236, 1/2

 

The court of ironcrystal that surrounded the dungeon keep was rather normal, with people of all sorts standing around everywhere and most of them making final preparations to get into the dungeon. Erick easily heard a good six different conversations about various plans for various floors, most of them centered around floor 2. One group of rookies were absolutely sure that if they could get to Marii’s tower faster, that they could complete the floor. Few people were delvers who were on the later floors, with one group of three talking about how they had failed to defend The Summoner well enough and how they needed to better account for invisible enemies.

Invisible enemies were a problem here and there in the dungeon, but Erick had never managed to encounter any of those. And he likely never would. This All-Seeing Eye hanging around his neck, under his clothes, was rather great at spotting the unseen.

Erick wondered if he would ever be able to go back inside the dungeon to play around with more mana crystals, because there were a lot of unseen enemies around him right now, here under the clouded sun, on the Surface of Veird. Erick had already seen and sent Ophiel away, and he had already recast all of his defensive spellwork, and now, it was just him standing here, waiting for the green-wearing Inquisitors of Greensoil to make their first move.

Soldiers and assassins and a few commanders stood here and there on the ramparts above, and in the shadows of the courtyard wall. One obviously high-ranking mage assassin of the Green Circle, if Erick was seeing correctly, wore flowing green robes, as he stood beside the door to the surface delver’s guildhall. That guy didn’t make a move.

To Erick’s surprise, and to the surprise of some of the Inquisitors standing on the walls, the first person to make a move was some guy whom Erick had given a bracelet of [Self Rejuvenation] to the other day. The guy was just a normal guy, and he had spotted Erick come out of the dungeon keep. His name was Harro, Erick recalled.

Harro smiled and waved, jangling his bracelet as he jogged toward Erick, calling out, “Ashes! Congrats on getting 4650 on the Deco—”

Erick held up a hand toward the man, and said, “Stop there, Harro. Don’t come any closer,” while his gaze was locked on another person entirely. A man that no one else could see.

A man in green armor and wearing a green shoulder cape stopped in front of Erick, maybe five meters away. He had been walking slowly toward Erick ever since he had stepped out of the dungeon, making sure absolutely nothing gave away his gentle approach. He was using an advanced form of airwalking and other forms of magic, and his approach was just the start of whatever was going to happen here today.

Erick had seen through the air-guy’s approach with the All-Seeing Eye. He liked to think he would have seen through the man’s approach even without the Eye, which was probably true. Now that Erick had spotted the approaching man, though, the gathered Inquisitors decided to try a different approach.

The airwalking guy stepped away, considerably faster than he had approached, disturbing the air and sending a little gust of wind in all directions as he moved.

Harro furrowed his brow as he stopped at Erick’s command, saying, “… Eh? Ah… Sure? Well I guess you’re not that friendly after all.” He scowled. “Assh—”

At that same moment, a different green-armored man stepped away from the ramparts, to stand in the air, revealing himself to all. His armor shone with green light, as his own shoulder cape flapped in a wind of his own making. Erick knew him from before, when the man had interviewed Erick the first time he had been detained here at the entrance to the Glittering Depths.

Wess Clover spoke to the entire courtyard, softly yet with force, “Attention, delvers and otherwise of the Glittering Depths.”

All conversations in the entire courtyard suddenly ended. Everyone looked at the man who had stepped out of the invisible air. Everyone knew him as an Inquisitor, and suddenly, people started trying to slink away. Harro backpedaled so fast, halfway through calling Erick an asshole, that he fell on his butt and kinda froze there on the dirt.

Wess said, “Everyone who is not Ashes Woodfield should evacuate the area. You have one minute, and only if Mister Woodfield doesn’t make this happen right away.”

Delvers were very good at self-preservation. There was no talk. There was no concern for propriety. Everyone evacuated, racing to get away as fast as they possibly could. Harro lifted himself off the ground with grace that had been lacking earlier, and then he was out of there with the rest of them.

And now it was just Erick, about 30 Inquisitors of various power and skill, and at least one assassin of the Green Circle.

