Blood Shaper - Book 4: Chapter 54

With each footfall, the otherworldly leg warped everything around it. The air warped around its movements as the pure power the limb brought with it from its own reality fought against Torotia’s reality, the changes emanating out like ripples that twisted and crackled before fading as Torotia’s laws of existence snuffed them out. As the flat foot at the end of the leg landed, the area beneath it was forcibly warped into something new, trees dying and turning to ash while the geography suddenly changed to match the shape of the foot. The impact didn’t crush the land; it modified it, and when Kay looked at the aftermath of each step, his mind fought with itself. His memories from moments before told him that the land had been changed, that something had happened, but as he looked at the footprints, he knew that it had always been like that.

The groups of soldiers, no longer an army, had broken at the seams when Kay’s surprise counterattack began to push them back from the walls; they finally began reacting as the first wash of shock caused by the unexpected appearance of this new factor began to fade. For some, panic took the place of shock, and soldiers who had done their best to carefully retreat from an incoming army of immortal blood creatures broke, fleeing from the unnatural limb that stretched from the sky. Most ran toward the rear area filled with half-set-up camp tents, where the Crusader General had been taken to after the attack against him.

Kay could feel the rage and hatred bubbling up inside of him, sourced from the changes the System had made to his new species. He wanted nothing more than to charge at the eldritch abomination, or piece of one, and tear it to shreds with his bare hands. His rational mind was enough to overwhelm the instinctive compulsion, however, and he watched the leg closely while he floated back up toward the top of the wall. Curcius was still on the ground directing the troops that had surrounded the Clan’s troops, and Kay took a moment to hurl a ball of blood in that direction. He kept his senses on the blood while he raised himself and his guards upward until he felt someone tap on it.

“Curcius, bring everyone back in, prisoners too if you can afford it. That thing doesn’t seem to be immediately hostile, but getting too close to it is still dangerous.” He communicated by vibrating the blood to approximate speech. He felt someone tap against it again, and he let his control drop.

He maneuvered the platform he’d made over to the section of the wall that Lauren was on, using the vampire power to track his “progeny” to find her. When he landed, dissolving the platform back into his armor, he found Cindy standing next to her, staring at her worriedly. When Kay touched down, Cindy’s eyes snapped to his, and whatever she saw didn’t make her feel any better.

“Kay, are you alright? You look…”

“It’s a compulsion put into vampires by the System,” Kay growled, “Just got a racial characteristic update about it. Looks like it didn’t want to lose its recent investments into anti-eldritch resources if I died. All vampires are going to feel an instinctive drive to hunt down any eldritch corruption and destroy the source of it.” He pointed over his shoulder at the leg, which hadn’t moved in a few minutes. “That thing doesn’t belong in this world, and I’m pissed about it.”

“That explains Lauren, then. She started losing her shit when it appeared, and now she’s just glaring at it.”

Kay looked over at the leader of his Blood Guard, whose face was pulled up into a rictus of hate. Her eyes were massively dilated as she glared at the otherworldly intruder, her hands curled into tight fists, her armor creaking from the strain she was putting on it.

“Lauren.” She didn’t respond. “Lauren, snap out of it. Lauren.”

She shook her head and blinked several times before turning over to Kay. “Kay? Uh, my lord? When did you get here?”

“It’s only been a few moments. Don’t let the feelings get to you; we can’t go throwing ourselves at that thing randomly.”

Lauren took a deep breath to stabilize herself and nodded in agreement. “Of course, my lord. Your orders?”

“We need that thing to go back to where it came from. I don’t know if it’s an entire creature, or just a part of something bigger, or what, but it needs to fuck off. Start coordinating our range attacks and blow it to hell. Cindy,” He turned to face his fellow Class Line Progenitor, “Get everybody on your end to join in. We didn’t need the cannons before this; bring them up now.”

“That’s pretty far out of range for most of my people,” She replied, “We don’t have a lot of Skills or Classes that can increase the range we can hit with our firearms beyond the capabilities of the weapons themselves. We’d need it to get closer if we want anything other than golden bullets to do any damage.”

If you discover this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the violation.

The leg was still unmoving, more than a mile away from the walls. It loomed over Avalon, both with its own height of over four hundred feet but also because it was on the slope leading into the valley. As Kay watched it it remained completely motionless, looking like a pillar more than a limb at that moment. The two-dimensional look of it continued even without it moving, and overall, it was a disquieting sight to look at.

