RD 3 Ch 45 (Patreon)

Chapter 45

I stumbled out of the portal, only to be met by an old woman. Her hair was gray and her face so wrinkled that I nearly didn't recognize her. "Circe?" I said, my surprise overtaking any other urgency we had.

Circe shook her fist, her voice warbled. "It's been eighty-four years, Bran," she said, her voice weary from old age.

The room around us felt as though it was deep underground. Red light seeped in from a stairway.

I froze, wondering if Earth had already been terraformed.

Had we lost? Had I completely missed the first Demon War, had taking away the FPA members changed the future?

I glanced back at Circe, suddenly remembering the reason for my rush. "None of that matters. We have to hurry now. This vault has become incredibly unstable," I gestured back to the 20-sided device.

Fracturing space wasn’t something that I wanted to be around anyone if I could help it. Whatever the Vault was doing, it had enough power to override the System and I needed it clear of anyone before it blew.

Circe shook her head. "None of it matters? I've waited so long," she complained in a weary old voice.

There was something about the sound that bothered me and my attention shifted to take her in more fully.

"I've waited so long and you come and rush me," she shook her fist. Even if Circe had become old, the voice and the antics were very stereotypical. 

Looking at her closer, I noticed the faint seam of a mask on her face and small flecks of brighter blue hair amid the gray. The closer I looked, the more powdery her grey hair was. I realized two things at that moment.

One, Circe had a mischievous side that I hadn’t seen before.

And two, I didn't have time for games. 

Another person popped out of the vault behind me and in a panic, attacked Circe.

All signs of age suddenly disappeared from the woman as she threw her hand forward and blades of wind ripped them apart until there was nothing left. Circe scowled at them for ruining her disguise, the room was suddenly howling with wind.

That single thrust of wind had stripped all of the powder from her hair that flapped in the wind and the mask hung off her beautifully young face. 

She then reached for the vault, and I slapped several more talismans on it to keep anyone else from leaving. "Circe, we need to bring this vault somewhere where there aren't other people around. It's unstable and it's full of enough energy to do a lot of damage."

The last outcome I wanted was a fight to erupt around the portal as people spilled out and continued the fight from before. That would almost guarantee the collapse of this thing and result in who knew what level of destruction.

With one hand, Circe summoned wind magic to gather the vault into the air. With the other, she plucked me up by the back of my shirt. 

"Do you realize how much trouble you're in, Bran?" she scolded me, even as she used her magic to rip a hole in the ceiling and hurtle us out into the sky with the vault trailing behind us. 

I looked down, anxious for what I would find. But Vein City was just as I remembered it. We were on the outskirts, several miles from the fort. No demons attacking the world yet. 

I still wondered when she'd had the time to build this little bunker for the vault. Even with initiated helping, this type of facility took time.

"What did I do?" I asked. 

"What did you do?" She threw her hands in the air, exasperated. "It's August, Bran," she scolded me once again, as we hurtled through the air, flying over the forest, over the suburbs, and into the woodlands beyond. 

"Okay, so it was a couple more months than I expected," I said, frowning. Certainly, I'd been in that empty white room for some time, but that amount of time seemed a little longer than I expected. 

"No, Bran, it hasn't been a few months. It's been well over a year," she said. 

I stuttered, my brain catching up with what she was implying. "A y-year?”

“Bran, it's almost to the time when you said we had to be ready.” Circe told me.

“Wait, wait, wait. It's August. Oh, fuck. How long do we have?" My mind was whirling as it worked to catch back up. All of my plans were suddenly getting scrapped, remade, and scrapped again. There was so much I’d been planning to tackle after the Vault and before the first Demon War. I had to think about how I could get everything prepared as I had planned in the now shortened amount of time.

"Two weeks," Circe said. 

I stared at her, incredulous. "This is another joke of yours, isn't it?" I smiled, suddenly realizing her mischievousness went a little too far.

She chopped the top of my head with her full strength, which was considerable. If it wasn't for regeneration, I would probably have had a welt from that for weeks to come. 

"I am not joking," her face was dead serious. "You've missed two of the planned initiations for the Hero's Clan. Do you realize the chaos that is happening right now given that we haven't been able to awaken the bloodlines for over a year?!" Her red eyes seemed to catch on fire. "Bran Heros, I'm going to tell Zeus and Hercules you're out, and they are going to come here. They will most likely lock you in chains somewhere deep and dark in the Heros Clan so that you can never miss a bloodline awakening again. That is the lifeblood of our clan and it has gone missing." 

