Collide Gamer

“Queen Lydia!”

The addressed monarch turned towards the sudden invader of her command centre. Surrounding knights immediately drew their swords. Surprises were not permissible at this time, when anyone could suddenly begin vomiting up infectious Lorylim matter.

Eyes of steel mustered the man that had entered. Dark, long hair, confined by a leather band, a suit, and a degree of redness to his tanned skin all identified him as one of the more influential politicians that her beloved had to deal with. “Ahanu,” she stated, her hand clenched around a ray of light from her cape, turned into metal by the enchantments of her Astrian armour. Armour, cape, necklace and even the sword on her hip were all priceless items that her betrothed had granted her. The ring that she wore over her armour was the same, although its powers remained hidden to everyone to this day. Chapters first released on Nove1Fire.net

“I plead… for your aid,” Ahanu gasped. The man was covered in sweat. “There’s an invader… at the ancestral... cave…!”

“Let him approach,” Lydia ordered her gathered knights. She continued to keep a close eye on him. That she had Observe, courtesy of the reservation so enticingly placed on her womb, calmed the matter. If he was corrupted, he did not know and the Lorylim were not usually subtle in that matter. Still, she kept a weapon ready.

Ahanu advanced to the table. A map of the local area was displayed on a large screen, itself placed on a table. Lydia had preferred to do things manually until Scarlett and John had shown her just how much more effective this approach was.

“Report.”

Ahanu looked at her with tired eyes. There was a moment of calculation there. They both knew he had no high opinion of monarchs and they scarcely knew each other. In fact, she had no high opinion of him either. He reminded her too much of too many nobles she had dealt with, eager to amass privileges when the times were good and reluctant to fulfil obligations when conflict knocked at their door.

“The cave, it’s… there,” he pointed at a nearby outcropping of the Appalachians. “One of our scouts spotted Hyozuma in the area in his human look. It was a stroke of pure luck.”

‘Gaia’s involvement proven once again,’ Lydia thought. “That is outside our deployment area.” The harsh statement made Ahanu’s face fall. Good, that was the reaction Lydia had wanted to see. Crossing her arms behind her back, she gave the detractor of her beloved an expecting stare. “I assume this ancestral cave contains items of power?”

“That is correct,” Ahanu answered, an element of unwillingness to his tone.

“Your interest is to keep the details secret. No doubt that is the reason why such a place of import was withheld from the greater war plan.”

The chieftain did not respond to the accusation swinging in Lydia’s voice. He kept his gaze down and the gears in his head turning. Lydia’s gaze wandered to the map. Due to how the operation had been planned, this apparent spot of great interest would not be reached within the next 12 hours by the assigned forces. Lydia could be there in 30 minutes. It was an emergent happenstance of clearing two strips north to south.

‘It would be foolish to ignore a signal by Gaia – it would also be foolish to skip on this chance to make myself the villain to this man. The more he loathes me, the easier it will be for John to fill the gap.’ John had been the outside force for her on several occasions. Repaying the favour was only natural. “I am willing to do this as a favour to you, but I will have favours in return.”

“What kind of favours?” Ahanu asked wearily.

“The kind where your Hidden Tradition will cease their protests against the monarchy. John’s status as king is to my advantage and I will not have it ruined by your moralizing.”

A deliberately confrontational way to word that. She hoped it would get stuck in his brain and fester into a conviction that she was to blame for John’s tilt towards this outcome. Granted, she had done her share of influencing, born from genuine conviction that this was the best move ultimately. Still, it had been his decision. A decision that she was happy to take blame for, if it made his domestic situation easier.

Much of politics consisted of shifting outrage around to places that the angered parties could not reach.

“…We are in no habit of wailing against reality.”

“Good. Then we are on the same page.” Lydia had already opened the Harem Comms and sent John a message. He had swiftly responded with approval and caution. He would prefer if she waited until Beatrice had moved up into the area. Lydia was confident that she could take a singular enemy. “Continue according to the battle plan. I will deal with this.”

“My empress, I must formally protest against-“

Lydia raised a gauntleted hand. “Your protest, born from loyalty, is heard and dismissed. Follow the plan as outlined. This is your order.”

“Understood!”

The advantage of having all of the traditionalist elements drawn to Romulus was being left with the people she had either cultivated or chosen as her direct following. They were people she trusted to do what she wanted.

