It took almost half an hour to cross the rest of Valryis, not because of the distances involved but because of the obstacles. The Umber Trolls possessed tricks that Jonathan had never seen before, ones that were able to counter his Void manipulation, to an extent. Chief among them was the scrying light, but there were a few other, sometimes more annoying techniques. Because of the density of elementalists amongst the Umber Trolls with at least a modicum of control over the element of Earth, they could track invisible people by interfacing with the ground and detecting weight. This forced Jonathan to fly most of the way, but that also made him more of a target, as the guards assumed he was doing so.
The hovering eye never returned, but a host of other scrying devices were used in its place. Jonathan or his allies had been revealed multiple times by this point, frequently ending in violence as they fought their way free of the droves of guards and found safe places to reapply their invisibility. It was a harrowing experience, but it was softened somewhat by the fact that escape was only the touch of a token away, as long as they could disengage themselves from battle.
At times it seemed as if the entire city was out for their blood, Umber Trolls baying in abject fury at the mere thought of their realm once more being polluted by the presence of the Uthraki. Jonathan had had to prevent Arkanon from striking back multiple times. While he was confident that his party could prevail eventually, it would be a hard fought battle if they attempted to challenge the whole city. The Council was still an unknown element and likely far stronger than any of the guards.
Still, it was becoming more and more likely that this would end in bloodshed rather than resolution. Even Jonathan was losing hope that he could talk his way out of this. Perhaps the best case scenario would be intimidating the Council so much that they simply let Jonathan and his allies go on their way.
By the time he was nearing the palace, the long shadow it cast had already bathed the streets and alleyways in darkness. Explosions of flame briefly lit up the city as Umber Trolls fired blindly after the party, but none of them ever struck their targets. The trolls were unusually myopic for their level, presumably having started at a much lower baseline than other species. Trolls weren’t generally associated with sharp eyesight and the dim light of Tartarus could hardly be considered conducive to the development of such an attribute.
Then again, they were aiming at invisible targets and the fact that their attacks were coming anywhere close to where Jonathan ran was quite impressive. What wasn’t as impressive was that the defenders of an entire city were struggling to keep a few people at bay.
While not visible from further afield, there was an elevator-like platform directly underneath the palace, the only visible means of entry. A bubble of steel and glass extended from the underside of the floating island, right above the platform. Beneath it was a vast pit, only the platform and the palace above it. A thin bridge extended from the side of the pit to the platform. The other thing he noticed was a faintly shimmering forcefield surrounding the top part of the palace, but leaving the underside open.
At first glance, the whole structure seemed minimally defended. Initially Jonathan assumed that was because it was in the safest part of the city, the center, but as he neared the palace, it became obvious that there was more than met the eye.
Jonathan’s prodigious senses immediately locked onto a discrepancy that appeared as he got within a few miles of the base of the floating island. Everything was unnaturally silent. Even though there were still a few more blocks of houses and buildings before the city ended, nothing could be heard. As far as he could tell, there was no practical purpose to it. In fact, it could even be said that it was more of a security risk to have it there than not. Enemies could sneak up without alerting anyone to their presence.
Also on the same line of thought, Edgar spoke. “Why would they cut off sound in this area? What purpose could that possibly serve?”
For once, everyone was stumped.
The last few blocks slipped by and Jonathan made his way towards the pit. He wasn’t stupid enough to use the probably booby-trapped bridge or to try to fly across the gap without first testing the waters.
Turning to Edgar and Eliza, Jonathan laid out his plan. “The two of you have the least disruptive element among us. You can mimic natural airflow with it, meaning that any defences looking out for flashy magic will miss it. Can you scout out the area between here and the platform?”
The two mages opened their palms, narrowing their eyes as they concentrated. Tiny serpents of wind coiled around their fingers for a few moments before heading out into the world, flying across the gap. Almost immediately, one of them was sliced in half by an invisible blade and another burst apart in a flash of flame a moment later. In the brief moment of destruction Jonathan had caught a glimpse of a thread of elemental energy passing through the air constructs.
He narrowed his eyes, watching carefully as the other elemental constructs made their way towards the center. They were picked off one by one, more threads of elemental energy erasing them in an instant. There were three types as far as Jonathan could tell, a generic sharpened string that cut through anything coming its way, a superheated one that sent a pulse of heat through its targets and yellowish thread that compressed anything it touched.
