Esfeltian Dominion Capital Eslet, Supreme Court of Barik,
Three days after the defence of Eslet.
Early morning.
Within an enormous circular hall of dark grey marble the future of the Esfeltian Dominion will be decided. Nobles, merchants, military officers and priests alike filled the hall's rows of seats that descended a step lower the closer you got to the middle, within the middle lay a large open area of flat wooden pavement.
Within this open area lay two long desks facing each other, one was twice as high as the other like a podium. Sitting behind the lower desk were the lead individuals of Esfelt, Empress Caitlyn Esfelt with Second General Draxxer Blade and Royal Advisor Rin Darkness standing behind her being some of them.
Next to them were the others, First General of the Royal Military Jason D.Moore. To call Jason a grizzled veteran would be an understatement, the fact that his whole face was nothing but scars being one reason. With shaved white hair, aged face and pale white skin the Tundra Elf still managed to look imposing even with his advanced age of over four thousand years.
To the other side sat two others, the High priestess of the church of light and day who sat alongside the High priest of the church of dark and night.
High priestess Jean Lumin, an aged human woman with long greying blonde hair tied up in a bun, gentle green eyes and a grandma personality. She wore white fur priest robes that fell way beyond her feet causing it to drag behind her, no jewellery or accessories were on her person except for a simple wooden amulet in the shape of a sun held to her neck by a common string.
High priest Nolin Kastello, a young human male with short blonde hair and brown eyes. He wore his simple black priest robes alongside multitudes of gold, silver and gem rings, amulet and bracelets. His expression was weary and eyes always moving from shadowy corner to shadowy corner with paranoia.
Facing them sitting behind the desk above were the leaders of the other three kingdoms within the Esfeltian alliance, five racial leaders in all.
King Jekyll Mountsmith of the Dwarves, short golden blonde hair, curled long beard and fierce ember eyes.
Elder Helen Teak'ta of the Fae, old beyond counting the Fae looked whittled with her long light grey hair and wrinkled skin but her crimson red eyes were as calculative and domineering as ever.
King Raiku Goldfeather of the Avians and the kingdom of Oroboros. Humanoid with exceptions, the Avian's feathers were pure gold in colour. With the head of an eagle who had a large mohawk of feathers for hair, piercing sky blue eyes and two feet taller than any Elf the Avian king was the most eye-catching of them.
From his back grew a pair of folded golden bird-like wings which rose three feet higher than his head and seemed capable of a wingspan of 10 meters if spread open. He wore a shirt made of red feathers, pants made of blue feathers and a coat made of snow white feathers.
Sultan Rej Deepdrifter of the Nymphs and the kingdom of the sea. Mostly human with pale blue skin, short dark blue hair and sleepy aqugreen eyes. A very young male Nymph who only recently entered his position as ruler, barely 13 of age and almost taller than Jekyll.
Queen Samala Wraecast of the Mer and the kingdom of the sea. A young Mer female who unlike her neighbour Rej bared a heavy resemblance to common inhabitants of the ocean. Dark purple skin with patches of green fish scales, long green hair with strands of purple and bright golden eyes.
Samala was mostly human from the waist up with green fish fin like ears, green netting between her fingers, elbows and armpits. Her lower half on the other hand was a long tail of bright green fish scales ending in two purple flippers. Because of her tail lower half, she was currently floating in the air with the use of gravity magic provided by the city.
Each of these along with the patriarch of the royal Esfeltian family were members of the alliance's council and each were eligible to vote within the supreme court. Although currently Caitlynn was standing before the court not alongside it and thus held no vote.
The point of the supreme court was for these rulers to vote upon great changes within their alliance of races and judge international crimes. Both were to be discussed today.
Raiku glanced around the hall as he waited for everyone to settle, his eyes scanned the whole room within moments. He cleared his throat and began to speak with a high pitched squeak of a voice "The supreme court shall now commence today's trials, before us stand council member Empress Caitlynn Esfelt, High priestess Jean Lumin, High priest Nolin Kastello and First General Jason D.Moore."
