Chapter 9 Part 5 of 5 (Patreon)

They lost two of their friends here, running away from the beasts and sealing their mana. They had tried to survive in the undercity-losing party members to the monsters that claimed the city.

There were several sketches of the different animals, how they interacted, even information on their habits.

"Chimora, are tenacious little beasts, but their greatest weakness is food. We cooked some Ka'tell meat (Best to add some leaf of Oril some salt and blackstone for flavoring)." Erik checked the storage ring, finding cooked meat, spices and herbs.

"They appeared, roaming in their broods as they do. We fled as soon as we heard their screeching. They fell silent when they reached our camp, eating what was left of our meal. A few days later they started howling at us again. We threw out some meat and they grew silent. They warned us of creatures in the area, allowing us to avoid or kill them. Always we left an offering to the Chimora. It was only when and armored mole, a favorite predator of the Chimora ate into the ranks did they flee. While they are annoying shits, they can save your life."

"After killing a flowering Jorken we made an incredible discovery. As Jorken grow up, they gain more pods and they gain 'flowers' that are able to attack with various elemental properties. They can release blasts of lighting, flame, or hail of stone and a poisonous smoke. After killing the beast we opened its single flower to find beast cores in the stem of the flower. It appears that they consume a creature, using their body to sustain themselves and their core to turn the pod into a 'flower'. We went and found another flowering Jorken and threw a mana stone shard at the beast. Piercers fell in droves, killing the Jorken and most of them also dying in the process. We stored the mana stone shard and collected all of their materials. It was a fine harvest. For weeks we had food and cores."

The story went on, talking about how the group was whittled down until only Lezaar was left alive. He took up making pages from Piercers to create a journal. He had no one to talk to and everything wanted to kill him. Erik sighed and shook his head. He survived for a year before he was the only one left.

Suddenly the writing changed, becoming erratic and larger as Erik needed more time to decipher it.

"I found a library! It must have been one of the academies from before the Violet Sky Realm collapsed! I read to my hearts content! There were entire bookshelves on body cultivation. I will take them all with me. Though the most interesting books were on the purpose of the Violet Sky Realm and the Ten Realms. They were built to train us, to create fighters against a group called the Ravagers, or the Devourers, or the Devourers are the leaders of the Ravagers. I must read more!"

Erik sat forward as he kept reading.

"A group of Blandshlagg's appeared the other night."

They were a group of hound looking creatures, their head a series of tentacles that tasted the air as their stomachs opened in a mouth. Their Evolved versions looked like hunched headless people with worms sprouting from their necks and a mouth on their stomach.

"They hunted down a group of Chimora that brought a group of Rin and Benir looking, I had to escape. I ran into an area I haven't been before. The area looked to have been flattened, leaving only hills behind, the elements were so thick as to be choking. I nearly headed in deeper when one of the hills moved.

The hills were covered in Dragons! Different broods controlled different areas. Several were along their path of demi-human. They all gathered around a massive building, sleeping and cultivating the elements. It must be some grand elemental gathering formation! Rin as large as the Academy tower in Calite rested there. Flowering Jorken huddled together with tens of budding flowers. The dragon that woke up, lowered its head, lightning crackled between its silver antlers and blinded me. When I could see again, the creatures that had been fighting were killed.

Dragonlings, raced out from their nests to claim the prizes as the dragon shifted its head back under rubble and continued its cultivating."

Erik flipped to the next page.

“I have spent the last week moving between hideouts and away from what I’ll call the beast lair. When I’ve had time I’ve been reading the books from the library. There are records on the purpose of this station, there used to be thousands of people that passed through here, in the war for ascension, it was built by the Elves and Gnomes. They allied with one another and fought against the Ravagers which seek to cultivate the elements and the mana without care. This was a station where they gathered, working together and launched attacks on other planets. There were ten planets under their protection, there was fighting on every planet, their leaders became Devourers, which seem to be extremely powerful they worked together and created the ten realms. ‘Bound them together with magic and the elements, they drew in the elements and created mana. Gnome and Elf were transformed into their image, imprinted with their teachings. Passing through the ten realms they held on.’ Then the Gnome and Elf Devourers disappeared, the Gnome and Elf races were long lived but they didn’t reproduce that fast then it seems that humans started appearing in the realms. No mana, no elements, but they remained ‘in the image of the forebearers’.”

Erik looked up as Egbert walked into the room.

“What are you reading?” he asked.

“Uh, I need Roska, right now, or whoever isn’t asleep and on watch,” Erik got up, cradling the book.

“What’s gotten into you.”

“This, this book, it, the ten realms,” Erik scanned through the page.

“It was built to train us, to make us stronger.”

“Well I don’t know about that.”

“Just get everyone okay, I’ll be in the meeting room,” Erik read the book as he walked towards the room. Egbert shrugged and walked off.

Erik put the book on the table, reading through Lezaar’s findings, he pulled out the bookshelves, finding the books he referenced and opening them in front of him. Team members arrived with Davos and Egbert the last two.

“Egbert, start recording everything in these books,” Erik waved to the table and stepped away.

Egbert pulled out books and formation plates, making sure no mana leaked out.

“This place is a station, a way point between planets, or realms. It was created by the Gnomes and the Elves who allied with one another to protect their worlds. Gnomes used technology and the Elves could cast high level magic and had an incredible ability to separate mana from the elements. With their forces they were able to raise several powerful people to the level of Devourer, which seems to be ‘a really scary powerful motherfucker’. They established the Ten Realms as we know it. These way stations were still used to launch attacks on the other realms- realms controller by their enemy the Ravagers. Creatures that focus on utilizing the power of the elements, seems that they come from worlds that have thin or no mana at all. The Violet Sky Realm was a scene of a great battle between the Elves and Gnomes against the Ravager monsters, the Elves and Gnomes retreated back to the ten realms. Seems they were losing a great number of their stations and didn’t have the numbers to hold them anymore.”

The team members looked at one another.

“So, what does that mean?” Davos asked.

“I’m not really sure, I’ve always thought that the Ten Realms had to be made, it is too orderly once you look at the core of it. We know that there were Gnomes at one time through Alva. Clearly there were more of them than just the group that made the city. Lezaar thinks that the Ten Realms was meant to train people to be able to fight the Ravagers.”

“Lezaar?” Davos asked

“He’s uhh, well he was a guy that was here previously and wrote that book.” Erik pointed at it. Egbert was flipping through the pages, creating a breeze.

“What are you doing?” Erik asked

“Reading.” Egbert picked up another book that had finished copying and flipped through it as well.

“You can read that fast?”

“Yeah, just don’t like to do it with fun books you know, just ruins it if you finish it all in a few seconds.” He snapped the book in his hands closed. “These books agree with what you’re saying. This is a mustering point to gather forces to support attacks on other realms. It was overwhelmed so the Gnomes and Elves retreated.”

“So there are Elves and Gnomes in the ten realms, why don’t we see them? And the Ten Realms was built as a defense against these ravagers? Who or what are they?”

“Seem to be creatures that harvest the elements to increase their overall power. Without mana they go through alterations and mutations that make them stronger but also leaves them deformed,” Egbert said.

“This information will be crucial to Alva. We have always wondered the origin and the history of the ten realms, this is the origin of everything.” Erik said.

“I doesn’t change our current position much, but the diagrams and the information on the beasts down here will be of great help.” Egbert went back from where Erik had been reading, reviewing the beast diagrams and notes. “I will make copies of the books we can spread them out between everyone.”

Then it will only need one of us to make it back alive to get the information to Alva.

Erik nodded.

“That’s our new mission. Egbert keep going through the books and see what else you can learn.”