Chapter 146
Stage X
Monday
Alexa appeared, in the final dungeon, just entering made her feel like she was on the peak of something great. Everything she had worked for over the last two months had all led here to this point and she was ready to conquer everything.
Whoosh.
A second behind her, the old orc shaman who somehow only was known by the system as The Old Crone had appeared right behind her. Looking at her, it was clear that she was Not Impressed, with what Alexa had done. That of course was an Emotional State that Alexa was certain didn’t exist, as she was fairly certain she would have at least seen someone else who had it, of course this just went to show how powerful the Crone was, if she could manipulate the system to both hide her true name and to make it so her Emotional State were unknown.
“You are weak. Far too weak for what is needed.” The Crone said, apparently still carrying over the same argument that she had before Alexa decided to try to continue without her, yet here she was still nagging.
“You exercise demons your way, and I will exercise them mine.” Alexa said, not wishing to rehash the same argument yet again.
“You had it, power beyond compare. Power that you could have held within you and used.” The Crone argued, “I could see the way your hands and whole body trembled at the sight of the energy, and yet you just let it go away.”
“I didn’t let it go anywhere, I set it free.”
“Do you hear what you are saying? You set a demonic soul free. And what was that power you used?”
At that Alexa paused and stared at the old Crone, trying to see if she knew, and this was another one of her elaborate ruses, or if this was something else entirely.
“What was it, I never felt anything like that before, it…” The Crone’s voice trailed off as she tried to think of the words to describe what she had gone through. “It felt good. I’ve never felt like that before.”
With that Alexa nodded, not wishing to pay any more attention to the Crone, though a slight smirk did come to her lips. No one, save for the people that truly knew Alexa would see it as a smirk, but Alexa herself felt sort of vindicated, here this creature was, powerful beyond compare and she had never heard or truly felt the Precursor word for Hope.
“Surely someone as all powerful and all knowing as you would already know what power that was.” Alexa quipped, feeling a bit more argumentative than she ever had. It was a fact that she was and had been absorbing a lot of ambient energy from the last dungeon. The demonic presence had been around for so long without the dungeon being allowed to reset, that Alexa felt that she might have gone mad without leaving. That was part of why she decided to let the demonic soul go, well she let it go after she grabbed the demonic spirit just as the crone said, but then rather than absorbing the power and having to fight her way free of the corruption, Alexa decided to go her own path, by purging the spirit with her first Precursor power word she ever learned.
The experiment had been a success, if she did say so herself. The spirit rather than having its oily black residue absorbed into her body and then having her body try to purify the poisonous extract. Alexa purged the spirit, making it so the slimy outer shell was completely removed and was able to fly off into the stratosphere. Alexa remembered to look at Crone’s disbelieving face, as she seemed to be even more confused by the act than Alexa herself had been.
“I couldn’t even grab it, when it shed its outer layers and fled.” The Crone said.
Alexa just shook her head. “That wasn’t it shedding its outer layer, rather that was it being cleansed of its past misdeeds.”
“That is still impossible.”
Alexa just shook her head, not wanting to have this conversation yet again. Instead, she just decided to leave the cave entrance that held her, and almost instantly felt the strain of an intricately carved Rune pattern on the walls ahead. While these runes did have some protection nodes, they were not nearly enough to stop Alexa’s innate understanding of runes. Especially once she was close enough to actually look at the structure of the runes. Following the runic structure, she realized there were a trap of some sort, but at first, she couldn’t understand what the trap was for, then something in the back of her teeth began to rattle as she felt the familiar resonance of a particularly difficult form of magic.
The Crone herself had grown quiet, apparently watching Alexa, to see if Alexa could deduce the trap ahead.
Alexa had already solved it, having seen a similar, if slightly less complex version of this very same trap sequence as the one that was used to kill her father. Everything was the same, from runes being used to separate the different natural elemental schools of magic away from a dense Void magic core that was more than capable of first destroying everything in the immediate area, and then devouring the truth. A quick glance around her showed that she was in the middle of a completely spherical room. A glance at the room all but confirmed that this was not the first time this exact setup had been used to take down other Trials of Ascension takers who had also gotten to this point.
Alexa of course had not been idle during her time here. While she was not the first one here, and likely not the first one who could set off the trap, it was a simple magic detection complex. Basically, anyone who used magic of a certain Tier rating would instantly set off the runes, that would cause a cascading attack designed to not only destroy the caster, but then eliminate any proof that they were here. Seeing this, Alexa smiled widely, a cold malicious smile that spoke of vengeance.
The Crone who had been content to stare at Alexa from the side, in what was clearly a safe area set out by the runes, suddenly jerked to life as she saw Alexa’s whole face changed.
