Tale of Eldramir

To say that Ezekiel was feeling more than pissed off was an understatement. Usually, he was able to accept the losses that happened in war. Such things were normal, but at this time it was taking everything he had to remain in the city while Invera and the other two Lightning users were healed to the best of the Life Mages abilities.

“We can’t stay here forever, you know. Getting to Tarquessa is the priority. Then, once we’re in a place where we can bunker down and use resources to help us, we can focus on breaking through.” Shine had once more become the voice of reason, and Ezekiel wasn’t sure he could appreciate it anymore. “Ezekiel... you know that this war will only end once someone reaches Tier six. It needs to be you, or the entire world will be destroyed. By our standards. Not Eldramir’s.”

Ezekiel couldn’t help but nod. Though it was a slow and reluctant action. Felt like rusty steel rubbing against itself. Worse yet, he still had a lingering sense of nausea from the Ichor he had forcibly taken in. His body was fine, for now, but he knew that he would need to figure out why it was affecting him so severely as soon as possible.

“Medic!” he called out to one of the Life Mages who had just swapped out for another team. “How are they doing? Were they brought here in time for their condition to be recoverable?”

The Life Mage, a Legendary Scholar who had clearly used the methods Ezekiel had made regarding breakthroughs, looked over her shoulder at him before waving him on.

“Exalt... come with me. I have to report to my peers, but I can tell you what we know so far while we walk.” Ezekiel rose to follow the healer as she marched on. “First things first, none of them are likely to die. It would be a different matter if their infection and mental conditioning had been slow. The Blood Brood is known for their long-term infiltrations, since the effects of their scarlet Ichor need time to spread without being actively fought off by a Mage, or Spirit’s natural defensive system.”

Ezekiel nodded. “I’m aware. I just don’t have enough experience to have been able to tell if their condition was debilitating to that extent. Especially since it was done by a pseudo-Ancient.”

It irked a part of him to call a Broodmaster by the same title as the Ancient Spirits, but there simply wasn’t any other term in circulation that summarized the extent of their power. Not now that such powers were so close to entering the world once more.

“Well... there was still a heavy cost. The biological effects were lessened, but the mental and spiritual effects were much more severe. That much I’m sure you did notice.”

Ezekiel nodded again. He had seen that their souls were in a condition that was very similar to the one that his father had suffered from. However, it was marginally better than the Radiant corruption that Warren had experienced.

The scarlet Ichor was meant to be a physical infection, and an inebriation of the mind that made a person more susceptible to suggestions. In this case, the damage to the soul was incidental, not intentional and methodical.

“What are the odds that they’ll be able to recover in order to return to the warfront?”

The healer glared at him, and Ezekiel understood her feelings on the matter. No healer worth their certification wanted to see their patients thrown back into a war. Not the moment they had been healed. Even speaking about it like this must’ve been something that made her seethe.

“They’ll be ready to go back to that death sentence when I and the other healers say they are. By the Ancients, well over a couple hundred of our forces have already died because of that damned warfront. What the hell was the point in you bringing them here if you just want them to die later?”

Her anger tinted her voice in the form of a harsh whisper. It was something Ezekiel recognized, but he didn’t have time to dance around the issue anymore.

“I’m only asking so that I can arrange my own actions to cover the holes they’ve left behind. Right now, the war isn’t going to end any time soon. I don’t need you to rush their recovery. Do your job and do it right!” His voice rose, and a hint of a growl could be heard in the undertone.

The healer recoiled, and Ezekiel reigned in his mana. A small amount had leaked when his words got louder.

“I apologize for that... Invera is my friend, and Harras and his Spirit helped me several times in the past, even if we are not as close.” He looked to the ground, and saw the healer untense, just a bit, in his peripheral vision. “I want them to be okay, but I can’t be everywhere at once. Please give me a timeframe. Then, continue to do your job.”

She still had a glare on her face, but the healer spoke all the same.

