Quith
pushed open the massive, gilded throne room doors. The tremendous room was made
from bricks of a dark black stone and lit by enchanted, ever-burning torches. A
long and exquisite crimson carpet led up to a raised platform, upon which was a
large throne made from an extremely rare and valuable matte, grey metal known
as Netherite, a material which could only be found here in the Nether.
Seated
on the throne was High Emperor Viran. He was a tall man with a thin and
athletic build and a short, neat, brown and grey beard. He was clad in ornate
chain mail with gold decorations and a red and gold cape with a netherite
clasp. Upon the ruler’s head rested a netherite crown, which glimmered with a
variety of gems set into it. On his belt was a gilded sheath with the hilt of
his enchanted sword protruding from it. Hanging from a hook on the wall above
the throne was the emperor’s netherite shield.
Quith
felt like Viran’s cold and piercing eyes stared through him as he approached
the throne. To one side, the Soul Lord could see Supreme Commander Gaath who stood
with his weight resting upon his netherite greatsword. Gaath was of a similar
age and height to Viran, and while his build was also athletic, he was a more
broad-shouldered and physically imposing man than the emperor. The Supreme
Commander wore a full suit of netherite armor, and his face was hidden behind
his helmet’s dark visor. From a chain around the man’s neck hung a rune-engraved
silver amulet with a sapphire at its center.
“I
assume you have come to report on the progress of your little project?” the
emperor questioned, his cold and imperious voice taking on a somewhat bored
tone.
“Indeed,
I am,” Quith responded. “Project New Beginnings has nearly reached completion,
and I and my team of soul mages have performed the ritual that we spent so long
perfecting and created the monster that will bring about our enemies’ doom!”
“Oh,
so the project really is coming along. Might I ask how the tests of this
monster’s abilities are going?” Viran responded, the boredom in his voice being
replaced by keen interest.
“Better
than I could have hoped! The creature was able to effortlessly reduce several
stone wall targets to rubble at a distance, and it made quick and easy work of
several soldiers in the pit!” Quith excitedly proclaimed.
“You
truly are doing quite well, Quith. I believe I was right to have appointed you
as head of the project after all. I would love to see the look on that lich’s
face when your new monster comes knocking at his door,” the High Emperor
commended, rubbing his hands together in anticipation. “If you see the rest of
this project through… I will make you a rich man indeed and your position as
one of my chief subordinates will be forever solidified.”
“Many
thanks, High Emperor. I will not disappoint you,” Quith assured with a deep bow
before turning to leave.
“Remember
to come back a few weeks from now and report on your progress, so we can
discuss our enactment of the plan’s final phases,” Supreme Commander Gaath’s
deep, and nearly emotionless, voice interjected.
“Indeed,
I will,” the Soul Lord agreed as he strode out the door and visions of
boundless riches danced through his head.
Ì
Witherius
smiled as he looked upon his handiwork, having just put down the last of the
soldiers put against him in the pit, and knowing that this was the last time he
would have to meaninglessly prove himself. With his telekinesis, the wither
lifted one of his fallen foes’ swords off the ground and into the air.
“What
are you d…” One of the supervising soul mages started to say before the
levitating sword embedded itself in his chest and he crumpled to the ground,
dead.
The other mage in the room frantically chanted an
incantation, harnessing the energy from the soul contained within his staff. A
series of fanged maws erupted out of the ground, starting in front of the
builder and forming a line heading toward the wither. Witherius flew upwards and
out of reach of the fangs as they passed under him.
The soul mage found himself helplessly lifted into the
air and pinned against one wall as the wither’s center head coldly uttered a
series of arcane words and conjured a hovering sphere of flame. The flaming orb
suddenly jolted forward, slamming into the restrained spellcaster and searing
his flesh. Several guards began rushing into the room but found their foe to be
out of reach of their swords.
