Gravetower Page 3

  The Dark Overlord turns to look over his party, Love brushing off her dress-armor and Ranger Minion, putting on his perfectly-shaped tan beret.

  “So, first a little bit of enchantment prior to our departure,” Chaos instructs before producing a magical wand.

  Aoline’s eyes glimmer at the sight of it. It’s not a regular wand, far from it. This instrument of magic is so integrated with power that it’s glowing from base to tip. “Wow! So that’s where you get all your magic from?”

  There’s another in-the-know chuckle from the minions as Chaos shakes his head. “In most cases I would choose to pass on magical instruments, especially when it comes to casting spells, however at times like this a little assistance would be welcome when casting such complex enchantments upon others.”

  Aoline squints cluelessly while the others nod in realization; of course they wouldn’t be bringing Aoline along as-is. “So it’s not?” Aoline asks.

  Chaos chuckles faintly. “Wands and staves are for the weak, but we all have our moments, don’t we?” With an arcane wave and an incantation that sounds closer to a breath than a verse, the wand’s glow emits and tendrils out through the air, haloing over Aoline. “You seem to have some practice in alteration magic, hmm?” Chaos asks, continuing to wave the wand’s light over her.

  “Yes! It’s my best! How did you know?” She says this, already a bit short for breath. She feels tingly all over, like her very makeup is being shifted in form by the overlord’s magic.

  “I can see your intra-magical muscular pathways are a bit thicker than the usual person; that’s not a common occurrence in the usual dregling. I understand Friendion is quite ready for the sort of exertion we’ll be due for, but I figured you could use a little push.”

  Aoline’s hair stands on end as Chaos enters her personal space to commit the final wave of the wand.

  “Eh, push me ho-” she stops immediately with a sharp jolt. The white-haired lass collapses with a spasm as, all at once, the tendrils of magic from the wand pierce into her. With another jolt, and a flash of the eyes, she regains her composure in one moment, and her balance the second after. “Wow.”

  “I suppose most people would have that reaction after having a mana-emitter placed on them.”

  Love coos as if impressed while Scout Minion nods firmly in short, adorable agreement. “Nice thinkin’ Poppi!”

  Chaos grins. “It is a good idea, isn’t it? But that’s not all. Behold!” With a flair for the dramatic, Chaos waves his wand over Aoline again and again, each movement causing a palpable reaction in her. Scout Minion “oohs” and “aahs” at each new movement of the wand, as she with the other minions can see each enchantment taking hold upon her body. While the minions can see the spells physically, all poor Meeo Letlind can do is feel the spells—her human eyes cannot perceive the flow of covert mana outside of its raw form. The density and complexity of the magic placed upon Aoline is so strong, Love can sense the change from a distance. In but seconds, it feels far closer to Order’s mana signature than that of a young knight.

  With a couple more waves, Aoline draws a breath; it is air so full, and so powerful, that it would rival her very first as a newborn— a physical and mental rebirth.

  “If you were planning on using that much alteration magic, master… why… m-my word sir!” Dark Arts Minion has trouble crafting a reasonable response. She’s never seen this much power spent in a single moment— for anything.

  Aoline closes her eyes, savoring the moment, the others gawking at the sight of Chaos, shaking just a centimeter; for a common soul it wouldn’t be interesting in the slightest, but for him to tremble, the price the incantations asked for must’ve been great. Love knows with certainty that an expenditure like that would kill the vast majority of casters, but for Chaos this level of spell casting is a monthly, if not weekly, occurrence.

  “Well,” Chaos slips the magic wand back through his angular jaws and into his dimensional throat, “I believe I went a little overboard. Oh dear.” He looks over to Aoline, her knees on the ground and her gaze staring blankly at the soil. “Are you quite alright?”

  After a moment and a deep, calmed breath, she looks up to her dark master. “Never… never better. I feel… I feel….”

  “You better,” Scout Minion cuts in snidely, her tiny, unassuming black arms crossed sassily. “Poppi just put a library’s worth of enchantments on you. Not even Order would be running around with that much baggage.”

