Chương 35: 32. Greater Powers

Elementals were annoying to fight. Much like other spirits, they weren't actually here on the material plane, and thus didn't die when their form was destroyed. However, unlike spirits from the outer planes, who favored vessels made out of pure magic, elementals favored vessels at least partially made out of real materials. This typically made them slower and clumsier than other spirits, but more resilient and harder to banish.

Their forms were anchored to the material plane in a unique way, and could be repeatedly damaged without disrupting the underlying magic that animated them. The earth elementals surrounding them were not weak either. They were all vaguely humanoid in shape, and as tall as Beortan. Although not an absolute rule, elementals tended to take on a more humanoid appearance the more powerful they became.

These elementals had crude forms, more resembling roughly-hewn statues than a man of stone, but it still suggested they were far beyond something like Chompy. The barrel-shaped device on top of the dwarven war machine opened fire on them without warning, seeking to surprise them while they were distracted by Voyager's departure. A bright beam of blue energy swept across the terrain, trying to slice them in half in one fell swoop.

This close to the war machine, the firing of the beam was much louder than he remembered, and the glow more blinding. Even so, all three of them dodged the beam. They were scattered, but unharmed. The elementals attacked immediately afterwards. Four of the earth elementals catapulted themselves into the air in an attempt to slam down on them. Others simply charged at speeds one would not expect from such a heavy, clumsy-looking being. Two of them sank into the soil, seeking to surprise them from below.

One of them transformed into a boulder and rolled towards them at high speeds. In response, Marcus launched himself into the air, aiming for the earth elementals that jumped into the air, and released a powerful shockwave of force in all directions. The four elementals, caught without rock and soil beneath their feet to stabilize them, were flung away in every direction. They weren't really hurt, but it would take them a bit of time to land, reorient themselves, and rush back into battle. That was enough.

In the next moment, he was forced to dodge an energy beam from the war machine, and then made a shield to block a rain of knife-like stones launched at him from several positions below. Some of the earth elementals had pointed their club-like hands at him, and were launching said sharpened stones at him in bursts that were too hard to dodge. What followed were several minutes of fruitless fighting between two sides, each side probing for weaknesses while accomplishing little.

The elementals were a distraction, one too hard to permanently put down, but not enough to help the dwarves overwhelm them. The best way of dealing with spirits like this was to get rid of the summoner. Unfortunately, the summoner in this case was encased in seemingly impenetrable armor. Marcus had tried to destroy the barrel-like mechanism on top of the war machine with his crystal spears, but it was more agile than he hoped, and the dwarves knew where their biggest weakness was.

As for the main body of the machine, the metal it was made from was too resilient, and the crystal spears simply bounced off of it with no effect. The war machine could also sink into the earth beneath their feet to evade attacks, which made it hard to simply overwhelm it with area spells. Beortan tried to stop this by encasing the war machine in ice… but the machine was too strong. It simply shattered the ice around it before Beortan could layer it thick enough.

And so, the war machine kept trying to hit them with its energy beam and squish them with its mechanical legs, aided by a dozen earth elementals that kept making a nuisance of themselves. Meanwhile, Marcus, Beortan, and Irdrith kept flinging the earth elementals away into the distance to reduce the pressure on them, while looking for a way to destroy the beam firing mechanism. The dwarves seemed content to play the long game, betting that Marcus and his party would get exhausted or make a mistake first.

Unfortunately, they eventually realized that Irdrith wasn't in top form at the moment, and many of their attacks became focused on her. Marcus wasn't sure they could keep the pressure off of her sufficiently. He did have something of a plan, but for that to work, it would be best if the earth elementals around them were gone. He wasn't sure how loyal they were to the summoners. The machine fired its energy beam at them again.

This time, Marcus took a bit of a risk and created a mirror of water, angled in such a way that the beam was reflected straight into a nearby earth elemental. Said elemental was in the process of trying to roll into Marcus, having covered itself in spikes. When the beam hit it, it was blown into pieces. He could sense that the elemental was still not dead despite this, and would eventually pull itself back into shape again, but its power grew significantly fainter. The blow had done real damage to the spirit.

The war machine paused for a moment, the dwarves inside no doubt processing that they just grievously wounded one of their own summoned soldiers. Marcus tried to exploit this by separating the ground beneath the war machine into a free-floating platform, which he then began lifting into the air. He wasn't sure if the war machine could keep the dwarves inside alive if it fell down to earth from a great height, but he was eager to find out.

