Splashing across my shoulder, I felt a wave of sickness come over me, slowing my movements just enough to allow Carver’s spear to reach out and cut a shallow wound across my ribs. Hissing from the blow, I forced myself to embrace the pain in an attempt to shift my attention away from my roiling stomach and threw another burning dagger at the half-orc Shaman to buy myself some space.
“How do you like that, Lyrian?” Carver shouted as he effortlessly evaded my flaming missile by dancing backward away from me, his hand bursting into pale yellow light. “You may be faster and stronger than me now! But my magic gives me a few tricks that yours doesn’t!”
Opening his palm as he finished speaking, I saw the spell that he had conjured flow directly into his body, causing the wound that I had inflicted on his face to vanish and for the bleeding slash on his leg to install scab over.
Shit! He can heal himself! I cursed with sudden annoyance as I instinctively moved to launch myself back at the man, seeing yet another orb of yellow light appear in his hand, but before I could even begin to move, Amaranth’s panicked voice thundered through my mind.
Feeling my heart stop as I reflexively glanced upwards at my familiar’s words, I saw that two of the thrashing tendrils had begun their descent downward towards us, one bearing a set of nightmarish claws on its end, while the other bore a gnashing maw. Leaping backward from Carver at the speed of thought, I quickly cast Blink Step for Amaranth and me, reappearing at the very edge that the spell could take us. No sooner did our feet land on the ground than a massive impact shake the entire outcropping beneath us as the two massive tentacles slammed into the spot where we had just been standing.
Spinning to look back at the impact, I saw that only Carver had managed to avoid the Shoggoth’s opening attack, if only partially, his wolf nowhere in sight as he desperately scrambled across the ground, dragging one of his legs uselessly behind him. With all its tentacles and appendages flailing wildly through the air, the entity let out a loud mental roar as the countless eyes on its body all focused themselves downward towards us. Surging forward, huge splashes of tainted Æther sprayed upwards as the Shoggoth moved to envelope the section of the outcropping that we’d been standing on, a gargantuan maw full of teeth taking shape in the center of its spectral body.
Staring in stunned disbelief as the nightmarish being bit down, I felt the entire outcropping twist and shake underneath me as it tore free a portion of the rock in its maw, then began to chew on it as if it were flesh. Struggling to keep my balance as the ground threatened to shake itself to pieces, a flash of light caught my eye, causing me to shift my eyes off of the spirit and onto Carver, who was forcing himself back up onto his feet, his ruined leg now partially healed.
Feeling a renewed spike of rage shoot through me at the sight of the half-orc, I wasted no time in turning towards him, eager to get some measure of vengeance before the chance was taken away from me. Launching myself forward into a charge, Amaranth and I covered the distance to Carver in what felt like an instant, barely giving the half-orc the time to raise his spear to receive our attack.
“All the healing in the world isn’t going to save you from me!” I shouted at the man as the two of us rapidly forced him backward, the spirit wolf no longer around to divide our attention. Within seconds, I landed several vicious cuts across Carver’s body, followed by Amaranth delivering a staggering slap with his paw to the man’s hip, the sound of cracking bone sending him stumbling badly onto his still wounded leg.
“Talk all you want if it makes you feel better, Lyrian,” Carver replied to me through gritted teeth as our attacks continued to force him backward. “But we all know how this battle is going to end. I came here fully willing to die to make sure this place went off properly, whether it happens by your hand…or something else’s, doesn’t matter to me in the slightest.”
“If that’s the case,” I snarled, seizing an opening in the half-orc’s weakened guard to chop a crackling Splinter deep into his shoulder at the same time Amaranth lunged forward to bite down onto his spear and tore it from his grasp. “Let me send you off in a way that you’ll never forget!”
Pulling my blade free of Carver’s shoulder with a spray of blood, I then planted the heaviest kick I could muster straight into his wounded leg, hearing a snapping sound fill the air as he fell heavily to the ground.
