Heretic Spellblade 4, page 1
HERETIC SPELLBLADE 4
K.D. ROBERTSON
Copyright © 2022 by K.D. Robertson
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 author, except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.
This book is a work of fiction. All names, characters, places, and events are the product of imagination or used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.
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CONTENTS
Maps!
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
Thanks for reading!
Books by K.D. Robertson
MAPS!
The following page has a map for the immediate area of the story. Check out the link below for a detailed map of the entire archipelago that the series takes place in.
You can find the full versions at:
https://www.kdrobertsonbooks.com/heretic-spellblade-maps/
CHAPTER 1
Nathan stood atop a hillside, staring down at what appeared to be an animated crayon wall of red leaves blowing across fall countryside. Dying, amber grass crunched beneath his feet, and the sunlight on his face felt real. But when he looked up, the sky and sun had a painted look.
It was as though he had stepped inside the world of an animated children’s book.
“This is new,” he said.
His unkempt black hair blew in the wind, and he shielded his face. A longsword hung from his waist. He wore a black and silver military uniform with several emblems on it, but had left his armor off today.
A solid black door materialized to his left. He looked over and watched as a woman stepped through it.
She had bronzed skin, four curly goat horns, violet eyes with red pupils, and a lithe figure that emphasized the curves of her bottom half. Her clothing covered little, given it consisted of little more than black cloth strips over her nether regions, and an obscene number of platinum hoops and bangles.
Her name was Kadria, and Nathan knew her all too well. Or he thought he did. She had been mysteriously absent for much of the past two years.
Which was strange, given she appeared to live inside his mind.
“I thought I sensed you,” she said. “What the hell have you done while I’ve been away?”
“I was about to ask you the same thing. This isn’t you?” He gestured to the surreal visual landscape around him.
“We both know a pair of dolts who create nonsense that looks like this,” she replied. “But this space doesn’t feel like theirs.”
Her bare feet crunched on the grass as she padded over to him. They looked around the barren hillside together, as if it would suddenly expel answers for them.
Nathan knew at least a little of what was going on, although a casual observer would be thoroughly confused. This place looked so unrealistic because it wasn’t real—it was a creation of magic that was attached to Nathan’s mind. The denizens of this place possessed magic that enabled them to exist outside of time and space, and even live inside minds.
Right now, three lived in Nathan’s mind. Kadria was one resident. The two responsible for this slice of fall were nowhere to be seen, but he expected them to appear any moment now.
They were known as Messengers, and were powerful demonic beings from other worlds. Specifically, the ones that Nathan worked with were succubi. Not that Kadria acted the part most of the time.
“Did somebody else latch onto my mind while I was busy with a civil war?” Nathan joked. “The Twins showed up after I defeated them. Is Thanatos here to share a drink?”
Thanatos was another Messenger, and one that Nathan had recently fought in the dark elf Spires. Officially, Nathan opposed Messengers. The demons attempted to destabilize and destroy Doumahr, while Nathan’s goal was the opposite.
The fact that he was here, allied with multiple Messengers, made it clear that matters were more complicated.
“You fought Koji?” Kadria asked, surprised. “I had wondered who it was that appeared in the Spires, but for him to show up so early…”
“Is that another joke name? The Twins kept calling him silly names.”
“No. His name is Koji.” She made a face. “It’s concerning that he’s appeared this early in the world’s timeline, but he can’t have used the same trick as the Twins. After all, you killed him in your world.”
“He remembered who I was,” Nathan pointed out. “But you’re right. He seemed confused about everything that was going on.”
“I can imagine.”
Their conversation wasn’t complete nonsense. Years ago, Nathan had met Kadria on opposing sides of a battlefield. She had been an invading Messenger, and he had been a Bastion defending against her. His version of Doumahr had been a wasteland overrun by demons. It had been on the brink of complete annihilation.
Kadria defeated him almost effortlessly, but brought him to an alternate version of Doumahr. Together, they worked toward preventing its destruction, like what happened in Nathan’s world.
Or at least, he thought they worked together. Kadria mostly advised him and lounged around in a strange mental space in his office. Recently, she had disappeared for huge stretches of time.
“You didn’t say anything about the civil war,” Nathan pointed out.
“I know about that. How many years have you been planning for it again?”
“Only two.”
Another gust blew past. The two stood next to one another in this surreal landscape, staring at nothing in particular.
