It was raining in the city, but the tree covered the palace and only rare drops fell into the room, with gusts of wind. The archmage sat at the table, leaning back in his chair and covering his face with his hands. Opposite, slowly drinking tea, sat Eric. Taking another sip, smacking his lips and opening his eyes, he spoke.
- “You shouldn't be so sad. Perhaps you were looking for another fate, but the goddesses will not get you here! Your friend will be released, we always keep our word. Peace and security. And if we find a way to support the tree without you, then we will definitely wake up and let go. A few years of sleep hasn't hurt anyone yet” - Eric's voice was soothing and soft, but fear was firmly established in his head. Something told him that danger was near.
“Damn boy, this power is unheard of! Let him go? As soon as we find a replacement, I'll personally rip his head off. The threat is too high. If with one gift of the Goddess, I can handle it, two is already too much… Too much for such an old man”
Maintaining the shield became increasingly difficult, without realizing it, Zee resisted, tried to break the bonds that bound his magic. Eric had to go to his room every now and then for a tonic, which he consumed in insane amounts. All this brought him back to the ancient wars, where fate lost its meaning, all that was required of you was to survive one day.
But as time went on, the druids grew a new bed in the tree and synchronized it with the core. Delicate work, and their displeasure knew no bounds when the king personally ordered it to be done in one day. A few more hours and the old man will be able to rest.
- “Maybe I can find a spell that will fix the situation…” - Zee said, removing his palms from his eyes and getting used to the light that hit his eyes, from which everything was distorted.
- “The risk is too great, boy. If we had time, we could help each other, but now there is only one way out” - This conversation was repeated for more than an hour, for each trick of Zee, the old man answered with a soft refusal, not devoid of logic – “This is a limitation of magic, does not allow that mark to appear in your eye, if you take it off, it could end in disaster. You need to come to terms with it”
“Reconcile with eternal sleep? Become a living battery for some ancient tree? Great idea. Go to hell! Why must I die? I don't want to! Leave me alone, please. Gods, elves, humans, all of you, leave me... Asura, what will happen to her? Will they really let her go? I can't believe them... They all lie, I feel. Their faces, their words, everything is like in a past life. They want to use me again and throw me out when they no longer need me ... I have to get out of here.”
Zee thought, went through all the options, tried to negotiate, find a loophole. At least something. His position in this world has never been so dangerous. He got up, walked to the wide bed, and fell face down into the pillow.
“Gods, help me! Do something good. Godry promised me a carefree life if I did not meddle in the affairs of this world. And I tried my best. But they haunt me like some kind of curse. Is this payback for my sins? Because I stole a can of soda from a friend's house as a child? ‘Cause lie to my grandmother that I’m watered the flowers and they withered? Why now, I am completely alone. Where is the God of Magic who promised to keep in touch? Where is the Goddess of Dreams, obsessed with me, so much so that I could barely survive. Even Airia, I am ready to pray even to her, just to get out of here.
Eric's ears twitched and he stood up.
- “Hey, something's wrong! Is this what you do? Stop it!” - He looked at Zee with a frown on his face.
- “What are you speaking about? What do I do?” - Raising his head from the pillow, he answered languidly.
- “This is ...” - The hair on the head of Eric stood on end.
In the next moment, an earthquake caused the tree to shake.
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The guard at the gate yawned widely and covered his mouth with his hand. A shiny helmet dangled from his belt, although the charter strictly forbade taking off his uniform on guard, but this piece of iron was so heavy and constantly rubbed his ears. A spear with a silvered tip rested on his shoulder, lightly held by his hand. The elf got distracted and dropped it.
Quickly looking around and not finding anyone ready to reprimand, he briskly leaned over and got up. Straightening his tired back, he again looked at the bleak landscape.
