Bonded Summoner-BS7 - Book 7 Epilogue

Baron Cassius stepped into the communication room in his Refuge, which was little more than a conference table. Sitting down in the high-backed, ornate chair, the waiting servant filled his chalice with wine, before leaving the room.

Baron Avaron was the first to appear, his projection holding a stein of beer and taking a big drink. The blond man was in a Nordic tunic, wearing a crown upon his head.

Avaron scowled as he sat his drink down., “Fuck! What a huge waste of time this has been. I could have been leveling in the third Tier by now, but here I am waiting for our enemy to show up. If not for our task, I’d have long-since moved on.”

Cassius groaned as he took a drink. “Tell me about it. Baron Calix said he has news. The War Trial nears. If they don’t move soon, we’ll have to move in on their worlds instead.”

Avaron grimaced. “Not even I think that will work so well. Their people are earning plenty in the dungeon, and their earned worlds are quite loyal, so far. It’ll be hard to move in their cities when the natives want to shiv you in the back.”

Baron Calix suddenly appeared on the other end of the table, the son of Hermes dressed in his metallic toga.

Cassius said, “I hope you have good news, Calix. We’ve been wasting far too much time on The Burning Steps.”

Calix chuckled, and shook his head. “You two complain too much. I’m the one doing all the traveling and hard work. But I do have news, both good and bad.”

Avaron said, “Well, out with it. I don’t have all day.”

“The first, is that our enemy’s families have merged. Nessa Tyrsdottir and Baron Hart have wed, as witnessed by the Divine.”

Avaron snorted. “So what? That doesn’t change anything.”

Calix scoffed. “You’re mistaken. Thanks to that bitch’s success, Baron Hart is now closer to becoming a Count than any one of us is–with the exception of having a third Tier world. If he becomes one, our ability for us, or our…patron, to influence the War Trial in our favor against them, will decrease significantly.”

Cassius groaned. “What else?”

Calix replied, “The Aesir and the seers all say the same thing. Hearthtribe is finally about to move. However, there is an issue.”

Cassius frowned. “An issue?”

“They are going to land on several worlds–Six in total. But we don’t know precisely when their leaders land.”

Cassius frowned. It was bad enough that they had difficulty reading when Hearthtribe was going to involve themselves in the war again. But that they couldn’t predict when they landed? “Could they have countermeasures against prophecy? This doesn’t make much sense with them being lower Tier natives.”

Calix replied, “The seers…they say they must have some kind of special protection. They are able to see, but their vision is clouded and delayed. Almost as if they are trying to foresee the actions of those of a higher Tier, but a little different. But not to worry, we see the actions of their guild just fine…at least now. The Hart family and their Champions…they can see so little of what they do, that it is alarming.”

Avaron snorted. “It sounds like excuses to me. All incompetent failures, just like your spies. They learned less than an average boy on the street of their worlds knew.”

Calix groaned. “We’ve been over this. Hearthtribe has a very stringent application process, I’ve never seen anything like it. We’ve only managed to get some of our men into their subguilds, and the beastkin are like walking lie-detectors. Our infiltrators are often quickly removed with no warning, and we don’t even know why or how. Their administrators…there are rumors that they never sleep, and that they live inside the Menu. Always watching.” He shivered.

Avaron sneered, but Cassius waved his hand at him placatingly. “I wouldn’t look down on these beastkin either, Avaron. The Ravenwolf Clan avoided all of our traps as if they could see the future themselves. It’s not impossible for them to have their own seers and protections, to go along with their other capabilities. Let’s move on to the foretelling. What happens in the war?”

Calix went over where Hearthtribe was hitting, and when they were landing. It was strange that their foretelling hadn’t been clear about this until this time, but it was far from the only oddity when it came to their enemy.

The problem, or the bad news, was that the Dungeon itself had failed. It seemed in their diving into Tartarus, Highlands had earned a method to earn planetary core energy–Energy Rating, and won a world back, which would grant them the same thing. At this rate, within a few years from that alone, the world would enter the third Tier.

This would happen long before the second stage of the War Trial, and there was nothing they could do to stop it.

