BOOK 8. CHAPTER 5: ARRIVAL ON THE BURNING STEPS

The party was all decked out in their gear, ready to arrive on The Burning Steps. Nessa’s snake scale armor had received Jake’s enchantments, and he had even enchanted Bree’s skin with Celtic patterns, a tattooing of her flesh that worked rather well.

As much as they wanted to put actual armor on her, it would get in the way of her vine’s growth or her transformation. She relied on her living armor, much like Avalara’s battle avatar, and so this was a viable compromise.

The group was fanned out, and Jake had even brought out Jasmine and Zephyr, the Naga Siren and Garuda for this moment–even if they weren’t entering the portal. They both had a livery of their own, a simple cloak showing Clan Hart’s banner, much like his templates now had.

And Jake’s Clan was not alone. Prior to landing, they had met up with the Ravenwolf Clan and allowed them into their Refuge, to speed up their travel and sync their arrival. The Ravenwolf Clan now had much more than ten members in their standard Adventuring party but had limited themselves to ten for this landing.

They stood across from Clan Hart; the party fanned out in their own clan colors and gear. Timone had taken an additional mate, and a cousin of his and two of his wives had also joined their normal fighting team. Dressed in their black and purple auril hide and bone bodysuits and weapons, they looked like quite the elite team of avian beastkin with a few wolf beastkin with wings added in the mix.

Timone and Dahlia also had a metallic heart guard, helmet, bracers, and greaves with Jake’s runes on them, providing added protection to these locations. Because the growth requirement was relatively small for them, the usage of special metals compatible with auril, and enchantments he could accomplish were able to compensate for this.

Nessa looked down at her red, scale-covered cultivator armor. She had earned the Epic item in a Dungeon Raid Prime Instance, and then upgraded it using a token earned from another. Combined with Jake’s enchantments, it was quite formidable, nearly at the level of their Divine-awarded equipment.

“The color feels wrong to me somehow, but I’m glad I’m not the odd one out. We’re all red and gold, a fighting family.”

Fhesiah nodded. “It’s a good thing for those Framework items, huh? Otherwise, you would stick out like a sore thumb in your lake. That might actually throw our Obsidian Blade enemies off, since you’ll suddenly be blue when you were red and gold before the fight.”

Nessa shook her head, her tail coiled around her. “I think those used to PvP are mostly used to that, and you can actually change settings in your Menu to see enemies of your guild the way they actually are all the time, bypassing the item. We should probably do that.”

Jake and the rest did do that, to not be surprised by enemies suddenly shifting in combat. If they had the idea, then their enemy just might too.

While Nessa had a skin on to look red and gold like the rest of them, it was like Jake’s toga look and his invisible helmet. It was merely for looks, and during a fight, it would appear exactly as it was.

Sati looked over her new armor pieces with a smile, her arm twisting back and forth as she held it out in front of her. “Thank you for making these for me, Jake and Lia. Truly wonderful.”

In a joint work as Jakelia, the two managed to forge quite the cultivator armor for Sati using incredible materials from Aetheris, combined with items Fhesiah had found in her adventures and auctions.

Sati now wore thick golden bracers and greaves, and a heart guard underneath her sash-like robes. What made them special was that they could provide protection even when she turned herself into flames, and could become flames as well.

Her usual way of avoiding damage was often to make her form more fluid, making it harder for those that lacked magical means to land a damaging blow on her. It was difficult to cut a moving flame, like punching a wall of wind. Against Jake’s party with auril and hearthflames that was not as effective, but many monsters and warriors would have difficulty striking her.

And so the armor was to supplement that, to help protect her against people capable of attacking her nearly formless body. She could infuse the runes with her Qi, and empower her defense significantly against either physical or magical attacks, and especially those that blended the two.

The portal changed colors, the Refuge having arrived on The Burning Steps. It was time.

“Alright everyone. Let’s move out. The enemy might be prepared for us, but they aren’t ready for us. Let’s go crush them.”

Despite being hyped up for battle, their arrival on The Burning Steps was a little anticlimactic.