I gave her my best smile. "You wouldn't do that, would you, Circe?" There was a nervous chuckle from me, unsure whether or not she was being serious. 

"Oh no! That's going to happen, Bran," Circe said, "and there is nothing I or Persephone can do about it. Do you realize how furious they are? You've up and vanished after making that deal with them. I told them you went inside some sort of demonic capsule to deal with demons, and you've been gone for over a year," she emphasized once again. 

"Do people think I'm dead?" I asked. 

She waved a talisman in front of my face, slapping me with it. "If it wasn't for this, they would have. You're lucky the Nesters are fucking industrious and have kept up on your little fortress without you." She pointed off into the distance behind us, and I realized why I was slightly confused about the location. It seems the fortress had grown beyond our original scope, towering walls of cement hid equally dominant buildings and a second ring of walls behind the first. 

"Okay, well, I can tell you the full story later," I blinked, looking back at Circe. "Short story of it, we went inside, we went through several trials, things got a little weird, and then the whole vault started coming apart. I could have sworn we were only in there for two months max, but there was a period of time where we were trapped in an empty white room, unable to move and time got a little hard to judge," I shrugged. "I don't know Circe. There's a powerful demon general that's still trapped inside. He split his soul into several segments to try and escape. I need to kill him. But also, this vault is going to collapse, and I don't know what the result will be. As for everything else, Circe, I swear to god, I will make it up to everybody as we go." 

"I'm sorry Bran," Circe said, "but it's not up to you anymore whether or not you make it up. You will be forced to make it up." She crossed her arms. "Not to mention, I moved all the way here to Vein City to help you and your people establish a base of operations to go after instances, then you up and vanish," she waved her hands exaggeratedly. 

"Circe, maybe we could just put the vault down here," I suggested. We had already left the city far behind, and I was worried her continued rampage was distracting her from the goal of getting the vault somewhere stable to discharge everybody inside. 

There were people I cared about inside. I would find a way to get them out before they were in danger. I didn’t care what it cost me later.

Circe threw her hand up in the air as we shot downwards. "Fine, whatever Bran, and here I thought you were going to be more helpful." 

"I am, Circe. This doesn't end with the 9 hell gates coming to earth. As soon as that's over there's the war for supremacy, and I," I tapped the side of my temple, "can help the Heros Clan get ahead. Perhaps that's worth something to Zeus and Hercules." 

She scoffed. "Until you disappear again." 

We landed amid the woods, and I peeled a talisman off the vault. Immediately, the clearing flooded with people.

There was a sudden screaming and yelling as a mass exodus from the vault ensued. Everyone was pushing others aside, scrambling to get out.

Gloria emerged with a cloak of fire around her and a bloodied shoulder. Simone raced out a second after her, immediately spotting Gloria and trying to tend to her wounds. Nyx was missing much of her hair. It was growing back slowly, the serpents reforming as the sea-foam green hair recovered. Those that had just started were smaller and steadily growing.

Antonio came out, saw my women, and guarded them like a good guard dog. It was tempting to go pat his head.

As everyone flooded out, Circe snapped her fingers and a giant wall of wind ripped up the trees around us, creating an impasse. Circe stared at all of the members of the Free Player Alliance, who were scrambling.

When Merlin came out, the two women from myth shared a glance before hostile sparks jumped between them. It was an almost physical sensation of heat coming from where their glares met.

"That's not good," Simone muttered out of the side of her mouth, coming to me after helping Gloria. "It looks like they know each other." 

Gloria smirked. "It looks like they hate each other. Hmm, I wonder if that means you can only get one of them. Too bad. Poor Bran doesn't get a dozen more." 

"My vote's on Merlin," Nyx said, and I gave her a strange look.

“We aren’t picking anyone.” I sighed, these women.

"What? I know it's probably super distant, but you are related to Circe." She shrugged.

I groaned. "I don't think it's anywhere near a level of relation we have to be concerned about. Besides, technically, you're Heros Clan too," I pointed at Nyx. 

"I checked the records," Nyx waved her hand dismissively. "We're barely related, besides having the same name." 

Really? I rolled my eyes. It was the same situation with Circe. But apparently, Nyx had a thing and I didn’t think logic was going to solve it.

The whole time, Simone just bounced her eyebrows. 