“I’m sure I’ll be seeing you soon, Carver,” I said to the half-orc as I took a step backward away from the man, having seen the Shoggoth’s tentacles unwind from the spot that they had slammed into and ready themselves for another strike. “But until then…I hope eating the loss of your Soul Fragment keeps you full of happy thoughts.”
Seeing Carver’s eyes widen as Amaranth and I rapidly backed away from him, I saw him glance upwards just in time for a wicked set of claws attached to one of the Shoggoth’s tentacles take him directly in the chest and then lift his body straight up into the air and out of sight.
Feeling the rage within me turn to ash at Carver’s death, I spun on my heel as I saw the other tentacle swing in our direction, Amaranth and I both rushing to get out of its reach. Working ourselves up into a full sprint, I felt the ground shake again as a loud crunch of stone echoed out from behind us.
Not wanting to risk a glance behind me at the noise, I cast Blink Step once more, taking advantage of my near limitless mana pool to get both Amaranth and myself firmly out of its reach. With the world blurring as we shifted places, the two of us reappeared further down the outcropping and practically crashed headlong into the fractured remains of the raid.
“Lyrian!” Sierra’s voice shouted out in surprise from the head of the group, everyone coming to a stop as they saw both Amaranth and me appear. “We were just coming to help! What the hell happened up there?”
“Carver happened,” I replied, breathing heavily as I looked over the raid, seeing all my friends rush forward to surround me. “I tried to stop him, but I was too late. He did…something to the spirits and turned them into that.”
“Shit!” Constantine exclaimed before giving me an asking look. “Did you at least get him?”
“Yeah,” I replied, hearing several grunts of approval from the raid. “For all the good it does us now.”
“It’s not over until it’s over,” Aldwin said in a tired voice. “There must be something that we—”
A loud crunch followed by a tremor suddenly interrupted the Knight, causing everyone to glance in the direction of the Shoggoth, just in time to see it take another chunk out of the outcropping.
“Gods!” Aldwin exclaimed as the chunk of stone vanished into the creature’s maw. “Is that creature…trying to eat the place?”
“It sure looks like it!” I answered, shaking my head as half a dozen tentacles then erupted from the tainted Æther. Two of the six immediately questing upwards towards the Ley Line while the other four began to rapidly grow massive bulges on their sides as they reached out to hover the outcropping. “Look! It’s reaching for the—”
Before I could finish my statement, the bulges on the tentacles burst open with a spray of emerald-tinted Æther and several large globs fell from each of them, the majority of them landing wetly on the outcropping before us, with a handful falling back into the Æther below. Shifting rapidly, the shapes that had managed to land on the outcropping quickly sprouted their own array of tentacles, mouths and eyes, appearing as miniature versions of the larger Shoggoth.
“Shit! It’s spawning minions!” Drace exclaimed, the big man’s voice echoing over the raid’s surprise as another wave of bulges burst from the tentacles, repeating the process a second time.
“Forget the minions! Look at what it’s doing!” I shouted as I pointed directly at the Rupture, where the two other tentacles had transformed themselves into the gnashing maws that I had seen earlier and were beginning to devour the stone surrounding it. “It’s t
rying to widen the Rupture!”
As one, everyone’s eyes shot up to look at the Ley Line high above with the azure-tinted Æther still pouring steadily from it before vanishing out of sight behind the Shoggoth.
“Oh, fuck it is,” Constantine whispered. “What the hell are we going to do? What can we do at this point?”
“What we came here to do,” I said, turning my head to glance towards the middle of the outcropping to where the final Runestone was. “We need to try and seal the Ley Line.”
“Do you really think that’ll work, Lyr?” Freya asked, her head shifting to look at me.
“It’s the best thing that I can think of right now,” I replied, giving her what I hoped was a confident nod. “If we can get the final spell fragment from the Runestone and seal the rupture, then we just might keep things from getting worse.”
“I have to agree with Lyr here,” Halcyon said. “And that’s not just because I don’t want to get anywhere near that damn monster! It’s really the best chance we have!”
