Shadowbane

"But how are you certain she's gone forever? Those Abyssal Gods you showed us were revived, weren't they?" Kai said.

"I just know. While there weren't any specific memories related to her passing, I could feel it through the remnants of her core that she's nothing more than a relic from the past now. I need someone to translate those books damnit. And that's exactly what I'm going to do in Arcadia. They had to translate all of the ancient languages in the systems of that city, so the Elves are the perfect choice when it comes to looking for translators."

{Rei. Mom wanted you to know that the mirror is gone. They kicked the doors in soon after you left her home, and both the harlequin monster and the mirror had disappeared.}

"More good news from the fairy... The mirror in Victoria's home vanished. Along with that Abyssal Minor God I ran into. He's the same one I saw in Xethra by the way."

Kai rubbed his chin, "There are fairies monitoring the entire city from the sky. So if he didn't run away through the city, there's only one place he could have gone. But how did he access the underground from Victoria's home...?"

{Mom is wondering the same thing. She's tearing up the floorboards and everything in the cellar. She hasn't found anything yet though.}

"Lunaria's looking for an entrance, but has come up empty so far."

"Hmm..." Kai trailed off, lost in thought.

"Need to interrupt whatever thoughts are going on inside your head, I'm curious about one other thing. Is it possible that Rai'ga is working with the Abyss? This is a question for Lunaria too."

"Only Rai'ga would know the answer to that since the other option requires my sister forcing that black mass to talk, and from what I've seen of those Abyss creatures, I wouldn't count on that."

{Aresa is listening in and said no. Everything he does, he does for Meiza'thul. He would never betray the Eldritch as a whole.}

The Tengu said something along those lines as well.

"Oh!" Kai said as he looked at me, "I have good news and bad news. Although the bad is exactly what I expected."

"Go on?"

"The good news; your friends Simon and Nera did actually live here for a little while. They were only here for a few years before leaving through the portal to Mother west of Telebron. So, it's as you suspected, they left for Gaia."

Yeah... I figured that's what happened, and it's great to hear that they ended up pursuing our dream even if I hadn't showed up. It'd be extremely difficult to find them in Gaia, so I'll just assume they safely made it across Mother. It's for the best that way.

"And the bad is about my Uncle I assume?"

"Indeed. He was never in Telebron. And when I requested information about him from Arcadia the lady responded with 'We can't divulge information related to citizens or guests' etc. etc."

Oh well. I'll just have to personally look for him while I'm in Arcadia. And I really hope he had made sure my families home remained as a part of our clan. That way they wouldn't be able to pilfer it or move someone else in for many years. And it's not like Arcadia is hurting for space... The city is filled with empty sections that nobody uses.

{Rei, Aresa apologizes for not answering you before. She asked if you remember that she used to write on her board, but decided to magically insert words on the board after meeting you?}

I do. That was on the wagon ride to Thule. And she already explained back on Urza why she changed. Was it the same reason here?

{Yes. It wasn't easy for her to alter the girl's body. In fact, it took her months to psyche herself up enough to do it. Also, Victoria and my mom were there for her and gave her the final push she needed. And in general she was tired of holding everyone back for something so small and personal to her only. The girl who gave her body up to her would have had no issues with Aresa healing her throat if it's what she desired. So in the end, it was just Aresa being stubborn... Is what she said.}

So she's been talking for years now huh? Looks I'm the only one who would have been surprised to see that at this point. Well, and Markus' group... Oh, that's right.

"Kai, what about Arkaios' temples?"

Kai shook his head, "I need more time. You've only been here for one or two days. Checking the resident backlogs for your friends and family was easy, but anyone I've asked about Arkaios has either never heard of him, or has met his branded warriors before and nothing more. I have yet to find anyone who knows anything about his temples. Lady Aresa adored the templars, but she figured if they ever needed help they'd come to her. She thought they were more widespread than they actually are."