A car was found easily enough and a driver with it. She and Ahanu took the trip from the movable command tent to the described site in silence. Only after they had disembarked did the man speak again. “This way,” was all he said.

The ancestral cave was nothing much on the mundane side, just a peculiar rock formation that formed an overhang and a hollow, a rivulet pearling down the front. Changing to the Abyssal side changed matters in subtle ways. Symbols had been carved into rock, much of which had been freed of moss. Magical runes sparked with broken power.

“You should have waited outside,” Lydia told the chieftain.

“I must see this through.”

“You are unaware of the scale of battle you are about to witness.”

Lydia willed the Hydra Steel to activate. The necklace hummed quietly with power, as the air around was suddenly filled with scraps of metal. Over the ensuing combat, the hovering pieces would grow more numerous, until she had enough to encase any enemy fully. It was a wonderful assurance that she could play the long game if her otherwise reliable way to deal with enemies was found wanting.

There was no more time to waste on Ahanu. Lydia pulled a ray of light from her cape, consolidating it into a golden, sharp-tipped beam. One of the many enchantments of her armour. The cape, for all of its own power, was borderline decorative compared to the plate and necklace and certainly next to Strimata.

She descended the rocky slope and approached the cave. The mixed scent of mould, rotting flesh, and blood hit her nostrils. ‘As is typical,’ she thought and advanced. Her cape illuminated her path.

The cave had been artificially deepened. Attempts to make it look natural had been made, but Lydia knew very well the marks of stone shaped by magic. The path ahead forked. “That w-“

“Why are you still present?” the Queen of Mithril interrupted.

“Can you find the path on your own?”

Rather than answer, Lydia confidently pointed down one of the paths. Her acute sense of smell combined with foot marks, ancient and faded, told her all she needed to. “I’m incomparable to what you are.” The royal strutted forwards confidently, leaving Ahanu to make the choice. He made the wrong one, following her at a distance.

Navigating the underground maze was fascinating in one way, and entirely mundane in another. Lydia had not interacted much with the culture of the Abyssal native Americans, that made the markings and choice of glyphs interesting. On the other hand, she had interacted, either directly or indirectly, with many ancient cultures over the years. She had been to the inner sanctums of the Sons of Odin on diplomatic visits, explored communities of those that clung to ways that predated Romulus in Germany, and seen her fair share of presentations by Momo on Akkadian and Aztec culture – not to mention the many hours spent in Rome itself.

For all of its old feel, the Abyssal native American culture in this form was only about 500 years old itself. It was a chimera of the various tribes that had consolidated in the area to withstand outside influence. A tale as old as conquests and thus as old as mankind.

Their path finally took them to a chamber. It was not particularly ornate nor particularly large. There was an admirable practicality to the simplicity it was hidden with. Great ritualistic clay urns lined the walls and stone shelves, each large enough to contain a person. They likely did contain the remnants of venerated ancestors, given the culture of the Hidden Tradition and the benefits they derived from being able to call upon their ancestors.

Among the human-sized pottery, items were hung from the ceiling on threads made from various materials. Observe identified them as mundane items as much as a variety of Rare and even Epic creations, to use the jargon the Gamer mechanic presented.

The heavily mutated form of Hyozuma stood in the centre of the chamber. Had she not been informed that this was him, she would not have known. Entirely plastered in flesh, there was nothing left of the man besides a general, broad male build. Gemstones had been set in his stomach.

He just stood there, inhaling and exhaling through his sharp teeth.

“Interesting,” Lydia raised her voice. She had come ready for a fight, yet the Lorylim before her was unresponsive even to her voice. Observe identified the reason why.

“Why are you not attacking it?” Ahanu asked.

Lydia sent the man a noxious glare. It was enough to make him genuinely stumble back. “Your persistent presence is enough of a distraction without you asking idiotic questions,” she chastised him, then carefully approached the entity. It was itself proof that control over the hivemind was strained. Both Tiamat and Izha must have been occupied for them to leave such an important piece standing unordered.

Pieces of skin opened up, forming jaws that snapped at the queen. While the piece of Hyozuma that was still in there kept the whole pacified, individual pieces attached to him retained their malicious character. Every Lorylim was a colony.

‘If I had one of Delicia’s test brews on me, this would be the ideal time to test it,’ she thought. ‘I wonder if one could be delivered… No, he will not remain motionless that long. A less desperate gambit would be to call out.’ “Nia.”

“Yes?”

