Chapter 11: Chapter 11

Now, are you surprised in the slightest that Maeve didn’t let me rest off my fight to the death with her mother—I didn’t think so—you already know how she is.

“You’re acting like I’m stupid?!” I exclaimed.

“Because you are.” Maeve replied.

Varin snickered but quickly hid it when I turned my head to her. “You can’t see it, but I’m glaring at you,” I turned back to Maeve. “The BOTH of you actually, but come on, I’m starving, can’t we eat first.”

Maeve stomped her foot against mine, wrapping her hand around my scarf, she pulled me face-to-face with her. “There are thirty-two outposts on this island, all of them infected with Mhetymorfs. Do you want another Great Calamity? We both remember what happened last time.”

I let out an exhausted sigh. “I lost an eye, I know…but I got it back!”

“That’s, no, it, never mind, just get ready we are leaving.”

“Ah, come on!”

Varin stood off to the side, watching as the two of us continued to argue back and forth when Alinanda came up behind her. 

“How do you know Zero?” She asked, taking a stand next to Varin.

“My mother hired him to bring me home, what about you?”

“He and I took down a Dungeon, rather, he took it down,” Alinanda laughed, looking down at the ground she kicked her feet. “After seeing you two teleport back here, I now see that he did the same thing to me, he teleported me out of that Dungeon and to safety.” She looked at Zero. “Always trying to save others isn’t he?” She looked at Varin and smiled. “Come now Princess, we need to get you to safety, there is lots to discuss.” She looked over at Zero and Maeve once more. “I think they’ll be awhile.”

*

“That good for nothing, foul, wretched, oooo, when I see him again, I’m gonna…argh…ouch…”

“Easy now Lady Nix, that wretched boy removed two of your arms and nearly your head, if Protos hadn’t intervened when he did you might have–.”

“Silence Fontaine.”

“Yes, Lady Nix.”

“You are the only Non-Original in this little coup, I suggest you watch your tongue and know your place.”

“Yes, Lady Nix.”

*

Alinanda and The MoonShadow Elves took Varin to the North, while Maeve and I began our outpost journey in the West. I hadn’t given it too much thought, but now that I have, Maeve is right—we need to take care of them. Nix has retreated for now, but without someone to guide them, the Mhetymorfs will run rampant after about a month—once a hive mind, always a hive mind.

“How much further?” I asked.

“Once we reach the top of the hill, we should be able to see it.”

“Got it.” I teleported to the top of the hill, grabbing Maeve along the way. “There, we’re here, now what?” She looked at me for a second, her face still shrouded by the shadow. “You’re about to tell me we have to be stealthy aren’t you? I asked.

Maeve nodded her head and then melted down into the shadow of a tree.

“You running away like that tells me they also use Anti-Magic Circles.”

Maeve’s head silently emerged from the tree’s shadow, she uncovered her eyes, their silver hue glaring at me—she sank back down into the dirt, submerging herself back inside the shadow.

“Anti-Magic and stealth, wonderful.” I summoned my staff, transmuting it into an ax. “Okay Vance, time to see why you were so keen on using these.” I placed my hand over the ax’s sapphire blue blade, ran my hand down to the brown leather hilt, and pulled—manifesting a duplicate of the weapon. 

I knelt and began accessing the situation—the outpost is about three hundred meters down the hill, then another fifty from the base and it’s surrounded by guards—a lot of them. It comes as no surprise that their army had amassed so many members, but I wasn’t expecting them to have taken over an entire island and if it wasn’t for the spell holding them to the island itself—they’d have torn through Arrithia long before this—this really is another Great Calamity waiting to happen.

I moved over to the left, grabbing onto a tree root to brace myself as I slid down the hill. I ran my hand on the ground, digging it into the soil to slow my descent enough for me to start running the last 150 meters. 

The outpost was in the center of a completely barren field. The trees had all been cut down to create the buildings and fortifications, while the soil had been drained of all its color from the constant walking and bonfires. The Dryads Guards were wearing some sort of leather armor over their chests, while their legs and arms were barren. 