The first was made from Metal attuned elemental energy while the latter were composed of Fire and Earth respectively. While the Metal based threads were more utilitarian in construction they were more dangerous because the fusion of elements making up the subtype lowered its weaknesses to other elements.
The last of the air constructs fell apart after making it about a third of a mile through, a far cry from reaching anywhere close to the platform.
“Huh,” Jonathan said, pursing his lips. “Maybe we will need to be a bit more forceful.”
Eliza and Edgar sent out another wave of elemental constructs, but these ones were both larger and more durable. They were more akin to gusts of wind than the earlier breezes. Within them was contained a secondary construct that would continue moving even if the outer one was destroyed.
The new generation of scouts slipped out over the abyss, following paths meant to avoid the fates of their predecessors. With the eidetic memory that a high Intelligence stat brought, both Edgar and Eliza were more than able to create a map of the traps left hovering over the pit. As a result the constructs made it far closer to the platform, but were ultimately stymied by an invisible force field surrounding it.
“I don’t think anything short of a full on assault is going to crack through that,” Eliza said. “Now that we have a route to the center we’re going to need to go there ourselves.”
“There you are,” a sibilant hiss came from all around the party. It was the first break in the unnatural silence blanketing the whole area. “You thought you could hide within my own domain? Foolish indeed.”
A light tinkling noise, not unlike the sound of a small bell, was the only warning for what was to come. The ambient volume went from below a whisper to heights beyond anything Jonathan had ever experienced. A wave of pure sonic force slammed into him from all sides. Muscles tore and bones fractured from the assault.
The others were forced to use various healing or fortification skills to survive, but Jonathan simply tanked the damage, instead focusing on pinpointing the origin of the attack. Cracks started to spread across the ground beneath his feet, even the tiny amount of sound not entirely directed at him enough to break rock with ease.
Jonathan focused, trying to trace back the noise to its source. It was hard for him to do so, given that he didn’t see sound as an element. In this instance it was most certainly being used like one, but he had no reference point to compare it to. Every type of elemental energy had a distinct flavor to it. Some were easier to detect than others, depending on what they were being used for. As a result, omnidirectional sound was extremely hard to trace back to a single source.
He eventually found an anomaly in the structure of the technique being used against him. A tiny shred of impurity, the element tainted by one of its components. As soon as he prodded at it, Jonathan unraveled the composition of the element of Sound. On second glance he realized that it could be more accurately described as the element of Vibration. Sound required air, but Vibration was a more universal concept.
Jonathan let out a bellow, a wave of Void energy blasting apart every last iota of hostile elemental power in the vicinity. Now that he knew what he was looking for, it was easy enough to slide his own element in between the gaps and dismantle the vibrations entirely.
“Who are you?” Jonathan called out. “How did you see through my cloak?”
“It was difficult at first,” the voice said. Jonathan tried once more to trace it back to a source, but it began to shift around, stymieing his efforts. “All I knew was that an anomalous number of traps were being triggered. As soon as I received word of intruders in the city, I made the connection. Your abilities are impressive, but it is impossible to truly suppress a fundamental concept of the universe. Now that I have a lock on your presence, your abilities cannot prevent me from hearing everything.”
“You must be a member of the Council of Valryis,” Jonathan inferred. “You’re strong enough to damage me with a casual attack, and what you said indicates you’re in the area.”
“And what of it? You will be dead in moments. Either from me or the elite guards descending from the palace at this very moment. I cannot use my full abilities at this distance, but rest assured that they are more than enough to kill you or at least incapacitate you for long enough for the guards to take care of me.”
“Well, shit,” Jonathan said. “It looks like you’ve gotten your wish, Arkanon. Let’s show them we mean business.”
Arkanon cracked his knuckles, grinning widely. Jonathan removed his void cloak from the other members of his party, before doing so for himself.
“You wanted a fight?” he shouted at the palace. “You got one! Wrath of the Void!”
Jonathan turned into a living pillar of raw power as his element and Divinity suffused his body. He clenched his fist so tightly that his bones creaked, and crouched down.
“What are you planning to do?” the mysterious voice asked. “Are you about to punch the palace? Who do you think you are?”
