The looks on the faces around me were simply priceless. Disbelief and fear warring with awe, making the smile on my face just a little wider, the effect having surpassed even what I had hoped to accomplish. Using the naturally occuring Astral Power, not quite on the level of Wild Magic but certainly higher than usual, had given me extraordinary results, possibly due to the Darkness-attunement the place had. That same attunement was the reason Undead could flourish here, the Aspects of Change and Magic supporting the effect I suspected to come from the Dorrian Mountains.

“How is it going on your side?” I asked, looking to Mal, who had dropped multiple of her thunder-bombs donw into the cleft, the effect quite destructive, likely even enhanced due to the narrow space, but there was just no comparison. Higher level, related traits and titles in addition to the naturally aligned effect all coming together to allow me a performance greater than usual, it simply overwhelmed everything she could do. Not that I was about to explain the exact mechanism I had used. Keeping secrets and a bit of mystery was quite useful.

“Your concealment slipped.” Lenore warned me, in the back of my mind, and I realised that apparently, the magical experimentation had pushed Mortal Hubris into high-drive, my intense focus on my spell-casting making me lose the twilight-based concealment.

Focusing, I quickly reestablished the effect, noticing that some of the strain left their faces, the fear fading a little, leaving the awe behind.

“Let’s focus on the incoming enemies.” I chided them, to make them focus on the incoming undead. Mal’s grenades had decimated them, but there were still a couple dozen Undead moving towards us. Those, too, had been battered, some bones broken, but they were still mobile and wanted nothing more than to tear us limb from limb.

The smart move would be to move backwards, following the path we had taken on the way in, all the while battering them from a distance, the fighters amongst us picking off the few faster Undead. Wading in, fighting them directly would normally be an incredibly stupid move, but in this case, it was exactly what we did.

“Love, why don’t you lead the way?” I asked, the earlier grin still on her face. Sigmir looked at me for a moment, before mirroring the grin on my face, in her case with added savagery.

She let out a wild howl, her red aura springing to life around her and I could feel that she was drawing on Ylva’s strength. Not quite moving into the Avatar-state, but getting close to it.

Our companions looked at her with wide eyes, and I placed a hand on her shoulder, letting my own power flow into her, Blood Magic bolstering her already impressive strength and speed to another level. I couldn’t push too much power into her, not without exhausting me even further, but with Lenore within her Hallow, I regenerated Astral Power incredibly fast. Fast enough to buff Sigmir without lowering my reserve.

“Rai, cover her back.” I ordered, getting a serious nod in response, even as Sigmir started trotting forward, slowly accelerating until she was full-on running, Rai dashing after her.

“If you want to play, go ahead.” I told the others, letting them make their own decision. By the time I had spoken, Sigmir had covered the distance to the Undead and her Lok’nar was unleashed on the relatively low-levelled Undead, the difference in power blindingly obvious. Each of her strikes was sweeping widely, as she was moving with insane speed and grace through their number, shattering bones and scattering flesh with her silvered weapon. From time to time, I could see Rai appear, shred apart a stronger Undead or one of the Spectres, before moving back into a covering position. Around both of them, golden shields from Olivia were in effect, blocking or blunting any attacks that might make it through.

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Myra, Mibo and Jakyl had caught up to them, taking up flanking positions and I noticed that Jakyl added his own buffs again, turning the five of them into a destructive blender, their advance slowed by the Undead but never stopped. They simply tore them to shreds.

“Most impressive.” Kirl stated, watching as the others destroyed the last remaining Undead.

“A simple difference in power. With superior power, superior numbers only mean so much, especially on favoured terrain.” I replied, getting an understanding nod in reply.

“With this, we might manage to take things one step further.” Kirl mused, making me raise an eyebrow in question.

“Explain, please? What do you mean by taking things a step further?” I asked for clarification.

“The ritual we are planning to do, the original plan was to only conduct the simplest version. It is something any of us three can use, even after having supported the group that escorted us magically.” she explained and I nodded along.

“But now that the overwhelming power of both groups together allowed us to hold onto our own power and we never were in danger. We should have enough power to perform the ritual at a higher order. We might even manage to cleanse the cleft for good, not only suppress its effect for a year or three.”

“What would that higher order ritual entail?” I prodded, before realising that I didn’t even know the details of the ritual in the first place, “That said, what do you need us to do, anyway?”

There was a thin smile on Kirl’s face, but she explained nonetheless.

“The basic ritual could be conducted from here. Any of us three can perform it and It’ll take the entire night. The Undead would come swarming in, you would defend against them, with support from the other two, if we were still alive and healthy.”

“The higher order ritual is similar, but it would require us to take up position in a triangle, one on the other side of the cleft, conducted by myself, the other two on this side, on either end of the cleft, conducted by Eronui and Ulchia. The problem is, all of the three sites need to be protected and all of them will attract Undead.” she finished, leaving me considering her ideas.

It was incredibly risky, splitting the group in three parts and separating them like that. But on the other hand, the excitement and hope in Kirl’s voice was palpable, making me wonder if there was a way to accomplish her plan.

“How important would that be? How big a benefit, because the risk should be obvious. And would the ritual fail, if the worst comes to pass and we have to retreat from one of the spots, maybe even two of them?” I asked for more information, to make an educated decision.

“I can’t even guess at the exact effect, but I’m confident that the effect would be profound. As I said, it might even cleanse the valley. And yes, even if two of the rituals are disturbed, the last will still function, though with a lessened effect.” she paused for a moment, her eyes shining with emotions.

“Please, let us attempt this. It finally would allow us to push back the Undead of the Dorrain Mountains, not only lessen the effects of its spread. Please, it would mean a lot to me personally, to the Temples and the Adventurers’ Guild.” she pleaded, her words having little impact on me. But little impact was not none and there was that other part, my own desire to demonstrate the worth of my group to the Guild. Getting their recommendation to smooth over potential problems with the oddities of my group that might prevent us from finding a ship to carry us across the ocean had value on its own.

“Let me consider it. We’ll need to rest anyway and I’d like to determine how many Undead are still in the region. I might be able to create some simple fortifications that could allow us to withstand a larger group of Undead, even when divided.” I finally replied, still not certain what the right answer was. Take a risk, for a potential greater reward or play things safe, get a lower reward but suffer from possible backlash, if Kirl held a grudge for destroying her hope.

Glancing at Mal, who had heard the whole exchange, I could only shrug, determined to bring it up to the others. My thoughts were interrupted, when a blue box appeared, telling me that I had participated in a battle and had gained experience, scaled by the impact of my group’s effort. Moments later, another box appeared, telling me that I had levelled up to level 113.