LIGHTNOVELONLINE Chapter 274: Zach
Mission and Goals
The rooms that they were assigned were large, aside from having the large common room, they also had separate bedrooms—each with its own bathroom. Zach sat in his and Naha’s room, focusing on his |Phantom Training|. He had been using every chance he got, training inside his mind. He was aware that his job on this mission was simply to serve as a backup, a way for their group to have someone who could get them out of the Ethereal Realm, as that seemed to be a big part of the plan. They didn’t want to rely on someone from the Empire, there was too much there for Zach to unpack with limited understanding, but it was obvious that trust was lacking on both sides.
He was under no illusion as to the amount that he could contribute to the team. Still, they would be going against the dome monsters, and he needed to be as strong as he possibly could be. Inside his head, through his skill, he fought with the monsters he faced in the core. His memory of them always seemed somehow clearer when he used the skill, which allowed him to fight a more faithful representation of them. At least he hoped that it was.
Finally, he felt himself tire and decided to end today’s practice. He slowly opened his eyes and saw Naha standing above him.
“All good?” He asked her.
She nodded her head. “Eratemus called for a meeting, we are gathering in a few minutes.”
Zach stood and stretched his neck. “Yeah, there are… things that we all should probably discuss.”
Naha looked at him, her hand crossed over her chest. “I believe that others were taken aback, as much as I was, concerning the Empire and the… scale of their power, I guess that I should say.”
“I did notice that, yes. Is it really that impressive? I know that it is to me, but I am a Ranker that had spent barely a handful of years here.”
“I guess that I have no point of reference,” Zach noted.
“These are a dangerous people,” Naha told him. “We would do well to remember that.”
Zach nodded.
With that, the two of them walked out of their room and into the common area. It was already occupied, Maleatus and Vryull stood together in a corner, talking softly. Selia and Erdania sat on the cushions with their legs crossed, and Ryun stood nearby, his eyes closed and head tilted to the side.
The skeletons were no where to be seen, so Zach assumed that they were in one of the rooms. Eratemus walked out just as Zach and Naha took seats on a couch. Zach wondered what he was doing in the room, as an undead, he didn’t really need to rest.
The undead walked to the center of the room and took a position that had him face all of the rest.
“Well, we are here,” Eratemus said.
“We are,” Maleatus said slowly, then waved his hand at the walls. “What the fuck is this?”
The undead seemed unsure himself. “We were aware about the Empire for quite some time. Though our people hadn’t been able to penetrate deep in their territory. Still, we knew a lot about their movements and their power. Obviously, we did not know everything.”
“I can’t even imagine what it would take to make this Citadel work, how much power it would take to expand a structure on the inside,” Maleatus said.
“Don’t the storage rings work in the same way?” Zach asked.
Maleatus shook his head. “Only at the base level. A storage ring is a space that had been cut off from the Real Realm by Void, then attached to an item. This citadel exists here and now.”
Zach was still not quite sure how it worked, so he moved away from the topic. “Does this change anything about why we are here, though?” He asked.
“Zacharia is correct,” Eratemus told Maleatus. “We’ve been focusing on things that are not currently relevant.”
“Like slavery?” Someone said. Zach turned to see Erdania looking at the undead.
“I know,” Eratemus said. “But we just can’t do anything about it without making things worse and losing against the dome monsters.”
No one seemed quite happy with that, but no one said anything. Zach was wondering how one could affect something like that. One answer was obvious, be powerful enough that you could change things and kill anyone who disagreed.
“They do not seem in any rush to send us off,” Vryull said.
“They are clearly in an all out war,” Zach added. “There was an entire army out there beyond the Wall.”
“Our agreement was always for us to send a force, a small group that would join their people in an attack on the dome leader,” Eratemus started. “Perhaps there are things that are not yet in place for that mission to be possible.”
“We didn’t come all this way,” Erdania started. “Leaving our own people, just to sit here and waste our time.”
“Patience, for now,” Eratemus said. “Let us see what they say, and go from there.”
There wasn’t much that the others could say to that, Eratemus was the leader of their group, and it wasn’t like there was anything else that they could do.
The meeting came the next day, they were escorted through the strange corridors that seemed to somehow look both endless and somehow manage to bring them to their destination in a just a couple of moments. It was obvious that some… spatial tinkering was taking place. The Custodian and a single guard led them into a large round room. In the center of it was a table with a 3D map on it, complete with full color and even clouds. He saw a grid that separated territories as well as what appeared to be troops moving in real time. Zach raised his eyes and saw that there were three people standing behind the table. One, he recognized—Knight Commander Bailor Rew. The other two were a skreen and a demasi.