Fhesiah had exited the portal first as a kitsune, then immediately covered the area in an illusion, to prevent any people from noticing the larger group. Their arrival was at night by design, with the hopes that the enemy wouldn’t be prepared for them.

The arrival party, to keep under fifty battle strength, was as follows:

[Jake, Ophelia, and Bloodberri unsealed, Fhesiah, Tanda, Nessa, Bree, Sati, Ruby, (Avalara), 9 Ravenwolf Clan. 49 Total Battle Strength.]

Summary: Jake, Ophelia, Bloodberri (7 Each, 21), Avalara (5), Tanda, Nessa, Fhesiah, Bree (3 Each, 12). Sati, Ruby, Ravenwolf Clan (1 each, 11)

Avalara would join them not long after the landing, her giant form too inconvenient for their need to sneak around. She would be activated as an Adventurer like the others, but she nearly took up as much battle strength as a Champion herself.

Then, the whole family would have their sizes normalized and hidden along with their Hearthian status, which meant Bree and Bloodberri were not thirteen-feet-tall behemoths, but approximately nine feet tall instead. Though, Bree likely would grow beyond her original size during combat, and probably alternate to her dinodog form anyhow. Berri also enjoyed some growth while fighting, as one would expect.

The city was exotic and massive, a stepped-stone structure built directly into a mountain or cliffside, like a giant version of the Mesoamerican pyramids Jake had seen. Each level was flat and wide, with smaller stepped paths going up the larger structure. It seemed there were both buildings which stood on the large pyramid, but doors and tunnels appeared to be built into the sides of it as well.

The streets were broad with numerous stone buildings lining them, and Jake realized that some earth magic was likely used to establish and create this massive marvel of a city. Through the city, channels carried bright lava which cast an odd light against the bronze temple, which caused the city to almost shimmer with a red and gold haze.

The mana in the air was attuned to fire, making fire spells more effective when drawing mana from the surrounding area. Or, it would simply dampen spells of ice or water significantly.

Nessa’s tail coiled tightly around her body briefly, before relaxing into her usual spiraling, floating tail. “You know, I had dreaded this place’s heat before we came here. Now that I am here, it actually feels a little comfy. I don’t even need to protect myself with Qi.”

Fhesiah smiled. “Yes, that is one of the many benefits of becoming one with our dear husband. Fire will no longer be your enemy, but an ally instead.” She looked to the sky. “It is night, but it is not all that dark with such large and bright, colorful moons.”

Timone and Dahlia’s ears were flicking right and left, and his other mates’ eyes were peeled, looking for enemies. The Ravenwolf Chieftain spoke, “It seems no enemies are here at the portal.”

Tanda replied, “That seems…lazy.”

Timone chuckled. “In all our battles with them, this was incredibly common. The men spend a lot of time at the brothels and the bars, or gambling if it was available. They have some stronger, respectable teams and individual warriors, but they are not very disciplined.”

Far away in the sky in the distance, a floating temple and stones surrounding it could be seen. This world had a long history, almost as tumultuous as Highlands had. Because it was the second Conquest on the world, the history was entirely available.

Jake had spent a fair amount of time learning quite a bit about it. It involved dead gods and numerous conflicts between the different moon worshipers, each of which embodied an element of the world.

And it was the reason the water element was so weak on this world. The Fire, Earth, and Wind elements were much stronger, the landscape largely volcanic and mountainous, and the skies were filled with dangerous storms and floating islands. Only the remaining rain temples held significant water, and it was a precious resource on the world because the water temples and the moon were destroyed.

Though not because the people on it required water. The several native races and indigenous species of monsters and beasts subsisted largely on attuned mana and predation, though the water races and species were extremely rare because of the extinction-level event for them.

The natives moved about the stepped pyramid outside the HQ with purpose. They looked like trolls almost, with long limbs and ashy, stone-encrusted skin. Jake knew that all the races on this world were human-adjacent, often having a matching elemental attunement connected to the moons.

