Nightmare Realm Summoner

“You seem to be pop up just about wherever you want to,” Alex said, crossing his arms behind his back. “That’s what I want. We’ve got the location of an entrance to the Empty Court, but it’s far. Too far to reasonably go to. So this is my offer. You—”

“You want me to be a glorified delivery man,” Absolution said . It was difficult to say exactly what he was thinking. His features had gone completely flat again. “Is that it? You wish for me to deliver you to the Empty Court?”

“And back,” Claire added with a cheeky grin. “Both ways.”

“In return, we’ll do everything we can to get you an invite into the Empty Court,” Alex said. “And if we get it, we’ll hand it to you once you bring us back here.”

“And if you fail?” Absolution asked.

“Well, then you’re shit out of luck,” Alex admitted. He gave Absolution a shameless grin. “But that’s the way life works sometimes. You have to take a risk to get what you want. I think you know that well.”

“So I do,” Absolution said. “But this seems strikingly weighted against me. Why would I agree to such poor terms?”

“Because this isn’t costing you much either,” Claire said. She walked in a wide circle around Absolution, moving closer to Alex while never letting her eyes leave the tall man. “We just need you to take us over to where we need to be. In return, you get the location of an Empty Court entrance and our word that we’ll do our best to get you in.”

“Lots of potential reward. Not very much risk,” Alex said. “That seems like a pretty good deal to me.”

“You are assuming that it is simple for me to traverse 274-50,” Absolution said. He tilted his head to the side. “It is not.”

“But you can do it,” Alex said.

“Evidently.”

“Well, getting an invite into the Empty Court isn’t exactly easy either. Or am I wrong?” Alex crossed his arms in front of his chest. “Tell me honestly that this isn’t at least a fair deal for you. Because from what little I know of the Empty Court, it’s the perfect place for a nutter like you.”

Absolution didn’t respond immediately. He was silent for a short while. Then the corner of his lips twitched as if it were trying — and failing — to remember how to smile.

“And if I simply kill you for your Nexus Shard instead? You will have to trust me while we are traveling. It will put you at my mercy.”

“Then you can kiss your Empty Court invite goodbye. There are other idiots on the Local Leaderboard. Ones that are going to cost you no opportunity at all to kill,” Alex said. He sent his thoughts into his spatial ring and held his hand out. “But I figured you might need a little extra convincing.”

With a shimmer, a small vial appeared in Alex’s extended hand. The System came to life, sending golden letters tracing through the air to identify the item. It was the vial that he’d gotten from Shawn within the Grave of the Rotkeeper.

All-Rot (Legendary) — Consumable

Upon Destruction: When the All-Rot is freed from the powerful bindings containing it, it will consume all magical presences it comes into contact with entirely, growing and spreading until it is contained by a power source strong enough to repress it. It cannot be stopped or treated in any other method.

Absolution’s eyes went wide. “That—”

“Try to kill us on the way over and I’ll send us all to hell,” Alex said with a cheerful grin. “I know you’re strong. And I know you’re still stronger than me. But I also know that I’m strong enough to smash the shit out of this vial before you finish me off. A little mutually assured destruction never hurt anybody. Well, until it did.”

“So you did take it,” Absolution said. His lips curled. “And you would release such a weapon in 274-50? Do you have any idea how much damage it could do?”

“Not in the slightest,” Alex said. Then he shrugged. “Do you want to find out? Because I don’t.”

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“No,” Absolution said. He shook his head, then pointed his scythe at the vial. “I do not. Put that away.”

“Nope,” Alex said. “This is my deterrent. I don’t want to die any more than you do. So I’d say it’s in pretty good hands. Take us to where we need to go. We’ll try to get you an invite to the Empty Court. Genuinely try, mind you. And then you take us back when we finish. Deal?”

“And where is the location you need to go?” Absolution asked.

Alex reached into his pocket with his free hand, pulling out a scrap of paper that Rhyss had given him with the Astral Map coordinates of the Empty Court’s entrance upon it. He held it out to Absolution.

The Outworlder studied the preferred paper for a long second. Then he took a blurred step forward, closing the distance between them in an instant. Alex didn’t so much as budge. The two of them stood face to face for a second.

