Infinite Realm: Monsters & Legends

A long time ago

Karya walked out of the meeting room barely able to contain her anger. She glanced to the side, seeing the others shuffling out as well. She met Anatalien’s eyes, saw her grimace and shook her head. She turned away and tried to calm herself as she waited. A few seconds later Erakael walked out, his brother by his side. Bolas was a head taller, a titan walking amongst the others of his kind, tall even for a drake. His black scales were rough and jagged, looking as if they would cut on the barest of touch. Compared to him, Erakael was the complete opposite, tall for a drake—yes, but not as tall as his brother. His scales were light brown, the color of the earth and sand, smooth, his eyes golden.

They approached her, and Bolas gave her a long look before turning.

“Speak to you soon, brother,” he said before walking away.

Karya watched him go, watched everyone else go until just the two of them were left in the corridor. Then, she turned and looked at Erakael.

“I know what you are going to say,” he said before she could even open her mouth.

“You saw what happened in there,” she waved her hand at the open doors leading to the meeting room.

“It… you know that we can’t continue like this,” Erakael said slowly. “They don’t allow us access to the best dungeons, they get the pick of any new ones that are discovered. Their expansion is unchecked, while we need to obey their directives as to where we can go. They are strangling our growth.”

“Yes,” Karya agreed. “But nothing will change or get better if Bolas keeps antagonizing and threatening them.”

Erakael looked away. His trust and belief in his brother was hurting them too much. He couldn’t accept that the brother he loved was gone, consumed by the madness that had come with his power.

“They won’t go to war,” Erakael said. “Verostion and the others have too much to lose.”

“You are underestimating just how insane all of them are,” Karya told him.

He winced, then turned to look at her. “Karya, please.”

“What? I can’t just stand here and watch it happen.”

“Bolas is… he is starting to lose trust in you.”

She narrowed her eyes. “What did he say?”

“I… he is starting to think that you might not be on his side,” Erakael said slowly.

“I’m not,” she told him. “I am on the side that will see all of us survive and thrive, not just those who he thinks are loyal.”

He shifted his weight, looking pained. He looked around, almost as if afraid that someone could’ve overheard her. “Karya, please. If he heard—”

“—Let him hear. I’ll say it to his face too. We cannot continue like this.”

“It’ll work out, I know that it will. We just need to find common ground.”

Karya sighed, she knew that she wouldn’t convince him. He was delusional, and he loved his brother too much.

Karya walked into Erakael’s office and found him leaning over the table, looking at maps. As she entered, he glanced up and then turned back to the map.

Karya stopped in front of the table, waiting for a few seconds. Then she spoke, not being able to take the silence. “You asked for me?”

He sighed. “Yes.”

“Why?” She could recognize that something was bothering him, she knew him well enough for that.

“It wasn’t my idea,” he said slowly.

Karya’s eyes narrowed. “What wasn’t?”

He placed his finger on the map, far in the south from the core. She recognized the general area, it was the direction that their Iteration was allowed to expand in, to take territories there. It was a slap in the face, the fact that they controlled what and where they could go. She looked more closely to the area he was pointing, the exact territory, and then realized what it was.

“That territory, it’s the…”

“Yes,” Erakael confirmed it.

It was one territory that none of their scouts had ever returned from. They had even sent an expansion group, it too didn’t return. Karya thought that they had all agreed that the territory had to be a home to some pretty high tiered monsters, something that their teams couldn’t handle.

One territory, it wasn’t much in the grand scheme of things. Bolas had decided to leave it alone for now, he was far too occupied with trying to wrest more control from the First and the Second Iterations to deal with one territory that wasn’t even hindering their expansion that much. They were just going around it.

“What about it?” She asked.

He looked uncomfortable, as if he was trying to find the words.

“Just say it,” she snapped.

Erakael raised his head, meeting her eyes. “Bolas wants you to go there, investigate, claim it.”

Karya frowned. “He wants to send a team, now? Why? He wants everyone here and ready in case that things get out of hand.”

Erakael shook his head. “Not a team, just you.”

