Chương 474: BECMI Chapter 473 – Immortal Stage, Immortal Actors

There were hundreds of Federyn natives, and even some Sidhe elves, scattered across the land as we headed for the path up the mountain. Some were worshipers, forced or otherwise, others merely come to see what was going to happen, representing nobles and the wealthy who ran the country, as well as some scattered military forces to keep order in case people went wild with fanaticism or something.

The fact we were closing in on the glowing Sunboat, a magical elven vessel made from the oil and leaves of a Lumina Tree, was soon noticed, and causing some consternation. Even the heroes in the boat turned around, frowning as they saw us. Hanvol didn't bother to restrain himself.

"Immortal posers!" his Magevoice rang out as he pointed at them, flames burning on his fingers. He had his own reputation now, resounding throughout Federyn, without any doubt the most powerful wizard in the entire nation.

"You impose your wills upon us, you play with our lives as if they were toys, and now, now you play pretend at being our own heroes in whatever trite game you are throwing for your own entertainment?!" he cursed them soundly, frankly astonishing them.

"Can you leave nothing of ours alone, you have to defile even the memories of our most valiant for your games?!" he seethed. The lordly false Krymrill just turned away aloofly and waved ahead, prompting the others to also look away and ignore us. The Sunboat glowed slightly, and its grand procession at a sedate pace, obviously done so they could be seen and recognized, picked up speed. Sama was already running, and we were within a hundred yards.

The Disks dipped low to the ground in anticipation as she put her foot down. Ding! Ting!, Tremble rang out enthusiastically. With a jerk, the Sunboat starting to rise slightly beyond us and head for the summit ahead fell out of the sky. Those riding it barely had time to shout in alarm as it crashed down, hitting the ground at full speed, digging in, and promptly flipping over in a most undignified crash.

The simple mast and sail snapped as the Immortal Shells of the heroes went flying and tumbling, none of them reacting in time to prevent the crash or look like anything dignified as they hit the ground and went tumbling and sprawling in the grass and dirt. Sama swept on by before they could even rise to their feet.

"Go back to your vaulted halls and pretty palaces in the clouds, Immortals, and take those damn fake guises with you. Let mortals do what mortals need to do, and not some would-be gods acting in some spiteful play at our expense!" Immortal Power crackled in the air as the four 'heroes' got to their feet.

"We go to save Federyn from this curse upon it!" the lordly fake Krymrill shouted out, but just got a sneering laugh back from Hanover.

"You can't even talk properly!" the mage mocked him.

"The Common tongue of today is far different from that of Krymrill's time! The correct term is 'Wur gonst tur safen mis heinlund soq Curlesn pone es!', you damn faker! Federyn was the Kingdom of Kommlarse back then, it didn't even exist! Krymrill wouldn't know or care what it is called today, his homeland was Kommlarse, and that's what he'd be fighting to defend!

"Not only a bad actor, but you didn't even study your part! Go fucking home and leave the job to professionals!" We were already a quarter-mile ahead and drawing away as the fake heroes stared after us in consternation." This is the Lady Edgina of the Eismark Federation addressing the brave people of Federyn around this incursion point into your lands.

I am with Warlord Briggs of the Eismark Federation, Grandmaster Sama Rantha, Lich-Slayer Miklan McMikal of Zanzyr, and Firemaster Hanvol of fair Absoglor in here, his homeland." We are going to go up that mountain ahead of us and clear off what needs to be cleared off. Other Immortals have already intervened to cut off the ones who came to this land and thought to make you their servants by force. It is time for mortals to play their part and finish the job."

Ignore the Immortals who've wrapped themselves in the skins of your heroes and legends. The heroes of the past rest well in the afterlife, and these fakes deserve none of your reverence, only your scorn. The Immortals don't think mortals can handle the challenges ahead, and we're going to prove their foolishness hasn't stopped yet, and this, this is TRUTH." Lights erupted behind us, non-mortal illumination forced out of souls that were shining through the disguises they'd appropriated.

Ahead of us, four figures coming down from the mountain to confront them, now us, also erupted with similar Auras, but theirs were all black and vile as they, too, were revealed to be Immortal guises." Ah, you see, more Immortal fakers playing games," I went on mercilessly. Behind us, there was a flash of magic and surge, and the four fakes, and their Sunboat, vanished in a flare of magic.

"Of course, we've now declared we are equal to this task, and have to earn the right to climb the mountain." Fret not. They are in their stolen shells and guises, and must limit themselves to mortal powers. Does that dragon think itself the equal of Pearl, I wonder?" I started to say, as the great wyrm swooped towards us, and awkwardly shifted position at the mention of the slain Moon Dragon.

"Was that lich greater than Prince McKlannister? Are those undead hordes greater than the crypts of Transyvia and Buramal? Is that pissant demoness greater than Delphax roaring his impotent fury as his greatest stronghold on this world was razed before him?!" Ensure your favorite authors get the support they deserve. Read this novel on Royal Road. They were all flying in. None of them were on the ground. Weapons hissed out around me."