“A man,” Jonathan said, condensing vast quantities of the Void into his fist, “that should not be underestimated.”
With a sharp crack, he leapt from the ground, moving so quickly that the air itself ionized against his skin. He reached the forcefield surrounding the top of the palace in an instant, fist cocked back and ready to strike.
Jonathan took a moment at the top of his ascent to peer in at the palace complex behind the shield. It was truly immense, easily a dozen miles wide. There were roads and blocks of houses and barracks. It was like a tiny city, isolated from the larger settlement below. All of the buildings were made from reddish hued marble, though there were plenty of additions that gave each of them some character. Golden accents covered the main palace building and its spires were tiled with a dark blue rock that shimmered slightly in the light.
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He could feel dozens of powerful auras blazing within the central palace, their owners not bothering to hide their strength. Whether that was because of his arrival or because of their arrogance, Jonathan couldn’t tell.
His fist arced forth, every point of his Strength and Dexterity culminating in a strike so powerful that Jonathan’s entire body shuddered as he loosed it. A swirling cloud of elemental energy formed in an instant, sinking into his flesh.
Jonathan’s punch landed a split second later, thudding into the shield. A blade of concentrated Void energy shot out from the center of his fist, digging deep into the substance of the force field. That tiny imperfection allowed the kinetic power of his strike to penetrate the shield, cracks spreading out as if it were shattered glass.
With his other hand Jonathan forced his fingers into the crack and started to pull it apart, straining against the integrity of the shield. His own strength combined with the weakness his element had introduced weakened the shield to such an extent that he managed to break off a chunk, destabilizing the local part of the field.
Jonathan slid through before it could close, letting himself fall to the ground. The stone was somewhat slick, worn down over time by constant footfalls. He had broken the shield about a quarter of the way up its side, meaning that he ended up a good way into the complex.
As soon as his feet touched the ground, Jonathan felt a foreign presence clamp down on space around him. It felt like a massive, invisible hand, each of the fingers almost as long as he was tall. Jonathan grunted and with a quick flex, shattered the technique with ease. His eyes flickered around, searching for whoever was behind the attack. Jonathan didn’t see anything at first, but he slowly realized that wasn’t just because his unseen foe was good at hiding. There was nobody in sight as far as the eye could see. All of the streets were mysteriously empty.
“I am surprised that you broke through that shield so easily,” a voice came from behind Jonathan. He turned to see an Umber Troll striding out of what looked like thin air, sections of his body revealed bit by bit. He wore a dull orange robe, covered in layers of lavish golden embroidery. It was not an outfit for fighting, but the sheer bulk of its wearer made it imposing nonetheless. “The Valryan Bulwark has stood for millennia, warding off assassins, spies and even entire armies. But somehow you, a single man not even from this realm, broke it with ease.”
“Are you the person who was talking to me earlier? Whispering into my ear but too cowardly to fight me directly?” Jonathan asked, ignoring the implicit question. “Or are you behind whatever invisible field is keeping everyone hidden.”
The Umber Troll laughed. “Wrong on both counts. I am Zerad, Patriarch of Valryis and leader of its Council. You should not concern yourself with the actions of my compatriots on the Council. You came here for a fight and I am more than happy to fulfil your wish. It has been far too long since my glaive has tasted blood.”
Zerad held out his right hand, clenching his fist. As the muscles of his forearm bulged, a shimmer ran up and down the length of a polished wooden haft that had appeared in Zerad’s hand. He was left holding a curious weapon, a mix between a sword and a spear. The blade was curved like a sickle and over six feet long, as befit the stature of its wielder.
Jonathan scoffed. “Really? You want to duel me? I didn’t come here to waste time. I bet you’re just stalling so that your underlings can take out my allies.”
Zerad scowled. “Do not insult my honor. You may consort with the Uthraki, but that does not mean that I will break the rules of engagement just to kill them. I am confident in my ability to defeat you, so why should I care what they end up doing afterwards? You are their leader after all. It will be child’s play to defeat them if their commander is already out of the equation.”
Jonathan nodded, but remained suspicious. If worst came to worst, at least, Arkanon had an extra Tartarus token. He and the others could always escape if things got out of hand. It wasn’t like the Umber Trolls would know how to stop them. Besides, he didn’t need to take Zerad at his word. Jonathan extended his senses towards where his party waited, making sure that they weren’t in any immediate danger.