The pariah appeared next to her in a flutter of weirdness. Having been exposed to her as she grew stronger over the years, Lydia let the sensation give her goosebumps and ignored it. Ahanu whimpered and collapsed where he stood. ‘And John spoke so highly of him,’ she considered. ‘Am I simply seeing him at his worst or did all of this break him?’

Thoughts were interrupted by the blonde leaning in for a kiss. Lydia lowered her head slightly, meeting the pink lips of the pale-skinned woman. She tasted of nothing, but she was delightfully warm and tentative. The hint of translucency to Nia’s skin was unmade as their tongues intertwined. As soon as she had fully recovered, the pariah pulled away.

The long skirt of her colourless dress fluttered in winds non-existent. The long, low-tied ponytail swayed according to playful taps of creatures Lydia could not perceive – that were not present in the first place. As a blank, Nia had her soul in two places. Her body was on this side of the divide between reality and Nirvana and would hopefully remain so until the end of a shared, happy life. Lydia dared to hope for that ending for them.

Romantic feelings were put aside for the moment. Grey eyes followed Nia as she circled the Lorylim. Her arrival had been met by a manifold screeching by the mouths that had opened up all over the surface of the creature. The man within trembled, but remained unmoving. Had he had eyes remaining, perhaps he would have stared in fear.

“Can you cleanse him?” Lydia asked. “Observe tells me the man is still in there.”

Nia’s single blue eye stared at the corrupted man for three seconds. “I can try. Hold him down?”

The queen drew Strimata. The weapon sung in dramatic violin tones. Discarding the light metal, Lydia drew wires from the Legionmetal of her rapier. Rather than diminish in size, the rapier showed its loss in magically folded mass by diminishing the amount of facets within its glassy blade. Prismatically shimmering strands of metal formed a loose cocoon around Hyozuma.

Nia coated the fingers of her right hand in the black null-stuff that her weapons were made from. Without any further warning, she snapped forwards. Slender digits penetrated the man’s scalp, creating five bulges that went all the way down to his forehead. A shock went through the creature, the layer of mutated skin visibly slouching. Then, Nia began to pull.

The creature screamed in pain. The Lorylim threw its arms out, only for the wires around to collapse on it. Hydra Steel collapsed on top of the Fusional wires, creating a cocoon of Lydia’s will. Breakable, in theory, but not by him and not while Nia was ripping his skin off. The power that Izha had provided him to be able to repel Eliana had evidently faded.

Careful coordination saw Lydia loosen specific parts of the confinement as Nia gave the signal. Bit by bit, the pariah isolated the man from the corruption, until the mutated skin came off like a bloody suit.

It flew upwards with excess force. The part in Nia’s grip was torn off by the remaining Lorylim matter. The skinsuit fell to the ground, immediately growing legs made of fungal stalks and bone shards. It went for the only viable host around: Ahanu.

Hydra Steel pillars rammed into the back of the monstrosity before it could get far. Each was a stake rammed into the monster. The empty head stretched towards the chieftain, screaming in deep tones from the nothing within its chest. Lydia continued to hammer it until it was dead properly.

“Shouldn’t you be in the Boston offensive?” Lydia asked, while pulling health potions out of her inventory. She emptied them all on top of Hyozuma, who was a skinless mess of a human shape.

“I felt like coming down here,” Nia responded, emotionless of tone – as always.

The queen sighed. “Your capability to be in the right place never ceases to amaze.”

Every emptied health potion recovered the man a little more. At his level of vitality, even the best Delicia could make was of little help. Since she had enough of them, they did make a difference.

Hyozuma did not heal back to his previous state. All of his skin had been covered by Lorylim matter and all of his skin healed was thus covered in Lorylim scars. ‘His will not be a pleasant existence,’ Lydia considered. ‘If Marathyu was capable of moving, so will he.’

The man did not wake up, but by the end of the treatment, he was breathing. “I will have him sent back to the Guild Hall. Delicia will like to try and cure him.”

There was no shortage of people with Lorylim scars currently, but most of them were extremely mild cases. Interactions with the Lorylim were typically a binary between dead or fully corrupted. Anything that broke that binary, in a world without reliable cures, had been minor cuts that were immediately addressed.

A fully scarred, level 400 test subject would hopefully help Delicia work on a solution to all of this.

“Understood. What about him?” Nia pointed at Ahanu, who was still watching all of this in shock.

“He will come with me,” Lydia stated.