Alas, before he could lift the platform too high, the war machine slammed down on it with its legs, causing the platform to break apart and the war machine to plummet back to earth from a relatively low height. It plunged into a vortex of fire. Marcus hoped that its wards would not protect its outer shell from heating up dangerously, cooking the dwarves inside, and that molten ground would prove impossible for it to swim through… but it didn't work.

The war machine plunged into the molten ground like it was water, disappearing beneath their feet. Annoying. Earlier, he had tried using lightning against the war machine, and that hadn't worked either. One would think a machine made out of metal would conduct lightning really well, but it seemed not to be the case, because firing lightning spells at it did not kill the dwarves inside.

He could keep deflecting the beams into earth elementals, but that was risky and required careful positioning the likes of which he wasn't sure he could pull off repeatedly. Whoever was piloting the machine was no fool, and would surely take steps to foil such an obvious plan.

"Help me disable the earth elementals, if only for a moment," Marcus sent to Beortan through a spell. Wordlessly, Beortan started casting a lengthy spell, stopping his efforts to battle the war machine or the golems. Marcus and Irdrith defended him, erecting barriers to defend against the energy beams from the dwarves, who noticed Beortan was preparing something big and sought to disrupt him. Meanwhile, the elementals hurriedly converged on his location, heedless of their own safety.

A ring of ice fragments formed in the air around Beortan, circling lazily around him. Then the second circle joined it, then the third one. Suddenly, Beortan opened his eyes, and a translucent wave of magic washed over the entire area, emanating from him. It passed around Marcus and Irdrith without hurting them, but when it washed over the earth elementals, a thin layer of ice formed on top of them and they immediately stopped in their tracks.

No matter what they were doing, no matter how much momentum they gathered, no matter if they were sailing through the air or drifting through the soil, in a single moment, they were completely immobilized. Even the war machine stopped for a brief instant, halted by the power of the spell, though it broke through it and continued its relentless assault moments afterwards. Marcus had never seen that particular spell before, despite being Beortan's friend. There was something in it, some force he did not recognize.

It was not simple ice magic that made everything stop in its tracks so absolutely… but this was not the time to contemplate such things. Marcus had been making his own preparations. He had created two dozen crystal spears above him while waiting for Beortan to finish, as well as defending him from various attacks. Now that everything had stopped for a moment, he launched the spears all around him.

Some of them pierced into the earth elementals, burying themselves deep into their frozen, stony forms – a seemingly useless gesture, as they did not have any organs or core that would be harmed by the spear. There was a point, however – he had attached a suppressing spell onto those spears, which would hopefully keep them down for a long while. He wasn't sure how long Beortan's spell would last, but with the seal embedded in them they were not getting back into battle any time soon.

The rest of the spears he scattered all over the area, stabbing them in a loose circle around the dwarven war machine. He sent two crystal spears at the machine itself, which were dodged. That was fine. Marcus had never really expected to hit the machine with those – he only attempted it in order to mislead the dwarves as to his intentions. Though, of course, if he had managed to take out the beam firing mechanism with the spears, that would have been even better.

Before the machine could do much else, he started casting a complicated ritual spell at a distance, using the crystal spears as anchors for the magic. The war machine fired a beam at him, but Beortan erected a wall of ice to block the hit. Marcus sent a message to the war machine, using not words or telepathic magic, but vibrations through the ground. It was directed at the earth elemental bound to its frame, and spoken in the language of the earth elementals.

[O, Great Lord of Earth, I seek to release you from your bindings,] Marcus said. [If you wish to be free, await my signal and aid my magic spell. You will be free of this prison of artifice!] He received no answer from the earth elemental, but then again, he didn't expect to. If the elemental was forcibly bound to the machine as he suspected, it was surely forbidden from communicating with any random adept that came along.

However, Marcus was certain that the elemental heard him, because the spirit wouldn't be able to navigate the world without being able to sense vibrations. It was the main way earth elementals perceived the world around them. Marcus would just have to trust that the elemental was indeed not a willing participant in it, and that it was capable of helping. Without its help, his ritual was doomed to fail. The dwarves seemed to realize something was wrong.

