Ententes, p.11
Ententes, page 11
part #7 of Eternal Dominion Series
Before Lingxin could respond, Xeal pushed the door open and left the finished basement behind and entered what was clearly a natural cave system.
(Quest: Find the end of the cave maze and speak with the phoenix. Do you wish to accept this quest? Rewards unknown. Warning, failing the quest will have negative repercussions on your account. Yes or No)
In his hands were the instructions that Emperor Huáng Jin had given him to avoid getting lost, but he knew that it wouldn’t be that simple. He needed to traverse about five miles of caves, which would normally only take an hour or so, but he needed to take care of whatever infested the caves along the way. According to Lingxin, the imperial family used to clear out the caves every five years or so, but stopped after the phoenix had stopped providing feathers for their use after her last rebirth. From what Xeal knew, while she still retained all of her memories from her past lives, her personality shifted with each rebirth and that was what the imperial family blamed for the sudden change. When Xeal had asked Watcher about it, he had been adamant that while she might like cake more than pudding, or vice versa, the massive change the imperial family claimed was unlikely. It was far more likely that they did something that made her decide to never assist them again, which meant obtaining a feather for them might be a bad idea, depending on how things went. Watcher had dodged the question when Xeal had pressed for more information and the magic point restrictions on talking with Watcher made it hard to pressure him to divulge more.
It was about a mile in that Xeal approached the first issue he needed to navigate. It had been a straight shot to this point, but in the middle of what looked like a massive interchange of dozens of paths was an underground village of sorts. Flying around were hundreds of imps as they zoomed down a number of different tunnels. Most of these imps were below tier 3 foes, with a few reaching tier 4. The real issue was their numbers and the few larger demons Xeal could see moving about. Obviously, none of this had been recorded on the map and Xeal wondered how long this infestation had been growing. It was clear from the lack of tier 6 demons that it was still just a weak intrusion, that was allowing weak demons like imps in. Those imps would take decades to develop into larger demons, especially if they didn’t have a willing supply of humans to exploit. From the looks of things, the imps definitely had a source of humans, or other intelligent monsters, who they had dealings with. However, their dealings had to still be small or there would have been more evolution among their rank. Still, this was not a fight Xeal wished to undertake at this time, so he decided to keep to a wall and put on his cloak. Xeal was grateful for the opening being so large and full of activity as it allowed him to keep to the shadows and out of sight. Xeal made it a quarter of the way around the opening before he got to his path that was thankfully free of the imps that were moving back and forth.
As he continued forward, Xeal thought about how he could deal with the imps if he needed to, when he arrived at his next fork and found it unoccupied. This point was a four-way intersection and he took the path to the left as he continued on his way. As he delved deeper in the caves, the temperature started dropping steadily with each step. Along the way he made one turn after another, with caution, yet nothing was there as he quickly closed in on his destination. When Xeal came to the last intersection of the cave tunnels on his path, ice covered the entrance to it and more ice was creeping along the walls. As Xeal touched the ice blocking the way, he could feel himself instantly start taking minor damage, telling him that whatever he faced on the other side would require his full effort. Taking a deep breath, Xeal started to execute one piercing thrust after another as he worked to create a hole in the ice. After a half dozen attacks, Xeal had managed to create a small hole the size of his fist that was just right for a spell grenade to fit in. That was exactly what he did as he retreated around the corner, after pulling the pin. When it exploded, it created a hole in the ice wall just large enough for him to fit through.
As Xeal looked through the opening, he saw that the room was full of frozen corpses of both humans and monsters alike, and the other paths were sealed as well. Xeal didn’t like what he was seeing as it was clear that something had changed since the last reports the Huáng family had. Xeal knew his target was an ice phoenix, but she was sealed such that her power shouldn’t be able to leave her prison. Xeal went through every ice monster he knew from his last life as he tried to figure out what could cause this. While thinking, he readied more fire spell grenades to throw as he was not foolhardy enough to believe he had gone unnoticed. Using the Ice wall as a blast wall, Xeal tossed out a dozen grenades in every direction he could within the opening, shattering many of the frozen corpses by doing so. It was after the last explosion when Xeal paused that he heard and caught sight of it. It was a pale human man who wore tattered robes that denoted his status as a member of the Huáng family. His hair was long gone, his eyes were straight white, and in his chest where his heart should have been, a ball of ice resided. Xeal was unsure what he was looking at, but whatever it was it was certainly not alive, yet it wasn’t dead either.
