Chapter 132: Myriadspire (1)
The oceans covered the world.
Reputed to be wild and untamable, they formed a forbidden territory for most living beings. Only a handful of species were capable of surviving within them.
For humans, the ocean was not merely a body of water. It was a barrier. A natural, impassable frontier.
Its violence made sustained navigation impossible, and its vastness divided the lands without distinction. Each continent lived isolated from the others, condemned to ignorance.
At the center of the world stretched the continent of humanity. Around it, four other lands existed to the East, West, North, and South.
But for the vast majority, these continents were nothing more than myths. Tales whispered to children to feed their fears.
It was said these lands were teeming with life, foreign... monstrous.
The Calamities.
Only the ocean, so it was said, prevented these creatures from invading the human world. Only a few, endowed with special means, sometimes managed to cross.
And according to certain legends...
The day the oceans would recede would mark the end of humanity.
---
Eastern Continent
Within this forbidden land, hidden beneath a veil of darkness, a group of humans had ventured deep into its depths. Their objective: a capital.
Black coats engraved with heraldic symbols covered them emblems of the organization they belonged to.
None of them spoke. None made a sound. Their footsteps were silent as ghosts.
They did not need to.
Each of them was an elite, a force to be relied upon. Two hundred had taken part in this operation, divided into twenty units, each composed of ten individuals: a Master, two Intermediates, and seven Initiates.
As they advanced, the different groups scattered, each assigned to a distinct destination.
Of all these units, only one continued to push deeper into the realm.
At its head stood Kevin, himself a Master, whose gray eyes had already crossed more battlefields than he could count.
After an indeterminate time days and nights blending together beneath that starless sky they reached their objective.
The sight was breathtaking. Even for elites like them, few humans had ever had the fortune or misfortune of witnessing the royal capital of the Kingdom of Vermin.
Myriadspire.
As its name suggested, the capital stretched across several hundred kilometers vast as a country. And across this expanse rose thousands of spires.
Each spire was as large as a towering building. The closer one got to the center, the taller and more gigantic they became, some brushing against the clouds.
The highest reached nearly ten thousand meters in altitude, enough to make anyone dizzy.
The capital bathed in perpetual darkness, beneath a black sky that seemed never to have been pierced by light.
The spires appeared to be made of an unknown material, tinted in a color resembling congealed blood almost organic. As if the city itself were breathing.
Kevin and his unit froze for a moment at the sight.
For such a vast capital, one would expect life, voices, screams the chaos of a teeming colony.
And yet, only the wind reached their ears.
The city lay under a suffocating silence.
Looking up toward the summit of the city, Kevin felt his heart tighten.
("The further we advance, the taller and wider the spires become... and the more formidable the Calamities residing within them will be.")
With a glance, he counted nearly forty spires rising at the center, forming a protective crown around the highest peak.
If the description he had been given was accurate, each of these forty spires was the residence of a duke.
("If this power ever reaches our lands...")
He dismissed the thought as quickly as it came, but the image lingered, persistent.
And yet, those forty spires seemed almost insignificant compared to the royal spire a black stone monstrosity that towered over them all, crushing them beneath its presence.
("No. We must succeed. If the one who lives up there reaches us...")
He lightly slapped his cheeks to steady himself.
If he allowed fear to take hold, what would his men do?
("It’ll be fine. I have enough experience. I’ve taken part in enough missions like this not to falter. Even infiltrating a king’s palace... I have nothing to fear.")
He had to repeat his own words to regain his calm.
Once he had returned to his normal state, he turned to his men and signaled them to keep watch.
They had taken refuge in an abandoned cave at the edge of the capital. There, they waited for their contact to enter the city.
---
Hours passed without anything happening.
Time felt heavier, slower. The obligation to remain constantly alert weighed on their shoulders.
("He’s taking his time...")
Kevin pressed his ear against the ground.
A sound.
He raised his hand, ordering silence. All his attention focused on his hearing.
