it's your turn to guard the gates.” Cassius picked up a spoon and dunked it into the warm stew that had been waiting for him.
“The defensive set up of this place is shocking,” Erwin said. He had already finished his meal, guzzling it like he had never eaten before. Splashes of stew had stained his plump cheeks.
“Oh yeah, you’ve got better ideas, have you?” Cassius found he got on well with Alex and Casey, a bond forged through having fought multiple close-run battles. He didn’t like Erwin at all though, he found the pudgy knight whiny and petulant.
“Well, maybe. It’s like in an isekai, right? We can use our knowledge from Earth to help here.”
“Oh right, this other world you say you come from?”
“Exactly.”
“So,” Alex said. “You know much about battles?”
“Well, no…” Erwin said.
“What about sieges? Logistics? Know anything about medicine or weapons?”
“Aqueducts,” Casey added. “That’s a good one. And roads. Anything about building really?”
“Electronics, physics, chemistry, any science at all. Unless you’re an expert, you probably don’t know enough to meaningfully teach anyone anything. Are you an expert in anything, Erwin?”
“Well, I mean, I’m quite good at engineering? Oh, and I know a lot about mecha anime.”
“Ok so if saving the towers needs intimate knowledge of Gurren Lagan, we’ll come to you, ok?” Alex said.
“I have no idea what any of you are on about,” Cassius said. “Frankly you all sound a bit mad. That’s pretty normal for you lot though.”
***
Horton watched the woman sleep. She was fascinating, a thing that should not be, a human being exposed to the aether for a long period without any adverse effects. The only difference between him and her was her eyes. A closer inspection had shown what Horton had suspected to be true. At some point, this woman's eyes had been plucked out and replaced by a set removed from a machina. The knights who had brought her in had been clear in their debriefing. This woman could see through them, which would imply that they had bonded with her nervous system in some capacity. Horton found it all very fascinating.
“You seem to be very interested in your new friend,” said a woman’s voice. A figure emerged from the doorway, a tall woman wearing a flowing black dress. She had hair to match, whilst her lips were ruby red, the rest of her makeup equally immaculate.
“Is there a reason you’re still here, Emilia?”
“Oh, the same reason as you I suspect. You ever play cards, Horton?”
“Not particularly.”
“Ah well, people say they take skill, that bluffing in the key. That's nonsense I've found. In reality, winning is simple, it just takes looking at everyone's cards,” Emilia said.
“Isn’t that cheating?”
“From a certain perspective, maybe. I just like to think of it as being prepared. This woman, these people, are an unknown card. One face down, metaphorically speaking. I don’t like it. It unsettles me.”
“And here I was thinking you were unflappable,” Horton said. “I understand what you mean though. This does beg a rather interesting question. If people have survived out there, in the aether, are there more of them? Are there more stable bubbles than the Towers and…where your employers are located.” Horton was being deliberately cagey with his words. He knew Emilia’s presence in the Towers and by extension her work with him was clandestine, something she was doing without her employer’s consent. Horton wasn’t stupid, he knew that the woman was helping him for her own gain.
“I think we can assume so. There is still so much of this place that is a mystery to us. It is rather fortunate then there is a ready-made army of willing volunteers eager to explore it.”
“I would think that they’re rather less willing now they can’t leave.”
“From what I can gather, you’re right. It’s a shame your attempt to move some of them here resulted in that little…accident.” There was a tone to Emilia’s voice, the kind a mother used when chastising a child. She didn’t believe for a moment that breaking the transit system was accidental.
“Yes. A shame,” Horton said. “Now if you would excuse me, Emilia, I have actual work to be doing. The guild won't run itself and I've got preparations to make. There's an army coming if you haven't heard.”