Tremble, you unprepared, arrogant bastards," I Whispered for everyone, and Sama put her foot down again. Ding! Ting! A Null's Interdiction raced out ahead of us, even as they were weaving their first spells and preparing to bombard us out of existence. Then, of course, they all jerked and started falling out of the sky as King Gravity let them know that even Immortals had to obey physics when they went from elective soft rules to Fuck You steely laws of reality.

Spells went wild, even the two winged members tumbling out of the sky as they tried desperately to glide and didn't have the wings sufficient to do so. The incorporeal wraiths and the wraith-king leading them also fell straight for the ground, despite not even being solid! Sama didn't dimensionally seal the area for a reason, either.

"Hanvol," I stated, as two different Meteor Swarms meant to fall upon us blew far and grandly wide as their Casters were thrown off. The sun lit up. It wasn't an AoE, although it did look like it. It was actually a very bright radiance wrapped around a Force/Radiant core Shardray effect, looked pretty much exactly like a Bolt of a Sunburst or something, and the Immortal playing a lich there thought it was.

The Shardray hit, there was no save, only damage, and the damage was way too high for that Immortal Shell, restricted as it was to the toughness and Buffs of a lich. The first thing that happened is the Spellflare buried in the glow went off, and half-a-dozen Buffs of various sorts lit off, bathing the lich in destructive wild magic. Then, with its Lifeward and Resist Injury and other Buffs eliminated, the Shardray came in and blew the fucker apart.

Hanvol was totally ready as the Shell of the lich, a bunch of Immortal power, sunbright flames, and vivus detonated in midair. His own Meteor Swarm manifested right out of the conflagration and led the entire mass of it down upon that horde of undead falling to the ground ahead of us.

The Wraith-king got his Protection from Fire up in time to resist what was coming, but the scores of wraiths, looking like ancient soldiers bound up as undead spirits, were buried underneath the storm of flames raining down and were instantly wiped away. The Whispering Demon/Succubus vanished from midair and materialized on the ground, instantly sending a lethal black-green Ray directly at Hanvol, intending to Disintegrate him. He back-handed the Ray so casually I gave him four mental thumbs-up.

The Ray bounced away and hit the descending Wraith-king, who definitely wasn't expecting that attack, and shrieked as his immaterial form was assailed by Immortal-touched energies. Tremble flickered, DING!, and suddenly Sama was right in front of the succubus, who was frozen for a very long second as she wondered just how Hanvol had done that. Then there were arcs of Golden motion going through all five of her appendages. TING!

, Tremble celebrated, and the demoness and Immortal riding the Shell detonated wildly, swallowing her in Wrathfire and really pissing off the Immortal whose Avatar was just obliterated. There was a pulse as Endure beat once on its course to its target, rising like a meteor toward the great red wyrm coming down at us, its jaws already agape and preparing to breathe upon us, even as we smoothly scattered in all directions. The Mick vanished from his Disk.

The next second his arm was wrapped around the falling Aren't-I-Supposed-To-Be-Incorporeal Wraith King, and Laird, the size of a dagger, drove in under the ancient helm design and promptly extended to full length. The boom of it detonating en vivus off perfectly matched the impact of the Source Strike on the dragon's wing.

Its clumsy not-glide completely collapsed, along with half a dozen Buffs, and instead of managing to sweep its breath across us, it fell out of the sky, inflamed the ground between us without hitting anyone, and smashed into the ground and whatnot in a most embarrassing and heavy manner. Briggs was already airborne in a big leap, Endure had already flashed back to his hand, and he came down with a kinetic shadow around his Greathammer about six sizes bigger than it was, Greater Mighty Wallop online to do its thing.

Plus Death from Above, Spirited Charge, Greater Power Attack, Red Dragon Slaying, a round of x4 damage multiplier from Endure, and a few other nasty damage modifiers that combined to bring down a blow that shattered a great wyrm's skull as or more effectively than the blow of a Titan, driving the force right in and BOOM! And that, as they say, was that.

Briggs, Sama, and the Mick came striding out of the very white blast areas of their kills, the only things with any color, completely unperturbed and very confident as Hanvol and I glided up with the other Disks in tow. Briggs and the Mick stepped aboard theirs, Sama took control again, and we were off for the trail on the side of the mountain, spiraling up and around it so supplicants might advance and throw themselves at the mercy of the twats who'd been living up at the top of the place.

Now, whatever was going on up there we were going to mess with, because we'd obviously passed the test where we were qualified to do so… at least, if we were Immortals. And hundreds of people saw us do it. They knew mortals, including one of their own, had just gotten rid of Immortals playing games with them, and the cheers that began to rise in our wake could only reach Immortal ears and make them feel plenty embarrassed about us.

The Immortals weren't crass enough to stop us on the way up there, fortunately. Of course, once we reached the top, the only thing could be seen was a wildly churning area of nothing where they'd warped reality to only allow Immortal senses to see. That is, until Sama slowed down to let us all step off all our Disks. DING!, rang out crisply.