Infinite Realm: Monsters & Legends

Arrival

The mountain range that made up the eastern border of the Empire was vast. It stretched to the sky, so far that Zach couldn’t even see the top among the clouds. Jagged cliffs, and black stone made up most of it. And it stretched both north and south, so far that there seemed to not even be an end. It was a wall blocking the entire western side of the horizon. He had never seen mountains this big, in every sense of the word. They gave off a feeling of an oppressive weight, of danger.

They made their way up, following a path that obviously hadn’t been used often. The forests at the bottom of the mountains quickly gave way to a rocky landscape with a few bushes here and there, and the climb became steeper and more deadly. It took them two weeks to get pass the first mountain, and enter the range proper, and from there two more weeks until they traversed through the winding paths and deadly cliffs.

The Empire’s group guided them through the perilous mountains, occasionally slowing down to avoid monsters, but more often than not just keeping them going forward. They had seen no sign of the dome monsters, and other monsters in the mountains seemed to be avoiding them.

Eratemus suggested that they were smart enough to know how dangerous their group was.

In the end, they hadn’t had any issues as they passed through the mountains. Zach wondered how much of that was luck, and how much of it was the undead that had been disappearing from time to time. Ryun and Eratemus could probably detect any monster long before they threaten them.

“We are nearly at the border,” the Knight Commander said.

Vryull tilted his head at him. “It is my understanding that your Empire is vast. How long will it take for us to reach our ultimate destination?”

The Knight Commander looked pensive, as if he wasn’t sure if he was supposed to answer. “We will be going to the capital,” he said finally. “It will be another couple of weeks long trip.”

Zach wondered how close the capital was to the border, a few weeks was not a long time to cross a lot of ground.

“We should move,” the Knight Commander said, making it clear that he wouldn’t be sharing any more.

The tense silence persisted until they started moving again. There wasn’t much time for talking while walking, their pace was slow, the terrain difficult. The skeletons carrying Eratemus’s container were probably the worst off, but they of course couldn’t complain. It was honestly impressive seeing them haul it across the side of a mountain. Zach wasn’t sure how powerful they were, but it was obvious that they were not the weak undead that Zach imagined in his head.

Then, about half a day of walk later, they reached their destination. Or at least they could see it in the distance.

Everyone from the core group was stunned, at the sight before them. It was… there were few words that could explain it. They were on an incline, heading down a mountain into a small valley surrounded by four other mountains. The valley was filled with a lush blue forest, but as impressive as it was it paled in comparison to what stood above it. Two mountains touched, creating a V shape half-way their height. And there, in the middle, connecting both mountains; was a wall, a fortress.

It was more magnificent than anything else he had ever seen before. Zach had walked through the Citadel, had seen the city in the mountain Dal’dvor. The grand architecture of the Core, it paled in comparison.

The massive sandstone colored wall gleamed in the distance. It had to be several kilometers long, with massive towers stood across its length, with domed roofs on top and massive turrets peeking out of them. The two sides of the mountains had a fortress each turned toward the one across from it. Wide bridges connected them, above the wall beneath them. Tall towers rose from them, each capped with a crystal the size of buildings—at least that was what Zach thought, since he could see them from so far away. It was a city in between the two mountains. As defensible as anything he had ever seen before.

They walked through the valley, and then started the incline up toward the wall. As they approached, it only loomed larger in his vision. The grandest structure that he had ever seen before. A massive gate filled the center of the wall, all smooth metal with glowing lines that looked as if they were beneath the surface of it.

“Welcome to the Eastern Gate,” the Knight Commander said.

The name was simple, yet it somehow fit. An eastern gate of a kingdom, of an Empire.

He led them to the gate, a small orb in his hand. Zach saw people on the walls above them, an army. They seemed ready for a war. Zach wondered if they were expecting the dome monsters to try and get through. Though he doubted that any army in the world could take this pass. The walls were at least a hundred meters tall, all smooth yellow stone that reflected the sun.

As they got close, the smaller gate at the bottom of the large one opened. Six people wearing the same armor, black with yellow shrouds, waited for them at attention. They saluted the Knight Commander, then parted to allow them in.

Zach walked through and was met with a city built on the side of the mountain. Long terraces lined the sides beneath the forts. It was beautiful and terrible at the same time. Yellow walls and brown paved roads coiled around the pass, and everywhere he looked Zach saw choke points. It was a beautiful deathtrap built into the side of a mountain. Whoever designed it expected a war to be fought here.

Most of those around wore armor, and those few who didn’t, wore clothing in the same colors as the soldiers, Black and yellow. Banners billowed in the wind, a yellow tower on a field of black.

