“Three hordes visible from up there, just eating in circles?” Kris repeated, a bit amused.

  “There were no Summons leading up there, so the Eaters didn’t sweep that way often, probably only random little ones stumbling around looking for something, according to the size of the few tracks,” I went on. “There were only a dozen dead in the Deathstone Pit. What survivors were there died in the Watchtower, which was probably eaten through by an Eater horde or something, judging by all the gnaw-marks on the stones.”

  “The inlands of the Isle of Ruin were famous for the density of spawns there, the equal of the most crowded parts of the Obsidian Plains,” Master Oswald commented. “I imagine there’s at least another two or three hordes working through the respawns just in the high central plains, a couple more rotating along the southern shores, at least four more circling the inner valleys of the mountains, and two or three just following a path around and around the mountains,” he went on, looking at the overland Holo I had displayed for us.

  “At least four circling the inner mountains?” Briggs repeated grimly.

  “The Viamontians had the equivalent of full armies scattered around the area, with opposing bands of Ruschk, forces of Eaters, clusters of Glacial Golums and deranged Fiuns, and even Uber Penguins scattered among them in numbers found nowhere else in the Hlaetians. I’m guessing the System, as you put it, even enslaved some souls from Ispar, as the numbers of Summons there is, in the end, greater in number than the forces Varicci brought here from Ispar,” he pronounced, with the cold smile of someone who had solved a vexing inconsistency.

  “Or they are basically soulless Summons, massively replicated,” I told him. He tilted his head, accepting that explanation without contesting it.

  “That is still incredibly unwelcome news, Master Oswald,” Kris said evenly, not blaming him. It was good intelligence, after all. “The distances involved are not that great. Are we not going into the inner mountains?”

  “To the top of the highest peak in the central chain. Paths were forged from either end of the line of mountains, although not paved in any real sense. The entire length was also scattered with more Summons there to prevent the unwanted from passing. We are going to have to fight our way through multiple small armies to gain entry to the prison of Sir Bellas… and I have no idea how the expanses of that Dungeon will be adapted to a Portal sitting on the top of a mountain peak, either.”

  Master Oswald’s finger retraced our proposed path, along the edge of the mountains, up through the only path into the inner ring, to the west and the foothills of the central mountains, then up to the east along the ridgeline towards the peak of the highest mountain.

  “The Eaters won’t be fooled by scentlessness or invisibility. I imagine you had to lure them away to pass through areas by stealth on your original foray into the place, and rely on flight to bypass them later on,” Briggs deduced. “Climb up the side of the mountain?” he asked, and received a quick nod in return.

  “Being able to, ah, Dimension Door directly to the peak solved many problems, once I had it in line of sight,” the master assassin explained. “I actually went down to free Sir Bellas after my own imprisonment, as he would have proven a mighty and useful ally. However, he had lost all heart for affairs of the outer world, and only wanted to die in battle. He had been trapped by the System, as you put it, and likely willingly.

  “Will you truly be able to release such a depressed man?” Master Oswald asked directly, a final question about the viability of this effort.

  “Yes.” It was Kris who bit off the word, and at the light in her eyes even the skeptical Master Assassin instantly backed down. “We are going to bring him out of there, and he is going to be there when I gut Varicci and that snake of a Loc, Feed them to the Land, and finally send him after his pig of a father and rutting shitpile of kinfolk!”

  The hiss in her voice was only accentuated by the building pressure in the air of a Source Oath rising against any pressure to contest it. Master Oswald might be able to withdraw from this effort, but there was no way he would be able to stop it.

  Master Oswald was a very experienced killer, but even he had never experienced such grandiose and awful killing intent as he felt right then. He could feel two towering knife’s-edges of violence building right now, and despite knowing it was not aimed at him, he could only by impressed by what he was seeing and feeling.

  “Then I pity the Eaters that get into our way. Our greatest enemies will be endurance and exhaustion, then. Once we are into the Dungeon in their many layers, it will not be so difficult. The quality of those fighting here are beyond anything we may face individually, but there will be a great number of them.” He spread his open hands, indicating his acquiescence.

  The killing presence just snapped off. If feeling it looming was impressive, the absolutely instantaneous cessation of it bespoke a level of will and control that a disciplined man like himself could not help but admire even more.

  Stolen novel; please report.

  “As long as the area is not Interdicted, we can withdraw with startling speed if required. The key requirement will be Sealing all the Summon Points we cross so that we don’t have to fight them twice, and so no Eaters will be drawn to our back trail. If we have to spin up an Earthfort again, we can vacate it, recover, and return if need be along the same trail we already cleared.”

  “The same hit-and-run tactics used when Portaling magic was more common, although returning to the same point tended to be equally difficult each time, unless there was an intervening Portal that could be tied to,” Master Oswald agreed. “Teleportation tends to be more limited than the Portals of before…” he asked.

