A Lich King. A mortal that had delved deep into necromancy and then decided that there was nothing better to do with eternal life than to rule over others. It… made a little bit of sense. People often said that the weaknesses of a benevolent dictatorship was during the transference of power. So why not remove that out of the equation by making the ruler immortal?
It had been working out for The Realm so far…
Less likely for whatever kingdom the Lich King ruled over.
“Skeleton Lord!? Do you know who I am? I am the great Lich King Rahess! One part ruler of the Fated Lands! The final destination of your pitiful world of so-called Trialists!”
He definitely talked like a King, though Ryan had never heard of Rahess or the Fated Lands.
He glanced at Grettfield and she sent him a telepathic message.
‘I believe he’s talking about the Highest Trial, try keep it talking.’
Ryan just sighed and shook his head at the boxed up skeleton.
“Fated Lands? Can’t be that fated if one of its rulers were captured so easily.”
“What would you know? Even your little Tyrants had to bow to me. Before they stabbed me in the back and threw my world in chaos! If I still had my loyal retainers, all of you would be kneeling before me.”
It was hard to tell if this was an idle boast or the truth. There was no mention of a Rahess in anything he’d read on the Realmnet. Ryan guessed that the Lich King Rahess was some extreme stage ending of the Skeleton Lord getting his way.
Ryan scratched his head dumbly.
“Loyal retainers. I mean, they’re undead, right? You can just control them with your mind. It’s not really loyalty, it’s just, you know, simple magic.”
It was very likely that Grettfield got a bit of splash damage from Ryan’s deliberate ignorance of how magic functioned. Of course, Rahess got most of the mental damage.
The purple flames in his eyesockets started turning red in outrage.
“You think I only ruled the undead? Ha! My kingdom stretched far, far beyond this pitiful city. The undead and the living all kneeled before me.”
Well that was different. In general, the skeleton lord always pushed towards gathering a mass amount of undead to fight against both the demon and the human kingdom. Ryan had been starting to believe that Rahess was a result of the skeleton lord winning in the scenario with the Highest Trial. But then again… if Rahess was a trial boss before the tenth Trial, then Ryan should have heard of it by now.
The only reasonable conclusion was the the Highest Trial was completely different from the Trials they knew.
Actually, it was odd at all that Rahess was even on Earth considering the reason why the Witch Tyrant never left The Realm was because she hadn’t learned [Remembrance of the Fallen].
So then how was Rahess here?
“Wait, do you… have a real soul?”
Ryan looked to Grettfield for confirmation. She nodded. Did that mean the Witch Tyrant had actually stolen a soul from the Trial System?
The Lich King was infuriated that Ryan looked to the [Witch] for confirmation about a soul than him.
“What else did you think I was? An automaton that can simulate conversation and behaviors?”
“I don’t know? A Fallen?”
“A what? Speak sense ”
“A simulation of a person created by the memories of a grieving mother that’s being stabilized by a near omnipotent system that was created by an ancient civilization?”
“What?”
“What?”
Neither of them knew what was going on. Ryan realized that Rahess was not a Fallen nor a Trial boss but knew about the Trial System.
Meanwhile, Rahess had come to a different conclusion after listening to Ryan’s nonsense.
“You fool! I am no projected soul that your system simulates for rampant growth. I am the real deal. No strings. No limitations. I could have killed your little Tyrants when they trembled before me. I should have too.”
The Lich King grumbled that last sentence as he rattled away in his box.
The fact that the Lich King came from the Highest Trial, knew about the Trial System and was a real soul here really threw him in for a loop.
Now his curiosity was burning. The Highest Trial was considered one of the greatest secrets the Tyrants kept from the rest of the world. He had to pump the Lich for as much information as he could get.
Ryan took on the most arrogant expression an adventurer could make. What Sideark looked like whenever he turned on his stream to tens of thousands of viewers.
“The Fated Lands huh? I can’t wait to climb the Trials and see what that’s like. I bet there’s so much undiscovered loot and skills that we haven’t found yet.”
The Lich King fell for it, hook, line and sinker.
“You fool, you think you can plunder the Fated Lands? We are built on top the bones of civilizations older than a thousand generations of your miserable kin. We are fated…”
The Lich King trailed off as he noticed the rest of the room.
Everyone other than Grettfield and Ryan were leaning in, staring intently at the monologuing Lich King. Its flaming eyes flickered back to Ryan then chuckled.
“Very clever boy. A nice ruse, but I have seen it before. You think I’ll fall for your world’s inflammatory tricks twice?”
Ryan swiveled around to glare at the others in the room. Seffara looked away from him and started to whistle, Ulhen scratched his chin and pretended he was just an idiot [Barbarian], Neil ducked his head. Even Yomar’s eyes flicked away from Ryan’s in embarrassment.
