BT IV - Chapter 25

Micah’s spear flashed upward, blowing a hole in the luoca’s torso.  It blinked at him once in surprise before collapsing to the sand beside him.

He rolled to his feet, fighting through the wave of vertigo that washed over him.  Daemons raged across the abandoned village.  Half of the huts were burning and lay half destroyed as the nobles fought furiously amidst the flickering wreckage.  In the center of it all, mist rolled out of a rip in space created atop the spot where the greater daemon had fallen.

Over half of Adrian’s friends were down.  Only two luocas had come through the portal, one of which Micah had just destroyed, but that was one more than the nobles could handle.  They weren’t drunk anymore, but that didn’t make up for a lack of experience and weaponry.

Working together as a team, they probably could have just barely fended the bug daemons off without casualties.  That of course was assuming that there only were luocas on the battlefield rather than a dozen or so onkerts and brensens supporting the more powerful creatures.

Micah shook his head one last time to clear the cobwebs before taking off in a jog toward the still open portal.  With each step, he launched an air knife at a daemon.  His familiarity with the spell, and his spellcasting skill in general had reached the level where it could finally penetrate a luoca’s rigid exoskeleton.  As for the rest of the monsters?  It was like they were made of butter.

One after another they collapsed, fist sized holes appearing between their eyes.  The luoca ripped its attention away from where Adrian and three of the nobles were fighting it after one of Micah’s spells ripped a hole in its wing, only for the distraction to earn it another two or three stabs.

Micah cast Binding Vines as he closed the last 20 or so paces, guiding the huge roots with his mind to entrap the confused daemon.  The spell wouldn’t hold it forever, but with any luck it would keep the beast from killing his companions while he finished his work.

The daemon struggled, damaged wings flexing as it tried to free itself, but Micah ignored it.  He lashed out with a Pressure Spear, punching a hole through a brensen’s chest and sending the skeletal vulture stumbling backward as Micah gripped either edge of the portal.

He flexed muscles that didn’t exist in any physical way.  Major arcana left a pleasant tingling burn in his arms and hands as it resisted the corrosive mists, and after a second of straining, the gateway snapped shut, cutting off the connection between the remaining daemons and their energy source.

They thumped to the desert, their bodies dissolving as they fell, and only leaving behind impressions in the sand.  Micah turned back around, silently thanking his luck that he hadn’t woken up nearly as disoriented after his tussle with the greater daemon.  He didn’t know whether he had Dakkora or his own growing power to thank for that, but.

A quick glance confirmed that there weren’t any more nearby threats, and Micah called up his status.

Age 21 [ERROR] / 35

Class/Level Divine Candidate 58

XP 2,107,520/2,500,000

HP 11,214/11,214

Class Specialty

Chronomancer, Enchanter

Attributes

Body 63, Agility 63, Mind 127, Spirit 126

Attunement

Moon 110  Sun 70  Night 130

Mana

Moon 9,055/11,371 Sun 11,015/11,291 Night  10,720/11,411

Affinities

Time 10

Tier V - Foresight 20, Time Echos 3, Temporal Transfer 3, Haste 16
Tier VI - Temporal Vortex 14, Temporal Stutter 7, Stasis 6
Tier VII - Time Leash 7, Weave of Fate 5,

Tier VIII - Deja Vu 5

Wood 8

Tier I - Refresh 14, Mending 13, Plant Weave 21

Tier II - Augmented Mending 20, Root Spears 14

Tier III - Heal 13, Paralytic Sting 6, Explosive Thicket 13

Tier IV - Regeneration 13, Healing Wave 6, Poison Fog 15

Tier V - Panacea 8, Coma 6, False Life 3

Tier VI - Binding Vines 13, Infest 4

Air 7

Tier I - Gale 11, Air Knife 25, Air Supply 6
Tier II - Wind Shield 11, Sonic Bolt 18

Tier III - Updraft 5, Pressure Spear 16, Sonic Orb 14

Tier IV - Flight 14, Wind Blade 13

Tier V - Vacuum 6

Blessings

Mythic Blessing of Mursa - Blessed Return, Ageless Folio

Skills

Anatomy  10

Arcana   31

Major Arcana 17

Enchanting  36

Fishing   2
Herbalism  5

Librarian  5

Ritual Magic  40

Spear   41

-Wind Spear 13
-TITS  22

Spellcasting  53

Almost there.  Just a couple hundred thousand experience away from a third specialization.