  Aoline’s young still, so she doesn’t yet know the price of magic, nor the immense scope of the hundreds of protective and infusive magics placed upon her— but she is polite to people she idolizes, after all. “Yes… I’m… I’m grateful. Thank you, overlord.”

  Love’s brow raises and Chaos squints perceptively; her awkwardness has been replaced with a calm, collected professionalism.

  “Did you… change her?” Love asks.

  Chaos smiles. “As in, change her disposition through mental magic?”

  The situation is weird, and Love’s always considered herself good at dealing with peculiar magicians, as she herself is one. “Well, in the artificial sense.”

  The overlord shakes his head. “None of the sort. I simply clarified her drive and subverted her inhibitions. This is the Aoline Rayworth that Aoline Rayworth wishes she could be.”

  Love inspects the young lady. Her eyes betray a dense arcane presence with a slight glow, and her under-armor glows outwardly; it suggests some very-high-level alteration magic— the kind that simply cannot be hidden, even from the naked eye. “Most impressive, my lord.”

  The nigh-imperceptible tremors die out and Chaos scratches his dark chin sheepishly. “Well thank you, my dear lady. I figured only the best for my human-sorts. I hope you will consider it a compliment of your abilities that I decided not to cast any upon you.”

  Love bows her head graciously like the two were at an ongoing tea party at all hours of the day. “No offense taken, of course. I wouldn’t dream of it.”

  The two share a gentle laugh, causing the minions to exchange a few awkward glances, and Aoline to again feel the strike of the match of jealousy in her heart; the two are so irritatingly, toxically-perfect for one another, she can hardly stand it.

  Mid-laugh, however, Chaos’ antennae twitch and his grin dies down to a simple, ambitious smirk. “We’ve squandered our time, it seems. We shall depart immediately.”

  Aoline looks up from her wrist. She was inspecting the new, visible pathways with a mixture of awe and fear on her features. “What’s the matter?”

  Chaos slips his left claw through the air in an elegant motion, tearing forth a portal to another plane of existence. “Our knight pursuers are hot on our tail. Ranger and Scout Minions, you take the lead.”

  While the three minions scramble for the portal and leap in, Love steps forward with an airy, carefree trot. Aoline rushes in first, leaving Love and Chaos in the clearing.

  “So, the next round of adventures, hmm?” she asks him, flicking his tower-solid shoulder with a playful snap.

  Chaos scoffs, and shrugs. “Or the final chapter of our grand conquest of evil.” He folds his arm around her back, leading her to the portal. “The labels will differ, as they always do, my dear— but right now, in this moment, we are the heroes.”

  Love looks back to Chaos’ grand tower. She already feels the elements of teleportation magic focusing in on their position. “I hope she sees it that way too… one day.”

  In a rare turn, Chaos’ features darken. He doesn’t frown. He never frowns. He just, relaxes without a smile.

  “You and I both know her past is both her greatest strength, and her most splintering crutch.” Chaos begins ushering Love into the portal. “Pray thee not to think on her, and keep your mind to our task at hand, yes?”

  Love looks at Chaos, and Chaos smiles.

  “Alright,” Love says as she grasps the boundary of the infinite and pulls herself forward.

  Chapter Two: The Rear
>
  Meeo’s betrayal is slowly seeping into her mind, like rusted metal shavings into the workman’s forearms— but she will keep on, because she is Lord Knight General Order, Chaos Slayer, and she does not stop for any one, not even herself.

  …

  “For the last time Kale Benefits Minion, not everything we cook has to have kale in it!” Cooking Minion insists with a moan, pushing back a pile of smelly, freshly-gathered kale the tall, lanky Kale Benefits Minion is attempting to dump onto him.

  “But Mister Cooking Minion, sir! Kale is amazing! I even went through all the trouble of gathering all this fresh delicious and healthy kale in the middle of my yoga session!” Cooking Minion screeches in fury as Kale Benefits Minion starts shoving mouthful after mouthful of kale into his Cooking Minion-y jaws. “You just… need to… try so-”

  “No!” Cooking Minion shouts with a sputter as raw gatherings of magic coalesce in the room silently. “Kale is for frickin’ dingo-ass losers, man! Don’t you get that? It. Doesn’t. Taste. Good.”