“Did you notice something?”
“Oh, I noticed a lot.” Alexa said, as she began moving forward, grabbing the different elemental balls that surrounded the Void energy.
Seeing that Alexa had identified the trap, and had already begun to take measures to disarm the trap the Crone relaxed slightly, though she still couldn’t help but feel a little unease at the complete look of malice that now covered Alexa’s face.
“You solved it, and you are angry that it was a trap?”
“No,” Alexa said, trying to get her thoughts in mind. “I am fine with the fact that they set out a trap. But I will have a word or two for the creator of this trap.” Alexa, said as she dropped the empty elemental balls to the ground and then reached up to grab the Void stone.
This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road. If you spot it on Amazon, please report it.
“Don’t, that one is…” The Crone tried to warn Alexa, but it was already too late, as the human girl had already taken it down. The Crone waited for it the moment she would cry out in pain, everyone did, especially on their first time, that was when just being exposed to Void energy was the worst. That was after all the true purpose of this zone, to show the corruptive nature of Void energy, and that it was first needed as a stabilizing part of the universe, but also how to spot it and to avoid it at all costs. The Void stone that she had pulled was a natural formation here, and it seems that the rest of the runic structure had just been built around that one large Void crystal.
Alexa just stared and gritted her teeth as she began painfully Absorbing the alien material. This time it was a lot more than the small amount she had dealt with, the small, by comparison, amount that had been used to ambush her and kill her father. As she absorbed the energy, she felt liquid fire burn its way up her arm and into her very core.
Slow breaths.
The fire was so intense that even with her Regeneration, she still had a hard time keeping the pain at bay, but she forced her way through. She was Void Resistant, which she knew had paid no small role in her survival of the first attack, and even now she could feel that same Resistance coming through now, as she forced her body to consume yet more of the alien material.
In her mind she saw that the system was talking to her, telling her that she had done something, reached a certain threshold, but that wasn’t enough. She needed to keep her focus here. In this moment everything faded from around her, The Crone was gone, the Runic death trap that was overhead was gone, the only thing that existed at this moment was the slow dull pain throbbing inside her chest, and the intense unending pain that proved one thing above all else, that she was still alive.
“Life is pain, anyone who tells you otherwise is selling something.” Alexa muttered angrily to herself as she pushed herself, pushed her class, and pushed her body and mind beyond anything she had experienced before. She had been weak, she had been caught off guard by an unknown threat, in an unknown way, because of that people died. Because of that, her father died. She would not be that weak again, if all it took was a little pain to prevent that fate from happening again to anyone she loved, she would deal with that and more.
“Stop, you can’t…” The Crone said, desperation in her voice.
Alexa turned and snarled at the Crone; it had been clear for a while that she had her own objective in this. That she had likely intended to kill Alexa, had she not passed some unknown test. Then just a moment ago, it was failed she had failed another test, one that was meant to gain power by consuming the demonic soul of demons. Something that sounded as repugnant as it felt. Now that same Crone was here, telling her what she can and can’t do, again.
“Get back!” Alexa hissed, blood came to her mouth, filling her mouth and tastebuds with a metallic coppery flavor, but it was okay, based on the look of horror that was now on the Crone’s face, Alexa had made her point. She didn’t trust the Crone, at least not anymore. The same Crone who was now telling her to stop, was the same one who had been more than content to let her blow herself up by this runic death trap.
Finally, the last of the ultra violet energy was gone, and the last trails of it burned its way up her arm and into her chest.
Alexa stood there, her body trembling from how much energy was now coursing through her. A lot of the trembling was also due in no small part to the amount of pain she was now feeling as well. Pain that once again let her know she was alive, pain that let her know she was getting stronger, that she had found only another challenge that was meant to be conquered.
“You, you did it…” The Crone said, a not of shock in her voice, but Alexa didn’t pay any attention to the Crone, as she was already delving into her system messages.
Energy Gained. Do you wish to convert energy absorbed into class experience? Attributes? Or to unlock Void Magic?
Seeing the system message, Alexa felt a twinge of vindication. This had been the second time, and this time had taken a lot longer than her first exposure to Void magic, but finally she had the message she wanted.
Without even hesitation, she chose to unlock yet another branch of magic.
Magic Unlocked. Magic Category Unlocked: Void Magic Void Magic is now Tier I.
Seeing the message, Alexa let out a sigh of relief, as she felt the pain that was burning away inside her chest like a bad case of heartburn suddenly release, as she was finally immune to the pressures and strain of Void magic. At least she was finally immune to the effect that Void energy had on her insides.
