King Elston Kalor flew straight up, ignoring the remaining rebels, to draw level with Nyralis. He narrowed his eyes and glared at the supre enchanter, head of the Enchanters Guild. The man's soul, far from the weakness it had held in past etings, was strong and sturdy. He personally matched the resilient solidity of the air-thickening dungeon effect and the soul-cutting swords, greater than ordinary orichalcum rank but less than true royalty. He also wore several enchanted items of similar power.
Elston nodded at his new opponent. "I take it you are responsible for the inexplicably-potent artifacts these fools wielded against ."
Nyralis shrugged nonchalantly, the rich red cloth of his shirt on his shoulders framing his calm expression. "No point denying it now, I suppose. Hmm?" He looked downward sharply at the remaining rebels. "No teleporting away, now, you lot. This is still your fight, and with on your side, we can actually win."
Soone called out defiantly, "You killed our leader! You are not on our side." A few scattered yells of agreent ran out.
Nyralis glared at them. "I provided the items that made it possible for you to even get to this fight in the first place! See it through to the end, and as the new Crown, I will grant the free Wilds access you seek!"
An arrow bounced off an invisible barrier around Nyralis, and for a mont, all was still. Then a fireball engulfed him, and two dozen rebels flew toward him in a disorganized charge. He sighed and flicked his mana at sothing, and the rebels all vanished, teleported away by items they had each carried. "So much for the rabble and commitnt to their cause. Idiots just cannot be reasoned with, sotis." He raised his gaze back to Elston. "Now, where were we?"
Elston laughed. "You must think yourself such a clever mastermind. You manipulated so many people to fight , even to provoke into fighting recklessly, just to wear down so that you and your… pseudo-royal power might conceivably have a chance. But if you understood the magnitude of my strength enough to know that this was necessary, you must also have known that it might still not be enough. Why take that risk? You already had power and wealth beyond the wildest dreams of most."
Nyralis laughed back at him. "What risk? You know nothing of the foundations of my power. You royals, in fact all nobles, are prideful fools. You build your own personal power, and for what? The next generation has to build their own all over again! People die, and the power they built up in their lives is wasted. Enchanted items on the other hand…" A wand appeared in his right hand, and he aid it at Elston. "Items can be destroyed, but they do not die from re old age. I feared your orichalcum circlet, charged with power by your ancestors, but that…" A beam of golden light shot from the wand to hit Elston's aura, which flared in response. "As I thought, it is nearly depleted. And I do not fear you."
Lornera watched with a sinking heart as her father and two remaining siblings fought the supre enchanter. Nyralis's level was substantially higher than even Elston's, and he had a seemingly-endless supply of incredibly powerful items. The air had grown thicker than ever, and every charge was t by a force barrier powerful enough to block even them, or a short-range teleport or sudden shunt, or an eruption of flas hot enough to make even her flinch, or so other defense. The variety of the enchanter's items seed as endless as their quantity.
Nyralis was striking back just as strongly, too. Golden beams of light that struck instantly as fast as they appeared seed to be his favorite, but fireballs, explosions, lightning, force blades, and more were testing the Kalor defenses fiercely. Elston had broken the two soul-cutting swords the mont Nyralis first attacked him, but Nyralis had summoned another and was wielding it telekinetically alongside everything else. Nothing had yet actually wounded any of them, but she could sense their fatigue mounting, while Nyralis was still fresh.
Lornera longed to join the fight, but exerting herself that much so soon would split open the wound on her soul again. The wound was healing well, but still far from gone. She winced as Elston dodged yet another beam of golden light. She wasn't entirely sure he would have withstood that attack without injury if it had hit, and only rapid and constantly changing movent had even made the dodge possible. Brenelle and Patrimmon tried to punish Nyralis for focusing on their father, but a pair of force walls appeared right in their paths, flanking Nyralis's back on either side. Lornera thought she noticed a slight wince on Patrimmon's face as they hit. She took a closer look and realized the force walls were covered with spikes and razor-sharp edges, not just simple barriers.
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A hand gripped her shoulder, and Lornera looked to the side, montarily startled by the reminder of the royal guards she was standing with. Guard General Resmon solemnly nodded to her, then removed his hand. "Your Highness, you know what will happen if you try to fight at that level with your injury. I cannot stop you if you choose to try, but you must consider whether you are actually capable of aningful aid."