Avaron was pissed, slamming his hand on the desk. Thankfully, he wasn’t even truly in the same room with Cassius, or his chalice would have been knocked over. Thank the Divine.

“Haven’t we already lost? With what they just gained, we’ll have failed in our task. Why would the dungeon give them exactly what they needed?”

Cassius shook his head. “Tartarus doesn’t have full control over what is granted, the Framework grants things based on a true lottery system based on risk and reward. Even fate and luck manipulators have failed to alter the rewards in their favor. This was true luck for our enemy.”

Calix focused on Avaron, “Our Patron won’t hold things that happened outside of our control against us, but they won’t forgive us if we still fail the task given to us–the one within our control. A world early in the third Tier is still weak, and if they solidify their standings further, it will make it even more difficult to defeat them in the War Trial itself. We can’t allow any of these six worlds to enter their hands, even if we do not win them for ourselves.”

Avaron grimaced. “But we didn’t even touch this stupid Serthune, let alone the Beast World. Why do they want those shitholes?”

Calix snorted. “That’s the problem with do-gooders, isn’t it? They don’t need a reason to want it. They just want to help,” He said mockingly and spread his arms wide, before he laughed.

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Cassius shook his head. “It shouldn’t matter. We have sabotaged the others, even before the conquest of some of them began. We can just dog pile that one or sandbag it if it comes to that. For now, we need to focus on The Burning Steps and Bramvalen. Our trap is ready for them, we only need to spring it. With them trapped in the void for a time, our efforts will cascade into the others. They’ll be too slow to catch up to all our other focused efforts.”

Calix nodded. “We need to beat them in this Battleground when they land, and keep hitting them, making them unable to accomplish anything. The plan somewhat hinges on it. We have a few backup plans, but their leaders are incredibly mobile, we were told. They just might be able to overcome it if we don’t put them on the back foot.”

Cassius understood. With their weekly events combined with outnumbering them drastically, they could keep them from accomplishing anything meaningful on the world.

Avaron snorted. “Overcome it? How are they going to triumph over a tainted moon? That world is as good as dust already.”

Calix snorted. “We still have to be careful, it’s not as though it can fall overnight. We couldn’t let it be destroyed before they even landed, could we? The Sector Council would look far too deeply, and we would be implicated. In addition, if Tyr’s daughter catches us sabotaging the world, the Sector Council may rule in her favor and that will be it for us. You of all people should understand very well that her words mean something–and that was before she even became a Baroness. Now, her words hold a heavier weight. If they gather any evidence at all, our plans will be ruined, and so will we.“

Avaron grimaced. “Fuck. So we got a little over a month before they start to arrive?”

“That’s right. Their arrivals on the other worlds seems mostly set, so we will position our people appropriately. But on The Burning Steps, we can’t even figure out when they land, just that we know it is around that time, give or take a few weeks.”

Avaron groaned. “Weeks? My guys can barely stay focused for a whole day.”

Cassius said, “There’s only about a year before the War Trial polls go out. It is not good enough to just beat them. We must crush them, ruin their reputations by pinning the blame for these losses on them, and shatter the trust their people have in them. Or they will have too much power during the trial. We cannot allow them to ruin our Divine’s plan to rule the Sector.”

Calix narrowed his eyes on Avaron. “So that means less time at the brothel and with a belly full of beer or wine. Whip your people into shape for divine’s sake. Our very lives just might depend on it.”

Avaron rolled his eyes. “Whatever. And what about you, Calix? Are you to be joining us?”

“It’s hard to know since we don’t know when they’re landing. I should make it there, barring an unforeseen delay. Just in case, do be prepared to take them on when they land without me.”

Avaron scoffed before ending the transmission, leaving Cassius and Calix alone.

Cassius asked, “How about the Ravenwolves, where are they headed?”

“It seems you might have lucked out. They’ll be on The Burning Steps. You’ll have your chance to get your revenge on them, and soon.”

Cassius grinned, and his hands balled into fists. He couldn’t wait to get that bitch and the abomination back. And that he could drag them into the void was going to be quite the revenge fulfilled.

***

Avalara ran her fingers through Jake’s hair, his head lying in her lap. His permanent summons were sparring, and he was enjoying Ava’s loving attentions as he played with his hearth constructs.