Inquisitor Wess descended to the courtyard floor and spoke softer now, his voice not empowered by any magic at all. “Mister Woodfield. We have questions for you. Will you cooperate?”

“I will cooperate right here. Ask your questions.”

As though expecting this, Wess continued, “We require you to come with us to a secure location to discuss the matters.”

“I will not go to a secondary location. Ask your questions.”

“I am afraid I must insist this time, Mister Woodfield.”

“And I will insist that you try it this time.”

“Why are you resisting us on this matter?”

Erick’s anger had been building, but now it stalled. Why had Wess asked that particular question? Erick answered, “Because I have done nothing wrong, therefore I will not submit to your authority.”

“You understand that this statement is not truly believable.”

“I do understand that. No one in any authority in this world except for certain societies which are not present here would believe a detainee’s innocence, from that detainee’s own statements.” Erick said, “Which is why I would ask for you to make a claim, and then I will confirm or deny that claim, with a Mind Mage witness. You only have to gather one, or I could gather one instead.”

“The Mind Mages have no authority over Greendale and they have proven ineffectual in sussing out the threat coming from the Glittering Depths thus far.” Wess said, “I ask again for you to submit peacefully, and accompany us to a secondary location, whereupon we will discuss what we wish to discuss.”

“You’re a good negotiator, Wess Clover, and it is very interesting that the Mind Mages haven’t been able to help you find out whatever you wanted found in the Glittering Depths. Tell me one thing, please: Did your various suspects deny the Mind Mage option, and the Mind Mages upheld that denial? Or did the Mind Mage option truly yield nothing, even when undertaken correctly and with the uncoerced consent of all involved?”

Wess did not answer.

But Erick saw what he saw. So he said, “That it was the second option is truly interesting. This implies some odd level of self-mind obfuscation. Or perhaps you haven’t managed to capture any suspect of actual interest at all… The second one, I’m guessing.”

Wess moved on, “If you have any information about how you were able to make a sentient staff, I would hear that explanation.”

… Erick looked to the left.

The staff floated there, surrounded by golden fire and radiance. It looked positively angry.

Erick told the staff, “Please go back home.”

The staff paused, its fire fading.

And then it winked out of existence in a golden flash.

Erick asked Wess, “How long was it there?”

“When you said you would not submit.”

Erick put several thoughts together, and threw out there, “Other people have made real objects that come out here on Veird, and these objects have been used in those demonic murders.”

Wess easily said, “Correct. If you know anything, then we ask you to divulge that information now.”

“I do not know anything in particular about that; only that I suspected that bringing metirons out into the real world was possible for a while now” Erick added, “But I have a connection to The Wizard I can exploit on your behalf, if you desire that sort of solution.”

Wess did not react with surprise to ‘the Wizard’, therefore he knew Erick was a Benevolence dragon. No one reacted with surprise at all, actually, which was not that surprising to Erick, and which proved that these people were prepared for him. The Green Circle assassin did gain a certain edge to his gaze when Erick brought up ‘the Wizard’, though, and he was not the only one.

Wess calmly spoke to someone who was not Erick, as he said, “My questioning is done.” And then he said to Erick, “I ask you again to come with us for proper questioning.”

Erick sighed. “You seem to be the only reasonable one here, Wess.”

“I am the softer side of the Inquisition, for when softer speaking and doing is required. But too many nobles have died due to the demonic murders, even though one death was already too many. I ask you one final, third time, to give yourself over to our custody.”

“What does this look like if I cooperate?”

Wess did not answer.

Erick tried, “Do you actually believe I have something to do with these murders? Just because I have figured out how to bring items from the Glittering Depths into reality, and not bothered to hide that fact?”

Wess did not answer. He waited.

… That was not a good sign. When Inquisitors got involved, and when fights happened, people got disappeared into holes in the ground, and only let out later, at the whims of the Inquisition. If Erick actually believed that he could have gone to a secondary location to speak to these people and peacefully untangle whatever problems they had, he would have considered that option, if only to prevent a fight. But when they showed up like this, with assassins in the wings and fully prepared to kill, there was only one way this confrontation was ever going to go.

