Alchimia Rex

Eva had never held any particular interest in managing knights, yet as a noble, Evans Bavtha had no option but to go through extensive education on the matter. Knights weren't just expected to be the best of the best the kingdom had to offer, but there were protocols in place to ensure they firmly followed certain codes of conduct. One such method of enforcement was through regular interrogations under the watchful eye of a psychic, as well as under the watchful eye of truth detection.

There were ways around such things, of course. Less-than-stellar nobles could place their most trusted agents in legal limbo, holding all the power of a knight but neither the position nor prestige. Others would tweak the questions during interrogations to guarantee technicalities in their favor. A few would just use and discard knights on a regular basis, all for the sake of ensuring their records would not be stained. In the most extreme cases, nobles would use psychics to erase memories and seek to bribe the inspectors to ignore any signs of mental tampering.

By contrast, the Earl of Vittchat was a noble of impeccable conduct. He had gained many enemies over the years, and one of his most powerful shields was complete openness in regards to his knights. Where other nobles might conduct the interrogations behind closed doors, he would make it a closed-door ceremony involving representatives of any who wished to send their own.

One of the core rules of knighthood was that, without direct orders from a noble, the eradication of any accursed was a priority. The exceptions to these rules had been what allowed Eva to remain alive the first time around. She was a prisoner, one willingly submitting to a human as well as to the knights themselves. She had escaped, though, at least on a technicality, and that could very well mean that the instant she met Deneva she'd be executed on the spot.

It was for this reason that Eva's priority was to avoid the knights and focus on getting to Barry before Embla did so.

Dia, Urtha, and the rest of the tribe were tasked with minimizing the loss of life. Every maiden lost could potentially mean one fewer pair of hands that could assist in assaulting the grove.

Which, at first glance, appeared closer to disaster relief than to combat.

Upon first entering the "wooden palace," Eva had originally assumed the inner structure would be akin to an actual palace. A large entrance leading to separate "wings" where guests and servants would be housed, with amenities and special rooms sprinkled throughout. Something large enough to potentially house a few thousand people, maybe up to thirty if things were pushed to the limit.

Once they made it past the initial entranceway, it quickly became clear it would be more fitting to assume the place could house at least ten times Eva's initial assessment.

The entryway led directly into a town plaza at the heart of the tree itself, with light shining down from above, where parts of the tree had been hollowed out. Dozens of staircases led away in different directions, balconies overlooking the garden. There were hundreds, if not thousands, of windows leading up and up. Intense overgrowth spread throughout the entire structure, not just in the presence of emerald mosses and random branches sprouting where they shouldn't, but also in how the wood was irregularly bulbous and swollen.

Sporadically, one could spot signs of maintenance—sharper edges and smoother bark—but they were specks compared to the tree that had been slowly reclaiming the hollow space within itself over hundreds of years.

The strange, almost ethereal image was a stark difference to the massacre they'd encountered. Corpses that were halfway between plant and maiden littered the spaces; blood was thick and pungent in the air, and death was in every direction and down every passageway. Dia had just needed one look at them to know they'd not even died by the hand of the knights but by one another, brutality unleashed with anything and everything they could get their hands on.

The sound of combat echoed throughout the place, coming out of windows and corridors in practically every direction.

"This just makes my job easier," Urtha said, turning to the orcs that had followed her into the colossal building. "Girls, groups of four. Help the knights only so long as you get the chance to capture. Keeping them alive is preferable, but not over your own lives."

"I'll begin setting up a healer's area," Dia said, turning to two of the Orcs and five Pollitas, singling them out and recruiting them to her effort. "Potia, make sure to tell the knight's healers to come here once they're done tending to the wounded outside." One of the five Pollitas instantly set off, clearly relieved at being given the chance to get away from the bodies.

"And… I'll hunt for Barry," Eva grimaced, looking at every possible avenue before her.

She couldn't just run around blindly; the place was too massive and complex, so she did the next best thing. Closing her eyes, she slowly inhaled through her nose. The smell of blood bombarded her with information: anger, panic, fear, desperation, determination, and death. At first, it came as an avalanche of disparaging bits and pieces, each trying to tell the whole story of every individual maiden that had perished within the past hour. The knowledge mostly related to their health—how they'd been at the beginning stages of malnourishment and severely stressed. But as Eva began to focus, she could also pick out which scents belonged to stronger maidens, their power thickening the aroma and making it almost mouth-watering.

The Vampire tried to determine if there was any human blood in the air, but nothing came to her. However, she did notice that the nearer "fresher" sources of blood wafting out of the windows had a rancid undertone to them. Whatever this oddness was, it coincided with the areas where knights were fighting, so Eva could only assume it came from them.

No matter; that made it easier to avoid them.

Eva glanced up at the walls of the plaza and focused on the shadows a few levels above, on a window that didn't appear to have any action happening nearby. A quick jump through the darkness and she emerged into an empty hallway. The sound of fighting was now both above and beneath her, so she focused on a spot opposite the plaza but also a level or two above. A quick jump and another hasty assessment of the scents, then she took off again.

Focusing only on the places that had no activity going on, she used her shadow-jump to make her way up to the highest set of windows. Here and there were signs of the fighting that was still going on, with knights split up into small squadrons of five wielding heavy shields and long spears.

