Beyond The Veil

I had been more than relieved to learn that the matches were on display in the library. Though, a part of me felt nothing but disgust at myself for not checking first.

Since then, however, I've spent most of my time within the halls. It was nice to get away from Zakira and the team for once. More so, I could spectate and scan the library and its map simultaneously or tinker with my apps during my smoke breaks and meal times.

With my abundance of points, I perused the Tomes section to see if I could adapt anything I found with my affinities. Although experimenting with them was another matter altogether.

After doing a rescan of the Paths, I moved to the Tales annex to do a general scan of the Mortal Plane before I dialed in on the Bodhi Tree Peninsula. Through that and a slew of tales, I learned the general nature of the Bodhi Tree's geography and history.

To make a long story short, Crater Lake cut the Bodhi Peninsula in half. Almost.

A relatively thin ridge lined the shores bordering the World Sea, connecting the Bodhi Tree and the accompanying Wilds to the north, with the rest of the landmass to the far south. Beyond Crater Lake was a peninsula that measured 14,503 kilometers from north to south and 6,131 kilometers east to west. It was an area of swamped and rainforested coasts that gave way to grassy highlands, mountain ranges, and even a few glaciers the closer one moved inland.

All ruled by twelve kingdoms.

They were unassociated with the politics here at the academy. However, all but one of them housed one of the eleven Bodhi Tree Subguilds in one of their cities. And it was there that the second-year students could run wild in an effort to power level their classes.

To say I was excited was an understatement of the highest degree. But there were more important things to deal with at the moment. Namely, my upcoming match.

I knew not where or what I was to face, but I knew I didn't care to impress any The Optimus Regni, nor any guild for that matter.

I only cared about spreading Corvus' message. About letting the world know that the Cole Clan- That the Nox still lived.

I was done hiding my other side- the divine one. I was done hiding and limiting my power. The time had ticked by at a snails' pace, ironic as that was to say, but I was nearly at the finish line. In just six months' time, I would receive whatever Telin had in store for me.

In just a few days' time, I'd put my power on display for all to see.

Soon, I'd be free.

***

Doyle

***

Amun of the Cole Clan; Amun, known as he was on paper. A brilliant half-elf with as much genius as magical gifts.

That was how I knew him.

How I chose to know him.

Change-bringer. Devil. Super-elf.

Potentially.

'Ask him yourself.'

Eiriol's words served to haunt me like a poltergeist as I meandered to the Cap. Because maybe, just maybe, she was right.

I met the Necro King a few times down south. I've seen his shadow undead on occasion. But I've never seen him fight. Few people have. Still, I knew he was among the strongest. I knew he was among the most feared. The most merciless and cunning and deadly. All realization took was but a single glance.

He was a man who could and often would destroy empires. Render their lands into inhospitable dead zones and have the inhabitants cut down but his minions raised to rebuild their cities to his liking. Then, he'd leave. And in his wake would be, for all intents and purposes, a man-made surface dungeon.

Another undead city sworn to the Necro King.

To Polaris, he was overlooked evil. A blind eye in exchange for the Necro King's gifts to humanity. Though, I was sure the latter didn't see it that way.

'Fickle and dishonest, but honest all the same. Cross the friendly devil, your soul will bow to his name.'

That was but one of the stories meant to describe Everandus Cole, the great Necro King. Known far and wide across the realms as the greatest necromancer alive.

Or, unalive.

Regardless, he was a Devil only in name. Naturally, I assumed Amun would follow suit. I assumed he would be cunning and devious and rueful like the stories suggested his family was.

But he wasn't. Not on the outside.

He had the almost pure innocence I've seen in all young half-elves. Uncaring of social orders or hierarchy. Only of the arts and magic and, in Amun's case, science. Yet, half of the stories remained true. Albeit unseen.

I never expected him to be standing among the greatest upon his arrival. I never expected his powers to be so broken. His affinities, not his Sorcery. It took him nearly six months to show us anything other than his shadow beasts or his pocket storage or the small instance of that absurd darkness he used against Winston Epeth.

