Birth of a Kingdom

Vivian’s car pulled in behind Lynn’s in an empty parking lot, the same they had used Friday when this whole seed quest started.

“The barrier was about a ten minute walk from the road,” John said, pointing in the general direction of it. “And we have about thirty minutes on the countdown. We probably shouldn’t go in before, right?”

“I would consider a premature entrance unwise,” Martius supplied from his seat in Lynn’s car. The black cloak he wore acted similar to Vivian’s invisibility arrays and rendered him unseen. “Even without the subtle warning the description gave you regarding things needing to settle, the reformation of a normal illusion barrier into a Kingdom, or some sort of intermediary, is not a location I would enter mid-process.”

“So are we walking over now and waiting out the clock there or wait here and leave in time to get there right as the buzzer sounds?” Beth asked.

“I believe it would be better for us to be at the barrier before the time ran out,” Harker remarked. “Gives us time to prepare ourselves. We have no way of knowing if things will be calm when we enter. We could emerge right in front of some horde of dangerous creatures.”

“Hopefully that won’t be the case.” John nervously laughed. “Since my powers kind of tweak things to be more like video games, I think we’ll have at least some time before things begin. Let us take in the cinematic of the environment, you know. Besides, we don’t even know the particulars of what’s going to happen. There should be some time for us to read the updated quest log and plan.”

“Lots of assumptions there,” Lynn grumbled. “Not a fan of this improvised bullshit.”

Beth smirked darkly, clearly enjoying her sister’s discomfort. Vivian shot her a look before the shorter girl could make some statement and Beth gave her a look that said, ‘Fine, I won’t torment my sister’.

The redhead shook her head and said, “If we’re agreed on heading there now, we should get moving.”

With no counter argument, the group headed out. Due to the darkness, Aeolia opted to remain visible as she rode on John’s shoulder.

‘I feel a bit bad that we couldn’t get Teri in on this,’ Senka suddenly brought up. They had contacted her once things had calmed down on Monday, using Lynn’s phone as it was the only one that could call out of Detreye. Unfortunately, her clan elders weren’t in as agreeable a mood as they had been on Sunday when they had called for aid. Their goblin friend explained it as the elders wanting to keep out of sight after the attack. Which was a little odd as they hadn’t raised as much of a fuss when Teri requested men to join her in helping them.

‘Yeah, it sucks,’ John thought back. ‘And I don’t like how cagey those elders are. Get the feeling they want to bolt and are coming up with a plan to get around the goodwill we’ve built with the rest of the clan.’

‘We’ll have to keep closer contact then,’ Senka mused. ‘I wouldn’t put it pass them to wake everyone up in the middle of the night and have them flee from imaginary enemies.’

John nodded slightly and their conversation ended as the group approached where the barrier lay. John could feel it reflexively; the boundary between reality and what lay beyond was stretched, like a bubble about to pop.

“I presume everyone can feel the strain, yes?” Harker said as they came to stop. When everyone nodded he turned his attention to Martius, the gnome having pulled back his hood. “Martius?”

“This is only an educated guess, because there isn’t much precedent for things like this,” the researcher said, “but I think the barrier has become oversaturated with mana. Effectively, every last bit of space is occupied, far beyond what a simple barrier could contain. In its current state, we either might not be able to enter or we would be utterly ripped apart by whatever churning chaos is within.”

“Not a fan of that second option,” Aeolia flatly said.

“I doubt many would be.” Martius chuckled. “If I came across this without knowing what it was, or with some level of knowing it would become stable, I would advise getting as far from it as possible.”

John was suddenly very nervous as he eyed the countdown, less than five minutes remaining. “Maybe we should get a bit back? Just to be safe, yeah?”

“Oh, I highly doubt that protector of yours would let any real danger slip in,” Martius said assuredly. When everyone looked at him in confusion, he sighed, “Right. You lot are all Earth based, so you probably don’t know how folks in the less connected Kingdoms talk about Gaia.”

“Oh, that makes sense,” Vivian said. “Gaia’s prohibition on mundanes interacting with the Abyss would cover something like this.”

“It would in this case,” Martius offhandedly remarked. “Too big to ignore.”

“You’re saying that like Gaia doesn’t just stop that sort of thing from happening outright,” Lynn commented.