Airships docked with the terraces, and other were in the process of departing. Each airship looked as if it was made for war. They had a deck, with some kind of weaponry attached at the sides, and an armored portion in the middle. He couldn’t even tell how they stayed in the air.

Zach wondered how they built it. He knew that people with specific high tiered classes or skills could do amazing things, but this seemed even beyond that. It was as if every part of the fortifications was made out of the same piece of stone. As if it was carved out of it. Obviously it was not, the yellow stone did not seem native to these mountains.

“This is a wonder,” Naha whispered.

Zach glanced to the left where she stood, looking at everything with a look of awe in her eyes.

“It is,” Eratemus added, surprising Zach. He had assumed that he would’ve seen things just as impressive in the Core.

Naha noticed his expression, and obviously understood what he was thinking. “There is nothing like this in the Core,” she said.

“Really?” Zach asked.

Naha nodded. “This is a fortress, an entire pass walled off. It… the Core has little need for things like this, the geography isn’t right in the first place. Territories could be circled around. Kingdoms build defensible cities, but they are not this. The sects don’t care to make such grand things either.”

Zach turned his eyes back at the sights in front of him.

“This,” Eratemus started. “Was built by an united people, a faction that had an enormous territory to protect, and shared all of its resources.”

When put like that, it did sound different.

“Our transportation is ready,” the Knight Commander said, interrupting their conversation. Once he had their attention, he pointed at one of the airships docked on a lower terrace. They gathered and followed him down the winding roads through the fortress city. People walking around cast glances at them, or rather stared at them—especially Eratemus and his undead. Zach heard them whispering, wondering who they were and why they came from beyond the wall. A few questioned what house they were from even.

Eventually, they made their way to the long docks that looked like they were terraces from the distance. Zach paused near the edge of a bridge, looking out. He saw people loading crates on ships and but those that arrived didn’t seem to carry anything other than people. It told Zach that there was something here that could be exported out.

At the first glance the fortress looked like it was just a military post, but perhaps there was more to it that he wasn’t seeing.

“There are mines beneath us,” a voice said, startling Zach.

He turned his head slowly to see Ryun standing next to him, his eyes unfocused but staring in the distance. Naha took a step closer and put herself in between them.

Ryun tilted his head, and then turned it in their direction. It was… such a backward gesture, as if he had seen her before his eyes did—which he knew that he did.

“You are worried that I might harm him?” He asked her, his tone almost insulted.

“No, but I would rather not take the chance,” Naha answered him.

Ryun considered her for a moment, and then nodded, but he didn’t move. Zach took a deep breath, deciding that if they were going to work together on this mission he would need to at least be willing to talk.

“Mines?” Zach asked after a moment of silence.

Ryun’s eyes never met Naha, but somehow Zach felt as if he was watching him too. He didn’t know how precise his senses were, but if he could tell that there were mines beneath… He wondered what it was like, to see everything around you in such a large range.

“Yes,” he said, his eyes still on Naha. “They are mining something… metallic, but with a strange resonance to it. It is as if it’s… singing.”

Zach didn’t know what to say to that.

A call interrupted them, someone calling for them to catch up, and they hurried to do so. Zach cast one last glance at Ryun and found his eyes now staring into his. He turned around and walked with Naha, trying to ignore the fact that he was walking behind him.

They reached the airship and were quickly brought on board. Zach watched from the deck as the ship crew watched over the skeletons with clear distaste on their faces as the undead entered their cargo hold with the container in tow.

Quickly though, the airship started rising, and they were on their way.

Zach wished that he could’ve enjoyed the trip more, but there wasn’t much to see. The territories that they flew over were mostly sands, a desert. Though, in a way, the ocean of sand was impressive too. It did look like a swaying water from the airship. They saw a few villages, and some towns, a few oases that were settled. But nothing as impressive as the fortress in the mountains had been.

He didn’t interact much with others during the trip, but neither did the others. With their destination so close everyone was in an anxious and expectant mood.

But after two weeks in the air, traveling at speeds that frankly surprised Zach, they were near their destination.

Everyone was gathered on the deck, looking in the distance. The sight that he was seeing was… ludicrous, impossible.

