Chapter 79—One Hell of a Story |
An hour after exiting the portal, Hiral and the others sat, lay, or slept around a pot of Nivian’s stew. The familiar scent—as much as Wule’s healing—soothed the injured group. Out of respect for what had happened, most of the Bonders had left, retreating down to one of the lower floors after Hiral and the others had thanked them for all their help.
Now, only Romin and Finotol sat with the rest, the Bonder-tank’s hand on his recovering companion. Wallop had come within an inch of death, only his incredible End and shared magic with Romin keeping him barely alive through it all. For his effort, Romin had taken on additional injuries. Wounds that bypassed all his armor, tankiness, and abilities. Despite the pain he was still in—his PIM an absolute mess—he sat with a smile, a miniaturized Wallop cuddled on his lap and snoring softly.
Aside from Romin and Wallop, though, all eyes from the raid group rested on one individual sitting as part of the inner circle. With her hood—for once—not covering her head, Gran happily slurped at Nivian’s stew.
Though, looking at her face, could they even still call her Gran?
Gone was the grey hair, replaced by a shining brown mixed with streaks of blond. Not a single wrinkle marred her oval face, and there was sparkle in her blue-and-red eyes that had been missing since Hiral had met the vampire.
Sitting in the circle with them wasn’t Gran, but Laseen.
Somehow, she’d regained her youth. Over six-thousand years of it.
“So,” Yanily said, voice still hoarse from where he’d had his throat crushed. “Are you going to explain how you went from having no head to having that head?”
“What?” Gran… Laseen said. “You don’t like the new me? Just wait until you see me in Seena’s bikini.”
“Are you dodging the question?” Seeyela said, sitting on the ground with her leg propped up. Yully had managed to get it back on, but she’d encouraged Seeyela to keep it raised, and to make sure she wiggled her toes for at least a day. The damage to the limb—and her PIM—had been a dozen times worse than anything that had ever happened to Devison.
Instead of answering, Gran—Laseen?—put her spoon down in her stew-bowl, then reached up with her free hand to rub her own cheek. “I’m wondering if I am going to wake up and find out it was just a dream,” she said. “Or, maybe I’m dead—again—and this is the afterlife.” She looked around at the party. “It’s not so bad, if it is. Better than I deserve.”
“You’re not dreaming or dead,” Hiral said. “Do you know how it happened? You saved me by diving in front of that punch, but I saw what happened to you. How are you…? And, what should we call you now? Are you Gran? Laseen?”
The vampire seemed to think about it for a moment before she finally spoke. “Laseen,” she said. “As for why, and what happened, the answer to both is the same.” She tapped the side of her head. “Fenil—Tomorrow—put something in my head. Said it was for when I was ready.”
“Getting almost killed got you ready?” Seena said.
“You’re one to talk,” Laseen said. “You, the boy, and knucklehead. I’m just trying to join the cool crowd.”
“Laseen…” Hiral said.
“Sorry, boy,” Laseen said. “Old habits of hiding behind sarcasm instead of facing my feelings. To answer your question, when I saw that fist coming for my face, I had regrets. Things I wished I’d done, instead of trying to forget who I was before. I was disappointed in myself for living as Gran, when you all would’ve accepted me as Laseen.
“I… wanted a do-over. What Tomorrow did—what she left activated inside of me—it gave me that chance.”
“Left activated?” Yanily asked, wheezing a little as he moved to get a bit more comfortable. All his bones were connected again, but his body—where it was visible between bandages—was an ugly black and blue.
“She is Blooded now,” Li’l Ur said.
“Thought you might have figured it out,” Laseen said.
“It is impressive,” Li’l Ur said. “And, how could I not sense the blood of the First running through your veins now?”
“Ur,” Seena said. “Mind explaining it so the rest of us can understand?”
“Of course, Mistress,” Li’l Ur said. “My apologies. Let me explain it like this. While I am the source of all Undead, I did not personally create each Undead. Instead, I created the first of each kind—let’s call them a matriarch or patriarch. As an example, Landbreaker was the first Death Knight, and he was responsible for creating more of his kind.
“Vampires are an interesting case, as I attempted something slightly different with them. To create a new vampire, there needs to be an exchange of blood. Blood from an existing vampire is given to a new would-be vampire during the bite, where they also take some of the target’s blood into themselves. This creates a link between them, allowing the vampirism to spread. But, it also keeps them connected.
“What most don’t know—even the vampires themselves—is that the blood being passed into each new vampire all comes from the same source. The first vampire. Her blood is in every vampire in existence. For most, it is nothing more than a silent passenger, spreading from carrier to carrier, connecting them all.
“For the rare few—like Laseen here—it becomes more than that. The blood awakens, turning the vampire into a Blooded vampire. With the awakening—which allowed her to survive the injury due to the timing—she can tap into a fraction of the power possessed by the first vampire. Her abilities will grow, as will her strength, as she comes to grips with what that means, though I am unsure how the addition of her PIM will influence things. I am most curious to see.”