Perhaps the elemental inside the machine started to struggle too soon, or perhaps Marcus was not as subtle as he imagined. The war machine started to retreat, walking backward as it frantically fired its beam device at Marcus. They fired it so frequently, that the device started to visibly heat up and release smoke, arcs of lightning dancing on its surface. Marcus found himself having to dodge the beams, even with Beortan protecting him, his focus on the ritual on the verge of breaking.

Irdrith, despite being purely on the defensive so far, seemed to have decided this was her chance to turn things around. She used the war machine's focus on Marcus, and the temporary inactivity of the earth elementals, to take flight and get behind the machine, seeking to attack it from behind. The war machine displayed the previously hidden capability to launch some sort of physical projectiles at the dragon, and although it did ward her off, dealing with her took most of the pressure off of Marcus.

Finally, it was ready. Marcus sent a massive seismic wave to the earth elemental in the war machine, and then completed the ritual. A ring of golden light sprang into existence around the war machine, emitting a multitude of mystical symbols that traveled along the ground and converged onto the machine in the center. They crawled up the machine's legs like an army of ants, and it began to twitch and seize-up, no longer firing its beam as it seemed to struggle with itself.

The face on the machine also underwent a transformation, becoming far more expressive. Its expression repeatedly shifted between a wrathful, laughing, and smug-looking face. The machine twisted and warped, threatening to implode and kill everyone inside. After only a few moments of this, the top of the war machine exploded. However, it did not look like this was an accidental failure.

Instead, the dwarves inside had some kind of metal capsule that could be ejected from the war machine in a speedy, explosive fashion. The capsule hit the mountainside a fair distance away, and the dwarves tumbled out of it almost immediately. How they all managed to squeeze into such a tiny space, Marcus did not know. They seemed disoriented, and at least one was unconscious, but otherwise alive.

Irdrith immediately took flight, seeking to finish them off, but one of the dwarves – the spirit adept Marcus had noted earlier – was well enough to notice her approach and react. He quickly pulled in the other two stumbling dwarves into a pile around him and squeezed some kind of green rod in his hand, shattering it. The entire group of dwarves was enveloped by a spatial distortion and winked out of existence. What a mad bastard!

He used a teleportation spell, despite knowing it would send him to a completely random destination. Then again, when facing a furious dragon, 'anywhere but here' is a valid choice of action… Marcus shifted his attention to the war machine, which twisted itself into a series of warped shapes, before the human-like face on it seemingly peeled itself from its surface and sank into the ground. A moment later, a huge stone head rose from the ground, facing Marcus and Beortan.

"A friend of yours?" Beortan asked Marcus dubiously. Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.

"Release my subordinates!" the stone head ordered.

"They will not harm you, now that I am free." So the earth elementals that were assaulting them were this guy's subordinates? No wonder the dwarves were able to get so many earth elementals into their service. Marcus had thought they were simply willing to pay a fortune to get their help, but it seems they were just obeying their enslaved leader. Marcus waved his hand, dismissing the seals anchored in the crystal spears embedded inside the earth elementals.

They immediately came back to life, pulling the spears out of their bodies before congregating around their leader. Marcus and Beortan stared at the earth elementals. Irdrith eventually came back to join them, having confirmed that the dwarves were not anywhere close. Sometimes teleportation deposited people fairly close to their starting location, random as it was, but that was an extremely rare occurrence. Irdrith really did hate these dwarves.

Marcus had thought the elder earth elemental he released would thank him, or at least want to talk to him, but no such thing happened. After staring at them for some time, the leader of the earth elementals only had one thing to say.

"I am leaving," the stone head said, and then collapsed into rocks and soil. The lesser elementals around it similarly collapsed into gravel a moment afterwards.

In a small cave, far from the battlefield, an orc mage swept his hand across the pool of water he was using as a scrying surface to observe the confrontation between the dwarves and the humans. It was tempting to try and spy on the victors some more, in the hopes they would reveal something interesting as they celebrated their victory, but Ichir thought it was too risky. With no battle to distract them, they would surely notice his scrying spell sooner or later, and would do their best to track them down again.

His wounds had recovered greatly, but he was still not at his best. And even his best would not be enough. The truth was, he and Gruth were lucky to be alive. And speaking of his sole surviving underling…

"We need to go back," he told Gruth.

