Path of Spirit (Disgardium Book #6): LitRPG Series, Dan Sugralinov [the reader ebook .TXT] 📗

Ten heartbeats later, I was already teleporting to Shak.

I didn’t know my way around quite so well in the Empire’s capital, but I couldn’t fail to spot Emperor Kragosh’s huge fortress. The first part of the spectacle was a mass killing. I landed in the center of the merchant square just like before. The dark ones reacted faster than the humans: they surrounded me and prepared to fight. Guards on wyverns began to stream toward me. Arrows and bolts flew in from all sides. Unlike the gawpers at Darant, the dark ones attacked right away.

I couldn’t revive Storm so soon, nor could I fly to the imperial palace without her — Mogwai didn’t have that ability, after all. So I just rushed into the crowd shouting “There is no death in service to the Destroying Plague!” and detonated two Plague Fury scrolls one after another. Diamond Skin activated, protecting me from the deathly energy.

Nobody survived this time either; I stood alone in the center of the explosion, watching as the orcs outside the blast radius scattered.

Civilians and defenseless players suffered, but the ruler of the dark ones had to be brought to his senses. They were overconfident. The Empire believed that the Destroying Plague was a Latterian problem, that it wouldn’t touch them, and that if a dead foot did step on Shad’Erung, then her merciless warrior-defenders would make fish food of it.

I wanted to convince them that standing aside wasn’t an option. If a real legate had come, then nothing of Shak would be a smoking heap, its people turned undead. After Mogwai’s blackmail, my show was a good demonstration of what threatened them. I saw horror in the faces of ogres, orcs, vampires, trolls. Now both the light and the dark ones would have to beg their gods to protect them from the Destroying Plague and support them in the war — which was just what I wanted.

My Diamond Skin came to an end, and the sky was already darkening with the wyverns of the imperial guards. Time to go. I waited for my bag to fill up with loot, then teleported to the Lakharian Desert — to the spot where Tiamat’s temple had recently stood.

Everything was going smoothly so far. The next step, which I hadn’t discussed with Hinterleaf, might be a little tougher.

Chapter 14. Free Space

AS SOON AS I APPEARED at the foot of the dune, hundreds of fine beams of light struck my chest. My armor withstood the damage for a while, but once its durability was gone, my flesh started burning under the callous light, hissing and smoking. Holding back a scream of pain and gritting my teeth, I took off and began to retreat, pulling the Aspect of Light behind me. Luckily, it was the only one there. And since it had no mind to speak of, it followed me, retreating from the site of the destroyed temple, where a new one was now being erected to Nergal.

A quick glance at the temple showed me that the main structure was finished and the builders were working on the facade and ornamentation. And working fast — it wasn’t even two days since Tiamat’s temple was destroyed.

A priest of Nergal watched the workers, protecting them from the heat with a dome. I hadn’t seen ones like it before; when the burning rays of the sun fell on it, they flowed down in melting streams, like golden raindrops down a transparent umbrella. The dome itself cast a thick shadow. Nothing remained of Tiamat’s green oasis.

But Crash was still in the area, and had reached level 580. The Diamond Worm sensed me and jumped his full length out of the sand, like a submarine emerging from underwater, flew over me and buried himself in the ground again. He was so huge that the passageway at the foot of the dune seemed more like a tunnel, and didn’t fill with sand right away. I couldn’t hold back a smile at my pet’s greeting. He crawled behind me, leaving a roiling trail, making the earth look alive.

Unlike the fight with the Aspects of Light in the Divine Revelation, this time I was alone, not in a raid group with a shared pool of health. But the Aspect was solo too. And I didn’t need to kill it. Hissing in pain, I slowly kited it further away from the temple, at the same time keeping an eye on my dropping health bar and giving my pets commands: to run away, then hook back around the Aspect of Light to attack the temple and anyone nearby. The builders were too busy and didn’t notice that the Aspect of Light was no longer protecting them. Everything was going to plan.

Iggy chirruped in response to the order in a way I took to mean ‘With pleasure!’ and headed up the assault squad. The whole zoo was there: the Montosaurus, Storm, Crusher, Sharkon, Crash and the overgrown fly. At 30% health, I flew up so high that the Aspect couldn’t reach me, then roared away at full speed to the temple.

Not five minutes passed before the pets had taken down the builders and the mage and rushed the temple. Diving, I helped them finish off the structure. Honestly, just Sharkon on his own could have done it — he was an expert in destroying superfluous buildings, — but I felt the urge to take vengeance for Tiamat’s temple. I wanted to vent my anger.

When the temple fell, the Aspect of Light approaching in the distance disincarnated, and the shadow of Nergal’s furious scream echoed down from the sky. After the victory in the battle at the temple, even in a non-existent future, I had no fear of him. On the contrary, I felt malicious joy and moved on to the next phase of my plan.

Sitting down on a broken column,