Ryan threw up his arms in anger.
“Seriously guys?! I had him right where I wanted!”
“You had nothing!”
“Shut up, bone man!”
The now relegated bone man sputtered out in anger.
“What?! How dare you?!”
“You’re boxed up and you almost got tricked by someone that hasn’t even been an adventurer for a year. What did you expect? A banquet full of bony ass-kissers proclaiming your kingliness?”
Ryan turned around to, once again, berate the others in the room.
“Though seriously, aren’t you guys supposed to be dragonslayers? What the hell are you guys doing?”
Grettfield put her face in her palm.
“My mistake. I should have told them to not be so obvious. It seems the backlash from using my Epic has impaired my cognition more than I first thought.”
Even Grettfield was embarrassed enough to make an excuse for herself.
Ryan just shook his head in exasperation and let out an insufferable sigh as he leaned towards the Lich King.
“Adventurers am I right?”
“Don’t talk to me, fool.”
“It’s okay, I understand if you feel scared of conversing with your mental superior.”
Ulhen elbowed Grettfield while pointing at Ryan with his other hand.
“I like this one. We should keep him.”
Meanwhile Neil was just eyeing Seffara dubiously.
“Are you sure you’re the one that taught him?”
“You’re right, I’m not sure if I want to take credit for this one.”
…
In the end, No matter how much Ryan pestered Rahess, he could not get the Lich King to divulge any more information. Which was a real shame, because literally everyone here was so curious about this so-called Fated Lands that only the Tyrants and Mezhar’s team had ever been into.
All Ryan had concluded was that the Highest Trial was a Trial world with no limitations.
Now that sounded insane.
“Ah well, if annoying the old box of bones won’t work then I guess I’ll have to find more fun ways to make you talk.”
The Lich King laughed at him. A genuine laugh that wasn’t a rattle of bones like the Skeleton Lord’s.
“You don’t have the imagination required to get me to speak, boy. No, all of you are too young and too green to even be attempting to torture someone like I.”
Grettfield’s glare could burn down libraries.
“I will take on that challenge, Lich. I will make sure you pay your dues for every single life you have taken.”
“I welcome the challenge, little [Witch], perhaps you will learn that a thing or two from—”
“Whoa—whoa, hold on there.”
Ryan interjected between the two ascendants doing a ‘come and give it your best shot’ scenario.
“Mind if I have a go at him first? I’ve got a few ideas, now that I’ve talked to him.”
Both Grettfield and Rahess seemed annoyed at the interruption. As if they were trying to hype each other up. One trying to challenge if she could torture the other, while the other wanted to prove that she could torture something out of Rahess?
It was bordering on weird territory, and Ryan believed he had a better plan.
Funnily enough, it was the Lich King that seemed to not want Ryan’s planned go at torture.
“Ha! You? I can tell that you don’t have a single true ruthless bone in your body. Go back to playing the fool, you little jester.”
Ryan did not need permission from the bone man. He only needed permission from the scary ass witch that could box him up in return.
Grettfield sighed.
“Fine. Give it a go. I guess I do not lose anything other than a bit of time should you fail.”
Ryan rubbed his hands and gave both the Lich King and Grettfield a smile that made them both doubt whether this was a good idea.
——
They adjourned after a few minutes of Ryan setting up the dumbest torture method that anyone might have ever seen.
All he did was place a phone screen playing tutorial videos in front of the Lich King. It wasn’t even playing Baby Don. A nursery rhyme for children that drove everyone else insane.
It was just tutorial videos on how to use a phone and showing the capabilities of the device.
Step one: Get the Lich King acquainted to the wonders of technology.
While they put the Lich King with the phone under a magical quilt they went back to the table.
For now, it was time to go back to figuring out what they needed to do with Pinkie.
Everything before then had been a good distraction as it gave Ryan time to think over what needed to be done. Though of course the tense atmosphere was all gone. Everyone other than Yomar started to truly relax as they accepted Ryan into their midst.
He stood by the table across from Grettfield.
Ryan cleared his throat.
“So the way I see it, we have an unkillable monster spawner where the core is not an immediate threat. Meanwhile, the monsters that do spawn aren’t a huge problem for anyone at the ninth realm or above.”
Grettfield gave him a flat look. Ryan threw his hands up.
“I know, I know. It’s irresponsible. But look, here’s what I’m thinking. If the Witch Tyrant is going to bring chaos, then Earth needs to be prepared. What better example than having an unkillable threat that’s already killed tens of thousands of people right outside the doorstep of one of the greatest cities on Earth? If this can happen to San Kingsgrove, it can happen to any adventurer city. We can use it to both train adventurers, as well as push the public towards some of the evacuation practices shown in The Realm. Two birds, one Pinkie.”