"What is the Heros Clan doing here?" Vincent said, stepping out as a figure of authority. 

"The Free Player Alliance," Circe crossed her arms and peeled her baleful glare away from Merlin. "Who do you think has been keeping your vault safe all of this time?" She snapped. The woman was not currently one for patience. 

Vincent took a single threatening step forward before a fist of wind caught him on the chin and sent him sprawling on the ground.

Sometimes it was easy to forget with her lithe frame, but Circe was one of the most powerful people present. Even those from the top of the Free Player Alliance gave Merlin quite the respect. And Circe and her were similar on total stats. 

"Regardless, we need to get out," a man snapped and my soul gaze was roving over everyone present even as people and possessed finished spilling out of the vault. 

"Demon," I said, pointing straight at the man who had spoken.

Circe's eyes flashed and a small tornado of wind spun up around him, locking him in place.

I stepped up, thrusting my sword into the tornado, before pinning him to the ground. Sanguine Locking kept him from going anywhere. 

"What, are you just going to point at random people, call them demons and kill them?" one of the FPA said. 

"He is a demon," I insisted. "Just use your inspect, and you'll see his name is already beginning to change." I pointed at him. This particular demon didn't have any ability to disguise himself. It was likely why the possessions were all meant to take place at the end of the vault's trials, rather than in the midst. 

"He's right," Da Vinci said.

I rolled my eyes. Of course, I was. But I avoided rubbing that fact in and setting off more issues.

"We have to save those who have been possessed," someone said quickly, only for me to scowl. 

"It's too late. If they're possessed, their soul is gone. The best thing we can do is kill the demons." The one that had been pinned by me suddenly had my sword blossom through his neck. Before I tore him in half with my blood sword. 

Everyone started spinning around, inspecting others. More than a few began fighting amongst themselves. Merlin tapped her staff against the ground, freezing several of the stronger demons that had appeared. 

"What about those monsters?" someone asked, turning back towards the vault.

It appeared that all of the humans and the possessed had spilled out. The clearing was now filled with about 200 people, those who had survived all of the trials or been possessed.

I looked around. They were right. The monsters that demons had possessed and sent after us weren't here. I had a feeling until we saw the end of the dracoon, they still had more cards in their hands. 

At that thought, the vault began to crackle. One of the space cracks we'd seen inside ripped from the side of the 20-sided object covered in inscriptions.

People jumped out of the way as a second and a third shattered the clearing. The space fractures only went a short distance before the world around them seemed to press in, slowing and dissolving them. It seemed that the System of the world was actively suppressing the false realm.

"Bran, what's going on?" Circe asked.

As we stepped back, the Mul Branova rushed to my side.

“Your guess is as good as mine.” I told her. "I have no idea what happens to a space that has laws built into it, so profoundly that it can mitigate even the system," I said, watching as the vault continued to come apart. Pieces of it began to sink inwards, and cracks appeared on its surface, unmoving. 

Everyone in the clearing seemed to watch, fascinated, as parts of the vault imploded, and others sent spatial cracks rippling around it. Suddenly, it was as if the cascade had reached a tipping point, and the remainder of the vault sucked inward, to a small point in the center. It consumed all of the matter and energy, as if a small black hole was being born on the surface of the earth. 

Now, I wasn't a physicist, but I knew enough to know that was not good.

The hole began to swallow up leaves on the breeze, and loose dirt that had been stirred up with everyone's passing. The suction continued, as loose soil beneath it swirled, being drawn into the small black hole, and leaves from further away were pulled off the ground, and drawn into the event horizon.

“There has to be a solution.” Vincent shouted, turning to everyone present. “We can’t let that continue to grow.”

I had to agree with him. There was always an answer, with inscription. I pulled out talisman paper, unsure what I would need, but I had been able to stabilize the space inside the destructing vaults. This time, I was going to have to make a larger formation around the black hole. Perhaps I could stabilize it as well. 

There seemed to be a pressure here on earth that also worked to stabilize the spatial cracks. Maybe if I gave it enough assistance, it would all stop, or at least I could only hope. Beginning to slap down talisman after talisman, I worked my way around the black hole. 

Da Vinci saw my work, and shook his head, "You'll need things underneath that black hole as well.”

“If I want to make it perfect," I shrugged, "perfection isn't exactly a luxury we have right now." 

I spilled blood on the ground using my sword to connect the talismans and make a larger formation as quickly as I could.