"We will be killed if we come back empty-handed," Gruth told him, an unfriendly look on his face. In all honesty, a part of Ichir was surprised that Gruth hadn't killed him already. Leaders who suffered a devastating setback like this tended not to live long. In a way, it was fortunate that nobody except Gruth survived. Gruth needed Ichir, otherwise the mage would already be dead.

"The dragon is beyond our reach now," Ichir told him.

"Besides, we are not coming back empty-handed. You heard the humans, the dragon is carrying a Diyo relic! I am sure our masters will want to know about this. And besides, that man… that is General Marcus for sure."

"The one who foiled our last invasion?" Gruth asked, his hand squeezing the hilt of his blade harder.

"We should have slaughtered the village on the mountain while they were distracted."

"It's for the best that we didn't. They'd hunt us down like dogs, those two," Ichir said, shaking his head.

"We'd never make it back to the gateway." Gruth muttered a string of curses under his breath but did not dispute this. Though most humans were pathetic weaklings, those two were beyond their ability to handle. If they angered them enough, they wouldn't be able to even run away. The next day the two orcs left the area as fast as they could while remaining stealthy, starting their long, arduous journey back to what the locals called the Lament Spire.

They did so with hope that the knowledge they were bringing would be enough to make up for their failure.

After searching the area one more time to make sure they weren't missing anything, Marcus and the rest of the group went back to Beortan's village to rest and decide what next to do. They brought the remains of the war machine with them. It was twisted beyond repair, but artificers from Great Sea might be able to glean something from its construction. It could be used as a bargaining chip, even in this sorry state.

If all else failed, well, the materials it was made from were clearly valuable, so they could always take it apart and sell those. Their arrival at the village caused a huge commotion in the population, partially because of the large machine they were levitating behind them, and partially because Irdrith was still in actual dragon form – she didn't bother assuming a human guise for this, either because she hadn't recovered enough yet, or because she was too prideful to do so.

Marcus would have thought that people would be terrified of a fully grown dragon walking into their settlement, but once Beortan explained she was an ally and would not attack them, the villagers proved to be surprisingly curious. They crowded around them, eager to see an actual dragon up close, some of them even reaching out to touch Irdrith's scales as she walked through the village. Fortunately, Irdrith didn't seem to mind much, barely paying them any attention.

Irdrith fell to sleep almost immediately after Beortan took her to his home in the center of the village, using the entire meeting hall as her resting chamber. She curled up into a ball, wrapping her tail around her, reminding Marcus of an overgrown white cat. As for Beortan, he had a lot of clan-related duties to resolve for the rest of the day. That left Marcus alone for a while.

He could return back to his tower, in all honesty – everything seemed to be resolved – but he decided to wait a day and spend this time wandering the village outskirts, alone in his thoughts. As he wandered the rocky landscape just outside the village, his mind drifted to his life before his self-imposed exile – back when he was still General Marcus, fighting Veldoran and his orc hordes, consumed by dreams of glory and prestige he might gain by becoming the leader of Great Sea Academy.

He held the black arrowhead he had taken from the orcish archers during recent events, turning it over in his hand. The black metal seemed to drink in light, emanating a faint ominous quality. A logos, but not one that felt familiar. He had felt so confident back then, so sure of his course in life. He missed that. He wasn't lying when he told Gaius and the others that he no longer had any desire to take command of Great Sea Academy, but he wished he had a goal that shone so brightly in his life again.

These days, whenever there were no emergencies or duties demanding his attention, he found himself somewhat listless and confused. For a while, wandering the world, visiting new places, and exploring ancient ruins had occupied his attention, but even if he wanted to go back to that wandering life again, he knew it would not be as satisfying as it once was. Why had he come back? Why did he take in a bunch of students to teach? What did he want?

There was no answer, and eventually the mountain wind grew too cold and strong, even for him, and he wandered back to the village to get some sleep. After a night of rest, all three of them seemed to be in much better spirits, but especially Irdrith. She shifted into her human guise so she could move in the village more freely, though she made no secret about who she really was to the villagers.

She was in no hurry to leave and once again affirmed that she would make good on her promise and help Beortan with his magic.

"I am still not completely recovered," Irdrith admitted.