Karya blinked, and then narrowed her eyes in anger. “He wants me out of the way.”

“No, I…”

“Of course he does, he doesn’t like that I am a voice of reason. I go and die and he is happy, I go and succeed and he shares in the success of us getting another territory. And what if I refuse to go?”

Erakael didn’t answer.

“Right,” Karya said. “I refuse and we fight, the Third devolves into a civil war and we end up worse than we were before. But he doesn’t care about that, right? He knows that I do, that I will never let that happen. Can’t you see how insane he is, Erakael?”

“I can help him, I just need more time. He still listens to me.”

His voice was full of desperation, of hope that was running out. Karya just feared that his hope would run out when it was too late. She closed her eyes, and then turned away, walking out. It wasn’t like she had a choice.

“I’ll go with you,” Tali said, her expression angry.

Karya smiled and shook her head. “That would be worse, if Bolas found out that someone from the other Iterations came with me… No, it would grant you a claim to the territory if we succeed, and that would lead down a path that neither one of us wants to follow.”

Tali’s expression darkened. “I could renounce any claim.”

“You could, but would Verostion?”

Her silence was answer enough. Karya gripped her friend's shoulder and squeezed lightly.

“I’ll be fine,” she said.

“I hope so,” Tali added. “Because if you are not here to check your side, everything will deteriorate fast. They are getting more and more erratic.”

“I know,” she whispered. “I know.”

The only thing that she could do was hope that it didn’t take her too long.

She waited until nightfall, or rather until the sun turned into the moon. She believed that the cover of night would give her more cover. The entrance to it was difficult to reach. There was only one pass through the mountains, which meant that she didn’t even know what was inside the territory. It could be all mountains, or a hidden plateau or even a basin or a valley. As soon as it was dark, she crossed from one territory to the other. Her |Greater Thermoception| gave her an idea of what was around her as she walked through the tight pass, a cave tunnel in the mountains. Ahead, she could detect a lot of heat, though all of it was stationary which was odd. The heat was coming into the tunnel, indicating that the temperature in that territory was higher than in the one she came from.

Then, she stepped out of the tunnel and saw… life. All around her big plants with massive leaves that were as long and wide as she was tall, radiating heat. Smaller plants all around them grew, some of them glowing and illuminating everything. There was a clear path through, though it didn’t look as if their growth was planned. The path was strange too, it was covered only in short grass that looked as if it was maintained, yet it clearly wasn’t. The strands of grass simply grew to uniform size, evenly spread on the ground.

Slowly, she made her way down, the sky obscured by tall trees above her, but the flowers gave off enough light that she could see. As she walked, she couldn’t shake the feeling of… wrongness. She detected no monsters around her, nothing living but the plants.

The Infinite Realm was filled with strange sights, so she didn’t pay it head that much. She had seen territories that had flying islands, and others that were frozen lakes. A territory filled with strange plant life wasn’t that far fetched.

Nothing else made sense though. There were no signs of dangers that could’ve prevented their people from coming back, which was why she was on high alert. It was only because she was expecting something that she sensed the slightest disturbance in the temperature around her as something moved through the air.

She triggered her perk, Fire of Dawn, and then activated her [Dawnfire Immolation] just as the vines snapped out of the shrubbery around the path she walked on.

The plants tried to wrap around her and burned to ash. She jumped forward to evade as more vines tried to grab her. The grass beneath her feet grew, burning as it too tried to tangle up her legs. She roared as she jumped up, two wings made out of fire coming out of her back as she used another perk. She beat her wings, the plants around her caught fire as she sped up, breaking the branches and burning the leaves of the trees above.

She exploded out of the treetops surrounded by fire and smoke, spinning and gaining altitude quickly. Free in the sky, she finally noticed what the treetops had kept hidden. The moon was surrounded by stars, tracing the image of a flower.

The territory was already claimed. It was no monster that had kept their people out, but someone who had taken the territory. For a moment she thought that perhaps it was the same scouts that they had sent that had taken it. Others had been dissatisfied with Bolas’ rule, perhaps they thought that this was the only way to be free.

