Rise of the Devourer

Noah’s body hurt in every place it could hurt.

He lay on the sparring arena, eyes shut for a few minutes to catch his breath and let his body rest. Other adventurers similarly were lying all around him in various degrees of undress and exhaustion. His personal training had continued well into the day when some adventurers had taken note. Intrigued by his ability, they’d offered to spar and train together.

One thing had led to another, and now nearly a dozen adventurers had begun training alongside Noah, switching groups and pairing up to work on different aspects that they felt they were lacking in. Some had noticed his shackles and had decided to get their own sets, before the entire thing had devolved into a masochistic endurance game of who could last with the most suppression on their abilities.

The entire thing was infectious and Noah had found himself being pulled into the excitement, working hard to compete to the best of his abilities.

Glancing out from the window in the training arena, he watched the sun slowly in the distance as morning made its way into a new day.

Footsteps echoed in the hall, and Noah saw Nae looking down onto him. “Raesar rubbed off on you too, didn’t he?” she said, watching him lying on the floor bare-chested.

Noah returned a grin back at the woman, and Nae shook her head. “Get up you idiot. We need to start planning before you leave. Today’s the day.”

Pulling himself up, Noah felt his body already on its way to recovery. He would need to sleep eventually, but so far Meditation had more than sufficed and Lifeblood took care of exhaustion rather quickly as well.

Shaking hands with the few who still stood, and exchanging some brief words, Noah left the training chamber feeling invigorated. His sub-attributes had jumped a lot over a single night, especially Mystic and Power related ones, but the bigger surprise had been his abilities. Starforged arms had reached level 7, already almost at rank Intermediate. Void Hunter’s Eyes had finally ranked up to Advanced as well, after having been stuck at level 24 for a long time.

“I see you increased your shackle suppression,” Nae said, glancing at Noah’s hands. “At this rate, I don’t think you’ll need them for much longer. You should start looking into tomes, you need just three more before you can rank up, which will be significant once you’re in Heartilia.”

“How much does a legendary tome cost?” Noah asked.

“Depends entirely on what the ability is. But most cost at least one C grade mana stone at a minimum,” Nae replied. “You can also have a tomecrafter make one for you, but that will require finding the right crafter and resources. I’m not sure it’s worth the hassle.”

“Tomecrafters?” Noah asked.

“People who make ability tomes. Do you know that Celestians can read ability tomes?” Nae asked.

Noah gave a nod.

“That’s because we write them, too. We create the ability tomes, and the methods are quite tightly guarded. It’s part of the advantage of being one of the first races to discover the Astral system.”

“Huh. I must admit, I never gave thought to where ability tomes came from. So if I wanted to have a very specific ability, I could ask a tomecrafter to make it for me?” Noah asked.

“Before that, you will need the right monster core to imbue into the Tome. Then you’ll need a tomecrafter who is capable enough and willing. Then there’s the price of getting tomes made as well. Like I said, not worth the hassle.”

Noah chewed over the information as the two of them walked. Entering the elevator, he watched Nae type in a sequence of numbers again, as they began to descend down.

“Where are we going this time?” Noah asked.

“To meet our prisoner,” Nae replied.

With a chime the elevator opened and Noah stepped out to find Aurelia and Erwest standing within the chamber already. Noah eyed the Paladin for a moment, who looked back at him as well.

Walking up to the man, Noah extended his hand. “Thank you for saving my life.”

“I only did what I was supposed to do,” Erwest said, looking down at his hand, before looking back up at Noah. “Your hand has returned to normal.”

“Ah, yeah. New hair and eye color too. It’s a neat look isn’t it?” Noah said with a smile.

Erwest did not reply and Noah quietly retrieved his hand. Guess we won’t exactly be chummy.

“Alright, all of us here. So let’s talk about how this is supposed to go,” Nae said.

“How do we intend to keep the prisoner from being found out?” Erwest asked. “Orthe Lord from questioning who he is.”

“Excellent question,” Nae said. “We’ll be trapping this guy in a dimensional pocket.”

“In a what?” Noah asked.

“A Dimensional Pocket. Don’t you have one as an ability? We’ll be storing him inside one, with a mana stone to fuel it. In fact, I already have,” Nae said, as she raised her hand, showing off a translucent bracelet that appeared with a shimmer of light. With a touch, the bracelet lit up, and a man sat on the ground, his hands and feet tied in shackles with powerful magical restraints on them. His hair was disheveled and the man looked like he hadn’t slept in weeks, but Noah struggled to feel even an ounce of pity for him.

