Nightmare Realm Summoner

”Shit,” Alex said. He’d known it was only a matter of time before Orchid figured out they were pulling wool over her eyes, but he’d really been hoping their excuse would hold out a bit longer.

Having her realize who they really were now of all times was not a good thing — especially when the town was in such a vulnerable state. They needed time to get their footing out from under them, not to mention finding out how to permanently re-stabilize the town before it blew up.

If Orchid turned on them now… they’d be in a bad spot.

”She hasn’t turned on us,” Claire said. ”Not yet. I don’t know what she’s going to do.”

”Really?” Alex blinked. He wasn’t sure if he was more surprised that Claire didn’t have a good read on Orchid or that Orchid hadn’t already ditched them.

”She’s no slouch. Her family clearly trained her well,” Claire said. ”And things have been a bit busy. To be honest, there really isn’t anywhere for Orchid to go right now. Even though she knows we aren’t Starfallen, that doesn’t change the fact that she’s hated just as much as we are right about now. All three of us were involved in stealing the Town Token, after all. She’s stuck in our ship. Only an idiot would sink it while they were still onboard.”

”Noted.” Alex blew out a breath. ”Meaning we don’t know if she’s planning something or not. We’ll have to talk with her and figure out how things stand. In the end, I think we kind of had to spill the beans sooner or later anyway. We couldn’t have kept this up forever.”

”Yeah.” Claire nodded. She brushed some strands of stray hair away from her face. ”I would have preferred it on my terms, but she figured things out shortly after the Region Boss went down.”

”How’d you even find out?” Alex asked.

Claire’s eyes narrowed. ”She told me.”

”She told you?”

”It’s an interesting play,” Claire said, chewing her lower lip. ”Probably meant to force our hands and see how much information we’re willing to give her. To be honest, I think it’s a good sign. She wants to stick around. If she didn’t, she wouldn’t have said anything. It would have delayed me finding out she knew for a while longer.”

For a while? That means Claire is pretty certain she still would have figured out Orchid knew regardless of what she’d said. I got a glimpse of what her class can do in battle… but to be honest, if her abilities are really all based around information control, it seems like she’s far better suited to situations like this than fighting.

How much is she really capable of?

Alex shook his head. ”Well, I’ll keep it in mind. Let’s go meet with the others, shall we?”

”I’ll stay here,” Mite said. He nodded to the monster’s body. ”More stuff to loot. And, I’ll be honest, I don’t care about the drama things. Come find me when you’ve decided how much of the monster’s body you aren’t planning on wasting.”

Something told Alex that Mite’s idea of wasting the monster was giving its parts to anyone but the Bioengineer.

Mite might be the one best suited to put the parts to use, but I can’t just give nothing to everyone who participated in the fight. That’s not how you keep town morale high — and there’s no town if you don’t have any people.

Alex repressed a sigh. He didn’t fancy what was coming next at all. He did fancy what was coming after it. Namely, there was a hell of a lot of power waiting for him to cash it in. His next meditation was going to be fun. Between the Title Fragments he could combine, the third gem for his gate, and all the power from the Region Boss, Alex was pretty sure he was going to be a whole lot stronger by the time he finished.

But that was later, and this was now.

He had some campers to speak with and, if things really went poorly, a speech to give.

***

It didn’t take long to find Orchid and round up the campers. Within a few minutes, everyone had gathered in the center of town, in front of the Town Hall. Alex could feel Orchid’s gaze boring into him the whole time, but she didn’t say a single word.

She just watched.

And that was fine with him. They could speak with her once the rest of the town had been addressed. He let his gaze drift over everyone. Many of the faces were familiar, but some he still didn’t properly recognize.

Older folks that had probably been hiding within the town when the fight had started. Some of the people that had gone with him into the Mirrorlands to train. Aaron and May and Abby.

But even though he couldn’t see the missing faces from the crowd, he could still feel their weight. Not a single person spoke. Abby’s group of Outworlders stood alongside the humans in shared silence. They all watched Alex, and it struck him that they were waiting.

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They were waiting for him to say something.

And he didn’t know what to say.

Shit. I’m not a general. What the hell am I supposed to say right now? Hurray, guys, we won? That doesn’t seem like it’s going to carry the gravitas I want. People are dead. But I can’t just go moping about either. That’ll ruin morale.

Goddamn, this is a lot harder than I thought. Are there any good speeches from movies I’ve — wait, no. Half of them have seen the movies too. Damn.

He could feel Claire’s gaze boring into the side of his face. She would have been a far better choice for this, but he was the town leader. Their bullshit had set him up to be the leader, and he didn’t have the faintest idea of what he was doing.

The weight of the silence started to bear down on Alex like an anvil.

Shit, shit, shit. I can’t just stay quiet forever. I need to say something. But what do I—

”Just speak,” Claire whispered, her voice so low that only Alex could hear her.