“You’re stronger now?” Yanily said.
“Yes,” Laseen said. “Not strong enough to want a rematch with Laapdoug any time soon, though,” she added, cackling as usual.
“Speaking of which,” Nivian said, voice quiet. “We’ve given you time to get settled, and your minds calmer. When you came out of that portal…” the Death Knight trailed off. Beside him, a tired-looking Wule put a hand on his brother’s shoulder. It had been hard on everybody.
“We never expected to see you like that,” Wule said. “What happened in there?”
“We got our asses beat,” Laseen said. “And not in the fun, I’ll see you tomorrow night, kind of way.”
Wule narrowed his eyes at the woman who now looked younger than him. “I’m not sure what that means, and I somehow feel disappointed in myself that I don’t. What have I been missing?”
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“You’re as bad as Yanily and Bash,” Nivian said.
“No smash,” Bash said, sitting beside Yanily, and looked up at the spearman with sad eyes.
“I’m fine, little guy,” Yanily said, wincing as he put a hand on Bash’s head. “Or, I will be.”
“Before we get into it too far,” Hiral said, looking first to Nivian, then to Ilrolik. “You were both out here waiting for us when we exited. I didn’t check the records, but how quickly did you each clear the dungeon?”
Loan laughed. Ilrolik shook her head, and Nivian made an ‘Ah’ face.
“Hiral, my boy,” Loan said. “The confidence you have in us is flattering, if somewhat misplaced. We didn’t clear the dungeon.”
“We didn’t even get past the first Mid-Boss,” Nivian said.
“Neither did we,” Ilrolik said. “Within the first few seconds of engaging the trio, we knew we were out of our depth. Luckily for us, our skybikes stayed nearby, and we got off that airship before any of those Infested could hurt anybody too badly.”
“Same for us,” Nivian said. “Not too long after that—maybe an hour—the allied fleet dropped below fifty percent, and we were kicked out of the dungeon.”
“Going back to our airship to recover cost us,” Loan said, reading the question on Hiral’s face before he could ask it. “While we weren’t out fighting on our skybikes, our side took a pounding.”
“We got kicked out a few minutes before Nivian’s group,” Ilrolik said. “When we didn’t see you all come out soon after that…”
“Mix of worry and jealousy,” Loan laughed, looking at Wule.
“He uses his mouth to hide his feelings,” Nivian said, gently shoulder-bumping his brother. “He was as worried as anybody.”
“For good reason,” Wule said. “Hold on. You asked how long we took to clear it. Did you all actually beat the dungeon?”
“We did,” Hiral said. “Barely.”
“I’m impressed you even got past the first Mid-Bosses,” Loan said. “You going to tell us about it?”
“If you want to hear it…?” Hiral said. “But, I don’t think any of us should give the dungeon another serious attempt until we’re S-Rank ourselves. We can farm on the skybikes for experience…” he trailed off as Loan waved his hand.
“We know,” Loan said. “We figured the same thing. Tell us about the dungeon.”
“And how you survived,” Sera said, her voice low. She’d kept her distance from Hiral ever since he’d brought the rest of the party out, likely knowing how he’d react if she pushed too close. Now that everybody was alive—if not well—he could practically feel her wanting to come over and check on him.
“All… you,” Yanily said to Hiral.
“Well,” Hiral said, Seena pushing in closer against him. “You all know how it started, with the skybikes. As for how we dealt with the Mid-Bosses…” he continued, before going on to explain the rest of the dungeon. Right up to and including the betrayal by both Bellina and Admiral Benza.
“That’s… a lot,” Ilrolik said, her arms crossed in front of her as she absorbed the information. “From the first time we met her in Tomorrow’s Vigil, Bellina is the last person I would’ve expected to side with the—what did they call themselves?—the allied forces.”
“Who were they even allied with?” Loan said. “Did you see any Squalians, or Troblins or…?” he trailed off when he saw Laseen shaking her head.
“All humans,” the vampire said. “Like we have different races now—Growers, Makers, Bonders, etcetera—we had different nations in my time. Most of the time, we were peaceful, with trade and cold wars being the worst of it. Usually.
“When the Enemy and the Fallen showed up, our historical differences got put aside for an alliance to try and eke out a future. As you can see, it only kind of worked.” Laseen twirled her spoon around to indicate the state of the world.
“And then Admiral Benza,” Sera said. “Betraying you—or the group whose shoes you filled—at the end there too. It must have been planned from the beginning.”
“She thought we—they, whatever—were too dangerous,” Hiral said. “And, in a way, I can’t disagree with the assessment. We weren’t able to kill Laapdoug, and by the scene I saw after, neither were they, though they did capture him. Give them a bit more time, and maybe they could have been just as powerful.”
