She desperately wanted to be something she was not: normal.
Not this dark freak that thrived on suffering and fed on pain like it was a wellspring of mana. Ashera’s eyes darkened, black veins began to stand out around her eyes and pulsed with inner strength.
Of all things, a black Thesp leaped atop the wall nearby. It clawed through three members of her party. They were thrown to the ground in varying states of disarray as Ashera finally ripped off the lid of her emotions.
They exploded out in a torrent of darkness that for a brief moment, dimmed the miniature sun hanging over the gap. Nether Void opened a small black hole above the Thesp. It pulled on the creature, turning its thick carapace into thin spaghetti strands.
Reaching her hand out, Ashera swept Nether Void across the top of the wall, clearing it. She started to direct it toward the monsters below when a cry of pain broke her concentration.
She looked down to see Killis Busterback grabbing his leg, a large chunk of it had been ripped out by her rapidly unraveling spell. He didn’t seem to notice it was her, it had happened so fast.
Guilt rushed through her, and Ashera went to the dwarf. Anvidol was beside her, helping the dwarf up. Ashera bandaged him quickly, but the wound was too complete, too clean to be a monster’s bite.
With a shrill whistle, a karak appeared to whisk the dwarf away but Killis waved the bird away. “I ain’t fer leavin’ me kin to defend the wall alone. I got one good leg still,” he said, grimacing through the pain.
Ashera waved the karak back, and let the dwarf be. Killis stood warily, testing his wounded leg. He sucked air through his teeth in a sharp hiss, but when the next monster popped up over the wall, he was there swinging his mighty axe, whatever the pain he felt.
Turning aside from the companion she wounded, Ashera caught sight of a towering golem of stone as it reached the wall. The ground beneath her buckled as the wall began to cave from the golem’s sudden assault.
Nearly falling to her knees, Ashera’s anger flared up from within. She was supposed to be the calm, collected one. In control.
Thoughts of Elora out in the wilderness lost amid the voidmist that now seemed to coat the world around them filled her with dread. She channeled that pain and anguish into something useful.
Ashera leaped from the wall.
Her hands came up over her head with her hammer. As she brought the weapon crashing down atop the Stone Golem’s head, she pushed Break through the sturdy weapon.
The Stone Golem’s head exploded into stone shrapnel. Ashera leaped off its shoulders and onto the next monster, crashing her weapon imbued with Break into that one as well.
Despite being some sort of squishy, acidic slug, as soon as her hammer crashed into its side that monster too shattered into sharp bits of lithified flesh.
She was a whirlwind of chaos. Her party members stayed up on the wall, defending it against the latest attackers as the wall magically repaired itself.
Never before had she fallen so deep into her magic. She was awash in the dark oozing mass, drowning. Its power consumed her, infused her with strength she rarely showed.
It was all Ashera could do to hold herself together. She didn’t even notice that her Ultimate had filled.
Deep within herself, she struggled against the binding magic she had failed to keep in check. She understood Hal’s darkness better than anybody. Ashera had her own that she battled on a daily basis.
She had used too much of her Occult Magic. It was stronger than her, it always had been, but now she had released it. It refused to be caged again. Reaching out, barely aware of the action, Ashera cast Wither on a lanky beast that approached her flank.
She was too deep to pull back out. Ashera fell to her knees as the dark veins around her eyes pulsed with a dark purple light. Her whole face, once pale and pure, looked like the cracked mask that it was. She was losing control.
No, not again.
A large flightless bird, a black Diatryma, rushed toward Ashera seeing her as an easy target. Just as the creature was upon her, she lifted her head and screamed.
Ashera let loose a piercing cry that rent the air. That was the Diatryma’s only warning as her magic fed on the despair and self-hatred within, reaching a fever pitch. It had never been this bad before. She felt the darkness stretch and expand, filling her to the brim.
The power was intoxicating, and despite her best efforts, she couldn’t hold it back.