Peace was never an option.

The air-wrapped guy from earlier moved.

And Erick had a bit of time to review what he was going to do in response.

Erick knew what he would be dealing with, for the most part. He had participated in several of these takedowns over the years. The first line of attack would involve half of the attacking force readying [Counterspell]s of various strength and specialty, with Tricking Magic and other such spellwork, in there in order to lock down the most egregious possible spells the target might cast, like Blood, Destruction, or Soul Magic. Lesser focus would be placed on the basic Elemental [Counterspell]s, like for Fire or Water, or such. For an assault team of this size, at least three of the mages would simply have very large, Variable Cost Variable Effect [Grand Counterspell]s, with a massive multiplier, either through artifacts or Class Abilities dropping the cost of their Counters to 5 mana spent per 100 mana Countered.

The other half of the first attack would be an actual attack, from someone trying to slip in and spear Erick with a sword or other weapon into the core. This would be a real attack, but it would be like hitting a billiard ball on a pool table; a set up for the next actual attack. Whichever way Erick chose to dodge would be him running directly into the next threat, and then the next.

Getting past three or four physical attacks would put Erick past their first coordinated assault, and now he’d be in the more confusing part of the takedown.

The [Counterspell]-casters would have figured out which of them were best suited to lock him down, and they would stay on that, but the other ones would switch to focused attack magic that their own warriors could safely ignore. Some would focus on healing the warriors, or containing the resulting damage, but this fight was taking place far away from civilization, so there was no real worry about collateral damage.

Wess had spoken with Erick long enough for everyone to evacuate, which, looking back on it, was probably the only reason that Wess had been allowed to talk at all. Wess was a good guy. He had probably fought for that right; to at least give everyone else a chance to get away from the battle before it started.

They knew ‘Ashes’ was a cover life, for sure, but they had no idea what that cover actually covered, otherwise they would have approached this situation a lot differently. Erick’s ‘Ashes’ public persona was a 9 star adventurer in good standing with every major guild out there, with a registered Water Domain, so they knew he had that.

… Would Erick keep up that ruse?

Yes.

Erick decided to keep the Water Domain persona active. ‘Ashes’ could continue to exist, if these people would let him. After this confrontation was done, Erick wouldn’t be able to come back here, though…

But he could dungeon hop from some other dungeon into the Glittering Depths—

Bah! Why was Erick even thinking like this? Like it was important to be inside the Glittering Depths for some reason…

Well. He knew why. Erick needed to find out more about Ashes and the Summoner and mana crystals and all of that! He had just proven that he could make mana crystal items and bring them into the real world.

… Which was apparently something that the Greensoil Republic was interested in, but who could blame them? Erick was very interested in finding out what else he could make with mana crystals and Wizardry, too.

What he wasn’t interested in was the overreach of Greendale.

Ashes had done nothing wrong; he was completely clean! There was absolutely no reason for Greendale to be coming at him like this! But they were tyrants, who didn’t care for the rule of law unless it suited them. A noble suspected of a grand crime —one that actually required the Crown to take notice and stop— wouldn’t be arrested like this. They’d be approached by representatives of the Viridian Throne and brought to court, which, depending on the severity of the crime, would end up as a black mark on the noble house’s name, or a minor fine.

Or some other lesser denigration.

But if you weren’t a noble, then you got your life absolutely ruined for even being suspected of a crime! It was horrible.

… And Erick knew he’d be dealing with all that later.

For now, Erick was an outsider, non-noble, and thus he was subject to second-class citizen status, like all the dragonkin and otherwise which might live in Greensoil.

Eh.

Erick focused on the battle.

Airwalking guy invisibly approached at the speed of sound itself, the air flexing around him the only giveaway that the attack was coming at all.

Erick did several things fast. First, he allowed his aura into the air, and then he manually fired off about a thousand tiny Bolts of every conceivable Element, with many multiples of those Bolts, all at once. It took a thousand mana.