“With the brief aid you provided at the start of the operation to save their lives, they started their natural recovery in a much better state than we had expected them to.” She brought her hand up and bit her thumbnail, her eyes closed in what Ezekiel assumed was concentration. “It’s likely that, if nothing unexpected pops up, they’ll be ready for another intensive round of physical healing by the end of the week, and Spiritual healing within the next three days. After that, it’s a matter of letting them recover on their own to the point that they wake up without our interference, since that always has its own issues. From there, another couple of weeks, but that’s only if we can spare the regents and other materials to heal them properly. Regents and materials that we are running out of.”

There was a softness in her voice by the time she finished speaking. By this point they had stopped walking, and the healer had slumped against a wall.

Ezekiel could tell that this was an issue that was weighing on her, and from the downturned looks on the other medics’ faces nearby, it was something that they had all been forced to deal with.

“... What sort of materials and regents do you need, and where can they be found in high quantities?” He closed his eyes, and the surge of disbelief and unspoken questions that came from Shine made him wince. “I can’t promise much, but if I can, then I might be able to spare a day or two to help you resupply. At least when it comes to some of the more local regents that you haven’t been able to get.”

The healer looked up at him with a tear glimmering in the corner of her eye.

“Leaving the immediate region is off the table, since it would delay my current course too much, but if you can get me a list of things and locations, I can tell you what I can get for you.”

He couldn’t tell if it was a trick of the light, but Ezekiel could swear that the expressions on her and the other healers’ faces lit up. Their eyes widened and the corners of their mouth turned upwards, for just a moment.

“Come with me. The meeting I was headed to was to discuss this. If you can spare a couple of days, then we should be able to solve at least a few of our problems. Especially if your words about going to the desert are true. Although, that will be a more long-term issue that you might be able to deal with.”

Turning away, the healer started walking at a much brisker pace, and Ezekiel took longer strides to keep up with her.

Are you sure that this is a good idea? It’s already going to take us more time than we’d like, just to clear out as much of the border as possible. More so since the Broods are, apparently, willing to take the fight to use, or at least start using our clearing tactics against us.

Once again, Shine had a point, but Ezekiel knew that this was something that was needed. He wasn’t sure why just yet, but his gut was telling him that things would go poorly if he didn’t spend some time gathering resources for the healers in this city.

A feeling like this was a powerful indicator that something significant was going to happen in the immediate future. Something that he couldn’t actually predict at this moment, but he wasn’t getting any pings from his [Danger Sense], so he figured that going with his gut this time would be a good idea.

It had very rarely steered him wrong in the past, so he had to at least hope that it wouldn’t steer him wrong this time either.

----------

There was a strange sense of calm that overcame Ezekiel, with the sea of clouds below him passing by at a rapid pace, he almost felt like he was able to relax. That was a lie, of course, and the idea that he could actually let his worries fade away was laughable.

Especially since he was currently burning mana to go as fast as he could to gather as many of the regents and materials in the list he was given.

“How much further do we need to go?” Shine asked after the first hour of flying.

“We should be there now, actually,” Ezekiel said, and he began to descend.

Passing beneath the cloud cover, he saw the mountains arranged in roughly the position he was told they would be in. Using the different peaks as landmarks, he calculated the correct position he needed to be in to find the specific region where the first few regents were located.

“Are you certain you’ll be able to find those things in this weather?” Shine had created a bubble around them when they had descended. There was a torrential downpour of water due to the thick clouds that floated above them. “I would think that the natural phenomena would be disruptive to the state of mana in the area. We’re looking for Glacial mana plants, aren’t we?”

Ezekiel nodded. “That’s correct, but they’re, apparently, a luminescent blue, so it should actually be easy to find them with how dark the clouds are making it.”

Scanning their surroundings once he reached one of the mountains, he noticed a bush with the regents in question. Berries that were rich in Glacial mana.

“There’s a few right there.” He flew over and began picking them. “Hopefully the rest of our mission is this fast.”