The mage’s charred corpse hit the floor as a barrage of
flaming skulls began to drive the guards back. Several guards began to throw
down their swords and draw shortbows from their backs. Many arrows hurtled
through the air toward Witherius, but the few that hit simply glanced off of
his blackened bones, leaving only small scratches. Three distinct laughs began
to echo from the wither as the flaming sphere began to rapidly move around the
room, slamming into guards, burning their skin, and ramming them against walls.
In no time, several dead guards were littered across the
floor, the survivors were fleeing in terror, and the scratches on the wither’s
form had been healed by the soul energy coursing through his body.
Witherius
bombarded one of the room’s walls with a hail of flaming skulls, sending
fragments of stone bricks flying and riddling the wall with cracks. The wither charged
at the damaged wall, headbutting it with all his might. The already badly-damaged
wall gave way, shattering into a hail of stone shards and crumbling outwards,
leaving a sizable hole through which the fiery wasteland of the Nether could be
seen.
Witherius
quickly recovered from the impact and flew out through the hole in the wall and
up into the air. “We’ve done it! We escaped from the compound of those foolish
mortals!” the Left head triumphantly shouted.
“Indeed,
we did, but that is only half the battle. Now we must decide what our next
steps will be toward destroying the Great Builder Empire,” responded Right.
“Yes,
and we must act quickly because those that we have defeated so far were mere
guards and servants. The higher-ups like Quith will soon catch wind of our
escape and send someone after us,” the center head chimed in.
“Simple.
We destroy whomever they send after us! And if they send someone else after
that… then we destroy them too!”
“You
always want to solve problems with destruction, Left. But sometimes the best
solution is the smartest and most devious one.”
The
other two heads spoke in turn, beginning to bicker with each other.
“Can
you two please stop bickering and come up with a good plan?” the center head
snapped.
“Well,
I suggest that we travel to the fortresses of each of this land’s rulers and
petition each of them to join our cause and unite their forces against the
builders. And with the might of all of their neighboring countries arrayed
against them, the builders won’t stand a chance!”
“I
can always rely on you to come up with wise and strategic plans, Right. We
shall use your plan,” Center responded in a pleased tone.
“But
I want to destroy the builders now,” Left dejectedly complained.
“You
will get to destroy them soon enough, Left,” the leader responded.
Ì
Quith
sat slumped back in his chair, drumming his fingers on the armrests and
worriedly contemplating his plight. His office was luxurious, with a small
chandelier made from silver and lit with enchanted candles. The floor was made
from expensive marble, and the walls were hung with fine tapestries. But at the
moment, none of this mattered to the Soul Lord. All that mattered was resolving
the situation and not getting executed for his failure.
Quith
was suddenly shaken from his stupor by the sound of a knock at the door. “Come
in! Quickly!” he demanded.
The
door swung open, and a man confidently strode into the room, closing the door
behind him seemingly as an afterthought. The man was clad in dark leather armor,
reinforced with netherite rivets. Over his armor, he wore a dark cloak, and
under his deep black hood, a metallic mask could be seen. On the man’s belt was
a sheath containing an elegant sword, and Quith’s careful eye also caught the
pommel of a dagger protruding from the visitor’s boot. Strapped to the figure’s
back was a longbow made from a cyan-colored, wood-like material.
“Why
exactly have you called me here? I assume it must be important, given the
secrecy of it,” the Grand Seeker questioned in a smooth and charming voice that
had both an intrigued tone and a deadly edge.
“You
are correct, Xamodas. It is a matter of the utmost importance,” Quith began. “You
see, I and my team of soul mages created an extremely powerful monster as a
part of Project New Beginnings, but…’” the Soul Lord continued until his
visitor interrupted him.
“Let
me guess. You didn’t have the monster as under control as you thought and it
has escaped. Now you want me to go and deal with it so that Viran doesn’t kill
you,” Xamodas condescendingly theorized.
“Yeah,
that’s about the size of it. I need you to track down this monster and deal
with it in secret, so by the time the emperor realizes there has been a problem,
it has already been dealt with,” Quith nervously explained.
