by Sarah Lin
Fortunately, it appeared that everything had gone well. Gharavi knelt in the center of the circular chamber, power still glowing in the ritual circle around her. The half-orc woman was wearing her full combat armor, but she probably wouldn't have been able to fight - according to her box, the ritual had left her with only [Mana 6/98].
Before they stepped into the chamber, Bloodwraith couldn't help but let his eyes wander over the carvings on the walls. They depicted spheres that represented worlds, floating in a river of blood. At first he'd thought they might be a map of the many worlds, but eventually realized it was merely an artistic representation by the people who had created this ritual to try to pass between worlds.
When they entered, she looked up at them in surprise. "I just finished, how did... ah, the boxes informed you?"
"As soon as the ritual was finished, yes." Bloodwraith folded his arms over his chest and examined the remaining mana. Though he wasn't able to judge it too precisely, he would have needed to trust Gharavi's judgment on such specialized magic even in his old body. "Was it successful?"
"Indeed it was." Gharavi carefully picked a thin wand of bone off the floor at the exact center of the ritual and held it up for him to observe. He could feel the power, but instead of an explanatory box, the power within him delivered something very different.
[WARNING
A nearby object shows signs of non-trivial manipulation of AdventureCorp systems. Attempting to use such an item could interfere with your AdventureCorp experience, potentially even fatally. Please deliver the object to the nearest Return Point, where you will be given a reward commensurate with its rarity.]
By now he just willed the red box aside. Far from being warned, it was a sign they were on the right track. Though they could not manipulate magic between worlds with anything near the incredible power and skill of the box gods, by retrieving the power from these scattered rituals, they were slowly developing the tools to strike back at them on the same plane.
The boxes also reminded him that this "AdventureCorp" considered Gharavi to be a threat and wanted to reward him with raw power for killing her. Considering that Bloodwraith received raw power for basically everything he did, he wasn't tempted. Besides... as Gharavi got to her feet with a weary smile, he was reminded how pleasant it was to have another skilled magic-user around.
There was no indication that they'd finished the quest, however. Had their machinations finally triggered some kind of reaction from the boxes? Though the system operated mindlessly from within his soul, it did seem to have many precautions built into it. Just as he started to become concerned, Meara coughed from beside them.
"Uh, Bloodwraith? I think you're going to need to take the thing to complete the quest."
"Oh, is that all it is?" Bloodwraith stuck out a gauntlet. "Give it."
Gharavi glanced between them with a strange look on her face. "Really? It would be more secure if I kept hold of it..."
"We just need to fulfill the quest objective." Bloodwraith reached out and took the wand from her. He was careful not to damage it, since all he really cared about was the impending box...
[Quest Complete!
Complete the arcane ritual within the ruins.
Local Reputation +50
Reward: Arcane Artifact
EXP +10,000]
Ten thousand of the arbitrary Experience Points for that? Combined with the rewards he had received from all of the fights along the way, Bloodwraith was quite satisfied with their decision to search out the ritual here. He handed the wand back to Gharavi, who stared at him with a befuddled expression.
"Seriously? It makes a difference to the alien power if you just hold the wand for a bit?"
Bloodwraith only grunted, while Meara gave Gharavi a sly smile. "That's nothing - you should feel the surge of power that just went through him. Everything up to this moment was worth nothing aside from the combat, but when he got a reward item... that's when all the EXP kicked in. The only experience the Outsiders value is receiving rewards."
"I should stop being surprised." Gharavi rubbed her forehead roughly. "These Outsiders are even worse than the Aesidh."
While the two of them spoke, Bloodwraith summoned his personal box to consider his development.