And so he said the first thing that came to mind.

”I am not a general,” Alex said, his voice echoing through the quiet forest. ”And to be totally honest, I don’t want to be here right now.”

The eyes of the Campers felt like they were trying to bind him like chains, but he couldn’t stop now. Alex kept talking.

”I just want to fight against the monsters that invaded our world. If I had my way, someone else would be standing here and talking to you,” Alex said. He took a small breath, then continued. ”If I had my way, the three people that died in defense of Mirrorwane would be standing here while I sat in the crowd. Jake, Morgan, Serena. They would be telling you stories of how they took down the first Region Boss that awoke on this world. But I can’t always have my way. They’re dead, but they did not die for nothing. They died so we could stand here. So that we could continue.”

Alex paused for another breath. He didn’t even dare stop now. If he did, the words might have dried up an died in his throat. This was an attention he was entirely unused to. Alex was pretty sure he was more nervous now than he had been for any fight since the Apocalypse had started. He just pressed on.

”I won’t lie to you. I did not know them well. I don’t know most of you well. I came here to build a town, but the only thing I built were buildings,” Alex said. ”When I look before me, I do not see people that were strangers a week ago. I do not see campers. I see the town that we fought for. Not just in the buildings, but in your faces. A town is nothing without its people, and we paid in blood to stand here today.”

Alex didn’t dare wonder if his words were being well received or not. At this point, it was too late to change any of them anyway. All he could do was continue barging ahead.

”We will not forget the people that died here yesterday,” Alex said. ”Jake. Morgan. Serena. Their names will be remembered. That, I can promise. They will be mourned. But today is not one of sorrow. We paid a cost, but before me is the town that stood against a Region Boss. The first Region Boss. We fought like hell. And we won. Outworlder, human, it doesn’t matter. Should you want to be, every single one of you are all people of Mirrorwane.”

There was a long pause.

Did I overdo it? I barely even remember what I said. Shit. What do I —

May pumped a fist in the air. ”Fuck yeah!”

”May!” Aaron hissed.

One of the demons snorted. Then a human started to chuckle.

Within moments, the entire camp was laughing.

Some of the weight in the air lifted off their shoulders. Not all of it. The fight was too fresh. For many people in Mirrorwane, this had been the first time they’d been in a true large fight. That might not have been true for the Outworlders, but Alex was willing to bet absolutely nobody had ever been in a fight with stakes like this one had. Too many of their thoughts were still caught in the explosions that had bathed the forest.

”There’s one more thing,” Alex called as the laughter died down. ”If you haven’t noticed, Gorgonaga is dead.”

”Yeah. The System sent out an announcement about it,” Abby said. ”I don’t think there’s anyone who doesn’t know.”

”Right,” Alex said with a nod. ”And killing a monster like that comes with rewards. Every single person in this town contributed to killing the Gorgonaga, so I only see fit to distribute what we got from it to everyone as well.”

”Is that really true?” an older man with a graying beard and bushy eyebrows asked. ”I didn’t even see the bastard until after the fight was done. Don’t think I deserve anything. I’d rather the rewards go to the people that actually fought it.”

”Wrong,” Alex said. ”I dealt the killing blow. Claire and Orchid did significant amounts of damage to it and protected the town. But had there not been people fighting the smaller monsters, if there weren’t people operating the Warp Relay, then more people would have died. The town may have fallen. We might not have won. Just because you weren’t part of the direct fight does not mean you should get nothing from it.”

This isn’t entirely out of the kindness of my heart. I need everyone in Mirrorwane way stronger… and giving people gifts makes them stick around. They need to really feel like part of a community. I don’t want my people getting poached when they do inevitably get more powerful.

”Did it even have enough to share among all of us?” one of the humans asked. ”What was it, a pinata?”

Alex snorted at the mental picture of loot exploding out from the dead hydra’s corpse and showering down like candy. ”Depends. There were two main things it dropped. An Aspect Gem and a Visualization. The monster’s body is also very valuable. You’ll probably be able to sell components of it for good money or make some good equipment from it. For the sake of transparency, I took the Aspect Gem. It fit me too well.”

”Give the amount you, Claire, and Orchid did during the fight, I think it’s fair if you take more,” Abby said with a shrug. ”I wouldn’t have even known you had it if you didn’t tell us.”

Claire looted it before the others got there, huh?

Alex didn’t look in her direction. He already knew that he wouldn’t see anything in her features. She hadn’t told anybody about the gem in case he’d decided not to mention it. He just needed to get distribution handled so he could get around to what he was really looking forward to — meditating and cashing in all the rewards he’d just earned.

”That may be the case, but I don’t see any reason to lie right now,” Alex said. The more open he was now, the better foundations it would build with the town in the long run. ”So that leaves us with the Visualization, which is definitely going to be pretty damn powerful, and all the bits from the monster body. So let’s talk loot, shall we?”