City of Fallen Souls: A LitRPG Adventure (UnderVerse Book 3) by Jez Cajiao (fb2 epub reader .txt) 📕

much for his addled, panicked brain, and he passed out, even as he heard the most wonderful words being spoken somewhere above him…

“My mate did!” Tern declared proudly. “My Mattin fixed the Second Shieldwall!”

“Then cheer for Mattin! Cheer for the Herald of the Second Age of the Holy Lost Prax!” the First Warrior boomed. Mattin sank into darkness as his name was chanted, the echoes reverberating from the walls and hanging in the suddenly clear and rapidly purifying air.

Chapter One

I stared down at the three Praetoria who kneeled before me, and shook my head in confusion.

“What the hell just happened?” I asked, as the threads that ran through my soul to theirs suddenly ceased to vibrate. I could feel them, similar to the way I could feel my bond with Oracle, though this was far weaker.

“You just took Eternal Amon’s Oaths as your own,” Oracle whispered to me, silence filling the cavern as everyone gaped in shock. I felt Him then, Amon… in the back of my mind. His mind was, and would always be, fractured and filled with moments of madness. One minute, he was offering sage advice; the next, he was giggling uncontrollably or screaming in rage, but worst of all was the grief.

He regularly descended into his own personal hell of recrimination, punishing himself with every suspected death of innocents, imagining the terrible fates that could have been inflicted on the billions that had died since his time. He blamed himself for every single one, and he flayed himself with them, his broken mind shattering anew every day.

The times when he could perceive the world were rare, but thankfully, they were growing more frequent. He’d never taken over before, though, and the knowledge of how easily he’d managed to do so in order to activate the Oath freaked me the fuck out. What if he took over permanently? Or lashed out when he was in one of his moods?

I shivered and swallowed hard, forcing myself to dismiss that thought for the moment.

“So… you three have sworn to me now?” I asked, feeling the threads of power joining us.

“Yes, my Lord.” They replied as one, looking up at me from the floor.

“Well, you can fucking stop that, for a start,” I said, shaking my head. “The whole speaking at the same time is freaky… and call me Jax; I don’t see any reason to be ‘Lord’ this or ‘Lord’ that, unless there’s a good reason, okay?” I gestured for them to stand. “Look, get up and relax. I’ve got no idea who you are, beyond your names, so how about you introduce yourselves and explain how the hell you found me?” I asked them plaintively, ignoring the urgent flashing of my notifications.

All three climbed to their feet, the bird-dude Amaat shaking his wings out reflexively as he stood.

“Well, as I said, L… Jax,” Yen said, smiling as she took a seat again, “we, the Legion of Dravith, are the surviving members of the Speculatores Praetoria. Your companion clearly knows who we are, but I will explain it. The Praetoria was once a unit with wide-ranging requirements. I believe we started as a scout formation, and then grew into everything from investigators to advisors to the Legion. It granted those among us who rose to the Praetoria further authority, becoming Councilors, Monster Hunters and Justiciars, amongst other roles. We traveled the lands, bringing law and order, seeking out corruption and killing the creatures of the night.” Yen shook her head, delving into her memories to provide the history of her order .

“Our primary purpose was to give advice to the Great Houses who ruled the land,” Tang said, taking up the tale. “We were also tasked to report on the corruption that was growing in the Empire. We would deal with it ourselves in situations where it was low enough, and report it to the Cohortes Praetoria Provosts when it was beyond us. When the cataclysm struck, most of the Legion was ordered to return home to the capital. They allowed less than one in a hundred Legionnaires to remain to assist the populace, but they ordered our division to stay behind, and our role grew. The higher ranks of the ‘Great Houses’ were all in the capital, leaving only the minor sons and daughters to look after things in their lord’s absences. They were the members of the family least viewed as being worthy of power, and when they took their parents’ places, it went… badly.”

“It was a clusterfuck,” I said, nodding.

“A… clusterfuck… yes, I like that,” Yen agreed. “In essence, the realm was torn apart with the loss of the Emperor and the Great Houses, the moon Ishtic fell from the sky, and the Legions vanished into abruptly violent seas. Waves, miles high, washed over the land; monsters, which had been thought long extinct, emerged from the dark places; and creatures, which had been captured and used to train the Legions, broke loose. The dead walked the land, and all the nightmares of the prophecies came to pass. Less than one percent of the population survived. The world ended, and those that remained were left to pick up the pieces.”

“The Dravith Cohortes Praetoria worked with the survivors to rebuild. We pulled in, abandoning the majority of the continent in favor of saving what areas we could. For the next several hundred years, we simply tried to survive while the creatures of the night came for us. The Legion was reviled for abandoning the people, and each year, we garnered fewer recruits while losing increasing numbers of our experienced fighters. The council lowered our budget as the nobility grew in power, while we lessened. Of late, the Legion’s funding has been cut even further, as the ruling house of Himnel, Lord Barabarattas, hates any who stand against him. We have been fighting the rise of the slave trade, and as such, we are paying the price now,” Tang said bitterly.

“You’re against the slave trade?” I asked