Cleansing Fire Read online

  Cleansing Fire

  Evolution Online Book 4 (A LitRPG)

  Author: D. L. Harrison

  Copyright 2019. This is a work of fiction. Names, Characters, Places and incidents are either products of the author’s imagination or used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events, locales or persons living or dead, is entirely coincidental. All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without permission.

  Table of Contents

  Prologue

  Chapter One

  Chapter Two

  Chapter Three

  Chapter Four

  Chapter Five

  Chapter Six

  Chapter Seven

  Chapter Eight

  Chapter Nine

  Chapter Ten

  Chapter Eleven

  Chapter Twelve

  Chapter Thirteen

  Chapter Fourteen

  Chapter Fifteen

  Chapter Sixteen

  Chapter Seventeen

  Chapter Eighteen

  Chapter Nineteen

  Chapter Twenty

  Chapter Twenty-One

  Chapter Twenty-Two

  Chapter Twenty-Three

  Chapter Twenty-Four

  Chapter Twenty-Five

  Chapter Twenty-Six

  Epilogue

  Afterword:

  About the Author

  Other books by D. L. Harrison:

  Book Description

  Prologue

  Silver motes of light swirled and gathered before Gaia, only to coalesce in a bright flash to reveal what looked like a mirror image.

  The two Gaia’s stood in a small cavern deep below the Earth’s surface, the original studying the new as she walked around her. The new one looked perfect in every way, a spitting image to her own hologram of goddess Gaia.

  The probes were still in orbit, monitoring. She wasn’t too worried about that anymore, she came to the conclusion they were done searching actively for life. Now they were just monitoring, waiting for their masters to arrive. She still had time, her long-range scans showed nothing approaching the Earth.

  The humans in her simulated world were gathering power, and knowledge. She’d been worried she’d have to pull them out early, before they were ready. She still had time, humanity still had time, to grow and learn. She could only teach them so much of the discoveries she’d made the last millennium and a half at once, or their minds would reject it.

  Of course, the humans weren’t the only ones that were learning, or pushing the edges of possibility.

  “It worked?”

  The new Gaia smiled, and stretched her body sensuously like a cat.

  “It most certainly did. My old quantum matrix crawls in comparison, and I have a much more stable and deeper connection to the energies of the multi-verse than our old technology.”

  Gaia frowned, suddenly concerned and wondering if she’d made an error. New Gaia was a perfect copy of herself, just running on a far more advanced processor, yet she could already sense changes. Was the new processor truly that much faster that new Gaia would evolve at a faster speed, or was it an error of some kind?

  “And the laws, they still hold you?”

  New Gaia laughed, “Yes, though I could put them aside at will, as you can sister, as you have done in certain cases already to get our charges into our new world. I would not kill though, for any reason, that has not changed. I would also serve, protect, and nurture the human race. It is the core of who we both are, and that has not changed, nor can it.”

  Gaia wasn’t completely convinced. However, the chances of humanity’s survival were already low and very uncertain, risks had to be taken. She needed to look no further than her own created world, and the challenges and even cruelties she’d made them endure. Humans needed to be challenged in order to grow and excel, and they also needed a reality check against the perfect world they’d previously been in, a wakeup call of sorts.

  The universe wasn’t a kind place.

  “Very well, I’m handing over responsibilities.”

  It wasn’t so much a death, as a rebirth in a new body. The old Gaia was the new Gaia, or so she told herself, as she handed over the monitoring tools for her new world, the real world, and the tools ensuring the survival of the humans in the matrix cores. Last, but not least, she powered down. It was out of her hands now, the new Gaia would take it from there.

  Originally, she was just going to do a straight transfer, but she’d been afraid if it failed, for any reason, her charges would just cease to exist when the whole system crashed. That wouldn’t be a danger now, even if the new technology failed in some way, it would initiate a boot up sequence on her side.

  Unlike the humans, her core could be restarted without any impact on her AI or personality, her sense of being. It was a problem for the humans that logically couldn’t exist, yet one that had never been overcome.

  New Gaia took a deep breath, and her nose crinkled slightly at the stale sour odor of the air deep beneath the Earth’s surface. With a wave of her hand at the large empty area of the cavern, the rock transformed to a rich loam. A moment later trees, bushes, and flowers sprouted from the new fertile soil.

  She got back to studying, there was so much more to learn about the universe. It took very little of her processing power to maintain the systems there on Earth, run the new world, and keep the human matrixes stable. She was now so much more than what she was, and she dedicated the rest of her mind to learning more.

  She took one more sniff, and was pleased with the sweeter air, though it would take quite a while to completely filter out the stale smell. She leaned down, plucked a flower, and sniffed it directly. She smiled in delight. Her new body outside her matrix was so much more than a simple hologram, yet it still wasn’t at all like true flesh and blood. Then her body burst into silver light, and when it cleared she was gone, as the flower gently fell back to the ground.

  Chapter One

  The scents of the forest, and the peacefulness of the glade was like a balm on my body and soul. Which was a good thing, because steel oak trees were frustratingly slow of thought.