The Avian watched as each stood up from their seat and gave a short bow, he nodded at them to sit back down and so they did "Assisting the royal of Esfelt are Second General Draxxer Blade and Royal Advisor Rin Darkness" both immediately kneeled briefly before standing back up. "The crimes to be cast from this trial are enormous, either Empress Caitlyn Esfelt's allegiance with the Dezol Legion or High priest Nolin Kastello's unprovoked hostile take-over of the Dominion."
Raiku looked at Samala to his right "Member Samala please begin your questioning."
The Mer nodded as she gazed at Caitlyn, putting her feelings aside for her friend she began the questioning. "Member Caitlyn please forgo your memories of the recent events that has befallen your city."
Caitlyn stood up as she clenched the front of her blue one-piece dress, she took a deep breath and began her telling "Three days ago General Blade arrived at my residence as I went through pleas of my people along with my advisor Darkness. Blade carried with him an unconscious young adventurer, one of this generation's heroes of the grand quest. He was thought to be Nephilim similar to Advisor Darkness, Blade had brought him to her for sealing.
But…The hero was then found to not be Nephilim but instead of Devilling blood. High Priest Kastello then suddenly appeared inside my residence alongside a group of nefarious adventurers uninvited and hostile, he had been illegally keeping watch on us for who knows how long. Without giving me and company time to explain the situation he not only jumped to conclusions but threatened our peace."
The hall remained quiet as she explained, the punishment for cutting off a speaker or causing an interruption too much than anybody was willing to pay.
"We escaped the situation and appeared within the main royal military barracks using General Blade's [Rift Phasing] ability. We were met with mutineers hired by High Priest Kastello who even announced their assassination attempt of First General Moore. We once again escaped with the aid of the hero and General Blade then appeared at the hero's guild base." Caitlyn took a brief break to 'collect her thoughts'.
She continued to speak while staring straight into Samala's eyes "I contracted his mercenary guild to act as my body guards, to take me to the town of Kaledd where I would meet with the remnants of our military." Caitlyn stopped speaking as Samala raised her right palm towards her.
"For what reason were you meeting with them?" Samala asked.
"To set up within Kaledd and reach out to the other council members." Caitlyn replied.
Samale nodded "Nolin Kastello, tell your side of this story so far then."
Caitlyn sat down and Nolin stood up, he went on about how he had discovered the royal family conspiring with a Devilling. How he had always doubted the royal family as such needing to keep an eye on their doings. How he had contracted the adventurer guild to act as his foreign hands into capturing someone he had no right to. How the assassination of Jason D.Moore was none of his doing, he had simply suggested some officers within the military to aid him and nothing more.
Helen stopped him "Brigadier Farlan Kenneth has already filled us in on how you bribed them into mutiny, I'm afraid not even he could resist Fae interrogation."
Nolin's jaw dropped, he did not know how to continue as he hadn't expected such drastic measures to be taken with the young Brigadier.
"The lives of all our people are at stake High priest Kastello, I am sure even the Gods understand the need of such evil." Helen explained as she watched his expression pale "I am also sure you understand the consequences of lying while before the supreme court, unfortunately execution is no longer a permanent one therefore we must devise some other sort."
Rej raised his palm up to speak, when Helen nodded he began "Deaths caused by natural causes such as disease aren't prevented by the grand quest and neither are deaths that take place outside of the revival spot's range as long as one is not an arrival. I suggest execution of this liar to take place at either Meria or Oroboros right after a public one done here at Eslet." He explained with a rather bored expression.
The other council members thought over Rej's suggestion before they all nodded in agreement, Rej continued to speak afterwards "Then it is decided Nolin Kastello, for your acts against the royal family, for plotting mutiny within the military, for putting your people's lives at risk and then abandoning them through failure at your duties you are condemned to multiple executions."