[Name: Raigar
Race: Human
Class: Barbarian
Alignment: Good
Health: 262/262
Mana: 39/39
Weapon Mana: 9/9
Stamina: 166/166
Level: 15
EXP: 296,822/437,400
Statistics:
Might: 56 (62)
Vitality: 40 (43)
Quickness: 48 (53)
Intellect: 26
Charisma: 14
Willpower: 23 (25)
Wisdom: 17
Luck: 21
Piety: 1
Combat Skills: Cleave (11), Fist of Rage (14), Sword of Rage (12), Shout of Rage (9), Skill Enraging (8)
Skills: Two-handed Weapons (18), Evasion (15), Survivalism (7), Herbalism (8), Manual Labor (2), Swimming (2)
Special Skill: Undead Companion (18)
Proficiencies: Greatsword, Heavy Armor]
[Inventory (Extra-dimensional Bag)
Equipment: Lodestone Greatsword, Armor of the Tyrant (set), Leather Gloves of Strength
Rings: Ring of Herbalism, Ring of Quickness, Ring of Willpower, Ring of Might, Sandstrider Ring
Items: Peasant's Outfit, Health Potion x9, Mana Potion x9, Failed Potion x9
Key Items: Amulet of Reincarnation, Scepter of Annihilation
Money: 9 G, 57 S, 8 C]
Though watching his development was satisfying, Bloodwraith couldn't help but feel a bit frustrated that he had only gained one Level since the intense battle against Raigar. He told himself that it didn't really matter, especially since their work was taking them closer and closer to the true form of power that lay underneath the boxes themselves.
But the truth was that all the arbitrary numbers would probably matter in the end. Even if the method was artificial, the power it granted him was real. On top of that, Meara was convinced that the core power it granted him was an objective form of energy. Though the Outsider who had designed Raigar's body had been hard to comprehend, he must have had a reason for it beyond playing a silly game. Whatever happened, Bloodwraith thought that he would need this power.
His internal musings were interrupted by the sound of metal boots against the stone. He looked up in time to see Danniah rush into the room. Though the short woman's face was completely obscured by her ominous black helm, he could tell that she was anxious from the way she held herself.
"Bloodwraith! Everybody!" Danniah stopped a moment, leaning on her knees and panting for breath. "You've gotta come help Izzy!"
"What's going on?" Bloodwraith rushed to Danniah, pulling her to her feet and storming from the crypt with her. She had obviously sprinted to them and now gratefully leaned on him to catch her breath enough to talk.
"We were keeping watch... just like the plan... it was all easy enough, but there was actually a merchant caravan. Now, at first we hoped they'd just go away, but when they came closer, we decided to warn them away."
Now that she had caught her breath, Danniah started to lead the group, taking them down the mountain hill away from the crypt entrance. Bloodwraith glanced back to confirm that Gharavi and Meara were following - in fact, Meara was giving Gharavi a potion to restore her mana. That confirmed, he focused ahead for any sign of Izzy, not even minding that Danniah was rambling.
"It seemed like it was all gonna work like the plan, but there was this one guy in the wagon... I thought he was sick or something, but he lurched out and attacked. When he started attacking the merchants I, um, accidentally killed him. But he... kind of exploded, and then the others attacked, and Izzy..."
"Slow down!" Bloodwraith couldn't help but snap, now looking forward more desperately. "Explain the important parts."
"The merchants turned
into some sort of monsters and Izzy held them off so I could warn you!"
That was simple enough. Bloodwraith set out at a dead sprint toward the road, barely keeping an eye on his stamina box. Though Izzy was durable and repairable, he hated to think of her being harmed. Worse, something about the part Danniah had glossed over, not to mention the fear in her voice, had given him a deep sense of dread.
When he reached the merchant wagons, for a moment he saw only bloody chaos. There were dead bodies everywhere and the horses lay dead in their places. But soon he realized that there were several forms crawling across the ground, swarming around something. It could only be Izzy.
Bloodwraith let out a bellow and charged in, his greatsword swinging wildly. He couldn't attack with his full strength because he didn't want to hurt Izzy, but his attacks still sent the merchants flying in pieces. Whatever power was animating or controlling them, it should have been utterly destroyed by the force behind his attacks.
It wasn't.