“You
can count on me. This kind of thing is my job, after all. I should have this
all wrapped by two weeks’ time, but you owe me for this…big time,” the Grand
Seeker arrogantly proclaimed before turning on his heel and leaving the room as
quickly as he had entered.
“I
hope that fool’s arrogance isn’t his undoing…” the Soul Lord anxiously thought
to himself.
Ì
“We
have almost arrived at the border to Gildonia!” Center proclaimed as he spotted
the edge of a sprawling forest of massive, treelike, crimson mushrooms in the
distance.
“Finally!”
“I figured as much,” his two siblings responded.
For
a few more minutes, the wither continued to drift forward, soon flying over
giant mushrooms rather than barren ground. “What’s that?” Left queried with his
head cocked to one side as he noticed an ancient and decrepit structure nestled
among the red mushrooms. The structure was starting to crumble in some places and
was largely shrouded in crimson vines.
“I
reckon that this structure was once a piglin outpost situated on the border and
that it must have fallen during a battle against the builders and been abandoned.
This is a great example of how the builders ruin everything they come across,” Right
explained, starting out in a casual tone and growing angrier as he mentioned
the builders.
A
bizarre sound rang out through the forest. It was a brief and unnatural
crackling, followed by a tremendous crack reminiscent of thunder. Accompanying
the noise was a fleeting whirl of starlight and otherworldly colors above a
mushroom. The whirlpool suddenly vanished, leaving a strange figure in its
place.
The
figure had the shape of a rather tall and thin human. He was wearing a white
robe that covered his entire body, save for his hands and feet, both of which
were bare but seemed to be made of a pitch-black substance with streaks of dim
light flashing across them. His face was shrouded in the darkness of his hood, which
hid all his features save for a pair of red, glowing eyes. In his right hand
was a black marble staff with a large and exquisitely cut ruby crowning it.
“Who
might you be?” the figure asked, his voice quiet, smooth, and persuasive, but somehow
carrying effortlessly to Witherius from several yards away.
“We
are Witherius,” the wither responded. “But who exactly are you?”
“Me?
I have been called many different things by many different people. I am usually
referred to by this realm’s residents as ‘The Hermit.’ Scholars of the material
plane often call me an entity, but I refer to myself simply as… 303,” the
strange figure detailed. “That is all beside the point, however. Who are you
who has wandered into my domain? I have lived for longer than you can imagine
and seen numerous realms, lands, and dimensions, but I have never seen a
creature quite like you. What are you? And why have you come here?”
“We
were created by Soul Lord Quith to avenge the destruction of the Great Builder
Empire of the Material Plane,” Center responded.
“But
we have decided not to serve the builders, for it was them who provoked the
neighboring nations into war,” Right clarified.
“Now
that we have escaped, we are gathering allies so that we can destroy the
builders!” Left finished.
“An
admirable cause,” the entity agreed. “So, you have come to this forest to meet
King Zavlok and petition him for aid against the builders?”
“Indeed,
we have,” Witherius affirmed.
“That
is a good plan… I would like to lend a hand in your fight against the Great
Builder Empire. And if you are willing to delay setting out for Zavlok’s
bastion by a few weeks, I can teach you a thing or two about soul magic, which
should help you defend yourself against the greatest of those foolish builders,”
303 cheerfully offered.
“I
believe that we could use the assistance,” Center affirmed. “What do you two
think?” he queried, looking at the heads on either side of him.
“As
it stands, it is quite literally us against an empire. I think we can use all
the help we can get,” one head responded in an undertone.
“I
like the sound of learning some new magic to crush our enemies with!” the third
head gleefully agreed.
“We
have unanimously agreed to your proposition, 303,” Witherius explained.
“I’m
glad to hear it. Please follow me to the ruined structure over there. It may
not look like much, but it is my home, and where I keep some things that will
be important for your training.”
“Lead
on,” the wither assented with a nod.
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