Chapter 13

Memories entered his mind like a red-hot poker, searing their way painfully into his psyche. Every barrier, mental and magical that he constructed to protect himself was easily punctured.

The Dragon Turtle’s power swept past his defenses with no apparent effort. Where Wil thought his mind was protected by sturdy walls of psychological steel after experiencing the dwarven crown’s attempt to subvert him, the Azure Lord punctured holes through them as if they were wet paper.

Wil’s mind was filled with thoughts and images that did not belong to him but were now as real in his mind as his own. Each carried feelings and sensations that made them truly feel like they were his, although they had a ‘foreign’ element to them, not truly mixing seamlessly with his own past.

Not requiring his permission or consent, the images played before his eyes, one after another. Each felt like he was assuming a role, a watcher behind an unfamiliar set of eyes.

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He was swimming in the sea, the poorly lit and murky seabed was as bright around him as the noonday sun to his eyes. He could see for miles in every direction, with a perception that revealed everything to his sight.

The slightest ripple of sand, or scurry of a small fish, would draw his attention as he leisurely let the current carry him onward. The cold waters of the Azure Sea were pleasantly cool on his rough and leathery skin, the pressure of the deep sea was a comforting caress against his dragon scales.

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With a scream of agony, Wil came back to the present, the cold black stone digging sharply into his back, nearly piercing through his enchanted leather armor. Like a drowning man, he struggled to keep his head above water, as the visions dragged him below, forcing him into the strong current of the Dragon Turtle’s memories.

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Another memory flashed into his mind. He was hunting, searching for his foes in the deep sea. The Sahuagin were tricksome and vicious, constantly seeking to hinder him. As he served his father, the Lord of all Oceans, they served the nameless god imprisoned within the maelstrom of the Azure Sea. A vile, evil outsider, cast into the abyss ages ago.

Aruna himself gave him this duty, to protect this ocean and prevent the nameless god from escaping. Time had no meaning to an immortal, he did not know how long he had been carrying this burden. But he could count the attempts on his life by the Sahuagin over the years, each leaving their scars on his body.

A feeling of wrongness came from this part of the ocean, a tinge of magic foreign to this realm. The touch of the Outsiders.

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Wil squeezed his eyes shut, his head feeling like it was about to split open. He had long ago collapsed, boneless onto the black rock, nothing existing except the pain and the memories. The Dragon Turtle had something to show him, the purpose of his presence here. He just needed to hold on long enough to discover it.

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Another vision, churning, chaotic water, filled with silt and blood. A heavy body crashes into his side, nearly cracking his sturdy shell from the force. A quick glimpse of a slick, grey skin body was all he caught as he spun through the water, the force of the blow sending him into a spiral towards the ocean floor.

His mana was sluggish, contained in his body, but unable to be released. His opponent was faster than him, gliding through the water at fantastic speeds. Without his mana to summon the currents to propel himself, he was too slow to respond to its attacks.

Another strike, this time from beneath him. With a sickening ‘crack’ the hard carapace under his belly split open, digging deeply into the soft flesh beneath. The murky water grew redder as more of his blood flowed into the sea.

This time, however, his opponent was too slow, and his jaws snapped around his slippery foe. Soon, black blood joined the red as he bit into its grey skin. Whipping his head back and forth, Wil enjoyed his revenge as his enemy finally freed himself from his bite, leaving behind a large chunk of flesh.

Through the cloudy seas, Wil had a good look at his adversary. A large shark, nearly matching his own body in size. Its body was covered in old scars, and signs of long healed wounds. From the feeling the memory gave him, this was an opponent he had faced before, a rival for supremacy of the Azure Sea.

Something was off, however. The Giant Shark gave off a feeling that was sickeningly familiar to Wil. Like the Lich in Aachen, the shark had a hint of immortality about it, a shard of divinity contained within its body. But also like the Lich, Wil could feel the corruption infecting its essence, altering its body and perverting its soul.

Black lines covered its body, a web of infection that crisscrossed its grey skin. Wil had seen those lines before, Aachen had been covered by them as well. Not simply dark, they were like an absence of light, a void.

Waves of negative energy rolled off its body, confirming what he suspected. This creature in front of him, already a half step to becoming a god, was infected by the same blight the Lich had unleashed in Aachen.

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The realization of what he was seeing made the vision shake, pushing him out of the memory and into reality.

Panting on the ground, the agony faded from his body as he assessed what he had just seen. The shark in his memories was massive, and it was powerful. He could sense the divinity within it. A creature nearly as strong as the Dragon Turtle succumbed to this poison, changing it into a mindless killing machine.

