Chapter 44: Dark Castle Walls?

The party continued to walk down a straight path away from the gate of the Empire city, their pace sightly faster than before as leaving a day and a half behind their final member and the only one that could navigate over any terrain at the same speed left them playing a massive game of catch up. The party hastily move through the barren wastes that make up the Dark Lands, nothing living around to pester them or any environment hazards to hinder their progress, a place of flat barren nothingness.

“Wasn’t the Dark King meant to have some fierce army?”
“That’s what everyone in Seolford and Empire city were saying. But so far, we’ve seen nothing, not a single monster or well anything.”
“No way Lexa could have wiped everything out, right?”
“Honestly, with how pissed she was at you Ilev I’m not convinced that she couldn’t have.”
“Guess I’m going to be apologising for a long time to come then.”
“That you are, mate.”

With the party’s pace slowing because of exhaustion, they stop to make camp for the night and have dinner made up of whatever they have to hand in their packs from their restock in Empire city.

“How far do you think this place goes on?”
“Far enough, I’m already so done with this place, and I had to model it. But I don’t remember it being this flat.”
“You don’t? What do you remember making it like Lekly?”
“I remember making it a cliff ridden hill that should be stupid hard to climb up. Because like this is where the final boss is gonna be, right?”
“But this is definitely not that. Do you think it just got that big and we haven’t hit that part yet?”
“No, it’s not that Arano. When me and Lexa were working on some of the early story details, we made sure that one edge of the Dark Lands would be right up next to Empire city with them being in an almost constant struggle with the Dark Lands forces.”
“Again that doesn’t seem to be the case.”
“Nope not at all, Ilev you ok there.”

The party all turn to see Ilev pacing about seemingly deep in thought, after Suieol called his name a few more times he finally jolted to attention.

“Something is obviously not right here, as both Lekly and Aromi have said this area doesn’t match what they designed and made. The only people we know who have come through here are the Dark King’s forces, who wouldn’t damage their own home. The soldiers of the empire, who as strong as they might be do not have this capability. Alyssa, who again wouldn’t damage her own home. Isla, who as far as we’re aware is unconscious right now. And…”
“Lexa.”
“Bingo, Suieol. But even then, does she even possess a spell that could flatten an entire segment of the map and wipe out the entirety of the Dark King’s forces? I know now that she’s super mad, but even then, does she have the mana or the actual spell to do something like this?”
“She has that spell that creates an orb of water doesn’t she?”
“But there’s not a trace of water anywhere around Arano, unless you’re suggesting she used it alongside another spell.”
“Yeah let me finish Ilev. She has that and a spell that can bind things, what if she created a huge orb of water and then used that binding spell to compress it?”
“But to create anything dangerous she’d have to create a million atmospheres of pressure to… that void spell she used on the Void Burasu. What if she found a way to cast all three, but the mana cost would be huge, and the void rebound would be huge. She only used that spell once and never again, but what if she used all three…”
“She could have potentially created a clean fusion bomb.”
“Arano, Ilev. That can’t be possible, you know that clean fusion bombs aren’t possible.”
“In our world no, but who’s to say here. With her power. They aren’t? How else can you explain the flattened land? The lack of any of the Dark King’s forces challenging us? Dare I say it, but I think Lexa managed to create a thermonuclear explosion that used no fissile material like those weapons of myth.”
“I guess, she did. Or she created something similar that wiped out the ground and the forces leaving no traces behind.”

This realisation sent the party into a prolonged silence, one that lasted until the next morning. And even then, it was only broken by the sound of the fire, cooking and taking down of the tents, before the party marched deeper into the Dark Lands waiting to come across the castle or ruins of one that the Dark King should be within. After another half day the party come across a small upward slope that seems to rise most of the way up what should have been a sheer cliff until it meets the remnants of a path that should have snaked up the hill amongst the cliff faces. Lekly and Suieol combine their power to raise the ground they stand on up to the path where they follow it, eventually arriving at the peak. A large open plateau the only thing visible was a castle wall made of black stone and beyond that the Dark King’s castle, the outer wall looked intact. But the party know that with Lexa’s ability walls mean nothing and that once they get inside that wall, they’ll find her in whatever state she might be in. Approaching the wall with caution, the party make camp slightly away from what looked to be the main gate. As they were preparing camp, they head a voice from above.

“Finally arrived? Saved all the insignificant people you wanted to save Ilev?”

The voice belonged to Lexa. A battered, bloody, Lexa.

“You fought without us, didn’t you?! What have you done?”
“What we should have from the start Ilev. Kill all who stand in our way of getting home.”
“Get down here I need to say something to you. After I do heal your ass up and sleep and we’ll fight together tomorrow at dawn.”
“Going to say you were right and I was wrong again? If so. I don’t want to hear it, I’m going back to finishing this quest.”

With that she disappeared again, the party unable to ignore the state she was in abandoned setting up camp and packed away hurriedly and bust through the gate after Lexa. Once they did, they found her locked in a brutal battle with the first lieutenant. The Burasu.