The skreen was unlike any he had seen before, so much so that he wasn’t quite sure that it was a skreen. The demasi was a woman with narrow horns that jutted forward from the side of her head and long black hair cascading over her shoulders and back.
“Thank you for coming,” the Knight Commander Rew said once all of them were standing next to the table, across from the three of them. “I want to introduce you to my comrades, on my left is Rella Re Raha, Knight Commander of the Order of Shadows, and Lesser Queen White Tide of the Empire’s Pathfinders.”
Eratemus spoke after he finished introducing them. “I had hoped to speak with your Emperor today.”
It was Teeran, the Custodian who answered him. “The war comes first Necromancer, the Emperor will speak with you as soon as he is able to take leave of defense.”
“I can understand that,” Eratemus said slowly. “But is any of you here high enough rank that they can make decisions? We did not come here to waste time, and we will not sit around doing nothing.”
Bailor Rew glanced at the people around him, and then sighed. “I don’t think that we understand each other enough. First, having someone of high rank here is not necessary, there are no decisions to be made. Today we will let you know what our plan is and why we are not rushing into anything. This is our last, our only chance to win this war and save our people, and in doing so saving yours too. Do not try to guilt us, we know that the only reason you are here is because you can see what will happen if we fall.”
Zach glanced at Eratemus, wondering if he was going to say anything to that. The undead vessel remained silent.
When he was sure that Eratemus wouldn’t comment, the Knight Commander cleared his throat, then spoke.
“First, you must understand that we are barely hanging on,” he said sadly, his eyes falling down to the table map. “The reason why the Emperor is not here, why none of our other high ranking individuals are not here now, is because without them protecting the Wall it will fall. There are lulls in the enemy attacks, but most of the time they are running from one side of the Empire’s Wall to the other, plugging hole end pushing away assaults. We are being stretched thin and this mission needs to succeed.”
“Is that not a reason to send us as soon as possible?” Maleatus asked.
Rew shook his head. “I don’t know how you do things in the Settled Territories, but we are not going to send you and hope that you succeed. No, we will make sure that this mission is successful, there is no alternative.”
“And how will you do that?” Eratemus asked.
“There was a reason as to why we asked only people who were not involved in the old war to come, why you are here,” he waved at all of them. “Once we’ve decided who from our side will join you on this mission, we will equip you with the greatest items we have, give you all the resources that our Empire can spare, we will even give you knowledge that our people have taken centuries to acquire. All so that we can succeed.”
“You will do this out of the goodness of your heart?” Maleatus asked doubtfully.
“A small oath will be required, nothing that will hinder you I assure you, only guard our secrets. We have no choice, if we don’t kill the Dome Leader, we all die,” the Custodian said. “We will require to see your screens, to know what you can do, of course, we will give oaths against revealing your secrets. But we need to know, so that we can assemble the right people for the mission.”
“You haven’t picked the people for the mission yet?” Eratemus said, ignoring the other important things.
“There was no point, we had no idea who you would send,” Knight Commander Rew said. “The only member picked from our side is our Ethereal expert, as she is necessary for the plan to even work.”
“Still, you ask for a lot,” Eratemus said.
The Custodian sighed. “It is either that, or we all die. The Empire is draining itself dry, we have opened all of our vaults, are burning through all of our resources. We are raising people every day, and they die every day. Every newly raised immortal is followed by two that die. We are bleeding people and resources and we cannot hold on for much longer. Why do you think that we asked you for help? We can’t afford to send even one of our defenders away from the Wall because that will mean more dead, more holes opened up in our defense. Do you think that we wouldn’t send a squad of ten? Of twenty? Against the Dome Leader if we could? With you here we are at least going to be able to limit the price that we pay. But make no mistake, just attempting this mission, sending a handful of high tiered individuals on it will cause death of our people. We are willing to pay that price, for the entire world, the least you can do is agree to what we need from you.”
Eratemus looked down at the map, studying the wall and the onslaught of black against it.
“I have no issues with this,” Ryun spoke, filling the silence.
The others all looked in his direction. He shrugged. “It makes sense to me.”
“I have no issues either,” Zach spoke.
“We will see,” Eratemus added, delaying the decision. “Tell us more about the mission.”
The Custodian turned to the others, and the skreen spoke.
“The enemy controls everything beyond this Wall,” White Tide pointed at the Wall on the map then traced the line through the center of the desert. “All the way to the Dome from where they came. They have forts, taken from us and reinforced by some black substance that makes them stronger.”
