For some time, Chalm had fallen into a strange hell. The people were infected with a rage, which managed to keep them from falling under the complete control of the dungeon. This was done by Elaya in a play to buy time and save the place. Suffice it to say, that the city becoming a zombie-infested prison wasn’t great for growth.
Once I returned and freed the people from their bondage though, they had been changed. Every person there had a bit of karmic infection in their hearts. It was a darkness that started to change them in ways not even Elaya could predict. Those who hadn’t been sucked into Chalm’s trap, like the ones in old Chalm forced to live under Astria’s oppression, found the people of Chalm to be strangely more intense.
They seemed stronger. They worked harder. Those that had been riddled with past traumas seemed to no longer be affected by them. They didn’t become afraid easily, and they were leveling at an alarming rate, despite their lifestyles not changing. They might not have understood this, but their strange connection to the dungeon allowed them to level as the dungeon grew. Productivity boomed, and the Osterians who had arrived and recently set up a camp outside of the city even had to admire them.
A man from Chalm was equal to any Osterian. That saying would start to spread. Considering how Osterians saw humans, this was an extreme compliment.
At that moment, the city was still in a state of repair. There was much to do, and the people were hard at work doing it. Those in Chalm were restoring the city, while the Osterians were reclaiming parts of the wilderness, using the wood in the construction of new buildings which would one day become the Osterian district of Chalm.
At some point, everyone in the city who was working stopped and looked in a particular direction. Those that didn’t have a karmic connection to the dungeon looked around in confusion at their peers. As they tried to figure out where they were looking, they came to realize the direction was the lord’s manor. The ground started to shake, and a light seemed to appear.
Soon, everyone was looking in that direction, because a pillar of light exploded out. It was evening time and the sun was setting, but it suddenly felt like noonday as this light silently erupted from the city. It emanated from a place just behind the lord’s manor. There were very few who knew what was there, but those who did know that this was the former fairy spring, which had been seemingly connected directly into a god dungeon, forming a strange ecosystem of mana generation that previously had been unheard of.
The pillar of light rose into the sky, and then slowly bent, eventually turning in a certain direction. That direction was Dioshin. Those in Dioshin who had noticed the light coming began to panic. They thought Aberis had lunched some kind of magical weapon of mass destruction at them. The light came closer and closer and then shot over their heads. Only when it passed did they start to calm down. That was when the lights began to fall.
Little balls of light began to rain down over Dioshin. Animalkin dived or hide, afraid that this was the attack they had been expecting. Not everyone was standing where a light fell, but those that did would stare in wide-eyed wonder. As the ball struck the earth, it started to form into a body. The process only took about thirty seconds, but when it finished, a person was standing there. It was an animalkin person.
Some even recognized those that fell as people who had died to Lady Death. That beam of light coming from Aberis was bringing back everyone! The fear slowly was replaced with joy. Some who had lost family or friends openly wept as they found the orbs descending on them.
A man wearing a cape with a crown on his head gave a throaty growling noise as he looked up at the beam. Some of the lights were falling in this valley, and soldiers who had died not too long ago were instantly brought back to life. He took his sword and then put it back in the sheath. A rock-like statue in the shape of Lady Death slowly broke away into ash, disappearing as if it was never there.
This breaking apart had begun before the man had made it here. He had been too late by only minutes. At least, that’s how he saw it. As Lady Death disappeared, there was another body. It was a large man, nearly as big as the king. He had clothing on, but it had been torn asunder, and he was practically naked and lying on the ground. His body began to degrade as well and slowly vaporized.
“My king! Everyone who perished is being brought back!” A messenger approached, stating the obvious.
The king barely acknowledged him, leaning down as he noticed a couple of potion bottles on the ground. He lifted them and sniffed.
“Waters of life?” His eyes brightened, and then he looked up at the beam.
“Sir?”
“It looks like I have a destiny with this new lord. Karr forfeited his life to stop me, but his successor seems to have followed in his footsteps.”
“My lord, what should we do?” The man still looked confused.
King Roth threw the empty bottles to the ground and then stepped on them. “Let the people know, particularly the rabbitkin, that I personally took care of Lady Death. This was a plot of Aberis. That is why the souls freed are coming from their direction. They had been harvesting the souls of Dioshin for some dastardly and evil purpose. Thankfully, I was able to stop them in time.
The messenger gasped, his eyes widening. “They did such a thing?”
“Would I lie?” He growled.
“O-of course not! But, my lord, the Dioshin people will be furious. They won’t accept this! They’ll demand war! In your current shape…”
King Roth chuckled. “I think I have one last battle in me, for the people. Spread the word. With this, the rabbits will drop their rebellion and join us. Once we’ve ended this conflict and mobilized, we’ll move on the wilderness and show this lord of Chalm what a true king looks like.”
He glanced down at one remaining bottle in his hand that still had liquid in it and smiled. As for King Roth, he would claim the fairy spring’s waters of life, and use it to become immortal!
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