The Ethersmith Novel B4 Chapter 23 - Playing Deities

So Shilman Fried is the only potential enemy who’s strong enough to fight us, and he’s also the only one who can teleport us ho.

“Most likely,” Lucius said. “But if Adalene traps us with her troops, it will also be problematic.”

The Queen’s hellish palace revealed more grand courtyards and halls with tall ceilings as they passed, none of which were their destination. They must have passed hundreds of servants by now, and even more soldiers in runic armor.

There was no way runic armor was the norm for all soldiers here. Even single-runed armor historically took weeks to produce. When completed, the training required to use runic armor was just as much of a pain. Each soldier had to be maxed out, preferably with excess ether, since outside-carved armor had that many more places where it could leak. Reaching an elevation or two for efficiency was recomnded as well, if only to move in such a heavy clump of tal, unless swiftness runes were used, at which point the single-runed armor would only turn into a lighter version of regular armor. Most plates here used strength runes.

If runic armor was really the standard here for soldiers, Vivi had no doubt Norfolm had one of the strongest armies in the world. Shivenar had one or two plates of armor here and there, and it seed like Norfolm had more runeswords as well.

The palace was definitely the most intimidating place Vivi had been in. Zand had felt much scarier, though, if only because she was weaker back then. Today, runic armor would hardly be an obstacle if it really ca to a fight. Dawnpour would cut right through outside-carved armor.

Against a fifth elevation mage, however… Vivi would probably need armor herself. Ascension skills and a coating of ether made her skin much tougher to pierce and protected her insides from blunt force attacks, void ether even more so, but a direct hit from whatever skills Shilman Fried wielded would still harm her.

Probably. Most likely.

She just didn’t know enough. Lortel and her friends knew more, but even then, Cael had admitted that his act was just an act. He would stand tall no matter what ca, even if he didn’t know a thing about what he was talking about.

He did act well, though. He walked a few paces ahead of Vivi, following Frodin. He grinned every ti he saw mosaics on the walls. That grin could have been genuine as far as Vivi knew.

“Magnificent,” Cael said. “The city of strength has not forgotten the power of art.”

“I am sure Her Majesty would be eager to introduce you to our artists,” Frodin said. “The banquet is ready. We are almost there.”

Tender scents of cooked at ca from the next room over. Vivi was afraid of whether any of the foods would be edible at all. The demons here barely looked humanoid. There was a chance their foods would be similarly different. She turned the corner, and a long rectangular banquet table ca to sight.

The first al she spotted was a row of black sausages next to so soup that looked more like a poisonous cauldron, though that wasn’t what made her freeze on the spot. The banquet was happening directly inside the throne room, with Queen Adalene sitting on her pitch black throne.

Standing next to her were the sharp eyes of a demon whose idle aura pressured Vivi with the urge to bow. Lucius paused, then hid at the very back of her core.

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This was the sa feeling she’d felt when Anthony had first stepped onto the runesmithing competition in Shivenar—the presence of an ethereal aura much more precise than anyone else’s. In ti, Anthony’s aura had stopped surprising Vivi. His idle aura was artful and pretty to be around, but as long as it wasn’t directed at Vivi as a threat, she’d grown used to it.

It turned out, Anthony’s aura was far from absolute mastery over controlling ether. The creature in this room raised the bar tenfold—so much so that his clothes themselves were shaped with flowing wisps of ether. The white robe didn’t seem to have any fabric at all, consisting entirely of a thick layer of wisps. And not leaky ether; the wisps flowed calmly within the robe’s texture like in an inside-carved runesword. The robe must have offered protection, though it still looked mostly costic. A coating directly on skin would have worked better as armor.

His face was normal enough, with long horns and a heavily scorched face and cracked, even rougher than Lortel’s. He had sharp orange eyes, but his forehead was wrinkled, and his white hair seed to be made of ether, filling a bald head. From his neck down, his body glowed, coated with ether.

His black staff was a solid object, but it was larger than Vivi’s slingshot launcher and taller than the man himself. Its shaft was lined with runes. The tip was more like an open cup to shoot ether out of.

Vivi could only presu he was Shilman Fried. The fifth elevation archmage.

Lucius hadn’t lied when he said fifth elevation hunters were on a different level from everyone else. Vivi knew for a fact she did not want to fight this man.

Alda and Cael had paused at the sight of him as well. When the initial surprise wore off, they all walked to the opposite end of the banquet table and lowered their heads. Both hunters managed to stay composed.

Where’s Lortel? she thought. Her seamstress wasn’t anywhere to be seen, as if she’d totally disappeared.

“She didn’t enter the room,” Lucius said. “She hid in the shadows the mont we sensed his aura.”

“Welco,” a woman said, “adventurers, legends.”

When soone finally spoke, it wasn’t the archmage, but the woman on the throne. Eyes turned to her. Queen Adalene had scarlet red eyes, with lush dark silver hair. Her face and horns were similar to Senith’s. She didn’t radiate innocent happiness in the slightest, though. Her smile was tough and competent, and her dark gown complented that.

She was still entirely normal compared to the man standing to her right like a weapon pointed at Vivi’s head.

Cael bowed for her as well. “An honor to et the leader of the Stormkeep.”

“Likewise, for the ones who have broken levelstone,” Adalene said. “It seems you have revealed a dungeon underneath my palace. How long have you resided there, inside the mountain?”

Vivi glanced at Cael, who remained at the position as the leader of whatever group they were presenting themselves as. He smiled and said, “A long ti, Your Majesty. The Gauntlet Of The Gods was our ho.”

Adalene’s face stayed blank, expression difficult to read. She paused, however, clearly thinking. “And who might you three be, humans, who erged from a dungeon as legendary as the Age Of Typhoons itself?”

“We go by many nas,” Cael said. “I suppose you may call us… Dungeon Hunters.”

The answer was nonsense, and everyone knew that. Adalene wanted to know what kind of supernatural creatures she was faced with, who had just broken levelstone. She sat still, probably wondering which question would bring her closer to an answer.

“It seems,” the deeper, echoing voice of Shilman Fried rumbled, “that these three are ordinary humans, Miss Adalene.”

The Queen frowned.

“And the fourth person, who escaped the palace…” he continued. “That seems to be Loretta Nimwind. An old enemy of mine.”

Adalene blinked, her head panning toward him. Vivi felt pressure forming in her chest, but she tried not to show a reaction. She had a bad feeling about this.

“These three are not deities,” Shilman said. “I know just how they’ve appeared on the tenth level.”

“I don’t believe I understand what you’re talking about, sir,” Cael said.

“Yes you do, Cael Darkwind,” Shilman said. “And so do you, Alda Darkwind, and especially you, Vivian Runeblessed, and Lucius.” His chill-inducing gaze landed directly on Vivi. “I do not understand how you managed to survive Banishnt Portal. That is irrelevant. Tell , what are you hoping to achieve in Norfolm by playing deities?”