System Change

“What do you mean?” Derek asked.

“The Echoing Willow always releases a few intense bursts of its power before going dormant for a short amount of time. Unless it has changed after all of these years, this doesn’t happen often. We’re lucky. It means that soon, the willow will lose control of the abyss for a short time.”

“And it will be vulnerable?” Derek asked.

“Not necessarily...” Alanah said. “I’ve never gotten close to it. It does, however, mean that it will lose control of all the beasts. In other words, the beasts will gain control of themselves for this short amount of time. They will all be busy gathering themselves and even trying to escape the willow. It will be our perfect chance to go there. They shouldn’t attack us or anything else that gets close to them. This could be the best time for us to attack.”

“And you’re sure you still want to do that?” Derek asked. “Kill the willow?”

“Even if I wasn’t before,” Alanah started. “Knowing that the bastards in this kingdom are using the tree to grow stronger has made me sure. This horrifying bogeyman can’t leave them without giving them one last parting gift, after all.”

“No, I guess you can’t,” Derek said with a chuckle. “Well, how are we going to do this?” he asked.

“You said you might have a plan, right?” Alanah asked. “I wasn’t expecting to get this opportunity—especially so soon. What are you thinking?”

“I think that neither of us are well equipped to fight against something as big as that giant tree seemed to be,” Derek said. “I have a couple of attacks that may work on something of its size, but the rest of my skills are much more suited to fighting single opponents.”

“That is true,” Alanah replied. “I also have to imagine that my main controlling abilities will not be very useful in a fight with it. After all, our abilities are very similar. The Echoing Willow may be even less susceptible to my skills than I am to its skills. I do not know if the tree actually has a way of hearing me.”

“Exactly,” Derek said, agreeing with the siren’s assessment.

“So, what do you think?” Alanah asked.

“Well, it’s not like the two of us have to fight it on our own,” Derek said. “Once I saw the thing, I started thinking about ways to defeat it.”

“Very true,” Alanah said. “That is one of the things that makes your traveling skill so powerful. Who did you have in mind?”

“Unfortunately, most of our friends will be too affected by the tree’s abilities,” Derek said. “You saw how much of a toll it took on Ryven just getting to the edge of the abyss.”

“Mhm. That was with him carrying us and not protecting himself with his sound barriers. The Elras family are quite good at countering sound-based attacks with those barriers,” Alanah said. “Ryven still may not be too much help in the matter, but I imagine that Osian would be capable of withstanding the echoes with or without his barriers. I do believe that he is quite a bit stronger than his brother. We have never seen the king go all out, after all. And he could provide protection from the control to any others in the fight.”

“True,” Derek replied. “He would definitely be good at crowd control of any beasts—but because of the current situation, we may not need anyone to control the beasts. And honestly, anyone who can’t withstand the echoes on their own probably won’t be much help against the willow. It also seemed like the elves were having a pretty important meeting. Borrowing a duke without permission is one thing, but borrowing king may be a bit much.”

“Mhm.” Alanah nodded. “Who else do you have in mind? Obviously, you’re going to bring Silvi in. I know that those flames of hers are no joke. She completely melted the talented King of Astrus with those flames. Plus, you have been calling the Echoing Willow a piece of firewood for some time now.”

“Got it in one,” Derek said. “I’m also curious if one of her skills will work with firewood. Other than her, I think it would be a pretty good idea to bring Edgar into the fray. Where I’m from, there’s a lot of lore about lightning striking trees. We also know that he can withstand the echoes on his own, and he has mobility that is close to your own when you are in your siren form.”

“The prince would be a good choice,” Alanah replied. “Do you think he would be up for the fight?”

“Obviously,” Derek replied. “That guy really gets into it when fighting strong opponents. He also missed the fight with the final raid boss, so I’m sure he’s itching for some action. He’s probably been drowned in politics lately—he’d take any excuse to get away from that,” he explained. “I’m also thinking we should bring Avery along.”

“We should,” Alanah replied almost instantly. “I would like to have one final battle with him by my side. He is also single target damage for the most part, so he may not be extremely useful, but I wouldn’t want to fight without him.”

“Then it’s settled,” Derek said. “I’ll go pick up Avery, Edgar, and Silvi. I’d like to bring a healer or support just in case, but to do that, I think we would need Osian to come to protect them—I’m not sure if any I know would be able to withstand the echoes. I also think that our recovery stats are enough to get by, and we can always retreat if needed.”