Off to the side, he could feel the presence of several Wild Spirits, the previous guardians and consumers of these berries. The handful of Legendaries at the front fidgeted, so Ezekiel flared his mana, putting pressure on them to keep any bad ideas from forming.

This continued for half an hour, and by the time he was done, half the bushes he had found were bare of their berries.

“Onto the next area.” Rising into the sky, he and Shine departed to the cries of the Spirits that had lost a portion of their food.

Not that this was their only source, but for the Glacial Spirits that didn’t have the strength to lay claim to any of the wells, springs, and streams, it was going to be difficult to make progress for the next few years. Yet, if Ezekiel didn’t do this, the world might not have years to continue.

The rest of the day went on like this, with the two Void users going from region to region, gathering different resources, and sometimes diverting their course when Ezekiel got a gut feeling telling him to do so.

It wasn’t often, but by the time they reached the last quarter of the list, Ezekiel finally figured out why he had felt the need to take on this job.

It was just as they were entering one of the larger towns, not quite a city, but bigger than the average village by a large margin, when he felt a shift in the wind. Something that tickled his senses.

It was coming from the west, which was strange, since they weren’t on the front lines, and there shouldn’t be anything that could get this far into Quintessa without and sort of warning.

“What is it?” Shine could feel it too now, but they also had no idea what it was. “Is it The Wyrm tunneling beneath the surface?”

“I don’t think so... With what we did to it, it would take at least a couple more days for it to recover. Unless it ate several dozen Legendary Cruor worth of Ichor.” Ezekiel had stopped in the middle of the road. He was halfway between the small Church and the low walls that wrapped around the town. Several people, mostly Hunters, had caught sight of him, and were giving him strange looks. “The Blood might be in a good enough condition, but I don't think that she would be here either. Would the other Broodmasters be able to do anything?”

Shine stayed silent, lost in thought like Ezekiel was. They focused on the direction that their [Dagner Senses] were pointing them in. However, it was like trying to grab water with their bare hands. They could touch it easily enough, but the moment they tried to grab it it just slipped out between their fingers.

Then, before either of them could come up with an answer, it appeared. A massive javelin, flying through the air. It was sleek and golden, with a rippling iridescent sheen.

“Mythic level strike! Incoming!” Without a second thought, Ezekiel let his full power out. It wasn’t directed to put pressure on anyone, but it was enough to make the Hunters aware of his station, as well as take his words seriously.

Not that it would matter that much. There was little that the town could do when Ezekiel was the only one there that could withstand an attack with a Mythical level of power.

“How wide can you make a barrier?” he asked Shine, who had already started channeling mana while they both rose into the air. His Spirit Armor once more covered him.

“If I don’t hold back, I can cover the whole town. But if I do that, then you’ll be stuck fighting whatever comes out on your own.”

Ezekiel nodded. That would be fine. He could handle whatever this was. There was no way that they had managed to launch the vessel of any of the Broodmasters. This was likely just another Rot missile. One that had been supercharged by Radiant Chaos.

“Do it!” Not a moment later, Shine released all their mana, and a shimmering, translucent, opalescent dome took shape alongside the natural shield that covered the town from the walls.

Panic filled the streets, but Ezekiel ignored it when he sensed the Hunters taking control and directing the normal citizens further east. Towards both the Church and the Guild quarters. The buildings there would be fortified for major impacts.

It wouldn’t stop an attack like this normally, but with Ezekiel’s help, they wouldn’t suffer nearly as much this time. What came next, however, would be more difficult to determine.

Seeing the Cruor’s Javelin getting closer, Ezekiel knew he needed to make it burst before it made impact, or the barrier was likely to falter.

Rearing back an arm, he created a javelin of his own, and with the full force of both his body and mana, he threw it forward. Like a bolt of lightning, it flew through the air in a flash of light, with a crack of air that indicated a sonic boom.

His own projectile his the one from the Broods just a hundred meters away from the shield.

The forces of the explosion nearly threw him back into the barrier, and his vision was filled with a cloud of spores that quickly began to spread into the surrounding area.