Odd.

You could tell they were once Nymphs, at least the ones at this outpost. Their colorful skin had faded and been replaced with this weird colored fungus—it didn’t protrude from their body, it just replaced parts of their colorful skin with its yellowish colors—their eyes shared the same shades.

Those stationed at the front were equipped with spears, all seemingly made from the trees and vines of the forest and topped with  gorgeous red gemstones that had been sharpened into jagged heads. I was visible, but they didn't react to me, not even the slightest bit of attention turned my way. I don’t think they can see me from this far away, which means—I placed the axes back together, merging them into one before transmuting it into Kai’s Bow.

The golden aura shimmered for a moment, but still not drawing their gaze my way. I smirked as I lifted it into the air. “Y'all are making it too easy, I don’t even have to worry about your Anti-Magic Circles,” I lifted my free hand over the string, causing it to shift to a silver hue. I tapped my index finger against it and pulled back. The string stayed in place as I pulled back my hand, but an arrow began to draw itself from my fingertip, mounting itself in the nocking point, then pulling itself back to my finger. “Or being stealthy, win, win.”

 I released my finger, hurling the arrow forward. It traveled instantly to its target, sticking itself in the outer wall of their fortifications. The Dryads at the front turned their attention to it, some exchanging looks before one made its way over.

“Come on, grab it.” I stated.

It walked over and examined the arrow. It looked around slightly before pulling it out from the wood—activating its effect. The arrow exploded in a golden light, enveloping all of the outpost in a fiery blaze before sucking them into the fire and out of existence with itself—leaving nothing of the outpost apart from a few charred logs and small flames.

“And that is that, next.” I put away the bow and turned back to the hill to start walking up when Maeve punched me in the chest—knocking me to the ground.

“WHAT THE HELL WAS THAT?!” She yelled.

I’ll be honest, my heart sank and I could feel the color fade from my face beneath my mask. Maeve towered over me, using her power of the shadows to give herself a broadening stature that lingered over me. “Do you know what you have done?!” Her voice was raspy and dark and the bottom of her cloak was trying its best to wrap itself around my legs.

“Not…what-I-was…supposed…to…do?”

Maeve leaned forward, pulling her face in front of mine. “Correct.” She dropped the effects and fell back to her feet, still standing above me. “This isn’t just another battle, we can’t just violence our way through everything in life, I know it’s what you love, but we need to slow down, anything The Highers are involved in has a greater purpose and you have been at the center of their purpose for millions of years, now let’s–.”

“Billions.” 

“Huh?”

“Maeve,” I leaned up, knocking the mud and dirt from myself. “I’m not millions of years old like you, I’m billions…I’m a little over ten billion years old,” I looked down at the ground, trying to keep myself together. “I have lived more lifetimes and seen more of Arrithia than anyone can imagine, but I have never once seen beyond Ayce or The Ocean’s Wrath since I took this form, I have always been stuck here in The Outer Realms,” I lifted my head. “Things are different now though, I’m not going to make my way to The Burned Cosmos anymore.”

“You’ve been trying to get home for as long as I have known you, longer than I have been trying to kill my mother, what changed?”

“Protos.”

“The Higher of Time? The one who has been resetting you?”

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“Mhm, my stubbornness took this all as a challenge to get to The Burned Cosmos, I took it as a sign I still wasn’t strong enough, which is partly true but, it would seem th–.”

“You have to make your way through The Ocean’s Wrath, to The Great Beyond, you’re going to try and reunited Arrithia…aren’t you?”

“Uh, that could be part of it, I was going to make a crew of people from all the islands and then go fight The Highers with them by my side, but yeah, I like your idea better.”

Maeve shook her head and I could hear her stressfully exhale behind the shadows. “You are billions of years old and still the smartest dumb person I have ever met, you don’t learn,” She turned her head over to where the outpost once stood. “But you are efficient in the violence department and I–.” Maeve stopped, her gaze still focused on the charred ground in front of us. “Those arrows don’t make tunnels into the ground do they?”

“Can’t say they do, feel something?”

