Nightmare Realm Summoner

There was a knock on the door of Orchid’s cabin no more than a minute after Alex confirmed that Orchid would be willing to come along with him and Claire to hunt a Region Boss in the Mirrorlands. When Alex pulled it open, he was somewhat surprised to find Derek standing on the other side.

Didn’t we just send May to see if she could find him like… a few minutes ago? How did she already figure out where he was? I needed to ask Rhyss just to get a pointer in the right direction, and May didn’t stick around for long enough for me to tell her what I knew.

“Yup,” Derek said.

“What?” Alex asked, blinking his confusion away.

“You’re gonna go fight something strong,” Trek said, as if it were the most obvious thing in the world. He scratched at the side of his neck, taking care to avoid a dagger jutting out from it just an inch away. “So I’ll come. Sounds fun.”

“Did May tell you that?” Alex asked.

“Nah,” Derek said. “She just said you were looking for me. You’ve got Orchid here as well. It isn’t too hard to make the rest of the connection and take a guess. I don’t do anything with the town. If you were looking for me, it would be because we’re going to go do something fun. Mirrorwane is nice and all… but there isn’t really that much to kill here. I did a bit of hunting in the Mirrorlands area, but the monsters aren’t really all that strong. They can never kill me more than once or twice. So yeah. I’ll come. ”

You know, getting killed once is usually more than enough for most people.

“Oh,” Alex said, somewhat intelligently. Then he cleared his throat. “Great. That’s good.”

“I am right about what we’re doing, yeah?” Derek asked. He paused for a moment. “Because if we’re not going to go look for something strong to fight, then I’m busy.”

“You’re right,” Alex confirmed. He laughed and shook his head, stepping back so Derek could actually move into the cabin. “Sorry. You just caught me off guard. I wasn’t expecting you to find us so fast, nor did I think you’d already have figured out what we’re doing. I guess it really sin’t that much of a surprise.”

Now that he was thinking properly again, it did strike Alex that Derek looked a fair bit thinner than he had the last time he’d seen the man. Derek was still big, but he’d gotten thinner and leaner, as if he hadn’t gotten a proper meal in a little too long.

It seemed he wasn’t the only one who had noticed.

“What happened to you?” Orchid asked without a hint of tact. “You look terrible.”

“Huh?” Derek asked. “Me?”

“Yes,” Orchid said. “You. When’s the last time you had a good meal? You’re gaunt. At least, compared to your normal size. What’s going on?”

Derek looked down, past the assorted the weapons sticking out of him, to get a good look at himself. Then he let out a mildly surprised grunt, as if discovering for the first time that he didn’t quite look how he should have.

“I guess it’s because I got killed a few times in the bone tower,” Derek said idly. “I’ll be fine once I get to eat a bit. I am quite hungry.”

“Wait,” Alex said. “What? The bone tower? You were in the Forsaken Grounds?”

“I guess,” Derek replied. “I went in there looking for some Anomalies to hunt, but I didn’t find any. I’ll save you the trouble. There’s just one guy, and you can’t kill him.”

“He killed you?” Alex asked. Then he froze. “Wait. Your magic worked? How did you die and come back to life when you were in the Forsaken Grounds? Magic doesn’t work there!”

Or, at least, mine didn’t. Claire managed it. I’m starting to wonder if literally everyone can use their powers other than me. I’m going to get offended at this rate.

“No. My magic didn’t work,” Derek said.

Alex paused. Then he frowned. “But you just said you died.”

“Yeah,” Derek agreed.

The two of them stared at each other.

Alex glanced over to Orchid for help, but she had very wisely found the table fascinating. He repressed a sigh as he looked back to Derek.

“How exactly did you die and come back to life if your magic wasn’t working?” Alex asked. “That’s not really how dying works. The whole revival ability you’ve got is magic, right?”

If you find this story on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the infringement.

“No,” Derek said. He squinted at Alex as if he were trying to figure out if the whole line of questioning was leading up to some kind of joke. “It’s totally different.”

There’s no way he was so dense that he managed to make his magic work when it shouldn’t have, right? The universe doesn’t work like that. You can’t just be dumb enough to force it to subject itself to your rules… right?

“Do you think you could explain why?” Alex asked. “I’m a bit lost.”

“Not dying is part of who I am,” Derek replied. “My class does other stuff. That magic didn’t work at all. I mean, I didn’t try to use it much, but it didn’t work. But it’s different.”

Is he saying that his ability to come back to life is separate from his class? I — wait a second.

Alex’s eyes widened as he finally realized what Derek was getting at.

Derek is an Incarnation. Like me. Is he implying that coming back from death is an Incarnation ability, and those still work even when all other normal magic is heavily suppressed? Shit. Now I really want to test it out and see if that’s the case. I don’t think I tried really hard to activate the Singularity Core when I was going through the room.

“Shit,” Alex muttered. “I think I see what you’re saying. How far did you get?”