She used [Flaming Dawn Dash] to evade to the side as a mass of fast moving objects pierced the air where she used to be just a moment before. They moved too fast for her to be able to tell what they were, but she saw something long and sharp.

Karya turned her eyes to the ground, seeing a valley filled with colors, but not only that, the entire valley when looked from above painted a colorful picture of a opened up flower. Each petal made out of the tree tops, with the different colored light coming in from beneath the branches and leaves, making it dim, but giving the valley the effect that she had never seen before. It was as if it was a painting, where the pain was beneath the canvas, shining through.

Her admiration lasted for only one more moment, before she was attacked again. She dodged, seeing narrow tube like plants convulsing and expelling sharp spikes toward her. She evaded another wave, but soon more and more of those plants woke up all over the valley, each spitting wooden spikes at her. She sent a blast of fire down at one of the waves, burning the spikes as she evaded another. She looked around, but saw no army coming to attack her, it was as if the entire valley forest was alive and was acting in concert to take her down.

Something else came at her as she tried to fly to the mountains, trying to get away. A bulbous fruit-looking thing missed her and she frowned, a moment later it exploded above her, showering her with liquid that burned up from her fire. But the steam, got into her nose, her mouth, the stench made her gag and she felt her lungs convulsing, she couldn’t breathe. Her muscles spasmed and she started to fall.

Thick roots exploded from the ground, catching her in the air and halting her fall, then they pulled her down and smashed her against the ground in a small clearing. They squeezed her, her fire burning the roots, but not fast enough. She felt her bones cracking. Karya reached deep, ready to release her grand perk and then—

“Don’t,” a voice said, and the roots relaxed, still holding her firmly but no longer crushing her to death. She was pulled up enough that she could see something more than the ground.

She looked around and noticed a shape, hidden in the shadows among the trees.

“You’ve already harmed my work, I would prefer it if you don’t do any more damage to it,” a voice said. A moment later he walked out of the shadows, and Karya saw a human, one from her Iteration with deep red hair. He wore simple clothes and had a belt filled with small gardening tools. She didn’t recognize him, though that wasn’t a surprise, she didn’t know everyone that came to the Infinite Realm and several generations had been born here.

She tried to speak, but the root around her throat made it come out only as a rasp. He tilted his head and then the root around her neck moved away. She coughed for a few seconds, coughing up just a bit of blood and then met the man’s eyes.

“You attacked me first,” she told him as she turned off her immolation.

He tilted his head to the other side. “You trespassed where you are not invited. Trampling my garden. This is my land, and I do not suffer pests.”

She didn’t respond immediately, as she was still being held by the roots. At the moments notice she could burn them and everything around her away. She only needed a moment to catch her breath.

“That would not be wise,” the man said after a moment.

Karya frowned and then heard shuffling. She glanced around him and saw plants, the same ones that had fired the spikes at her. The forest was filled with them, each pointed in her direction.

“You could burn many, but not all,” he said.

“I don’t think that you understand how much I could burn in an instant,” Karya countered.

“No, I do not,” he said. “Which is the only reason you are alive. I value my work too much to gamble that I could kill you before you trigger whatever you plan to trigger. I would rather try and get out of this without you destroying decades worth of work.”

Karya narrowed her eyes. The man had to have some power or item that allowed him to tell that she was attempting to use a perk. Maybe a skill that warned him of threats, some were powerful enough that they could tell more.

“I did not come here with the intention of fighting,” Karya said.

“Why did you come then?” The man asked.

Karya debated about what part of the truth she wanted to tell him.

“A few of my people, scouts, had come here, none had returned. I came to investigate,” she said. It would probably be smarter not to say that she was tasked with taking the territory. Though by the looks of it, that was going to be a hard task to accomplish. Whoever this man was, he was very powerful.

“Anyone that entered my garden uninvited died, and their bodies fed the growth of my work. Perhaps I could find some bones around here somewhere,” the man said, looking around as if searching for bones.

Karya swallowed despite the pain in her throat. There was something wrong about him. Killing anyone that entered his territory? It was… extreme.