Ashera readies Ultimate: Umbral Eye.
That wasn’t an Ultimate she knew of. How was that possible?
Ashera felt the collar clasp her throat again. Her father’s weary, haggard face an inch from hers, tears and blood streaking his face as he whispered, “It’s for the best, dearest.”
Scenes of carnage flitted across her addled mind as she struggled to hold herself together. The Diatryma, startled by the shout paused just long enough for Ashera’s magic to spin out of control.
Dark threads snapped up from the many wounds beneath her battered armor. Black veins pulsed across her armor, stretching up her high collar and across her cheeks and chin.
When they reached the veins around her eyes, the world flipped. Dark fog flooded all around her, but she could somehow see through it. The darkness formed shifting shapes, the Diatryma was a black blot against a background of twilight.
Her sea-glass green eyes turned into deep pools of darkest black. The Diatryma lunged forward. It was like Ashera could see the thick air move out of its way, showing her where it would attack.
It was as easy as stepping out of the way. Her body responded with an alacrity that was beyond her normal capacity. Black tears streamed down her face as Ashera slammed her hammer against the bird’s leg, shattering it like glass.
As she began to understand what she was seeing, her vision clarified. The Diatryma fell but began to flap its wings and kick out with its one good leg.
Ashera leaned out of the way and struck her hammer against the limb. The Diatryma screeched in agony as her hammer shattered into a thousand shards of metal.
Ashera uses Ultimate: Umbral Eye.
Every monster that came against her section of the wall fell, writhing and in complete misery. Each kill fueled the dark, torturous thoughts within, plunging her deeper into the lightless depths of her soul.
161
Elaise leaped onto the wall at a run. Much larger than even the tallest elf, she bulled aside anybody in her way. Her scouts flanked out from her position, running alongside the wall or behind it to brace the broken down sections of the wall.
The far reaches of the Bravers’ defenses were turning to crystal. Elaise didn’t know what to think of it, but she didn’t much care. The voidspawn were shying away from them, that was all she needed to know.
Glancing toward the entry to the Shiverglades made the battle-hardened woman’s blood run cold. She had never seen so much devastation, so much hatred leveled at a singular people.
It was a miracle they had survived at all.
She wasn’t sure if their force would be able to turn the tide, but they would die trying. The Shadesblight was everybody’s problem, no matter what her sister thought.
If it was already this bad, then the Ebon Star needed to know. She skidded to a stop near a dwarf overbalancing from their swing. With a twist of her hips, she pivoted, lifted a leg, and booted the creature the dwarf was attacking off the wall.
Using the momentum, she turned around to the youngest scout among her number, Nosic. She pointed at him, and signed, Return to the nearest post. This is a far greater threat than we assumed. The Warleader must be informed, I do not know if there are voidwracked here, but I would not be surprised. Go, give word.
The young man was about to object when another scout with similar facial features stopped him and in a rare display of outward affection, hugged the man.
He pulled away quickly and signed, The Honorable Scout Leader does not know if we will survive, he explained to his younger brother. If we perish,
the tribe must know of our fate and of what has happened. You are all that stands between our home and this virulent plague of darkness. Go.
Nosic straightened his shoulders as he realized that he wasn’t being sent away because of his inexperience, he was being given an important task.
Elaise nodded, and pulled out a [Scintillant Feather]. She handed it to Nosic. Show this, and every member of the tribe will do their best to speed you to my sister. The Warleader must know of this, speak of it to no one else.
Nodding, the young scout stared at the feather as it shimmered and sparkled with light. He turned and fled back the way they had come.
It had all happened so fast that the dwarf Elaise had just saved only then realized what had happened. He straightened his lopsided helm and looked up to say something, but Elaise was already moving again.
Elora trailed behind them, as Elaise signed her orders to her scouts. They spread out in a single line across the least occupied part of the wall. As Elora passed by, Elaise caught her on the arm. “You seek out your friend, yes?”
