Book 5: Chapter 31

Aaron arrived in the casino to find Julius in his office on the top floor, craning over System-projected maps alongside several others.

“There you are, and not a moment too soon. Come, Aaron, take a look at this,” Julius waved him over.

“What’s going on, mate? The mood seems rather serious up here.”

“It is. See this?” Julius said, tapping his finger on the map. “Until a few days ago, these were obelisks.”

“Were? What are you getting at?”

“What do they look like?”

Aaron looked at the blank spots on the map. “Nothing?”

“Precisely. What were obelisks of control are now nothing, according to the System map. Not just that,” Julius said, pointing out another couple of blank spots. “But these two were actually controlled by Darius’ legion.”

“Darius? What do you think happened?”

“No idea; that’s the problem. This one was a smaller faction we had yet to contact. And this one was cleared out by Talia and Soohyun. We were going to take control of it, build up an outpost, and use it as a staging ground against the rest. The plan was simple: reach out to the smaller factions, and then go after Darius’ obelisks. But then, only a couple of days ago, all the obelisks went dark.”

“I see. What about Soohyun and Talia? They didn’t see anything while they were out there?”

“Nothing peculiar. And now they’re on another mission to our west, persuading some smaller factions to join us. Because of their ranking and power, they make good envoys. But I can’t just sit around and wait while things I can’t explain happen. I was going to send a scouting squad, but—”

“It’ll be dangerous?” Aaron raised a brow.

“You guessed it. Or at least, I presume as much. Whether it’s Darius or somebody else, there has to be a reason for this. Our upgraded settlement management System highlights all obelisks and tells us who is in control. Something like that can’t just be overridden by anybody. In fact, I’m not even sure it’s possible. But now that you’re here, Aaron…”

“Yeah, alright. I’ll do it. So, you just want me to scout the area and figure out who is behind it?”

“Pretty much. If there are enemies in the area, and you can handle them, obviously it would be best if you dealt with them. But what we really need to know is how they’re hiding the obelisks from our System map. We’re trying to build something here, and if the enemy has some means of obscuring obelisks, and who controls them, that is going to make our lives a lot harder. If we want to be in control, we need to prove our authority. That means knowing who is where, and what they’re doing. If we can’t trust the map, we’ll need to send scouts out to all the different obelisks and settlements, and confirm who is in control of what. And we’ll need to do it sooner rather than later.”

“Alright, no worries. I got it.”

“Good. But please, Aaron, I know you’ve done too much already. You’re the reason we’ve pushed Darius back as it is. But a lot is riding on this. Our growth has increased exponentially. Most settlements barely need any convincing anymore. They see our size, and the rankers who have joined us, and they happily jump on board. Something like this could be a major hurdle for us. And we’re getting closer to being able to claim the world core.”

“Yeah, about that, while I was up north, I found a massive city on the other continent. It’s probably a good idea to reach out to them.”

“Massive, you say? Hmph. Right, I will organize a diplomacy mission. Bigger factions are no doubt going to require a little more negotiation. That said, our mission is unchanged. If we can get the other settlements to join us on the merit of our strength, we might be able to claim the core without direct control over the bigger factions.”

Aaron nodded along. He had already heard enough. It seemed like Julius had this side of things under control, and he really didn’t want to get too deep into the weeds of things.

“Okay, I got it. I’ll be back as soon as I know what’s going on.”

In truth, he wanted to head south and check in with Zero quickly. But Julius seemed genuinely concerned, and so he almost immediately headed out to check the obelisks.

At his speed, it didn’t take him long to reach the map markers placed by Julius. And surprisingly, he sensed no corrupted aether as he neared, nor did he see any signs of undead.

If Darius’ minions had been here, they had sure kept a low profile.

“Wait, they’ve been destroyed?”

He found the first marker, but instead of an obelisk, he found a pile of glowing rubble in the center of what was once a meagre settlement. He spotted a few corpses too, nothing overly powerful. Whoever had attacked had effortlessly slaughtered the defenders.

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“But why destroy the obelisk instead of claiming it?

He wasn’t sure what was more confusing. The destroyed obelisk, or the complete lack of corrupted aether. Surely there wasn’t another faction competing against them?

Wasting no time, Aaron moved on to the next. And it too was a pile of rubble. Even the abandoned obelisk that Soohyun and Talia had cleared was destroyed, like the others.

At the former sites of Darius’ settlements, he found corrupted taint in the air, but like the other sites, the obelisks there had also been destroyed.

“Why?” Aaron muttered as he expanded his senses and walked around.

Suddenly, he remembered the conditions for seizing control of the world core. To do it, one needed to control 80% of their world. If someone were to destroy obelisks, then there would be less to conquer… but who would benefit from such a thing?

The borders of the obelisks could be expanded, and once you had all the System-provided benefits from controlling a faction, the number of obelisks wasn’t all that important. For the most part, they allowed construction of System-purchased buildings, but it likely wasn’t necessary to build them across the entire world. Especially if you controlled that world.