With the pain finally, gone, Alexa was able to stand up straight. As she did, the Old Crone just looked at her with a sense of awe and disbelief. She opened her mouth as if to ask Alexa a question but could not seem to form any words. This was fine, as Alexa felt she was just about done with the Crone and ready to ask some of her own questions.
“Tell me, this structure, this is all elven make?” Alexa asked.
“Yes.”
At that Alexa nodded, and was about to leave, but was stopped by the old Crone.
“Wait,” The Crone said, as her eyes began to flash with a strange light blue light that Alexa took as her having a Vision. Seeing her like this, Alexa realized that if she wanted to, this would have been her moment to strike, the Crone was not faking, and the Vision she was having at the moment was clearly enough to drop her attention for a moment. Had Alexa been in her rational mind, she might have made a move, but seeing as Alexa was in her emotional mind, a mind that was now clearly set on revenge for the death of a loved one, she did not want to create an extra enemy where she didn’t need to.
Crumple.
The Crone who had been standing up fully erect and with an unknown power, suddenly shrank as her Vision left her.
Panting.
“Wait, you know that you don’t need to do this? That killing the elves here will just be an act of futility? That all you need to do is show an understanding of the Void magic, to respect it, but you I don’t even know what you did.”
Alexa just turned her head and began to leave.
“Wait, I can show you the exit, it is just over there.” The Crone pointed, but Alexa didn’t even turn to look, she had elves to talk to and a message to send.
“Wait, where will you go. Even if you find out who created this, what then. They aren’t here, it is just a Summoned Aspect of their true form.”
“I know, I will find them. I will track them down and make sure they can never do this again.” Alexa said, her voice cold and calculating. Hearing the words and seeing the determination in the face of the Chosen one, the Crone couldn’t help but cower slightly in fear. Fear for her conviction, fear for what she might do next.
“You would turn against an ally, in a war you know nothing about?”
“They are not my ally, they have made that abundantly clear.” Alexa said, as she began walking away, as she did, she began using Creation magic, to create an even more powerful version of the blade she used two days ago to slay a dragon.
“This will mean war, with the elves.”
“That’s funny, coming from you.” Alexa said, or rather, her perfect Simulacrum she had cast said, before disappearing into a cloud of magical smoke.
***
The Crone blinked her eyes a few times, they were not what they used to be, but she was certain that her eyes could pick up magic, and it couldn’t have been when she got here, as that would have set off the runic wards. Then she realized the truth, rather than striking her down, Alexa chose that moment to leave the caves while leaving a perfect clone of herself behind to speak with the Crone, but why?
The Crone thought about the question for a moment, but then a quick flash of insight later, showed her the answer she had been looking for, “she still doesn’t trust me, clever girl,” the Crone said softly to herself. With at start, she looked around, wondering if her habit of talking to herself had come back to haunt her. Of course, that was all just her imagination playing tricks on her, there was nothing around, anything that was around, would surely come alive with her magical senses. Even if the chosen one had used some form of Illusion magic, the Crone was certain that her magical senses would pick it up.
With that the Crone raised her head to look out the cave exit, she already knew what to expect, but looked anyways. Outside the cave were the mutilated and hacked up bodies of the elite guards who waited by the cave exit.
Realizing that her chance to change the future had come and gone, the Crone decided to leave this dungeon. The exit was just as she had said, just a few feet away from the entrance, where she had to prove her understanding of the Void, something that Alexa clearly had mastered long ago. While she wanted to see the classes that the young warrior was offered, she realized that it would not have been as easy as she had expected. Still, it had not been a complete loss, as she at least knew the face of the Chosen one, with that knowledge alone, she could do so much, but first she needed to get home, there were a lot of pieces still in motion, a lot of pieces that likely needed to be adjusted, and most importantly there were a lot of actions that needed to be taken to persuade the leaders of this new planet over to her side.
“So much to do, so little time.” The old Crone said, as she looked back at the runic structure, and couldn’t help but let out a small cackle, “as if the elves could have ever created something so impressive as a runic bomb, hah!”
Once again the Crone found herself looking around, trying to see if anyone was nearby, but again found the area to be clear. Still, this time she couldn’t help but shake the feeling of being watched. Yet, a quick scan showed that no Divination or Seer magic was being used in the area, it was just as she expected, completely dull to her magical sense.
“You are getting too paranoid at your old age. Thinking monsters are going to jump out at you from every shadow.” The Crone said, chastising herself as she popped through the portal that opened before her and sent her home.
What she didn’t see, what she failed to notice was the way the mound of Earthen wall behind her blinked once, before merging back into the cave wall and disappearing forever.