Creating a meander scaffolding for the runes, he continuously tested rune combinations in their hexagon pattern. He had tried a few others, from pentagons to triangles and squares, and this just seemed to work the best and produce the most powerful spells.

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With 24 elder futhark runes, and six or seven of them used within the hexagonal shape with an optional one at the center, had billions of possibilities, and by placing them in an interconnected formation–even more.

That was even more so with how each additional rune in the phrase could have a different meaning based on the others used, each rune having multiple meanings on their own. Thankfully, Jake wasn’t on his own. Amara was working with numerous magical researchers, and Mysticus and Zorina to divine out the working spells. Even Valtor was helping in his spare time.

But Mysticus wasn’t just a free tool that could just predict anything. His mystical calculations required information to function, and so they had to feed him as much information as possible about working and non-working combinations. If Jake was ever going to form a third Tier spell, this was the way.

A small Battlegroup of manifested templates fought against Bree, Sati, Ruby, and Nessa, and Jake thought they were actually an excellent team. Combined with his Aura, they were truly formidable. Almost as formidable as the rest of his wives, minus the ability to summon their Divine.

Zephyr the Garuda and Jasmina the Naga Siren joined with his beastkin army, attacking Bree in her humanoid form, along with the rest. There were a total of eighteen different beastkin templates, and he had made sure to pick some that were especially challenging to deal with.

Nessa’s water snakes rose from her lake, the two attempting to bite into the Garuda’s body, but it deflected one with its feathery shield. Zephyr blocked with its feather blade behind its back from a strange angle, slicing through the snake and dispelling it.

Bree’s humanoid body was filled with the flames of spring mixed with monstrous strength, and her powerful punch slammed into Darris the turtle beastkin’s shield. His body was blown back, despite the song-enhanced wall of water softening the blow. Vines from Bree then wrapped around Darris’ legs, trying to pull them out from underneath him, and slowing his movements as dinodogs were created to charge and distract the several other templates.

With his body and shield brought out of position, Ruby’s blade of blood snaked past the template’s guard, and cut into the snow owl healer he was protecting, and dispelled it into motes of light. Ruby then flipped over the enlarged Vesuvius’ attack with his glaive, dashing toward Jasmina and sending more blades of blood as she slashed her blood saber into the surrounding enemies.

The healer down, Sati’s flame darts started burning into Seamus, the paladin of Lugh, and he was now unable to keep up with the damage being done. He was chasing after her while firing angry sunbeams, but she flew and kited him away as she dealt with the archers also gunning for her.

As Ruby neared Jasmina, her auril-infused shriek sent vibrations into Ruby’s body, causing her to halt and hold her hands over her ears under her blood helmet. Even covered with her blood plate armor, this ability still had quite the influence on her, ripples traveling through it and hurting her sensitive ears.

Nessa’s lake wrapped around Ruby, protecting her from the effects with feelings of home emanating from it. Ruby then continued her charge, and while the powerful Dahlia and several beastkin arrived to defend Jasmina, Bree launched Darris into the air, crashing into Vesuvius and sending him flying to join in on the attack. Her vine whips slapped several of the shield-wielding beastkin away, and her punch sent more crashing into each other.

A giant orb of flame from Sati crashed into Jasmina’s shield of water, and since Dahlia was busy with Ruby and Bree took on the other beastkin, Nessa launched from her lake, and her blade pierced through the water protecting Jasmina, stopping in front of her neck.

Pouting, Jasmina disappeared into motes of light–transporting to another place in the Refuge because their killing blows were certainly not worth suffering for the soft-hearted creature.

With her and the healers dead, the party was able to focus down each of the templates until it was just the four of them left standing. They had to work through a few archers and flying beastkin, who had been hassling them with well-aimed shots the whole time.

They had defeated twenty of Jake’s summons with just the four of them, and he was quite impressed as they happily marched toward him, high-fiving each other and laughing.

Jake and Ava clapped as he sat up. “Good job, girls. That was some great teamwork.”

Ruby’s armor rippled, then became fluid and went back inside of her, leaving her in her red robes. “Jasmina’s shout was so strong, and Zephyr was so tough to deal with. That was good practice.”