Meanwhile, the wildlings had little-to-nothing other than whatever was at hand. Those directly infected by the plants would fight in a frenzy, copiously wasting their energy and ruthlessly attacking anything that wasn’t a Dark Elf. Those that weren't had the presence of mind to lock themselves into rooms or to raise improvised barricades in some attempt to fight back. But there was a third category: maidens that had no visible signs of infection yet acted with ferocity, a wildness in their eyes as they set up ambushes or coordinated attacks. If it was any indication, they were likely those bonded to Barry, being assisted by some of the wildlings unwilling to go down without a fight.

Eva didn't stop to take part in any of these battles, but as she made her way further out of the plaza she did slow down to take advantage of them. Wherever she found the wildlings preparing an ambush for approaching knights, she'd wait and only move through the area once the fighting broke out and everyone was focused on one another.

The design of the inside of the tree was... odd. There were no clear, singular paths anywhere, and most rooms she encountered were usable as alternatives whenever she had something to avoid. The only exceptions to these happened to be those that were placed around the innermost area right next to the plaza and those nearest to the outermost edges of the tree. Here and there she'd encounter small gardens, miniaturized variants of the central plaza, some leading all the way to the bottom floor while others barely allowing access only to those at the top.

Even with the corridors and rooms that had overgrown to the point of making it impossible to traverse through them, it was impossible to miss just how empty it all felt. There were undoubtedly hundreds of knights and at least that many wildlings, if not more. Yet even with both of them combined, the vast majority of the "palace" had not even a semblance of activity.

As if they were no more than two large gangs fighting within the ruins of a city.

It made Eva's work moving around easier, but it also made it harder to find where she needed to go. No matter where she went, the same scenes were repeating themselves. Some were better prepared, while others were more desperate, but, whatever the case, in none of these locations were there signs of guards trying to protect a location.

There couldn't be many options that would make sense in these circumstances. Barry couldn't be in a constant state of being moved around; it was too massive a risk, and Eva had not picked up on any hints of such. Similarly, keeping him locked in some room and ignored felt like too big of a gamble on the wildlings' part... If anything, it felt as if she was on the wrong si—

THUD

The impact came from beneath, not just a few floors underneath but rather all the way. A concussive force powerful enough to travel the whole tree, accompanied by an overwhelming feeling of energy surging from underneath... way underneath.

Underneath the tree.

Eva turned around instantly, rushing her way out and toward the center of the tree and into the open space that was the plaza. For half a second, she hesitated, looking at the drop with apprehension. The climb up had been tedious, but seeing the three-hundred-meter fall that waited for her, a trickle of apprehension made its way through her.

It was illogical fear; she was a maiden, a Vampire. She knew it was perfectly possible to survive such a drop so long as she used her powers properly. So with a deep breath, she...

Teleported to the furthest lower floor she could reach.

Right into a corridor surrounded by knights who were in the middle of fighting frenzied Dark Elves.

For a fraction of a second, Eva tried to pull upon the shadows once more, but felt a pulse of disruption course through her body. Without hesitation, she turned to the window, throwing herself toward the void, and not a moment too soon, as she felt several swords pierce through her armor and nick her flesh.

The emptiness took her, gravity taking hold and pulling her into a flurry of wind.

Eva tightened the cape around her body, pulling on it to create shadows to draw from. With the cloth tightly secured, she focused on the world below, the garden that rushed up to meet her. Cursing every second, Eva flared out her power, tying her existence back to the darkness, pulling into the strange, distorted world of shadows.

And then she was out, launched at a strange angle, if slowed down somewhat, slamming against a wall. A burst of pain and several creaking sounds left the world spinning and out of control. Eva’s senses flared out, seeking the nearest source of nourishment.

“Eva!?” Dia’s voice rang out in alarm, rushing from what looked like cloth tents.

“Down. Need to go down,” she groaned, slumping to the nearest corpse and taking a long drink to recover from what were likely several broken bones. The feeling of her own flesh stitching itself back together was not a pleasant one, but it was better than the alternative.

THUD

Another shudder, this time far more intense, sent dust and leaves falling down the chimney that was the central plaza.

“This way, Little Spear,” one of the Orcs called out, not bothering to wait for Eva to get up and dragging her along through one of the corridors, this one leading downward. “We saw the Swordmistress down there. She told us to fuck off, and Urtha said that was a good idea.”

“What… was she doing?”

The Orc shrugged. “Fighting this big-ass wall of branches that kept trying to grab at her.” With a toothy grin, they followed a spiral staircase, bark surrounding them in every direction, still leaving Eva to wonder how deep the trunk of the tree went.

“If she’s still there, I need you to interact with her on my behalf.”

The Orc threw her a weird look. “What does that even mean?”

“Just walk ahead and tell me if you see her, alright?”

Another shrug. “Sure, whatever.”

Their trek down the stairs didn't take much longer, opening to a long corridor that had every available surface covered in cuts and deep gashes. Neither commented on it, but Eva could only shudder at the thought that Deneva had been the one to unleash this.

As they moved further down the tunnel, the air became thick with elemental energy. Eva’s mouth watered at the taste as the tremors of a fight further ahead rushed through the air.

THUD

This close to the source, the air vibrated, numbing Eva’s skull and earning a savage grin from the Orc. “They’re really going at it, huh.”

Eva didn’t quite understand what she meant until the tunnel widened into a large chamber where she saw Embla and Deneva in the middle of what could only be a battle to the death.

This wasn’t good.