“She’s here somewhere,” she said, blue-gray eyes frantic as a lost calfling.
“Go to her,” Elaise said, forcing Elora out of her party and pulling another of her scouts into hers. “Speak with me after.”
She had wanted to say more, to add “if we survive,” onto that but her command of the Common tongue was far from complete. Elora had gained considerable understanding of their more civilized High Chant, but she was still as a babe in the woods with complex metaphors - which the High Chant was rife with.
Elora left her and Elaise thrust her from her thoughts. Something she had seen within the hordes of monsters had set her teeth on edge.
They hadn’t seen any Makoss from on high, but Elaise did now. As the strange black and red fires that littered the gap died down, the Makoss slithered forward.
She only counted six, but that would be enough when they were empowered by the voidmist corrupting them. A contingent of Mud Golems accompanied them.
Elaise used Bloodmark. A floating red eye appeared over the group of Makoss, every one of her party members was alerted to the threat. They turned as one to address it while others went to aid where they could.
Swinging her sword free of its sheath, Elaise reversed her grip on [Angurvadal] and stabbed it deep into the top of the wall. Many thought her sword’s unique runes were there to alert her of danger.
That was only part of their use. Their true purpose was as a conduit for her magic. While the scouts around her were tracing complex curling runes through the air with their fingertips, Elaise only needed to grip the leather-wrapped handle.
As she channeled her mana into the blade, the runes along the flat of the greatsword winked out. One by one, previously hidden runes began to glow in order. Though she had taken longer to get started than her compatriots, she was already finished with her first spell a second later.
The runes swirled in the air, curling and coiling on each other like a living thing until a frightening dragon’s face appeared out of the flames.
It roared, a deep rumbling sound that shook the earth beneath her feet. Elaise threw the spell forward even as she began casting the second.
The dragon uncoiled, striking through the creatures that gathered at the wall. Its touch turned anything to ash. The dragon’s purpose was pure, and would not be turned aside by the biting fiends that it streaked past.
Her aim was true. The dragon was leveled at the vulnerable Makoss, but she was hardly surprised when the Shadesblight moved the Mud Golem in its path. That was almost as good, and the main reason Elaise was already casting her second Dragon’s Breath.
Mud Golems were weak to fire if enough of it was used. Flash-boiling all of their water turned the Mud Golem into a statue. Without its water, it was little more than clay. Still technically alive, but it would no longer be a threat.
The golem was shrouded in a cloud of steam as the Dragon’s Breath struck the creature with an intense ball of flame. The Shadesblight left it behind as it moved its minions forward, now missing one Mud Golem.
You cast Fire Veil: Dragon’s Breath.
Weakness Exploited!
The [Mud Golem | Lv.55] takes 1,280 points of fire damage.
The [Mud Golem | Lv.55] is petrified!
Halfway through her next casting, her party members were already sending their Dragon’s Breath toward the creatures. They only needed one to get through, but as each spell hit, the Shadesblight proved to be far more in control than Elaise had assumed.
It sacrificed countless monsters, diving them into the path of the dragon. With each creature their magic turned to ash, the strength of the spell faded. It wasn’t enough to stop Elaise’s second spell, but three of her compatriot’s Dragon’s Breath spells were too weak to do any real damage once they hit.
The spells hit the Mud Golems, only to fizzle out. The golems continued on with dried and cracked patches of the flaking clay to show for the attack.
And all the while, the group of Makoss marched closer. Once they were within casting distance they would obliterate the Bravers’ walls. Going out to meet them would be suicide.
Elaise sent another Dragon’s Breath out. The flaming dragon burned so hotly, the flames coming out of its fanged mouth were blue. Without looking to see if the attack would hit its mark, she began casting Fire Veil: Dragon’s Talons.
Despite casting it at the same time as her two party members flanking her, she had to hold the spell at the last rune to time it perfectly. As soon as their dragons roared out, Elaise slipped in Dragon’s Talons.