The grass, beginning to wither, contrasted sharply with the evergreen growth inside the barrier. The weather here also changed, but the energy of life was in full swing, not allowing the vegetation to fade. A cycle without beginning or end ceased to exist here. From this, the view changed very rarely. A whole army of representatives of different races followed the proper view of the city and its surroundings. This time, he had no luck with the shifts. That beautiful gardener he had come across before was gone. Even the partner, with whom it was possible to pass the time, disappeared somewhere, on behalf of the captain.
There were still three hours left before the changing of the guard. And it seemed like they would last forever.
From behind a bush, a girl appeared. The guard froze, hunched over.
- “Human ...” - he said, with his lips alone.
“No, this is nonsense. Where can a person come from here? Yes, look at this girl, God, I swear on my life, I have never seen such beauties ”
She slowly walked towards him, with a light gait, looking around, as if searching for something.
- “Stop! Who are you and what are you doing here?” - Remembering that he was in the service, the guard straightened up and raised the spear upwards.
The girl went under the awning and removed a strand of blond hair from her face. Drops of water ran down her, soaking the toga that stuck to her body and framed her seductive figure. Only now did the guard notice that she had no other clothes on. Even the feet were bare.
- “Oh, please, help me get into the city! I got lost and got caught in this terrible downpour, please don't leave me. It's so cold here...” - Up close, she seemed tiny, a little more than a child, but she was not a child, that could be said with certainty. Huge blue eyes shone with sincerity.
- “You can come to us and warm up ...” - the elf said in a stunned voice, already completely forgetting about his duty. It's not every day that you come across a girl like that, maybe she will want to thank him later – “You must be hungry, now it's time for lunch, maybe we ...”
- “What the hell are you doing!” - From the opened door, the captain of the guard appeared. He walked towards them with long strides, his hand on the pommel of a sword. A second guard appeared behind him, hastily trying to put on his helmet and hold on to his spear.
- “As always, in the most interesting place...” - The girl came close to the guard and ran her finger from the chest to the elf's chin. It seemed to him that time had stopped, the Captain had disappeared. Here it is, everything he wanted, everything he thought about in the morning. What thin hands she has, and her skin is so pale, as if it was carved from marble.
The girl's finger rested on the guard's chin. And the muscles of the forearm tensed, swollen several times. The hand folded into a fist and struck.
The captain watched as the head of his subordinate separated from the body and broke through the canopy, disappearing into the sky. He did not have time to look at the girl, as something cut him vertically in half. The second guard turned out to be a little luckier and managed to realize the moment of his death.
The girl's face lit up with an evil smile adorned with a pair of long fangs. She took off and slashed her heel at the captain, who hadn't even begun to draw his blade from its scabbard.
A choice appeared in the head of the second guard, whether to sound the alarm or try to defend himself with a spear. He hesitated for a split second, but the hand had already pierced his face and left a small scratch on the back of the helmet.
A helmet is a great piece of defense that can save your life in battle. For the sake of extra hundreds of years, you can endure a slight inconvenience, and grease your ears with ointment. The charter was written referring to the centuries-old experience of wars, and was usually a universal allowance to minimize losses among soldiers. However, the great commanders who acted as the authors did not take into account the possibility of a battle with the incarnation of God. In such a situation, the effectiveness of the helmet and any other equipment began to tend to zero.
But even if they began to consider such a possibility, everything would end in an eternal argument - Should you pray to your god or the one that is now tearing you apart?
Airia walked up to the high gate and struck with both fists. The heavy doors were torn off their hinges, and they flew down the street, crushing everyone who got in their way. Immediately there was an alarm.
The guard blew on the horn until his colleague, who did not fully understand the situation, fired a fatal crossbow shot. The arrow struck the Goddess on the cheek and bounced off, landing with a clang on the road. Airia looked to the side without turning her head. Her hand tightened on a piece of wall and pulled out a huge piece of masonry, which immediately rushed into the tower.
Reloading a crossbow is not a quick thing, especially if a piece of masonry is pressing on your cerebellum.