So when he unveiled his shadow undead unicorn, it was… unbelievable.

Perhaps that was why it took me so long to notice. The unexpected constantly slapping at my face.

Perhaps it was due to Amun's twisted sense of kindness. The only things he showed greed for were freedom and knowledge. Yet he gave them freely to all of his peers. He openly talked about his grayed morals and neutral alignment, but he was kind to his friends and even kinder to nature. He didn't think in terms of good or evil. Only actions and consequences.

So, perhaps that was why.

Perhaps it was due to his intellect. His mind was a vault that contained knowledge not even Polaris was aware of. Nor the Marulean Guild Association or any other individual from Maru. For the most part at least. It made him mysterious. Like many others, that mystique led me to obsess about him. It made me try and piece together what he knew and where he learned and, if possible, to learn it myself.

Perhaps it was due to his manipulative honesty that I was intrigued. Tranced. Blinded like so many others as I tried to see beyond the veil of a figure who so often stood within arm's reach.

Perhaps that was why I could only picture Amun as an ally. As a human, despite his insistence to the contrary.

Now, the paradigm has shifted. I knew not what Amun was. Devil, Drow, or otherwise. I only knew that the elves knew he would bring change and they were serious about it. So serious that it may as well have come from the mouth of God.

He would bring change. And if there was one thing I knew about humans, it was that we hated change. Particularly those at risk of losing the most.

I knew a lot about Polaris. They wouldn't sit idly by. Conversely, I now realized I knew little about Amun, but I knew he wasn't one who would allow himself to get stepped on by anyone. If they acted against him he'd retaliate immediately. All of Polaris would see him as an enemy at that point.

'Their fear will make an enemy where there is not.'

The death toll would be astronomical.

I couldn't help but think of how Quinn Leonhard would hold up if Amun were out to kill him instead of an ogre. Quinn would probably be dead before he even noticed Amun then raised as a shadow undead before his body could hit the floor.

Such a thing could happen to all of us. All it took was for him to see us as his enemies.

'I have no enemies.'

We all heard him say the words, Olga, Zeff, and I. It was to Lance and in the presence of Zarzok after the start of the second quarter. He went on to say he had no intentions of ruling over anyone. Amun only wanted to free the continent of Ulai. To liberate it and give it back to the humans that inhabited it long ago. And then he wanted to explore. To learn.

All he wanted was to live freely. He had no enemies. But that was a lie. Or rather, a partial truth.

He had no enemies, yet. But anyone who threatened to inhibit his goals or worse, take his freedom, would be placed at the height of his shit list.

'What you're playing with is worse than fire.'

I knew there was a reason he relegated its use to practical means. I thought I knew what it was. The Void was too dangerous. Too volatile to use freely. But now, I realized.

The Void made fighting too easy.

I could only think of two things in existence being capable of defending against it. But not without first getting destroyed. One was tied to the very family line who agreed to this mess and the other was utterly unsuitable to be made into armor or weapons.

I imagined the monster felled by Darekhil Silverforge's hammer being a ranked minion of Amun's. That the dwarf turned to see the beast gone and replaced by a stain on reality sweeping towards him. Then his body and soul would be erased from existence without warning.

'It's worse than death.'

Elijah was the next contestant. A lesser vampire versus a troll was a standard match-up. Weakened by fire in differing ways, but weakened all the same. But against a serious Amun, the troll would hardly have been a challenge and Elijah wouldn't have dared to raise a hand against him. He didn't. Not without convincing. Elijah, Opal, and, of course, Zakira were utterly devoted to Amun by the simple account of his birth.

As were the rest of vampire-kind and every other kind of undead. They revered him like a holy emperor because, in their eyes, he was.

A sovereign of death in the most literal sense imaginable.

Orsola Estevez was another one who couldn't hold a candle to him. Even though she was Amazonian, even though she was strong, she would be unable to even touch him. But neither could many of the Nonus-native humans touch her.

Maruleans were strong. Unnaturally so.