Sati had floated over, and she said, “The beastkin are truly varied. The water was full of vitality, and made it a greater challenge to deal with, even with my powerful flames.”

Bree snorted. “You got that right. That Darris guy sure was a pain in the ass on his own, especially with that Naga Siren helping him. Thankfully, that Dahlia template isn’t nearly as good as the real thing.”

Jake chuckled. “It’s good for you in the sparring match, but not so good for us. I’d be happy to be even more overpowered, able to call out true copies of all of our allies, as I’m pretty sure I’d be unbeatable. The templates do well in serving their role, but they would have difficulty against their counterparts, even with my amazing buffs. Their skill levels and resources are limited, and they just aren’t able to defeat a truly talented opponent, even with their increased parameters.”

Nessa said, “Or some good support. We can all see how well Jasmina made them so much more effective. We can also work together with them when they’re on our side.”

“Definitely.”

He talked about their fight as they preened at his praise, and he was happy to go over what he thought of their actions. A complicated battle with twenty opponents was difficult, but Jake could have directed the templates better to make them a much larger challenge to defeat, if he wasn’t focused on other things, or just wanted to be a pain in the ass. Working with them, he pointed out these items to look out for, and how to handle them for the next time.

Of course, Jake hadn’t truly brought out his A-team when it came to the templates. Some beastkin’s abilities were simply more effective than others, thanks to the template’s many other limitations and restrictions.

Since they were going to be focused on PvP, they were spending a lot of time facing humanoid opponents for now. He had plenty of monstrous opponents for them to play with, but they would get plenty of those to work on as they challenged the numerous Rifts.

His mana recovered thanks to the Hearth of the Refuge, Jake summoned the next round of enemies. This time, it was a grouping of cultivators, Nords, and Roman warriors and casters. He had managed to grab a few while he was on Aetheris, which he was happy about.

The Xara template drew her blade, and a fiery halo appeared over Xu Weiyan’s head. Aria growled, her tails flickering behind her as Astalder brandished his axes. A dwarven rune mage cast a spell, creating an earthen barrier in front of the casters, Jake infusing mana into its casting.

This time, the number was far greater, as Jake’s investment in them was different. Over forty enemies were arrayed in front of them, preparing for battle.

Bree chuckled, cracking her knuckles as her tail whipped in a wagging motion behind her. “Looks like a new challenge.”

Jake asked, “Ready for the next round?”

The girls all looked positively eager, and after an affirmative, Nessa started shouting out orders, and they rushed off to take on the challenge.

Ava giggled. “Can’t you see it, my stag? They all want your attention.”

“Of course, I can see that. They also just love fighting, too.”

“That goes without saying! Just like all of your wives, they are warriors for good. But also love. These girls are all itching for your affection.”

“And they’ll get it, in time. We only have a month in transit, and it’s not something I want to rush so quickly. We’ll be busy after that.”

“They wouldn’t want that anyhow, unless that was what you wanted. Each will treasure and cherish your pursuit, in whatever form it takes. Even if it takes years–all of your girls are patient because they have a profound trust in you. As we all do.”

Jake reached up and scratched her deer ear on the side of her head, causing her to giggle as they flapped. “That tickles!”

Off to the side, a loud crash was heard, followed by an explosion. Shards of creature rolled by Jake and Avalara’s position, before dispersing into motes of light. His wives had finished off the boss monster the simulator had spawned, and it was one that was at the peak of their Tier.

The challenge wasn’t upgraded like what they would experience in the dungeon or in a Conquest, but they crushed the boss with just the five of them–including Avalara’s Battle Avatar, and nothing more than Jake’s Aura and buffs.

“Woohoo!” Berri said, “That’s what I’m talking about. We’re going to whup all these scrubs, and clear all the Rifts! And then, we can get back to making babies, and–”

Ophelia snorted. “You got a one-track mind, Berri. I think we’re going to be busy for some time, even after the Conquest of these worlds. The War Trial is set to begin soon, perhaps right after.”

Berri scoffed. “14 days.”

“Huh?”

