Sleeping Player (Project Chrysalis Book 3), John Gold [free e books to read online .TXT] 📗

internal voice was loving it. LJ had no idea why that was—what was there to be happy about? He was locked up, and Milisandra could come back at any moment.

LJ pulled up the map he hadn’t looked at once and checked to see how far he was from his tree and the tavern. It was about a kilometer as the crow flies, though LJ didn’t have enough unlocked to know that the market and residential area laid in between.

Without realizing it, the cat got into a pose for meditation and closed his eyes. He focused on his senses—touch, hearing, taste, smell. With each passing day, he was starting to sense larger and larger transparent creatures flying around, and they were already the size of ships. He didn’t know their names, though a lot of them were familiar.

LJ heard the jailer’s footsteps as he walked the floor below, the clacking of his boots. He heard all the other prisoners on that floor, not to mention the guards in the basement and even the child playing a hundred meters away on the other side of the wall. Beyond that, however, everything was just a dull murmur no matter how hard he concentrated. He was surprised to learn that he could hear his heartbeat and the blood flowing through his veins. Feeling the magic energy coursing through his body gave him a delicious shiver. LJ tensed up as he listened to the sensations. The magic energy beat to the rhythm of his heart, as did the rest of his body. LJ could sense the energy passing through different objects differently. The denser it was, the slower the magic passed through it, and the stronger the effect was.

He could sense all of that, but he couldn’t see it. As soon as LJ opened his eyes, the sensitivity dropped significantly, leaving him conscious of just the magic streams coming from his body. He definitely knew which way the tree was. It was a part of his body, with the same…aura.

LJ tensed in an effort to hear what was going on in the tavern. Uncertainty badgered him, so he did everything he could to overcome the distance.

There was no desire to run away. That would just create more problems he didn’t know how to solve. His inner voice whispered that everything was going to be okay.

Global notification: Beelzebub was summoned by Ekron

Global notification: Ekron received the Image of Beelzebub ability

Global notification: A demon invasion has begun.

Just a couple of hours had passed, but the sunlight coming in through the window turned red. Crimson clouds covered the sky. The flame burning on the torch in the corridor turned blue.

A tremor ran through the ground—something had apparently exploded at the edge of the city. LJ was worried, as it felt like the sensations had come from the direction of the tavern. His imagination threw a picture of the destroyed tavern in front of him. Would Milisandra come at all if there wasn’t a tavern to come to?

After just a second’s thought, the prison wall burst into tiny pieces. His subconscious had acted faster than his body—LJ didn’t even realize that he was the one who demolished the wall.

The guards rushed into the courtyard and prepared to defend the prison. That, however, only served to confirm LJ’s worry that the city was under attack. The cat moved soundlessly, creeping along the earth without wondering how he was able to do so. It was just a reflex. Arkham moved like that, quickly and quietly, before the enemy had any idea where to swing.

LJ leaped across the fortress wall, using а cart loaded with provisions as a trampoline. He didn’t even consider how he was able to jump five meters, either.

“Stop, cat! Where did you go?” The jailer hadn’t shackled LJ, thinking the cat a quiet one. It was only then that he realized how dangerous he was.

It took LJ less than a minute to traverse the kilometer from the jail to the tavern. House roofs, small alleys, and running people all melted into a single vision before him. Nobody could match his speed. When the flow of people got too thick, the cat leaped up onto the roofs, sometimes hopping between buildings.

LJ could already tell that his tree was burning. Flames licked at the crown. A feminine demon with six enormous, fly-like wings was shooting fire balls at the tree. It had no face, just two horns, the fire balls spitting out from between them.

Demon, Ra’Kkhar Larva, Level 1498, raid boss

What do people feel when they see their home being destroyed in front of them? Rage! LJ lost control, the assailant soared high into the sky, and the players there started to set up a defense by blocking all the streets on their side of the city lot. All the buildings between it and the new fortifications were in ruins, with a dark river of demons pouring into the city from the direction of the mountains. The first and most powerful blow had hit the freshly built wall. The people there had made a break for the portal as soon as the invasion started.

An enormous streak of lightning smacked into the demon that was setting fire to the tree. A second later, another forced Ra’Kkhar to recognize LJ as an enemy. The smaller demons flashed toward the cat after his second attack, though they were no low-level bots—they were the strongest of demons breaking through the gap. Hell had no other kind. And they were all heading in LJ’s direction with orders to kill.

The demons gave up on storming the streets, instead focusing their attention on the edge of the field where LJ had joined the battle. That bought the players time to build barricades and earthen shields.

After surrounding the house where LJ was working from the roof, they started clambering up the sides. LJ killed them, one