“That is awfully cruel to Pinkie. You do understand that she is suffering, correct?”
“Yeah, so? She eats good adventurers and is willing to wipe out an entire damned city for more power. She can suffer in that damned cocoon forever for all I care.”
There was more venom in Ryan’s words, than he would have liked to show in front of all the dragonslayers. Especially Seffara. But it was the damned truth he’d been keeping to himself for all this time. Pinkie deserved everything that had happened to her. Ryan would have been completely happy with her being replaced with the passive tyrant or being killed completely.
Grettfield just nodded.
“I see.”
She did not let her thoughts be known beyond that. Ryan knew that Grettfield said she liked Pinkie but he was getting the feeling that she was judging him differently now.
Ryan looked around the room. Ulhen seemed to be considering the idea. Seffara was on the fence. Neil, Ryan couldn’t really tell because he didn’t know that well, and Yomar… definitely did not like Ryan’s idea.
“A major threat to millions of lives and you want to use it like a…”
“A dungeon, or a trial. Just like in The Realm.”
It was impossible to tell if Yomar simply disapproved the idea because it was him or because it was genuinely a bad idea. The dragonslayer certainly wasn’t giving him a better solution anyway.
In the awkward stare-off, Neil nudged him.
“Hey mate, what are you planning on doing to that Lich King there?”
Grettfield glared at the [Warrior] before Ryan could respond.
“Neil, please, focus or sit out of this conversation.”
Neil put his hands up.
“Sorry, sorry. Curiosity just got the better of me.”
Ryan stared at the figurine of Pinkie’s horrific form.
“Pinkie is a problem, yes, but as long as she has the passive tyrant’s flesh, she won’t go around randomly slaughtering innocents.”
Yomar had his arms crossed, like a bastion city closing its gates from him.
“And you know this, how?”
“A skill.”
Grettfield tilted her head.
“Was this the skill you used when you were getting carried away by Ineza? Peculiar one that, especially for a [Rogue], seemed more like a [Witch’s] skill.”
Yomar’s doubt turned into confusion as Grettfield confirmed that Ryan had some sort of skill to be capable of understanding the passive tyrant. Of course Grettfield noticed a fully unified [A Glimpse of Perspective].
“Yes, it’s just one of the skills I picked up.”
Yomar was annoyed by the fact that Ryan came to a conclusion that perhaps his team’s [Witch] did not. The [Guardian] turned to Grettfield angrily.
“You’re trying to tell us that we should be going off an adventurer’s… a kid’s word that hasn’t even been an adventurer for a year?”
Ryan scratched his chin. “Honestly? Might not have even been six months at this point. To include the time dilation, it might be a little over then. Either way, experience or age, what does it matter when you give away everything to that Lich King with that steely, cold, hard gaze of yours?”
Seffara bopped him on the head. It actually hurt less than normal because she was so scared of using too much of her ascended strength.
“Don’t antagonize him. Not everyone has your sense of humor, Ryan.”
Grettfield considered it for a moment.
“Your idea is not bad. I will be pushing for evacuation reforms around my city from now on, but I haven’t really thought about the other cities at all. I can also push the idea of using the shades as adventurers training. But you do forget about one thing.”
“What’s that?”
“Bad actors.”
“Oh. Ah shit.”
“Mark my words, there will be adventures that come in and try to attack Pinkie. If nothing else but for the achievements. That isn’t to mention the American government might step in, believing that they have to remove it or they will look weak to the general public. Or perhaps another nation might come in and decide that poking the hornet’s nest might be a good idea to test its capabilities and endanger America as a whole.”
Yomar had that self-satisfied, smug look on his face. One where it said that ‘I knew this would happen. I knew you’d make a mistake and get it wrong.’
Unfortunately, Grettfield was right. Ryan’s plan would only work in a world where everyone was playing fair and logically and not trying to ruin the day with selfish or malicious behavior.
It would only take one greedy dragonslayer and potentially millions could die.
Ryan sighed and rubbed his head. ”I do—I might have a plan that could fix Pinkie.”
Grettfield had a self-satisfied smile.
“I thought as much. You would not have rushed here like this otherwise. Nor would you have changed tact so completely when you confirmed the situation was stable.”
“Did I mention that I really hate [Witches]?”
Yomar was in complete disbelief.
“Grettfield, I thought you said it’s impossible?”
“I said I have no solutions available to me. Shall we listen to what adventurer Robinson has planned?”
Ryan just crossed his arms.
/////
A good chunk (60%) of the chapter was dictated! It's a bit of an experiment! I've been practicing it for awhile hoping to speed up my writing process but this is the first time I've done it in the actual writing phase.Let me know if it's worse/better/same/weird!
Also, wasn’t really supposed to talk about the Highest Trial or the Fated Lands so soon. Another example of characters just being that way and derailing the outline.