Tyrants of Earth - The Legend of Artigan

A video has surfaced from the depths of Sideark’s past. Dredged up by diehard fans of Juniper the Fair Hearted. In the video was Sideark boasting about how he had killed over a hundred disgusting skin shamblers.

“It was an exaggeration when I first started streaming to get views. Nobody else realized that they were actually a people. I was the first to offer help when I found out! I mean me and the Eternal Delvers!”

- Sideark

Sector Twelve, the Burning Lands

A crowd had amassed in front of the entrance to the thirteenth Trial. Over a hundred dragonslayers and thousands of ninth and eighth realms had come here to wait. They all watched and waited patiently, staring at the five that were camping and roasting meats on a vent that was belching out purple miasma.

The Chieftain Tyrant was trying to lure some of the higher realm adventurers over with his definitely overseasoned meat. Not a single soul dared to come close, after all, the Passive Tyrant was not in a happy mood.

Ayla kicked at the ground, blasting up dust and scaring all of the watchers at the same time.

“Is Lihua really not coming?”

The Archmage Tyrant sat close by, politely refusing a piece of meat from his Chieftain. “No she is not. Someone needs to stay back and protect the lands from any unsavory individuals.”

He glared at a particular [Stallmaster Thief] that had believed she was safe hiding in the crowd. She disappeared behind a particular large group of adventurers.

The Passive Tyrant cared little for their audience. “She was the one that first said waiting until one week left was probably cutting it too close. Then she tells us to wait two more days for a tournament that ended up getting cancelled? What’s she thinking?”

The Dwarven Tyrant laughed. “Probably not the best thing to talk about with all the hanger-ons.”

Ayla turned to the crowd, then stared at the multitude of observational skills and spells that were placed on them. Everyone in the higher realms were standing by for the completion. Not for historical reasons, but because when the Highest Trial was completed, the realm expansion would begin.

Sector Twelve was nearly as large as Sector Ten, nine and eight combined. The current estimates placed Sector Thirteen as seven times as large as the surface area of Earth…

At minimum.

With such an enormous new land there’d be new creatures, new resources, new ruins… and perhaps even civilizations.

But most importantly?

More dangers to prove yourself. Exploring the unknown was always a boost to achievements that you couldn’t find anywhere else.

Real, true adventurers would never give up this opportunity.

Unfortunately, these real adventurers were all also eavesdropping into the Tyrants’ private conversations. Ayla turned to the audience and glared, shattering all their alert skills at the same time.

“Scram! You have five seconds!”

Nothing more needed to be said. Everyone, even the strongest adventurers lured by the Chieftain Tyrant’s friendliness, ran away. All magical scrying devices were canceled, observational skills were canceled as everyone used their boosting powers to flee.

When the Passive Tyrant demanded something, you listened… or she punched you.

Paul sighed. “You didn’t have to do that, Ayla.”

Ayla just scratched her neck, glaring at a point in the sky. Towards her. Darn.

“Xav, who is that?”

The Archmage Tyrant, Xavien, took a moment to find where the Passive Tyrant was looking and found her. It took him three seconds to figure out who it was.

“Gamielle.”

One moment, Gamielle was spying at the five Tyrants, hoping that she had improved enough to avoid detection. The next moment the Passive Tyrant blurred up in front of her, giving her a huge smile and hugging her.

“Gamielle!”

All the wind was taken out of Gamielle’s lungs as the Passive Tyrant crushed her tightly. “Oof–Auntie Ayla! Please!”

Then she was dragged down to the rest of the Tyrants. Though it was less of a drag then a meteor blurring to the ground and causing a small tremor. All the fleeing adventurers started running faster, wondering who had been stupid enough to test the Passive Tyrant’s temper.

Paul hugged her next, gently and kindly, like a big teddy bear. The Archmage Tyrant was a little more stern, he looked at her up and down.

“You’ve advanced further in your illusions. You aren’t neglecting magical augmentations are you?”

“N-no, uncle.”

And suddenly Gamielle was back to being their beloved niece once more. She scowled internally. Ideally, she was supposed to appear and surprise them all, showing off her progress. Instead, she was back to being the child that they all doted on.

Dwarven Tyrant walked up and slapped her on her back.

“Hah! Told you it’d be fine.”

Henry was talking about the fact that he didn’t go with her plan and just told her mother that she’d gone behind her back to tattle on her about Ryan.

That made her lose her temper. “No! It didn’t work out at all! I got grounded and he’s still doing crazy suicidal shit! Did you all not see that hex in the sky?”

She waved her hands wildly, trying to emphasize the madness her mother was doing. It didn’t work. None of them understood what that soulrot hex meant, nor would they believe her if she told them.

None perhaps except for the Archmage Tyrant who looked the other way in shame. It was a miracle her mother wasn’t pulling her back already. Something had changed after the events from the tournament and Gamielle had a feeling that her mother wasn’t even watching her anymore.

For some reason that made her more anxious, not less.

Ayla sighed, then looked up at her. Gamielle was taller than the Passive Tyrant, which was still a weird feeling, though taller didn’t mean bigger. The Passive Tyrant’s presence wrapped the world as it seemed to cradle her gently. Or at least as gently as a giant could hug a human she supposed.

“It’ll be fine. She didn’t shatter that boy’s sword right? Just trust that your mom has a plan, she always does the right thing in the end. It’s just hard to see sometimes.”

They were back to this. It was like her mother had a spell on her allies. To them, Xie Lihua the Witch Pioneer could do no wrong, it always worked out in the end. They were blind and they couldn’t see it, and Gamielle was just a worried child to them.

Again.

She was about to change tact when Paul moved towards her. The Chieftain Tyrant was always good at noticing her discomfort. He kneeled in front of her, the kind, happy orc looking at her with more than a bit of pain on his face. Gamielle didn’t like appearing in front of Paul. Seeing his pain whenever he looked at her was one of the most difficult things she endured.

“It’s okay, Gamgam. We will complete the Trial System and you will come back and everything will be alright. Just have faith in us.”

A kind giant beamed down on her

Gamielle blinked away the tears. She hugged the orc so that he couldn’t see her cry.

Ayla, not one that was comfortable around gushing emotions, stood up and stretched.

Unlawfully taken from NovelFire, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.

“Alright, should we get going?”

Xavien shook his head. “We still need to wait a day and a bit.”

“Oh yeah.”

–

Ryan’s Fifth Trial

The dark oppressive atmosphere of the Cataclysm Abyss was replaced by a narrow wooden stairway. For a moment it reminded Ryan of his first Trial. When he had first entered and was placed on top of a flight of stairs.

Except this time instead of unexpected zombies littering the area, there was the bustling activity of a popular tavern below. He took a deep breath and sighed.

He was back in the Trials and he was free.

The craziest part?