Everything, page 1
EVERYTHING
Full Murderhobo Book Three
DAKOTA KROUT
Copyright © 2023 by Dakota Krout
All rights reserved.
No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without written permission from the publisher, except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are the products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, businesses, companies, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.
CONTENTS
Acknowledgments
Newsletter
Prologue
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
Chapter 23
Chapter 24
Chapter 25
Chapter 26
Chapter 27
Chapter 28
Chapter 29
Chapter 30
Chapter 31
Chapter 32
Chapter 33
Chapter 34
Chapter 35
Chapter 36
Chapter 37
Chapter 38
Chapter 39
Chapter 40
Chapter 41
Chapter 42
Chapter 43
Chapter 44
Chapter 45
Chapter 46
Chapter 47
Chapter 48
Chapter 49
Chapter 50
Chapter 51
Chapter 52
Chapter 53
Chapter 54
Chapter 55
Chapter 56
Chapter 57
Chapter 58
Chapter 59
Epilogue
Afterword
About Dakota Krout
About Mountaindale Press
Mountaindale Press Titles
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
To my Patreons who are supporting me directly, thank you all so much! Especially to Lilly Hawk and Mike Rylander.
And to my family, always.
NEWSLETTER
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PROLOGUE
As the first hints of daylight began to transform the false dawn into a beautiful morning, Zed the Bard admired the sky as it was painted by the forces of creation.
“What a beautiful day to achieve everything I have always wished for.” His murmured musings were short-lived, abruptly interrupted by the commander of the forces of the Hollow Kingdom opening the door. “Bartholomew! My dear Commander of the Inquisition, I'm shocked and surprised… that you took my request seriously. Are you here to stay a while and listen?”
“You told me what I needed to do in order to learn of the fate of the Queen.” The Commander spoke heavily, a drawn expression on his face hinting that there was more at play than he wished to divulge.
Zed eyed the man up and down, studying every detail of the opponent that had chased him across territories, kingdoms; abyss, the entire continent… for years. “You look tired. I must ask, did you bring the gold?”
“The… gold?” The Commander seemed nearly afraid to ask the question. To voice confusion in the presence of the Mindbender was tantamount to opening himself willingly to coercion or trickery, no matter how well he had trained to resist.
“Why, yes, of course! Surely you didn't forget that I had named only two requirements for you today?” Zed may have been gently teasing the man, but he was firm on his stipulations. “I told you that, if you wanted to come and listen, you needed to simply walk through the door… then pay the tab for the entire room!”
A cheer burst from the assembled townsfolk, who seemed far too relaxed for Bartholomew's tastes. To him, it merely signified that the Mindbender had them completely enthralled. Every last one would need to be eliminated before they could become problems upon leaving the building. He closed his eyes, overcome for a moment by the fact that this exact scenario had played out dozens, if not hundreds of times while he was hunting this monster of an Ascender. Something about the presence of the Bard forced his inner monologue to surface, and he whispered, “So many dead at your hand…”
“Very few at my hand, in fact.” At this provocation, Zed’s calmly serene expression shifted to a stony glare. “Is it so wrong for me to walk from town to town and tell them the truth? Is there a single word that you can identify where what I have said has been false? If knowing the truth is a crime worthy of death, then… hmm. I suppose we have proof that you believe it is. In that case, there is no further reason for us to throw insults at each other. I know the truth, you know the truth, and soon, the entire world will as well.”
“What have you done, Mindbender?” Bartholomew's eyes went wide as Zed held up a hand, cocking his head to the side and listening.
A wide smile, one completely devoid of mirth, spread across the face of the Ascended Bard. “Sneaky, sneaky. A moment, if you'll indulge me. How interesting that you would go this far… using yourself as a sacrificial pawn in an effort to bring my guard down? Adorable! If only I hadn't already known that you would do something like this, perhaps I would have been caught by the trap. Alas, it's been a while since I’ve had to use this, but I suppose it is fitting, both for my narrative today and as perfect punctuation for the tale I have promised you all.”
He snapped his fingers for dramatic effect, allowing a burst of mana to spread from his hands, from his lungs, and out of his mouth as he spoke the words, “Echoes of Reality: Peace Lily.”
The mana coalesced into a shimmering image that hovered above the crowd of people packed into the building shoulder-to-shoulder. As it came together, it formed a beautiful plant with the most intricate array of leaves that Bartholomew had ever had the misfortune to lay his eyes upon. He immediately knew what it was. What he didn't know was how a Bard could use Druidic Abilities. “No… no!”
