Chapter 21: Thoron
“Good morning Garfield.”
“It looks like you have some lovely weather again today.”
“Very funny.”
Garfield glanced up at the brilliant blue sky as he settled into a seat next to Pandora.
“Thoron is… like you. Neither mortal nor god.”
“I doubt he has my charm or dashing good looks though.”
“No comment.”
“Man. So, how long as he been holed up down in the Badlands popping out monsters and the like?”
“Quite a few centuries, actually.” Even Pandora considered the time period in question to be worth mentioning.
“How did he get like that?”
“Jealousy. As a long-lived race of some kind, he had plenty of opportunity build up his dark emotions and crystallize them into a form that would affix to his soul. It’s rare, but it does happen.”
“What race is he from?
“I don’t even know. He’s most likely the only one left, after all. Once his power exceeded a certain threshold, he started an everlasting effort to destroy anything he can’t claim for himself.”
“Is this the point where he transitioned from being a mortal to a demigod…” Garfield wondered aloud.
“Exactly. Like you, he has the ability to influence creation with his soul to an extent well beyond what a mortal could ever possibly achieve. He controls, he destroys, and he tries to become what my brethren and I refer to as a god.”
“Do you know precisely what he did to originally cross that threshold? Can he go back?”
“It’s tough to go back to being mortal, although I won’t say it’s impossible. As for what he did, I can’t say I know exactly, but it’s related to mana.”
“Mana?”
“If mana growth exceeds a certain point, the ability to influence creation exponentially explodes. The soul becomes self-sufficient, allowing perpetual life in some cases, nearly unlimited mana capacity in others, or most commonly both. You are an exception in that you can influence creation without directly utilizing mana.”
“I see… That’s why my magic is nearly unlimited but I don’t experience perpetual life.”
“Indeed. In your case, the easiest ways to achieve perpetual life would either be to target yourself with your own magic, or ascend fully to godhood.”
“The former wouldn’t be very effective since it could be reversed by a spell at any time though, right?”
“Yes. In contrast, the latter could not be so easily undone.”
“You said I need an aspect of some sort in order to ascend, right?”
“Yes! In your case, I think that is your only major hurdle.”
“Are you ready to tell me what your aspect is?”
“I am. It’s finally relevant. I believe you tried and failed to discern my aspect with your magic in the past… Is that correct?”
“Yes. Your aspect was garbled from what I could see.”
“That’s because I disassociated myself from my own aspect. If an aspect was originally a weakness, it can be conquered and it can be disowned, but it can’t be entirely eliminated. There is a very loose connection between me and that aspect.”
“And that aspect is…?”
“The same one that best describes Thoron.”
“Can there be two gods associated to the same aspect.”
“No.”
Things were starting to make sense to Garfield. “So is this Thoron stuck because his aspect is already reserved for you?”
“Yes. He cannot ascend.”
“Can’t he choose a different aspect?”
“In theory, but he’s a prisoner to jealousy. Escaping it and bringing his soul in a different direction is likely well beyond his capability.”
“And all this time, the dragons have really been able to keep his creations at bay?”
“For the most part. When he first became what he is now, his desire for the land he stood on anchored him in place. He’s tethered and can only send minions north to cause havoc. The dragons have done a fine job of preventing him from ruining the civilizations around us.”
“So… everything was fine until we got the report from those dragons yesterday regarding Thoron absorbing divinity released from the use of magic summoning gods…”
“I was surprised by that as well,” Pandora admitted. “If what they say is true, and it most likely is, Thoron will gain new abilities in some form.”
“I should probably ramp up efforts to monitor the Dragon Mountains and the Badlands then…”
“Thoron may pose a tremendous threat now. Are you sure you won’t do as I suggested?”
“I’ll take a raincheck.”
--
Brooke’s friend from White Glow, the attack mage, was stubbornly refusing to ask for help. She convinced herself that if she only practiced more, she’d get the hang of using the Boom Stick.
Each time she cast a spell, it multiplied itself and unleashed four simultaneous attacks. The quadrupled mana would secretly return to her body, making her feel strange. She wasn’t practicing magic without the Boom Stick, so her body had no outlet for the excess mana. She had stopped passively producing mana ever since she first used the magic item, but the resulting effect on mana levels was minimal.
One final time, she cast a spell and received her mana back four-fold. Her body glowed, releasing, ironically, a white light. She collapsed to the ground and fell unconscious.
--
After breakfast, Garfield was finally able to pry Hannah and Solana away from Govis. “Why are you two so attached to him anyway?”
“His compatibility is very high. I don’t know why.”
If you spot this tale on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.
“Yes!” Solana agreed. “An instinct tells me to take his blood, turn him, and live with him!”
