The spirit’s voice babbled, words in some other language booming around the stone walls and echoing in the ears of the companions. Its essence pressed on them, a magical presence that thickened around them as if the spirit was trying to materialize.
Dashing madly together along the last of the bridge, they reached more solid ground at the farther end of the chamber, where a low stone door carved with symbols in a strange language marked the way out. The ground here at least seemed a little more solid, but they didn’t want to rely on it too much.
Elman flung himself against the door and hauled at the handle, but it wouldn't budge.
They turned at bay as the last of the bridge crashed into the boiling green sludge.
Then, the lights went out.
Back in the ore chamber above, they had put out their torches, and there was no time to relight them now. Saul felt more confident about using spells, so he sent up a Light Globe, and the sphere hung above them, casting its soft, widespread light all over the scene.
“The pool has stopped bubbling,” Zorea said in a hushed voice. All was silent in the chamber, and the sudden quiet and darkness was jarring after the chaotic laughter of the spirit, the churning of the green sludge, and hectic flashing of the lights.
Everything was still.
Even the green slime lake lay flat as glass, reflecting the light from Saul’s spell dully. The four friends waited with bated breath to see what would happen next.
Then, there was a crash, and three doors opened on the other side of the chamber, directly opposite where they stood. From these doorways came tall creatures, long-limbed and carrying huge, gleaming two-headed axes.
Green light burned in their eye sockets. They were heavily built, almost as big and strong as mountain trolls, but much quicker and taller. Rusty red armor reflected the pale illumination of the Light Globe and, to the surprise of the companions, they stepped out onto the flat surface of the pool without any suggestion of sinking whatsoever.
The three new monsters moved with a quick, jerking gait, dragging their huge axes beside them. As they got closer, Saul and his friends saw that their faces were grim and cunning, with grayish skin stretched thin over elongated skulls.
“Undead of some kind,” Saul said.
“Champions of the old world,” Brand muttered. “I heard a tale about this once from an old traveling storyteller a long time ago. I thought it was just a legend…”
“There seem to be quite a few things that were thought to be just legends but are turning out to be true,” Saul said. “But I’ve managed to stop the chamber spirit absorbing the power from my System spells, so let’s see if we can’t just send these horrors back into the world of legend where they belong.”
As the huge figures lumbered forward, Saul stepped up and prodded the flat surface of the green lake with his sword. It did not give at all.
“The lake has solidified,” he said, “but I still don’t think we should walk on it. I have an idea for this.”
He glared at the monsters lumbering across the flat surface, their eyes fixed on him, and then he brought up his spell list. He was going to go back to an old favorite, the Fireball.
Despite the fact that he’d not managed to use much of his new School of Metal magic, he felt that this wasn’t the time for experimentation. Fireball was one of his oldest spells, and as he increased in level, the spell increased in power. He hadn’t had the chance to experiment much with the new School of Metal spells and, right now, he was in a tight spot and wanted no surprises. However, he was aware of the School of Metal combination, and he was ready to add that to the mix at least.
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“Ready,” he said, “here we go.”
Saul had three Overcast options available, and he used them all, sending three Overcast fireballs with School of Metal combinations in quick succession at the creatures.
His aim was perfect, and the huge, crackling balls of flame smashed into the heads of the monsters. The effect of the overcasting was to make the fireballs even larger than usual, and the effect of the School of Metal addition was that the fireballs did not disperse when they hit their targets. Instead, on impact, they changed from flaming spheres into balls of thick liquid metal that coated the heads and bodies of the monsters, burning into them and quickly solidifying over their smashed frames.
The monsters all fell to the floor with a clang, and Saul’s cooldown kicked in at exactly the same time as the spirit leaped to try and consume the dispersing energy of the System spells.
“No…” the spirit’s voice groaned as Saul again caught the magical energy and pulled it back into himself.
The chamber shuddered once more, but there was no sign of any more monsters appearing.
“Elman, try the door again,” Saul said quietly.
Elman moved back warily and did so, and to their surprise, it opened easily. Beyond was not, as they’d expected, another corridor. Instead, there was a room with a low stone pedestal in the middle. A few inches above the surface of the pedestal, a crystal hung suspended in the air.
The crystal was the same green as the light in the chamber. It glowed fitfully, like a dying candle. Saul frowned at the light, wondering what it meant. Black wreaths of smoke curled and flickered around the crystal, tinged with green like the light of the evil magic that they’d seen outside.
Saul stepped up to the crystal and held his hand out toward it. There was another groan from the voice of the spirit but, this time, it came from within the crystal itself.
“Nooo,” it moaned. “Without the power of the dungeon adventurers, how can I survive? There is no hope, none! The end has come.”
The light in the crystal went out. There was a sudden rush of energy in the room, and Saul felt an immense dose of raw magical power flashing through the chamber. Quickly, he recognized what it was. This was the same feeling he’d had a moment before, fighting the spirit for the dispersed energy of his own magic.
Now, he was surrounded by the dispersing energy of the dungeon spirit, or at least what remained of it after the fight. In much the same way as he had fought the spirit before, he caught at the energy and opened his system up to absorb the pure power.
System: Unknown energy source detected
System: Initiating emergency storage procedure
System: Power harvesting protocol initiated…
System: Power successfully harvested
Warning: Power storage is volatile
Action Recommended: Enter System Design Protocol Procedure within maximum seven hours to prevent System overload.
Then, the message disappeared.
“What was all that about?” Elman said. Before anyone could answer, the crystal’s light flickered and went out, and the crystal itself shattered, breaking into a million tiny shards that fell like sand onto the stone plinth. A crack appeared in the stone opposite, and was followed by a bright, clean light that shone into the chamber.
“The outside!” Zorea exclaimed. She ran forward and stepped through the gap, and the others followed, glad to be free of the grim little chamber.
They stood on a ledge of rock, fifty feet above the entrance to the tombs. The sky above was dim with the clear light of evening. Below, a green glow still flickered around the standing stones on the low hills, but there was no movement on the snowy ground.
To their right, a series of narrow stone steps were cut into the rock, leading downward. It wasn’t the safest of climbs, but they made their way safely down to the plain below and found themselves a short distance from the entrance of the tombs.
Saul walked to the door and looked in again. This time, he saw that things had changed.
“Take a look, my friends,” he said.
On the left, the tunnel that led to the blue spirit chamber remained the same, but the tunnel to the right that had led up the way had collapsed. In the middle, the corridor that ran straight ahead was now bathed in a dusky red glow, and they could all see as clear as day the strange straight runes glowing in the air above the door.
“The curse is not yet broken,” Saul said. “We’ve fought two of the challengers in this place, but there’s more to do. Come on, let’s finish the job.”