With each vibration, he refined his perception.
("A hundred meters to the northeast... at this pace, he’ll be here in five minutes.")
He relayed the information to his team with a simple gesture. In an instant, they all merged into the shadows, their presence now undetectable.
Each passing minute felt like an eternity.
Then a rough, viscous voice tore through the silence a voice that seemed to ooze rather than speak.
"Messieurs les seigneurs... my lord has sent me as your escort."
A moment later, a silhouette emerged from the darkness.
It was a worm.
Not an ordinary worm, no. A creature nearly five meters long, dirty gray, its skin faintly glistening as if coated in a layer of slime. Each segment of its body contracted and expanded in a slow, undulating, almost hypnotic motion. Its eyes two black dots fixed on its head never blinked. When it opened its mouth to speak, rows of circular teeth were visible, thin as needles.
It moved by crawling.
"Code?" Kevin asked, without revealing himself.
"There is none."
Kevin stood up from his hiding place and signaled his men to remain invisible.
"Good. We follow you."
The Calamity seemed to hesitate, its black eyes scanning the surroundings.
"Where are your companions?"
"You don’t need to worry about that."
Kael’s voice was calm, firm. He played the cautious card and he played it well.
The Calamity seemed about to add something, then refrained.
It had been ordered to escort a team of twenty. If only one appeared, it was not its place to question its lord’s orders. It was merely an enforcer.
Thus their march began.
Kevin followed behind it, keeping a safe distance. His eyes never left the creature.
("It must be a baron... and it isn’t in its true form. Eliminating it wouldn’t even take a fraction of a second.")
But this was not about killing. It was about infiltration.
Although it was impossible to determine a Calamity’s rank by the amount of ether it emitted, Kevin’s experience allowed him to estimate their strength through physical appearance, presence, and above all, the tone of arrogance in high-ranking creatures.
This one did not have that arrogance. It was submissive. Docile.
They followed it for nearly two hours.
Curiously, the escort seemed to be moving away from the city instead of toward it. Kevin feared the worst.
But before he could assume betrayal, the Calamity stopped after several kilometers.
"Here is a tunnel my lord had dug for you. It leads directly to his residence. You only need to follow it."
Kevin crouched, struck the ground lightly, and listened to the echo.
("He’s telling the truth.")
Yet something still troubled him.
"And you?"
The Calamity immediately understood.
"I came through the surface. I must return the same way."
Kevin nodded, appeared to consider it, then signaled two of his men to discreetly follow the creature to ensure it would not betray them.
Once that was done, he left two more men at the entrance of the passage, then entered the tunnel with the rest.
The entrance was hidden beneath a swamp. They had to dive to the bottom, into icy, foul-smelling water, to find the opening.
The tunnel walls were rough, marked with deep gouges as if a massive creature had gnawed through the earth to carve the passage directly into the rock. The air was heavy, confined, filled with the stench of damp soil and decay.
The journey was long. Hours.
When Kevin and his men finally saw the exit, it opened into a cavern deep beneath one of the spires.
As soon as he stepped inside, Kevin saw him.
A black coat the same as his own.
His face was hidden behind a white mask, smooth, with no openings for mouth or eyes like an empty eggshell. Sitting cross-legged on the rocky ground, he slowly drew a map in the dust. His fingers traced the floor, marking lines, landmarks, and annotations in a jargon Kevin did not recognize.
He was absorbed. Focused.
And yet, the moment Kevin set foot in the cavern, he looked up.
Without seeing his eyes, Kevin knew he was being watched.
There was no doubt. No hesitation.
Kevin knelt, followed immediately by his men.
"His Eminence Zero."
Zero did not respond immediately.
Instead, he placed a finger on the ground a final line completed then slowly stood up. His black coat shifted with a faint rustle of fabric.
"Kevin."
He said the name as if he had been expecting it for a long time. Then, pointing at the freshly drawn map at his feet:
"Welcome to Myriadspire."
