Chapter 13 Part 2
"That was my name when I was alive." The Lich says. "Mr. Morander Iris."
"Would you prefer I call you Morander?" Christopher asks.
The Lich cowers. "I could never be so casual with Your Majesty."
"Then I will call you by your family name." Christopher insists.
"You honour me, Your Highness." Iris bows his head.
"Drop the 'Your Majesty, Highness' Spiel, King Christopher will suffice. *sigh* Since even Jill doesn't drop the formalities." Christopher shrugs. "Now then, tell me where you're at?"
"Well. I figured out how to assemble those runes you taught me in the correct spots. And the Ark Spell I used to test it out felt ever so lighter than it usually did." Iris reports, demonstrating the spell by holding up a finger. "Quite groundbreaking."
"Is that right? I usually get it right on the first few experiments." Christopher brags unknowingly.
The smile melts off Morander's decaying face, replaced only with feelings of incompetence. "Oh. I thought I was doing good."
"You are doing good. Excellent in fact. His Highness is just a fre-…something else entirely when it comes to this stuff." Jill soothes.
Christopher gives Jill a momentary glare before responding to Morander. "I have what you call a Perfect Image Memory. I haven't forgotten a thing since I was capable of crawling. Don't become disheartened. My abilities are something to strive towards." He says with sombre.
"Right. I'll be sure to train this mind to one day keep up with you, My King." Iris says. Silence fills the air momentarily.
"I know we touched on this a little earlier. But why did you decide to go all, cliche Undead villain to, well, this?" Christopher says.
"I- Don't have a good excuse for it." Iris says, inflection in the last word giving off his fear of the young king. "I was going to do this intimidation tactic but it clearly wasn't working. So I caved in and- as you know. asked you to help me in exchange for the seven 'aha fuck you' negation crystles."
Jill's eyes dart between the two in realisation. "Am I hallucinating? Or does it feel like you two have eerily similar personalities?"
"Really? I don't see it." Christopher says.
Iris crosses his arms inside the sleeves of his cloak. "I'm flattered by such a compliment, but I would have to disagree also."
"Apart from the, very clear power difference and intelligence. I can see it. Personally, I get this horrible feeling you both like the process of torture." Jasyn adds, convincing himself of Jill's observation.
Morander hangs his head in remembrance. "I used to be a torturer at one point. My favourite method used was using a needle to pry their fingernails off." The Grossness of that statement follows with him shivering with utmost pleasure.
(Narrator) I think I wanna throw up.
"That's adorable. I got the chance to…interrogate some bandits. They decided to attack a carriage I was riding on, so I tied them up and made them walk for days and days with no food or water. I had their leader begging for his life. Some of them even died before they got locked up." Christopher lets out a sinister chuckle. It disappeared as fast as the emotion struck him. He seems disappointed he couldn't relish in it for longer.
(Narrator) For once Seph, thank you.
"We got a little off track there. What spell do you intend to cast for the task?" Christopher asks.
"I was thinking maybe Lightning Storm. It's a high level lightning spell with a continuous cast so I can theoretically cast it forever if I had an endless source of mana." Iris says.
Christopher pinches his chin in thought. "I know of a few better spells, but if you can cast it efficiently then it shouldn't be a problem."
Iris nods, jotting down notes on how they can make the spell work with what they need it to do. Christopher watches them from a short distance away, eating the rest of his rations.
After a few mistakes, Iris starts the process of negating the positive charge of the large orb of Gravainium. Large tendrils of Lightning sprout forth from his fingers like tree roots, peppering the spheroid in small burn marks and tiny dents. Jill returns from an excursion tasked to her at the perimeter of the distortion.
She salutes Christopher, ready to give her report. "I've returned from my investigation, Your Majesty."
"At ease." Christopher instructs. He gives her an affirming nod to begin her recollection of events.
Jill stands firm, starting to give her report. "The merchants we left behind almost four days ago are no longer within the distortion. They have made camp and are waiting for us to return. As you requested, I gave King Jasyn's Dime ring to the Golem Commander so they can relay the situation to the merchants and should carry on their journey without us. They and the Golem Commander are making their way to The Capital City of Irejescorst right now."
"That's great to hear. And what of the distortion? How long is it going to take to get rid of it?" Christopher says with a relieved sigh.
Jill looks over her shoulder. "If we assume it keeps going at a consistent rate? Two to three hours? I'm not too sure."
