The Storm King

When Leon arrived at Lancefoot, he found the people fairly easy to convince to swear themselves to him. Pilos, the man who had shown Leon hospitality, was the only remaining Azadan in the city, the other four having died in Mountainfall or had left the city in the meantime. In gratitude for that hospitality, Leon recognized Pilos’ rule over the city, naming him the Exarch of Lancefoot.

There was much to do to rebuild the city, but for the time being, it was enough to promise support with the knowledge that the city would probably not be particularly loyal if that support never materialized. After a long meeting with his new Exarch, however, where he shared his plans for the city, left Pilos and the rest of Lancefoot confident enough in Leon’s word that there was little in the way of resistance to him.

The fact that he was the one who took Mir from the summit of the Lance wasn’t widely known, and those who were more aware were generally willing to forgive him for it. He’d been ‘chosen’ by the Lance, and that was enough to smooth over any ruffled feathers in the city’s elite. Now, their ‘chosen’ was giving the city new purpose, and that led to a great deal of excitement and hope after months of misery and decline.

As things stood, Lancefoot was less than half the size it had been before Leon arrived, just from those who’d left and those who’d been killed. Many monsters who’d called the Lance or its floating islands home had spread throughout the rural communities, stretching the city’s remaining resources thin. Leon made promises to send aid once his disagreements with Krizos had been handled to his satisfaction.

With that business done, Leon had some personal business that he wanted to handle. Grandin and Aladir, for instance, were two people that he wanted to reward for aiding him in reaching the summit of Kavad’s Lance. Mir represented a tremendous increase in his city’s power, proving itself greatly during the last battle with Terris, and a reward commiserate with that boon was demanded.

Unfortunately, it seemed that Grandin and Aladir had quit the city soon after Leon left for the Seventh Iron Order. The two had made their names as guides on the Lance, leaving their careers essentially dead with the Lance having collapsed. Given how long Aladir spent petrified, Leon understood them wanting to get away to someplace better equipped to handle their recovery.

His disappointment was compounded when he visited the site of the monster’s lair that had landed almost in the heart of the city. The complex spatial enchantments had destabilized, causing a massive explosion that killed thousands. Much of the city’s damage could be laid at the feet of that explosion rather than the Mountainfall as a whole.

Examining the site was risky in a political sense, as the survivors were still raw from the losses they’d suffered, but Leon made his quick. There wasn’t much to find within the fallen island anyway, the detonation of the spatial enchantments utterly destroying anything that may have remained of the monster’s lair and the secrets it held. There was nothing left to study; it was nothing more than a great mound of stone, dirt, and broken foliage in what had once been the city’s densest population center.

The city as a whole was recovering slowly from Mountainfall, but the fact that it still had any people still calling it home at all was a minor miracle. The landscape, which had once been flat and inviting on the coast, was now broken and difficult to navigate for those without the ability to fly, complicating the recovery. It would take a tremendous amount of investment to rebuild the city—but then again, Leon supposed it would’ve taken a massive investment anyway to turn the city into the northern port that he wanted it to be.

He'd intended to stay in the city a while and win over some of the more ardent detractors he had in the city—they weren’t outright opposing him, but they were at least vocal, and he thought it prudent to try and nip any building resentment in the bud—by publicly adding his power to the reconstruction efforts. Given he was the only eleventh-tier mage in the city, there was much he could do, even if all he did was summon the rain to fill the city’s reservoirs.

However, not even a day after his arrival, mere hours after accepting the submission of Pilos and the rest of the city’s remaining elite, he received a message from Xanthippe.

Krizos had disappeared.

---

Beneath his boots, the grass of the Shaded Plain crunched unnaturally. It was neither soft nor green, but instead dark gray and glassy. This strange grass covered the entire Shaded Plain, allowing nothing else to grow, and giving the plain its name. Some disaster or other had to have created this desolate region, and it lingered, the dark power fueling it not waning in the slightest.

Next to Treasure Lake, however, even this unnatural grass gave way. The grass on the shore was dissolving as the black waves lapped away at it, leaving behind nothing but stone. Even dirt was taken by the lake, leaving only stained-black stone behind.

Only a day ago, the shore that Leon now stood upon had been miles inland. Treasure Lake could’ve been seen in the distance, beyond a thin forest of sickly black trees that separated the Shaded Plain from the lake’s shoreline, but it was distant.

Now, the black waters of the lake were mere feet from Leon’s boots. Between the departure of Leon’s fleet from Shatufan and their arrival at Krizos, something happened in the lake, something powerful, something unexpected. The black water had surged, overrunning dikes and levees, rushing through the streets of Krizos, consuming the city utterly.