“I… I don’t want any trouble with you and your people. We didn’t even know that anyone was here, we assumed that it was only monsters. Now that we know, we will not send anyone else,” Karya said, it wasn’t a lie. That would be her recommendation, though what Bolas would do was something else entirely.

He tilted his head again. “I have no people, this garden is mine alone.”

Karya blinked, surprised. She looked around, seeing every plant move as if it was a single being. She had assumed that this was the work of thousands of people following the same Class or Path. If it was all him…

“My name is Karya Ó Cionaoith, I apologize for trespassing. If we can come to an accord I will leave without burning any more of your garden, and without you trying to kill me.”

The man didn’t answer, instead his eyes just kept looking at her. “You damaged my garden, my work.”

“And I am sorry for that, I couldn’t have known that it was here or yours.”

He seemed to be struggling with what to do. His eyes got a faraway look to them, still looking at her, but not really seeing her.

“Every blade of grass that you trampled, I’ve shaped by hand. Every flower that you burned, I’ve nurtured. Every tree that turned to ash, I’ve sang to as it grew. You… my work…”

“What is your name?” Karya asked, recognizing what was happening. She had seen this often enough, with Bolas, with Verostion and others. He was mad. She couldn’t sense Qi, but she had no doubt that he had advanced down all three focuses. He didn’t know better. He was like one of those who had left the core early, surviving in the wilderness beyond the territories that the others made safe. Gaining strength and power, but at a cost. They didn’t know about the things that the others had realized, and even they didn’t quite believe. She couldn’t let him continue down the spiral.

He snapped, his eyes focusing on her.

“Ender,” he said slowly. “Ender Ornn.”

“Ender,” she said softly. “I truly wish no harm to you or your garden. If you let me leave, I can promise that I will not return, unless invited. I will do no harm to what you’ve built.”

He blinked, then tilted his head again.

“You promise?” He whispered.

Karya nodded. “I do.”

He narrowed his eyes, but then the roots let her go and she fell to the ground. She grimaced and then slowly got up.

“Thank you,” she said.

He looked at her for a long moment and then gestured. “Come, follow me. I’ll lead you out.”

Ender led her through the winding paths, past plants unlike anything that she had ever seen. There were vines that twisted into murals, images that she recognized from Earth. Famous paintings, or just famous sights. There were sculptures too, grown out of wood, some familiar to her as important figures from Earth’s history, others unknown. He was from Earth, that much she was certain about now.

Then, as they walked in silence, she paused. A sight caught her attention, a group of flowers growing around a tree. They were the color of blood, with white stems and leaves, something about them was captivating. It was almost as if they were telling her a story. A story of innocence tainted by blood.

“You like them,” he asked, snapping her out.

She turned around, ready to apologize again, but she didn’t see any ill intent in his eyes. They were more… expecting?

She turned back to the flowers. “They are… beautiful, and sad.”

He tilted his head. “You really think so?”

“I’m sorry if I—”

“—No, no,” he said. “That’s fine. I never had anyone… see them before. Thank you for telling me what you think.”

He turned and continued walking, and she followed after a few steps.

Soon, she recognized the area where she had entered, she saw the burnt ground and plants already moving to retake what she had destroyed.

Ender paused next to the tunnel, looking at it for a few seconds before turning to look at her.

“There, you may leave,” he said slowly.

She knew that the only reason he let her go was because she could’ve done a lot of damage to his garden. Still, she didn’t know what to say. She hadn’t expected… this.

“I am sorry for intruding; I’ll make sure that everyone knows that this territory is yours.”

He nodded and she stepped around him to leave.

“Here,” he said, stopping her.

She turned around and saw him holding out something for her, it was a blood-red flower. “You are the first one other than me that saw them. Take it, it will not wither.”

She frowned, and reached for it slowly. It was really beautiful, but also evoked the feeling of… loss, of melancholy, of loneliness.

“Thank you,” she said.

He nodded and then turned, walking away and disappearing into the shadows of his garden.

Karya stood there for a few seconds, and then turned, leaving the garden.