Chapter 639: Erdania |
The True Plan
“Well, I didn’t expect them to be so…” Erdania trailed off as they watched the end of the fight between Anrosh and the Exalted Empire in the distance.
“Weak?” Ryun finished for her.
Erdania didn’t answer, but he could feel her agreement.
Ereclaw growled. “Why was I even trying to assassinate him if you could’ve just sent her to do it?”
Ryun shrugged and didn’t elaborate further, he simply started floating over toward where Anrosh was catching her breath. Erdania and Ereclaw followed close behind.
Anrosh had released her Evolved Form and turned back into her human one. The ground was frozen as was the air around her; small ice particles glistened like a mirror shattered into a thousand pieces, crackling and shattering with every second that passed, falling around her as she pulled back her power and the natural order slowly reasserted itself.
Erdania landed and stepped forward to put a hand on the other woman’s shoulder. “Good job,” she said.
Erdania raised an eyebrow, then glanced at Ryun and saw that he had a small smile on his face.
“My faith in you has always been absolute. That’s why you are my Herald.”
“I know,” Anrosh sighed and closed her eyes. “It’s just hard to know my limits when I’m always comparing myself to monsters like you.”
“You are a monster now too,” Erdania added jokingly.
“A little one perhaps,” Anrosh’s lips curved upward.
Erdania shook her head and turned to face Ryun fully. “What are we—”
Ryun tilted his head and Erdania frowned.
“You feel that?” Ryun asked.
Erdania focused on her senses. She still couldn’t fully reach Selia, whatever the Exalted Empire had used to shroud their perceptions and muffle them was still active, but there was something at the edge of her periphery.
“What is it?” Anrosh asked.
Ryun’s brow furrowed. “Give me a moment,” he said. Then she felt his Qi lance out of his being, in the distance several quick lances of the End Qi lashed out toward the ground. Immediately the wall that had been blocking their senses and connection vanished.
Selia’s voice spoke inside their Souls.
“Erdania! Ryun! You’re alright?”
“We are,” Erdania sent back. “The Herald of the Machine ambushed us, he’s dealt with.”
“The sect was attacked as well. They breached from the Ethereal, Zacharia and Nahamassa forewarned us, and came to help,” Selia sent. “We are hunting down the last remnants.”
Erdania relaxed as Selia’s words registered. Both of them being attacked at the same time, the strange interdiction that they hadn’t even noticed being put into place. The Empire had planned something.
Erdania turned to look at Ryun, his head turned up at the ruined sky, though his narrowed eyes weren’t looking at anything.
“Ryun?” She stepped next to him.
“Do you feel that?” He said both out loud and through their bond.
“What?” Selia asked, but then Ryun pushed his perception through the bond, and they felt it too.
“The world is screaming,” Ryun said softly.
Erdania could feel it through him, like a tearing in… in everything. A ripple that was slowly growing in intensity. She expanded her authority through the Essence around her, focused on it. Gravity, the Earth, everything around her that was solid and stalwart, she touched. And pushed herself into the Plane of her Axiom and found it to come easier than ever.
“That… What is that?” Selia asked through the bond.
“What is wrong?” Anrosh stepped next to Ereclaw, whose ears were twitching and nose wrinkling.
Unauthorized use: this story is on Amazon without permission from the author. Report any sightings.
“Something is happening,” Ryun both said and sent. “It is coming from farther east,” he said as closed his eyes.
“Ryun,” Erdania started. “Do you think..?”
He nodded, already knowing what she meant. “The attacks on us were a diversion. It feels like the boundaries are being attacked. Am I wrong?”
“You’re not, it feels the same way to me,” Selia sent over the bond, and Erdania could only agree. Her connection with her plane was definitely being impacted.
“Ryun,” Erdania said slowly. “If they are messing with something… their belief about the Framework, whatever they’re trying… It could be cataclysmic.”
“We’re going, now,” Ryun said suddenly.
He waved a hand, a gate split the air next to him, the entrance to his Territory. “Get inside, I’ll be able to move faster on my own.”
Erdania nodded and ushered confused Anrosh and Ereclaw in. Sensing the seriousness of what was happening, neither of them argued. Once they were inside, the gate closed instantly.
Through their bond, Erdania could tell that Ryun was blasting across the Core, swallowing up space before him, erasing it and moving at an incredible speed.
“What is it?” Anrosh asked.
“Something is wrong,” Erdania said slowly, she wasn’t sure exactly what it was but… “The boundaries between planes feel… weakened. As if something is attacking them, everywhere.”
“Attacking the planes?” Ereclaw asked.
“The boundaries,” Erdania answered.
Through their bond she heard Ryun speak with Selia.