Wil remembered how the infected in Aachen changed, their bodies deforming as their strength multiplied. The infection unlocked some hidden power within them, at the cost of their sanity and bodies. He shuddered to think of a creature as powerful as that shark becoming a mindless beast all from a single drop of blood…

Bolting upright, Wil looked at the Dragon Turtle before him. He remembered sinking its teeth into the shark’s flesh, the black blood flowing around it. Could the Dragon Turtle be infected as well?

Standing upright, ignoring the protests from his body, he walked to the edge of the stone, looking at the Dragon Turtle closely. He could still feel the flow of memories from it, but they seemed to be dwindling, allowing him a moment to think rationally before they renewed their assault.

The Azure Lord before him looked healthy and strong and, at first glance, he could feel the strength and power exuded from it. But there was something more, something deep beneath that he would never have noticed without the memories guiding him.

Buried deep within was a hint of corruption, a foul thread of negative energy that enveloped it. The Dragon Turtle, the Son of Aruna, the protector of the Azure Sea was infected with whatever had driven that shark to madness, had brought the Lich back to life and had unleashed a blight on the living in Aachen.

Wil stared into the eyes of Lord Azure, letting the memories wash over him, looking for an answer.

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For years he had battled the shark for supremacy of the Azure Sea, their rivalry going on for so long that it had simply become a part of its life. His foe was the lord and protector of the foul Sahuagin, the only reason Lord Azure had not wiped their foul presence from the sea.

Although it was not his equal in combat, when it was within the boundaries of the Sahuagin’s magic, they were able to flee and hide, biding their time, concealed beneath barriers, waiting for the moment to strike.

For years the struggle went on, always they sought a way to free their god from its imprisonment in the maelstrom. It was only recently that things changed. The shark grew in size and power, the magic of the Sahuagin become darker, more twisted and viler. Their bodies, normally humanoid, with traces of their draconic heritage, became abominations, hideous caricatures of their former selves.

It was after his fight with his rival that he felt it, the infection, slowly making its way into its body. The black blood.

He felt remnants of outside interference, a trace of divinity that did not belong to their world. A presence that his father, Aruna, and the other gods worked desperately to keep out.

Regardless of the differences, good or evil, selfish and selfless, all the gods of their world found common cause in repelling the Outsiders. And now, a piece of one was infecting his body, working its way through him.

It had cut off his connection with his inner realm, the source of his magic. He couldn’t heal, couldn’t repair this damage himself, he needed help.

His father was unable to interfere, the rules were clear that the gods could not descend to the lower world without disastrous consequences. They could only act through intermediaries.

He needed a mortal, someone with the ability and knowledge to enter his inner realm, find the infection, and crush it.

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Wil slowly opened his eyes, finally knowing the purpose of his visit here. The Dragon Turtle was infected, its divine body slowly changing. The cure for the infection lay in its ‘Inner Realm.’

Wil knew practically nothing about the higher ranks, how the mana core inside a person grew or changed to accommodate more power and energy.

Currently, as a Rank 5, his core was shaped like a large diamond, the size of his clenched fist, shining brightly within him. He never really questioned ‘where’ exactly this core was in his body. When he closed his eyes, he could ‘see’ it, floating in his sea of consciousness, in his mind’s eye, his ‘inner world’.

From what the Azure Lord revealed, the path of divinity somehow lay in expanding the core from a ‘figurative’ inner world, into an actual one. It was mind blowing, and he was nowhere near capable enough, or experienced enough to comprehend how one went about doing so.

Staring into Lord Azure glowing blue eyes, Wil could see the pain and desperation there, hidden behind a show of strength. The infection was already spreading, inside of it. To expunge the black blood and the negative energy, he would need to enter a demigod’s inner world.

‘Well…I wanted an experience to write to the Academy about.’ Wil thought, before nodding his head in agreement to the Azure Lord’s request.

With an abrupt surge of the Dragon Turtles remaining mana, Wil felt the absolute pressure of its magic press down on him. Unable to move, he watched in a horrible fascination as the Azure Lord reared up out of the water, its neck stretching high into the air.

Wil had a perfect view of its massive mouth opening up in from of him, its powerful beak and razor-sharp teeth filling the sky above him before the Azure Lord snapped its jaws around the black rock surrounding him.

In a flash Wil was gone from the desolate island, swallowed whole by a Dragon Turtle. Not waiting, it quickly sank beneath the waves, disappearing out of sight. In moment, the island was quiet again, no trace of man or beast remained.