“Those three should be good enough,” Alanah said. “Too many more and it could get crowded. You should go get them. I will make my way out of the cave and will be waiting for you outside.”

“Sounds good,” Derek replied. Alanah still seemed a bit wary about showing other parts of herself—parts that would show her vulnerability—so she surely didn’t want them to gather in her former home.

“Then I will see you soon,” Alanah said. After that, the siren began a slow trek out of the cavern. Derek watched as the small orb of light she was holding moved further and further away. Soon, the light disappeared, and he was left standing alone in the complete dark of the room.

“I guess that’s my cue,” Derek muttered to himself. After that, he activated his skill and stepped inside the void.

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When Derek stepped back out of the void, he was inside Rudy’s office—or at least what used to be Rudy’s office. There were walls knocked out, and there were also a couple of people that he didn’t recognize huddled scared over in the corner of what was Rudy’s shop. Uh... what the hell? He thought before remembering that he’d left Malorie and Geoffrey to work out details of different things to do. They had bought the extra lots, after all.

Avery then turned around and spoke to the three children. “Your lessons with me end here today,” he said. They weren’t able to respond, though, as the feeling that Derek’s portal was emitting was just too strong. “You can train how you like if you want or take the rest of the day off—whichever you all think is best.” After that, he turned to Derek. “Let’s go.”

“Stand still.” As he did with Edgar before, Derek took Avery through the portal and out to Alanah.

Once Derek withdrew his Void Creation shield from around the man, Avery walked forward and stood beside Alanah. “Finally getting revenge?” he asked.

“Yes,” Alanah said. “Finally.”

“Hey,” Derek said, causing Alanah to turn to look at him. “There’s a couple more people that I think would be good for this. I’m going to go see if they want to come. Should be great for the roots.”

“Whatever you think is best,” Alanah replied.

Derek nodded, then left once more.

“Fucking hell,” a deep voice sounded out as soon as Derek exited his portal.

“Ah... sorry,” Derek said. Tyron was standing over an anvil with his ball peen hammer in his hand—his arm frozen mid-swing.

“Just eight hours of work down the drain,” the smith said, then with a sigh, asked, “Can I help you with something?”

“You can, actually,” Derek said. “Are you by chance in the need of some extremely high-quality wood?”

“High-quality wood?” The Walking Forge asked. “I’m always in need of high-quality materials. Why? Do you have any?” The smith’s eyes turned from annoyed to hopeful the instant Derek mentioned high-quality materials.

“On me? No,” Derek said. “But we are about to fight an extremely strong tree, and I thought you and Rocky may be able to help. I figure your lava or magma or whatever would be very good against such an opponent. Once we kill it, I’m sure there will be plenty of wood to go around.”

“A battle, then?” Tyron asked.

“Yes, a battle.”

Tyron cracked his neck, then reached out and cracked his knuckles. “I guess I could take a break from the forge for a bit. What do you think?” At that, Rocky’s worm-like form slithered out of the man’s shirt and onto his shoulder. Tyron laughed, “Rocky’s in. What do you need us to do?”

“I just need the two of you to stay really still,” Derek said.

“We won’t have to fly, will we?” Tyron asked.

“No, no flying,” Derek said.

“Good.”

Next, Derek stepped forward and covered the two in his void. After that, he picked them up and walked into his portal—closing the opening behind him. He hadn’t bothered closing the other side of the portal, so he soon stepped out next to everyone else again.

“That... was almost as bad as flying,” Tyron said. “There’s no floor, but there is a floor...”

“Nothing I can do about that,” Derek said with a chuckle as he closed the portal behind him.

“Mr. Blacksteel,” Alanah said. “Thank you for joining us.” After that, she turned to Derek. “Yes, Mr. Blacksteel will be a great addition.”

“I thought so,” Derek laughed. “And he comes with a dragon.” Rocky poked his head out of Tyron’s shirt and gave a quick nod.

“Thank you for your help, too, Rocky,” Alanah said. “Now, is there anyone else?” she asked.

“We’re just waiting on...” Derek started, but felt the dreadful aura appear behind him. “Nevermind,” he said.

A few seconds later, Silvi hopped out of the portal with a void created pot and lid floating above her. After she closed the entrance, she dismissed her pot and lid, and quickly re-equipped all her gear. She looked around at everyone, then, with a chime, said, “Noodle!” Causing the dragonkin to quickly dive back into the safety of Tyron’s shirt.

“Everyone’s here,” Derek said with a chuckle. “You have the lead.”