One Hundred And Seventeen

One Hundred And Seventeen

After Shaeula and I cleared out the remainder of the foes, their coordination shattered, reduced to rushing at us blindly, I paused for breath, muscles burning. I had gained a level mopping up, as well as a decent amount of ether, which was split between refuelling me and sending it back to my Territory.

Still, perhaps the best gain was improving my combat senses... Fighting a number of foes with just my spear and physical abilities, I had grasped a few insights that I had been wrestling with, and my movements were smoother and more responsive. Of course, only a few of the remaining gnolls showed anything like true intelligence, the rest were mostly reactive...

Turning to Shaeula, who had stowed her pinwheels, the makeshift sack of bloody dirt that was tied around her shoulders making her look rather odd, I checked to see she was unharmed.

“Of course master. Such barking dogs are no threat to me-me.” She scoffed, and yes, it was true. Her pinwheels were devastating in open combat, the wires effortlessly cutting foes apart. Still, we had noticed some weaknesses that could be exploited against it. It was strong yes, but by no means perfect, though they were worries for another time...

“Shall we press on then?” I asked her, and she nodded. Moving further into the Territory a dark oppression spread over us, similar to what was occupying the Casino El Diablo. The winds around us shivered, fighting against the ill-fortune, which grew stronger with every step we took.

“I do not-not care much for this place.” Shaeula sniffed sourly. “I will not be sorry to see it gone.”

“Yeah, it’s pretty unpleasant. Still, it makes me curious. Is this some sort of feature of his Territory, or his own ability?” I looked around, and I couldn’t see any buildings of the sort my Territory possessed. They could be hidden within the Boundary-versions of the Material architecture that was mirrored here, but... I don’t think so. Something is definitely off here...

Several hyenas flanked us from one side, rushing at us mindlessly, but I didn’t even have time to react before Shaeula had dispatched them, winds gusting into sharp blades. Still, it was a lead...

“We should trace back their route.” I said, and she agreed, her eyes burning amber. As we followed a side street, another hyena raced at us. After spearing it, we turned in the direction it had come from, further into the malaise of ill-fortune that hung everywhere. After a few more minutes, we found our destination...

“What is that?” I asked, puzzled. There were several ... well, vortexes, for want of a better word, of silvery energies hovering around head-height in the air. As I watched, perplexed, ether was sucked into one of them, and out popped another hyena, seemingly generated from nothing. It saw us and reacted, but Shaeula swatted it like a fly.

So they are similar, but different... I tried to use my Territory appraisal skill, but since it wasn’t my Territory, of course nothing happened. Damn, useless again... Shaeula offered more help though, her mystic eyes once more proving perhaps her most useful asset.

“I see-see.” She said after a moment of study. “These rifts in the Boundary, they are very similar to your own buildings. This one...” she pointed at the swirling silver that had materialised the hyena. “... produces those soulless creatures. And that...” the second vortex. “... is almost identical, but-but there are subtle differences in how it should function.”

“I see, so like a Spawning Spire and a Barracks, you think?” I asked, picking up on her meaning. “We should test it, we have time.”

We waited, and after dispatching several more hyenas from the first vortex, out of the second a gnoll appeared, and this one reacted with intelligence, panicking as it saw us in the heart of its Territory. A second later and it was dissolving into a mist of ether, our speculation confirmed.

“So even if the form is different, the effects are the same, I see.” I nodded to myself. “It poses some interesting questions, but for now... might as well wreck them. That bastard that tried to kill me should suffer the consequences.”

We tried striking at the vortexes, damaging them as we would my buildings, but there was little effect. Switching to wind and flame we discovered that worked much better, and in short order they collapsed inwards, gushing out significant ether, although I was only able to liberate around half for my use. Still, it was a welcome few thousand.

Heading deeper in we found more of the vortexes, the majority of them spewing out creatures, though we did find a couple that drew in ether from the higher reaches of the Astral, similar to my Ether Spires. When we found these we destroyed them, siphoning off the ether, and my mood was improving rapidly, despite the cloying aura of unluckiness that was growing ever stronger, now powerful enough to offset my Fortune entirely. ‘Lucky’ for us that without any real opposition, it doesn’t matter how much misfortune we have, we won’t be stopped...

After destroying more of his Territory, Shaeula stopped me, pointing to the sky. “Look-look. That seems most fascinating. I believe we should investigate further.”

Together we started attacking the rift that was the Anchor for this Territory. It was much more resistant to damage than the others, but soon it was starting to shiver, rippling like mercury. “Keep attacking, we can do this!”

