Chapter 593: Eryk’s Displacement Services

sending this chapter from 15,000 feet with plane wifi. LITRPG Con was amazing, and heading home. Still a Seraphim chapter behind and one Town Builder edit. I get home at 4am and after a long nap, will get back to it. Also 3 chapters left in book 10,

Chapter 593: Eryk’s Displacement Services

I turned away from the cleared woodlands. To me it looked more like a scar on nature than progress. The room looked unused and would be a good place to set up my anchor for the teleport. I would need to get the duchess’s permission, and she would have to destroy the anchor after we used it. Or I could destroy the anchor in Nausis and leave this one intact. The question was which destination would be more beneficial to me in the future. Since the one in Nausis was in a secure location, I decided to have this one destroyed after I utilized it.

I found a passing servant who told me where to find the duchess. “The lady is in her library,” she said respectfully and rushed on her way.

Opening the door caused the only woman in the room to look up. I expected to find Castile with Duchess Veronica in the library, but only the duchess sat at a large central table, an array of papers before her. I inhaled deeply, savoring the smell of knowledge before approaching. She looked at me expectantly as I approached. “The communication of where the gate is has been sent,” she said simply, not hiding her work from my eyes.

I studied the documents, which appeared to be communications and maps with markers. The maps depicted the Brotherhood of Mitzra’s lands, but the dates on them were two centuries old. “Yes, Death Sentinel?” she asked when I didn’t speak, because I was engrossed in the maps. She had marked the city of Koboru and likely landing spots for the invasion fleet.

I focused on the duchess, her eyes showing fatigue from the strain of reading. “I am going to be setting up a teleportation array to get us to Nausis to join the fleet,” I said. “I would like your permission to use the northwest tower.”

“Castile said as much. I will prohibit my servants from entering so you can complete your work undisturbed,” she said.

I made to leave, but paused. “I see you have not married,” I said. It was a poorly asked question, with the intention of supporting Linus’s candidacy.

She turned and studied me intensely, arching her eyebrow. “Are you offering? You have come a long way from the young legionnaire who once asked to use my library,” she smiled with a hint of flirting.

“Linus is a good man,” I said purposely. I had wanted to develop the conversation to point out all the good traits my old company medic had. I knew he already shared her bed.

She quickly deciphered my meaning, smiling. “I know he is. Maybe in time that could happen…” she said without conviction. I think the duchess was once enamored with Maveith, but nothing ever came of it. I thought she was too prudent and would probably seek a husband who added value to her ambitions and who couldn’t control her.

I gestured at the maps, abandoning the topic of her marriage. “What role are you to play in all this?”

The duchess smiled mischievously. “The Empress has offered all barons and dukes the opportunity to seize what they can on the new continent if they meet her quota for soldiers in the first wave. I have sent that and more. As you know, I have always been an ambitious woman, and I cannot pass on the offer.” She gestured for me to move forward to the table. “The Belt of Storms has intensified, and the Mage Lords do not think it can be quelled even if the anchors are found and destroyed. With so many weather mages needed to get the fleet through the Belt of Storms, this is likely the only opportunity we will have to conquer the continent,” she said excitedly.

“I figure the alliance army will decide to land somewhere along this coast and roll across the continent. I think the Empress will choose to assemble a portal here in Domodi.” She indicated a city that was near a dungeon. Domodi was a large coastal city, and it was about 350 miles from Koboru. It was not the shortest beachhead to reach Koboru, but it did have one of the Brotherhood’s largest trade roads on the map. The duchess was a smart woman, as that would be the easiest path to move a large army to Koboru and was likely where the generals would decide to land. Her well-thought-out deductions gave me new appreciation for the duchess.

She continued. “Duke Atreides has Empress Renna’s highest favor at the moment, so he will likely be given the governance of Domodi and control over the portal. I am thinking Ilumua would be a good city to govern as I have earned the Empress’s favor as well.”

“You would leave Sobral?” I asked, surprised.

“Sobral is a poor province, and I would remain its Duchess even if I took control of the city. There will be opportunities on the southern continent to send riches back here and help it prosper. Maybe one day I will have a portal in both Sobral and Ilumua and I can sleep in Sobral and spend my days in Ilumua,” she smiled slyly at me. I thought on the parallels of the Roman Empire funneling riches to Rome and the Titans doing the same by funneling slaves and riches from conquered worlds. History was cyclical, and the more power someone had, the more they wanted. I was disappointed that Renna appeared to be no different.