The wind people were more like wind elves, living in their floating mountains. The fire people were like flaming goblins or halflings, living in volcanos or in places like this stepped pyramid. There was a wide variety of mixtures between the races and the three primary elements infused into them.

There were no Rifts visible in the distance at this HQ, but it was easy to see by the people’s distress that they were at war. It was night anyway, but only those involved in collecting food or working moved about, for the most part, it seemed.

As far as what kind of food, it seemed there were all sorts of odd plants that thrived in the heat and the attuned mana in the air. What looked like lily pads floated slowly across the rivers of lava, and some sort of fruit grew on them that the trolls were collecting.

A rock-like fish the size of a large dog suddenly leaped out of the lava wanting to take a bite out of the gatherers, and a prepared troll speared it through the head, catching it mid-air.

Aisling’s eyes went white, which caused most of the party to look at her expectantly about her foresight. She shrugged, and turned to Jake. “Nothing too significant going to happen here, I don’t think. We’ll follow your lead, Chief.”

Ira was able to quickly tag several PvP targets for them to take out, but they decided on entering the HQ immediately instead. It was their plan to trigger the War Game Challenge for the week, the entire reason why they were sneaking around. If he was going to catch the Obsidian Blades with their pants down, this was the way.

The PvP entrance wasn’t even guarded or monitored. It seemed they weren’t expected in any way, which had Jake frowning.

Fhesiah chuckled at Jake’s thoughts. “Maybe they got tired of waiting around for us? Four years and we haven’t made much of a move, until now. That said, you’d think they’d have their own foresight and other things, to see us coming?”

Nessa nodded. “Oracles are often used among those of Grecian Origin, and the Aesir of the Nords do the same. They undoubtedly used them to chase me at every turn, but when I beat Avaron their actions became a lot less straightforward or overt.” She chuckled. “Not that they could have come normally. Their treachery banned them from cultivator worlds. So it is strange that they weren’t ready for us.”

Of course, that didn’t stop them from their clandestine operations, but their usual means of Guild Wars for extortion were unavailable.

Bree hummed. “Divination and foresight is usually the magic of cowards and weaklings, so it is not something I know too much about. I just know that as one becomes stronger and the more the divine essence grows within you, it becomes more challenging to accurately predict what you might do. Maybe they can’t predict your arrival because you’re that much stronger than them? But I wouldn’t put it past them to cheat and somehow use their third Tier Oracles to somehow make predictions for them, so that can’t be the full picture. As strong as your hearths are, I don’t think this is the reason.”

This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

Fhesiah didn’t speak it out loud, but she thought of what made their group unique–Jake and Ira, the power of the void. There was plenty of uniqueness among them, but this was perhaps where they stood above most. His bonds and void bloodline wrapped around his family’s souls like a tentacle-filled blanket, perhaps protecting them from magics like this. For her, this was just speculation, and Jake thought it was as good of a theory as any.

Ophelia complained in their mind, [I agree, but why does even her speculation have to be lewd somehow? I could have lived without the tentacle-filled blanket, wrapping around her as she enjoyed it, imagery.]

Nessa blushed, [Huh? She must have only sent that imagery to you.]

Faye grinned, [Or maybe you imagined it, all on your own, Lia? You must have really enjoyed ‘A Shieldmaiden’s Enjoyable Failure,’ where Jacob falls to eldritch influence, and then–]

[No! I didn’t, and I didn’t read any of the other weird books you put on my shelf. Please, tell them I’m not lying, Nessa.]

Nessa was about to reply, but Jake cleared his throat in their minds, interrupting, “Stay focused. We’re about to enter the PvP area.”

Ophelia groaned, but became serious as they went through the door at the side of the HQ.

As planned, Jake’s party had arrived much before their other conquests were going to begin, or before their allied guilds would potentially arrive, preventing them from being intercepted as of yet. The Refuge was a lot like a spaceship, in that it could sort of wait nearby a world without actually moving forward to reach them. Many of their guild members were now doing this, waiting for the signal to proceed from Jake or Valtor.