Unlike Dragon’s Breath, the talons moved below the earth, burrowing until it erupted at its destination. Using the spells of her two companions, she snuck in her spell, channeling as much mana as she could into the spell.
For every foot it traveled, it consumed greater and greater amounts of mana. It was not meant to be a long-range spell, and there was a chance the Shadesblight would notice what she was doing, but those were risks she was willing to take.
Fire Veils ate up a prodigious amount of mana but their wide offensive prowess was unmatched among the various spells of her Fabled Class.
The twin Dragon’s Breaths hit just as Elaise’s MP began to bottom out. She moved the Dragon’s Talons beneath the group of Makoss and the ground erupted with curving blades of white-hot flame.
In an instant, the Makoss were set ablaze.
She could hear their discordant shrieking from where she stood on the wall, gasping for breath. A soothing flood of revitalizing energy brought her back to full, but rather than celebrate, Elaise cried out in denial.
You defeat the [Tainted Makoss | Lv.60].
You defeat the [Tainted Makoss | Lv.60].
You defeat the [Tainted Makoss | Lv.60].
…
Ninja reaches Level 35.
You have 5 unspent Attribute Points awaiting distribution.
You have 1 Ninja Perk point awaiting assignment.
Your HP, SP, and MP are fully restored.
Your Veil Magic has risen to Level 29.
+1.25% Veil damage (+36.25%).
+1.25% Veil effect duration (+36.25%).
+1.25% Veil casting speed (+36.25%).
Slithering away from the flames, entirely unharmed, was one last Makoss. Somehow she had missed it. Even as Elaise fell into casting another Dragon’s Breath with her renewed mana, she knew it would be too late. It was already within range, and it too was casting a spell.
162
Hal watched as his friends fought and bled atop the walls. His Disara was scraped and bruised, running on fumes. That malicious presence at the core of the Shiverglades’ attack had caught on to Hal’s scheme.
There was some magic that prevented the Disara from blinking from one location to the next, a bitter tang that hung in the air. Unable to swiftly move his Dominated targets, Hal struggled to get them in place.
He tried again to contact Besal, Noth, anybody. Just like e
very other time, there was no answer.
Maybe he really had died.
There wasn’t enough time to dwell on that, however. Even if he was dead, he would be brought back so long as the Manaseed survived. And for that, the Settlement had to be standing to greet the rising sun.
One after another, his Dominated monsters were Crystallized along with the wall they had dug into. It was a slow process, but every section of the wall he could protect bought them time they were in desperate need of.
Already the flanks of the great wall were secured, forcing the bulk of the enemy forces toward the center of the gap. Unable to communicate with him, his friends and allies still managed to understand what he was doing.
They moved in ever-greater numbers toward the vulnerable center walls. Each wall was taking heavy damage, and Hal was out of EP to repair them. Vorax’s wall, anchored by his bottomless appetite and Durvin’s furious defense stood out as a beacon of hope against the voidmist’s evil.
A Morbolger lashed itself to the wall as a barbarian ran up to the creature to kill it. The hulking man had murder in his bright eyes. He thought it was attacking the wall.
As tall as the Morbolger was, the barbarian wouldn’t even have to leave the safety of the wall’s fortifications to destroy it.
Hal redoubled his efforts, forcing his will into the Sigil. Something twisted uncomfortably inside of himself and the Sigil burst out like a gale. The barbarian’s large sword slashed… and was instantly encased in crystal.
Luckily, the man leaped back so fast he was practically a blur. It saved him from sharing the same fate as his weapon, which he stared at longingly. His attention was soon diverted as a twisted leafless Treant ambled up to the wall and began scraping at it with broken branches.
The barbarian gave one last look at his fully encased sword and pulled out a pair of small curved daggers. He leaped off the wall directly atop the Treant, hacking away with abandon.
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