'Change is coming.'

Though it bit at me, I patiently waited for the matches to conclude for the day to rally Zeff and Olga back as subtly as I could. Thankfully, such a thing was common practice by now, but the unpleasantness of the situation must have shown on my face.

"Are you alright?"

"No." I shook my head. Quietly.

We were in a private annex inside the acorn. A room no larger than a storage shack, large enough only for the three of us. It was as private as it could get. But not private enough all the same.

"We need to convince the Headmaster to reconsider this."

"Why!?" Zeff pushed his small frame between us at once. Snapping his face between me and Olga, despite her evident reluctance to engage.

"Some things are better left unseen. Especially by the eyes of Polaris," I said as firmly as I could muster.

Still ignoring Zeff, Olga squinted at me for a long, hard second. All concern or worry was gone from her face. In their places was a mirror of me. Half-furrowed brows and twitching eyes and paling skin. Evident signs of a mind working its way through the facts and arriving at a conclusion worth worrying over.

"It is curious," she eventually said, looking away. "Morningstar's agreement came far too easily. He's up to something."

"I'm concerned with the after."

"The after?" Zeff pushed toward me. "What of the after? There'll be no dragon to torment Bodhi or Polaris in the future. That's the after!"

"Is it?" I lowered my eyes to him and noticed a coldness in my voice that I hadn't heard in years. Decades even.

"The Scourge has been kept in check for ages."

"But what of the rest of the clutch?" I looked down at him. "They may have flown away, but Polaris' territory is vast. They'll have anywhere from two to four more young red dragons to deal with.

"And, are you sure Amun will even kill it?" I looked back up to Olga, then down again. "If he does, what if he turns it into a dracolich? A shadow dracolich. What if he tries to add it to his collection of shadow creatures?"

"Ugh!" Zeff sighed greatly. "That's a lot of what-ifs."

"But they're all possibilities," Olga said, cutting him off. "Honestly, I think he'll kill it. He's a craftsman. An Artificer. He'll want those materials. That said." She slouched into her seat with a heavy sigh. "It's possible that he won't. He may just assume he can kill a bigger dragon and get more materials later. Either way, I can't see Polaris being all warm and fuzzy by the outcome. They'll put him on a watch list. He won't take that likely."

"He already is. He just doesn't know it yet." I laughed weakly. "But Polaris isn't what worries me. Amun is."

"Well, he's certainly not going to die!" Zeff harrumphed.

"That's not what I mean!" I groaned. "You two know him as an aloof elf with powerful magic. You've seen what he can do on the battlefield from afar, but I saw what led to that moment. He's an envoy of chaos and he's uncaring of our hierarchies and rules. Tell me." I glanced between them. "Has he ever called you by anything other than your first names?"

"N- no." Zeff shook his head.

"He refers to the Headmaster by his first name as well." I scoffed. "The Headmaster! Emperor Morningstar will be no different. And you know how zealous his followers are."

"You're afraid of Amun's reaction to that," Olga finally said. Not asked, declared as if it were a truth I'd been running from the entire time.

"Yes." I heard myself gasp in terror. "If they act in a way to make Amun view them as enemies, he won't hesitate to fight. Their battle could destroy the Bodhi Tree itself!"

"Bah!" Zeff broke away to storm across the room, then came back wagging his finger at me like an angry parent. "Don't be stupid! Amun wouldn't dare miss out on the ritual."

"You think he can't wait six months?" I laughed weakly. "What's to stop him from leaving once the year is over? Power leveling in the south? Working with the Regni across Polaris? The Guildmaster course? No!" I laughed again. "He'll find a wise pebble on his own and steal a seed from either us or Polaris before he destroys them.

"I hate to say it." I moved towards the door before he could protest further. "But we'll need Titus' help to convince the Headmaster. Polaris mustn't see more than what they've already seen, lest they be horrified. And." I shot a stern eye back to the two in order to drive my next point through their skulls. "Dende Morningstar must not meet Amun under any circumstances."