“Get everyone ready to attack it. This… thing doesn’t seem actively malicious, but it’s still eldritch, which means its very presence is harmful to us. The System also sent me a message telling me to get rid of it so it can repair the barrier between realities. However, that works. If it does end up coming into range, hit it immediately. Lauren, you know who can start attacking it from here, so get all of them started.”

“And you, my lord?”

Kay glanced down at the group of tents where the enemy soldiers were streaming. “There’s a lot of manpower down there that could be useful. I’m going to go accept their surrender and make them pay us back with a little work.”

The same group of guards joined Kay on another platform that flew toward the enemy camp. More than one group of soldiers stared as they flew overhead, and several officers started gathering troops as Kay went to land. He ended up having to move to another edge of the camp, and he and the guards had to jump down from several feet up to avoid crushing a crowd of soldiers who tried to physically block the platform with their bodies. A group of armored soldiers that looked like members of the Crusade marched toward them, blocking the way to the main tent in the center of the camp. Kay stared at them as they held out a line of spears in his direction, marching forward until the tips of their weapons were only a few feet from Kay.

The officer behind the main line started calling out. “You-“

“Quiet.” Kay sliced his hand through the air. “I am here to accept the surrender of this army from the Crusader General. You will get out of my way.” He started walking forward, not breaking eye contact with the officer. The ranks of soldiers in front of him split as he moved toward them, and he passed through the line between them without stopping.

No one else tried to block his way, although several figures followed behind him and his guards. When he made it to the central tent, he motioned for the guards in front of the entrance to move, and they did, shakily, glancing between him and the tent with obvious nerves. He stepped inside and found the “leadership” of the army that had come to attack him in complete disarray. Nobles were shouting at their commanders, officers were accusing each other of this and that, and more than one fistfight had broken out at some point before Kay’s arrival, with several people sporting black eyes and one figure unconscious in the corner with a worried attendant standing over them.

In the center of the space was a large table that had been previously covered in maps. Those maps were now on the ground, and the stocky form of the dwarven Crusader General was laid out on it. The Crusader Genera was covered in sweat and was struggling with several people dressed as healers as he tried to get up. Kay recognized the leader of the Shatterplate Order standing next to Alice, who had blood covering the front of her shirt. Kay started pushing past people as he moved toward the middle of the tent, with most of them ignoring him in order to keep fighting or arguing with the others around them. Someone did realize who Kay was as he got through a majority of the crowd, and everyone started to hush and pull back after that person shouted and drew the attention of the tent onto Kay.

Alice gave him a small wave and a smile. She pointed at her father and mouth, “He’s on outside now.”

The healers pulled back, and the armored woman who’d stood with the Crusader General stepped in front of Kay, shielding her leader from him with her body. “You-“

“I don’t believe there’s a need for that, Rian.” The High Crusader, propped up by two of the healers, gently laid his arm on his subordinate’s and pushed her to the side. He stared up at Kay, completely covered in sweat. “I apologize for my appearance, Lord Kay. The weapon used by that assassin was poisoned, and while I’ll be fine after some rest, my body isn’t fighting off with the speed I’d like.” He closed his eyes and winced as he struggled to keep himself upright for a moment before opening his eyes with a pained smile. “I am perfectly aware that wearing red clothing doesn’t automatically mean being a part of Avalon, and I’m not enough of a fool to fall for that kind of idiotic attempt to frame you.”

“But, it could be a double-” Someone shouted from the watching crowd.

“Shut it!” Eahn barked. “Avalon didn’t want this fight to happen at all, why would they try and pull some shit like this?” He shuddered in pain again. Nodding once to Kay. He continued speaking. “We’re at your mercy, Lord Kay; what would you have of us?”

“I accept your surrender. We’ll speak of terms and such later. For now, we have more important topics to discuss.” He pointed in the direction of the eldritch limb. “As some of you might have already figured out, there’s some kind of giant alien limb from an eldritch realm that’s punched its way into our world out there. The System has ordered me to kill it or drive it off.” Everyone gasped in shock at Kay’s declaration of direct contact from the System. He ignored them all. “As part of your recompense for attacking Avalon, everyone here is going to help get rid of it for the good of my people and for the entire world.”

Eahn bowed his head immediately, “As you command. We’ll begin ordering our troops into position immediately.“