“Ha, ha, ha has my family finally come to say hi after all of these years?... Don’t be afraid, I just want to give you a hug. Perhaps you could share some of your warmth with me.”
Xeal just shook his head as he made his plan. It was a ???-leveled monster called Huáng ancestor. Had he been a normal player, this would have been the point that he would have retreated to live another day, but normal was a long-forgotten state to Xeal at this point. So, after heaving in one more spell grenade and letting it go off, Xeal jumped in, feeling the cold start to set in as he charged the Huáng ancestor. His first move was a piercing thrust aimed directly at the ball of ice where the heart should have been. As his attack hit home, the Huáng ancestor let out a shriek and started to flail about, sending waves of cold energy everywhere. Xeal had no way to block these attacks and failed to dodge them as they were almost imperceptible and caught him by surprise. When the wave passed over him, he felt like he had fallen into snow and his dexterity took a one percent reduction. To make matters worse, it also sped up the accumulation of damage he was taking just being in the room.
“That was uncalled for, though I can tell you are not of my blood. Has my house fallen, or are you a thief who has wandered in here…? If you don’t wish to speak it is fine. I will still gladly accept your warmth as my own.”
With his arms open wide, the Huáng ancestor charged at Xeal and as Xeal dodged, he was hit with another wave of cold. To make matters worse, the Huáng ancestor had no health bar that had shown up after Xeal’s first attack. Xeal knew that the ball of ice was the key to winning, yet he had to get a clear shot to it if he wanted to have any effect. He had hoped to strike it from behind, but it was not exposed in the back and when Xeal had landed a hit where he thought it should be, the Huáng ancestor didn’t react. He had ended up landing a few more hits from the front, but it was clearly not enough. The stacking of dexterity debuffs was taking a major toll as well, and even the hole that he had entered through had already been sealed from the waves of cold. It was during these exchanges that Xeal made up his mind to do something crazy and let the Huáng ancestor catch him as he let out a point-blank dragon’s breath, right as his head was being pulled into the Huáng ancestor’s chest. The scream that followed as Xeal shot his hand into the Huáng ancestor’s chest and yanked out the ball of ice, was deafening. Xeal felt a pulse that shot out of the Huáng ancestor as he disintegrated into nothing. It took Xeal a long moment to recover from the backlash of letting out a dragon’s breath at point-blank range. Yet Xeal didn’t have the luxury of time to recover as the ball of ice was pulsing out one wave of cold after another, causing the walls of the opening to start to encroach with fresh ice. Xeal launched another dragon’s breath at it, causing it to fly across the opening, stopping right where his exit should have been. He quickly ran towards the ice ball with everything he still had in the tank as he let loose another dragon’s breath, and another, timing each with one of the pulses. His health dropped to one percent and his dexterity had finally stopped dropping when it had a single attribute point left. Xeal wanted to laugh as he inched forward until he put his hand on the ice ball and it increased its intensity of cold. Only he was unaffected thanks to his title “skin of your teeth” negating all status-type damage once he was at, or below, one percent health. The ball had no way to inflict any type of damage except for status damage, as Xeal started to bang it against the ice wall until it shattered, leaving behind a single ice-blue feather.
(Item: Ice phoenix feather. Taken from one of the birds of rebirth and reincarnation. This feather can be used to return the dead to life in healthy state if used immediately. If delayed, it can still bring them back, but as a shadow of themselves as the soul has long since been lost and the feather will not be consumed. NPCs need to use within 30 seconds of death. Players have up to 12 hours. Reduce all experience lost from death by 90%. Warning: will release a burst of the element of the phoenix when used.)