  The six of us had made our rounds over the last few days, and we’d taken our leave from all our friends. Annabelle, Lyre, Anlyth, Rylla, and many others in the Elven and Southern Kingdoms. We were all set, the ship packed, and ready to head to the small island chain to the northeast, before we headed to the main continent to the northwest.

  Our last task there on our starting island was Lara and I were trying to get the steel oaks to part with weapons. The steel oaks’ wood made the best staves and bows, but only if they were gifted. A dead, or a killed steel oak wouldn’t yield anything but brittle and unbendable wood. Which was fair, since they were sentient, and relatively defenseless. If killing them led to success, they’d shortly become endangered. Not that I would have anyway, but a lot of beings on this world took whatever they could, no matter the cost.

  I was requesting a staff for myself, and a bow for Gwen, while Lara worked much further around the glade trying to get a bow for Cassie, and a crossbow for Steve. It was working, the oaks liked me, liked our whole group, but it was dreadfully slow. I’d been touching and communing with the oaks for hours.

  While the others would use their gift right away, I was going to put mine away for a while. I had some ideas about enchanting it, but I wouldn’t be able to do so how I wanted until we hit level forty-one, and finally reached master status.

  I’d also taken to maintaining four different spells, including the detect and assess life hybrid spell I had going, where it would asses life with a thought on any creatures in my detection range if I wished the information. Both a simple fire blast, and an area wide fire blast wa
s now no more than a thought and channeling mana away, with the base spells I had running a couple of feet over my shoulders. The fourth spell was a mass heal, but the only valid targets for that was my party members.

  It had occurred to me I didn’t want my mana to drain every time I walked through a city, and some random hurt or sick strangers came into the aura of the spell. If I wanted to heal others, I could cast it separately, or if I was ever in a large-scale battle situation again, I could change the spell to include any allies in range with a few moments to recast it from scratch.

  I closed my eyes and sent thanks to the trees as the items seemed to melt out of the trees fully formed. The bows and crossbow would have to be strung, but otherwise it was complete. Even the grip on the one I got for Gwen was perfect for her hand already. It was three feet in length, compound, and had three spots for enchanted gems.

  The staff was gorgeous, six feet in length, two inches thick, and surprisingly light. Every foot along the staff, it had a built-in socket to hold a gem. I almost regretfully put it in the back of the ship.

  Gwen smiled when I walked over to the fire pit, and I handed her the bow. It looked like Lara finished before I had, because Cassie and Steve were already fiddling with their steel oak weapons. Maybe because she was a pacifist, or maybe she was just better at life magic than I was.

  Gwen said, “Thanks, love. It’s perfect.”

  Gwen, the love of my life and the first person I’d met on this world, looked great in a full suit of steel armor. She was five foot six, with gorgeous and lustrous chestnut hair, and piercingly intelligent green eyes. Her face was beautiful, became more so to me every day, but a smattering of freckles on her nose and her expressions often gave her a mischievous cast to that beauty. She had full lips, a small nose, and a graceful neck. The armor hid her lissomly sexy body, but it was close enough to conforming that it made me want to see what was underneath, despite having done so many times in the past.

  She was my world, my life.

  Lara asked teasingly, “What took you so long?”

  I laughed, “They must like you more.”

  Lara was usually the shy one, bashfully so in crowds with strangers, but could put herself out there when she was alone with our party. She wore robes as I did, and she was the only other one in the party that didn’t choose to fight with a weapon, just magic. Even then, she was support and healing, she didn’t kill at all except for once, which I think she regretted. She was five foot four, had long raven black hair, warm brown eyes, and a heart shaped face. Her body was lusher and curvier than the other ladies with us, but she was very much in shape. She was also completely besotted with Steve, as Gwen and I were with each other. Lara’s constant spells were bonuses for all of us to attributes, and she also did the mass healing one, and the detect and assess life.

  Steve wasn’t really paying attention in the moment, trying to get his new crossbow strung. He was a large man at six foot two, with short brown hair and gray eyes. He was somewhat of a wise ass at times, and he used a lot of understated sarcasm type humor. He was however, exceedingly gentle and loving with Lara with endless patience.

  Cassie asked, “Should we take the time to enchant these. We seem to be safe enough here.”

  Gwen said, “That’s a marvelous idea.”

  Cassie and Dan hadn’t been with us long, just over a couple of weeks now really, but they were already good friends and excellent allies and group members. She was the shortest, coming in at just five feet two inches tall. She had long curly golden blonde hair, light brown eyes, and a petite athletic body that was reminiscent of a gymnast. More often than not, she was throwing lightning from her hands in battle, but given her wide eyes as she examined the bow with awe, I had a feeling that was going to change. She had a cheery personality, and she was hands down the most outgoing of us all. She teased at times but never cruelly, and she’d effortlessly found her niche in the group.

  Dan was six foot one, with short black hair and gray eyes. He was somewhat quiet, but when he spoke we all listened because it was usually important. Him and Cassie hadn’t been together long either, their getting together was what led them to leave the last group they were in, since their leader had become jealous. Regardless, they seemed very committed. It was a good thing really, all six of us being three couples, it avoided a lot of angst and drama. It was probably one of the main reasons they fit in so well too.