Martius let out a laugh. “If Gaia so judiciously enforced that separation, then why is John’s mother still alive? From his recounting of events, she is wholly without mana yet was pulled into the trap. And allowed back into the world with no repercussions.”

A weight crashed onto John and his legs nearly gave out from under him.

“T-that’s going to keep working, right?” John shakily asked. “She’s not just going to disappear, right?”

Huh, knew I should have done this sooner. Figured you’d just let it slide, but Mr. Know-It-All had to spout out his idea on how things run. I Declare that your mother, Brenda Newman, is in no danger of being eliminated for knowing of the Abyss and those that dwell within it.

There was a sudden shift in the world and John’s panic just vanished, as if he’d never experienced it and his head throbbed with a sudden headache. Everyone else looked confused and unsettled.

“That was something,” Harker haltingly said.

“I think I’m going to be sick,” Kiera softly whispered, her body curling in on itself.

Vivian placed a comforting hand on the bluenette’s back while she glanced at the floating proclamation from Gaia still in front of John.

“I think Gaia just rewrote reality to prevent Brenda from being ‘removed’ for knowing about the Abyss,” the redhead mused.

“That’s not it,” John said, the truth of what happened somehow clear in his mind, much the same way he knew his name or the sky was up. “It’s more like Mom’s counted as being part of the Abyss now. I really don’t know how I know that, but it’s…”

“Truth,” Martius cut in, that single word carrying tremendous weight. “I take it none of you are well versed in the powers of a god, and we don’t have the luxury of time, so I’ll keep this brief. Gods have absolute authority over what they take as their domain and are able to influence it to a great degree. Gaia’s domain, to the extent of my knowledge, is the protection of mankind from the Abyss. Whether her great power comes from that dedication or if she had the power when she took up that role isn’t known to me. But with that power she maintains the veil between the magical and mundane, as you call it.”

John frowned as he massaged his temple. “As long as my mom isn’t going to get poofed out of existence, I couldn’t care less about all that stuff.”

There was a little more than a minute left on the countdown and John summoned his phone, quickly typing out a message to his mother, letting her know they were about to go into a barrier.

With thirty seconds left, he got a response, telling him to be careful and that she loved him.

‘Love you too, Mom,’ John thought as he typed just that back to her.

The timer hit zero.

The outward sense of pressure vanished as a pair of displays appeared in front of John.

Barrier Converted to Pathway. Established Security Lock destroyed.

Quest Update: A New-Land.

A new Path is forged. Enter to begin the next step. Failure to do so in the next three minutes will result in the next stage of the quest automatically beginning.

“I’m going to guess that the proper term for a route between Earth and a Kingdom is ‘Path’,” John said after reading out the display.

“That is one commonly used term,” Martius replied. “I would explain the details but time is of the essence. Traveling through follows the same process as entering a barrier.”

“No point in letting the timer run out,” Aeolia said, before lightly poking John’s cheek. “If we’re ready, right?”

John nodded. They had started this whole chain of events, they had to see it through.

Quest Update: A New-Land

The Kingdom settles, the land stable and alive with flora. Now comes the fauna. Sure, you could kill everything, but what's a forest realm without birds and squirrels? The overly aggressive stuff might be a problem though.

Defeat the attacking creatures before they become ingrained with the fabric of the Kingdom. They will spawn in waves and will try to reach the World Tree. If they drink of its sap, they will fade and become a natural part of this world. Loot from defeated creatures will be produced upon completion of this quest.

Attacks will come in waves of approx. 10 minutes with 5 minutes between waves. All creatures must be defeated or drink from the sap to end a wave.

Waves completed: 0/5

John looked past the quest screen and the countdown that had entered its final minute to see the world before them. They had emerged around what he assumed was the World Tree, as he had a hard time imagining it as anything else, given its golden bark and crimson leaves.

Beyond its unique coloring, it was actually not that impressive looking. It only stood about three meters tall and John could easily encircle it with his arms and not touch the sap slick bark.

‘Suppose it is still growing,’ John thought as he turned to take in the surrounding area. ‘And with it being small, it’ll be easier to keep things from it.’