Entering the door, they were presented with the wide and diverse battlefield or PvP playground, with all sorts of small environments. From small ponds to a creek, a bridge and a watch-tower off to the side, and hilly terrain with trees scattered throughout. Jake imagined Tanda could move to the top of the tower in the distance, and then potentially camp and snipe targets heading toward the turn-in.

The obelisk turn-in point was in the distance, and again, nobody was inside.

The party moved with purpose, staying inside of Fhesiah’s illusion–the kitsune flames creating a bubble around them that was difficult to pierce, distorting and reflecting the surrounding light.

Eventually, Jake touched the Node, where the Menu was presented. He targeted the Obsidian Blade’s subguild, which was the primary target and had the largest battle force within this Tier called Obsidian Mercenaries.

Avaron’s Subguild and Calix’s Subguild were lesser, and Jake guessed were largely focused on the clandestine operations within the Sector instead of the grunts that often won world ownership. As Cassius had offered him, the world’s ownership was frequently divided up and transferred among the viable leaders in their guild.

Picking the event a few days from now, he locked it in by paying the prerequisite CP, betting the maximum amount that he could. With that completed, he would now communicate to all of Hearthtribe and their allies to arrive right at that time, as they could wait in queue the same way as they did the arrival event.

Jake smiled. “We’re all set. So that means we can have some fun for a bit.”

Timone chuckled, and shook his head. “I bet that Cassius is gnashing his teeth right about now.”

Dahlia’s tail was wagging, and she had a vicious smile as she turned to Tanda. “Music to my ears. Let’s hunt, daughter! Let us crush these weaklings!”

Tanda’s weapon transformed into a bow, her smile widening and her tail wagging in-sync with her mother’s. “Woohoo! Let’s hunt!”

They exited out of the PvP door, and they hunted down the few people within the city Ira had spotted. There was a large group of them at the bar, and Fhesiah helped with this significantly by luring them outside with an illusion so they could wipe them out. It was just a single party, and completely unprepared for a party of Jake’s caliber–not even wearing their gear.

When they died, they were dispersed into motes of light. PvP deaths were less damaging to a person’s psyche than those caused by Tartarus because the Framework typically transferred them to the void rather than letting them actually experience a death. In a sense, it was like it predicted the damage done before it actually happened.

Paying for damages to the native’s buildings was possible and it was allowed to go crazy within the city as long as they didn’t hurt or kill natives intentionally. Given that they could resurrect them, there weren’t any Framework imposed repercussions for doing so by accident. As always with the Framework, intent mattered.

However, that didn’t mean that the natives would be happy about it. Understanding the native’s laws and stance on the Framework from their research, they knew it was important to avoid collateral damage as best they could, or they would have difficulty acting on this world even for recruitment.

The last thing they wanted was for natives to make things more challenging or for them to have a bad reputation for causing damage within the city, as the natives did have their own town guard and military of sorts.

Becoming their enemies wouldn’t be all that dangerous as they weren’t all that powerful, but it wasn’t ideal. Their goals also included the desire to recruit more people for their Guilds and Subguilds, and having the natives happier and more on-board with their leadership would mean a lot for anything involving polls for sweeping changes to their world if they won it.

Then, Hearthtribe certainly wouldn’t use natives as living shields, but they wouldn’t put it past their enemy to do it.

Once they killed their PvP targets, to their surprise, they had actually collected a fair amount of contribution–the men hadn’t turned their recent CP from Rifts in perhaps an entire week. Once in town, that was nothing more than just lazy.

They killed over two dozen holdouts throughout the city, and without alarming anyone, it had seemed. It was hardly a challenge with Ira and Fhesiah hunting them down, and with them not ready for battle.

A few were wandering around town, while others did seem to be up to no good–like they were snooping on people or otherwise sneaking around. It was strange, but Jake’s party just quietly shot arrows and spells to take them out, and didn’t ask questions or give them a chance to escape. There were not enough natives around to really witness most of these events, with the exception of the bar situation.