One of the merchants, cut in half by his sword, began turning toward him. Both legs and torso struggled in his direction. They weren't animated by any necromantic energy or blood ritual... those would have been comforting. Instead Bloodwraith felt no magic at all - the pieces of the body were simply moving for no reason he could understand.
When the head turned toward him, its movements oddly smooth, he saw that instead of eyes the merchant body had only pools of silver. They were so clear he could almost see himself in them, and something in the silver made Bloodwraith feel an intense sense of revulsion.
His sword swung on instinct, decapitating the merchant. Yet when the head fell, it began to roll toward him under its own power, those silver eyes still staring at him.
Whatever had happened to the merchant, it didn't survive a blow with all his strength and mana behind it. The shattered fragments of the skull finally stopped moving, yet he couldn't get the memory of those eyes out of his head. Worse, there were even more bodies beginning to move toward him, all of them infected with the same unnatural power.
Something was deeply, horribly wrong about them. Other than the silver eyes and the corpses' inexplicable movements, Bloodwraith couldn't see anything overtly wrong. Perhaps the way the light and shadows played on their bodies, perhaps something in how smooth their movements were despite their mangled bodies. Whatever it was, it was unlike anything he'd seen before.
But defeating them was not the point. Bloodwraith instead looked past them to his true objective: Izzy.
His daughter's body had been torn apart, leaving her as only half a torso with one arm. Ghoul entrails hung down from her torso, staining the ground. The road was so covered in fragments of bodies that it was impossible to tell what was her body and what was those that had been torn apart.
In the middle of it all, Izzy beamed up at him, eyes gleaming. "Da! You came!"
"Of course I did." Bloodwraith stabbed through a caravan guard's arm crawling toward her and bent down to scoop her up. Unconcerned about being dismembered, Izzy wrapped her remaining arm around his neck.
As soon as she was secure, Bloodwraith backed up, eager to get away from those strange eyes and unnatural-
"Behind you!" He moved instantly at Meara's warning, stepping forward to evade even as he turned, but it wasn't quite fast enough.
One of the dead horses loomed behind him, mouth lunging out. Bloodwraith threw his arm out and the creature's jaw came down on it. Though the horse had only flat, dull teeth, they came down with such force that he felt pain even through his armor. When he tried to pull away, the creature was surprisingly strong. Worse than that, the horse's eyes were pure silver...
A bolt of lightning tore through the horse's body, tearing it apart. The head remained attached to his arm, however, still crushing down. Was his armor beginning to break? Bloodwraith knew that he should strike the head before it disabled his arm, but he was too shaken to react quickly enough.
Izzy let out a cry and propelled herself from his chest, slamming into the horse head. Even in reduced form, she could fling herself with considerable force, colliding with the severed horse head hard enough to knock it off his arm. Both tumbled down, but the sight of her falling forced Bloodwraith to act again.
He lunged out, grabbing Izzy out of the air even as he brought his greatsword to bear. When the head hit the ground, he immediately impaled it with his sword. That kept it in place, but if not for the assistance from the others...
Once he confirmed there was no immediate danger and that Izzy was fine, Bloodwraith glanced back. Gharavi had her custom built axe staff held at her shoulder, its ostensible blades shifted together to form the head of her staff. She sighted one more body and released a bolt of flame that consumed one of the remaining merchant corpses.
"Da!" Izzy pulled herself closer to put her head against his. Despite everything, she was smiling. "I don't know what those things are, but they're scary! That's why I told Danniah to go get you!"
"You made the right choice." Bloodwraith patted her on the head, but he couldn't help but look to the mangled wreckage of the merchant caravan. Just what the hell had any of this been? In both of his lives, as a lich or as an adventurer, he'd never heard of anything like this. It hadn't felt like any magic he'd ever known... it hadn't felt like magic at all.
Now that all threats were neutralized, Gharavi lowered her staff, though she kept it close. She glanced over at him. "What now, Bloodwraith?"
"Incinerate all the bodies." He was surprised how quickly he spoke and hesitated. "Wait... no, leave a harmless component for us to study. But only under secure conditions."