“14 days is all the time it takes for me to make an egg now. If we can’t find the time, then we’re working way too hard, and we should make the time. We got more mommies here to take care of the babies now, after all! Besides, look at how strong our babies are.”

She pointed over to the side, where his oldest daughters could be seen through the invincible glass window in the nearby room. They were facing off against a familiar figure with an audience of most of their sisters, and Jake couldn’t help but be a bit surprised.

It was the Orc Commander they had faced on Ariminum, their very first Rift Boss. The forces that fought alongside him were fewer than at the Rift, but the five girls took them on with a surprising amount of strength and skill.

Clara and Nora both wore the beastkin cape suits, lined with mail. Nora was able to control the streamers or flaps with spearheads on the tips, though Clara wasn’t able to just yet. They also wielded halberds, swinging them deftly, cutting through the orcs with their auril or mana-enhanced weapons, runes glimmering around them.

Rena and Nyxa both held shields with large maces, almost looking like two-handed weapons, held in a single hand. They were covered in thicker plate armor, with spikes lining their backs and sides, reminiscent of what Bloodberri was wearing when Jake met her.

They were fighting in formation with their bird-sisters, the two holding the line with their shields together, while the others protected their flanks. Pushing into the smaller orcs, it really didn’t even look fair. The Orc Commander had not directly joined the combat yet, but he was stomping toward their battle line.

Blaze held a two-handed axe, looking like Bloodberri’s Chimeric Axe. Her snake body twirled and crashed into the side of the orc’s formation, sending them flying and smashing into their allies. Swinging her axe, she cleaved off an orc’s arm, enabling Clara to finish him off, and push forward. The Orc Commander shouted, buffing the orcs and covering them with a red barrier as he moved to join his allies with his large, two-handed mace.

Each of the girls released simple but effective runic spells, from Breaths of Cold to lightning bolts. The orc’s shields weakened, the girls then fought defensively by focusing down each one, until they finished besting each one, and pushed on to the commander.

The five of them surrounded the Orc Commander as he arrived, their shields in his face and ready to trade blows. Their maces and halberds struck him hard, bruising his muscles and dismantling his stance.

Suddenly, he activated an ability, swinging powerfully into Nyxa’s shield, and shoving the large girl to the side. Spinning around, his large mace swung toward Clara’s head, the golden-haired owl girl barely bringing her halberd into position to block.

But a barrier from Blaze arrived, shattering as it slowed the mace, and allowing Clara’s halberd to parry the blow. Meanwhile, the larger girl had risen herself high, and used gravity to bring her axe down and cut powerfully into his back, bringing him down to his knees.

Rena then managed to finish him off, her endurance-enhanced mace swing smashing into his helmet and skull, dispersing him into motes of light.

The parents all stopped what they were doing, to teleport and congratulate their eldest daughters. The many other daughters clapped and cheered, shouting at their sisters’ success. It was a surprise that Blaze had been ready to shield her sisters, and they each high-fived and applauded her for her paying attention and protecting Clara.

Berri said, “You did it! That was awesome teamwork!”

As they tried to hug their daughters, and the many snake-sisters tried to give them hugs too, they got to experience the unfortunate side effect of armor–it was not good for hugging.

They could feel the warmth in their hearts and hearths from receiving their parent’s praise, their high-fives and fist bumps as they felt their Presence, so they were ecstatic and full of pride.

Jake was immensely proud of how far his young children had come, and was overall shocked at just how strong they were. While they hadn’t been able to experience a Trial for the zeroeth Tier, he felt that they didn’t need to in order to have just as much potential as him and his wives.

The Trial had merely allowed them to earn that potential for themselves, and each of his daughters had traits and bonuses much like Bloodberri had from her special monstrous constitution, and they each had hearth cores, besides. Right now, they were still practicing their skills and have not yet selected classes. But already, Jake could see how strong they were going to be once they did, likely receiving Rare or Epic classes at the very best.

Jake looked over his women and children with a smile. While there were numerous threats ahead, between the Conquest of several worlds, PvP, and the upcoming War Trial, he was confident. Jake and his family, friends, and allies had grown. They were all strong, and all these challenges would be overcome in time.

The flames of both love and determination burned brightly within their Hearths, and they were ready for anything.