The clearing the tree sat in stretched out about one hundred meters before patches of trees began to spring up, first in small clumps before growing denser. A river flowed through the clearing near the eastern edge, if the rising sun here still followed Earth’s standard, and flowed into a thick patch of woodland, carving it in two. John glanced to where the river flowed from and could make out the rising hills to the north through the morning fog.

Shaking himself from his survey, John quickly relayed the quest’s details.

“Not a lot of space for anyone not fighting,” Lynn commented, her eyes drifting to Harker, Martius and Kiera.

“We can’t help that,” Harker said. “It seems that the creatures will be driven to the tree so perhaps we could funnel them through select channels?”

“I mean, I could try that,” Lynn murmured. “But it’d drain me pretty fast.”

“Then it’d be best if you maintained a more manageable defense for yourself, Martius and Kiera,” Harker suggested. “Something enough to keep any of the more aggressive creatures at bay but remains mobile to allow evasion if needed.”

“Given the time crunch, that’s our best option for the first round,” Martius said. “Once the first batch ends, we can adjust.”

“We’ve got a minute before things start, so plans?” John asked as he summoned his sword and put on his greaves and chestplate.

“Array around the tree, maybe about fifteen meters from it,” Harker said, his tone straddling the line between suggestion and ordering. He clapped his hands together and began to rub them, a crimson light beginning to glow from under his skin. “I’m about to use my magic on everyone who’s going to fight. If you aren’t, please stand with Lynn and Martius.”

Kiera was the only one to slide over to the non-combatant pair, a somewhat uncomfortable look darkening her features as she looked down at the ground. John wanted to reassure her that not fighting was ok, but her gaze remained firmly downward.

Then a jolt of energy flashed through his body, like he had just experienced every myth regarding the effect of energy drinks at once.

Sanguine Surge
Arcane vitality now flows through your veins. +25% to physical stats.
Duration: 10 Minutes.

“Well, that’s certainly a wake up call,” Aeolia remarked as she jumped off John’s shoulder and grew to her full size. She glanced at John’s popup and grinned. “And good for the whole round.”

“That’s what I was aiming for,” Harker said, sounding ever so slightly winded. “Good to know the trials I’ve been subject to haven’t impaired my abilities. Though with some more rest, I believe I could confer a greater boost.”

“Twenty-five percent to our physical stats should be more than enough,” John said. “Having it up for most of the wave is probably the more important part. Losing a buff half way through a fight sucks if you're not prepared.”

“I’ll make sure to reapply it right before the next wave starts to maximize things then,” Harker quipped. “But for now, I’ll let you get to work.”

Everyone nodded and they began to position themselves around the tree. John was sure everyone was ready; he and the girls discussed strategy the night before and during breakfast. And nothing the final details presented made altering the plan necessary.

The countdown hit zero and the first wave began.

Three minutes into the wave and it was far from the hectic chaos Vivian thought it would be. While she had expected there to be a mix of benign animals and dangerous ones, she hadn’t thought it would be as one-sided as it was.

‘I suppose it is just the first round,’ she mused as a number of small, mouse-like creatures ran under her legs towards the tree. The assorted rodents had been the majority of the ‘attacking’ animals and none of them seemed overly dangerous. John had tried to use Observe on them, but between their size and speed, he was only able to tag a few, all harmless.

A cawing noise caught Vivian’s attention and she looked up to see a number of birds overhead. Some seemed to be focused on the scurrying buffet below them while others made straight for the tree.

“Aeolia,” John called out, “take out the one with the red wings!”

“On it,” Aeolia replied as she took to the skies, glaive gleaming in the early morning light. The large bird, its wingspan around a meter wide, quickly took notice of its assailant and began to take evasive action. Aeolia, however, was far quicker, and with a swipe of her weapon, the apparently dangerous bird was felled by a blade of wind, its body fading into black mist.

John continued to sweep over the tide of animals, pointing out the ones that looked too dangerous. Most were birds and Aeolia took to her element to deal with them. Vivian did what she could to assist, distorting their vision or blinding them with concentrated light to give her winged girlfriend an easy opening.

The sharp sound of a whip cracking pulled Vivian’s attention to Beth, who was using Thornbite to bat away anything that got within her range. Clearly, she wasn’t taking any chances and was willing to keep everything away from the tree.

The rustle of grass near her feet made Vivian glance down and she blinked as a turtle, still damp as it likely came out of the river, ambled past her with a slow and steady gait.