“Fine. I will fight you, if that’s what you really want,” Jonathan said slowly. “My only condition is that if I win, you let me and my party travel to the Rim.”
For the first time, Zerad appeared surprised by Jonathan’s words. He narrowed his eyes. “To the Rim? Why would you want to go there?”
“To train,” Jonathan said simply. “I have goals that extend far beyond this realm. The only thing I need from it is a way to level up, but I can’t do that because all of the monsters are hidden away beyond my reach.”
Zerad frowned. “I would assume that a person such as you, one who keeps the company of demons and shamelessly assaults my city, would be ecstatic at the proposition of slaughtering the Umber Trolls.”
Jonathan grimaced. “And I would assume that you are a brute only slightly less bloodthirsty than the rest of his people. Neither of us would agree with the other’s assessment, so how about we put the insults aside and fight? Power is the only truth that means anything in this world, is it not?.”
With a wry chuckle, Zerad initiated the battle. His glaive whipped around his body in a tight arc, streams of fire arcing out behind it. Within a second a towering tornado of flame had formed, the ruler of Valryis at its very center. Zerad sent his glaive shooting out from within the conflagration, its tip glowing white hot as it plunged through the fire and absorbed it into itself. The speed of the strike increased dramatically as it greedily consumed the heat, surprising Jonathan.
Jonathan sank into a stable but flexible stance, his hands blurring as he met the piercing blow with his palms. The glaive was burning hot to the touch, charring flesh even through Jonathan’s gauntlets. It ground to a halt before it could reach his body, however, clasped tightly between his palms.
Zerad blinked once, got over his surprise and wrenched his weapon back out of Jonathan’s grip. He peered at the blade for a moment, seemingly checking for damage. Upon seeing none, Zerad adopted a different approach. Realizing that Jonathan’s raw physical might matched his own, Zerad instead used his glaive as a conduit for his elementalism. He didn’t yet understand that he should have stuck with melee combat.
A white hot flame enveloped the tip of the glaive, so hot that the stone for dozens of yards in every direction not only melted but was vaporized entirely. Jonathan shielded himself hastily with his element, negating the heat before it could cook him alive in his armor. Then a glowing hand of purple energy formed in front of Zerad and reached out, dousing the fire with the ease of a person pinching out a candle. The Void construct flaked away into metaphysical ash, unable to maintain its form, but it had done its intended job.
“How?” Zerad asked. “What was that?”
Jonathan smirked. “That’s a secret. But if that’s the best you’ve got-”
The ground cracked beneath Zerad’s feet as he exploded into motion, pulsating veins of what seemed to be molten metal spreading beneath his robes and burning through. It seemed like a waste of the no doubt valuable garment, but Jonathan soon saw that the lines of metal perfectly matched those already on the robe. What he had previously thought to be golden thread was actual gold, cooled into shape.
More importantly, the technique amped Zerad’s speed to a new level, allowing him to compete with Jonathan. His glaive came hurtling down from above and as Jonathan prepared to strike at the ruler’s exposed midsection, two clones of Zerad’s weapon, crafted from fire, formed beside him. They closed in from both sides, cutting off Jonathan’s path towards his foe. He had a choice to make, either forcing his way ahead and tanking the damage or withdrawing.
He chose the former, thickening the Void energy already drifting around him into plates of armor. The flaming glaives struck the shields and warped, attempting to flow around Jonathan’s defences. Then the power of the Void kicked in and the fire petered out, all of its power negated.
Jonathan took a massive step forward, leaped up and punched. His fist landed on Zerad’s sternum with a sharp snap of breaking bones and the thump of gauntlet on flesh. The Umber Troll’s feet left the ground and Jonathan launched him back so quickly that an afterimage of the towering Troll was left where he had stood. He crashed into a barracks near the edge of the floating island, the rock shattering into a million pieces. Umber Troll guards, a bit confused, emerged from the wreckage like ants from a kicked anthill.
Zerad pushed his way through them, a scowl on his face. He slammed the butt of his glaive down and launched himself forwards, speeding back towards Jonathan. As he went the ground trembled and began to liquify. Great waves of lava raced down the street, following Zerad as he went.