“When will you travel there?” I asked with mild curiosity

“Once the portal is established on the other continent. If I wait, I will miss out on the best opportunity,” she said confidently. I figured it would maybe be six months, and that was what Linus’s trainees were preparing for.

I wondered how the alliance would feel about the Telhians’ aspirations to subjugate the cities they cleared of the Nashasari. I think this would strain the alliance and risk the true objective of stopping the demon World Gate from being completed. Was I the right person to confront Empress Renna on this?

“Are you done?” the duchess asked as I had drifted off in my thoughts.

“I don’t think I ever thanked you for your support when I dueled your brother,” I said. The Orc's Torment blade appeared, and I set it on the table, indicating my intention to return it, but paused. The seer said the blade might kill me one day, so I offered something else. “This blade has been invaluable in my travels and since you helped me secure it, I offer you this.” The blade vanished and nine bottles of Caelorian wine appeared. It was a small debt, but I wanted it repaid so it couldn’t be called upon in the future.

Her eyes drifted to the bottles and then back to me with a nod. She clearly knew what they were, where they came from, and their value. “Let me explain what is happening. There are daily war councils in Nausis, and some of the information filters back to me.” She spread out her maps. “War is raging in the East against the Theocracy invasion. The Theocracy has stalled, but has its foothold. While they claim they only want Gorgiphia, this is causing all the bordering nations to guard their borders. It has hurt support for the alliance, but it also means the Empire doesn’t have to defend its borders as heavily.”

“The Theocracy is controlled by the Nashasari. They should be as much of an enemy as the Brotherhood,” I reminded her.

She nodded seriously. “You might not have heard. While questioning captured infiltrators, the Mage Lords discovered that the Nashasari have a program focused on breeding mages. They have hatched entire clutches with strong charm affinities and created mage training centers to cultivate their magic. One hundred years ago, very few Nashasari were born with sufficient magical attributes and strong enough affinities to become mages. They also strictly educated their mages using a system of one apprentice to one master. Now we know there are thousands of Nashasari mind mages running around. We have been discovering them everywhere, and they have human agents everywhere.”

This only confirmed what I had suspected. It suddenly made sense why the alliance wanted to eradicate the Nashasari. “They fear an army of mages. That is why they are pushing for genocide…” I muttered.

The duchess nodded. “Yes. The shadow demon has changed the culture. Instead of strong-minded bickering individuals, it is uniting the Nashasari into a singular people—a hive mind directed by a queen. They are a threat to everyone who is not a Nashasari,” she said gravely. “If they had waited forty more years, there would have been no stopping them, but maybe that is why the shadow demon chose to move now and attacked Sanctuary. It is worried at what it is creating—maybe something that could oppose the demons when the World Gate is open.” She watched for my reaction as the pieces clicked into place for me.

Perhaps our adventurers in Godok had accelerated their plans a little when we killed one of their leaders. Now the shadow demon was seeing a tipping point in his control. If I hadn’t listened to the seer and taken Evie to Sanctuary, Sanctuary might have been wiped out, and we would have never learned of the plot. I guess I could forgive the seer.

“Thank you for your time, duchess.” I bowed and went to the northwest tower to prepare.

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It took two days to prepare the spell anchor and recruit mages willing to lend their aether to a ritual. The duchess had two middling mages in her employ, and she had to pay another seven mages hundreds of gold to participate. There were dangers if the mage leading the ritual drew too much from the participants, and the gold was commensurate with the risk.

Leading the ritual with hesitant participants was totally different than with the Death Sentinels. When I pulled aether from the Death Sentinels, it felt like flowing water. With the mages present it felt like thick syrup and even taffy for some. Once they had given themselves to the ritual, there was nothing they could do but be stubborn. If I really wanted to, I could rip every wisp of aether from their aether core, and there was nothing they could do about it.

I had generously calculated the rough amount of aether I needed. Consuming three major displacement essences had increased my affinity to 93, massively enhancing my aether efficiency based on distance. I still had to place everyone except the girls in my dimensional space because we lacked strong mages to donate aether. They were giddy about it but I still remembered the two had learned the dimensional pocket spell form just to thwart me from placing them there. At least both of them weighed around 120 pounds, so together it was the equivalent of just taking one person with me.

The night before we departed was an interesting evening as Blaze and Benito wanted to get drunk before I added them to my space. I didn’t understand why since I explained that it would feel like no time had passed. Lesna made endless crude jokes about looking forward to it. Kyrenic just had an affable smile on the entire time. Konstantin looked dubious before I stored him, and I think Castile was sweating from nervousness. I didn’t understand their reluctance as it was the safest way to travel.

