Phila, the 30th, 10,391

It had taken days of consistent marching to reach here yet the party did not hesitate to leap into action. Crunching through the snow, Six and Nar took the vanguard as Keegan’s longsword was enchanted with flames by Kali Kik.

Bark and Irduth let loose with magical spells that tore the spirits into shreds.

Indigo bounced between everyone, administering health and mana potions as needed.

Six charged forth and pulled his anti undead spear from storage lashing it forward into the first tsunken aelf spirit he encountered. He could see its hatred as it’s translucent floating form gazed at him, it reached towards him to grab him with fingers that morphed into talons.

Six’s thrust landed first and he activated the weapon, golden life energies coruscating out and into the undead.

It reeled back, hissing in pain as the Vital Surge took effect, burning it with life for a set duration.

It regained itself quickly and by then another had risen. Now Six was pressed by two and he fell back slightly but let out a powerful Life Wave to stagger and make distance. A golden sphere of light emanating outwards from Six and crashing upon the spirits.

He considered using Imbue Life but the cooldown was too restrictive to use as anything other than an emergency heal. Instead he applied the spells that would aid him in his mobility, Zephyr’s Embrace, Strength of the Oak! His body was quickly surrounded in a gale of wind and a vine exoskeleton burst from the joints in his armor to encompass him. Then he leapt away, the increase in strength and speed giving him that much more distance.

Six analyzed while he moved, stabbing again and again and one by one the spirits began to dissipate. He could do this, he took a glance at his soldiers.

The spirits were trying to claw at their victims but Six could see that the ghosts avoided the tsunken aelves Aclo and Bark aswell as the half-aelf Narhurin. Flying completely around the dark dragon plate warrior and swarming for the non-aelves. Keegan, Kali Kik, Indigo, and Irduth.

They all held their own, Narhurin was empowering his blows with some sort of radiant energy, shouting on impact, “Judgment!”

A booming flare of white light occurred alongside a violent release of magic and each spirit struck instantly exploded.

Keegan bellowed his defiance. “Unleashed Muscle!” he quickly grew to stand twice his normal size then swept his massive flame-empowered blade in huge sweeping arcs of devastation. The flames causing the wraiths to scream and disintegrate in pain.

The battle was fast and frenetic, Six had to switch his weapon out and eventually ran out of suitably charged weapons. He resorted to chugging Indigo’s potions and blasting away with spells. Ember Sparks and Life Waves kept the spirits off of him.

The snow swirled and the noise of battle echoed off the walls of the chasm but the whispering accusations of the ghosts cut through the cacophony, needling away at Six.

Cursed human.

Why are you here?

Come to kill and pillage?

Evil.

Cursed.

Evil.

Human.

Six felt himself begin to question it all. Question his purpose here, his purpose entirely. His body started to feel heavy and his mind began to lock up. Why was he pursuing something so futile? Why couldn’t he just die?

Focus. he cried out internally, bring himself back. Whining won’t change the situation.

He pulled the reins of his mind back onto the task. But something ate at him, and he realized what happened when he glanced at his prompts

Fear1 Resisted

They dare? THEY DARE?!

His rage rose at the thought of his autonomy being subverted and Six threw himself into blasting out a massive Life Wave and forcing the ghosts to target him.

“Ha ha! Motherfuckers!”

He could only do one Life Wave of that magnitude in a short period of time but the spirits didn’t know that, and so they chased the human that emitted that persistent and especially painful damage.

Six welcomed the chase and used everything at his disposal to stay clear from the surging tide of ghosts. Jumping and sliding, juking and jiving, he pulled the aggression of the spirits in time with where he wanted them, a pied piper of undeath.

You might be reading a stolen copy. Visit Royal Road for the authentic version.

From there it was a simple thing for the others to whittle the flood down until Six had recovered enough to finish it with a final purging Life Wave.

Skill increased:

Athletics - Initiate - 12

Cycle Magic - Initiate - 8

Mindfulness - Initiate - 12

Analyze - Initiate - 11

Irduth spat. “By Kynairos, what was that?” he turned and pointed at Aclo then Bark. “What was that?” He demanded.

“I don’t know,” Aclo huffed.