Eight of the 15 [Counterspell] mages got tripped up by that, their Script Second eaten away by one or two of the Bolts Erick had tried to cast, shadows splashing away magic before it could even form. Counter Mages 9 and 10 each unleashed a spark of shadow that multiplied across all of the remaining parts of Erick’s spellwork, their [Grand Counterspell]s shutting down the other Bolts; their prepared Counter and Script Second eaten by useless magic.

Instantly following his first round of Bolts, Erick manually cast six overlapping Domain magic spells, spreading them out from himself and into the air around in an ever-expanding wave of power, taking 6000 mana to do so. He was down from 55,000, to 48,000 mana.

Those Domains are what caused the remaining Counter mages and one of the warriors above and behind Erick, on top of the dungeon keep, to blow their load. In that flashing instant, they attempted to break his Domains. Only two of them succeeded.

Erick had almost broken the first wave of the attack. Erick’s [Water Domain] and [Light Domain] got shut down, showing that those Counter Mages had some impressive Water and Light-based credentials, which was to be expected, since they knew they were attacking a Benevolence dragon, and that Ashes had a Water Domain, at least.

The Fire, Air, Stone, and Shadow Domains all expanded outward, unimpeded and overlapping.

The Air guy stumbled as he struck Erick’s Air Domain, and Erick transformed a tendril of his aura into his Air Domain and ripped at the Air guy’s own control over his own Air. There was a minor struggle. The man had a Domain of his own, and he was very skilled at breaking other Domains, but Erick was better, and then Erick used [Airshape] to truly rip at the guy, seizing total control of his Air and eradicating the man’s Health, before taking him apart at the waist and then removing both of his arms with the same motion.

He would live; Erick would ensure it, once he dealt with the other four assailants, and the seven more waiting behind them.

As the air guy was still falling forward due to momentum, Erick carved away at a pair of Force Warriors who were much less prepared for Erick, and which only looked dangerous with their large swords and quick strikes. The Force warriors ended up slowly falling to the ground, too, as Erick took their legs and arms from them.

By that time another Script Second was here, and the Mages had another moment to act with their full power, but Erick was prepared for that. His expanding Shadow and Air Domains had only gotten ten meters out at the moment, and Erick had swept through all melee attackers in range, just in time for the first salvos of mage destruction to sail his way.

Erick manually cast some rather well-made reflective spellwork and bounced a good third of that dangerous magery up into the air, harmlessly away.

His Domains kept expanding, because that’s what Erick had created them to do. Now, they reached Wess, and then flowed over him.

Erick left him be, as he disabled the remaining warriors, though one of them did manage to break the Shadow Domain with his own Shadow Domain, or a Domain Breaker skill. Hard to tell, really.

Domains, once released from a person and not directly reinforced, could be broken rather easily by someone else’s Domain. You still needed actual Domain magic in order to fight against a Domain, though. Greensoil had a lot of specialists here and so they could do that, so it didn’t surprise Erick when they killed his remaining Air, Fire, and Stone Domains.

Erick had more power than that, though.

Erick switched to Ice Magic and did a few easy take downs here and there, using Ice that was cold enough to inflict the Stop status effect, which he repeated on every downed person, just so they couldn’t get back up under their own power. In the middle of that, Erick flowed out an Ice Domain, like a tidal wave of domination, washing across the entire ironcrystal courtyard, and splashing up and out, catching every mage in its wake.

Erick left Stopped human popsicles all across the courtyard.

Little bits of blood decorated the white ice all over the land, but there were no permanent injuries. Some people even managed to escape the freezing, like Wess, because Erick left him be, and two mages on the walls, because they were that good. Those mages were the ones who had managed to eradicate Erick’s Water and Light Domains. The final survivor was the Green Circle assassin.

Ice, blue and white and meters thick in some places, layered across everyone and everything except those four people, and Erick.

And the monster by the dungeon entrance was fine, of course; Erick didn’t touch the giant spider at all.