"However, that should not inhibit me from imparting knowledge. I shall stay here for another month, showing you what I can. I receive a place where I can safely rest and heal, and you receive the scales and aid you were promised. A beneficial deal for the both of us." She turned to Marcus, giving him a measuring look.

"I have much to thank you for. Therefore, take this not as criticism, but as a friendly warning – you should not be so free about mentioning the Diyo relic in front of others," she told him.

"Why?" Marcus asked.

"It is an object coveted by forces far greater than you and I. Its presence would incite the greed of adepts from other planets, and even powerful spirits from various heavens. Even some gods would send avatars to this world in order to claim one. Even if you have no regards for me personally, no good will come from turning this place into a battlefield for these forces," Irdrith explained. Marcus was torn. On one hand, he wanted to continue projecting an image of a wise mysterious mage who knew many things…

but on the other hand, he wanted to know more about the cube.

"Do you even know how to use it?" he asked.

"Worry not about such things," she told him haughtily.

"I know enough." Probably not, then.

"Well, thanks for the warning," Marcus told her.

"I'll keep it in mind. Incidentally, when we first talked, you said you came from Broken Sky Palace. Where is that? Are they going to come looking for you?"

"I shall be honest… I have become something of a fish out of water in your age," Irdrith said.

"As I have suggested before, I come from an earlier, more prosperous time in our planet's history. However, I have been dormant for a very long time, and have only woken up less than a year ago. Many things are unknown to me yet, but I believe Broken Sky Palace is no more in this current age. They were one of the grand powers of this planet in my time, but I cannot find any trace of them today. I shall not rule out the possibility that they could appear one day, but it seems unlikely."

"Can't you go to the place where the academy once stood and see if there are any ruins there?" Beortan asked.

"Or is there something already built in its place?" Many ancient powers left no trace in later eras, not because they left no buildings and legacies behind, but because the things they did leave were repurposed by later generations for their own ends. Foundation techniques were changed to better fit the restrictions and opportunities of a new age, magical items were assigned new stories, and ruins had new settlements built on top of them.

"Broken Sky Palace wasn't really an academy, and it didn't have a static location," Irdrith said.

"We operated out of a flying palace we had taken from the giants and refashioned into our base of operations. Alas, I cannot find any trace of such a thing in your age, not even stories. It should attract great attention if it still existed. It is regrettably likely it ended up at the bottom of the sea."

"There is definitely no giant palace flying around," Marcus said, shaking his head. Before the conversation between the three of them could wrap up, a commotion from outside informed them of a new arrival. A group of adepts from Great Sea had come to investigate the explosion caused by Voyager when it left the vault in the mountain. Marcus and Beortan had figured this might happen, as the new exit Voyager had made for himself was quite an eye-catching thing.

It was interesting that the academy responded so quickly to this, but allowed Crystal Mountain and Thunder Hall forces to menace his base without doing anything. He stated as much to the adepts when they demanded an explanation for his presence here, and they looked awkward for a moment before deciding to handwave the issue and switch to interrogating Beortan.

Marcus stayed out of the argument, simply staying on the sidelines and listening to the resulting explanation and negotiations, but it was clear that Great Sea was going to muscle itself into claiming part of the vault's contents. On the bright side, they would send additional forces to help secure the contents from any additional outsiders, and help with the transportation and sale of the contents. On the other hand, the academy was going to claim the lion's share of the finds.

Between Irdrith snatching some of the more valuable things when they left, and Great Sea's adepts claiming anything else interesting afterwards, it was hard to see anything truly notable ending up in Beortan's hands. He and his clan would get a lot of money for the find, but that was about it. Yes, it was definitely a good thing that Marcus had already taken the most valuable things when they first entered the vault.

Irdrith was also noted by the investigators, as her spirit made her presence blatantly obvious, and since she made no secret of her identity as a dragon, they confronted Beortan about her identity. Beortan immediately put his foot down, warning them that she was a guest of his and that they were not to act against her in any way. It was none of Great Sea's business if the White Dragon Clan decided to host a foreign spirit adept, even a dragon. Ultimately, Beortan was right about this.

Irdrith hadn't attacked Great Sea's forces, and was not an enemy. The investigators quickly backed off regarding the issue, though they would undoubtedly report this to Gaius when they returned home. It was likely that Beortan would subsequently be called to explain himself, but so long as Irdrith did not turn hostile, nothing would come of it. Great Sea, and most other academies for that matter, did not care one bit if their adepts associated with beings like dragons.