“Where—” the cultist gasped, looking around in confusion before his eyes met Nae’s. “You could’ve warned me.”

“You don’t get to make demands of me, Hayver,” Nae said, her eyes glowing. “Want me to throw you back into the other box?”

The man shuddered visibly, his face turning ghastly pale and Noah wondered just what this box might be for the cultist to be so afraid.

Noah looked at Erwest, finding him surprisingly calm in the presence of the cultist chief. He’d half expected the Paladin to draw a blade on him by now. The man noticed Noah’s gaze, looking back up at him for a moment as their eyes met.

“Why are we keeping him around for this discussion?” Aurelia asked, looking down at the cultist with disgust.

“Because he’ll be guiding you to the cultist hideout,” Nae said, glancing down. “Explain to them,” she added, kicking the man’s back lightly.

The Abyssal cultist looked like he had words to say, but swallowed his anger as he continued. “I’ve got a contact in Heartilia. We keep hideouts separate so that if one location falls, others don’t get compromised. But I’ve got some connections I can pull to have them take me in.”

“You heard the man. You go in, meet this contact and act as if you’re the Iron Fists. Obviously they don’t know your party name or much about you, so it won’t matter. Head in and join the cult,” Nae said, waving her hand as the cultist vanished again.

“Aurelia, I’d like you to keep the bracelet,” Nae said, taking off the item as she handed it to her.

“I believe it should be with me,” Erwest spoke up. “I’m the highest leveled in this group, and my abilities will allow me to take care of him, given how I already captured him once.”

“I’m afraid I can’t do that. You’re not from the guild, and with Aurelia’s rank up, she should catch up to you very soon.” Nae said.

Aurelia nodded, accepting the bracelet. “I’ll take care of it.”

“How do we trust someone so readily willing to betray his allies?” Noah asked Nae.

“We aren’t trusting him. We’re making use of him. He’s sworn an oath, so he knows what’s in his best interests. It’ll keep him from being able to actively betray you. So he can’t lead you directly to a trap if he knows it’s a trap,” Nae said.

“What about Erwest? He’ll be caught immediately,” Noah said, glancing at the man.

“I won’t be,” Erwest replied.

“Use Identify on him Noah,” Nae said.

Confused, Noah turned to Erwest and used Identify.

[Stalwart Warrior - ??]

Noah stared in confusion at what he saw. “You’re not a paladin anymore?” he asked, confused.

“He is. But Divine Paths are a bit special. For example, if you are a Paladin of Hellion, and for whatever reason you no longer wish to be, you can forsake that path and its divinity will be removed. Which will convert it to a base path equivalent instead, without all the divine perks and abilities,” Nae said, glancing at Erwest. “Obviously Erwest did not do that, but I believe Hellion is allowing him the ability to change due to this quest.”

“I’m surprised by how willing the goddess has been with this entire thing. I thought she’d be more… busy,” Aurelia said.

“The All-Mother is busy, but a new Abyssal Rift is no small matter. We have a heavy burden upon our shoulders and she is merely doing her part in supporting us,” Erwest said, glaring at Aurelia.

“Calm down bud, she didn’t mean anything by that,” Noah said, patting Erwest’s shoulder.

The man glanced at Noah, before, to his surprise, giving a nod. “Apologies, that came out harsher than I had intended to. But I merely want you to understand just how much the goddess is doing for us, at every moment.”

“Sure, I believe it,” Noah said.

“So, what now? How are we planning to head to Heartilia? Wyvern again?” Noah asked.

“Actually, no,” Nae said. “Your ride should be here any minute.”

As she spoke, the world around them stirred. Light flashed as Noah saw a portal open up in front of him.

Two soldiers walked forth, glancing at the four of them.

“The Lord of Heartilia is awaiting your presence.”

Noah glanced around in surprise.

“Is… that our transport?” Noah asked.

“Seems like it,” Aurelia replied.

Erwest headed in first, and after a moment of hesitation Aurelia followed.

Noah looked on to the swirling blue gate before glancing at Nae.

“Good luck,” the woman said, as he stepped into the light.

This content is taken from fr(e)ewebn(o)vel.𝓬𝓸𝓶