Suddenly heated conversation began to take place around the hall, nobody had expected for such a quick decision to be made.
Jean raised her palm towards the council to speak but was denied by Raiku who shook his head "The court is adjourned! There shall be no debating this outcome! We have been given too much reason to fault the church of night but alas only their leader can be faulted for these acts."
Helen followed up "Take this man to the prisons! Clear the hall, the council shall commence an off timetable meeting!" A group of five soldiers stepped out from the front of the seats and lead away a baffled Nolin, Priestess Jean followed after them with quick dignified strides.
General Moore took a deep sigh as if he had been holding onto it the whole time and stood up to leave, he glanced at Draxxer and then at Caitlyn "I shall gather the dukes and officers for an after meeting." He stated before walking away.
The council members walked or floated down from the podium desk and began walking towards the back of the hall where a set of large blackwood doors lay shut.
Caitlyn wordlessly followed with Draxxer and Rin following suit, a slight expression of relief over all of them.
This court session had followed multiple private investigations, interrogations and inside questioning leading to the quick decision made by the council. Due to these, the council had not had any time to fully gather and talk leading to the following meeting.
Caitlyn followed the other council members towards the private meeting room as two guards opened the doors, a simple room with the same design of the court hall for walls, floor and ceiling. A blackwood circular table lay taking most of the room with seats for each council member and more.
The council members entered the room and took a seat each as did Caitlyn, Draxxer and Rin remained standing behind her and the guards simply closed the doors behind them remaining outside themselves.
Rej sighed deeply "Why can't Juju take care of these things? Too stressful for my age!" he exclaimed in annoyance.
Samala giggled at his childish behaviour "Cousin , advisors are only allowed to assist us. We must attend these ourselves to keep the balance of our three kingdoms." she then explained. Being a single kingdom of two races for the Nymphs meant the two royal families had long been bound in marriage causing these two to have ties similar to being cousins.
Raiku nodded "Indeed and this one was quiet the stressful one, by the Gods…Esfelt what are we to do now? If the Dezol can so easily infiltrate our cities…Are we ever to be safe again?" he then asked sorrowfully while crossing his arms and leaning forward onto the table.
"No we cannot, we never shall be." Replied Caitlyn "Not unless we fight back and throw them off our lands, I urge the other members to consider all-out assault on the cursed lands."
"And how shall we manage that?" Asked Samala "Even the mage guilds cannot break through that barrier, we have tried everything including digging underneath." She sighed dejectedly, the very idea of fighting back long lost within her thoughts.
Caitlyn gestured at Draxxer who then went around the table and handed over a couple dozen sheets of parchment to each member, "What you have been given is a list of volunteers, each a different list altogether. As you might already know the adventurers and their guilds had gathered their forces to aid in the defence of Eslet, that long list is each and every member of those guilds willing to fight for our cause." She explained while looking around the table taking in their expressions.
Helen spoke after having read through each list using her Fae magic as they were passed around "I do not see the names of that mercenary guild you contracted with, do they not wish to aid us?"
Caitlyn shook her head "The Serenity guild has gone underground, we were forced to send General Blade to even come in contact with them. We are unaware of where their base is located and cannot contact them by conventional means but we have received word from them…" Caitlyn glanced back at Darkness who along with Draxxer had moved back to stand behind her.
Rin took a brief bow and began to speak "The Serenity guild will not aid us…The adventurer mercenary guild Serenity, a group of approximately 300 members with their lead twelve as powerful as any of our top warriors along with two of them being heroes of the grand quest whilst one of those being the dark hero.
The guild who gathered the scattered guilds of Kaledd and led them alongside the guilds of Il'e in the defence of Eslet, the guild who not only boasts of having defeated three Devils but has one of their own unaffected by the Dezol legion's ideals." The council members held their breath as the listing of one's achievements during a council meeting meant for a serious declaration afterwards.
"Has declared their disbanding of the guild, all 300 members have scattered and gone their own way. The lead members of the guild remain out of reach and do not wish to be contacted at all." Darkness stated which was followed by silence throughout the table.