The party gathered back up again at the HQ inside the Conquest room at the table, and were deciding on what to do next before they took a portal to another location. This wasn’t the primary location, but the stations where analysts could review information were largely empty. There was a few people from different, unassociated guilds, but they largely ignored Jake’s party after a quick greeting.

Jake asked Dahlia, “Is it always like that? I know we came at night, but…”

Dahlia chucked. “Like child’s play killing them, right? You’re just lucky they didn’t have a brothel here, that’s probably why they were all drunk and lazing about in the streets instead. Taking those scrubs out while they are getting laid is pretty gross, but the working girls are used to it.”

Lia snorted. “What, you mean an intruder that kills their customer, causing them to burst into motes of light is normal for them?”

Aisling laughed, nodding. “Half the places charge the customer for it! If an Adventurer gets killed in front of the working girls, their fees are double for life! It’s emotional damage, you see.”

Tanda chuckled, shaking her head. “Serves them right, I guess. Still, you did that, Mother? I’m surprised, I thought you’d want more fair fights, and that’s literally a guy with his pants down.”

Dahlia cleared her throat, and became much more serious as her eyes narrowed. “If we were in a War Games for fun with Warrior Brotherhood, of course, I wouldn’t bother hunting people in strange places, wanting a fair fight instead. But these men are the scum of the Alliance, just horrible people committing terrible acts, or aiding their guild in doing them in some way. And they deserve to be hunted everywhere they might hide. I will kill a man on the shitter if it puts even a little bit of fear in them, or remorse for their horrible, cowardly actions.”

Timone nodded. “It’s not the fight we seek, but we enjoy sending them into motes of light, no matter what they might be doing. Many of them deserve to suffer and die for good, in truth.”

The family nodded grimly, now having a different outlook on the matter.

Bree frowned. “Damn, you make great points. Now I wish I did get to punch one of them–save one for me next time. Could we somehow heal them, and beat them to death again? I haven’t had to participate in this PvP overly much in mother’s Territories, any PvP was largely focused on the Battlegrounds.”

Jake chuckled, Bree hadn’t been interested in killing the unarmed and unprepared opponents, leaving it to Tanda, Fhesiah, and the Ravenwolf Clan to race around town and take them out.

“Unfortunately, PvP deaths send you into motes of light–the void–and you cannot be revived early without paying a significant amount of CP. Even if revived, you can’t participate in PvP for a week.”

Blood was looking over the map. The world was vast, and there were numerous sections that had many Rifts. The five HQ were well spread out across the continents, but much of the action was several hundreds of miles away from the HQ themselves.

On this particular world, the Sector Council had decided to wage war exclusively at the second Tier, so there were no Tier 1 zones on it. “So do we want to build up this HQ, or claim another as our home base?”

Jake shook his head. “It looks like the Rifts are largely at the primary HQ. That’s probably the larger reason why these guys weren’t ready for us here. Let’s head through the portal to the other HQ’s and see if we can hunt some more of these guys.”

Each person they hunted down likely would be unable to join the PvP event, missing out on their alliance guilds’ landings. Even if they revived on time, they would be barred from the events due to having a recent PvP death.

Nessa nodded. “I do think we should hit the area with the most Rifts nearby next. A lot of those mercs are lazy and hate travel, and seeing so many targets in one area for them to hit, that’s likely where they will be.”

Ophelia said, “We can hunt them down in the city, then go close the Rifts in their stead.”

Bree grinned. “Oh yeah, let’s bust them up. I hope we can find a whole Battlegroup of the jerks.”

Taking the portal to the busiest area, the city was largely similar to the first–only larger. There were several stepped pyramids visible, the lava rivers pooling into a large lake in the distance. Because the world was hot and full of fiery mana, it never cooled down into a solid form.

There were a few targets of the guild very close nearby, people just waiting around in the plaza and only a few roads away. This place appeared busier for some reason, and perhaps it was because the Rifts were the nearby hotspot.