Xeal looked at the feather and thought of the few phoenix feathers he had seen in his last life. They had not been as rare as the fruit of life due to them having more sources. There were phoenixes for several elements and their feathers all had the same effect. This was the first time Xeal had actually seen what a botched use would cause and his question was, had the phoenix done it on purpose, or was there another reason for that abomination’s existence? Xeal was just grateful that it had been an ice phoenix feather as he doubted a fire or lightning feather would have only done status damage. Xeal stored the feather, which he intended to hand over to Emperor Huáng Jin to conclude his end of the deal, as the ice around him was already starting to melt. Xeal smiled as his health and dexterity were both slowly recovering as well, so he decided to take a break and touch base with Watcher while he was at it. Watcher had responded but had only given Xeal a few lines to say in case the phoenix decided it wanted to be uncooperative.
After over an hour, Xeal stood, with his status back to perfect health, and he broke through the thin layer of ice that was still present after his fight. At the rate it was melting, the room would be cleared of ice in another ten or so minutes. After walking the last 100 feet, Xeal came to an opening that, like the prior opening, was covered in ice, but in a very different way. All around was furniture made from ice, yet embellished with clearly human crafts, like blankets and cushions. Xeal could tell all of these items had seen better days as time had taken its toll on them and reduced what must have been fine works to ruins. It didn’t take long for Xeal to discover the ice phoenix, as she rose from the bed looking curious, in her human form as ice armor formed around her as she stood. What Xeal saw before him was a woman who looked timeless, with ice-blue hair and eyes, as she examined him closely.
“I must say, I did not expect that dragon to send his marked to see me after he abandoned me here all those millennia ago. Now tell me, what should I call you before I kill you?”
“Ah, Watcher failed to let me know that he had wronged you, fair phoenix. As for my name, it is Xeal Bluefire and I come to you on my own business, not Watcher’s.”
“Watcher? Ha, I suppose he has been reduced to that role now, though at least he can watch, while I and my sisters have been trapped for far longer than he and our children have.”
“Wait a moment, you were Watcher’s mate?”
“He really didn’t tell you anything. He must not want you to live, or perhaps he knew you wouldn’t dare come if you knew. Either way, he hasn’t changed. Yes, I and my phoenix sisters were his wives. Each of us bore him many children who were the elemental dragons.”
“Wait, Watcher is the primordial dragon from which all others came and he took all of the phoenixes for wives? Um, I take it you all have a bit of a bone to pick with him, and I know it’s not my place to even start to ask it, but is there any way you would be willing to ignore that and listen to my request?”
“He certainly didn’t pick a fool, or a coward to mark. Now how to proceed? I take it you are here for my blood to make a pseudo mark, if Watcher is the one who sent you. The question is, how many?”
“Um, for the moment, three, or four.”
“Only three or four? Well, you certainly do have his proclivities when it comes to wives, even if it is still such a small number.”
Xeal let out a nervous chuckle at her words as he thought about how it was really six and the few others who were working to join in as well.
“Oh, what is that laugh about? There are more than three or four? Go on, just how many wives have you attracted?”
“That’s a hard question to answer as I tend to do my best to limit their avenues of approach, but at least six.”
“Only six, though you are still young, so there will be more than enough time to add a few more. It should be doable. Alright, I have a deal I will make with you. If you agree, I promise to give you enough feathers and blood to ensure none of your wives will ever fear an early death as long as you keep up your end of the deal.”
“Why do I feel like this deal is going to be more trouble than it’s worth?”
The ice phoenix smiled predatorily at Xeal before she responded.
“Because it is. Now, it is really quite simple. I am stuck here and have been for longer than you can even imagine. It has been so long since I could take my true form without being completely cramped that I have forgotten what it feels like to feel the wind beneath my wings. I can’t die, which is more of a curse than you would think, and of my sisters, I am one of the lucky ones who was found by humans who made a deal which allowed me some contact, before they ruined it. I can only hope that my sisters were as lucky. Now I know freeing me is far beyond what you can do, but there is something that you can do for me and my sisters.”
“Hold it, I’m going to stop you right there. I am not going to track down each of your sisters as it would take years of dedicated work to simply uncover their locations. The only reason I was able to find you was because Watcher… crap.”
“That’s right, Watcher should know where each of us are, even if he didn’t rescue us like a good mate would. Once you find one of my sisters, you simply need to bring her a worthy female to mark, and like your Watcher, we could see the world beyond our cells.”
“Define worthy.”