Lornera swallowed and took a deep breath. "You're right, but they need help. I… No, we must help them. Nyralis wore down my father with numbers; we can do the sa to him, and without need for any deception or plot. General Resmon, send a call for reinforcents. Royal guards, mages, every combatant in the Crown's service. Call for all of them on my authority. The mages can teleport the rest."
General Resmon saluted. "Yes, your Highness! At once!"
Nyralis smirked to himself as he heard Lornera's command and the general's response through a small remote listening enchantnt he had stationed on the observers. Good thinking, Lornera, but prepare for disappointnt. That armor, and especially the signal enchantnt built into it, will do nothing that I do not allow.
He tweaked his suite of combat items again, increasing the piercing power allotnt. It would cost more mana, but he still had plenty in reserve, and the Kalor soul plan was proving even more resistant to all types of harm than he had expected. He paid no attention to the details of the general trying to send a signal, confident in the knowledge that the backdoor controls he had designed into it would quietly prevent any signal from being sent, while falsely reporting success.
General Resmon wore the single suit of royal guard armor that Felton had taken to Carlos and Amber. It no longer had any hidden backdoor controls. It sent the call for aid exactly as Resmon intended.
Far away in Kalor Palace, a coded signal arrived from a long-distance beacon. The enchantnts designed to receive such signals dutifully examined it, and determined that it was an ergency call for all available forces and was marked with a Kalor scion's personal authorization. The enchantnts consulted their rules for how to handle such a signal. The top priority rule, enabled minutes ago by a backdoor signal, indicated that all non-routine signals should be discarded, and any logs of them erased. The enchantnts followed that rule, and the legions of guards and mages in the palace remained unaware that anything had happened at all.
Similar scenes played out in nurous places all across the nation of Kalor. No one noticed.
Deep in the Wilds, at the bounds of a recently claid mana wellspring, Royal Guard Colonel Lorvan had his attention suddenly seized by a flashing red light inside his helt. Glowing script in front of his eyes spelled out the details a mont later.
Ergency \ Call for reinforcents \ All forces \ Location: Kalor Barrens \ Authority: Princess Lornera \ Responding locations: 0
He imdiately acknowledged the ssage, and the number of responding locations ticked up to 1. He turned and ran inward toward the wellspring's central area and the rapidly growing dungeon-mansion/castle there. Major Ordens ca into sight, running from the opposite side of the wellspring, as he approached the building's door. He called out to her, "Major, fall in!"
"Yes, sir!"
She took up position just behind and left of him as he knocked on the door, hard. "I need to speak with Lord Carlos at once!"
The door opened after only a few seconds, revealing both Carlos and Amber looking at him curiously.
Lorvan skipped any pleasantries, confident that the two specific nobles in front of him wouldn't care. "I need you to teleport us to the center of the Kalor Barrens. Princess Lornera has called for ergency aid from all available forces." He frowned and hesitated. "I also request that the two of you co to fight as well."
Carlos blinked at him a few tis, and Amber's face paled. "Why?"
"No other locations have acknowledged the call. I can think of only one explanation for why, and it ans no other aid will be coming."
Carlos nodded slowly. "Right, the receiving equipnt everywhere else is being blocked by the sabotage. But why ask us to fight? How would we be of aningful help in a fight that the Crown can't handle alone?"
Lorvan wasted no ti in bluntly stating his answer. "I know that your soul plan is of royal grade. Your disguise is good, but the amount of aether you absorbed and how slowly your Level increased gave it away several weeks ago. Even a maximum orichalcum-rank ordinary soul plan would have advanced through the Levels considerably faster than you did, and would have taken less aether to do so. Only a full royal-rank soul plan would require the imnse quantities that the two of you have absorbed."
"I… see." Carlos blinked again and stared silently.
Amber pushed Carlos to the side to make room for herself at the door. "If you knew that long ago, why didn't you say anything before?"
Lorvan looked at her sternly. "I don't see how that is relevant to this ergency. Regardless, you seem loyal to the Crown, and greater power in service to the Crown benefits the Crown. Now, will you help?"
Amber exchanged a look with Carlos, then cocked her head. "We could teleport you to Kalor Palace first, so you can rouse the garrison there?"
Lorvan shook his head. "I lack the authority to command the palace garrison, convincing them of the truth would take ti we can't spare, and a pair of royals above the garrison's Level could be more helpful than the entire garrison. And again, this is an ergency. I request all haste to respond."
Carlos nodded grimly. "You said the center of the Kalor Barrens? I'll need that in a form I can input to a spell."
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