After a few moments of this silence it was then broken by Caitlyn "Although this strong guild has gone the others do remain, the Eternium and Apokalypse guilds are already making plans alongside the Berserker's Wrench, Predators, Lost, Fake and L.O.L.Z guilds to push the frontlines at Frosthold and cleanse the cursed lands then surround the Dezol fort."
"The numbers and assistance is fine and all…" Samala began but trailed off briefly before continuing "The same problem still stands although we now outnumber the Dezol forces, how do we bring down that barrier?"
"Plans are being made, a weapon is being built with the aid of the adventurer guilds." Caitlyn assured them "King Jekyll can explain further."
Esfeltian Dominion Military Prison, Underground cells.
Past noon.
Jean glared down in disgust at Nolin, chained up with magic sealing metal and left to rot behind the bars of this mossy dungeon. "Look at what you have done to yourself Kastello, not only have we lost the trust of the heroes but the whole populace in general."
"No…No! I did not do this!" Nolin exclaimed as he tried to sit up from his kneeling position rattling the chains that kept him down "This was all planned! It was all made up by that royal! The illusion created by that Devilling! The Devils brought into our city by Blade! It all makes sense Lumin!" his expression was pale and pleading.
Jean shook her head "It matters not now Nolin, your crimes have been carved out and nothing can reverse the council's decision. Worry not for your followers will continue your work to the God of night, your days of preaching end here but may you continue to pray and beg for forgiveness." She turned away and ascended the stairs out of the dungeon as he stared gawking.
Upstairs were a couple guards who then escorted Jean out of the prison and to her horse pulled carriage, a simple large wooden carriage. Two others already sat inside waiting for her, they both turned to her when she stepped inside.
Jean looked each adventurer over.
The hero of Nature, a female human with short aqublue hair, silver eyes and sharp features. She wore a dark green set of ranger leather armour, two small quivers of bolts strapped to her waist and two one-handed crossbows were fastened to her leather gloves. She had an easy-going expression while waiting for Jean to say something, at the same time leaning away from the one sitting beside herself.
The hero of Blood, a Mer adventurer with shaved black hair, dark blue eyes and rows of shark-like fangs. Dark blue netting grew between his fingers, elbows and armpits while shark fins grew out of his back, shoulders and the back of his thighs. He wore an amused expression while glancing around the royal district they resided at in paranoia. For gear we wore black chain armour, plate legs and a dark blue cloak. By his side were two short and wide fin like blades that curved like a crescent moon with the handle lodged inside the thick blade's curve.
The Mer spoke first "So the hell do we do now?" he spoke with a slight hiss "You promised us protection and training but your funds are quickly draining and income disappearing along with your followers."
The human coughed twice "What Sharkmeat means to say…How do we proceed from now on? Nolin's schemes have put us in a difficult position, we are unsure if continuing our friendship is healthy."
Jean nodded "I understand if you wish to distance yourself from us, we aren't trying to hold you but simply prepare you properly. The grand quest will eventually lead up to the same event it always does. A last battle with the legions of evil, with all heroes present as the dark hero picks a side. I assure you your training is at the top of our priorities, your protection is also guaranteed.
If you wish to continue our friendship then we shall also proceed as planned, once we find your strength adequate you shall leave to gather all the heroes into a single party. A leader will be picked from all six of you, whoever that may be I beg you follow them. That is when the grand quest truly begins, when all six heroes are gathered and plan their next step together."
Sharkmeat shrugged "Hey I'm all up for freebies, don't got no problem with whoever becomes leader either." He glanced at the human "Talia I don't know about you but I damn sure aren't being thrown under the bus along with their people, you both sure we're clean and won't be sentenced to death alongside that creep Nolin?"
Talia sighed and looked at Jean waiting for an answer, the priestess chuckled "Worry not child, Kastello's antics are his own. His crimes will bear rotten fruit in our gardens but alas it is our job to get rid of them not yours, be reassured that this will not affect you."