“In all the dungeons,” Seena said. “We worked with the Admiral’s side. We saved her, her husband, her son. Why would she think we’d—they’d—turn on them later.”
“For the same reason the Fallen did,” Sera said. “From what Hiral said, it wasn’t Heyu’s decision to imprison the group. The choice likely came from the councilmen, and as a good soldier, she was tasked with executing the orders.”
“She didn’t have to follow the orders,” Devison said. “She could’ve let them go.”
“I don’t think she could’ve,” Seeyela said. “Not even talking about how dangerous they could end up being later. Their plan—the exploding airships—it covered the entire city in that crystal dust. I don’t know how they activated it or whatever, but it was an all or nothing plan.
“They had all their airships loaded up with that stuff. They planned to have those ships get destroyed so they could secretly release the payloads on the city without raising suspicion.”
“It is… unlikely most of the soldiers on those ships knew that,” Sera said. “Which just goes to show how dedicated or desperate the leaders were to make this plan work.”
“With how much it cost them,” Wule said. “How could they think it was a good idea?”
“It might be somewhere in the middle,” Hiral said. “Like Seeyela said, they loaded up those airships with the crystal before they ever left for Visionary. But, that doesn’t mean they planned for them to get destroyed. They had to know some would be, and if things went really wrong, this was their plan-Z.”
“Do you think you could’ve won the fight without getting trapped in the crystal yourself?” Nivian asked. “Does that have to happen?”
“The dungeon let us back out after,” Hiral said. “And the scene I saw had the other group trapped. Differently than we were, but still trapped. My gut tells me we couldn’t kill Laapdoug, even if we were stronger, so the Boss fight is more about stalling him long enough for the crystal to seal him.”
“That’s good to know when we eventually fight him,” Nivian said. “Buying time is a very different tactic and goal than having to kill him.”
“Do you think the allied forces could’ve beaten the Fallen without resorting to something like that?” Drahn asked. “Without sacrificing so many of their own.”
“Seeing what we did,” Seena said. “They wouldn’t have been able to trap the Fallen without it. The allied fleet did okay when they were just fighting other airships, but as soon as the Fallen got involved…”
“A wave of Vorinal’s hand destroyed a dozen ships with one gesture,” Hiral said.
“And the Fallen you all fought,” Nivian said. “He was that powerful too?”
“More,” Hiral said. “When I fought Vorinal back in the Cradle, well, one, he wasn’t as strong. Still recovering, I guess. And two, he wasn’t a fighter. He had power—a lot of it—but he didn’t know how to use it. Not when it came to a brawl.
“Laapdoug, he was different. He was…”
“A warrior,” Yanily rasped out. “A weapon.”
“Exactly,” Hiral said, pointing at the spearman. “Laapdoug was a sharpened blade. Everything about him was honed toward combat. He had the same power as Vorinal, and he turned it all to the task of killing.”
“If he’d gotten away from us,” Seeyela said. “He would’ve wiped out Bellina and her little merry band. Then the allied forces. All without breaking a sweat.”
“And even with the Heart of the City buff on us instead of on them, we barely squeezed out a win,” Hiral said. “Doubling our current power didn’t make us equal to an artificial S-Rank.”
“Not even with that other thing you did,” Seena said to Hiral, which got a few questioning looks coming his way.
In response, Hiral reached up with his free hand and sketched a Rune of Restorationin the air, added a quick equation to it, then finished it with a Rune of Expansion. As soon as he finished, a pulse of energy went out, covering the whole group in a warm feeling. “I figured out another way I could be using my runes.”
“Like what you did in Trevallen?” Yully said. “I saw those kids flying around, and I just knew that had to be you.”
“Like that,” Hiral said. “And, same with how I got right of that orange energy.”
“All of that is one hell of a story,” Loan said. “Hearing what you all went through, it makes be a little bit embarrassed and a little bit happy we backed out of the first Mid-Boss fight.”
“Me too,” Ilrolik said.
“Which is why we should farm that skybike area for experience until we’re S-Rank,” Hiral said. “It’s relatively safe, and like you saw, you can always retreat to the airship if things start turning against you.”
“Good experience too,” Nivian said. “Then we clear this dungeon—all of us—and go after the guardians.”
“If we can’t handle The Final Sunrise,” Sera said. “We wouldn’t be strong enough to handle the guardians or what lays beyond the Black Gates.”
“Exactly,” Hiral said.
“That just leaves one really important thing,” Loan said, leaning forward to put his elbows on his knees. “Something you’ve been keeping from us the entire time.”
Hiral blinked at his old trainer. “Keeping from you? I don’t think I have…”
“Oh, you have,” Loan said. “Probably the best part. What did you get for clearing the dungeon? Loot and achievements!”
Hiral blinked again. With everything going on, he’d completely forgotten about them.
“Bout time you remembered,” Yanily rasped.