With a final surge of wind energies assailing it, the Anchor collapsed with a whine that seemed to pierce through my very soul. As it shattered the baleful aura emanating from it vanished, and the other rifts exploded into ether, a vast amount flooding me. This time I was able to recover most of it, the pull of the Territory dissolving like ice under sunlight. As I was flooded with tens of thousands of ether, funnelling it to my Territory, I also felt strength coursing through me.

You have gained in strength. Your level has increased from twenty-nine to thirty-two.

Three levels at once! And I had recently levelled up too! It seemed taking out Territories was very profitable. As I turned back to Shaeula I suddenly went blind, silver obscuring my vision, my right arm burning fiercely around my wrist where Exposition-san had gifted me the bracelet. I staggered and fell, landing in her arms as she caught me.

The silver melted away, forming a cascade of question-marks, and as Shaeula was asking me what was wrong some of them started to resolve themselves into legible writing, forming a single sentence.

You have gained a class. You are now a Conqueror.

In addition, my head was splitting, my arm blazing with phantom pain. For a moment I seemed to be connected to someone, no... two someone’s. I caught a brief glimpse of flaming red hair and golden eyes, in a face so beautiful as to be clearly artificial. It was then gone, and there was another, a flash of blue eyes, cold as winter. Then it too vanished, leaving me drained and aching, my chakra network throbbing. My lunar chakra was also working overtime, knives of pain that I hadn’t felt in quite some time returning.

Blinking away imaginary tears I patted Shaeula to assure her I was okay. “I just got a lot of strength at once, I think that overwhelmed me.” I said, shaking my head to clear the last of the silvery fog. “I got a class too, but... there was something else, a connection to something, or someone. It’s gone now, still...”

“When you fell I could see something, though it was a working of great subtlety and craft, beyond my eyes to unravel.” Shaeula said, helping me to my feet. “I am concerned though. It seemed connected to your chakra network, tangled deep-deep. I fear it might bode ill for you.”

“Well, we can look into it later.” I said in reply. “My head is a bit of a jumbled mess still. But we’ve achieved what we came for and then some. His Territory is ruined, he’ll have to rebuilt it from scratch.” If he even can, assuming that Aliyah and her group lets him free... “I just have to check my class details...”

The first thing I noticed was it was a fifty level class! I was at level two, so it would be a slog. But the description was... less than useful.

As one who has conquered the Territory of another, less worthy soul, you will slowly strengthen your ???????????? ??????????? ?????????????. Your ?????? increases, as does ??????????????. As you conquer more and more of the unworthy and solidify yourself as a true ??????????? you will find it easier to reclaim more ether from destroyed Territories, as well as have greater chances to extract ????????? ????????? and make it your own. Go forth and Conquer, your path to Astral Emperor is one of battle, and only the strong can stand against what is to come. ????????? ????????? ????????.

So many question marks! But that isn’t important... “Here’s a question for you, Shaeula.” I asked, and she perked up, ready to share her wisdom. “If we are trying to protect the world from outside threats, shouldn’t we be working together? What benefit would it be to pit us against each other? I don’t get the endgame Exposition-san is trying to set up here...”

Shaeula pondered, chewing on one finger adorably as she thought. After a while she shrugged. “Without knowing this Exposition-san, all I can surmise is... a small number of the powerful can defeat any number of the weak-weak. You could pit a thousand of us against the Queen of the Seelie, and she would turn us to ash with her noble lightning with nary a pause-pause. Still, I have to wonder...”

“Yes?” I asked, agreeing with her previous thoughts. It does make sense in that regard. After all, in stories, fodder enemies are quickly exterminated by heroes and villains alike, so I get it, but still, working together with Shaeula has made us both far stronger than merely killing each other ever could, so that can’t be all there is to it...

“There may be more to this we have not been made aware of-of. After all, you spent but a short time with this Exposition-san, and seeing the strange connection to your chakra network, which had hidden from even my eyes until now-now... I believe we should re-evaluate everything we know.”

Yeah, I have my own doubts certainly. But it’s hard to think right now...”We’ll put sorting everything we know on our to-do list. But for now... I’ve had enough. We did what we wanted, so let’s return...”

With that Shaeula and I returned from the Boundary, finding that Eri and Aiko were asleep, having tired themselves out talking. Checking the time I could see it was almost morning, so with that I headed to bed, hoping to grab a quick few hours of sleep to ease my discomfort...