“Can dragons even become vampires?” Garfield asked nobody in particular.
“I’ve never heard of that,” said Zarla. “It may be possible.”
“Personally, I’ve no desire to give it a try,” Govis declared.
“Can we come visit?” Solana asked him.
He was going to say no, but staring at Solana and Hannah, looking at the desperate expressions on their faces, he felt unable to refuse them for some reason. “Perhaps eventually.”
“Better there than here,” Garfield decided. “Stephen and I are enough men for my bed. And I tend to have too many women in it as well…”
“You have my sympathy, Duke.” Govis reverted to his dragon form and departed with Zarla.
--
“Those vampires weren’t too annoying, I hope.”
“Not at all, Zarla. In human form we can experience closeness with others that’s atypical for dragons.”
“Oh? Do you want to go back?”
“Please spare me.”
“I’ll admit, for a passing moment I felt an urge to join the Duke in his bed.”
“I’m glad you didn’t. It was getting crowded.”
“I do hope he takes care of Thoron. I want things to go back to the way they were.”
“That’s true. Our home is quite crowded as well…”
--
“I’m going to scout the condition of the Heavenly Wall and then return.”
“I’m coming with you.”
“Me too!”
“Sounds fun.”
Garfield spun to see Yttria standing there. “Let me guess… you’re jealous you didn’t get to join us last time.”
“That’s not quite how I would have put it, but I do want to go this time.”
“Fine, now that I’ve been there, teleporting will be easy. Let’s go to the Principality Legati first.”
“I’m ready when you are.”
--
The party of four appeared on the wall in the spot Garfield remembered best. Guards were managing a trickle of monsters from the mountains, but the situation was under control. Garfield didn’t see anything unusual through the visible mountain peaks. “Let’s go east to the Kingdom next.”
The party disappeared and reappeared in the spot Garfield was most familiar with in the Kingdom. He could tell immediately that the situation was not so calm here.
“Oh? You’re not on your magnificent flying device today?” a woman asked Garfield.
“Queen Rosa, is it? Do you spend a great deal of time on the wall here?”
“Normally, no. I only came out here because of a minor issue that was pointed out to me earlier.”
“A minor issue?”
“Yes. Please look that way.”
Garfield turned towards the mountains. One of the more distant mountains appeared to be walking towards them.
“Do the mountains normally do that?”
“My, what a question!” The Queen’s inflection implied only mild surprise, but her emotions were very difficult to read.
“Do you need help?”
“I would love your help. Please, by all means, adventurer Smith. If you’re successful, I’ll be sure to reward you and introduce you to my husband.”
Meanwhile, the Queen’s advisors and guards were all clearly much more panicked than she was. Not only was a mountain bearing down on them, but even the Queen was worried enough not to bring up the topic of marriage with this man. Threats of such a magnitude were quite rare.
“I don’t need a reward, but I may as well deal with that while I’m here.”
“Garfield, how will you deal with an entire mountain coming at us?” Hannah asked.
“Hm. Ask it nicely to turn around?”
“Garfield, I don’t think that will work,” Yttria contributed.
“How are they so calm?” one of Rosa’s ministers asked in a whisper.
Another responded, “They’re the ones who dealt with the major wave of monsters. If anyone can stop that thing, it’s them.”
“By the gods. How can anybody be that strong?”
Queen Rosa leaned in to join the whispering. “He has a bit of a reputation back in his homeland, you see…”
--
“I guess I’ll fight fire with fire.”
“Garfield, I don’t think that applies in this case. Are you really going to use a mountain to fight a mountain?”
“No.”
“Okay.” Yttria breathed a sigh of relief.
“I’m going to use four mountains to fight a mountain.”
--
For many kilometers along the Heavenly Wall, defenders witnessed a battle between mountains. The fighting could best be described as armless monstrosities trying to tackle each other. Eventually, the sole mountain warrior was surrounded. Its four opponents climbed on top of it, crushing it under extreme weight. At some point, it returned to being rock and soil. The other locomotive mountains spread back out and then collapsed under the effect of losing their enchantment.
--
“Garfield, setting the enemy aside, why do you have the ability to bring mountains to life…?”
“I wasn’t the first person to think of doing something like this, you know,” Garfield pointed out to Yttria.
“Outrageous…”
Solana suggested, “You should enchant more mountains and then send them south at Thoron!”
“Not a bad idea, but I think I’ll remain cautious for now.”
“Aww…”
“Sir Smith!” Queen Rosa hurried over. “Is it over?” Her attendants jogged to keep up.
“Yes, I believe the threat has been neutralized, for now anyway.”
“Excellent, good work. Please join me inside.”