Maeve moved her hands out in front of her, opening her palms. She moved her arms to the side as she shifted her right foot forward drastically. I felt the pressure of her sonar hit my body and pass through me into the radius around us.

“There is a network of tunnels below us, they go everywhere under the island, at least for six hundred meters around us.”

“Think they connect to the other outposts?”

“I’d assume.”

“I’m going to check it. What weapon you think I should use? I was going to use Vance’s Axes, but I don’t know? Do you think the tunnels have Anti-Magic Circles too?”

“It would be something my mother would do.”

“Hmm, how wide are the tunnels?”

“I can’t tell exactly, but you could easily swing a short sword.”

“So no lances then, axes it is.” I pulled the bow back into existence and shifted it back into the ax—splitting it into two again. I looked over at Maeve, who had pulled out her own weapons. “Ah, Nix’s Daggers, love those things, can I get the properties of them some time so I can replicate them for my transmutation?”

Maeve turned her head slowly, dropping the shadow from her eyes—she wasn’t glaring, but her eyes were telling me no.

“They use the souls of the damned don’t they?”

Maeve nodded and pulled the shadow back over her face. “After we finish here, where do you plan to go next?”

“I don’t know, I assume it’s going to be a while until we can get Vol up and moving again, will probably have to send out search parties just in case anyone is still out there somewhere, hopefully, once we take down The Dryad Empire we can figure out what is draining the life of Vol.”

“Zero, the island is dead, there’s no saving it–.”

“It’s dying, not dead, trust me, we got this.” I gave her a thumbs-up and teleported down to the tunnel ahead of us.

*

Maeve emerged from some of the debris’ shadow and took a stand next to me. I looked down, sending a fireball inside just for it to dissipate from an Anti-Magic Circle before it could illuminate anything.

“Guess we see it ourselves.” I dropped down and was surprised to fall for so long.

The Anti-Magic Circle had more than likely been a Level 9, which means it flows through the tunnels—constantly pressing against you like a light breeze. I fell for another few seconds before being dropped into a large cave opening, surrounded by more tunnel entrances. I landed and looked up behind me, expecting Maeve to be close behind.

“Watcha looking at?”

“AHH, MAEVE, WHY?!”

Maeve had appeared behind me—scaring me is an understatement.

“How’d you get down here and why did you scare me like that, you know I’m sensitive to jump scares.”

“That is literally why I did, what do you mean?” She let out a small laugh and began looking at the tunnel entrances. “Besides, I used my shadows, didn’t you teleport down once you jumped in?”

I began rubbing my knees; “No…” I leaned back up. “I felt the Anti-Magic circle, I still feel it now, explain?”

Maeve turned back to me, pulling the entire shadow from her face as she gave me a look that was both disgusted and confused. “Magic takes Mana, does your teleport take Mana?”

“Well no, but those vines in the forest.”

“Are a MoonShadow’s ultimate trump card, they nullify everything, including abilities or natural talents like your teleport. Shadows are part of me, you can’t nullify them without killing me.”

“What those can’t do, they aren’t for killing.”

“Look at you, smarter every day.” She pulled the shadow over her face and began looking around again. “Some of them are false tunnels, but those that aren’t, they do connect to something, I can feel the temperature change in several of them.” She turned back to find me teleporting back and forth, stopping once I realized she was watching. 

“Sorry.”

She let out a very exhausted sigh. “Let’s just get moving, we have a lot of ground to cover.”

*

“Those memories you have been removing from him Fontaine, what have you been doing with them?”

“I can’t remove them, I can only suppress them with Level 10 Magic, he is only a Level 7, he will never be able to break them and by the time he can, well Master Protos, we will have killed him.”

“That’s if we still can by then.”

“Master Protos, do not be so hard on thyself, you are a Master of Time, a mere Demi could never.”

“Fontaine, Nix is stronger than I, and look what he did to her.”

“But her children Master Protos, they are stronger than her.”

“Nozarg and Diom?”

“Yes and the Demi girl.”

“Ah, yes…Maeve.”

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