Leon could hardly believe his eyes. Krizos had been a small city compared to the others in the Far West, but rich thanks to the bounties of Treasure Lake. Now, it was gone, extinguished in a night by the very lake that had been the source of their wealth.

Stranger things had happened, but Leon wasn’t inclined to believe this was accidental. It was too coincidental, too convenient, but on the other hand, he couldn’t fathom that someone in the city decided to wipe it off the map rather than allow him to impose his rule over it. Nothing floated to the top of the lake, nothing remained of the city that had once been there. The water wasn’t receding, either, but neither was it continuing to rise.

What to make of this, Leon wasn’t sure. There was never any doubt in his mind that Treasure Lake was some malevolent concentration of magic, but something like this happening had never once occurred to him. Few wanted to draw close to the lake as an aura of dread permeated the surrounding region that none could shake, not even Leon himself. Even Maia refused to get close to these black waters, choosing to stay in Bolt in Shadow pretending that she wasn’t absolutely terrified of Treasure Lake—a lie that Leon could easily see through given their connection, but he didn’t once entertain the idea of forcing her to get closer.

Even as close as he was with the power he had at his command, he was practically deafened by the sound of blood rushing through his head; his heart beat so intensely with anxiety and fear that it threatened to hammer its way out of his chest if he continued to refuse to turn around and leave. Even if he were so inclined, he doubted he’d be able to take even another step closer to the lake.

Krizos was gone, submerged, quite possibly never to be seen again. It had lain in a valley between the Bower Hills and the Bolt Mountains, supported by a few rural villages growing what little could be grown in such inhospitable conditions. Its rural population was low, but numerous in absolute terms—perhaps a million people had lived in Krizos and its hinterlands. With this surge from Treasure Lake, nearly all had vanished into the deep. Perhaps fifty thousand people remained, fleeing from the great flood that had destroyed this region.

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Though Leon stood alone this close to the water’s shore, none of his other followers daring to come close despite their unimpeachable bravery, he wasn’t alone in looking out over its surface; deep within his soul realm, Xaphan stirred, his magic senses washing over the lake, curiosity, disgust, and anger leaking through their contracted connection at what he witnessed.

[By the Prince of Flame’s gigantic burning cock… What happened here?] the demon crassly exclaimed.

So disturbed was Leon that he responded aloud, though the demon was still able to hear him. “I have no idea… All of this… This happened in a day. Hours…”

[Boy. Let me out.] A demand, not a request. Leon didn’t argue nor did he snark, he simply pulled on the magical thread-like connection between himself and Xaphan.

In a dramatic burst of fire, the demon appeared, the fire covering his body now bright yellow, his eyes so bright that they were almost white. Leon sensed some of his followers—especially his Tempest Knights—react with surprise at Xaphan’s appearance, but they calmed when they noticed him remaining calm.

“This… is demonic water,” Xaphan whispered.

“The work of a water demon?” Leon asked with great concern and an uncontrollable shiver. The most dangerous creatures in the Forest of Black and White were the ice wraiths and their pet banshees. Ice wraiths were demonic in nature, though not quite outright demons—more like a servant race of limited capabilities, as far as he knew. To this day, anything related to those monsters, even now as old and strong as he was, still triggered deep-seated, ingrained fear within him.

“Worse,” Xaphan replied. “If you have ever wondered what the Elemental Plane of Water looks like, human, wonder no longer; you stand on its shore.”

Leon instinctively took a step back. “… What? The Elemental Planes lie at the edge of the universe, as far away from the Nexus as they could possibly be!”

“And yet… here is water from the Elemental Plane of Water,” Xaphan crackled. “Some dumb shitbird must have opened a portal to that fetid cesspit. Or consigned his worthless soul to a powerful water demon. Take note, boy: this is what happens when you trust a water demon. Lying liars, the lot of them. Duplicitous and deceitful. Two-faced cowards and malcontents. Ask for anything from them and they’ll bite your cock clean off and drink from the bloody stump.”

“I didn’t need that imagery, but thanks for providing it anyway, demon.”

“Glad to be of aid in this regard, though I’m surprised you were able to imagine it all, boy. I wasn’t aware you humans had the cognitive power to do so.”

“Let’s go,” Leon testily responded, not rising to the demon’s bait. He turned and began making his way back up the shallow hill that his people had posted up on.

“Yes,” Xaphan agreed. “The stench of this place is making me sick. Have you ever seen a sick fire demon, boy?”

“You know I haven’t.”

“Pray that you never do. We are superior beings, and illness is practically unheard of among our kind. But what few illnesses we have are legendary. A single sneeze from me would wipe out half your Kingdom.”

“If it’s all the same to you, Xaphan, please be sure to cover your mouth when you sneeze.”