"I agree. These things..." She took a hand off her staff to her bone necklace. Though Bloodwraith couldn't sense any of the mana, he knew her necklace was attuned to Outsiders and other power from beyond their world. Did that mean this threat was also from beyond Alliandelle?
"This is odd," Meara said softly. She crouched down next to a severed leg, which began to wriggle across the ground toward her. "These things... do the boxes say anything, Bloodwraith?"
He tried to focus on them, yet nothing came. Usually the boxes were eager to describe every irrelevant object to him and he needed to suppress them, yet now they gave him nothing. Though he frowned and tried harder, they refused to give any information.
Realizing that his silence was an answer, Meara slowly reached out and touched the leg.
She immediately recoiled, her body shattering into several ghostly forms of herself. They all shook violently before snapping back together. Though unified in one body again, Meara staggered backward, eyes wide with shock.
Fortunately, there was no trace of silver in her eyes. Bloodwraith jerked his head toward Gharavi and she immediately understood, summoning flames to obliterate the remains.
Meanwhile, Danniah rushed to support Meara. "Are you okay, Meara?"
"I'll recover." But unlike usual, the taller woman actually leaned on Danniah. She closed her eyes for a long moment, and when she opened them and glanced toward Bloodwraith, they looked serious. "Whatever those things are... I don't think I should try to interact with them."
"Just... just what are they? I thought they must be some new kind of undead..." Danniah finally pulled off her helmet, eyes searching between the rest of them. "But if all of you don't know, does that mean they're something worse?"
Bloodwraith sighed. "If only they were undead. I'm not sure what these things are, but we can safely assume they come from outside our world."
"I agree." Gharavi finished scouring the wagon except for a single hand, which she trapped inside a jar. "There's Outsider magic involved but these things aren't Outsiders - I can't tell you more than that. I haven't run across anything like it."
For a while they all stared at the severed hand in the jar, which still attempted to scratch at the glass containing it. Though Bloodwraith's mind raced, he could come no closer to answers. Had their work to control the magic of worlds caused some sort of side effect? Perhaps the box
gods had finally noticed his meddling? Or could this be something entirely unrelated?
He had no idea, but one issue was easier to address. Bloodwraith stepped forward and stopped Gharavi from stoppering the glass jar. "Don't leave the hand like that - it can crawl around too easily and that could work against us. Chop it up into fragments that are just large enough that it still tries to move, but is unable to do so."
Gharavi's eyebrows rose, but she moved to comply. "You're right, but I'm a bit disturbed that your mind went there instantly."
Bloodwraith shrugged. "I was a professional villain once."
With that, they all went silent. For a while he just wondered about his statement and what his life had become. Instead of conducting necromancy at the head of an undead horde, here he was with a mortal lover, a half-orc colleague, and a ghoul daughter. Not to mention Meara and the boxes buried deep within him.
But that was his life now. Bloodwraith set such matters aside and just focused on the remnants of the wagons as they burned.
Chapter 2
Though Bloodwraith was on edge for further attacks, nothing interfered on their way back to their campsite. Once Gharavi cast a few scrying spells and determined that it had not been disturbed, they finally settled in to rest after the difficult day.
Meara built a fire and pulled food out of her cloak - her ability to act as a merchant via the box system made traveling far more convenient than it should have been. They'd purchased a decent amount of food before they left the last town and it seemed to be in stasis while it was stored in her inventory, so she could simply pull out fresh food whenever they needed to eat.
After so long in his armor, taking it off was a relief. One of the irritations of fleshly bodies was that they generated so much heat, quickly becoming sticky and unpleasant inside armor. It took him some time to undo all the straps and remove the pieces of armor, too, which was always an inconvenience.
Meanwhile, Danniah simply activated the sphere on her belt and her heavy armor vanished, leaving her in comfortable cotton clothing underneath. Bloodwraith felt a moment of resentment that they'd never found a second artifact that allowed armor to be stored in that way, but it vanished as Danniah came over and helped him with his armor.