Talia leaned forward "Well that's sorted then, now I am quiet interested in this guild I've been hearing about. What do you know about Serenity?"
Jean waved at the carriage driver to move "The guild who gathered the rest of your people?" she asked in confirmation.
Talia nodded "The one that has two of us heroes, the dark hero and the Devil hero."
Jean leaned back in her seat that faced theirs and gazed out the window as the carriage quickly moved past the still wrecked gate and out into the fields of the noble's district "Word has come by that they have disbanded, the Devil hero of the dagger has not been seen for days while the dark hero of frost has been spotted around Dread Swamp with some of his companions."
Dread swamp
One day ago.
Later in the afternoon.
Slime burst in every direction followed by splinters of wood, spurts of swamp water and bursts of steam. The swamp immediately became a warzone as Soren dashed around slashing, bashing or simply slamming into blobs of swamp slimes. Birse and Death followed his quicker strides with their own methods, Birse flew around the swamp using his chains on the trees and Death windwalked from branch to branch.
Close behind them Seren was either healing, buffing or launching destructing offensive spells at the circle of slime that surrounded them all. Beside the healer Skill took shots at any slime that snuck through Soren, Birse and Death's mobile massacre.
"Kyll you done yet!?" Skill shouted into the mossy cave entrance behind them, one of the reasons they were here.
After the successes of Operation D.D.O.S and Operation 'Body Switch' the guild had Disbanded to get rid of the weaker members and rebranded.
"There's too many!" Death announced as he pulled a small blob of murky slime off his shoulder.
"The Dusk Brotherhood doesn't surrender! Keep it up! Kyll hurry the fuck up!" Birse barked orders as he swung around the swamp.
They had then proceeded to spending two days remaking Lilior's dungeon, using Birse's strategic mind, Sly's aesthetic knowledge and everyone else's input they completely remade their base excluding the living room which was repaired and kept.
After that the guild had separated into two 'farming' parties, due to the party system limiting it to a maximum of six party members. They had found out that being in a party with someone 40 levels within your own increased your experience gain, being in a raid party did not do this unfortunately. As such Sly, Steph, Jacky, Ch, Cherry and much to Jacky's chagrin Woody had partied up and left to scout out potential farming areas for the guild.
Birse, Soren, Seren, Skill and Death on the other hand were currently holding back waves of swamp slimes as Kyle explored the cave that lay in the very centre of Dread swamp. Through Cornelius's suggestion Kyle had decided to come to this cave called the Slime Delve where he could possible obtain more elemental typing for his [Ooze] skill and train his [Tails].
Deep inside the cave tunnels of the Slime Delve, Kyle carefully stepped through the rocky terrain with his right hand raised forwards. A bright white-blue flame in the form of a curved longsword in his hand, both for protection and lighting.
Kyle noticed many cracks in the cave's ceiling and was keeping a close eye on them while glancing at the ones behind him, suddenly light yellow slime began to ooze out of one of the cracks behind him. The slime caught ablaze causing the cracks throughout the tunnel to catch fire as more slime oozed out, the sight was both beautiful and terrifying.
Kyle stabbed his sword upwards and into the low ceiling before the flames reached his head, his own fire spread out from his sword and began to hold back the bright yellow flames. Suddenly through the sword blue [Elder Frost] slime spread out through the blue flames "Absorb!" Kyle chanted and his slime began to devour the yellow, cores began to drop from the blazing ceiling as his blue slime spread throughout it all.
When the last of the yellow slime was devoured and core drained of mana Kyle dissipated his and lowered the sword of white-blue flame. He wiped his forehead from the sweat caused by the sheer heat and sighed "One down…"
Through the skill [{Absorb}] the skill [Ooze] has gained the type [Fire]"Who knows how many more to go…" Kyle mused as he looked down the tunnel, a faint glow of blue a dozen or so meters further in. With a wide grin plastered on his face he threaded further in.