‘Huh, guess there’s aquatic life in the river too,’ the redhead thought. ‘Probably will be limited to whatever can crawl out of it, though. Should warn everyone there could be things like crocodiles popping up at some point.’

Ignoring the turtle, Vivian went back to providing support. As she did, she redirected light to better survey the area, giving her confirmation to a theory she had building in her mind.

‘They are coming out of the trees. They’re probably spawning a bit in and then come rushing in. Five minutes isn’t enough time to set up traps all around but if I put them only in front of the large patch of trees, we might be able to stall out some bigger threats.’

The array formula began to crystalize in her mind as she went back to supporting the others.

Thornbite snaked out and threw back a tavaren that tried to pounce on Beth, a look of vengeful glee on her face as she brought the whip around to deal with some cat that tried to attack her legs.

‘So much more exciting than last round,’ she cheered in her head. There were less small and harmless things running towards the tree and a lot more aggressive ones. ‘And I get to dish out some payback on those tavaren pests. Double win!’

Beth ducked low and spun on one foot, a pulse of mana making the ground beneath her as slick as ice. Thornbite flew out in a wide arc, knocking into several medium size rodent-like creatures, all differing in appearances except for their pointy teeth. She canceled out her slicking effect and placed her free hand onto the ground to invert the effect, adhering anything not fading out of existence to the grass. Several of the rodents that survived her initial move let out aggravated hisses as they fought against her hold.

‘I can use your ideas too, Vivi,’ Beth thought as she looked over to where several large cats were frozen by a Glyph Sphere encoded with one of Vivian’s paralysis arrays. With one area kept locked down, everyone had an easier time taking out the less dangerous ones that streamed in from the other directions.

‘Easier, but not a walk in the park,’ Beth growled as a number of the smaller, weasel-like creatures managed to slink past her and reached the tree. A single lick of the silver sap and they vanished in a flash of light.

Thornbite lashed out, its wooden spikes tearing gouges out of her trapped targets. With them sitting ducks, Beth was able to easily kill them. She let her spell fade as they did, taking a moment to glance to where Lynn had maneuvered the safe space she was creating. From between the ribbons of likely caustic compounds, she saw her sister watching her with focused eyes.

‘Keep watching, Sis,’ Beth thought as she charged at a pack of lean cats that had just sprung from the distant treeline. ‘I’ll show you I can defend myself. I’ve got too much to fight for to not give it my all.’

Aeolia soared as she brought her glaive down on something resembling a hawk, the wind coated blade cleanly cutting off its head. Her wings flapped as she adjusted her flight and headed towards the next aerial opponent.

‘Is this random, or did Gaia up the number of flying enemies to keep me occupied?’ she wondered as she dipped under the talons of an opportunistic dive bomber. With a spin, she let loose a crescent of wind, clipping her attacker’s wing and knocking it to the ground.

The sudden attack let a number of birds gather in the sky above the tree, all circling as they waited for the chance to dive and get at the prized sap.

‘Already let enough birds in,’ she thought as wind gathered on her blade. ‘Don’t need the whole sky full of ya.’

With a grunt of exertion, Aeolia let the tempest she created fly, a swirling system of buffeting winds that slammed into the waiting predators. A lucky few managed to scatter away while the majority were flung in every direction, some hit hard enough to be outright defeated, their forms dissipating into black mist.

“The sky’s my area of expertise,” Aeolia taunted. “And I’ve got no intention to let you take control of it.”

The whooshing sound of something tumbling through the air caught her attention and Aeolia spun her glaive at a fish. The weapon cleanly cut through the unexpected aquatic lifeform, and Aeolia could only blink as it faded away. She saw several more fish somehow shoot out of the river, their arcing trajectory aimed for the tree.

‘I’m just going to ignore that,’ Aeolia wisely decided and flew off to keep the birds scattered. As she flew, she kept a sharp eye to the ground, ready to swoop in if needed.

‘Having Harker buff our physical abilities certainly is coming in clutch,’ Senka remarked as John’s sword cleaved into what Observe called a letid, some kind of cross between a dog and a boar. The tusked canine let out a grunting snort before it began to fade.