“You don’t seem overly worried about it, if you can waste time on idle chatter,” Kadria said.
He shrugged. “I expected to be charging west with every soldier I could, in order to protect Aleich. For whatever reason, the Nationalists and archdukes stopped advancing.”
“I think I know the reason for that,” she said.
But before Kadria could explain, another door appeared nearby. It was made of a glossy material that Nathan had learned was plastic. A pair of busty women appeared, with appearances similar to Kadria.
These were the Twins, Maura and Laura. Their bodies bounced with their overly generous curves, and they were the perfect image of succubi. Bronzed skin; tits larger than their heads; gargantuan thighs; a pair of curly goat horns; hourglass figures so exaggerated that Nathan questioned the shape of the Twins’ skeletons.
Both women looked identical, save for their eyes and dresses. Laura wore a white one piece dress with black trim, and Maura a black dress with white trim. Both had red eyes, but Maura’s sclera were pitch black, cementing her as the more dangerous sister.
Supposedly. Nathan had many reasons to doubt that either Twin was superior to the other.
“Oh, joy. My tormentors,” Kadria drawled. She raised her voice and addressed the newcomers directly. “I take it this is your handiwork?”
“Of course. We thought Nathan had finally kicked you to the curb and decided to set ourselves up here.” Laura twirled toward them, her breasts doing very interesting things in the process. “Isn’t it wonderful?”
Kadria scowled. “So this isn’t your mental space. I thought as much.”
“I have no idea what you’re talking about,” Nathan said. “I came through the black door in my office like always, as I felt something change overnight. Why is this here, when the door has always led to your room, Kadria?”
“That’s what I’ve been—” she began to say, before the Twins cut her off.
The pair pressed themselves against Nathan from both sides, and he felt magic around him. Kadria’s mouth continued to move, but no sound reached him. She scowled as she realized what the Twins had done.
Not giving Kadria a chance to recover, the Twins dragged Nathan several steps away. Laura waved an arm and a woven picnic blanket appeared on the grass. No food seemed to be visible, but that could be remedied simply enough.
These mental worlds were the playthings of the succubi. Even in the real world, they conjured food and objects from nothing. Although Nathan had noticed that the Twins expended considerably more effort doing so outside.
Kadria caught up to them after a few
The Twins giggled at her as they tried to pull Nathan onto the blanket with them. He gave some token resistance, aware that Kadria was watching him intently.
“You can’t touch us, little goat,” Maura said. “Plus, we control this world now. You aren’t the most important asset to his mind anymore.”
“Ah, yes, I am truly upset that the two of you have been subjugated and turned into glorified Champions by Nathan.” Kadria gave them a mocking clap. “Does he fuck you as hard as he screwed you in the deal you made with him?”
“Oh, fuck you,” Maura said.
“We wish,” Laura muttered.
Maura punched her sister in the arm, which prompted a catfight as the two grabbed each other. While they tussled, Kadria summoned a long wicker chair to lay on and settled in with a glass of wine.
“As I was saying,” Kadria said, continuing her unfinished sentence from earlier, “I’ve been attempting to puzzle out what this space is. Given you appear to have trained your mental magic abilities considerably in the past two years, the conclusion is obvious.” She fixed her gaze on the Twins, who ignored her.
“I’m not following,” Nathan said.
“This is your mental space,” she said. “Unrefined, unrealized, and presently a toy for your newest playthings, but you’re taking your first steps out of the realm of mortality. You demonstrated life magic before. Now, you need to start combining your spatial and mental magic in order to construct a true mental fortress.”
He stared at her. Then looked around him.
The crayon leaves blew past fake trees. If he ignored the terrible artistic ability of the Twins, the rest of this mental world had an almost somber feel to it. The brisk fall weather, dying flora, and lack of civilization left him with little to do but sit and stare into the distance.
He hadn’t created this place, but suspected that the Twins had him in mind when they had done so.
“Well, I guess I can meditate here,” he said. “Ascending beyond mortality is low on my list of priorities, unfortunately. I have a lot of mortal affairs on my mind right now, one of which includes a supposed prophet of the goddess appearing.”
The Twins stopped fighting each other as they realized serious conversation was taking place without them. Within seconds, they dove over to Nathan’s side.
“Oh yeah, you’ve missed all the fun,” Maura said. “You shit on us about this deal, but we’re the ones who helped Nathan, beat up Jirou—”
“Koji,” Kadria corrected. “That joke is terrible, by the way.”