  Kale Benefits Minion squeals in offense as he reaches into his fair-trade hemp-fiber bag to throw more amazing kale at Cooking Minion. “Health tastes good, man! If you actually cared about the people you were serving you’d know that!”

  Cooking Minion laughs at the irony as they both remain blissfully unaware of the intra-realmic gateway forming, its composition process sounding no louder than the twinkling of the coldest stars in the sky. “You’re saying you know how to take care of people? You’re going to make them happy?”

  Kale Benefits Minion scoffs pretentiously at the short Cooking Minion. “Why, isn’t it obvious? Once I convert this tower’s minions to the glories and wonders of almighty kale, I’ll be unstoppable! Chaos will make me his right-hand minion!” He looks away and up through the room, like a classical statue that has something far more important to look at than Cooking Minion. “I can see it now! My destiny! The operator’s lounge! The free massages! The ‘get out of the minion wagon’ free passes! The…” his gaze focuses over to the portal, finally. “The gate…ways?”

  The two minions have scarcely enough time to comprehend what’s going on when Royal Knight Order, Royal Knight Redemption, Royal Knight Glory, and some Kanvane-academy know-it-all geek, all blast through the portal.

  Kale Minion flips up a fresh sheath of kale, ready to provide twenty percent of the recommended daily value of dietary fiber per cup, but dietary fiber cannot hold out against the focused might of the R.K.O.K.R.’s three strongest and most lauded knights - each immortal legends in their own right.

  Usually a fight like this would be described for comedic effect— but like, damn, they didn’t stand anything resembling a chance, and Cooking Minion’s actually pretty tough.

  Redemption lifts his visor and overlooks the overlord’s breakfast room with an expression of both distrust, and a bit of humor. “Some quaint tastes, considering who he is.”

  Glory, raising his fist from Kale Benefits Minion’s pulpified, quivering face, scoffs. “Mayhaps the spikes and lava get old after a while.”

  Order, still and arched over Chaos’ comfy chair as she looks over his collection of weapons and trophies from her old friends, shakes her head. “I don’t feel him anywhere. He must’ve just moved.”

  “N-no way!” Cooking Minion exclaims weakly, his lower half smeared across the stove top. “He’s playing billiards in the basement! And once Kale Benefits Minion and I regenerate, we’re going to cook your chivalric asses up for lunch!”

  Redemption, the Lord Knight Captain and leader of the R.K.O.K.R., looms over the two crushed minions. “Is that so?”

  Kale Benefits Minion cries out in horror. “N-no! They just left! Please don’t hurt us!”

  Cooking Minion inhales sharply with a gurgle. “You *!$@#&$ idiot!”

  Redemption looks to the Kanvanian mage, who’s presently staring into a scrying sphere.

  “Nias, is this true?”

  Nias, his blue-white hood drawn over his slim shoulders, peers into his sphere a moment more. “It is, Lord Knight Captain, sir. Chaos and his… retinue just crossed the boundary into… Tree’s Weathers….”

  “What is it?” Glory asks.

  There’s a pause as Nias looks up with wide, fear-struck eyes. “The O.E.L. Headquarters Realm.”

  “Son of a bitch,” Glory spits, swinging around to stare at the wall.

  “Any specifics?” Redemption asks.

  Nias shakes his head. “It’s literally in their headquarters… I’ll go ahead and start the coalescence.” Glory groans while Nias draws out his wand to open the way.

  “You’re kidding,” Glory says with a laugh. “They walked right into those bastards’ hands? Chaos or not, he’s dead.”

  Redemption sighs. “I’m afraid you don’t know our own overlord all that well, then.”

  Glory raises his visor, revealing his steeled gray eyes. “What, you think they’ll be afraid of him?”

  Redemption glances over to Order; she’s completely beside herself. He looks back to Glory. “He’s the main reason the O.E.L. have kept their distance all these years.”

  Glory squints with intrigue. “That so? Never heard of that. Not too much of a surprise considering no one tells me anything.”

  Order finally breaks her silence, while looking over the mounted head of an outman. “Well it’s not like you spend any time in New Reinen, so we can’t really keep you updated when we need you.”