Hannah turned to whisper into Garfield’s ear. “Why is she not more surprised?”
“Some people are a little bit crazy… I guess.” Garfield was trying to convince himself more than Hannah. This Queen still creeped him out, but so long as she didn’t know his identity, he could always just escape.
“Sir Smith, my husband was particularly interested in meeting you. Due to his poor health, we can’t bring a whole crowd in. Could the rest of your party join my attendants?”
Garfield noticed her attendants looking back and forth nervously, but he wasn’t quite sure what the problem was. He was confident in his ability to defend himself if this was a trap, at least. “Okay.”
The Queen brought Garfield’s party inside, and the Queen led Garfield alone up a staircase and into a certain room. “Please, have a seat, I’ll be right back.”
Garfield looked around the room. The only thing to sit on was an ornate bed. “Interesting…” The Queen emerged a few minutes later holding two letters: one in each hand. If this was some type of threat, the Queen was certainly leaving herself exposed in order to make it.
“Here, why don’t you read these?”
“Uh, where is your husband?”
“Oh, that’s just a silly joke we like to tell in this Kingdom. I’m quite famous for having never been married, you see.”
“Uh…” Garfield was trying to figure out her intentions, and failing. “If there’s no husband in poor health, then please let me call back in my—“
“Read this one first.”
Garfield received the letter. “This is… a declaration of war? Against the Fenwick Kingdom!? Oh, uh, why would you attack Fenwick? They’re a neighboring nation of mine, after all…”
“Oh, enough silly games. Read the second letter. I haven’t decide which of the two to send yet.”
Garfield tentatively accepted the second letter. The Kingdom of Heaven, under the monarch the Heavenly Queen Rosa, was formally proposing marriage between herself and the Lord of Rox, Duke Garfield of the Fenwick Kingdom. The offer included two paths forward. One was for Garfield to move south to the Heavenly Kingdom and become an adopted King. The other was for Queen Rosa to move north and abdicate the throne to a relative.
“This, uh, Duke Garfield is a lucky guy.”
“Is he?” she asked.
“I’d say so. He has many options. He can move in here and become your King, marry you and move back to Fenwick, or decline and simply brush off a minor skirmish or two between two national-level armies.”
“I’m not so sure he would choose that last option.”
“Why not?”
“An unspeakable number of people would die.”
“I’m sure he has ways of incapacitating your entire army without seriously hurting anyone.”
The Queen hopped on to Garfield’s lap.
“Even so, leaving an unhinged woman alone and in charge of such a large Kingdom on the southern border of humanity is madness.”
“This may not be my place to say as an adventurer and all but, you’re sitting on my lap so I feel like speaking my mind. Can’t you just marry someone from your Kingdom? Or abdicate regardless of marriage?”
“With threats like what we’ve seen over the past few days, those solutions won’t keep my people safe. I’ve held things together so far, but keeping everyone calm with a stage performance won’t actually stop hordes of monsters or walking mountains.”
“Did you try proposing to the walking mountain?”
“One of my ministers suggested that.”
“Oh…”
The Queen grabbed either side of Garfield’s head with her hands. “Well?”
“Let me clarify just one thing.”
“My measurements?”
“No. They’re… certainly adequate, but that’s not it. If all the major threats to your kingdom are eliminated without sending either of those two letters, what will you do? Will you marry someone else with less ability to fight off monstrous foes?”
“Maybe someday… I never particularly felt like it before… I’d still want to marry you though. You seem like fun.”
“It looks like I can give you one of the two things you want, at least. I fully intend to deal with the threats looming from the south. If I’m successful, you won’t need further help. Whatever you decide to do after that, please leave me out of it.”
Rosa pushed on Garfield’s shoulders, causing him to fall back on to the bed, but she then dismounted and stood up. “I suppose.”
“Honestly, I’m surprised I don’t scare you. Didn’t you say you saw me turning all those monsters to dust as I ran through the killing fields the other day?”
“I did.”
“And you saw how I handled that magically enchanted mountain, right?”
“I did.”
“Then why?”
“Intuition,” she answered.
“Intuition?”
“My intuition tells me there’s only one scary thing about you.”
“…What is it?”
“Careless mistakes.”
“That’s… fair… but, do I scare you or not?”
“Oh, what’s life without a little recklessness? So what if you occasionally cause pandemonium by accident? All I ever do is work hard through the monotony for the sake of my citizens. Where’s the excitement!?”
“I believe it almost trampled your kingdom a few minutes ago,” Garfield responded.
“Thank you for taking care of that. See? Where is my excitement without you?”
“You make it sound like it’s my fault the monsters and mountains attacked to begin with.”
“Is it not?”
“…Your intuition is what’s scary.”
