“What is this?” Aldrich touched the horn on his head. He identified it using his system.
[You have been integrated with draconic blood. You have now obtained the passive skill: Dragonheart]
[Dragonheart allows you to harness the incredible tenacity of the draconic race renowned for a ferocious grit akin to sheer immortality. When your health drops below 30% of its maximum value, your health or mana regeneration will regenerate massively and constantly.]
More information flowed into him as well.
[You have been infused with a tremendous amount of energy…]
[Analyzing…]
[…]
[…]
[It is impossible for this system to classify the energy you were merged with. However, calculations will be made as to the amount of experience this power has granted you…]
[Calculating…]
[You have obtained a tremendous amount of power. Not all of it can be converted to experience…]
[You are now level 70…]
[New Trial Quests are available…]
[The remainder of your power has gone into breaking your Limiter. You may now exceed your Limiter, allowing you to surpass the boundary of level 100 in time]
[Due to the removal of your Limiter, you may now more freely bind souls to your being. You have no limit to the undead you can control provided they are not within thirty levels of your being. Powerful undead close to your power is now Chosen Undead and these, you may now have a limit of 100]
[Your Boundary has also evolved due to the growth you and your soul bonded experienced in the realm of ?????]
[Both of you have developed independent, yet linked boundaries…]
[Look into yourself to unlock your Boundary. The truth shall be revealed within…]
[And, if you so dare, look into the Outer, and the Greater Truth shall be made known]
[…]
Then, a voice that Aldrich heard resonate deep within him.
<Wow, so you’ve broken your Limiter. Very, very interesting. I’d set that so nobody from Elduin, not the gods, dragons, giants, or death lord, could achieve such a thing. There’s nothing worse for a world than infinite power, you see.
If you are hearing this, you’re probably the detail-sensitive, power-hungry, possibly incredibly paranoid type. But don’t worry. I’m most likely long, long dead. Or at the very least, not living in any real conventional sense.
Regardless, I congratulate you for breaking one of the hard-coded limits of the System I created, the System of Magic and Skills and Levels that I enforced upon Elduin to make sure nobody got too strong.
That nobody drew the attention of the Outer. Looks like the future’s going to get really interesting for you. At least way more interesting than it was for me when I got reincarnated into Elduin, hah.
Well, looks like it’s true what they say: the best-laid plains of mice and men go awry, yeah? And what was that Spiderhero quote? With great power comes great responsibility. Make sure you remember that.
For your sake. And for the sake of everyone you care about. If you have anyone like that.>
Aldrich felt a huge headache assail him as the words echoed through his very being before fading away, like lone whispers in a forest. He tried to will contact that voice again, but it was gone. He, however, had a very good idea who that was.
It was the voice of the Arcane Emperor who, along with the Enlightened One, created skills, spells, and, most importantly, the leveling system that all living beings in Elduin fell under.
In the game, the Arcane Emperor showed up as a faint spirit every so often, guiding the player to lost artifacts or spells. He spoke in an archaic, grand manner befitting an ancient wizard, but now he seemed to push back that charade and bare who he really was: a man from Earth.
“What happened to everyone else that was with me?” said Aldrich. The ramifications of the emperor’s voice were”Volantis? My gear? And, most importantly, Chrysa?”
“I can still sense it all within you,” said the Death Lord. “Switch into your Lich form.”
Aldrich nodded. He balled up his fists. Green mist emerged around him. It acted like acid, sloughing off his skin to reveal the bone of his Lich form.
“It’s still here.” Aldrich materialized his Frosthallowed War Scythe. His cloak of souls. Volantis.
A small black plate formed on Aldrich’s sternum, but nothing more than that. On that plate, Volantis’s eye emerged. “Mrhm. What is going on…?” said Volantis sleepily.<.com>
“I see, I see.” The Death Lord put a hand to her chin and nodded. “You, my dear Usurper, are quite lucky. Or perhaps it is fate. That realm prison you were sent to was meant to conquer and entrap a single soul.
However, as a newly formed Lich, your soul was splintered. It is a common thing for Liches as their souls are quite, how shall I put it, malleable.
They can be moved and restructured with far more ease than with any flesh and blood being.
That is how you can sever your soul into a Phylactery. That is how your little one Chrysa bonded with a part of your soul. And because you have separate spiritual parts, one with your little one, the other with your Phylactery, the prison realm could not take all of you.
Which left a signal for me to trace and send my own power to.
It seems that the part of your soul that was bonded to your little one was trapped. As a subconscious defense mechanism, you sent all your weaponry into your Phylactery, within your Lich form.”
“Then Chrysa-,” began Aldrich, briefly panicking at the thought that she had potentially been trapped in the other world.
“I will draw her out,” said the Death Lord, assuaging his worries. She put a hand on Aldrich’s chest and performed a ripping motion out. As she did so, a white flash blinked, and from it, Chrysa emerged, falling into the Death Lord’s arms unconscious.
“Wait…” Aldrich knelt down, putting a hand to Chrysa’s cheek.
“She…” Valera began in recognition, though her words caught in her throat.
She was different.
Older.
A young teenager, perhaps, maybe twelve or fourteen. Her dress was gone, replaced with a bodysuit etched with lines of iridescent energy. Shining rainbow colored tips highlighted some strands of her white hair – hair inherited directly from Elaine.
“I understand now.” Aldrich murmured. The reason why in the other world, his daughter with Elaine was still named Chrysa.
Chrysa had been taken with Aldrich into the other world. She had become his daughter there.
And now, she had merged with her existence from the other world.
Aldrich could not sense her because she was almost an entirely different existence. But even if she was different in appearance, she was still his daughter.
He looked down as he felt the warmth of his daughter’s cheek radiate into his cold, skeletal hand. He thought he had lost everything from that other world, that happy world.
But Chrysa – his daughter – she had been saved.
For that, he was grateful. Grateful to who or what, he did not know. Fate, perhaps, as the Death Lord said. It did not matter.
What mattered was that Chrysa was here.
“I do not know entirely what transpired in that prison realm,” said the Death Lord. “But I do know that it has taken a toll from you. That you show signs of loss. Great loss. Loss that I understand.
Whether your chains were a paradise or inferno, I know not. But what I do know is this,” She placed a hand on Aldrich’s shoulder. A comforting one. “I am glad you are back, Aldrich.”
Aldrich looked up at the Death Lord. She smiled down at him. The happiness in her face was genuine. It made him question the suspicions he had regarding her.
“You have to tell me, Mel,” said Aldrich, speaking to her directly, heart to heart. “What you want me for. What the end goal for all of this is. Why you’re giving me your power. Why you sacrificed so much to bring me back.
Otherwise, all I can do is keep suspecting you, planning against you in the case that you stand against me one day.”
“My lips, dear Usurper, are sealed.” The Death Lord winked at Aldrich and put a finger to her lips. “But do keep plotting. I welcome a challenge, hah!” Her smile faded. “But now, it is time for you to go.
Your realm awaits you, after all, and as far as I can tell, there is much for you to do there.
Many who await your return. “
Aldrich nodded. He was not going to get a straight answer out of the Death Lord. But for the first time, he felt genuine trust for her.
“You’re right,” said Aldrich. He picked Chrysa up in his arms. “It is time for me to go.”
The Death Lord snapped her fingers, creating a vortex of whirling white in front of Aldrich and Valera.
“Time for us to go.” Aldrich nodded to Valera, and together, side by side, they stepped into the portal. “Time for us to make the world right again.”