‘Yeah, but I think he’s close to his limit,’ John thought back as he dashed towards a serpent that was trying to slither past him and reach the tree. He really didn’t want that slipping into the Kingdom. It was hard to keep track, but he knew a number of the more dangerous things had managed to reach the tree. Some more aggressive varieties of cats, dogs and birds being the chief among them, but Vivian had been unable to stop a particularly scary looking lizard from beating them. He really didn’t want a mega snake to join those ranks.

Flames bloomed in his palm as he used Fiery Pursuit and he lobbed the fireball at the serpent, willing it to strike from above. The attack struck and the snake writhed in pain, flailing randomly.

‘Senka,’ John thought, his intent clearly transmitted.

‘Right,’ the spirit replied and a vine of shadow shot up from the ground, tethering the monster snake in place. ‘It was a good idea to switch to Snaring Shadows for this.’

John grinned as he brought the Greatwood Sword down with a meaty crunch. The snake kept moving so John repeated his attack, this time cutting through the serpent's scales. That proved enough to kill it and Senka let her spell end.

‘There certainly are a lot more dangerous creatures this round,’ the spirit noted as John made his way to a trio of wolves that had used his attack on the snake as an opening to bolt from where they had remained hidden.

‘Makes sense,’ John replied. ‘Most of the time, the hard stuff comes in at the end. The system’s designed to wear us down.’

‘If we didn’t have Harker buffing us and Lynn providing potions to restore our mana and health as needed, this would be quite arduous.’

‘We likely would have had to prioritize the most dangerous creatures,’ John admitted. ‘And then have to deal with a Kingdom with a lot more predators.’

As John barreled into the small pack of wolves, he caught something that nearly made him laugh at the absurdity of it. A cow, in the stereotypical black and white color scheme, ambled into the clearing. She remained completely oblivious to the various battles happening around her and steadily made her way to the tree.

‘Well, that’s up there with Aeolia’s flying fish,’ Senka laughed.

‘At least there’ll be milk and beef,’ John shot back as he engaged the wolves. ‘All we need is some crops and we can have burgers.’

The cow made it to the tree unscathed.

Perception was an odd thing and hers flitted around randomly, taking in the sights of this new land. Patches of forests, a small sea, a range of imposing mountains, grasses swaying in the wind. And at the center, a tree of gold, silver and red.

Was she the tree? No. No. Linked, woven together, from two connected but separate sources, but she was beyond it in potential. Sent to tend it and the world sprung forth. Gentle words whispered in a moment of blessing. A vision of a young man, **** into deadly combat, came to her mind. Why? Who was that?

The silence of the world began to grate against her. Why was it so quiet?

Patience, young one. You may be this Kingdom’s deity, but my power had a hand in its inception.

That voice! She Knew that voice! Why did she know it? Because it was the voice. The highest voice.

Things began to grow clearer. She Knew where she came from, how this place came to be. And about the six individuals that had triggered everything here.

Things shifted, and five of them were here, right below the tree! Along with four others.

And now things can begin.

Creatures began to appear. Not real ones, but fakes made of magic, copies of the real things. But she Knew what was happening. Knew they had a chance to become real, the source of new life in this Kingdom, her domain, by sampling the silver sap of the tree. And those that came were there in an attempt to keep the overly dangerous from becoming part of things.

They fought and more awareness came to her. Shouts of names issued from their lips to coordinate their defense. Name. What was her name? Names flew into her mind. Gaia, Yerda, John, Senka, Aeolia, Vivian, Beth, Tsxhel. But those names were already in play. No, she needed her own. But what?

That didn’t matter at the moment, so she watched. And felt how each animal that managed to taste the tree’s sap was recreated somewhere in the Kingdom. Whole stable populations, ready to live and die as fate would will it. Then something else pressed against her awareness. Something new. It was like eyes, ones that saw more than others. Backed by something gold.

A rose of gold.

Knowledge began to fall into place. Arms were approaching. Ones keen on uncovering truth. But also ones that may be too eager to enact their justice, driven to suppress any possible danger first before knowing.

She had to act. To protect what was her’s.

Thanks again for reading this little story. If you liked the chapter, please hit that thumbs up, and if you want to support my writing, check out my Patreon at https://www.patreon.com/ScrapCrow. Get access to my chapters before they’re published here and join my private Discord.