EmEs_etherious
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Chapter 166- Skirting Rules
🕑 Added 2024-09-14 22:59:00 +0000 UTCHell’s rising was a land of ice drenched in the magic of undeath, formed by an invading lich-queen who sought to establish dominion over Earth. It spanned over seventy kilometres and was teeming with millions of fell abominations, the results of the formerly deceased mixed with unnatural alchemy. Since the city's creation, little had changed, almost as if time itself had been frozen along with the land.
Today marked the most change its residents had seen in the last few days. Thousands of undead teemed around the edge of the Island, all surrounding a creature so massive it risked collapsing the ice it was on into the ocean. Azure, the prime that ruled the oceans had been captured and dragged to shore. Steel chains were locked tightly around her, covered in barbed spikes that pierced her flesh. It made for a pitiful sight, such a mighty creature laid low. She thrashed, trying to roll forward and crush her foes but her body wasn’t equipped for movement on land. It did, however, shatter half the chains binding her, but they were constantly being replaced, faster than she could break them.
Azure glared at the man responsible for all this as if her hatred could somehow harm him. With Earth's laws in place that prevented Primes from fighting, there was little she could do to hurt the man. Fleeing had been her best option. The bastard had planned around that, using his domain that prevented people from running to keep her trapped in the lich’s territory, where her greatest strengths were locked away.
His men had made short work of her then, using specialised tools and limited items that were tailor-made to counter her abilities. It even inhibited some of her powers as prime, something she hadn't known was possible. He’s been planning this for a while. Again she tried to break free, but this attempt was even more pathetic than her previous ones. The number of chains binding her had increased and she was growing weaker. She established a telepathic link with her fellow Prime.
“Why are you doing this? Helping the lich-queen will get you nowhere. She may be entertained by your machinations now, but the moment she bores, she’ll kill you. No amount of clever planning will save you then. Surely you know that?”
The man didn’t reply, instead pulling out a small injection from his bag, a tool that looked tiny even in his human hands. It was filled with a black fluid that screamed danger, though, and Azure didn’t want it anywhere near her body. Which was of course the moment the bastard plunged it into her eye. Pain, unlike anything she’d ever felt before, tore through her body and she thrashed wildly, all thoughts of escape forgotten. Chains broke and ice shattered and had she been thinking straight, perhaps she could have used those scant few seconds to make her way back into the ocean.
Azure was aware of a distant roaring, and through her haze of pain, it took her a moment to realise the sound was coming from her. She didn’t know how long she lay there, waiting for death to come but eventually, the pain subsided and she was left a shivering wreck.
“You don’t want to know how much that poison cost me. I’ll be working unsavoury jobs for the next decade to pay off my debts.”
“How ?” Even her mental voice sounded hoarse. “I thought primes…couldn’t attack each other.”
The man patted her condescendingly on the side of her head as if she were a pet. “Damn, you're innocent. It almost makes me feel bad. I guess just because you’ve become intelligent doesn’t change the fact that you’re an animal.”
“Talking to you now won't change anything, I guess, so I may as well indulge you. You’re already dead. It’ll just take some time for it to set in. Even the planet can’t save you now, not that it would have done anything in the first place.”
With a sinking feeling in her stomach, she checked her status page, already suspecting what she’d find there. For the first time since the system's arrival, her health regeneration wasn’t keeping up with the damage she was going through. Her health regeneration had disappeared altogether, there was no sign of it on her status page, like her body no longer possessed that function. She didn’t need to be a genius to see what that meant. With her constantly taking damage from whatever she’d been injected with and no way to regenerate, it was only a matter of time before she died. “What have you done to me?” somehow her mental voice was free of the panic she was feeling.
“The human heart is a fickle thing,” the Prime of chaos said, completely ignoring her question. “That's why I have a rule: no conversation with the enemy until the job is done.” He looked her in the eye then and looked almost…sad. “As ready as I was to follow through, I wasn’t sure if I could kill you in cold blood after talking to you. Now it’s too late. You were injected with a poison that could kill a juvenile dragon. Overkill, I know but I don’t like to do half-measures. The antidote for it costs thrice as much as the poison. Even if I wanted to save you, I cannot. Like I said earlier. The human heart is a fickle thing, even my own. I didn’t want to leave an out for myself.”