The Wall filled their view, from one side to the other, without end. But it was not the most impressive thing around. No, that honor belonged to the towering city in the center of their vision. Towers the size of skyscrapers, a circular building the size of entire towns, cities, mountains. The building in the center looked like a seat of a god or something equally as impressive. Arches and bridges surrounded it, towers rose from it, but its peak was what caught everyone’s eye. It was glowing with a bright emerald light, casting a sphere of energy around the city so large that it boggled the mind. The dome stretched everywhere that Zach could see, encompassing the circular wall that surrounded the city that was the size of the largest cities on Earth. Smaller settlements were beneath them as they flew toward the city. Massive farms with tiny black shapes moving about. The lushness of it surprised Zach, especially since just a while ago they had been flying over a desert.

The closer they got, the more the dome filled his vision. And then, he noticed something else. An ocean of black was beyond the wall, beyond the city. He saw the emerald dome flashing, he saw swarms in the air and explosions both on the ground and the sky.

The city was under siege.

“Incoming!” Someone yelled, and before Zach could even scan the sky, the turrets on the airship swiveled and opened fire. Bright beams of yellow light snapped across the distance, hitting a group of monsters flying their way. There were thousands of them, and even with the airship’s powerful attacks, they could barely kill a a couple with every shot.

The attacks came from the ground, helping them defend. In the distance, Zach saw a fleet of airships heading their way, firing at the back of the monsters formation. Zach realized that they were going to reach them before the airship fleet could really get into position.

His hand changed into his blade and he got ready.

“I’ll handle this,” Vryull said as he stepped to the edge of the deck.

Zach glanced in the cthul’s direction, seeing him turn his eyes to the sky. A staff appeared in his hand and he pointed it up. Then, he closed his eyes and black and violet Essence pulsed around him. Zach glanced at the monsters that were coming closer and closer, still numbering in the thousands. With how close they were, Zach could tell that they looked like black worms with wings, and wickedly sharp teeth that went all the way around their mouth.

The Knight Commander and his people were getting in formation as he gave them orders on the other side of the ship. Zach figured that they expected to fight. The group from the core didn’t look nearly as bothered. Zach saw Ryun and the two Sect Leaders, Selia and Erdania, standing next to Vryull, their eyes on the monsters but their positioning obviously picked to cover for the cthul.

“Watch closely,” Maleatus whispered in Zach’s ear. He glanced to the side where the ravzor’s eyes were fixed on the monsters. “Vryull is one of the greatest area of effect casters in the world, though many don’t know it.”

Zach turned his eyes to the oncoming swarm. “Why don’t they know it?”

“Because unlike most others, he doesn’t care enough to brag. He doesn’t show himself often, and when he does there are rarely any survivors,” Maleatus said.

Zach frowned at that, but just as he was about to ask another question the sky darkened. He glanced up and saw… saw the sky leaking. Black tears forming so high above them that it looked like someone had poked holes in the sky itself. And then it fell down.

Black lances tinged with violet, as wide as Zach’s thigh stabbed from above. A hundred, no, a thousand, more, Zach couldn’t count them all. But he was sure that each had only one target, and that each had found it. Each lance speared one monster, straight through its body and then… the black and violet Essence devoured them, spreading from the wounds until there was nothing left.

In a span of less than ten seconds, the thousands of the flying monsters were gone as if they had never been there before. Zach was… impressed. It was a terrifying display of power.

“And that,” Maleatus said after it was over. “Is why he is here. In case we have to fight through an army.”

Zach understood. He was confident in his power, and Naha’s, but neither of them were capable of fighting such numbers. He glanced over to Ryun, starting to understand why he was here too.

The leader of the dome was unlikely to be found all alone.

The airship crew and the Knight Commander looked in the direction of the core group, but they didn’t say anything, though Zach could see that they felt the same way he did.

The airship continued forward, bringing them closer to the emerald dome protecting the city. And then as they approached a hole opened up, letting them in.

The city beneath him was… it was made out of the same yellow and brown stone as the fortress in the pass, but here it was filled with nature, with tall trees that covered several city blocks in the shade. There were three kinds of plant life it seemed, and each had one section of the city dedicated to it with one big tree that towered over everything. One third had plants predominantly blue in color, another green, and the last red. He saw aqueducts going in all directions around the city, streets that were straight and all going from the circular walls to the massive towering structure in the center. Everything was orderly, planned for and symmetrical. There were no buildings that stood out, every single thing looked as if it was supposed to be there.

The city was far more impressive than any city he had seen in the Core.

But beyond it, on the other side of the wall, he saw a battle taking place, though the city itself didn’t seem to be affected by it. From what he could see below, people went about their day without a care.

The airship slowed and slowly landed on a large docking section near the central structure, a citadel the size of a mountain really.

The Knight Commander walked over to them and spoke.

“Welcome to the jewel of the Empire.”