“Micah!”  Adrian’s shout jolted him out of his contemplation.  “What in the name of the Sixteen was that?  Those abilities the forgotten were using put them above most blessed, and the daemons they summoned.”

The Baron shuddered, looking back over the destroyed village and piles of bodies.  His allies carried the injured back to their healer where the harried spellcaster tried his hardest to staunch their bleeding and fix the internal damage caused by their brief encounters with Elsewhere.

Micah reached down, picking up one of the glass rods the daemon had used to climb through the air.  Even after the monster had disappeared, its creations remained, and they thrummed with energy.  Vaguely, he could recall Dakkora’s experiments from hundreds of years ago with the substance.  The memories weren’t exactly his, so Micah couldn’t pick out fine details, but the rough results had been promising.  The ‘glass’ was incredibly hard, stronger than any steel or alloy that Dakkora had ever encountered, but that wasn’t its primary use.  It completely ignored the corrosive auras that surrounded the daemons meaning that it could be enchanted and turned into weapons that would give humans a fighting chance against the monstrosities.

He looked up at Adrian.  The noble was staring at him expectantly, like whatever Micah was going to say in response would fix everything and bring his dead companions back to life.  

“It was a greater daemon,” Micah replied. “There aren’t really many records of them, but I’ve fought one before.  Trying to use magic or enchanted weapons on them is like trying to drown a duck.  Theoretically, it’s possible, but in practice it’s more likely to create a mess and leave you exhausted than have any tangible result.”

“Then how do we beat them?”  The scout captain asked, his voice almost desperate.  “We could barely land hits on the regular daemons, but every spell or arrow fired at the big one, it was like putting sugar fluff in water.  They just disappeared.”

Micah tossed the glass cylinder to Adrian.  Despite his physical class, the Baron staggered back a step or two as he tried to accommodate its weight.

“Collect the glass,” he said, nodding in the direction of the open desert where hundreds of chunks of the magical substance glittered in the moonlight.  “We can use it against them.  Other than that?”

He shrugged helplessly

“I guess you just have to hope that I’m nearby.  I can fight the greater daemons outside of the physical world.  It’s risky, but if I win, they just disappear like that.”

“But,” Adrian began, fumbling for words as he glanced down at the arm-sized lump of glass in his arms.  “What happens if you lose?  What do we do then?”

Micah’s memory immediately jerked back to his internal battles with the daemons.  Breakfast in his mother’s kitchen while the monster leered down at him, and the discomforting scene in the brothel.  Hunger and lust, both directed at or around his friends and family.  Those were the tools that the greater daemons tried to use against him.

A shiver that had nothing to do with the brisk desert night ran through him.

“I think the game plan is that I should just not lose,” Micah replied.  “I can think of a couple different outcomes if I don’t win, and frankly, it’s probably for the best if we don’t dwell on them.  All of them are bad enough that contingency planning would be pointless.”

“But-” Adrian blubbered helplessly.

“I need to get back to the Princess,” Micah cut him off.  “The cult itself was one thing.  We’ve been hunting down converted across the country for over a month now, but the greater daemon?  That’s an escalation that she needs to know about.  I doubt the army is ready to tangle with Pereston yet, but I don’t know that we have a choice.  If they can just insert cults into our countryside and call up a swarm of greater daemons, forget about Sandrovok.  The entirety of Karell will probably fall before we can do anything about it.”

“O-okay,” Adrian responded, blowing out a shaky breath. “I think I can do that. Once we collect the glass and the wounded we’ll head back to the estate.”

“Good.”  Micah didn’t even look at him as he started walking toward the waiting carriages.  “Try to be quick.  The sooner we head back to the capital, the sooner we can talk with the Empress about our next steps, and at this stage, every day we delay could be costing lives.”