“Inform and gather everyone you’re able. The amount of power required for something like this, for me to even be able to feel it from so far away… I fear that everything the Exalted Empire did from the start was just a distraction.”
“I already am,” Selia sent back. “How much time do you think we have?”
“It is growing in intensity with every passing moment, I fear we don’t have much longer. Zacharia is still there?”
“Close,” Selia answered.
“Tell him what’s happening, we’ll need him and Nahamassa.”
“Sit,” Erdania told Anrosh. “Rest, we’re going into battle soon.”
The woman nodded and did so, but kept her eyes on Erdania. “We need to send word to the Sect,” Anrosh said.
“Selia is on it.”
“Kri is on the front,” Anrosh said absentmindedly.
“I’m sure she’ll be fine.”
“You said that this is affecting everything,” Anrosh
Erdania didn’t answer, instead she turned to her bond.
“Will we get there in time?” She asked, feeling powerless for all the power she had. What did it matter if she wasn’t there to do anything? She cursed herself for not realizing sooner. The Exalted Empire’s assassinations, the war, their ambush, and the interdiction they placed around them to cut them off. They had been planning something for so long, and they still didn’t know what.
They didn’t know if the Empire was involved, but Erdania didn’t see any other culprit. Through Ryun, she could tell roughly the location of the source, and it was in the middle of the occupied Exalted Empire territory.
Their dogma, their belief that the Framework had robbed them of mastery over reality itself, it just fit too well for it to be anything or anyone but them. She had always wondered why they attacked, why they started the war. It seemed so out of character for them. They had been isolationists for hundreds of years. Them expanding in the wake of the Dome war made sense, even if they were somewhat antagonistic they had come and helped the Core to fight against the Taken and Dome monsters.
But they’ve done a shit job at consolidating and integrating their new territories into their Empire. They served as vassals, second-class citizens. In the years since the war they’ve gained some semblance of stability, but it never moved in the direction Erdania had expected.
Now, she had to wonder if it was all part of some other grand plan.
Her mussing was interrupted by Ryun’s voice in her head barely a few minutes later.
“Fuck,” Ryun sent. “Erdania, I need you,” he said as the gate out of his territory appeared.
“Stay here,” she told the others then Erdania stepped through.
She walked out into the Real Realm and felt as if she had been punched in her Soul. The effect on the world around her was far more pronounced here. They were high up in the air, looking at a massive half-sphere dome blazing with translucent blue power. A shield of some kind that looked like a Dome, except it was a hundred times greater in size. It spread across the world, swallowing up several territories if her estimate was correct.
She recognized the place; it was the Arrival Zone, though it was completely transformed. Inside the shield was an army. Fields of defensive embankments, turrets, empire’s machine weapons, soldiers. In the sky, four void ships orbited next to three floating islands that Erdania recognized. Millions of people, all surrounding what was in the center.
A massive ziggurat with a blinding light shining from its zenith. It was pulsing, and with every pulse she felt a force ripple out into the world, across the Real Realm and all other planes. Each pulse came faster; they were running out of time.
“I can’t get through the shield,” Ryun said. She felt his Authority and being pressing against it, and already there was movement within it as if they had detected them or his attempts at getting through.
She was surprised that he couldn’t get through. His power was incredibly destructive, capable of cutting through most things. But even as she thought that, her senses got a better idea of what was in front of them. She could feel the Reliability of the shield, the reinforcement on it was staggering. She had never felt anything as powerful as what she was sensing right now. She didn’t think that she could help him punch through. They might be able to do it, but it would not be quick.
“It’s reinforced,” Erdania said. “That… it feels like—”
“—Ra’azel,” Ryun spat. “He’s here.”
Erdania realized what the familiarity was, Runes.
“I need… Berion, or Maleatus,” Ryun said.
“I don’t know if we can find Mal in time,” Erdania said, he wasn’t one to stand still for long. The last time they saw him was years ago, and his plan was to explore beyond the domes, leveling up.
“Nahamassa is with me, she’s contacting Berion via Far-link Orb right now,” Selia interjected, they had been talking over their bond too.
“How many have you gathered?”
“All able warriors that are in Consequence and near enough. Karya will arrive within the hour.”
“No time,” Ryun said.
“Berion is on the way—and he’s here,” Selia said.
“Good, open my territory and get them all in, now, quick,” Ryun’s voice started.
“What are they doing?” Erdania asked, even though she could feel it. She couldn’t believe that anyone would ever even conceive of something like this. Whether it was meant to be destructive or not was beside the point. The amount of power before her was enough to break apart reality itself.
“Something stupid,” Ryun grimaced. “And something that they’ll not get to finish.”
Erdania nodded, agreeing. They had to stop this, no matter what.