“Says the woman who taught it to me.” Maura grinned. “He goes insane every time I get his name wrong.”
Nathan refused to take the bait and ask why getting Thanatos’s name wrong was a joke, then waited patiently for them to resume the actual subject.
“So yeah, we saved the Spires and Nathan is leading this huge civil war thing. You’re just, what, drinking martinis with our boss?” Maura asked.
Their “boss” was the extra-dimensional entity responsible for destroying Nathan’s original world, and who was still trying to destroy this one. Fortunately, he appeared to be their boss in name only.
Or else Nathan would be very dead by now.
“Hardly. My scheme is coming to fruition,” Kadria explained. “I’m bumping into unexpected roadblocks, however. Nathan, I said earlier that I know why your enemies aren’t advancing on Aleich. The reason is simple.”
“So simple that I don’t know it?” he asked.
“No. It’s because it involves national secrets, and you haven’t mastered the magic that lets you monitor the state of the world yet,” she said. “There have been four Messenger invasions in the past two weeks.”
Nathan’s jaw dropped. Even the Twins looked shocked, and their arms tightened around Nathan.
Maura’s eyes narrowed. “That’s impossible. I would have felt the cascades. If Nathan hadn’t intervened, Koji would have destroyed this shithole.”
“Let me finish.”
The Twins rolled their eyes.
“Always so dramatic,” Laura said.
Kadria glared at her, then continued, “One of those invasions was benign—the Twins appeared but didn’t actually attack. The other was our good friend, Koji, invading as Thanatos. Those were within expectations. The civil war unleashed an unprecedented level of chaos all at once. But I didn’t expect two more Messengers so quickly.”
“Get to the point,” Nathan said.
She frowned at his sharp tone, but obeyed. “One appeared in the north—Arcadia, I believe. The other in central Doumahr, so either Trafaumh or the north-western fortresses of the Empire. Both were defeated before they escaped.”
“The second must have appeared in Waier, then,” Nathan said. “The Empire only has three trigem Champions. One each in the cities of Aleich, Waier, and Kaufberg. Trafaumh’s two trigems should be away from their central fortresses right now.”
“A fair assumption, especially given your foes have stopped advancing,” Kadria said. “If one of their most powerful assets was wounded fighting a Messenger, their Bastions may be worried about fighting you and Maylis head-on in Aleich. The Nationalists had two trigems before and are now down to one.”
This wasn’t something that Nathan had expected, but he certainly wouldn’t complain about it.
The timing of the civil war had placed him at a significant disadvantage. His opponents intended to overthrow Emperor Gorthal and install their own emperor in his place, one who would likely increase the power of the archdukes, reduce the standing of beastkin, and launch more wars against other nations.
That stance was popular in the Empire, especially among other Bastions. Not only did the rebels have two archdukes leading them, but they had the majority of Bastions and Champions. However, the most powerful of Champions, the trigems, were split equally. Nathan had one, and Gorthal’s Bastion, Maylis, had another in Aleich.
“I’ll need to act on this right away, then,” Nathan said, standing.
The Twins whined. “Hold on, we made this place for you. You’re just going to leave?”
He had been right on the money with his guess about why this place looked the way it did.
“Do I really seem this somber?” he asked.
“I’ve been deep in your mind. Yeah,” Maura said.
The other women nodded.
“Really?” he asked Kadria.
“I would have created something in the style of your Kurai Peninsula, perhaps with a hot spring, a zen garden, and plenty of bamboo. But I can appreciate the meditative approach they’ve taken. This is perhaps the first time in their lives that they’ve made themselves useful,” Kadria said.
“Well, fuck you, too,” Maura replied, raising her middle fingers at her fellow succubus. “Scottish countryside is way more fitting.”
“Ah, yes, Scotland’s crayon trees. Truly a national treasure.” Kadria laughed at the furious expression on the Twins’ faces.
By now, Nathan had worked out that the succubi were usually referring to nations from their original world when they started saying strange things like this. Australia, Scotland, Germany—he had gotten used to them bringing them up occasionally. This was one of the few areas where the Twins had greater experience than Kadria.
“To return to the point: I do need to leave,” Nathan said. “I only came here to confirm if I had sensed Kadria. Are you leaving again?”
“Not any time soon,” she said, reclining in her chair. “The civil war in the Empire has set off a troublesome train of events. For now, I’m once again reliant on you.”