In the still of the frozen land, Erick breathed. That fight had cost him exactly 3 seconds of actual time, and about 30,000 mana. If he needed to [Return], he’d get that 30,000 mana back, but not the mana he’d use for [Return], which is why Erick had saved his Script Second for that spell, so the Script could help him reduce the cost of that magic from 10,000 mana to 500. Erick had been rather sure of his victory, but nothing was ever certain when it came to conflict like this.

Erick looked at Wess. “You are coming with me now, and I am taking you to see The Wizard. Will you comply?”

“I will,” Wess said, without hesitation.

The Circle assassin finally revealed himself, as though the space where ice did not touch wasn’t revealing enough. The man’s green robes flowed as he took one step forward, and said, “I would also speak to the Wizard regarding this matter, and other matters.”

Erick looked up to the walls where the Water and Light Domain mages had managed to hold off Erick’s ice. Those two were not nearly as cool-under-pressure as Wess and the assassin, but they were not freaking out either. They could probably hold it together for a little while longer. Erick looking directly at them wasn’t doing them any favors, though. “Are they going to be able to save the people here? Or do I need to do that myself?”

The assassin said, “They are competent enough to save those here, though a retraction of your Domain would be useful after we have left.”

Erick nodded. And then he had Ophiel descend from the sky in a show of complete force, wearing his 5 meter wide form and layered in spellwork and with his signature reflective shield of silver thorns. Ophiel roared in displeasure-flutes as he landed in front of Wess and the assassin, and then he opened a [Gate] to Candlepoint, to Erick’s throne room, which Erick had already made sure was available, and prepared.

It had taken Burhendurur and some Elites a [Hasted Shelter] in order to get ready for this fallout here, though. But they were ready.

And then Ophiel opened another [Gate] near Erick, and Erick had Ophiel say, “You go here. Deal with you later!”

And Erick said, “It appears I am headed somewhere else for the moment.”

Erick walked through the [Gate], and it shut behind him.

Erick took a moment, there in an unimportant but well-guarded transportation room in House Benevolence used for this sort of thing, to collect himself. And then he transformed into the Apparent King with his crown of black horns, and over two meters tall. A quick shift of clothing deposited his Ashes outfit into a trunk, while he put on more normal clothes. He was ready for the meeting in the throne room, but he took a moment to fix what he had done at the Glittering Depths, releasing everyone from the ice and then healing them all.

Wess and the Circle Assassin, whom Zolan had found out was named Vance, waited in the center of the throne room, at Erick’s pleasure.

Erick touched the All-Seeing Eye on his chest, and wondered if he wanted to keep it. That trinket was how these people had recognized Ashes’s disregard for the rules of the Glittering Depths; he had come walking out of there wearing it, after all. The staff had only appeared later.

How long had that taken them to set up? They had to have been watching from the control rooms of the dungeon, or something like that. They had gotten ready rather fast.

But first things first!

Erick grabbed Ophiel and hugged him tight, saying, “You acted so well, Ophiel! I’m so proud of you!”

Ophiel twittered, “I’m actor! I hide and play good!”

“Yes you do, Ophiel. Very good job. Very good.”

And then Erick looked at the not-golden staff floating beside him.

It looked a bit odd, to Erick, like it was waiting for orders, or something.

Erick asked, “Can you transform into smaller forms, like Ophiel here?”

The staff instantly became a circle of golden wheat with a glittering white gem surrounded by golden grains.

… Erick put the bracelet on his right arm, and then held it up. “Okay. That’s good. Thank you.”

The not-staff twinkled.

“… Okay then,” Erick said to himself, “Time to go prevent an international crisis, even though I’m pretty sure they expected it to go this way to begin with.”

Ophiel twittered, uncaring about politics he didn’t really understand, and instead focused on landing on Erick’s shoulder, taking his rightful, happy place.

The not-staff was inert.

