The Forgotten Core (The Dungeon of Stories Book 4) by John Stovall

Author:John Stovall [Stovall, John]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781957613062
Publisher: Capital Station Books
Published: 2022-05-16T16:00:00+00:00

Chapter Fifteen

Aftermath

Will winced internally as the Adventurer’s Rest Inn was engulfed in flames, the remaining adventurers scrambling, running, or using powers to exit as fast as they could. Shaiel screamed, using her own abilities to leap from the area as she was covered in flames—area-of-effect attacks were the main counter to her build. She hit and rolled across the ground, still screaming, and Laurel leapt over and healed her where she lay in the street.

A few more puffs of power, all on the lower end for this travesty of an attack, told Will that not everyone had been as lucky or talented as Shaiel.

Gar, who’d leapt and run, powered by his Body magic, came to a stop and released Harmony. Harmony dropped in the air a bit before recovering, and then just hovered for a few moments.

“You okay?” Gar asked.

Harmony nodded, her body tiny next to Gar’s. “Yes. Thank you, Hero.”

Then she flew up, planted a kiss on his bearded face, and flew away.

“Oh, by the magic,” Rose said. “You almost died, Harmony.”

“This is why fairies should stay safe, near their cores,” Amber said from her lab, where she hadn’t yet managed to disassemble her newest magical device.

Harmony did a complex midair shudder. “Yeah, that was the worst. I hated it. It was fun before it wasn’t, though.”

“They could do that to any of us at any time,” Will said. “They probably haven’t because no one working for them directly has ever seen the interior parts, where the Fairy Grotto and Core Room and such are. But once they do…”

“Well, they took losses as well,” Harmony said.

“Did you notice, Harmony? No actual Voidbringer died in that attack. Again. Just some of their infected servants. They could keep doing that, over and over, however often they wanted, until they reduce all their enemies to dust. All of us to dust.”

“You sound… disheartened.” Amber frowned. “Besides—”

“I’m not disheartened,” Will started in, his emotions running higher than they had in some time. “I’m enraged. Completely pissed off! They almost killed Harmony! Just popped in to pop her.”

“Pop her?” Rose whispered, but everyone ignored her as Will continued his rant, his mental voice getting louder and louder.

“But what really frosts me isn’t even that. I’d really, really hate to lose Harmony, and it would haunt me forever. But I could at least understand it. They’re killing an enemy. But it’s the sheer, absolute, short-sighted wastefulness of the Voidbringers that offends me the most. They’re breakers. They break things, rather than building. Even their dungeon is a product of waste—they aren’t cultivating essence builds, they’re breaking their resources for one-time gains!

“Breakers…” Rose shuddered. “I hate that.”

“They destroy people, and lives! All that magical knowledge and power… they could have won if they’d just stayed quiet, slowly corrupted the Kingdom of Eladrin, and built an empire. They could have even been nice to everyone except the absolute upper crust, and they’d have won!”

His fairies all squinted their eyes.

Will tried to rein himself in. “They’ve even abandoned subtlety.

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