Elves , armed to the teeth, poured out into the street, desperately trying to identify the enemy. Shouts were heard: “People attacked us!” “No, these are magicians! I feel magic!”.
The magician, from the race of lizards, threw off his hood from his head and gave an order, reinforced by a spell. The squad lined up, ready for a clash.
The lizard raised his staff and created a magic circle, aiming at the gate. His gaze rested on the girl, who was looking at them with a smirk, raising one leg in the air.
- " God… " - He managed to say.
The goddess's foot hit the ground, covering it’s with a lot of cracks, from which a bright light shine. They ran forward, right under the feet of the guard squad.
The explosion lifted the earth into the air. Houses were torn off their places and carried throughout the district. The space around was filled with deadly fragments and stones, crushing everything that stood after the magical wave.
Airia didn't see it, she was already rushing forward. The insane speed created a new shock wave. Gazing passers-by turned into clouds of bloody remains. The windows of the houses were shattered into pieces. And on the stones that covered all the streets of the city, there were deep traces of miniature feet.
She jumped, rising several tens of meters. From this height, there was a beautiful view of the cozy streets, intricate architecture, there were all shapes and sizes, some went beyond the perception of the human mind. Wrong corners, bridges leading to dead ends, over which passers-by scurried, both above and below. Magic permeated everything around, from which the city was much larger than it might seem. It became clear how so many different creatures can coexist here.
They were all at different levels of reality. Pocket dimensions, tiered spaces that went far beyond the 3D world. A sharp eye, a sharpened mind, opened for you the gates to the dungeons, with dwarves, the mines of kobolds, the airy dwellings of the fairies that drifted through the air, the gloomy crypts of those who lived a second time, the bright areas that do not know sleep. Paradise for everyone and everyone. Unique and inimitable.
- “How annoying!” - With undisguised anger she said and clapped her hands.
Her eyes shone. A huge circle formed over the city. A line of pure light encircling all surroundings. And reality shook.
All options are merged. Some buildings pierced others. The spaces were collapsing , throwing out streams of matter, mutilated and distorted.
The earthquake split the earth. Rifts swallowed the towers without a trace. Layers of earth collided and created new hills and mountains.
Panic flooded the streets.
But this was not enough. Too little.
- “Time to make the party hotter!” - Airia took a deep breath and screamed. Beings that did not have hearing, could not worry. They will die for completely different reasons. Their eardrums do not detonate, and the air current does not rupture the middle ear. A more pleasant ending awaits them. It's the best you could hope for in a situation like this.
The air vibrated with powerful sound waves. Even with the naked eye, it was possible to see circles that diverged in space, as if on water. And she snapped her fingers.
The ripples became flames. Bright rings of fire incinerated everything in their path. The metal melted and flowed down in thick drops. The stone cracked and exploded. Those who were furthest from the epicenter got off with burns, or igniting clothing not as fireproof as individual residents.
- “That's great now! Hahahaha” - Airiya stood on the roof and laughed, putting her hands on her hips – “You will know how to forget who is the coolest goddess here! Enjoy, you heretical worms! It was necessary to either serve me, or die right away, and not fight for a miserable existence!”
She looked around and her gaze settled on the castle in the center of the tree.
"It's time for us to meet, little bitch!"
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Eric got up from the floor and looked out the window. A scarlet glow shone over the city. But his eyes turned upward.
- “Impossible!” - he shouted.
The crown of the evergreen tree blazed. Charring leaves, ashy snow fell on the square.
It was a real nightmare. The wind carried the smell of burnt flesh. It was impossible to assess the damage, clouds of dust hid almost everything. The silhouettes of the buildings merged into a crazy mess. Only the flame made its way through the dense veil.
The trembling of the earth continued, but for a different reason. The giant woke up. The Guardian is ready to join the battle. The threat did not come from humans.
“We are facing a real monster! No one can do such a thing!”
The old man jumped up and ran to his room. The battle has begun
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Zee got out from behind the bed where he had rolled.