If anything, many of them would be impressed with Beortan. After a while, the first round of negotiations stopped and Marcus found himself alone with Beortan for a while.

"I'm leaving for my tower tomorrow," Marcus told him.

"Sure," Beortan said.

"I'm glad you stayed today. That talk would have gone worse if you weren't here, I think."

"I didn't do anything," Marcus pointed out.

"Your very presence made them pause," Beortan insisted.

"Having another spirit rank mage present on my side is already something of a statement, even if you don't actively advocate for me."

"Do you want to split the spoils from the vault now?" Marcus asked.

"Take them with you for now," Beortan said.

"Get them home and have them identified so we know exactly what we're dividing. I trust you not to take the riches and run or play dumb. Besides… it's safer to have these treasures in your hands and away from the village while a dragon and greedy Adrian adepts are around."

"Not trusting Irdrith that much, huh?" Marcus smiled.

"Dragons and treasure…" Beortan shrugged.

"Best not to tempt fate."

When Marcus arrived back at his tower, he found his students alive and well, if a little bored. With him gone, and with the outside covered in ice and snow, they were stuck inside most of the time. They all crowded around him when they heard he was back, wanting to hear what happened.

"It's done," Marcus told them. He wasn't sure how much it was safe to tell them – a lot of them were loudmouths who loved to brag – so he decided to keep most of the details to himself.

"The dragon has been dealt with, and we even discovered some treasures along the way. Once I confirm they're safe, I'll show them to you." Everyone loved seeing powerful magic items, in Marcus's experience, and he didn't see any downsides about showing them the things he had found in the vault. Knowing how to recognize the good stuff when you saw it was a critical skill for an adept! They didn't need to know exactly where he had gotten them.

"So you killed the dragon?" Cricket asked.

"Well, not exactly. We managed to talk her into leaving on her own," Marcus admitted.

"She's not a problem anymore." Cricket's eyes immediately lit up.

"So you can find a friendly dragon!" she said triumphantly.

"You're never getting a dragon of your own," Julia told her.

"Stop dreaming." Marcus wasn't sure if he would really describe Irdrith as "friendly", but he did have to admit he had never interacted with a friendlier dragon than her. Despite her claims, he was pretty sure she had indeed tried to trick them and run off with her body and a bunch of loot without giving them anything, but she didn't seem to have wanted to kill them at any point, at least. That was somewhat friendly.

"Even when friendly, dragons are intensely proud creatures," Marcus told his students, his eyes lingering longer on Cricket and Agron in particular.

"They won't even look at you if you're not strong enough to catch their attention. So if you want to have any hope of winning their acknowledgement, you need to work hard and become powerful mages." Never miss an opportunity to motivate your students, as one of his old teachers used to say. Getting a dragon was a ridiculous goal, but Marcus could hardly lecture someone about ridiculous goals. One needed to have motivation in life! Over the next two weeks, Marcus made himself unusually active in his student's lives.

He gave them frequent private lessons, and often sat down and listened during Helvran's lectures to observe how they went about their day. They were initially a bit startled by his behavior, as he had previously been a lot more hands-off in his approach, but by the end of day three they'd gotten used to it and started to seek him out more frequently for advice. He received a letter from Great Sea Academy, but didn't even bother to read it before setting it aside on his desk. He could imagine what it said.

He would eventually write back a response, bringing up the fact they had let his base get threatened by two hostile forces as many times as he could cram into text, but for now, he was content to focus on his students. Alas, as the two weeks passed, Marcus realized he would have to go to Adria.

He needed access to their experts and archives to identify the items he had gotten from the dwarven vault, and he was even more sure now that he wanted to hire some adepts to help teach his students and watch over them in the future. Since he was already going there, he might as well also visit the Uticensis family to talk about Regulus… and Gaius would no doubt demand his presence too, once he was back in the city. Hm. You know what? He should bring all of his students with him for the visit.

Any adept he hired would want to know what they were working with before they accepted the job, and there were things he wanted to show them there anyway. Sighing, he fetched himself an envelope and a piece of paper and started writing a letter announcing his intent to visit. The letter from Gaius continued sitting on the edge of his desk, still unopened.