One Grecian warrior appeared to be hitting on one of the stone troll women, but she really did not seem interested. Another three were inside a bar and an inn not far away, while another was just eating at a food stall, and another seemed to be purchasing supplies.

Bree, Ophelia, Tanda, and Dahlia rushed out, and cut or punched them down. In all, they were barely given a chance to even react to Jake and his party’s arrival, and the many onlookers in the plaza were shocked.

Bree’s body was filled with fiery strength, and her giant fist manifested a powerful rampaging triceratops. It completely demolished the guy hitting on the troll girl, his body bursting into motes of light.

Ophelia riding on Valora blitzed to the nearby street, while Tanda and Dahlia entered the bar with a laugh. The warriors within barely had time to respond, but given that they weren’t even wearing their equipment, they burst into motes of light moments later from deadly arrows piercing them.

Berri rose high above everyone, and tried to get their attention. “Don’t worry, everyone! We’re only here to crush the asshole mercs for a guild war they started. We’ll leave everyone else alone, and then go close all the nearby Rifts! Unfortunately, those guys will be back. Enjoy their forced suspension from living–without pay!”

A few people actually clapped, and somewhat cheered. It seemed these people had bad reputations, just like the War, Glory, Profit people did.

Someone suddenly spoke up, a troll woman, her voice deep and rumbling. “You’re after the Obsidian Mercenaries guys? I’ve heard they’ve been harassing the people at Firewake. It’s why the Rifts aren’t being closed like they’re supposed to.”

Nessa’s eyes narrowed at that. “That a fact? Thank you for the information, stranger.”

Jake noted, “That’s where we were about to head anyway. Guess we know where we’re going right now. You ready, Lia?”

“Ready to ride!”

She then took off, blitzing through the sky with Fhesiah joining her side-saddle. The kitsune would be able to create and continue her illusion and allow her to arrive and hide without making the enemy aware of their presence or their approach, and all while on the lookout with her Divine Sense. This way, Jake could Reverse Summon himself then bring the rest of them in.

Dahlia got in front of Jake, then pressed her fingers together, pouting at him cutely. “I do hope you guys leave some for us. But I’d rather you nab them than let them get away.”

Tanda frowned. “Mother…you’re such a battle junkie. Trying to look cute to fight more jerks? I mean, I get it, but that’s a little much?”

Aisling laughed. “That one looking cute is a little criminal. She’s old enough to–”

Dahlia’s face morphed into a scowl, and her hand reached to the haft of her halberd on her back. “What was that, Aisling? Your mouth was moving, but it didn’t seem to be saying anything. I might not need to go to Firewake for a fight.”

Aisling hid behind Timone. “N-Nothing. I wasn’t saying anything.”

Timone cleared his throat. “We better get flying, but what my dear young, beautiful mate said was true. Please wait for us if you can, but we’d rather you do what it takes, and don’t let them get away.”

Jake nodded. “If we let any get away we lose advantages in the contest in a few days, and the arrival. We’ll do what it takes.”

The Ravenwolf Clan took to the sky, and even Dahlia was able to flap her wings and fly now thanks to her auril-infused wing contraption added to the back of her bodysuit. A wolf parentage beastkin able to fly like a bird…now, she barely looked different from Tanda at all, other than her fur and wings were white instead.

The party waited for Ophelia to arrive at their destination of Firewake, Jake and the other girls able to more or less watch through her eyes, sharing her senses.

It wasn’t long until Firewake came into view for her. The city was a little different in that it was smaller. It had a Nexus Node, but not an Alliance HQ present. There was still a stepped pyramid, but it was both smaller and freestanding rather than carved into the side of a large mountain or volcano, and there was a small temple floating above it on a rock.

The winds in the area were turbulent, full of wind mana. The lake of lava nearby looked like it was also on fire. On the pyramid, there was a Battlegroup that was getting ready to move, numerous people riding lizard mounts, loading goods onto them. There were close to a hundred enemies there in total, most on mounts, or were those that didn’t need them such as a few centaurs.

It looked like they would get a good fight and a chance to thin out their enemies.