“If an earthquake has caught you at home and you can't get out, hide under something solid like a bed or a table. Or stand in the doorway,” said the presenter on TV. Morning program full of cheerful and smiling people trying to set the mood for your day. Although you usually think it would be nice to quit your job and become a bum while chewing breakfast.
- “Apparently this is the chance that I asked for ...” - Looking out the window and not seeing what is happening, he said.
The limitation of magic was shaken, he felt the restoration begin to take effect. His bruises healed before his eyes, but still not fast enough. The spell menu was closed. For now.
Looking out into the corridor, Zee saw several servants running by and left the room.
- "I need to find Asura and get out of here!" - He said, as if giving himself a command, and rushed to run.
He did not know the way, but he felt that she was somewhere nearby.
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The giant drew himself up to his full height, raised his arms and clenched his fists. His head almost touched the burning foliage, and his shoulders were already covered with an even layer of ash. Anger boiled inside. An unbridled wave of rage filled the ancient body.
He was one of the strongest beings now living. Top of the food chain and no one, no one dared to challenge him. He alone was enough to stop any attempt at war. And only peace-loving, did not allow him to crush people who plot intrigues to those who gave him a home.
Now patience has come to an end. Something has invaded his fiefdom, and it will be punished!
It was something standing in the square and looking at him. The pitiful booger, which was not easy to see, proudly raised its head, waiting for his next step.
A colossal hand soared into the air and immediately fell down. Like a meteorite crashing into the ground.
The girl raised her hand and took the blow. Her legs went into the ground knee-deep, in the center of the resulting crater from a powerful strike.
She yawned loudly.
The giant raised his leg and kicked it a second time.
This time, Airia's finger pierced his foot, and the great leg fell apart into piles of stone, up to the knee.
The heavy body collapsed to a full knee, holding upright.
- "And you call that a hit? Now I'll show you a blow, you poor rock-fucker!” - She raised her hand to strike. Her feet sank even deeper into the ground, widening the holes with chubby muscles. Airia has lost all appearance of a beautiful and sophisticated girl. A network of swollen veins covered her completely, her mouth opened and with a terrible cry she hit.
"This is it!" The giant remembered that war. The death of his people. It has returned and now there is no one who is able to stop it.
The stone concave, trembled like jelly at the flick of a finger. The space itself changed its shape. It was not a blow to the air, creating a wave. It was a blow to the very reality. It resisted, screamed, was not unable to withstand such power.
Airia stared at the huge hole in the giant's chest, shaped like her fist. The same hole appeared in the trunk of the tree, and it leaned over. Part of the palace had collapsed, but it was still holding onto his seat, clinging tightly to the wood. All the lights that illuminated him were extinguished.
All but one. He moved around the palace.
- “And here you are!” - She said and jumped up. Airia crashed into the wall and ended up in a huge hall.
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Zee had to hide several times from groups of guards running through the confusing corridors.
He tried to move quickly, but carefully. Many rooms were closed, others were empty. But the feeling that he was close to the goal was getting stronger.
Behind someone was approaching, the bolt of armor and weapons was heard. Zee panicked and burst through the first door he saw.
He was greeted by a spacious room filled with flowers. Dozens of vases and pots filled the entire room. Some plants grew right out of the walls.
Dozens of buds, fragrant so strongly that it was hard to breathe. The scents mingled into a suffocating aroma.
He felt the magic return. Fills his body more and more.
There was someone in the room.
Behind the door was heard a woman's voice and splashing water. It looks like the girl was taking a bath, scrubbing herself hard with a brush.
- “This smell will never fade! Disgusting! I spent two weeks with one of them!”
Her voice came.
Zee moved closer, listening, as he noticed a huge portrait of the princess on the wall.
At the same moment, the door opened and Ophelia appeared before him, naked, wiping her head with a towel. Her skin, still as smooth as ever, was red, scratches left during washing were visible in places.
Their eyes met. She froze in place. Zee too.