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– – – –

Erick let the warrior and the assassin stew for a good 30 minutes in his throne room, alone, at attention on the carpet in front of his dais. They could still communicate with whoever they wished, though, and they did. While Erick spoke to a few people and to Cyril and Yetta over in Odaali about the Odaari event happening today, he kept an eye on Wess and Vance, and on how they telepathically communicated with a lot of other people.

Zolan watched them too. He assumed they were either getting yelled at by their superiors, or they were doing exactly what they were supposed to be doing, now that Erick had come to the rescue of ‘his Benevolence Dragon’. It was hard for Erick to tell any more than that, too, for they were rather accomplished at not letting their telepathic words come out in the microexpressions of their face, or in the unintended movements of their throats and tongues. Eventually, Erick managed to sort out the schedule for the Odaari hearing happening, and then he turned his attentions back to his throne room, fully.

The Apparent King stepped through a [Gate] onto his throne’s dais, his words a clear accusation against the warrior and the assassin, “You are purposefully interfering with my ability to attend to this Denutha Odaari event today.”

Both Wess and Vance’s eyes got a little wider, before they controlled themselves better than that. Either Wess and Vance were great actors, which was likely true, or else they truly did not know that that was what they were doing.

Wess spoke first, “I do not know your meaning, Wizard Flatt.”

Vance had the decency to at least pretend to honor the position he was in, here in a foreign sovereign’s throne room, for he took a bow. With his head still bent, he said, “I am unaware of any plot such as the one you outline, Good Wizard Flatt.”

“Rise.” Erick said, “I have already heard the story from Ashes, and he has already handed over this trinket he made down there.” Erick took out the All-Seeing Eye from around his neck, under his robes, and said, “An All-Seeing Eye. Quite the wonder, actually. It let him see every single part of your attack and also a few more interesting things in that dungeon you have there. I might give it back to him, but it’s a mana crystal, and those are rather interesting.” He put the eye back under his robes, and then he opened a [Gate] to his right, just beyond his throne dais, and Poi stepped out, dressed for diplomatic battle. “Speak plainly, or give a detailed report to my Overseer of Mind Mages. I would prefer both.”

Poi gave a small nod toward Erick, and then stood at relaxed attention to the side.

Wess did not speak.

Vance took a half-step forward. “The Greensoil Republic formally charges Ashes Woodfield with resisting arrest, distribution of magical goods without a license, accessory to murder, accessory to anarchy, and empowerment of demonic forces. Were he less than himself, or not tied to you, we would call for his execution and exile, and accept whichever outcome we could actually enforce, while pursuing the execution option to the best of our ability. But he is a dragon, so we would likely accept exile. Since he is tied to House Benevolence, we would ask for your cooperation in apprehending this criminal.”

The assassin didn’t flinch as Erick ordered him to spill the story, and then he proceeded not to spill any story at all. Vance went straight for the fallout of this whole event, skipping several steps of the normal process of information exchange and thus trying to put himself and Greensoil in a position of better power over House Benevolence.

Erick decided that he wasn’t going to allow them to skip to the sentencing, as he repeated his previous command, but in different words, “I would hear what Ashes has done from your perspective.”

Vance nodded his head politically, and then he stepped back in line with Wess.

Wess took a half-step forward. “Greensoil asks if you are aware of the demonic murders happening in the capital of Greensoil? In Greendale?”

“Mostly. Ashes mentioned those, and I looked into them.”

Wess waited for Erick to say more, but when he didn’t, Wess continued, “Ashes Woodfield has created artifacts of power inside the Gem Dungeon and distributed them for gold to other forces inside the dungeon. This is not a problem, for ironcrystal items are fake magic. But Ashes has also caused items to become real, through Wizardry. This is where the charges against magical item creation come from. It is our belief that Mister Woodfield has done much more than this, though, and has directly given Artifacts of power to unknown demonic sympathizers located in the Gem Dungeon, for the express purpose of undermining the authority of the Viridian Throne, through the systematic murder of judges, Inquisitors, high-ranking merchants, and nobles. The nobles are the only murders which we have not been able to keep out of the Knowledge Mage readers, so we did not try.