Christopher turns to Iris, yelling to get over the noise of the spell. "Iris! Do you think you can triple the potency?! Or is that too difficult?!"
"I can give it a crack, Sire!" Iris says. They lean in, pushing their fingertips forward to compensate for the extra pressure going against him. The sheer light emitting from this increase blinds those looking directly at it.
Jill looks at the light for slightly too long, burning shadows into her retina. "Son of a bitch!" She exclaims, digging the Thenar of her palm into her eyes. She blinks a few times, each time re-exposing to the light.
(Narrator) For the love of the gods, Jill! Look away you moron!
(Nebulon) This brings back memories.
(Narrator) What memories? I don't remember someone being this stupid.
(Nebulon) I mean, in the early days, y'know, you.
(Narrator) The fuck you mean 'me'?! Prick!
(Nebulon) Not realising you can phase through solid matter, the cluelessness about your growing emotional connection with Christopher until he pointed it out to you, doing monologues of the R.O.I.M.P out loud so Christopher gets annoyed with you—
"And I'm annoyed now! Shut the fuck up will you!" Christopher sighs, "Honestly, it's like a fly buzzing in my ears." He mumbles. "And Jill! Walk, the fuck away if your just going to keep looking at it. You're gonna cause permanent damage!" Jill shuffles away, continuing to rub at her stinging retinas.
"If I was alive, this would hurt like a bitch! But I think I got this, As long as my arms don't fall off or something!" Iris says, his arms shaking a bit from the overexertion.
(Narrator) I'm already feeling the distortion weakening! I can't wait to finally get away from you Christopher, no offence.
"I feel it too, I think I can push the Mana out from my body a little."
Dime's ring illuminates a crimson red, it's text attempting to penetrate the distortion. Christopher stumbles back, pushing his hand as far away from him as he could.
(Narrator) I'm going to do my best to recreate what Dime's hail looks like, bare with me.
{RE-ATTEMPTING CONNECTION}
…
P̸͈̓̄Ṛ̸͙̙̾͘͝O̴͔͛̊̑C̷̻͕̝͑E̴̛͓͒̎E̵̱͒̌͠D̴̙̐I̸̮̽̽N̸̨͒G̵͈͇͒͝ WITH ATTEMPT NO. 754,390.
…
PARTIAL C̵͉͒͘̚Ȍ̵͓̣͍̾Ǹ̴͉̟͘N̶̩̤̩̂͗E̸̛͍̭C̴̖̱̮͂͠Ţ̸̯̽͘̚I̶͇̍̋̍O̵͉̮͒̍Ṅ̸̨̊̓ DETECTED.
…
{RE-ATTEM̵͕̜̂̍T̶̡̻̅̀P̶̻̻̾T̵̟͙͗T̴͖͕̰̈́́̐P̷͚̈͊̓Ţ̴̥̻́̈́͘ING CONNECTION}
…
PROCEEDING WITH ATTEMPT NO. 754,391.
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C̴̨̟̫̑̽̾Ǫ̴͐̊̾R̶̢͓̓-̴̣̤̄̏R̵̜͑̊R̴̨̓U̶̫͗P̴̨̘̲̍̆T̶̥͓͙̀̈́̀Ḭ̴̤̜̾̽O̶̦͎͂̂͜Ṇ̵̡̡̂̿ ̶͇͇̒D̵̛͍͜Ë̴̙̱́̐-̵̻̈D̸̯̝͖̆E̸̛̺̘͑̕T̸̞͓̃̓͝E̸͖̪͊C̴̘͓̲̓Ţ̸̟͖̓̽E̸̗͆D̷̳͕̎.̵̙̈́
…
RECOMMENDATION:
…
TEMPORARILY TER̷̼͆̋M̴̡̘̆̌I̴͎͈̳͋-̷͖͚͓̿̆̀M̵̻̾I̷̛͚͂̀-̵̞̥̻͝M̵͇̍Ȉ̸͚͇͝ͅN̵̡̼̭͘ATE CONNECTION ATTEMPTS.
Christopher furrows his brow. "It looks exactly like how it did when I lost contact with him before." he sighs deeply, fiddling with the ring. "I hope to the gods this doesn't corrupt him permanently."
(Narrator) Stop doing that!
Christopher winces at the sheer volume of Tari's exclamation. "Stop doing what?" he asks hurriedly.
(Narrator) You keep saying things out loud and more often than not they end up being a bad omen. Shut your damn mouth when you have such mortifying thoughts!