“Very well.” Absolution plucked the paper from Alex’s hands. His eyes flicked across its contents. Then he folded it in half with two fingers. “You have yourselves a deal.”

Alex grinned. He held his free hand out.

Absolution stared at it like it was an alien fruit. The man’s cold eyes flicked back to meet Alex’s gaze, but he didn’t say a word. The disgust and displeasure in his features was almost palpable.

“It’s a handshake,” Alex said. “You do it when you make a deal with someone that you don’t like enough to fist bump.”

“I am more than aware of what it is,” Absolution said. “Put it away. We are not allies. I would not form a true partnership with the likes of you.”

“Right,” Alex said. He waggled his hand in the air. “That’s the point. Did you miss the part where I explained what a handshake was?”

Absolution’s mouth curled downward. He did really have quite the striking ability to resemble a nobleman who had just smelled a particularly nasty shit on the side of the road. Absolution could have had a great career acting as a side villain in dramas had it not been for the apocalypse.

Well, had it not been for the giant hole in his chest. I’m pretty sure that the only thing he’d have been doing is being dead had it not been for the System.

Alex was just about to pull his hand back when Absolution unexpectedly reached forward, taking Alex’s hand in a firm grip before giving it a single, reluctant shake. Then Absolution released his grip, turning and thrusting the paper he’d gotten into a pocket in his pants.

“Ready yourselves,” Absolution said. “I do not desire to spend any more time with the either of you than I have to. And I suspect that the feeling is mutual.”

“Astute,” Claire said. “I’d say we’re ready. Just get us to where we need to go and I think we can all make it out of this without tearing each other’s throats out.”

Absolution let out a dry laugh. “I doubt it.”

Then he swept his scythe down. It seemed to catch on something in the air, the weapon’s motion slower than it should have been as if it were moving through jell-o. Purple energy crackled along its blade, coiling out in the scythe’s wake like oil spreading through water.

“Follow after me,” Absolution said. “If you delay, I will not come back for you.”

Then he stepped into the portal.

Alex and Claire exchanged a glance. Then, without another word, the two of them plunged into the rippling purple energy in the wake of one of their least favorite Outworlders.

***

Alex’s foot landed on grass.

Warm sun bore down on his back and a gentle breeze curled past him.

That was the first sign that something was wrong.

He was standing in a giant field. Blueish grass rose up to his knees, swaying in a gentle, almost hypnotic dance as far as the eye could see. Brilliant, blood-red flowers swayed high in the air above them. Each of the flowers was easily the size of a fully grown man, with long stalks of brilliant yellow pollen that protruded like antennae. There wasn’t so much as a single tree or boulder in sight. This was a world of nothing but grass and flowers.

“Whoa,” Alex breathed.

It was beautiful. If someone had told him that this was purgatory, he might have been able to believe it. Well — if Absolution hadn’t been standing there in front of him, that was. Alex didn’t suspect it would have been particularly hard for any deity to figure out where Absolution was bound for… and it certainly wasn’t anywhere this pretty.

“Where are we?” Claire asked from beside him.

Absolution turned to throw a glance over his shoulder. “A quarter of the way there.”

“A quarter?” Alex asked. He frowned. “Why so little?”

“Because even I have my limits,” Absolution said flatly. And, somewhere deep in his voice, there was a note of something that Alex hadn’t expected to find.

Weariness.

Absolution sounded tired.

“You mean you can’t get all the way to the Empty Court?” Alex blinked. “Seriously?”

“Did you honestly believe I could traverse great expanses of land with little more than a thought and a dream?” Absolution let out a dry laugh. “This early? Were I capable of that, then we would not be having this discussion. I would be so powerful that none could stand in my way… though I suspect the Starfallen would have made even better use of it than I. Perhaps neither of us would be here. The world would already be theirs.”

“Right,” Alex said. He glanced around at the flowers. “So… how long do you need to recover for?”

“A day,” Absolution said. “The next jump will take us farther. I had not been expecting to take on a task like this, so some of my strength has already been spent today.”

Alex started to nod.

Then he stopped.

“A day?” he asked.

“Yes,” Absolution said. “That is indeed what I said.”

Alex looked to Claire. Neither of them said a word, but he knew for a fact that the thoughts passing through their head at that very moment may as well have been completely identical.

God save us all.

We have to set up camp with fucking Absolution.