It covered the shield over the city in a blanket several inches thick, and grew thicker as the fungi and molds began to grow. Within seconds there was a wriggling mass of Rot that glowed gold.

“He’s figuring out how to bolster his allies... The cost for this attack was likely not much worse than his normal ones...” Ezekiel allowed himself a moment to inspect the growth on the ground and on the shield. “How long can you hold out for?”

Shine was quiet for a second, and Ezekiel could tell that they were thinking it through.

“Long enough for you to clear the shield and the surrounding area... This Rot is weird, though, and even though it’s not eating my mana, I think it’s directly converting the ambient mana.” Ezekiel had assumed the same thing but had hoped he was wrong. “You need to create a gap of some sort, or it will just keep spreading... It’s not making any Cruor or Umbral Beasts. Just... Rot.”

Ezekiel knew that, without the expenditure used to bring about new bodies for the Rot to operate out of a basic growing mass that just consumed and spread would be much faster, and more resilient.

“Tell the citizens to cover their ears,” Ezekiel raised his arms. He heard a muffled voice echoing beneath the barrier. Channeling his mana into his hands, they began to glow with a blinding light.

With a quick movement, a burst of sound rolled out from his as he clapped as hard as he could.

The soundwave spread even faster than the Rot, and with it his [Nothingness] also spread outward. Unlike the usual explosions of mana he would cast, this was a spell that tied together the idea of spreading shockwaves, while not focusing more on the immediate explosion.

Thus, Ezekiel was able to focus all of his [Understanding] into the waves themselves. It also resonated with Shine’s barrier, burning away the Rot at an even faster pace.

Not a moment after his first clap, he clapped again, and again. He did this, over and over, each time reinforcing his [Nothingness] further and further. The Rot began to slow its spread, but only barely.

“I think that should slow it down for now... What do you think the odds are that this is the fire-resistant version?” That would be the worst-case scenario, but it was one that Ezekiel knew was, more likely than not, the case.

There was another muffled speech beneath the now Rot free barrier. A minute later, Ezekiel was still clapping his hands, but a massive fire spewed out of the city. But it barely made a dent against the Rot that was still in the area. Even though it was greatly weakened from before.

“Maintain the barrier. I’m going to set up a boundary so that it won’t spread too far.” Ezekiel dismissed his Spirit Armor, and Shine descended into the barrier. A massive great sword was now nailed into the top. “I’ll keep safe... Though, I don’t think stealing the Ichor in this will be a good idea.”

With that said, he flew off, reaching the very edge of the Rot’s growth, before flying a hundred meters past that. Then, a large construct formed. [Void Panes] that moved like a thresher began digging up great swaths of land, tearing up anything organic that was in his path.

It only took a few minutes before he had created a trench several dozen meters deep, and a couple dozen meters wide. The Rot had yet to reach it, slowed down as it was by Ezekiel’s draining attacks from before. However, he knew that he would need to be careful when getting rid of it.

He was already running low on mana, and unless there was a Legendary Flame user that had the right [Understanding] to break through the Rot’s resistance, they would be here for quite some time.

Make sure the people know to get masks and suits on. I’m not seeing any spore vents taking shape, but they could’ve made more alterations to this version that I’m not aware of.

Ezekiel received a mental nod from his partner. Then, he ripped a piece of the mindless Rot off the ground. Piercing it with his [Will] and magical senses, he began dissecting it to figure out what made this particular strain of Rot so special.

There weren't any special defenses that he could find. Nor was there a [Will] inside it that was actively fighting against him. Yet, it wasn’t reacting when he tried crushing it with his magic.

It doesn’t have a soul... Just instructions to spread and grow... A sinking sensation filled Ezekiel’s stomach. If he recalled correctly, his past life had something similar in it, though it was entirely theoretical and fictional.

It was called a ‘Gray Goo Scenario’.

We need to clear this shit out as soon as possible. He mentally sent over all the information he had on this type of thing, and immediately began doing everything he could to dismantle the Rot.