The rest of the night was a blur.  It only took a half hour for the Baron and his friends to load up the carriages and begin the drive back to the party.  Once they arrived, it only took another two hours to wrap things up and have the Silver Wolves pack for the road.  By the time the sun rose, Micah found himself in another, noticeably fancier, carriage alongside Trevor, Drekt, and Leeka.

Esther and Eris were somewhere else in the convoy with the rest of their team.  Ostensibly they had been split up as a matter of bonding and team-building, but in actuality, Micah didn’t want to trouble them.

“I need advice.”

His voice broke the monotony of straining horses and wheels on cobblestone, drawing Leeka, Trevor and Drekt’s gaze.

“Don’t sleep with blondes,” Trevor replied, “they’re more trouble than they’re worth, and more often than not they already have a husband.”

Micah glared at him.  Trevor was unrepentant while Drekt let out a long suffering sigh.

“On what do you need advice?”  The big man asked, shooting a disapproving glance at his husband.  “I’m assuming it is something important given that you asked the Princess to take her own carriage.”

“I need to make a decision about whether or not to trust someone,” Micah said with a sigh, finally tearing his gaze away from Trevor as he gave up on wrenching some sort of serious response from the man.  “In exploring my magic I’ve encountered an entity that claims it can help me.  I haven’t talked about it until now because, well, I’m talking to voices in my head and that makes me sounds little crazy-”

“Because it is a little crazy,” Trevor interjected helpfully.

Drekt silenced him with another glare, but Micah simply ignored his brother.  When he got into one of his moods, it was impossible to shame him into responsibility.  Either Trevor would decide to shape up and be helpful or he wouldn’t, there wasn’t much Micah could do to change the equation.

“But now the entity is asking me to lower my defenses,” he continued.  “It’s helped me in the past.  I genuinely don’t know if I would have been able to defeat the greater daemons without it intervening, but at the same time, I’ve only really interacted with it once.  Everything else is just guesswork and implication.”

“And you want to know whether or not to trust this thing?”  Drekt asked, his brow furrowing.

“Do you think it’s trustworthy?”  Leeka pressed before Micah could respond.  “I tend to go with my gut instinct, but I’ve never interacted with who or whatever this is.  I’d say you just pick your first instinct and rely on it.”

“The problem,” Micah began, talking slowly as he struggled to put words to his thoughts.  “Is that she absolutely isn’t trustworthy.  I know her because she’s me, but at the same time she’s the part of me that would say or do anything in order to achieve its goals.  She’s the part of me that turned my body toxic and poisoned half of Basil’s Cove in order to protect my family.”

“Then don’t trust her,” Trevor replied.  “None of us know this thing that you’re talking with, so if your initial response is that it- or she.  Hells, you haven’t even told us the gender or species of whatever this thing is.  How can the three of us let you know whether or not you should trust it?”

“She’s a woman,” Micah said, leaning back into the cushioned bench of the carriage as he looked up at the ceiling.  “Or she was a woman.”

“I agree with Trevor,” Leeka interjected.  “It seems that you’ve made up your mind.  I’m more than happy to help you sound this out, but ultimately the choice will be yours and based off of your instincts.  I often find that thinking things like this out too much ends with me twisting myself into knots without any real progress to show for it.”

Micah sighed, closing his eyes for a second before he responded.

“The problem is that I think I need her help.  She’s strong, and she says she has a way to make me stronger.  According to her, the ritual will benefit her as well, but at the same time-”

“If she’s lying to get you to lower your defenses, she would be lying about that too,” Drekt filled in the pregnant silence left as Micah trailed off.

“Exactly.”  Micah opened his eyes.  “Sometimes I can get these… flashes of insight about these sorts of things.  A gut feeling about what’s true or not true.  I got a couple during the conversation with her while I was fighting the greater daemon.  Her story about how she ended up where she was and what was happening, that was all true, but as for whether or not she was conspiring against me?”

He shrugged unhappily.

“I’m completely in the dark.”

“You’re strong enough Micah,” Leeka said, her voice firm and full of confidence.  “I’ve seen you fight and I’ve seen you plan.  She might be a shortcut to the power you want, but you don’t need her.  If you set your mind to it, I believe you can defeat this Baron Hurden guy.  You just need to hit a couple more dungeons along the way and you’ll be fine.”