"I swear Arkaios said he had temples everywhere though... But then again, he did seem intent on leaving for Gaia. That's what Keith said before Viseux was invaded. So maybe while I was dead Arkaios had entirely given up on our universe? Even so, whether they're abandoned or not, there has to be temples on this damned planet somewhere that'll allow me to talk to him. Otherwise I'll never know where Viktor put the artifact."

"Are you certain that he didn't have his men take the artifact to Gaia? You seem adamant that your friends would've sought out Aresa, but from what I've learned of them, aren't branded supposed to be loyal soldiers of Arkaios who would follow his orders whether they wanted to or not? If Arkaios wants to focus on Gaia, then would he really allow them to stay here?" Kai asked.

"I... I'm actually not sure? That's a good question, but one that still requires me to visit a temple to find out. The only other option is asking Viktor during the summit but I wouldn't believe whatever answer he gave me anyway."

A blue light lit up next to the phone. Kai picked it up and after a brief delay he said 'Okay, pull over near that sign' before setting it back down.

"We're almost there." Kai pointed at the scythe, "You really going to use that?"

"It'll make killing the fodder much easier. I won't use it against the ones with souls. I'll have Petey cut them down like he did last time."

Kai sighed, "Must be nice, being able to power up in that way. I've spent years upon years training in my soul realm, and it's still nowhere near enough. It'll never be enough."

A few minutes later the limo pulled to a stop. Kai and I exited a side door while Petey crawled out through the sunroof as usual.

"In the middle of nowhere huh? Is there a hive near here?"

"Not near, but according to Lunaria there's one about thirty miles southwest of here. There's no point in driving on this road going south when you could just start running from here."

Luna?

A white light appeared far off in the distance. Perfect, thank you.

"Alright then, thanks for taking me out here, Kai. I'll see you back here in ten days at the exact same time. Luna should be able to mark this location and tell me when it's time to return, right?"

{Yes, I'll take care of it!}

"She said yes."

"I was going to have you meet us in the town we drove through earlier, but that works as well." Kai stuck his hand out, "See you again in ten days."

I grabbed his hand and shook it. Once that was done I stuck the scythe onto the back of my armor and began to run toward the white dot in the distance with Petey trailing close behind me.

Well now, this was unexpected...

Petey and I are invisible watching a patrol of Xerath devour an apple tree, root and all. The problem is that there's two of the powerful Xerath's I fought and absorbed before going to Telebron.

And judging by the amount of grunts there are, I'd say this is two patrols moving together. Or... Hang on, they might not actually be 'patrols'. I see a long line of barren ground past this point. I've seen some Xerath lands that were completely barren like this, but I figured it was some type of corruption related to the God in the region, but now that I can see these Xerath literally eating a tree...

Are they consuming the entire ecosystem around the hive? But the areas to the east weren't like this... Could it be that each of these smaller hives is different from one another? Now that is something I've never seen before. These Xerath were already unique enough as is, but if that also happens to be true, then I'm honestly not sure of what to expect out of them next. There's too many unknowns surrounding them, and now we have the Abyss to worry about as well.

{R-Rei, I'm ready this time. I swear I'll back you up. So uh, how about we go for one of the leaders first? I can't channel my mana until you drop your veil, and I'll need at least ten seconds. Is that too long?}

Oh? Suggesting battle plans already? It makes me happy seeing you force yourself to be proactive like this! And I was planning on doing that anyway, so yeah, I'm obviously not going to decline your idea. Although, ten seconds could be too long if the other one joins the battle immediately. If he does, we might have to flee and try again. We'll see how it goes and then decide from there.

The tree itself had been ripped out of the ground and toppled over. One of the leaders and most of the grunts were eating it from top, while another leader and a couple of grunts were chewing on its trunk. Petey snuck up to one side of the group eating at the trunk, while I waited with the scythe in my hands on the other side of them, which is where the grunts were. Once Petey was in position we both removed our veils and leapt into action.

The leader ducked below Petey's horizontal slash before barreling right into him, causing Petey to buckle to the ground. The leader immediately jumped on top of him and tried to crush Petey's skull with his hands, but for the moment Petey was holding him off after grabbing onto his wrists.

