B4 – Chapter 27: Undying Realm Incursion

Eloise’s voice rang out over the desert dunes and broad walls. “Hello! Anyone there!” Not sound answered them, save the whipping of the wind. She turned to Tristan. “They…might all be dead inside.”

Tristan sighed and glanced at the now-invisble Felicity. “Mind checking it out?”

“Will do! Scout Felicity, on duty!” She took flight from his head and flew up into the sky, drifting in little, lazy circles before coming back down. She dropped the invisibility so that Eloise could hear, and her voice was filled with dread. “There’s…something inside. A rift.”

Eloise’s demeanor darkened. “Another realm.”

Tristan walked to the gates and pushed against the smaller door built into the larger gate. It was held firm. “Well, they’ve locked the place down.” He glanced back to Eloise, “Staging ground, maybe? For an incursion? The disease was like the opening salvo?”

“Possible,” Eloise said as she came over. “Felicity, can you go over and unlock it?”

“I’ll try.” Felicity turned invisible once more and flew up, over the wall, and vanished from view. Tristan spun his crucible and drew his sword, activating his armor’s stored spells and Dragon’s Doom in his blade. The door clicked and pushed outward. Felicity had succeeded, and flapped back to land on Tristan’s head; perched between the Demonkin horns and holding onto them as little handles. “Mission success.”

Eloise drew her daggers and glanced at Tristan. “I don’t speak Death’s Breath if it is the Undying Realm.”

“Let me scout,” Tristan replied. “Felicity will fly and take in the whole place, I’ll go in with invisibility. Just hide along the outer wall here. Maybe go up to the tops to keep overwatch.” Tristan used some of his fluctuating essence to open his pocket dimension, grabbed his Omnitome, and quickly re-read the spell phrase and gesture instructions for Greater Invisibility. Quickly casting the spell, he felt the considerable drain on his reserves. Snapping the book shut, he put it back in storage and went through the open door into the town.

Felicity flew off and made for the skies above. Tristan moved down the uniform city street, noting the lack of anything living. No corpses, no blood, no sounds except a slight creaking of windows or doors left open to the elements. The city was nearly identical to the capital city, with smaller buildings and more rounded edges instead of hard corners. Possibly for the sand, he reasoned, figuring in the desert a storm could whip the debris and having rounded portions would mean it would not abrade as readily.

Going down the main corridor, he could see a slight, pale green glow. Whatever was causing it was behind a huge statue built atop a fountain that dominated a central intersection, and it was here that he saw signs of activity. The corpses he had expected to see, similar to those who had suffered from the Creampox outside near the obelisks, were piled up and in the process of being stripped down. The whole entire town center was covered in gore and viscera; raw white fat glistening in huge, metal buckets alongside troughs full of muscle and sinew. Skin was being stretched across the sides of the buildings in huge sheets that were slowly being stitched together. Organs were being shredded in enormous meat grinders which produced a fine paste. And the white liquid from the Creampox had been scooped up and placed into cauldrons.

The scents were disgusting, and Tristan was glad he could make retching noises as Greater Invisibility eliminated the chance for him being detected by sight or sound. The creatures performing these grisly tasks were tall, gaunt men and women. They looked like Captain Bitters, but had more pallid white or grey skin, sharper canines, blood-red eyes with a black iris and no whites. Their hair colors varied from black to bone white and all the shades of grey in-between. Their voices intermingled as they chatted idly while working. They were not dressed as warriors: they had outfits on that were a singular piece of fabric from ankles to necks.

As he skirted the outside edges of the town center, carefully moving around the workers and ensuring he did not step into a puddle of gore, he got to the other side of the fountain and saw the rift. A large, jagged tear with two black metal pillars planted in the ground, jutting up at slight angles away from each other. A square-ish rip in reality that led to another realm. But, more important than that, Tristan saw another one of the creatures he had encountered in Maladonia.

The hulking, black-armored humanoid that was easily ten feet tall, covered in spikes and adorned with skulls, hefted a massive battle-axe over its shoulder. It was barking out orders in that same, oddly hissing language that rasped slightly.

What are my options here? Tristan thought. I know a Realm Protector has to close an incursion, so that means Duberceix would have to get here to shut this. But it also looks like it is anchored in place by these spikes. If I removed or damaged the spikes, would the rift shut? Or destabilize?

His ear cuff buzzed, and he pushed some essence into it. “Yes?” he asked.

Felicity’s voice came over the message spell. “Looks like a group is coming from the north. A bunch of those grey people, with two of the big, black armored guys escorting them. They have a ton of corpses from the obelisk-road heading north of town.”

Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon.

Eloise’s voice responded over the connection. “What can you share?”

Tristan rapidly informed the both of them about what he saw. “I think this confirms it.”

“Yes, those are Vantir. The Undying Realm is the one responsible for spreading this blight. I would imagine they started the infection here, and then people began to flee – that’s why the corpses were out in the distance. They must seek revenge. First the Feather Scourge, now this Creampox? I would imagine they are plotting incursions across the Demon Realm.”

“Where’s the Realm Protector?” Tristan asked as he moved back to one of the walls to stay well out of the way of the Vantir workers. “Duberceix should be rushing here to close this.”

“Unless he does not know it exists,” Eloise replied.

Felicity added to the conversation. “Oh, yeah. Like The Matriarch does her patrols because she doesn’t get any type of notice otherwise.”

Tristan frowned. “I thought she was notified of realmwalking attempts to enter the Realm. Is that wrong?”

“No,” Eloise interrupted as Felicity was about to answer. “Incursions can happen through more than just realmwalking.”