The demon gave him a crackling laugh, but before they’d made it halfway up the hill, the ground shook, nearly knocking them both on their respective asses. Leon stumbled and immediately took flight, Xaphan following suit a moment later. Behind them, Leon felt a surge of power, and the black water of Treasure Lake seemed to boil for a moment.

“Shit!” Leon shouted as he summoned Iron Pride, letting the Iron Needle fill him with power, and prepared for… something. To face whatever monstrosity or power that was surely about to erupt from the lake.

“Relax,” Xaphan whispered after a moment as a maelstrom began to form in the center of the lake. Leon gave him a highly skeptical look, so the demon added, “The water is retreating.”

Sure enough, as the maelstrom grew larger, the water on the shore began to recede, like the stopper in the universe’s largest and foulest bathtub had been removed.

Leon watched, almost enraptured, as the dark water of the lake drained, leaving nothing behind but black rocks. Not a hint of the sickly trees that had once grown close to the lake remained, and as much remained of Krizos despite the city having been made of similar black stone. Everything organic or man-made that the water had touched was simply gone, which became more and more apparent as the water continued to recede to pre-flood levels.

It took many minutes, but still far shorter than it should’ve, for the lake to return to its previous levels. Once it did, the recession of the water ceased, leaving Treasure Lake itself looking as it had the day before, though with the shoreline now irreversibly changed due to the soil and what little foliage grew in the Shaded Plain having been consumed.

Where Krizos once stood, there was naught to be seen. The city was gone, as was every soul that had called it home. Nothing remained, not a brick, not a thread of cloth, not even a single blade of grass.

The landscape was desolate, exceeded in such only by Arkhnavi—but Arkhnavi had been destroyed by a Primal Devil, whereas this was the work of demons.

“How much stronger are water demons compared to fire demons, Xaphan?” Leon asked, his voice wavering as he sought to find some levity in this situation.

“Hold your fucking tongue, human,” Xaphan snapped. “Fire demons are the pinnacle of all life in the universe! Our power and majesty is incomparable!”

“I’ve never seen you do something like this

…”

“This was the work of powerful demons—or a Lord of Water. I could’ve done similar when I was a Lord of Flame.”

“Good on you, admitting that you are no longer one of those.”

Leon could almost hear Xaphan’s teeth gnashing behind the crackling of his fire.

With a sigh, Leon asked, “What happened to the city? Did the water demons… just take it? Or destroy it?”

“They wouldn’t take it,” Xaphan stated. “Demons use humans to augment their power. A human makes a contract with a demon, providing the demon with power in exchange for a boon that the demon can offer in turn—usually the demon’s own power. The demon usually comes out ahead since the human passively provides more power than the demon will be expected to provide in any other situation. Usually.”

“I’ve seen plenty of demons who take what they can if they see their contractor is about to lose everything, demon. So have you. We’ve seen Amon kill his own vampires after they were beaten.”

Xaphan hummed in thought, and perhaps a little bit of agreement. Leon wasn’t holding his breath for him to admit a mistake, however.

“Maybe this was the deal?” Leon speculated aloud. “Have the water demons move the city somewhere else? Is that possible?”

“As if those fish would ever agree to do this. But… maybe. Maybe. We can hardly guess as to the nature of the deal struck. All that we can know is that the city is gone. I wouldn’t expect to see it again, human.”

“No, I suppose not…” Leon whispered. He glanced over his shoulder, noting that many of his people were cautiously flying towards him now that the water had receded, and with it, the aura of dread that it had emanated.

Among them was Xanthippe. Though there was no longer a city for her to conquer, there was another task Leon had in mind for her—no garrisons were needed for Krizos, so many of his people could be used to help with clearing debris in Lancefoot and preparing it for a concerted rebuilding process. There were also thousands of people in the hills around the Bower Hills and Bolt Mountains, people who had fled from the rising Treasure Lake, people who had once been subject to Krizos.

Leon wanted them rounded up and moved. Though many would undoubtedly protest being relocated, he hoped that being given land to settle in the much fairer and more temperate south would be welcomed, especially since that land was no longer in danger of being raided by the Ocean Lords.

This land, this valley that was once home to Krizos, however, would be left desolate. Leon wanted nothing to do with it. Some towers in the Bower Hills to watch it would be constructed, but otherwise, Leon was content letting this dead region be his eastern border. He needed more time to consolidate his hold over the Far West, and perhaps even bring the remaining cities such as Queenfall and Culain into the fold.

That was a matter for another day, however. For the time being, his expansion was over. Now, it was time to catch his breath, put down roots in the Nexus, and recover from all that had happened since his arrival.

‘At least Krizos won’t be a problem in the future,’ Leon more hoped than silently declared.

He didn’t think he’d have to deal with water demons in the future, at any rate.