“Dunno. I wasn’t really keeping track,” Derek replied. Then he shuddered. “But dying in there was way worse than normal. It wasn’t comfortable at all. Can you believe that?”

“It rarely is,” Orchid drawled. It was a little hard to tell if she was being sarcastic or not.

Derek glanced at her. “Well, it sucked. I didn’t like it. At all. Hurt a lot. But I wanted to leave pretty badly, and the door was in front of me. I didn’t really have a choice.”

Did… Derek never turn around and realize that the way out was right behind him? He could have tapped out at any point if he’d told Blade he wanted to do the whole thing later. I don’t think Blade was the type to force anyone to push themselves if they didn’t want to.

“Right,” Alex said slowly, dragging the word out. It seemed that Derek had somehow accidentally done the trial. It didn’t seem likely that they would be getting any answers as to how well the large man had performed. Derek himself didn’t appear to know. “Well… did it work? Do you feel stronger?”

“Yeah,” Derek said with a nod. “And hungrier. But I’ve been a bit distracted, so I haven’t had a chance to get anything else to eat. Maybe I’ll eat something we kill in the Mirrorlands. We’re going soon, right? Who else is coming?”

“Just you, Orchid, and Claire,” Alex replied. He pulled his thoughts back to the actual topic at hand. Derek’s appearance had seriously waylaid him for a few minutes. “We don’t want to leave Mirrorwane without any strong warriors to defend it. Not that I expect to get attacked… but you never know.”

“That’s very true,” Derek said with a sage nod. He glanced over to Orchid. “Is May going to be okay if you leave?”

“She’s gotten pretty skilled,” Orchid replied. “And her magical power isn’t anything to laugh at. She’s in a better spot than the majority of the other people in Mirrorwane. I don’t think she’s going to have any trouble. And I don’t think we’re planning on being gone for that long anyway, right?”

“No more than a few days,” Alex confirmed. “That’s the hope, at least. I don’t really know where the boss will be. I’m just assuming that I’ll be able to find one somewhat close to Mirrorwane. There’s a small chance that I can’t find shit anywhere next to us. If that’s the case, we’ll probably just have to give up and head back.”

“It’s the Mirrorlands,” Orchid said. “I think we’ll probably be okay. You can’t walk more than a few feet without stumbling into some kind of monster or another. I’d be more concerned that the enemy we do find will end up being too powerful to go up against.”

Alex gave her a one-shouldered shrug. “That’s something to deal with when the time comes. No point worrying about it now. Claire is currently getting resources for the trip. I’m sure she’ll have some food as well, Derek. You won’t have to eat some random creature we kill in the Mirrorlands.”

“Oh. Nice,” Derek said with a grin. “I think I’d rather hunt something that I hunted, but I’ll eat Claire’s food too. Any food is always good.”

“I’ll stick with normal food,” Orchid said. Her lips twitched in distaste. “The idea of eating anything that originated from the Mirrorlands is not the most appetizing. It’ll probably turn you into some kind of tentacle monster.”

“That would be cool,” Derek said.

“No,” Orchid said. “It would not.”

“Oh.” Derek frowned. There was a moment of silence. Then he tilted his head to the side. “Why?”

“We’re not getting into this,” Orchid said with a small sigh. She glanced to Alex. “Are we actually leaving around now?”

“If we can. I told Claire we’d meet her in about an hour. Do you have anything you need to wrap up?”

“Let me just find May and let her know I’ll be gone for a few days.” Orchid thought for a moment. “And I need to tell Rhyss. I want him to pass along some instructions to the townsfolk that are training in the Mirrorlands. They’ll have to be a bit safer while I’m gone.”

“Then let’s meet back up at the Town Hall when you’ve done all that,” Alex said. “You think an hour is enough?”

“More than,” Orchid confirmed. “I’ll be ready. Do I need to get some resources as well? If we’re going to be in the Mirrorlands for a long period of time, I don’t want to go in without food or water.”

“Claire should have it handled,” Alex said. “Don’t worry about it. We’ll double check with her before we leave, though.”

“That works for me. An hour, then. Town Hall?”

“Town Hall works,” Alex said.

Orchid nodded. “Then I’ll see you both shortly.”

She stepped around them and strode out the cabin at a brisk pace.

Alex and Derek exchanged a glance.

“Say,” Alex said. “Where’s Wess? I should probably let him know we’re counting on him keeping an eye on the town before we leave.”

“Dunno,” Derek replied. “But if I had to guess? He’s probably in the bone tower thing.”

Alex sighed. “Yeah. Probably should have guessed that myself, honestly. What was the point of warning people off it? All it does is make them want to use it more. Whatever. You want to go wait around at the Town Hall until Claire comes back?”

“Sure,” Derek said. He grinned. “I can’t wait to kill something big.”

Well, that’s a perfectly sane thing to say.

Alex couldn’t help himself. He laughed. Then he clapped Derek on the shoulder, between where the weapons jutted out from his flesh.

“Me too, buddy,” Alex said. “Me too.”