Ashley

I’m woken rather abruptly from my slumber when the entire pyramid begins to shake, knocking some of the rubble over off the pile in the process. Meanwhile a bright crimson light begins to shine from the walls as me and Blake shoot to our feet.

Only to find ourselves being sent somewhere else in the pyramid by what’s no doubt some sort of teleportation magic.

And considering how I don’t see Blake at all when I appear in a large chamber, I’m guessing we were both sent to different locations.

I grit my teeth as worry for my twin flashes through me, but it doesn’t last long before that worry turns itself back around onto myself when I see what’s in the chamber with me. Namely, dozens of cloth-covered skeletons. Each of whom are preparing destruction magic spells while standing on balconies surrounding the platform I’m standing on.

Without hesitation, I begin to flap my wings to fly upwards, only for all of the spells to fly straight at me before I manage to move even two meters. With over half of the spells slamming into me and sending me back and forth like a damned punching bag.

But High Destruction Resistance finally proves its worth when it keeps me from taking anywhere near as much damage as I would’ve taken when I first entered the Unique Domain.

Although it still hurts.

A lot.

Even when I use Cocoon of Destruction on top of it, with some destruction magic barriers as well. Their attacks just punch holes through the defenses, treating them like paper thanks to these monsters’ higher levels.

I manage to fly off of the platform though, and as I do so, I begin the chant for Call Frigid Tempest. Instantly making all of the skeletons throwing spells at me speed up.

But I don’t stop chanting. No matter how much damage they do to me.

And by the time I finally finish my chant, and the tempest appears, I find myself covered in wounds from head to toe. My wings with holes torn through them that for some reason aren’t interrupting my flying. Entire chunks ripped out of my legs, arms, and back. And holes covering my clothes that are rapidly repairing themselves.

None of that makes me stop though.

I just fly straight through my tempest towards the entrance I sense through my destruction pulses. All while System Messages from the skeletons my tempest is killing flood my vision and ears.

But that’s not all I hear.

I also hear loud crashes echoing throughout the pyramid while I sense something beginning to approach through my pulses.

Something I soon find to be a rather enraged and worried Blake when he damn-near almost flies into me as I’m about to leave the tempest-filled chamber.

“Ashley!!!” Blake shouts as he quickly stops and pulls me into his arms before flying us both towards a different entrance. Letting me give my health some time to finish healing my wounds.

I glance behind him with a frown at the swarm of skeletons chasing after him, many of whom have wounds of their own covering them. Only for the things to get caught in the tempest as well when they flood into the chamber.

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Then Blake and I enter a different corridor, and I raise both of my hands with a little difficulty thanks to the wounds still covering them before summoning one Silver Barrier after another. Eventually clogging up the entire corridor with multiple walls going from the floor to the ceiling.

All while System Messages continue to flood my vision and ears.

{You have been granted 3 Skill Points for killing a monster within a Unique Domain.} x23

{You have slain a being while Assimilate is active. You have now unlocked the Skill Tree: Destruction-Touched Ashen Centurion} x23

{You have unlocked a new Skill Tree, therefore the root skill of the Skill Tree, High-Stage Destruction Mana Manipulation, is now unlocked for your usage.} – [ERROR – High-Stage Destruction Mana Manipulation is already unlocked. No skills are unlocked. New skills will now be added and made available to purchase to the preexisting Skill Tree: Destruction-Touched Ashen Centurion.] x14

{You have unlocked a new Skill Tree, therefore the root skill of the Skill Tree, Moderate Mental Destruction Resistance, is now unlocked for your usage.} – [ERROR – Moderate Mental Destruction Resistance is already unlocked. No skills are unlocked. New skills will now be added and made available to purchase to the preexisting Skill Tree: Destruction-Touched Ashen Centurion.] x8

{You have unlocked a new Skill Tree, therefore the root skill of the Skill Tree, Ash Blizzard, is now unlocked for your usage.}

{Congratulations, you have now reached level 90. Your PHY and MEN have increased by 1 point, and your MAG by 2 points. Please choose where you wish your 1 Free Point to be allocated.}

{Congratulations, you have now reached level 91. Your PHY and MEN have increased by 1 point, and your MAG by 2 points. Please choose where you wish your 1 Free Point to be allocated.}

{Congratulations, you have now reached level 92. Your PHY and MEN have increased by 1 point, and your MAG by 2 points. Please choose where you wish your 1 Free Point to be allocated.}

{Congratulations, you have now reached level 93. Your PHY and MEN have increased by 1 point, and your MAG by 2 points. Please choose where you wish your 1 Free Point to be allocated.}

My eyes lock onto the new skill that I got. A skill that gives me a rather bad feeling as I look back down the corridor at where we came from.

What greets me though isn’t the sight of the barriers.

It’s a strange crimson ash bleeding through them before rushing towards us through the corridor.

I quickly pat Blake’s shoulder and nod back, making him look to see it as I jump out of his arms and begin to fly myself. My wounds having healed enough by now from my health and Minor Regeneration skill to not slow us down.

While we fly through the corridor, occasionally running into more skeletons in the process and ignoring them, I open up the new skill that I got to check what it does. What with it still chasing after us and all.

{Ash Blizzard – Allows the user to summon forth a blizzard of destructive ash that directly seeks out a target designated by the user. This skill uses up all of the user’s mana and is more powerful the more mana the user has upon use. The blizzard will not fade until it runs out of mana, whether through tracking the target for too long or being blocked.}

I open my mouth to explain to Blake what the skill does, only to pause when I see something rather… unpleasant…

Some of the skeletons in the corridor that we pass by are adding to the ash blizzard with their own. Making it even more powerful and no doubt last for a longer period of time.

Shit.

I quickly move closer to Blake as we fly before explaining the skill to him. After which he nods his head and we both use gravity magic on ourselves to speed us up in our escape.

We continue flying through the corridor for who knows how long until we finally end up at a dead end. But instead of stopping at the dead end, Blake and I just charge straight through it. Completely destroying the wall with his spatial fracture spell and my two blades, both infused with Chaos Energy and coated in destruction mana.

Then we continue flying through the chamber on the other side of the wall, ignoring the skeletons inside all the way through the chamber and into the next corridor. Until we eventually end up at another dead end and repeat the process, blasting through the walls over and over again.

Eventually we make it out of the pyramid, with the ash blizzard still chasing after us at even more strength than it originally had due to the ashen skeletons repeatedly making it stronger.

So what do Blake and I do to deal with it?

We charge straight towards the wyrm den nearby.

Let’s see if these wyrms can deal with an ash blizzard this large.