“Uh, guys!” Drace called out, having kept his eyes down low while we had all focused on the Ley Line. “Speaking of getting worse, those minion things are starting to head this way!”
“Shit!” Freya cursed, shifting her gaze towards the onrushing horde of creatures. “Okay, Lyr! Your plan sounds like the best option we have right now! Take some people to watch over you in case some of these critters get past us and seal that damn Ley Line!”
“Got it!” I replied as Drace and Aldwin began shouting to get the raid organized, their two voices prompting everyone to move. “Halcyon! Constantine! Lazarus! Let’s go!”
Splitting apart from the rest of the raid the five us, Amaranth included, rushed back down the outcropping, trusting that Freya and the others would keep the Shoggoth’s spawn at bay. Crossing the distance quickly, thanks to the fact that we didn’t need to fight Carver’s forces along the way, it didn’t take us long to reach the Runestone, Halcyon and I immediately reaching into our packs to pull out a clean sheet of paper and something to draw with.
“I have no idea what the timing on this one is, Lyr!” Halcyon said as the two us prepared ourselves. “Could be seconds, or minutes! I didn’t see it flare at all during the battle earlier.”
“Me either!” I replied, vaguely remembering myself running past it before encountering Mozter. “We’ll need to wait…and hope that it doesn’t take too long.”
“Is there anything we can do to help?” Lazarus asked, his glass-steel sword in hand as he surveyed the area.
“Warn us if anything gets loose from the rest of the raid,” I replied, seeing him nod as our eyes met. “But not while we’re drawing. We can’t afford any distractions.”
“I understand,” the half-giant acknowledged, before turning to look in the direction of the raid as a several thunderclaps of magic announced the start of battle.
Sitting quietly as we waited for the Runestone to activate, I felt my heart hammer in my chest as I held the stick of charcoal over the paper, focusing on tuning out both the sounds of battle behind me and the Shoggoth’s mindless screams until all I heard was my own breathing. Staring blankly at the Runestone for what seemed like ages, but could have also been seconds, I waited, my mind completely blank.
Then without any warning, the Runestone activated.
With my breath catching in my chest as I saw the spell fragment appear on the stone’s face, I felt everything in the world fade away except for the symbols before me. Drawing even faster than I had when I had copied the Runestone at The Beast’s lair, a distant understanding began to grow in my mind with every line that I drew on the page, eventually realizing that at some point I had taken my eyes off the glowing rock and was now staring at the completed spell fragment.
Taking a deep breath, all the noise that I had tuned out came crashing back onto me, this time sounding much closer than it had before. Glancing over at Halcyon to see how he was doing, I saw that the mage was also staring at a finished page before him, his expression one of bewilderment.
“All good, Hal?” I asked as I shifted my spell fragment towards him, ready to compare our sketches as quickly as possible.
“Y-yeah, Lyr,” he replied, shaking his head as he showed me his page. “I feel like I almost understand the spell at this point.”
“I know what you mean,” I said as the two of us then reviewed our sketches, once again finding them to be completely identical to one another.
“Hey, I don’t mean to rush you guys…” Constantine called out. “But could you maybe hurry it up just a little bit? Things are starting to look a bit hot!”
Turning at Constantine’s words, I looked back towards the raid, seeing that several other tentacles had emerged from the Æther and were in the process of wreaking havoc among the raid’s ranks. All while the Shoggoth continued to steadily chew through both the stone surrounding the Ley Line and the outcropping itself.
“Oh damn!” I heard Halcyon curse as he too twisted to look at the raid, taking the words right out of my mouth.
“We can try!” I shouted back at the rogue as the two of us turned back towards our papers and pulled out the other spell fragments from our pack, lining them up side by side with one another until they formed one cohesive spell.