"Kyll I swear I'll come in there and shove those cores up your ass if you don't hurry up!" Seren's voice echoed through the cave followed a by a scream of frustration.
Kyle immediately stopped and squinted as he looked down the tunnel, the faint glow of blue turned into a solid wall of green-blue slime that was currently rapidly moving towards him "Fucking hell!" Kyle cursed as he prepared his sword.
The wall of slime flowed like liquid while absorbing anything in it's path, it rapidly rushed towards Kyle as tentacles stretched out and flayed towards him from it's surface.
"Core of my being! Cold flames within me! Devour all that stand in my path! Devouring Frostfire!" The white-blue flames burst out from all over Kyle's body and shot forth like an inferno at the wall of slime, the flames collided with the wall causing the tentacles to immediately freeze over and shatter along with the surface of the wall to also solidify into ice.
The wall did stop and bashed into Kyle, it carried him flames and all through the tunnel until they reached the open cavern that connected to it. Kyle was shot upwards due to the tunnel's slanted angel of entrance, he held onto the block of frozen slime for dear life as the mass of green-blue behind it surged all around him snuffing out his flames with sheer body mass.
The large mass of slime threatened to engulf Kyle before he dissipated his flames and pushed it away with his own [Demonic] crimson slime, he formed a barrier of it around him then grew scales all around the sphere. The mass of slime engulfed the sphere of black scales as it rolled down to the bottom of the high cavern with a splat, it's body mass was thrown all over the place while a blue crystal sphere bounced off Kyle's barrier and to the ground.
The glowing green-blue slime began to reform around it's core which was half the size of Kyle's barrier, it surged up and engulfed him yet again. He grimaced as he began to run out of air, this situation reminded him of his very first acquaintance with slimes. What made this worse was not only the sheer size of this slime blob but the acidic properties it had as it ate away at Kyle's scale barrier.
Kyle had nowhere to run and soon nowhere to hide, the blob of slime had him completely caged up and he couldn't think of any combination of his skills that could help him except for one. Quickly he formed a lump of [Elder Frost] to one side of his barrier making it slowly push the acidic slime away, after using up as much mana as he could the lump was almost as large as his barrier.
"Release of mass! Bursting of solid cold! Fracture!" cracks rapidly formed all over the lump of frozen slime before it ultimately violently exploded. Kyle felt the air being squashed out of his lungs as he smashed into the side of his barrier face first, his premature use of fracture sending his barrier of armoured scales shot like a projectile.
The sphere of black scales launched out of the mass of slime and bounced around the cavern walls, floor and ceiling over and over, the slime scales being more rubbery than solid carapace. Inside the barrier Kyle bounced around as he held his head with his hands and retreated into the fetal position.
The sphere gained momentum and smashed into the mass of slime from time to time causing it's body mass to splatter all over the cavern, eventually it hit the slime's massive core. Both spherical objects bounced around the cavern while colliding with each other here and there.
("Ohh…I'm gonna puke…") Kyle thought as he had enough of the sickly ride and surged downwards, the movement sending the whole barrier of scales changing directly completely and bouncing off the floor. When it did so Kyle surged again ruining it's momentum and leading to the whole barrier bouncing up and down briefly before falling to a stop.
Close by the slime's core also came to a bouncing, rolling stop. Kyle dissipated his barrier and looked around, the acidic slime was very slowly moving towards it's core as it lay scattered all over. He quickly walked up to the core and used what little spirit he currently had to from flames as his mana pool was nearing empty. He pulled out the soul that lay within the core killing the slime but leaving it's core intact, he then proceeded to allowing his flames to devour the soul.
The unique passive skill [{From Ashes}] has been unlocked! Through the skill [{From Ashes}] the skill [Ooze] has gained the type [Acid]Kyle sighed in relief as he looked over the core "At least I don't have to eat this fucking thing…" he wobbled down into sitting and took a short break from the nausea.