“But that’s the thing,” he replied bleakly.  “I’m not strong enough.  I almost lost myself in both of the battles with the greater daemons.  They preyed on my connections with my friends and family to try and make me give in to my base emotions.  To make me lose sight of who I was so that they could consume me.”

“Her personality is stronger,” Micah continued.  “More focused.  Where I worry about family and the outcomes of my actions, she just acts on instinct, and in battles of the mind and spirit that gives her a huge advantage.  Right now, I have to struggle to defeat a greater daemon on my own.  There’s no way I’ll be able to fight the Third Prince.  It would tear my soul from my body before I could even react.”

“Then you just need to train,” Leeka cut in.  “I’ve seen how hard you work Micah.  If you push yourself, I’m sure you can gain 5-10 levels in the next 2 years.  Then, when Pereston finally crosses the mountains, you’ll be strong enough to defeat him.”

“If I had two years, I’m sure you would be right,” Micah replied with a weak smile.  “Unfortunately, I doubt we have that long.  It’s true that in the last timeline the Third Prince waited to consolidate its forces before attacking, but I’m not working in a vacuum.  It knows the past just as well as I do.  We’ve already seen major changes in the nobles it has corrupted as well as its tactics.  It would be foolish to assume it would follow the same patterns, especially with the power of the greater daemons.  I have fought 2 in the last 3 months.  I doubt those were the only cults capable of summoning the things.”

He sighed, slipping his hands behind his head and interlocking his fingers as the carriage bumped along.

“I haven’t been moving fast enough,” he said, staring off into empty space.  “I don’t trust Dakkora, but I can’t keep myself safe let alone the three of you and our family.  I feel like I’m backed into a corner right now, and I can’t help but wonder if that’s exactly what she wanted.”

“Dakkora?”  Drekt asked incredulously.  “As in Karin Dakkora?  The ritual magician that inspired a holy war that involved every Chosen to work together to kill her?  Surely you don’t trust her.  She’s almost as bad as the Third Prince itself.”

“Well,” Micah replied, still staring at the ceiling above his friend’s head.  “That’s the thing.  Apparently she’s me from a previous life.  The ritual she wants me to perform is supposed to strengthen my soul by merging it with her and a couple of other past lives.  I can’t say I’m thrilled about the prospect, but at the same time, if anyone can pull me out of this predicament, it’s her.”

“She’s going to take over your body,” Drekt muttered, shaking his head.  “You’re going to try and expand your power only to be turned into an ancient sorceress murder puppet.  Do not do this thing Micah.  It is foolish.  An obvious mistake.  You are smarter than this.”

“If she takes over my body,” Micah responded with a shrug, “we die, probably at her hand.  If I don’t perform the ritual, I just don’t see a path forward.  The Third Prince kills us and all life on Karell.  At least if Dakkora is in charge of my body, she’ll probably fight him to stop the end of the world.”

The carriage slipped into silence.  For almost half a minute no one said anything as they disgusted Micah’s words to the creak of wood and the rhythmic clopping of horse hooves.

Finally, Leeka spoke up.

“Gods that’s bleak.  Are we really in such dire straits?”

“I’m afraid so,” Micah replied.  “Unless someone can think of a way to delay Pereston’s invasion, I don’t think that I’ll be able to defeat the Third Prince without Dakkora’s help.”

“You said she’s you,” Trevor observed, his earlier joking tone long gone.  “Like, you and her are the same person, right?”

“More or less,” Micah agreed.  “When we talked I could feel all the worst parts of me resonating with her.  The self interest, impulsiveness, and desire to isolate myself entirely from society to focus on magic?  I… basically spent a loop as her.  Without friends or human connections.  It was really only Telivern and I- and well, I made mistakes.  A lot of mistakes.  I can see how she went down the path she did because I tried it and it horrified me.”

“So she’s you at your darkest and most selfish,” Trevor said, nodding slowly.  “Makes sense.  Then, you just have to ask yourself.  Would you trust yourself when you were in that spot?  Did you have a line that you just wouldn’t cross or was everything fair game?  Really, at the end of the day, it’s about you. Just ask yourself.  Do you trust her?  Do you trust you.”