Bending down to read the spell in its completed entirety, I found my eyes dancing across the combined pages as they followed the swirling symbols and inscriptions that we had so painstakingly collected from across the Grove. With every symbol that I read, I gradually felt that familiar understanding I’d just experienced return. But this time, instead of fading away into nothingness as I finished reading the spell, I felt a sudden rush of knowledge burst into my mind, followed closely behind by a large block of text appearing in my vision.
Congratulations! You have unlocked a new spell type: Ritual Magic!
You have learned the [Ritual of Ætherbinding]!
Ritual Magic encompasses a special class of spells that are more complicated and mana intensive than the typical spells used by Arcane and Divine casters. These spells are designed to have a lasting or large-scale impact on the world and require two or more Spellcasters working in concert over a longer period of time to successfully cast it.
In order to cast a Ritual Spell, all of the Spell Mastery requirements must be met at the time of casting. These requirements can be split amongst multiple participants in the ritual as long as their combined skill levels meet or exceed the spell’s requirements. When casting a Ritual Spell, the Initial Mana Cost will be divided proportionally amongst all the participants, thus forming the base of the spell. In order to complete and fully cast the Ritual Spell, the Total Ritual Mana Cost must be channeled into the spell via all of the participants at whatever rate that they choose to contribute. Once the spell is completely charged, the participants may then choose to finish the Ritual and activate the spell.
Ritual of Ætherbinding
Type: Ritual, General
Duration: Permanent
Participants: 2 or more
Spell Mastery:
Abjuration – Level 15
Alteration – Level 15
Conjuration – Level 20
Evocation – Level 20
Initial Mana Cost: 2,500
Total Ritual Mana Cost: 57,500
Description: Constructing a massive magical matrix, you and the ritual participants create a network of spells and layer it onto a nearby Ley Line via an anchor point, creating a tap that can be used to contain, and control the energies that it possesses.
“We did it, Lyr!” Halcyon announced from beside me, his voice sounding full of both awe and relief. “We can use this to seal the Ley Line!”
“Are you sure?” I asked as I dismissed everything from my vision, unable to help but feel slightly overwhelmed by everything that I had just read. “My Evocation skill is high enough for this, but my Conjuration sure isn’t!”
“Don’t worry, mine is!” Halcyon replied enthusiastically as
we both pushed ourselves off the ground, collecting the pages that contained the newly reassembled Ritual. “I actually meet all the requirements myself, thanks to that Magical Aptitude trait I took at character creation!”
“Damn lucky choice that was!” I exclaimed with a shake of my head, wondering what we would have done if we hadn’t met the ritual’s Spell Mastery requirements. “You think we can handle this spell together? By the time we run back to the raid to get another caster…”
“We should be able to manage it ourselves,” the mage replied as he readied himself to begin the ritual. “With the mana regen bonus that this place is giving us…we should be able to cast it in just under five minutes.”
“Hopefully we have that much time,” I whispered as I glanced towards the battle and saw that the raid was being steadily forced back towards us.
“Fingers crossed,” Halcyon said, a look of determination coming across his face as he motioned for me to stand across from him. Once I was in place, he then raised his hands before him in preparation to begin the spell, and I saw a glowing prompt appear in my vision.
Halcyon has invited you to participate in the [Ritual of Ætherbinding]!
Accepting the invitation without hesitation, I looked up towards Halcyon and gave him a nod, already feeling the beginnings of the spell take shape.
“Here’s goes nothing,” I whispered as a tiny azure-colored orb of energy sprang into existence between us, which quickly began to grow as we poured more mana into it.
Feeling nearly the entirety of my mana vanish as the base of the spell came into being, an incredible wave of hunger suddenly shot through me, prompting me to stagger unexpectedly. Catching myself before I could fall, I forced the sudden feeling down, feeling the nearly overwhelming hunger diminish as my mana pool gradually replenished itself from area’s enhanced regeneration. Focusing all of my attention on the orb hovering between us in an attempt to distract myself, I watched it slowly float upward, where it then began to rapidly expand until it became a swirling sphere of arcane energy.
Legacy of the Fallen (Ascend Online Book 2) Page 77