  “Right. I have this rank because I’m ‘the best’ like you said, Daniel.”

  Redemption sighs. “That’s right. You’ve served us well… when you’ve been cooperative enough to help, at least.”

  “Ahh, so you’re the ‘us’ now, Daniel?” Glory asks with a smirk as footsteps approach from upstairs. Music Minion appears with another stack of records, so high she can hardly see in front of her.

  “Sir! I figured you’d like some more variety when listening to…” There’s a pause as she spots Order out of her eye, fully suited up for battle and Monument stored at the hilt. “Oh, fudge.” She plops the records on the floor, but they make no sound— nor do her screams when Redemption leaps forward. She, too, is strewn across the kitchen in a deft, undeniable strike from Redemption’s sword. Her head plops next to Cooking Minion’s, who looks over with a smirk.

  “Welcome to the club. I’m the headmaster,” he says with a serious tone.

  “Sh-shut up,” Music Minion says with a cough as Redemption turns to his party.

  “We don’t have much more time before our presence is alerted to. How close are you?”

  The golden glow from Nias’ whitewood wand pulsates brightly as the spell continues to completion. “Going to be a few minutes. Unlike here, there’s far more barriers set up by their mages.”

  Glory sighs. “So, honestly spoken, what the hell are we going to do when we get there?”

  Redemption nods his head gently. “I have a plan. We’re going to come as ambassadors.”

  “And you think they’ll be cool with that?”

  “Again, based on the reports I’ll assume you haven’t read, they’ve had their eyes on our dimension for ages. They’d be fools not to welcome us. We simply step in, tell them the situation, and they’ll let us get to Chaos.”

  “Right, and if Chaos is using it as a trap?”

  Redemption shrugs. “Then we’ll have been trapped successfully. There’s nothing we can do in this case but be diplomatic and hope for the best.”

  Glory crosses his arms staring down the coalescing elements of the portal. “To choose there, of all places… why?”

  “Either to throw us off, or because he has to go there for some reason.”

  “Almost done,” Nias says as what looks to be small, human-sized constellations line up in front of him and his wand.

  Glory chuckles nervously. “Gotta say, though. Of all the groups to hunt down Chaos over the millennia, if anyone has a chance it’d be us. You’re something else, Nias.”

  �
�Thank you, Lord Knight General, sir.”

  “Never seen a person capable of realm transfer, let alone at an age like yours. You’re not even past fifty, right?”

  “Only thirty-four, sir.”

  Glory crosses his arms once more. “Yeah, see, the soonest I could’ve done anything close to that would have been maybe halfway past one thousand.”

  “It’s the only magic I’m good at, sir. I’d venture to guess that by that age you were this good at a hundred others.”

  Glory smiles sheepishly. “A youth would think that, but the days just sort of fade and merge…. Really I just improved the magic I used every day.”

  “Which was still enough for you to be considered the third-deadliest knight in history.”

  Glory sighs as Redemption grunts with a touch of humor. “Fourth, actually,” Glory corrects.

  “Really, sir? Who’s the third?” Nias asks.

  “Regardless of what the history books tell you, in our… society, us knights know pretty well who’s at the top of the food chain… The third strongest knight is our pal Redemption right here.”

  Nias flinches as Redemption presses his hand to his mouth to stifle a laugh.

  “Then… then who’s number two?”

  Glory leans on the counter, now covered in scattered kale. “None other than the lass we’re chasing.”

  Nias squints an eye. He apparently has trouble believing this. “Knight Love— she’s the second strongest knight?”

  “I mean… in a direct fight she’s not terrible,” Glory responds with a shrug.

  Order sighs as she perks up from Chaos’ fireplace. “The problem is with her magic system.”

  “So… realmancy is a real form of magic?” Nias questions.

  Glory scoffs and Redemption sighs. “Typical civilian mage,” Glory mutters.

  Order nods, still not taking her eyes away from Chaos’ immense collection of artifacts, trophies and weapons. “She can bend the rules as far as she needs to. I saw her pushed, really pushed only a single time, and the rules of our world started to break.”