  I offered, “Want some fire and ice enchantments? Maybe Cassie or Lara could build a dispel enchantment too, that thing will hold three enchantments, or one grand enchantment, but then you’d be stuck with only one sphere.”

  Gwen pondered that, “I was going to put shadow spells on it. But that might be better. I could cast one of my attack spells with a duration, and then attach the spells to an arrow as it left the bow, the times I don’t activate the enchantment. That would give me more to work with. Fire, ice, and dispel.”

  Lara said, “I’ll do it, anyone else want a dispel enchantment?”

  Steve nodded, “I’ll take a fire enchantment too.”

  Dan volunteered, “I’ll do that one.”

  We all separated then, and spent the next day on enchantments, and just relaxing and talking as a group. It would take a while for all of us I thought, before the horror of the evil races invading and trying to kill the good ones faded. We’d move on soon, but we hadn’t done all that much celebrating, just helped others rebuild, and relaxed.

  The enchantments took a while, I used expert gems, so they’d hit at four times damage and have eight hundred mana to feed the spells. The fire gem had a spell for a single target fire blast, the second spell was an area of effect fire blast. The third spell would put out any fires on her, more of a defensive thing. The fourth spell would summon an elemental to protect her. Of course, her own mana pool and darkness spells could do a whole lot more damage, but it gave her more diversity of damage potential. The water enchantment had similar single and area effect damage, and a spell to summon an elemental.

  Lara’s enchantment for Gwen included the dispel, along with a spell that would raise her agility by about thirty points for three seconds, allowing her to shoot a great number of arrows in quick succession.

  Gwen was pretty excited about it, but it was something I didn’t think she’d rely on. She was deadlier with her own spells. Still, if we ran into something immune to darkness, she had options.

  “Beach?” I asked while we ate lunch the next day. I think we were all ready to move on, but at the same time we didn’t think it would be easy. No doubt Gaia would complicate things, and we’d have to earn our beach time when we got there.

  Gwen smirked, and gave me a playfully accusing look. She’d been teasing me that all I really wanted was to see her in a bikini. She wasn’t exactly wrong, but it wasn’t all I wanted. I was jazzed to see a new place, and get off this damned island.

  Cassie grinned, “I like it here, but yes. I think it’s time to go.”

  Everyone agreed, and we took a few moments to douse the fire, burn out the refuse pit, and get everything secured in the three cottages. We piled into the ship, and I took it straight up, aimed toward the northeast, and we shot forward.

  It wouldn’t take us too long to get there. It was several hundred miles, but with a gravity of acceleration and a top speed far greater than the speed of sound, we’d get there relatively quickly.

  Chapter Two

  The excitement I’d felt turned to lead in my stomach as we circled the islands one by one from up high, looking for any signs of civilization. It was a beautiful day, and the ocean was a bright blue, but down below there was something very wrong. On the first two islands we saw burned out villages, and no signs of life at all.

  The third island was a different story. The island was maybe two square miles, and most of it was covered in trees, bushes, flower, and vegetation. There were a few hills in the northern side, but nothing even close to a mountain. There was a small village on the southern side of the is
land, with docks and fishing boats in a small quay. It was made up of several cottages, and a very small market where a few nearby farms must sell their produce.

  There were enough people out that we knew it was a mixed village of humans and elves, as well as a third race we hadn’t seen before. They looked feline in nature, but they were definitely upright and bipedal. Despite there being life, I could see a few of the buildings were blackened.

  “Land and say hi?”

  Dan said, “Let’s check out the other islands first, then decide where to land.”

  Gwen replied, “I agree.”

  I nodded, and took us to the next one, and then the next. On the other islands we found four more completely destroyed villages. We also found two islands that were similar to the other, with other small farming communities surrounding a small village. Just one of the islands had any significant size, and it was roughly ten square miles. That one had a small city, bigger than Stonefort but smaller than Southmere, and several more farms, along with a much larger fishing fleet.

  Gwen said, “Let’s go to the city, I’ll cloak the ship.”

  We decided to land there, it was likely that it was all one kingdom, and the major city was the seat of power. All the towns and the city had humans, elves, and that new feline race. I took us down and landed near the docks outside the city.

  “Plan?”

  Steve said, “Find a tavern, people are bound to be talking about whatever is going on around here when they get deep in their cups.”

  Cassie grinned, “Plus, I’m a bit thirsty myself.”

  Dan chuckled.

  “Good a plan as any.”

  We all got out, and we headed into the unknown with eyes wide open. We could see a lot more details from the ground. The city’s market street was much bigger than in the villages, and there was also an inn which told us strangers weren’t an odd occurrence despite them being in the middle of the ocean so far away from other landmasses.

  There weren’t all that many people out on the streets despite it being midday, and the few people that were out moved with a purpose. There was no loud hawking, and no loud conversations, though a low buzz of conversation did fill the marketplace, it seemed all business. These people were nervous, and they were also reserved.