“Hmm, it will differ for each of us as we each have our own preferences, but they should have potential. For myself, I would like someone who wields magic and wields authority over others, preferably one of your mates to ensure they have your ear when it comes to finding my sisters.”
Before Xeal could answer, Watcher’s voice resounded in his head.
“Careful, Xeal, the phoenix sisters are all wonderful until you bring them together, then they do nothing but fight.”
“Did Watcher just say something?”
Xeal wanted to sigh at just how quickly she picked up on that he had received advice.
“Yes, he was simply warning me that you and your sisters can be like oil and water at times.”
“Oh, well of course, we are all different aspects of the universe. Would you expect fire and ice to mix and no reaction to occur? Still, we love each other deeply and are not meant to be separated like this for so long.”
“Alright, so all I have to do is bring you one of my future wives to mark the same way Watcher marked me, and you will give me enough blood to mark all of my future wives with a pseudo mark.”
“That and give me your word to work to find my sisters and make sure we all can enjoy a comfortable life of luxury.”
“Is that where the Huáng family failed?”
“The Huáng family failed when they shifted their philosophy for hiding their true appearance from the masses. It used to be that they believed that they should be a faceless figure in the background, for the good of their people. Then they perverted it to, the masses were unworthy to look upon the imperial emperor, or his wives.”
“So, you killed their ancestor and turned him into a guard?”
“No, the fools demanded I return him to life and so I did as they asked. Speaking of which, how did you survive that? You should have died from the cold long before you could have destroyed him, yet you are not an ice sculpture.”
“You’re not wrong. All I will say is I am not someone to be underestimated.”
“Hmm, perhaps I should shift our deal? It might be nice to have another child.”
“Nope, I’m good. Not interested in that one bit. The other deal is fine. Now, is there any chance I can get two drops as a down payment?”
“Oh, you’re no fun. Are you saying that I am not beautiful enough to entice you in this form?”
“Nope, I just love my ladies and would rather not betray them.”
“So all I need to do is gain their approval?”
“Absolutely not. I am not adding you and your sisters to my life. Watcher can deal with you all once the gods are no more and the world returns to pandemonium in a few million years.”
“It’s fine, I was just having a bit of fun. It’s been so long since I had the opportunity to talk with someone. As for the down payment, two drops should be agreeable, but the next time you pay me a visit, I expect you to bring one of your wives with you.”
“Thank you, Phoenix of the Ice.”
“Just call me Bīng, as I am aware any of my ancient names said carelessly would draw the attention of the gods. As much as I would love to see them waste their power and weaken their hold on the lost court, freeing the other primordials, including my beloved children, I would rather not have it come at my expense.”
“Alright, Bīng it is. Now, I will return soon, but it may take me a moment as I will need to clean out some demons in the area first.”
Bīng simply smiled as she created two containers out of ice and pricked her finger with a needle made from ice, placing a single drop of blood in each container. When she held her hand up to what Xeal knew was the edge of her cage, from the lack of ice past that point, Xeal carefully reached out, feeling the instant cold that penetrated his hand as it crossed the barrier. Xeal knew from his research in his last life that he could easily step in and out of the barrier that held each of the phoenixes. The barriers were created to simply hold in the single element that they each were made of. This meant that the only way to break them was to hit them with more power of that single element than they could handle, as everything else would pass through as if it did not exist. It was truly ingenious, as it made it extremely hard for enough power to be directed at it to cause its destruction, as it was built to hold in the most powerful entity of that element by ignoring everything else, with the power of deities behind it. It also meant that stepping into the barrier would mean entering an environment that was filled with the element of the phoenix it contained. Considering that what Xeal’s hand was currently feeling made the cold from the ice ball earlier feel like a cool summer day, Xeal didn’t want to know what stepping inside the barrier would feel like. The moment he had the drops of blood out of the barrier, he had to change the containers they were in due to the ones of ice rapidly disintegrating into nothing. Luckily, he had been expecting this as only her blood, or a feather, could leave the barrier and retain its power. This was due to the fact that they were a physical manifestation of her, allowing them to recover the power that the barrier stripped from them. The very nature of any part of a phoenix was to restore life and enhance the power of their element and the universe sought to correct anything that altered this state. As Xeal stored the blood, he received two system notifications as he reached level 82.