However, it was quickly made apparent that it was not a unified whole. Each and every inch of it was operating independently toward the same goal.

We may need to take drastic measures... How much longer can you keep the barrier up?

Shine’s reply didn’t inspire much hope in Ezekiel, but given that the Rot was growing stronger, he knew he would need to act soon.

I’m ripping open a few rifts. Hopefully the true Void will just tear this shit apart.

Without waiting for Shine’s response, several rifts opened up while Ezekiel flew around the town in a wide circle. They only existed for a few seconds at a time, but given they exploded due to being purposefully insatiable, they basically just erased the area around them.

A Broodmaster, or even a Broodlord, wouldn’t have suffered life threatening injuries from it, but for this Rot, which was only good at spreading, with Legendary defenses at best, this was a lethal magic that quickly saw it utterly eliminated.

That wasn’t to say he finished things quickly, however. At one point he needed to stop and meditate, once it had been forced back by a significant amount. However, he was fortunate in that the Rot wasn’t operating at peak efficiency when it was spreading. Not only that, but he had been able to drain it of most of its power, so that further slowed it down.

Ultimately, though it took him well into the night, he managed to completely cleanse the Rot entirely before it could encroach on the city or spread beyond his boundary.

“We need to alert everyone, and hope that they haven’t started doing this anywhere else,” Ezekiel said while he leaned against a wall inside the Church.

He was exhausted, and his mana was currently spent, but the rot had been completely wiped out, without any loss of life. At least for the moment. The only current issue was the massive trench around the town. Cavern Hunters would be able to bridge it, but it was still an annoyance that Ezekiel had apologized for.

“Let’s leave that for tomorrow. You should get some rest. I’ve managed to recover my mana, so trust me to make sure things stay safe.” Shine’s voice was quiet, and Ezekiel could sense the pleading in their voice.

He smiled at them, before floating over to the cot that had been set up in the room he had commandeered. There was still a lingering sense of worry inside him, but he trusted Shine.

So, it was of little surprise to him when the world faded to black within seconds of lying his head on the pillow.

----------

It was the next day when he found out that this hadn’t been the only town attacked in such a manner. Two others had fallen, and he had been requested to go and clean it up.

The loss of life was immense, but Ezekiel knew that this would be the last time the Broods would be able to do this for a while. Even with Radiant Chaos empowering The Rot, the cost would still be immense.

That didn’t mean that the two weeks he spent cleaning up after this mess was appreciated. He had been delayed enough that he was forced to bring the supplies back to the city where Invera and Harras were recovering at less than total completion.

“I’m sorry, but you’re going to have to make do with this for now. I’m already behind, and I need to move forward to catch up.” He had been thanked for his efforts and given a solemn farewell.

Notes and theories had been supplied after an investigation. Sealed containers with samples of the new Rot were used to create new defenses, but they would only be able to slow it down at best.

“Have you made the necessary preparations?” He was currently flying along the border once more. Com-Slate in hand, he had been spending his travel time contacting the various towns and cities closest to the border.

He would do three sweeps in total, clearing back as much as he could before heading to Tarquessa. Thus, he had let the few places he would be stopping at know to prepare for his arrival, so that he could resupply and leave as soon as possible.

“We’re ready for you at any time,” the voice on the other end of his call replied.

“Good. The next few months will be rough, but given the difficulties both sides are facing, extraordinary actions will need to be taken.”

He put his Com-Slate away. All around him there were small Artifacts that formed black holes of mana that took in every ambient source they could.

It would cause damage to the places he passed through, but it would be damage that the world could recover from far more quickly than that caused by the Cruor and their Broodmasters.

With a crack of the air, his speed increased, and a line of emptiness followed in his wake.

Below, at the very edge of the border between the Desolate Lands and Quintessa, Cruor and Umbral Beasts died in droves while the world was torn asunder.

All the while, Ezekiel felt his soul burning, both from anger and impatience, as well as the strain of maintaining such magic.

He already wanted to take a break, but given the circumstances, he knew that he wouldn’t get one anytime soon.