Jonathan raised his fist and clenched it, not wanting to be outdone in terms of style. Three blades forged from his Minor Endfire skill, a fusion of Divinity and the Void, appeared. Each was nearly fifty feet long and as soon as they formed, Jonathan loosed them at Zerad. He didn’t hold back much, sensing power in the lava beyond its heat. It was thickly imbued with elemental energy, turning it from a liquid Jonathan could have bathed in comfortably into a promise of death, or at the very least, severe burns.
The lava upwellings coalesced into a single tidal wave of searing rock that formed in front of Zerad. It was meant to act as a shield, but Jonathan’s strike cut through like it wasn’t there. He heard a cry of pain and the sound of a large quantity of blood splattering against cooling rock, hissing like a serpent.
The lava wave collapsed, revealing Zerad’s beleaguered form. He had narrowly avoided his demise, angling his body to avoid the Endfire blades and countering them with his own skills, but they had still cut deep into his flesh before dissipating, nearly chopping him in half.
“You’ll die if this keeps going,” Jonathan declared. “Just let me and my party go to the Rim.”
“Never!” Zerad roared, clenching his fists. “I will defeat you!”
Jonathan sighed. “Fine. Looks like I’ll need to use your corpse to convince the other Council members to let me through.” His face hardened and he drew upon more of his Divinity, coating his fists in a layer of yet more Endfire. “Now tell me, how do you intend to do that?”
“Embrace of the Ur-Flame!” Zerad shouted, his voice booming across the floating island. His glaive lit up once more but the radiance of the flame quickly surpassed white heat and transformed into something Jonathan had never seen before. A flickering golden flame filled with barely discernible sigils of slightly hotter fire. Jonathan opened his mouth to speak but the heat of the Ur-Flame struck a moment after the light, so intense that Jonathan’s front side was flash fried in an instant, armor be damned.
Zerad closed the gap, the flame leaping from his glaive to his body. His flesh slowly started to melt but his speed increased many times over, nearly exceeding Jonathan’s own.
Jonathan was forced to actively engage Wrath of the Void, funneling massive quantities of Divinity into the skill to bolster his stats. He was unable to directly engage Zerad, every foot of distance the Umber Troll closed increasing the heat again and again. Zerad continued to accelerate and landed a hit on Jonathan that nearly seared a hole through his body. The entire street was in ruins at this point, a bubbling pool of lava and vapor.
Shimmers in the air indicated invisible Umber Trolls fleeing the battlefield, the sheer heat emanating from Zerad revealing their positions. Jonathan couldn’t spare any attention to them, however, needing all of his focus to deal with Zerad.
The Umber Troll was a troublesome opponent. His main ability was one Jonathan couldn’t easily overcome. His speed was useless because the Ur-Flame’s heat covered the whole area around Zerad and while he could easily damage Zerad with his attacks, that meant getting close. At that point it would be a question of whether Jonathan was willing to win a pyrrhic victory.
Instead he let loose with his element and mana, firing off beams of concentrated power to probe Zerad’s defences. There was no point in using his stronger abilities like Maw of the Void and Void’s Hunger if they wouldn’t reach their target.
Jonathan found himself in a curious position as his attacks fizzled out a few dozen feet away from Zerad, the heat of the Ur-Flame somehow destroying the Void itself. It was the same position his foes often found themselves in, Jonathan’s abilities nullifying their strikes with ease.
There was, however, one very important difference. Using the Void didn’t burn away Jonathan’s body as he fought. Zerad’s top layer of skin was almost gone now, revealing the muscle beneath. The very same mantle of energy allowing him to fight Jonathan was also draining his life at a rapid pace.
“You are the first person to force me into this state,” Zerad groaned, his voice filled with pain. “But there is one thing you should know. The more of my body the Ur-Flame burns, the stronger I become.”
Zerad snapped his fingers and his left hand vanished in a plume of flame and greasy, acrid smoke. Then he vanished a moment later, his speed beyond even Jonathan’s ability to track.
Jonathan had only a moment to defend himself with Aegis of the Void’s Dichotomy, but all that did was protect him from the ambient heat. It did nothing about the glaive whistling towards his neck.