“Surely you must feel some relief?” the Bard chided the opposing Ascender. “Are you truly so ready to throw your life away for a cause you know is wrong?”
Before either of them could say another word, a high-pitched ringing momentarily filled the air as an artillery spell impacted the side of the structure with enough force and compressed power to reduce the people, the tavern, and a dozen paces of ground in a twenty-foot diameter into motes of dust. Bartholomew stamped his foot, hard enough to hurt himself, yet somehow he didn't. “You did it…? You actually replicated the powers of the Archdruid! I thought it was hearsay, but you truly have found a way around the restrictions… this is heresy.”
“Ah, finally! Not only do I get to claim sedition, treason, and abuse of power; finally, I get to add heresy to the list of random crimes of which I'm accused.” Zed shook his head then watched placidly out the window as the crackling orb of power rolled along the ground outside, completely unable to damage anything. At some point, he knew that it would move beyond the edges of his ability to keep it contained, and it would detonate as originally intended. “With that well out of the way, I guess we can move on with our story.”
Turning to the crowd—which had remained in rapt attention ever since the troops of the Hollow Kingdom had begun to arrive—Zed lifted his hands and cheerfully called out, “I know that we have usually started in the evening, but today, my tale nears its end. My power will allow us to remain here all day, then all night, coming to a dramatic conclusion at the break of dawn upon the morrow! This last installment of my tale is significantly longer than my previous ramblings, and I hope you'll forgive an old man for starting a little early today.”
He glanced up fondly at the Peace Lily, knowing that it would ensure that not one of his listeners would become hungry, tired, or thirsty. “Let us discuss what happened after the establishment of the Scarrocco Nature Preserve. Reclaiming the land that had been lost to the desert, combined with rescuing and enhancing the Ley Line, allowed the Hollow Kingdom to blossom even beyond its former glory. The Nature Preserve turned the kingdom into a potential superpower, and as we all know… a threat to the major powers surrounding our once-weak kingdom.”
Zed took a deep breath, calming and centering himself before continuing. “This story is tough for me to relive… but I will do all I can to be honest. When the Dynasty of Dogs provoked the Hollow Kingdom, The Four were forced from their seclusion. No matter what the propaganda tells you, the end results of the war were not the fault of The Four. What we are living through today, as the baseline human grows in power—and as the Ascenders begin to weaken—was the direct result of King Vir coming to power, and then breaking the trust of the people sworn to the crown.”
Inquisition Commander Bartholomew winced at the bold declaration, glad that he had waited until that moment to activate the communication stone that would relay the words spoken here to th e Inquisition, and from there, to the armies of the kingdom. By the order of the king, everyone was to observe what happened to those who committed treason.
“As I'm sure you can all remember, just shy of five years after the establishment of the Nature Preserve, an abrupt death occurred in the Royal family, and a drastic shift took place in the direction of the leadership.”
The Bard waved his hands once more, and reality faded away, replaced with his memories. “When it all began, The Four were only just beginning to recognize the limits imposed on them…”
CHAPTER ONE
Luke the Murderhobo slouched in a chair crafted of vines and living wood, staring sullenly at the lush, verdant paradise he found himself in. Every once in a while, a tree branch would slightly extend toward him, offering fruit, nuts, or vegetables—strangely enough. The oddly solicitous vegetation was not why he was in a funk. Luke didn’t mind the ready access to food, and the view was enjoyable… even if the unnatural motion of the encompassing flora screamed at his senses that it must be destroyed for invading his space.
No, the reasons for his displeasure were far simpler than his idyllic haven might suggest. Five years had passed in this world since he’d had a true challenge. With the death of the Corrupted Nature Dragon, along with the exquisite growth that he had been able to find for himself and Cookie, he had imagined that the next several years would be filled with opportunities for advancement and combat.
Instead, he had spent nearly half a decade scouring the edges of the expanding forest, searching for any annoyance-relieving open Scar that he could step into without his Sigil setting his nerves on fire and forcing him to step away. Each time he had found something that he had deemed useful, Luke had been forced to close it, due to the sheer threat level of the contents of the portal. To his ever-mounting irritation, every time he had found something boring and not worth pursuing, his Skills wouldn't allow him to close it, identifying it as useful to the kingdom that controlled him.