While that had transpired I was cutting down the grunts with the scythe. There were only six of them and the scythe made quick work of the group. I had finished them off in a couple of seconds, which was all the time it took for the leader to get on top of Petey.

On the other side of the tree I could see the other leader walking toward us as it loudly chewed through a mouthful of apples. The grunts weren't walking though, they were running straight for Petey to assist the Xerath leader on top of him. At this point my halo was fully charged so I dashed in front of the two struggling on the ground and kicked the leader's right arm at the joint before turning around and cutting four grunts in half. Behind me I could hear Petey throw the leader off of him.

That was when I noticed something that I hadn't seen with the last patrol. The two groups of grunts I had cut in two, weren't dead. Their bottom halves stopped moving, but they were now pulling their top halves along the ground with their hands at an alarming speed.

Once the first group was within striking distance I cut their heads or bodies in two pieces again, and this time, they went silent. This is when the second leader changed his approach from a walking speed to a sprinting speed. Glancing behind me I could see Petey's sword attacks being deflected one after another as the Xerath attempted to counter with each attack it deflected, but so far he was failing to connect a blow just like Petey was.

That was when I saw an ethereal hand shoot out of my body and grab the Xerath battling Petey just before he deflected another attack. It froze him in place long enough for Petey to cut him in two, just like it did in the past.

At this point I had already put the scythe away and was sidestepping to the left side of Petey. The charging Xerath slowed down a little as he neared us, as he quickly realized what I was doing. I moved forward a little, attempting to get behind him, and he retreated in kind.

I'm fine with this now that I know you're helping Luna. If he stalls that only makes things easier for us. The cartoons were right, Fairies truly are amazing supports.

I could feel the jubilation emanating from Luna as Petey and I continued to try and surround the Xerath. It reached a point where it was finally fed up with what we were doing and tried to charge Petey, but another ethereal hand locked him in place just as he reached Petey. And yet again, Petey cut this one in two from the head down.

I walked over to both of the leaders and tossed their souls down my throat before removing the halo and sitting down near the tree. I then turned invisible and began meditating, trying to ease the backlash from the halo as soon as possible, as I wanted to continue hunting more and more of the overly muscular Xerath. The more of them I absorbed before the ten days were up, the better.

{Um, Rei, a Fairy Lord just informed me that the hive we're heading to is going to die soon. The nation to the west is sieging it, so we're wasting our time heading there. Want to head to one further to the south instead? There's only one to the north and it's a new one we've only recently learned about, so it will only have a few powerful Xerath.}

Yeah, definitely the one to the south. I'd love to see how the people west of here destroy that hive, but there's no time for detours.

{Lots of soldiers and vehicles with a mix of physical guns and magical guns while thirty-two casters channel a destruction spell on the hive. It's usually just a giant fireball. It's cool looking but really boring to watch until they finish channeling, and that takes hours.}

Now that sounds familiar. It's just like the attack Jasper used against the Moon Eldritch back on Urza but much bigger. It's really a shame I don't have enough time to watch them blow up the hive...

... Thoughts?

{I don't sense anything, so, um, I don't know what to say?}

We were at the southern hive and just like before, I had thrown a rock into the ooze to get them to attack me, except nothing happened. I didn't even turn invisible again. I'm literally standing there waiting for them to come at me, but no Xerath are spawning.

The hell is going on? I was planning to cut down grunts with Petey until they sent out the Xerath with souls, but now I'm not sure what to do. Walking in there is not an option, it's too dangerous. I could crawl along the wall again and try to find out if something is wrong inside the hive, but even if there is, then what? I could kill the hive I guess, but if there's nothing to absorb here then this is a giant waste of time.

{Rei, behind!}

I turned around and saw a tiny black dot far in the distance. I take it that's the Xerath coming this way?

{Yes! And there's lots of strong ones with souls.}

... Very strange. Were their forces all outside and are now retreating back to the hive after I appeared? That's the only explanation I can think of. And while it's nice that they're returning, I sure as hell can't take dozens of them on at the same time.