I appeared in the cave with Lexi and Evie holding each of my hands. “Are we there?” Lexi asked as her magus staff brightened the dark cave.

I removed the wall to let the morning light in. Fresh air flooded the cave, cycling the stale damp air. Konstantin, Castile, Benito, Blaze, Lesna, Kyrenic, and Lepidus appeared. Castile took a sharp intake of breath in relief before releasing slowly. She had been very apprehensive about being moved into my dimensional space, and then me teleporting almost fifteen hundred miles. It was an impressive distance even for an experienced displacement mage.

“Thank you for choosing Eryk’s Displacement Services. I hope you had a pleasant journey and I am not responsible for missing memories.” I gestured to the cave entrance. “Everyone, please exit the vehicle to the left and make sure you still have all your limbs. Please note there are no refunds,” I announced. Evie and Lexi giggled, but my jocular statement just confused the others.

Benito was the most confused, still drunk. “What vehicle? We could have lost a limb?” He was checking his body parts intensely.

Blaze placed his hand on Benito’s shoulder, still in control of his faculties even with a strong buzz. “He was joking. He just doesn’t have a very good sense of humor,” Blaze slurred.

“I thought it was funny,” Lexi immediately defended me.

“Which way to the city?” Konstantin said impatiently.

“The goliath camp is that way, and the city is northwest of it,” I pointed. The old man was off, either scouting for us or just impatient.

“Lepidus, I will take the mask back now,” I said to the simulacrum of Venere.

“Is that necessary? Do you have a fetish to become more effeminate?” he asked with a curled lip and touching her chest suggestively. I found it disturbing how Lepidus was unemotive in his ghoul-like body, but in this skin, he showed emotion. Maybe the mask was affecting him in other ways.

“Keep it,” I waved him off. As I turned around, I realized the ancient legionnaire had just manipulated me by targeting my masculinity. I wouldn’t admit to being so easily manipulated so I wouldn’t change my mind. It was just a mask.

We started walking toward the camps. Even this far away, the dead trees had been cut down for firewood. The smell of the camps also reached this far away, as the wind was blowing the foul air from latrine and cooking pits in our direction. When we cleared the wood line, the number of camps had quadrupled since the last time but the goliaths were still on their hill. The goliaths were currently on a muddy field practicing formation work. I estimated four thousand of Maveith’s people were assembled in an impressive formation, with more goliaths tending their camp in the distance.

Out in front were nine goliaths in the black dungeon Sentinel armor. Behind them were goliaths with tower shields and monstrous spears. Further back were blocks of nine archers each. A unit commander directed each block’s attacks. In the center of the field was a large array of straw figures in a loose formation. As the goliath army approached the target, hundreds of soldiers in various livery looked on.

The air echoed with “unleash” cries, and then the large bows released their shafts. The piles of hay were soon pierced by hundreds of thick arrow shafts, sending tufts of straw flying out the back. A second release followed by a call to charge from the black Sentinels. Their heavy footfalls churned the mud, tossing it up. A few of the shieldmen lost their footing, but the ranks closed with precision. The small units of archers had started to reposition to send more volleys without endangering their melee fighters.

When the goat-helmed Sentinels reached the strawmen, I noted the one in the center had two familiar hammers. He was a whirlwind of destruction, each hammer blow obliterating a scarecrow in a puff of straw. The black sentinels passed through the formation, and the shieldmen with spears finished off any one standing. The sentinels stopped, and the spearmen flowed forward, planting their tower shields. Essentially, the goliaths had run over an enemy formation and secured an area. If they had healers or potions in their ranks, they would have tended the injured at this point before attacking the next target.

“Impressive,” Blaze said, his intoxication lessening. Blaze nudged me and directed my attention to the distant gray skies. A formation of griffins was doing aerial maneuvers with drake riders. “Think one of them is Raelia?” he teased. I looked but it was too hard to discern…

“She is on the left. Baldo is trying to catch a drake. Looks like they are playing a game,” Evie said tersely. She had opened a flawless window and was scouting the formation. Evie didn’t like Raelia, and I was going to have to deal with that very soon. Even though Raelia was nearly fifty, she was mildly immature.

The goliaths were starting to reset the battlefield, with runners bringing in more straw. A human battalion from the Heptarchy was forming on the far hill. While I desperately wanted to see Raelia, I thought seeing my goliath friend would be a more joyful reunion. “I am heading down to see Maveith,” I told the others as I tied off my anchor points.

“Take me,” Evie interrupted. Maybe she didn’t see they were standing in six inches of mud, but I just nodded and took her hand and teleported both of us to see my friend.

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