A sudden eruption of energy surrounded them before pouring into the dying blue whale. For the first time, Azure saw a flash of uncertainty cross her fellow Prime's features, so fast she almost thought she’d imagined it before it was replaced with a look of grim determination. “So the world wishes to save you. The poison is beyond its ability to heal. It does nought but prolongs your suffering. Still, as illogical as the world can be at times, it isn’t dumb. I guess it somehow expects you to survive, though I can’t see how no matter what I think of.”
“Why ally yourself with the lich-queen? Do you seek the destruction of your species?” Azure asked, even as she checked the changes on her status page. She was regenerating health again, though she could feel that the energy was coming from an outside source and not her own soul. At 100,000 points a minute, it was almost the equivalent of her usual values.
“Nothing so grand as a union I’m afraid my dear. She would never see me as an ally. I just want the lich queen to be as successful as possible. I may not be as powerful as the rest of you Primes but I’ve been given abilities that make up for it. For the next twenty-seven days, no prime will be allowed to set foot on this land. I wanted to stretch the delay further but there's only so much ‘direction’ the planet’s willing to hear take before it starts ignoring you.”
“So you want to watch the world get destroyed. Is that it?” Azure’s voice was filled with contempt and derision. She knew the landwalkers were a temperamental bunch, but this was simply pure insanity.
“I think I’ve explained myself enough to an animal now. Once the world stops wasting its energy and lets you die, Castilla will take your corpse and reanimate it. An undead Prime. I’ve heard they’re incredibly rare. I can’t wait to see it.” Once again, the prime of chaos pat her head condescendingly. “I’d love to stay and talk with you longer, but I have places to be. Until next time then. Though I’m not sure how much of your personality shall be retained in undeath.”
He cut off the mental link between them and began to walk away. Azure tried to roll after him, but her attempt was half-hearted at best. She was trapped here, at least until the world stopped sustaining her. She should have been worried, terrified even but she just couldn’t find it in herself to care. Ever since her mate had become a fallen one, Azure had felt a distinct disconnect between herself and reality. For a while, it had taken her entire willpower to simply continue living. Now, when confronted with the end, Azure felt an odd sense of… relief. It was why she was so annoyed when the world saw fit to choose that exact moment to grant her a task, the third one she had received in her time as prime.
Prime Task: Survive for the next 50 days.
Reward: Your continued existence.
It looked like the world would deny her even death.
~~~
Arthur rubbed at his temples as he tried to make sense of what he’d just seen. Earth had come a long way from its days of broadcasting grand events using outdated drone technology. Attempting the same would have failed for a number of reasons, primarily amongst them being how fragile the mundane tools were when faced with the rigours of powerful magic. Now they used light and sound mages to accurately capture interesting events to be holographically displayed for viewing throughout the world.
Arthur had just finished watching one of the magical broadcasts, hidden as he was in the throngs of people crowding the makeshift theatre. Prime Azure had gone to deal with the lich threat and failed spectacularly, having been betrayed by her fellow prime. Arthur wondered what the man sought to accomplish, revealing his face to be televised for the viewing of billions. It was the first time the world had gotten a look at the man and the well-connected recognised him as the leader of the Silver Rose, the organisation responsible for so much suffering.
Whatever reasons the man may have had, the secret was out now and he’d just painted the biggest target in history on his back. The people of Earth were braying for blood which was no doubt further enhanced by the cruel treatment of Azure. As powerful as the blue whale was she looked…cute would be the wrong word but she certainly appeared innocent. Her flesh, a potent source of vitality and magic was being butchered by the undead and carted off for whatever nefarious purpose the lich-queen had in mind. With her healing near-instantaneously, the undead now had access to an infinite supply of the most ether-dense flesh on the planet.
Arthur didn’t know what it could be used for but he didn’t need to be a seer to realise it was nothing good. Governments called out to the world's Primes demanding that they hold humanity's traitor accountable for his sins but no one had seen the hide nor hair of Kazi Alukai over the past week. He seemed to have disappeared from the face of the planet. Arthur, however, couldn’t be happier.
The prime of chaos had made his allegiance known. He had sided against humanity and the Primes didn’t look like they were up for the job. Arthur had a grudge to repay and was more than willing to take out the trash. The lich-queen was also one of the few monsters on the planet that could help him grow and he had a sneaking suspicion that he’d need her phylactery to power his ritual skill and create his first soul splinter. Unfortunately, Arthur had a few loose ends he needed to tie up. It was time to go on a date with a vampire.
Next weeks chaps will come out on the weekend.
