Sovereign Rising (The Gods' Game, Volume III): A LitRPG novel Read online

  Sovereign Rising

  The Gods’ Game, Book 3

  Sovereign Rising

  The Gods’ Game, Book 3

  Rohan M. Vider

  Copyright

  Sovereign Rising (The Gods’ Game, Book 3), a self-published book by Rohan M. Vider.

  Copyright © 2020 Rohan M. Vider.

  All rights reserved. This book or any portion thereof may not be reproduced or used in any manner whatsoever without the express written permission of the publisher except for the use of brief quotations in a book review. If you would like permission to use material from the book (other than for review purposes), please contact [email protected].

  First Edition

  Revision 1.0

  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.

  Dedication

  To my family, for putting up with me.

  Books by Rohan M. Vider

  The Gods’ Game (A LitRPG series)

  Crota, the Gods’ Game Volume I

  The Labyrinth, the Gods’ Game Volume II

  Sovereign Rising, the Gods’ Game Volume III

  Tales from the Gods’ Game (A LitRPG collection of short stories & novels)

  Dungeon Dive (Tales from the Gods’ Game, Book 1)

  Chronicles of Myelad (A fantasy version of the Gods’ Game)

  Free Agent, Chronicles of Myelad, Book 1

  And also coming in 2020:

  Sovereign, the Gods’ Game, Volume IV

  Overworld, the Overworld Saga, Book 1

  Sovereign Rising

  The Gods’ Game, Volume III

  The epic LitRPG fantasy adventure continues…

  Having at long last escaped the clutches of the labyrinth, Kyran and his party enter the world above. But who—or what—will they find waiting for them?

  Join Kyran as he embarks on a journey of self-discovery and continues his adventures in Myelad, encountering new foes, forging new alliances, and advancing in the Gods’ Game.

  Enter the world of Myelad and join Kyran as he continues on his path to greatness!

  A LitRPG novel.

  By Rohan M. Vider.

  www.rohanvider.com

  The Gods’ Game forum

  Goodreads author page

  Author’s Note

  Dear Readers,

  Thank you for reading The Gods’ Game. It is only through your continued support that this book has been made possible.

  To those of you unfamiliar with the genre: this is a LitRPG story and contains elements common to CRPG and MMO computer games, though to enjoy the story, knowledge of such games is not necessary, and every effort has been made to explain crucial game mechanics.

  This is a self-published work, and even though great care has been given to the review and editing of this book, some errors may have slipped through. For these, I apologise.

  I encourage you to drop me a message on anything related to The Gods’ Game or otherwise. Please also let others know what you think about the book by leaving a review on www.amazon.com and www.goodreads.com.

  Most importantly, I hope you enjoy the book!

  Best Regards,

  Rohan M. Vider

  [email protected]

  The Gods’ Game forum

  Contents

  Sovereign Rising

  Copyright

  Dedication

  Books by Rohan M. Vider

  Sovereign Rising

  Author’s Note

  Contents

  What has come before

  World Maps

  Prologue

  Game Data

  PART ONE

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Game Data

  Chapter 5

  Game Data

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Game Data

  Chapter 9

  Game Data

  PART TWO

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Game Data

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Game Data

  Chapter 17

  Chapter 18

  Game Data

  PART THREE

  Chapter 19

  Chapter 20

  Chapter 21

  Chapter 22

  Game Data

  Chapter 23

  Chapter 24

  Game Data

  Chapter 25

  Chapter 26

  Chapter 27

  Epilogue

  Game Data

  Afterword

  What has come before

  Book 1 (Crota)

  On Earth

  Kyran attempts to rescue a woman named Sara Milton and is accidently pulled into the Gods’ Game with her. The Gods’ Game is not so much a game as a prison built by the god Eld to imprison his fellow immortals and free the cosmos from their tyranny. Winning the Game is the only way the gods may escape Myelad.

  In Godshome

  Sara is chosen as the goddess Iyra’s champion. The gods are prevented from interfering directly in the Game and use the champions as game pieces in a bid to win the Game.

  For the crime of being a free agent—possessing no divine spark and being unbeholden to any god—Kyran is sentenced to die in the labyrinth beneath the abandoned city of Crota.

  01 Jul 2603 AB

  Kyran enters Myelad through the Crota world portal. During his first encounter in the labyrinth, he tames multiple rock beetles.

  His entrance into the Game is sensed by the dragon Yddreinth, who informs the Brotherhood, a secret organisation and avowed enemies of the gods. The Brotherhood leader Elasien, dispatches Deegan and Mirien to recruit the free agent.

  02 Jul

  Kyran heads into the mines beneath Crota and is ambushed by a shadow spider. He tames the spider and, accompanied by the beast, attempts to enter the Crota citadel, killing the skeletal warriors at the entrance.

  Kyran’s intrusion is detected by the undead lich king, Zarr Dwamenkor, who dispatches a pair of wraiths to kill the invaders.