For several long moments, they looked at each other. Until Zee's gaze sank lower.
She screamed and threw one of the vases from the table at him. Hitting the archmage's forehead , the vase shattered, knocking him off his feet.
Ophelia darted over to the bed and pulled off the covers, covering her body. From the bedside table, she grabbed a knife and now pointed it at Zee .
-“It is you again! Dirty human! How dare you be in my chambers! I WILL KILL YOU, I SWEAR I WILL KILL YOU!” - She screamed and ran towards him, but she got entangled in the coverlet and fell.
The knife stabbed between the archmage's legs , dangerously close to the contents of his pants.
He kicked her in the forehead, got up and ran out the door. Gathering his strength, he moved the bust of one of the ancestors of the royal family and blocked the door for them.
The door opened inside. Behind it stood an angry elf with a knife, solving the problem with a long temporary dress. But not with her clumsiness.
Ophelia stumbled over the barrier and fell down again.
Zee ran. Acceleration worked, forces were restored.
He tried to turn as early as possible to fit into the turn, but he only succeeded twice. The third time brought him to an unexpectedly close door, and he crashed into it, rolling into the throne room.
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The king sat on the throne, listening to the reports of the military. Nearby, representatives of the inhabitants of the city were noisy and shouting. Rich people and politicians, each representing their own race, tried to take advantage even in such a situation. Everyone did not want the salvation of his people, but the safety of his ass and well-being.
They never changed, their requests and complaints too. Therefore, the king forbade contacting him, pushing all the talks onto the elderly secretary, who was now being torn apart, demanding immediate action. All he could do was write. More than two hundred years, he held this post. Knowing no other way out, the old elf rustled parchments, trying to write down everything that he could hear.
At a distance, Eric held a large bowl in his hands and whispered something over it, throwing various ingredients into a thick dark liquid. Taking out a bunch of dry grass and throwing it in the center, he achieved the appearance of a pink puff of smoke. Nodding in satisfaction, he stood up and approached the throne.
The last report was finished, the king gave the order, and the messenger fled, running out the open main doors.
- “There is only one striker. It looks like a hero, or an incredibly powerful mage. Nobody can say for sure. Your time has come” - He said, looking at the bowl in the hands of Eric – “How many times are left?”
- “I think this is the last one, if you are very lucky, then I will stretch it again. Even with my skills, it's hard to fight against time. But I won't lose this battle, I swear on my life!” - he said proudly.
- “As always, cunning. What is the use of this oath if the enemy kills you?” - The king laughed mirthlessly – “I'll be with you; my blade is ready.”
- “I appreciate your dedication to an old friendship, but you have a different responsibility. And even though a legendary blade would be useful in such a battle, you have to think about people. If the city falls, someone has to save as many lives as possible. I'll go alone and don't argue with me!”
The king gritted his teeth, but the old man was right.
Eric lifted the cup and began to drink. Sip after sip until it was completely down.
His face twisted and he spat on the floor.
- “Well, that's disgusting, I'll tell you. If it wasn't for a bloody week of pain after this potion, the taste would be my main problem with it” - Eric continued to joke.
Suddenly, a small door next to the throne swung open and Zee flew head over heels into the hall .
The chatter and conversation stopped. Everyone looked at him appraisingly. But after a few seconds, they returned to their work.
- “Are you trying to escape? It's hard to blame you for something like that. But everything has its price and you have to pay yours. Eric!” - The king said, rising from the throne and pulling out the emerald blade from its sheath – “I think that the legs are not his source of strength, get ready to heal his wounds, we cannot let him escape.”
The blade sliced through the air, whizzing towards the archmage's flesh.
The palace staggered, the king stopped, trying to keep his balance.
- “What the hell is that?” - He said, as the wall ceased to exist, like half of the high council.
In front of him stood a charming girl. Her body was perfect. Even his wife, even her sister! They all faded before her. Everything but the face.
The fury in her eyes and a mocking smile turned her into a monster.