Hmm, we'll watch them for a little bit after they return, and if they don't split up we'll just have to stick to hunting patrols. Going after hives is too risky it seems.

Five minutes later Petey and I were invisible on top of a hill half a mile away, watching the Xerath run toward the hive. However, they weren't alone.

... Luna, what's the closest town south of here? Or to be specific, which nation owns it?

{Um, it was called Neizahar, but it's part of the Xel'nethra now.}

Well, that would definitely explain what I'm currently seeing. It's been so long since I've seen Xerath killing other Xerath like this...

There was four Ghoraks and two dozen Gheists chasing the Xerath from this hive as they attempted to retreat inside of it. Both groups were moving at about the same speed, with the Ghoraks moving slightly faster, which allowed them to grab and kill a couple of Xerath before they reached the hive, at which point the ooze finally came alive and began to turn into hundreds of grunts. That wasn't all though, the Xerath running at the front were accompanied by something that looked like a wagon made out of blackened sinew, the same material lining the walls of the hive.

What's in that wagon of theirs?

{They throw people in there, and it... Um, it transmutes them into something much easier to carry...}

So in other words, they're able to clear out entire cities and carry their souls and biologicals back to the hive with a single one of those wagon looking things? That's beyond disgusting, but also efficient. Efficient in a way I've never seen the Xerath before. I was only vaguely worried about these Xerath after I woke up in Termia, but their threat level is now higher than any other Xerath I've encountered before now. After the summit is over, if we manage to kill Viktor, then we'll need to deal with these Xerath as soon as possible. I have a really bad feeling about them... But for now, I'm going to reap the rewards that appeared before me.

As Viktor's Xerath engaged with the hordes of grunts flooding out of the hive, I moved to the area behind them, where they had left a trail of Xerath they had slain along the way. I ran toward the direction of the town they had assaulted, scooping up one soul after another, including those from more powerful types of Xerath I hadn't encountered yet. Oh Viktor, if only you knew that your creatures were greatly increasing the chances that you'll die in Telebron.

It took me over an hour before I finally reached a Xerath corpse that didn't have a soul in it.

Looks like this is it for me here. Queen bitch took the rest of them, but this was a massive haul so I'm not going to complain. I feel like I just absorbed three or four chimera's. I had to stop my core from fully absorbing them though, as that'll take days, which is why I'm returning to Telebron four days ahead of the summit. It'll give me plenty of time to rest in my room and absorb all of the souls I manage to gather out here.

{Rei, it's time.}

Finally... It feels like I've been out here for over a month.

{Hehe, nope! But you haven't slept a single second and was fighting one battle after another, so that probably made it feel longer than it was!}

A white light appeared off in the distance again. I turned toward it and began to run toward the limo that was hopefully waiting for me.

It was honestly surprising seeing just how bad things were in the south. I had Luna direct me toward hives that were near Viktor's borders in the hopes that I'd find more battles to leech off of, and while I was lucky a couple of times, I ended up having to kill most of the Xerath myself. But damn, it looks like my hypothesis that Viktor was related to these Xerath is rather unlikely. Luna even confirmed that they're assaulting his lands far more than they are Termia's.

"Welcome back, Rei." Kai said, opening the door for me.

"It's good to be back, but it'll be even better after I've had a long bath."

I ducked into the limo and sat down on the seat facing the TV again. Kai sat down and closed the door behind him as Petey entered through the sunroof before laying down to my left in his usual spot.

"You should take him in too. He was looking pretty bad before, but now he's practically covered in dried blood." Kai said.

"Will the baths allow it?"

Kai shrugged, "They should, but right now I want to hear about how you did out there. Do you think you're ready?"

"More than ready. I just need to meditate in my home until the summit and I know I'll have more strength than I had back in Xelba. Which is kind of amazing considering how much time I spent in that city. I was so focused on spending time with my unit, that I rarely spent time hunting and absorbing monsters."

And I have Petey now as well. I'm feeling pretty confident about the future, regardless of what comes my way.