Chronicles of the True Wizard

Chapter 150 - Book 54

Felix turned his attention back to the section of the wall where he knew something was hiding. No more of the stone wall had been destroyed in the fire, so there was still just a small point of teal metal showing through. Felix morphed his staff into a hammer and chisel and got to work removing more of the stone wall around the metal. He found that the teal metal was just a small section. It formed a square just a quarter of a meter to a side, around it was simply more stone. Felix assumed it might be a plate or door so he began digging around the metal so he could get a crowbar behind it.

Unfortunately, it seemed it wasn't a plate at all, but more like a solid cube. It took him a little while to dig it out but his manually enchanting the stone to be softer helped a lot. Once he was done, Felix held a small cube of teal metal in his hands, turning it over, he found a slight seam around the side that was buried the deepest in the wall.

"Is everything alright down there?" A melodic voice called down from above.

Turning his head towards the source, Felix saw Amani standing at the edge of the basement, looking down at him.

"Yeah, I'm fine."

"I saw a fire on the edge of Orselle's zone and thought it might be one of my people. What happened?"

"Oh uh… well…

It took another week or so for him to open up a bit more but it seems like he decided to let me in a little. He explained to me what the Devoured really were. I'm not an idiot though, I knew they had once been people, I just didn't know how he transformed them. He assured me he never used it on innocents. He brought me down into the kingdom which is filled with Devoured of a much higher level than I had ever seen before. He called the kingdom his greatest mistake. I feel like I should be disgusted, appalled, but I'm not. I just, I don't feel anything. I don't care. He made a mistake, he regrets it.

What made the Devoured so terrifying as an army, was that a typical army filled with low level troops were easily dealt with by siege mages, by wide area spells. The Devoured though have a ridiculously high resistance to all forms of magic, higher than I have ever seen, along with higher than average physical resistance. The downside was that they were too low level to do much by themselves. To use them effectively, Erolan needed a massive swarm to overwhelm the enemy.

The Devoured in Kroterra, the undercity, all had much higher levels, were far smarter, and much more capable of dealing damage. The prospect that they existed at all was both horrifying and baffling. I asked him why he didn't use them like he had the others. Turns out, he doesn't have full control over them. The undercity is his greatest mistake because he accidentally transformed the entire city.

When he first found the Devourer's set, he didn't really know how to use them properly. One day, he accidentally lost control of them and wiped out the entire kingdom. He didn't control the devouring so he couldn't make sure they were obedient, instead they were uncontrollable monsters. He was so distraught by what had happened that he vowed to find a way to cure them. That's why the kingdom still exists, in the hopes that he can one day find a way of fixing his mistake. It's a monument to his shame. He insisted he hadn't used the souls of Kroterra yet, they were all still safe in his ring, he hadn't touched them yet. He thinks that makes it less bad. I don't really care but… I also don't know anyone that would agree with him.

He was downright giddy when he realized I wasn't horrified by his actions. We got to talking more and he explained how the Devourer's set worked. There were three pieces, the crown, and two rings. Each one was focused on a different portion of what makes a person whole. The crown focused on the mind, the blood ring on the body and the soul ring on the soul. The concept was simple enough, but the really interesting part was what they could do. They were each specially designed spatial pockets to store their respective element. The crown would store the memories of those he Devoured, so he could sort through them at will. The blood ring stored the matter that made up their body and allowed him to create a new body instead his own, it was how he appeared as a human. The soul ring stored their souls, so he could sift through them at will.

Not only did they store them, but they allowed him to harvest them somehow? I don't really understand it but there are two Erolan's, the human one and the original. They grew as completely separate entities. As fascinating and powerful as the Devourer set was, there had to be a bigger drawback to using them. With his confidence bolstered by my acceptance of his past horrors, Erolan has grown bolder. He started a program where he personally picks and trains the best of the best from the city. He calls it their ascension. I know he just plans on Devouring them though. He's started to pick fights he can't win so he needs to grow his army. Lucky for him, there seems to be an endless supply of immigrants and everyone sees Erolan as their god, their great protector. Maybe he was their protector, but not anymore. He's slowly descending into madness, becoming more willing to commit atrocities to accomplish his goals.

I know I said earlier that I didn't feel anything, but now that he's rounding up children, families, anyone he thinks might be useful, there's this pit in my stomach. I think about it and I feel sick. I feel sick because I know I should care about innocent people being dominated and subjugated, their will crushed, turned into slaves, but I don't. Mostly though, I feel sick because I'm scared. How long before Erolan decides it's my turn to "ascend."

It all happened so fast. This journal will remain here as a record of what happened. If you find this, and he's still alive, I'm dead and he's probably completely corrupted. You have been warned, no matter how nice he seems, he's a monster.

Entry 2

The axe he gave me woke up today. It accepted me as it's wielder and offered to soul bond. Lucky thing that, no matter how I modified my body, it was always too heavy to wield without injuring myself. I was about to give up too, now it's as light as a dagger while still being able to swing it with the full force of a massive great axe. It's got some other properties and abilities too but I haven't totally figured them out yet.

Entry 3

It's official, he's going mad. Erolan is openly challenging massive empires that have existed for millennia, enemies he can't beat, and multiple of them at once. I don't know what his plan is but I'm not going to let him take me down with him. I managed to carve out a passage into the kingdom below, I just hope I have enough time to get out when he finally comes for me.

Entry 4

He isn't even bothering with the lies anymore, he's just taking people from their families in the night and devouring them. He managed to get a semblance of control over the high level Devoured below. When he showed me, with a smile, I could see it. He no longer felt shame at what had happened in the past, he was proud of his accomplishments, he took pride in it. Erolan changed. He's not the same person he once was.

Entry 5

Well he did the impossible. He managed to take out the biggest empire in reach and made everyone else wary of him. After the victory I hoped something might change, but in the battle I saw the truth. It's hard to explain but he's slowly descending into madness. His eyes dart around, his head twitches, he screams then reverts to perfect calm in an instant. The only time he seems present, focused, is when he's staring down at a mass of souls he can Devour. He looks upon them with hunger in his eyes, drool on his chin and ragged breathing. He's not even a person anymore, he's just an animal. Tomorrow. I'm going to escape, run away and save myself. I just have a few more things to prepare before I do.

Entry 6

I'm leaving. Hopefully, if you're reading this, I made it out. I left everything I thought he might be able to use to track me. I salvaged a new set of clothes from the empire we took out. I need to take the axe with me though, we're soul bound, if I left it behind he'd just be able to track me down. I said before that there are two Erolan's, the human and the original. I was wrong, there's another. If you're reading this, hopefully Erolan is dead. Who knows, maybe I got strong enough to come back and take him out. If he isn't, run.

Holy shit Grim. The soul ring…

Yeah.

That seems… Ridiculously coincidental.

Yeah either you are that lucky…

Or something else is going on…

We can think about it later.

So how do I kill him.

Theoretically, you destroy a piece or two of the Devourer's set.

Is that even possible?

Not sure.

What if we put it in a vault and seal the entrance?

Even if it was a true pocket dimension, it wouldn't stop him just slow him down. It also wouldn't be that hard for him to open a portal of his own to get to it.

I guess we need to find the seals first, we can figure out how to kill him then. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .