"Damn, this place has gone too quiet," Chris muttered, his sword glowing a sullen red, radiating enough light to see by, even without the Elementium infused crystals glowing overhead.
Val couldn't help nodding as they stepped over bits of scorched armor and burnt pieces of corpses no doubt too far gone to reanimate, passing each of their former battle sites before heading into the main chamber once more.
Val felt his senses go into hyper-alert as they entered the main chamber, the shadows stretching endlessly to either side, its secrets opaque even to him at that moment, his Magesight alone letting him see the altar blaze in his mind's eye, the glittering crystals so high overhead that the floor of the cavern was left in darkest shadow.
Chris whistled. "Damn, Captain, there's a fortune in Elementium up there. Too bad we can't access it."
Dirk shrugged. "It's not ours. And even if all the villagers end up being faeries in disguise, returning to the woods after too close a brush with death and happy to gift the mine to us, we'd still have to figure out how to manipulate an entire town's worth of forges, crucibles, and distillers. And even then, who knows how many years or decades it would take to purify the ore?"
Val gazed at the ceiling and frowned, struck by the oddest sense that there was an answer to Dirk's dilemma, before snapping himself back into focus once more as laughter filled the grand chamber.
"Very good! You have managed to take down over two score summoned minions. Perhaps you will prove worthy of House Christos, after all. Come forward, spirits, and await your fate in my new throne room!" Even as the words died out there was a sudden tremble as the entrance was flooded by the roar of stone and choking dust.
Chris began to cough as they jogged further in. "Bastard pinned us in!" He cursed.
"Shut up and look!" Dirk hissed, pointing his finger even as a wheel of stone rumbled and slipped into the wall, revealing a corridor spiraling down into the darkness.
"Don't like it. Could be a trap," Yin said.
Val smiled. "You think?"
Dirk frowned. "Let's scout out the rest of this cavern, and make up our minds then." Everyone nodded at that, scouting out the massive chamber as best they could, but other than the one passageway leading down into the unknown, the grand chamber had no other exits.
"Down the rabbit hole we go," Julia murmured, Val taking point as Chris kept the rear. A gloom darker than blackness, and then there was light, Val sensing throbbing crimson cords of power so potent they radiated their own arcane light once they hit the bottom. The floor was comprised of exotic looking tiles, the walls themselves exquisitely carved stone, the corridor ahead slowly winding to the left.
There was no evidence of anything living or undead down this way, from what Val could sense.
Then he heard the screams.
"Val, hold!" Dirk snapped, but he was already off, racing down the corridor as fast as his feet could take him, fearing it might be a trap, but knowing without question that someone was dying.
"Holy shit!" Yin hissed, surprisingly just feet behind him. "I used to run track, and we're being dumb, and what the hell is that?" She murmured so softly it was hardly a whisper, and Val could only shake his head.
They were both peering just past the lip of a massive doorway into a grand domed chamber deep within the bowels of the earth, and for a moment Val wondered just how fast, how long they had run before shaking the nagging thought away.
Beholding over a hundred terrified looking villagers trapped within a tiny dome of arcane force, a single one presently in the hands of a black-robed individual who radiated a sickly puce-green power that his handsome features and charming smile did nothing to hide, setting Val's teeth on edge. Magics of necromancy and death, he was certain.
The man Val cold only assume was the dark mage Christos presently stood before the massive field of force that seemed to divide the chamber almost neatly in two, and Val couldn't help but think that the grand chamber only touched a tiny portion of the vast area that forcefield encompassed. He felt a sudden odd sense of deja vu, certain he had seen a field like that once before. Only... different, somehow.
Then Christos raised a dagger glowing an eerie shade of crimson, and the woman caught in his powerful grip began to kick and scream.
"Let her go, bastard!" hollered none other than Yin herself, outrage propelling her into the room, Val desperately pulling her back, even as Christos began to laugh.
"Val, what the hell are you doing?" Hissed Dirk as the rest caught up.
"So good of my guests to arrive. Come, join us in our little celebration! You have proven yourselves worthy of my regard, slaying my henchmen twice over. Come, then! Witness for yourself the might and majesty of an ancient dwarven stronghold, perfectly preserved. All its wondrous secrets, only a single disenchantment away!"
"Sorry, boss," Yin murmured. "I got, um, carried away."
Dirk shook his head. "It doesn't matter. He knew we were coming. There is no other way out, and you know our backup plan. Now let's see what there is to see."
Val caught Julia's bright gaze, shivering with the intensity of her regard.
Are you ready?
You know it.
Val's brow furrowed. Had she always had a gold tint to the green of her eyes? Stunning.
She flashed him a smile.
He swallowed and looked away, focusing purely on their nemesis, and what he knew they'd have to do.
There were no henchmen. Only a black-robed Christos beaming at them with handsome features somehow both old and young. He measured them all with coal-dark eyes, rare for Jordians, radiating false bonhomie and terrible potency. He resheathed his dagger in a heartbeat and pulled out a wand glowing with darkest magic as the sobbing villager stumbled to the ground, scampering away as fast as her feet could take her.
Christos executed a fluid bow in that chamber of gold bronze and stone, fazed not a bit by the desperate cries of the captives only feet away.
"Welcome, Dominion spirits radiating the conceit of free will. Welcome, puppets of the first empire ever to flood our skies with their ships, over a thousand years of conquest and rule! Why, if anything, I suppose poor Jordia should be grateful. We were one of their earlier conquests, solidifying what had once been the gentlest of colonizations by obliterating the natives and enslaving earlier human settlers in one fell swoop!"
He chuckled softly, eyes grown flinty and cold. "Unfortunately for them, the original humans weren't quite so weak and compliant as they had hoped. Over the centuries we learned the secrets of Jordia, the most worthy wielding powers that filled our former masters with terror! When they sought a campaign of genocide against those wizards who wanted only freedom, then civil war rocked this planet until the Dominion's cities of puppets and sophists burned in the hellfire they so richly deserved! Only then did they condescend to break bread and sue for peace, this entire continent sworn to those original settlers forever after, the northern hemisphere alone the province of the Dominion."
Dirk nodded, fazed not at all by the pleas of trapped villagers or the desiccated bodies strewn beside the forcefield, what Val could only surmise were earlier victims. "My understanding is that the southern mages got what they wanted, a continent of their own. Why are you butchering these innocent villagers now?"
Christos's eyes widened in incredulous disbelief. "You don't know? You don't get it? It's you, spirit! The Dominion was happy to keep its treaty, but only for so long as it knew we were a threat! Once the former Overlord and his favorite bitch found a way to crack a rift between worlds and summon spirits like yourself, spirits able to manipulate magic of their own, they forsook their own treaties and began to campaign here in the south!"
Yin's brow furrowed. "But that's not true. They are only trying to suppress rebels attempting to destroy the free cities here in the south that won't bow to a local mage-king!"
Christos spat in contempt. "Is that what you were told, spirit? Did they fill your head with lies, before compelling you to fight for t
hem? Those cities are our territories! Our city-states that we have held to our names for hundreds of years! Dominion agents infiltrated and began their games of coups and assassinations, twice wiping out entire clans! Butchering every man, woman, and child, without any declaration of duel or war, before we even knew we were under attack. Quenching ancient bloodlines, heirs to powerful secrets now lost to us forever!" Christos roared, fists tightly clenched.
"Then they instilled their own puppet councils, declared them free cities while enslaving everyone in all but name! Demanding usurious tithes, and anyone who left was ambushed and killed days later with trumped-up evidence declaring them rebels. Rebels! As if they weren't the ones reinitiating a campaign of genocide against all those born with the gift of magic, all those who will not bow and quake before those damned Highlords!
"Well, we are not all fools. Even the dwarves knew not to entirely trust them, and just as the dwarves were betrayed a thousand years ago, my brethren knew to expect the Dominion's betrayal yet again!"
He paused then, his terrible rage instantly morphing into a bemused smile. His chilling laughter would have been charming, were he not striding beside the bodies of the dozen captives he had already butchered. "Ah, but you didn't come here for politics, am I right? To you spirits, this is but a distraction, a game to your immortal lives, able to disappear and reappear at will, harder to kill than a titan berserker! Power is what you seek when you invade our world, yes? Power and distraction!"
He then turned, gesturing to the shimmering field of force dominating the room.
"And just feet away lies power the likes of which could reshape this entire world!"
"The dwarves," Val said. "You've found a lost colony. Its secrets. You think they still live. You're trying to enter a city warded from Dominion scanners. You seek an alliance with them?"
Christos roared with laughter. "Still alive? It's been over a thousand years! Ebonair was a deluded fool. Of course they're all dead! But it matters not. All their lost secrets, all their forbidden power will still be mine." His smile grew cold and feral. He whispered a single syllable and Val gasped, feeling as if a band of steel suddenly gripped his heart.
Christos's smile grew. "But I do need to take down that forcefield. And for that I need spirits. Strong spirits. You fools passed my tests brilliantly! And now you are trapped here, spirits, unable to flee." His laughter grew as he held up his wand. "Do you see the markings upon the floor, the exquisite tapestry of power and flow making up the greatest summoning ward known to my clan? It is a spirit trap, and you are all now locked within it!"
Val hissed, sensing at last the faint, near undetectable runes written by a master. And his Arcane Perception caught traces of it only now. So subtle, so brilliantly forged, radiating no hostile energies, only a curious absence. A drain. Upon him. He had taken no harm, yet, but one thing was clear. They weren't going anywhere.
Perception Check made! You now sense Christos's devious trap, designed to beguile and capture even the most clever spirits, Val. Spirits just like you! Clever as you think you are, someone spending years plotting the capture of creatures like yourself will always have the upper hand. What will you do now?
Dirk's eyes widened. "Abort! Abort, everyone! Say the word. Get out!"
"Parachute!" A now panicked Yin screamed as they all raced towards the exit, and Val felt a moment's fierce release as he sensed the flood of energies just a heartbeat from popping Yin out of this world and back into their own.
All off it near instantly drained by the spirit trap, which grew faintly red, now, fueled by Yin's failed attempt.
Yin's gaze was one of terror. "Oh no."
"Get out, everyone!" Dirk roared, only for his words to be cut off as he smashed into an invisible forcefield now blocking the exit, the faint matrix of energies Val could just make out the only clue it was even there.
Christos flashed a feral grin. "Ah yes, pathetic spirits. So easily seduced by promises of power and glory, and the only glory you shall feel down here is the exultation of your own deaths! For when I claim your souls, I will have claim to all the power within you!'
"No!" Yin sobbed.
"Yes, girl!" He laughed. "I shall claim your very soul!"
And even as he spoke, Val sensed the subtle concentration of energies, realizing what his opponent was doing a heartbeat before it was too late. "Shields!" Val screamed, smashing into Yin, sensing Julia's brilliant synergized ward pop into existence a heartbeat before a green bolt of death crackled through the air, tearing right through the space Yin had been standing moments before.
"Val! His spell pierced my shield!" Julia cried, but this Val already knew, Yin alive only because Val had slammed her to the ground.
"I want to go home!" Yin screamed.
"Boost your shield!" Val screamed, Julia's desperate golden eyes locking upon his own. A moment that stretched eternally as Val somehow fused hours of insight into a single heartbeat in time, compelling her to understand, to feel, what it meant for him to dance upon the razor's edge, even as he somehow slammed a portion of his mana into her soul via the Spirit Link that joined them both.
Congratulations! You have imprinted forbidden knowledge upon your teammate's fragile brain and flooded her psyche with power... all without killing her! You are drained 100 mana! Julia is boosted 50 mana!
Spirit Link Rank 2 Achieved!
Mindmeld Rank 1 Achieved for you both!
Julia has successfully learned Spellboost Rank 1 for Synergized Ward!
"Focus and fight, soldier, our lives are on the line!" Dirk roared, Val sparing Julia a single intent glance and she paled even as her shield blazed with hideous potency, as if understanding exactly what he was asking of her, what he was prepared to do himself.
"Val..."
"Just do it!" He hissed and then said no more, shouting out "haste!" as he dashed across the room, time seeming to stretch in the odd way it often did when he was gripped by the glorious rush of exultation and terror that always flooded him at times like these, his battle reflexes heightened all the more by his casting.
Perception check made! You have spotted your own death, fast approaching!
Even as flashes of lightning, spears of ice, and ill green bolts of death flittered through the air, Val raced on, abruptly leaping and somersaulting as the ground beneath his feet suddenly crackled with eldritch flame.
"Well done!" Mocked a clapping Christos as his brilliant Mageward deflected all their attacks, not needing to wield it like a shield as Val was his own at that very moment as he raced for the wizard. "I'm quite surprised to find one of you spirits has the perception to sense your doom, and another wields wards as strong as those of any noble scion! Now let's see if your ward is as strong as your friend's."
Highmage Christos snapped out with his wand, far too fast for Val to bend the magic cords he sensed whipping through the air as he was now only a heartbeat away, Val putting every bit of himself into his ward, feeling it crackle with energy.
Spell Parry failed! Your foe's expertise is too much for your novice skills at manipulating the cords of others to push away! Too bad your PMR was never maxed. You'll never know what you might have been capable of!
Ward successfully boosted! Additional 15 mana spent! Deathray hits for 100 damage & Fatal wound!
Fatal wound lowered to medium wound! Ward absorbs damage, 26 mana drained! Good thing you boosted, or you'd really be in trouble!
Val screamed as his shield was flooded with eldritch power, just snapping his head aside as the backlash poured across his left cheek, the world seeming to rock as his left ear was blown completely off.
Finesse roll made! Balance kept!
Val's scream turned to a roar as he pivoted around the mage, Christos's eyes slowly widening as Val felt each second strain against his perception of time, roaring "Glacie Pilum!" and jabbing his fingers at the wizard's feet even as he rammed his shield high, hoping to force a gap even as his foe turned to face him.
To no ava
il.
The mage laughed as Val's boosted Ice Spear was slammed away by the lip of the translucent shield of spell force.
"Well done!" The man applauded. "Were you one of my men, you would be rewarded for your maneuvers. As a foe, I can only promise that my bards will sing of our battle and immortalize you, even as your spent souls shall catalyze a revolution in southern majesty when lost dwarven secrets finally become ours!"
He raised his wand. "I salute you, foe. And now I say, goodbye!"
Val!
But he already sensed it, slamming himself into a desperate roll as the boosted stream of crackling death tore through the shield he had somehow left floating above him as a momentary distraction, feeling it roar and tear through his defenses altogether, crying out as the backlash hit.
But the bolt had missed, panic and reflexes carrying him to his feet once more.
Shield disrupted! 20 points mana damage backlash! 20 hit points damage taken! He was toying with you, Val. Just look at that grin! It looks like you truly impressed him. Oh well, time to die. Will you re-corporealize yet again, or is it finally the end of our tale?
Julia! Val screamed with his mind, as fast as thought.
It will kill you!
Do it, or we're all dead! Do it now! Now! Val implored as he madly dodged and wove, his shield once more up, somehow making a critical insta-cast, holding it at sharp angle even as he ducked again, desperately pushing back the hideously boosted death magic, his brain screaming as the backlash burned into him a second time. An agony of torment and terror as he struggled to dodge his own inevitable death, his final desperate act leaving him too extended, glass vials rolling free as he crashed to a stop, momentarily stunned, forced to focus on his foe's feet for just a heartbeat too long.
Mocking applause. "Bravo, spirit! I eagerly await savoring the vitality of your essence!"
Exquisitely crafted boots of supplest leather blocked Val's final card from view.
The mage raised his wand with sickening finality at a prone Val, who knew his time was at an end.
Endless Online: Oblivion's Price: A LitRPG Adventure - Book 3 Page 33