  03 Jul

  Kyran is forced to flee the wraiths and takes refuge in the shadow spider’s web high in an underground cavern.

  Zarr dispatches the vampires Aveyad and Tyeliss to pursue Kyran. The undead mistakenly believe Kyran is a champion of one of the gods.

  04 Jul

  While fleeing from the vampires, Kyran falls into a shaft, and ends up in an underground lake deep in the earth.

  05 Jul

  Kyran encounters a band of feral kobolds, who attack him on sight. He defeats the ferals and reaches level 8.

  A kobold war party pursues him into the lake cavern and is ambushed by Kyran.

  That night, Kyran is in turn ambushed by the undead hunting party led by Aveyad. During the battle, he is captured, but not before reaching level 10 and completing a minor quest. The gods are notified by the Game of Kyran’s quest completion.

  Book 2 (The Labyrinth)

  06 Jul

  Xetil, the goblin-god of the domain neighbouring Crotana, is enraged by the free agent’s survival and dispatches his champion Lesh, to orchestrate Kyran’s death.

  Iyra puts Sara in play and sends her to capture Kyran.

  Mirien, Deegan, and Falsin reach Sprin
ghill, a small village on Crotana’s eastern border.

  Kyran, unconscious, is taken back to Crota, where he is imprisoned.

  12 Jul

  Kyran wakes up in a small cell with no idea where he is.

  Lesh reaches an entrance to the labyrinth near the dwarven city of Durn Duruhl.

  21 Jul

  After many days of captivity, Kyran is taken to meet the lich king, Zarr. During the audience, Zarr realises Kyran is not a champion and is left pondering what to do with the free agent.

  28 Jul

  Kyran is paroled and allowed to roam the undead city while accompanied by Aveyad and Tyeliss. During his time in the citadel, he learns much of the undead, and they of him.

  07 Aug

  Kyran discovers Eld’s Jest, a locked room in the citadel with instructions on how to find the thirteenth well. The instructions were left by Eld eons ago in anticipation of Kyran’s entrance into the Game.

  Lesh forges an alliance with the feral kobolds occupying the dwarven city and sends them to block the exits from the labyrinth.

  08 Aug

  Kyran and Zarr forge an alliance. Zarr agrees to let Kyran go in exchange for the free agent performing a number of tasks on the undead’s behalf.

  In addition, Zarr offers Kyran four captured thieves to take on as vassals to aid him in his journey through the labyrinth.

  Kyran reluctantly agrees to take on the thieves; however, the Game only allows him to bind two of them, Adra and Gaesin.

  10 Aug

  The trio enter the labyrinth and find their escape route blocked by a feral kobold warband. Kyran tames a group of giant scorpions to defeat the kobolds.

  11 Aug

  The party defeats the kobolds, but find an unexpected prisoner, a jade great bear. The bear Aiken, requests Kyran’s aid in freeing his captured clan. Kyran agrees, sacrificing an easy escape out of the labyrinth in exchange.

  Elasien finds out that Iyra and Lesh are searching for the free agent and orders Mirien and Deegan to stop the gods’ champions.

  20 Aug

  Kyran and the party find the slaughtered remains of Aiken’s clans, but realise some have survived. They head off in pursuit of the survivors and their kobold captors.

  22 Aug

  The party rescues the captured great bears. In thanks, the matriarch of the clan grants Kyran the friend of the bears trait.

  Aiken, through gratitude and shared empathy, chooses Kyran as his companion.

  06 Sepa

  The Brotherhood ambush Sara and her paladin company. The ambush goes badly, and all the Brotherhood soldiers except Mirien are killed. She heads south to the dwarven city, seeking an entrance to the labyrinth there.

  Elasien, in Bein Tor, finds herself pursued by Iyra’s Hounds and has to flee the city.

  20 Sepa

  The party journeys to the western labyrinth, where Kyran finds and binds the thirteenth Essence Well, creating a new and hidden domain in the Gods’ Game.

  Sara and the paladins reach Crota and encamp within the city while waiting for Kyran to surface from the labyrinth.

  21 Sepa

  The party journeys south through the labyrinth in an attempt to escape its grasp via the dwarven city of Durn Duruhl.

  05 Octu

  After multiple run-ins with feral kobolds, the party enters the underground dwarven city.

  06 Octu

  Kyran finds the city’s settlement stone in Stonekeep and binds the dwarven city to his domain, now renamed Labyrinth Deeps.

  07 Octu

  While trying to sneak past the kobolds encamped near the south gate, Kyran and his party are discovered. They are forced to flee and take refuge in the armoury of the enchanter’s guild.

  08 Octu

  Activating the obsidian golems stored in the armoury, Kyran and his companions defeat the kobold army surrounding them. During the battle, Adra is injured and has to be carried on Aiken’s back.