Frankly, there had been another annoyance he had been forced to deal with. When their party had first defeated the Corrupted Nature Dragon, Taylor had sent a report to the kingdom. With her mind unchained from its original level, no longer forced to its innately inflexible, duty-bound, or practically childish temperament, the Mage had allowed herself to keep the details sparse. Specifically, she had not destroyed team morale once again by divulging each of the rewards they had earned, thereby offering them to the kingdom on a silver platter.
However, because the report had been so bare of details, The Four had been punished with a ‘reduced ability’ to enter their alternate worlds and gain power easily. In Luke’s case, he had gone from being able to enter Murder World once per thirty days to once per sixty. Directly halving the amount of time that he was able to enter that world had infuriated him beyond belief. Luke had spent the greater part of his time searching for any form of combat challenge—any way to hone himself or maintain his battle sense at his desired level—but once he had reached the maximum range of the Scarrocco Desert and visited each training opportunity, he found himself completely idle.
It was then that he decided on a new plan, and the five years had moved as a blink to him, in an almost literal way. His Skills forced a certain amount of growth—actual growth, in one of the cases—but the enforced idleness had been on the verge of causing a mental collapse. Before he stooped to destroying plants, attacking boulders that were slightly too different in shade, or screaming at clouds, Andre the Druid had come up with a far simpler solution. Between his ventures into Murder World, Luke had a tendency to spend a few minutes in the Descender portal they had found upon their original entry to the desert.
A few minutes was all it took for weeks to pass in their world. He quickly adopted the habit of popping in for a few minutes, stepping out, and absorbing all the changes that had been enacted by the Druid during their time apart. It was strange enough that he often wondered if he was somehow under an illusion effect created by Zed, having his perceptions subtly altered in order to keep him calm. It turned out that the reality was far stranger than any fever dreams that the Mindbender could place in his skull.
Andre had spent the entire time that they had been… exiled? Protected? Hidden? Imprisoned? No matter how Luke looked at it, it was simply more time away from the rest of humanity, let alone the accoutrements and benefits that he had earned. The Murderhobo shook his head and tried to remember what he had been thinking about… luckily, simply looking around allowed for an easy transition back into reminiscing. The Druid had spent the entirety of the last five years working. Planning, growing, crossbreeding and pollinating plants and animals; all for the express purpose of maximizing the benefits this land now provided.
Since the Ley Line and the Earthen Node had increased in potency, and the Druid had access to literal miles of ideal fertilizer, Andre had single-handedly generated explosive growth. Five years in, he had expanded the boundaries of his idealized paradise to hundreds of miles, with only a thin strip of desert still remaining between the Nature Preserve and the grasslands that surrounded it. His efforts had not gone unnoticed, and The Four had caught hundreds of spies and scouts searching their land. Still, without concerted effort, it was going to be impossible for an enemy—or even a presumptive ally—to locate them in the Druid's territory.
Andre was connected to the land and to every plant and animal within it. There was no way for anyone to sneak in without The Four having knowledge of the intruder’s presence prior to their arrival. If the Ascended exiles didn’t want to be seen, they’d never be found. That, more than anything, kept Luke from destroying the far-too-solicitous trees that were always offering him treats. “Abyssal strange is what that is. I wouldn't offer someone my arm, hoping they’d take a bite out of it. These plants just aren't right.”
The Murderhobo had recently exited the Descender portal and was awaiting the delivery that Zed had promised him. Once upon a time, Luke had commissioned enchanted gear from the kingdom's best armor and weapon smiths with instructions to send it wherever he might be. In general, his orders had been fulfilled, and delivery had been attempted many times, yet he had only obtained a fraction of the items he had specifically requested. In all fairness, it wasn’t entirely the fault of the craftsmen he had paid in advance. No, it was the fact that every wagon shipment was laden with spies, magical orders, or some other contingent sent to remove or withhold autonomy from The Four.
It had become such a consistent occurrence that they had taken to sending a clone of Zed to approach the wagons, and if it detected even a hint of an ambush or Royal decree, the clone would self-destruct, fading away into oblivion before the orders could be magically passed along. The Bard had made many enemies this way, since he would typically laugh in the faces of whoever had arrived, be it mercenary or Inquisitor, before fading into nothingness. Of the very few wagons that did arrive without passengers, most of the vehicles contained Spells, tracking devices, or other methodologies designed to corral the bounty hunters that The Four had become.