The demasi took over. “There is no getting through that territory without being seen, not through the Real Realm at least. A few of my scouts had managed it, but it was luck not something that can be replicated with a bigger group. There are a few other ways to reach the Dome.”
“Yes, the Under,” White Tide said and gestured with her hand. The map rose and the top layer peeled off, showing the system of caves and tunnels beneath. “My people have dug extra tunnels, going beneath the enemy army and the territory they hold. The enemy has little presence there, at least not near our territory.”
She pointed and Zach could see the pockets of enemy forces in the Under, but a lot further from the Wall.
“They are holding that line there,” she said. “And we’ve been unable to find extra routes around them. But it doesn’t really matter.”
Rella Re Raha interjected. “Because, our goal is here,” she pointed at a cavern near the enemy position in the Under. “There is an entrance to the Ethereal that leads directly to our Fort near the Dome. It is not the most stable of routes through the Ethereal, but it is the only one that will get you where you need to go.”
“So, your plan is for us to go through there, reach the Dome and kill the Leader?” Eratemus looked pensive. “Do you know if the Leader is even still there?”
“He is,” Knight Commander Rew said. “We had a scout confirm it.”
“Why not send an army through?” Selia asked.
The Knight Commander met her eyes. “An army would be noticed, not just by the enemy but also by the denizens of the Ethereal Realm. Regardless, we can’t afford to send an arm even if we wanted to. Everyone is needed to defend the Wall.”
Zach was slowly getting a bigger picture of just how dire the situation was. If they could barely afford to send a handful of people, then they were on the verge of falling to the enemy.
“When you asked us to come,” Eratemus started. “You said that you preferred a few people that could hold of armies. What kind of a team are you attempting to gather?”
“That will depend on you,” Rew said. “The assault team will be coming out into the deep reaches of the enemy territory, surrounded by their forces. The goal is to punch through the army and hold the rest of it off while the rest kill the Leader. There is no point in making it more complicated than that. Things are going to go wrong anyway, no plan survives for long in the real world.”
Zach agreed with that. Sometimes plans might work perfectly, but more often than not, something would go wrong.
“And what kind of help will you provide us?” Maleatus asked.
Rew turned and looked at the ravzor. “As we’ve said, items, essence if you need it, potions, elixirs, and arrays, knowledge of Class and Skill.” He glanced at Selia, Erdania, and Ryun. “We have little to offer to Cultivators, but any resources that are within our means to obtain will be provided. Teachers if you need it, trainers that can help you improve. Once the team is assembled, we will have you train together, learn how to act as a team.”
“You think that we have the time for that?” Eratemus asked.
Rew grimaced. “We estimate that we can hold for at least another year. Each day we hold is bought with blood, so we would prefer to do this as quickly as possible. But that is our timeline.”
“I will need to talk with my people, this is not a decision to be taken lightly. You want us to share all the secrets of our power,” Eratemus said.
“Very well,” Rew said. “Just know that every hour you take to make this decision, is bought by the blood of the Empire.”
There wasn’t really much that anyone could say to that. As they all turned to leave, Zach spotted one person remaining where he was. Ryun faced the four people across the table and then spoke.
“There is another matter, a personal matter,” he said slowly.
Everyone paused and turned. The Empire’s people looked at each other, then back at him.
“What is it?” Rew asked.
“There are two matters that I need to be resolved. A matter of an oath and a member of my sect that was kidnapped. I have no desire to make you problems, to harm you or your people. In order for it to be resolved, I need to speak with someone from the House Ornn.”
They blinked at that, confused. And then the Knight Commander’s eyes narrowed. “Ah, I remember now. Ryun Nacht, the Twilight Melody Sect. Nayra Ornn abandoned her duty and the Empire in order to stay in your sect.”
“She is my Sect Leader, she will be returned, or I will make those who have taken her pay and take her anyway,” Ryun said evenly.
Zach looked at him, at the situation, and wondered how he could stand here in the seat of their power and say something like that.
“Ryun,” Eratemus stepped closer to him. “This isn’t the time nor the place for such threats.”
“I don’t threaten, I give promises,” Ryun said, his eyes never leaving the Empire’s people.
“This is not a matter that we can speak on,” the Custodian said slowly. “I will inquire, and a message will be sent to House Ornn.”
Ryun stood still for a long few seconds, and then he inclined his head. “That is sufficient, for now.”
He then turned and walked away, everyone else following behind him.
Zach exchanged looks with Naha, wondering if he would ever become like that. If he would ever have enough power and certainty in it to not care about what anyone else thought or wanted.