  On the way out of the city, in the abandoned kobold camp, the party encounters Lesh. The champion entraps Kyran in a containment ward. Kyran orders the rest of the party to flee. After a difficult battle, he manages to defeat Lesh on his own, reaching level 20 and the apprentice rank. He makes his way to the south gate and rejoins the party without mishap.

  Mirien has reached the south gate and is encamped on the mountain outside while she searches for a way into the underground world below.

  Thoril, a master enchanter from the exiled dwarven clan, senses the activation of the golems.

  Xetil decides to send his champion-prime Yiralla, after Kyran.

  The gods are informed that Kyran has escaped the labyrinth and the god Kharmadon convenes another god council. During the meeting, the goddess Misteria reveals that Kyran has slain Lesh and that Iyra’s paladins have been ambushed by the Brotherhood in Crotana.

  World Maps

  Full-sized images of the maps can be found here.

  Prologue

  08 Octu 2603 AB

  God or demon—which is the greater evil? I do not know. —Anonymous.

  Angry waves crashed against the glistening rocks and released a shower of furious foam. The waves rolled back, then attacked the obdurate stone again with a ferocity that Misteria loved to watch.

  I love the sea, she thought as she witnessed the tempest’s fury from the cliff. And I love my island. She closed her eyes and let her senses extend towards the raw essence intertwined in the storm.

  So much magic, just waiting to be tapped. She yearned to be free again, to be able to dance amongst the waves, clothed only in essence, to rage free with the storms.

  Yet even as she watched, the threads of magic seeped away, drawn into the Well’s heart hidden in the cliff’s base. Locked. Chained. As she was. In this damnable Game.

  She sighed. One day, she would escape. Not even Eld’s creation could keep her caged forever. She smiled. And when she did, the cosmos would witness the wrath of magic unbound once more.

  A spelled bubble appeared at the edges of her senses, contained and controlled, as it rose up the cliff from the city below. She glanced down and watched her champion-prime’s approach on the conjured currents of air.

  “You have news, Meryl?” she asked as he alighted on the cliff’s edge.

  “Yes, Divine,” replied the champion, inclining his head. “Our spies have reported back.”

  “Tell me,” she ordered as she swung around and strode back to her throne. Unlike her fellow gods, many of whom had constructed their temples within mountains of rock, fortifying them against mortal danger, Misteria had shunned even the simplest of shelters for her own abode.

  Her temple was situated on an empty plateau, almost on top of her domain’s Essence Well, and open to the elements. Her island was fortress enough. She needed no other fortifications.

  Meryl waited for Misteria to take her place on the rock-hewn throne, the only significant structure on the otherwise barren clifftop. “Yiralla is marshalling a small force and looks set to leave Wazrak tomorrow, or the day after at the latest,” he said once his god was seated.

  Misteria glanced at him sharply. “Where is she heading?”

  Meryl bowed his head. “To hunt down the free agent in Crotana, Divine.”

  “Xetil, you fool,” muttered Misteria. The goblin-god’s need for vengeance goaded him into acting rashly. To send his champion-prime herself after the free agent was an escalation worthy only of Xetil. And it was damn inconvenient for her own plans. “How will this affect us?” she demanded.

  “Yiralla is taking a company of dread spear trolls with her, scouts with few equals in the realms. If she stays any length of time in Crotana, we must assume our own forces in the mountain kingdom will be discovered,” he said reluctantly.

  Misteria conjured her wand into existence and twirled it idly while she pondered Meryl’s news. With Yiralla heading towards Crotana and Xetil’s other champions occupied in his war against Auriel, the goblin-god had foolishly left his capital unguarded. Could she tak
e advantage of Xetil’s impetuousness?

  No, Wazrak was out of her immediate reach. She couldn’t sell the information to Xetil’s other neighbours either. They, too, weren’t in a position to act against Xetil.

  The unpalatable truth was that she would likely have to abandon her own ambitions for Crotana. Her expeditionary force there was no match for Yiralla. But the mountain kingdom held so much potential, especially now that the free agent had rediscovered the lost golems, and she was loath to abandon her designs for it just yet.

  “Mistress, if I may, there is perhaps a way to keep Yiralla from uncovering our plans.”

  Misteria’s eyes swung back to her champion. “Speak.”

  “Xetil searches only for the free agent,” said Meryl. “If we inform him the agent exited through the Durn Duruhl’s south gate, there would be no reason for Yiralla to enter the Elder Forest. She could catch the elf in the mountains,” he suggested.

  Misteria frowned. “No, if we reveal that the south gate is operable again, we risk Xetil taking an interest in the dwarven city itself and attempting to retake it. Doing that will put the golems out of our reach.”

  How had the agent opened the south gate? she wondered again for the hundredth time. Kharmadon’s suspicions were ludicrous, of course. The player did not have control of a Well. He simply could not. The very notion was preposterous.

  There were ways of activating the gate without a source of raw essence. He must have used one of them. Only…she could not see how an apprentice-ranked player could have pulled off such a feat. It was a mystery, and one that she would puzzle out, she vowed.