  “Linejumps to prepared sites don’t suffer from the same restrictions,” I told him, knowing he was merely looking for a way to save everyone if we needed to leave, and wanted to know our plans to that purpose. “I erected a Jumpgate on Eastwatch, and can spin one up out of the stone in under thirty seconds. You will have to spend forty mana to go through it to the matching gate once I activate the Linejump, but we can evacuate the whole force very quickly.”

  “A Linejump requires line of sight…” he noted professionally.

  “Yes, and I will be regularly erecting Jumpgates as we proceed, to relay us through them along lines of sight.”

  His emerald eyes glittered in appreciation at the tactic. “That could be a viable method to cross longer distances than just channels at sea…”

  “We also intend to put Seal Foci down at the Paths of the Blind, and the Egg Orchards,” Briggs added on grimly.

  Master Oswald nodded. “And the Eater Dungeons? They were famous places to, ah, grind, back before the Fall.”

  “Our goal is the total extermination of the Eaters. We may keep them intact if we get a plan to reseed the islands going, in order to provide the necessary fuel to do so, but they will never be classified as a willing resource. Every description of them was basically abattoirs, anyway.”

  “Very appropriate. When your enemies just return if you kill them, slaughtering them to use as Eater food was a common Viamontian tactic,” Master Oswald acknowledged.

  “And people wonder why we hate the Corcosi,” Kris hissed again, steel across bone. “All right, let’s start clearing a road. We need a path wide enough to be out of the proc range of any Summons for anyone wishing to follow us. If an Eater Horde is going to catch us, Ryin will Fort us up and we will fight it as long as the horde comes at us.

  “For all their ferocity, they are largely unarmored and die fairly quickly because of it. We have proven we can wipe hordes, and we will do repeatedly if needed. Given the nature of the Island of Ruin, I doubt we have to concern ourselves with needing a deliberate reseeding plan slaughtering the Eaters for vivus. The amount of vivus we will return to the land will likely be enough to start the return of its ecology, due to its frozen nature,” Briggs stated firmly. “It is not a concern of ours at the moment.”

  Master Oswald could only agree with that.

  ---------

  We had a good forty combatants in our party as we began the overland trip towards the Augmentation Dungeon that was the prison of Sir Bellas.

  By this time, everyone was level 200 or higher, with four full paramounts tagging along with us, Knight-Captain Tyric also being a peer of Master Oswald, Adso, and the Mick. All of the Silyun Knights had long since passed 200, as were all of Kris’ Sword Students and the Roaches now.

  In Matrix Levels, the Roaches were all closing on Ten, having the longest training time and going the Widest and Deepest to support their wide array of skills. The Knights of the Lost Light were all at least Six Melees, taking their advances carefully to buttress their combat skills, as were the Lugian Vanguards Kopf and Gross.

  The Silyun Knights hadn’t had the time as yet, but they were very enthusiastic about the possibilities, conferring frequently with Kris’ Knights as to avenues of growth and how to advance together. As armor enthusiasts, they loved the idea of Crystal durability, while the teamwork of the Fire style was also of great interest to them. They had seen the power and deadliness of the wolfpack tactics of the teams, and were eager to learn them.

  Learning to Infuse magical effects directly into their new Weapons, and grow their Swords of Lost Light to levels of strength exceeding that of the Fall only appealed more to them.

  Their biggest problem was their age, as the least of them was over forty years old now. Simply to regain their youthful vitality, they had to grind for Seven, and that would slow the acquisition of other Levels down, and their side training.

  But the Dungeons of the world promised enough Karma to do the job, and if it meant more time required, reaching Seven would grant them that time.

  There was no enemy we could have run across on this island, other than the two Aurochs, that could have threatened us, especially in fighting squads committed to covering for one another. Standard lure tactics brought Summons into wolfpacks, all their attacks focused on a single target who turtled up to tank and avoid their attacks while their comrades cut the Summons down.

  ------

  We passed the remains of a grand statue of Empyrean design, a gigantic rendition of some Empyrean notable some of the undead could probably tell us more of, now shattered and spread across the frozen stones of the Isle of Ruin, lost to irrelevancy in the ages. Given the history of the place, it was probably the Emperor who had conquered the Ruschk and brought Grael back to his Empire, and thereby set in motion the events that had destroyed that Empire completely long in the past.

  Suitable that his statue would be trashed, if that was the case.

  The three mines and training grounds that were the Paths of the Blind were definitely not occupied by any living Tukora. The remains of a partial walled fort were visible around the three Dungeons clustered together, but they’d been completely knocked down by ravaging Eaters and scattered, not maintained, and there were no sign of lugian tracks coming out of the tunnels at all.

  There were signs of a lot of Eaters going down into those tunnels, and precious few coming out. It was reasonable to assume that any hordes that were dumb enough to invade the places were eventually slaughtered by the respawns of the Tukora Summons within, and simply died, victims of their own endless hunger driving them on.

  ============================

  For those who would like to support me and my daily updates, my Patreon Link is at:

  The shameless author reminds that more Patreon = more chapterz... and the First Decade Storyline and others exclusive to them!