But even though he could make sense of such a strategy, he doubted most would attempt such a thing. He had met most of the top rankers of their world during the dungeon, and there were few who he believed would do such a thing.

There was one exception, obviously. Darius was not to be trusted, and he had a motive. Aaron could easily cleanse obelisks, and even if Darius got the upper hand against him, it could easily become a game of cat and mouse, with Aaron racing around cleansing obelisks and preventing Darius from claiming the world core.

But if he could destroy a significant number of them?

Suddenly, it made a lot of sense. Darius could focus his huge hordes on conquering and controlling a small number of them if he destroyed the rest. Also, he had no doubt been fortifying his stronghold deep in the necrotically deceased wastelands this entire time. And even Aaron was cautious about charging straight in there.

“Okay, if that’s what’s going on, where to next”

Aaron opened his map. Sure, he had already discovered what was going on. But he wasn’t ready to head straight back to Dober. This wasn’t some kind of special shielding technique, as Julius had presumed, and he wasn’t sure what good the information would do just yet.

Largely because he still wasn’t sure who was behind it. If it were Darius’ usual suspects, then he’d feel the corrupted aether seeped into the ground and air. But these sites had been clean, at least the ones that hadn’t already been home to the undead troops.

Not far to the east, he spotted several more obelisks, and shot off into their direction. He was not sure if there was rhyme or rhythm to these attacks, but since they were close and controlled by minor factions, he figured they were his best next stop.

As he neared the other settlements, he realized that a good portion of the sites that had been hit were near the water. And those that weren’t were only a short trip inland. And he started to wonder if it was a coincidence, or something else.

As he got closer, he flew into a naturally defensible cove. It looked like whoever had taken up home here had built walls and turrets along the narrow stretch of rocky coast they had, but most of it was now lying in ruins, and motes of smoke traced up into the sky.

Landing in the middle of the settlement, dozens grabbed their weapons and held them at the ready. But none attacked. Probably because they inspected him and knew exactly who he was.

A moment later, the on-edge defenders stepped aside as a large man approached.

“Hey, is that you, Joseph? What the hell are you doing here?”

“Aaron,” Joseph said, grabbing his hand and pulling him into a bro shake. “I’m protecting the locals here. Found this place not long after the dungeon.”

Suddenly, Joseph’s expression soured, and he turned to look at the ocean. “That thal’kesh betrayed us. He acted like an ally in the dungeon, but of course he couldn’t be trusted. The moment we returned, he went back to his old ways. He has been attacking us relentlessly, and I know he has already taken out several settlements with his evil followers.”

“Wait, hold up a second, Joseph. Are you talking about Ikran?”

“Exactly,” Joseph spat. “Monsters, the lot of them. We should have dealt with them in the dungeon when we had a chance.”

Aaron shook his head. That didn’t make a lot of sense. They mightn’t have been old friends, or anything. But he highly doubted Ikran would be destroying obelisks. What for?

“Are you sure Ikran is responsible for attacking you and destroying the other obelisks?”

Joseph nodded. “I fought him myself. I’m the only reason this settlement is standing, and only somewhat destroyed. Managed to force him back into the sea. We took out a decent number of his followers, but he used a lot of mana to take down our defenses. I’m sure the moment he has recovered, he’ll be back.”

It didn’t make a lot of sense to Aaron. But he couldn’t argue if the man had fought him face to face.

“Where did he go?”

“That way,” Joseph pointed to the water. “He uses the ocean. Like me, he has an affinity to water, and is stronger when fighting within it. From there, he pops up all across the coast, attacking settlements and destroying obelisks anywhere he can find them.”

“Well, we’d better go stop him then.”

He still wasn’t convinced about any of it. The motives made no sense. But if Ikran was doing that, there was no better place to get an explanation than from the man himself. Besides, Aaron wasn’t too worried about fighting underwater, water affinity, or not.

Also, there was a thought that troubled him. What if Ikran was working with Darius?

He didn’t know why he would do that, after everything that had happened in the dungeon. The Death God had almost gotten all of them killed. But if top rankers were deciding to side with the necromancer, that would change everything.

“Shall we?”

“Are you sure about this?” Joseph said as they stepped up to the water’s edge. “Affinities are no joke. He is much stronger down there.”

“Nah, yeah, mate. I’m good,” Aaron said, rotating his shoulders. “We’ll be fine. Let’s get this done.”

The two of them dived down, and it didn’t take long to spot the ruined remains of other settlements, including obelisks beneath the water.

“That there was once my base,” Joseph said, speaking underwater as easily as if he were on the surface, but with a distortion caused by the water. “And those settlements were once thal’kesh.”

So they’re destroying their own bases down here too?

Aaron didn’t know exactly what to think, but he knew whatever was going on, it had to be related to the world core.