World of Alvarra: Rise of the Vampire Lord

Chapter 166 End of a Home

Three days later and the tactical grade spellcraft was about to begin. It's honestly amazing how much can change in just three days... or at least that was what Van was thinking at this time.

After that long discussion, Gloria and Zartashia had reinstated themselves as rulers with Amie and Xenith being sister queendoms of sorts, while at the same time swearing fealty to their own daughters in front of a large group of their noble peers to make it clear who technically had the real power, and that they were serious in making Amie and Xenith the true rulers of their respective queendoms should anything happen to them...

once that was settled, and they were able to open up a portal covertly, most if not all those who had fled to take refuge in Van's soul realm left to new forests promised them by multiple organizations and guilds.

What at first was a little over a million residents in Van's soul realm... has now shrunken to a little under fifty thousand... there was the thousand that Van was able to recruit and produce on his own. The six to seven thousand of Lyn's. The eleven to twelve thousand of Amie's that stayed behind. And the twenty-four to twenty-five of Xenith's, alongside all of her sisters who decided to stay in the hopes of adventure, which helped contribute to her numbers. Even a few of the newer converts of his own religion left, to stay with their families who were also leaving.

To which he couldn't really blame them for... it hurt a little... made him feel a bit bad after all the effort he went through to save as many people he could. But in the end... it just made a lot of sense... After all, Xenith and Amie were untried rulers, more born out of a sense of desperation than anything else, and newly crowned on top of that. There was also the other matter of what would happen to the people who live in a person's soul realm when that person dies... no one wanted to stay and find that out... there was also the matter of trying to sustain all those people, with food stores already starting to run thin...

Van knew that it wasn't that they were unthankful for what he did for them, it was that they just wanted to start anew somewhere safer... and it wasn't like he could take care of them all anyway, but it still felt pretty bad that so many left. And the once almost cramped soul realm, if only in the forest, now felt very empty...

Leaving only a fraction of the once crowded forest left... This of course did not include the many wild animals that they were able to save and bring. Which he supposed was nice all things considered, the bright spot in all of the others leaving.

After they were able to squeeze everyone out that wanted to get out of his soul realm. Zartashia and Gloria agreed to leave in separate ways, but on good terms, all things considered... But not before staying around until the spell that would essentially destroy their precious forest was done. They had to see it through with their own two eyes, the actions that caused their homes death never spread and hurt anyone else.

This led to this moment right now. Where Van and everyone else was sitting on the sidelines, waiting for the mages to fire their doomsday spell. His parents had wanted him to leave, but he and Luna were being stubborn about it, they too, wanted to see this through to the end.

It was during this time of waiting for the spell to fire, that Alv began telling them what was going to happen in detail next when Van asked where Lore was, considering he thought Lore would be the one to help fire the spell.

"Lore is at another site." Alv began to explain. "There are seven other sites surrounding the forest at eight points. Each one requiring mages of a certain skill level. Once the spell is ready to fire, eight points of energy will converge right above the mushroom, before firing a devastating beam that will destroy and burn everything within a certain radius of the final beam's epicenter."