“Uuuhu, aahh, Hmmhhm… The spirits of our ancestors, come again. To protect this sacred place from interlopers.” Bark provided with a smirk.

“Such talk is blasphemy, Bark.” Irduth growled.

“So it is, but it is no longer a crime.” Bark gave Six a little bow. “Uh, correct my lord?”

“Correct,” Six confirmed.

Irduth looked like he was about to argue before he just shut his mouth and frowned.

“Thank you.” Six said, genuinely thanking the priest for shutting the fuck up.

The party regrouped and made their way through the snow covered ruins. They were barely more than foundation footprints, impressions of where buildings and streets used to be. It all fed into a central road that led to a pair of massive doors set into the mountain.

The doors were slightly ajar and Six could see evidence of recent activity. The snow disturbed and uneven.

They made their way to the door and Aclo took point. The assassin trained in the ways of stealth and was capable of masking his approach far better than Six.

Six followed the group inside and beheld a massive stone hallway reminiscent of the K’gan research complex but evoking the tropic stereotypes of underground eleven architecture. It was dark and unlit, easy enough to remedy. The soldiers had already begun to draw their torches so Six quickly conjured a Luminous Beacon to provide his light. Too bad he couldn’t get it to follow other people or else he would conjure one for everyone.

They moved down the corridor carefully, Aclo spotting the remnants of ancient spent traps of the physical variety while Six saw a few of the enchantment variety. There were more recent physical traps, extremely recent ones from what Aclo said. Those too were spent, with slight evidence here and there of their bloody efficacy.

The corridor spilled out into a massive cavern and connected to its main thoroughfare, leading all the way to the clear center where a massive swirled stone pyramid sat. The tsuken aelf palace. The architecture of the tsuken aelves was smooth and curved, almost organic in nature, it reminded Six of insect carapace in some ways.

Walking down the street was like traveling through an H.R. Geiger artwork, swirls, shells, and talons built into every aspect of the landscape, it was beautiful and terrifying.

Six looked at Aclo and Bark. Aclo looked upon it all with a solemn wariness while Bark scanned about with a curious irreverence.

Nar smiled with wonder.

While the art inherent in the architecture remained, the intentional art was all destroyed. Every sculpture was rubble, every banner was dust, every song forgotten.

They walked for what felt like an hour until Aclo called for a halt. The tsunken aelf gestured for everyone to stay still and then slunk off to scout ahead. They waited for a few minutes before the assassin returned and gave a report.

“There is a sizable group of small monsters setting up fresh traps nearby, defiling these ruins. They did not notice me and should be easy enough to clear.”

“Small monsters? What do they look like” Six asked, looking for more information.

“Taloned hands, buck toothed snout, hairless tail, wiry hair and muscle. They chittered to each other like beasts.”

“Disgusting,” Irduth murmured.

“How should we engage them?” Six asked.

“Hard and fast. I don't think they can stand against us. I analyzed them and found most under level 3. Watch for traps littered about.”

“K.”

Kali Kik cast an area spell that muffled the sounds the group made, “Quiet Enjoyment.”

Then Six put Shadow Veil on himself despite the glowing ball of light above him.

The group worked their way through the streets until Aclo slowed everyone down and indicated the immediate direction of the enemy. He began a silent countdown with his fingers and on zero the group of warriors moved.

They rounded the corner and Six took in the situation. There were maybe thirty or so small humanoids crouched over areas of the street setting up various traps. They turned in fright, surprised by the blinding light of Six’s floating orb. They were ratlike in appearance and chittered amongst themselves like rodents too. They wore simple rags and used simple stone tools and grass twines to craft their devices. Many had stone knives at their hips.

Aclo teleported forward and put his blades to work.

Six drew spells and Stone Spear after Stone Spear erupted from the ground, imapling the tiny creatures and bucking them into the air, while Nibbler hurled glowing silver crescents, the blades of lunar mana easily slicing through the flesh of the humanoids.

Keegan and Narhurin waded forth, cutting wide swathes of flesh from their path. The K’gan using precise longsword technique to slay while the zleenish bastard used power and his heavy glaive to sweep his opposition away.

Chains of Kynairos and the thorns of Nature’s Fang ripped away and blasted through the furred people, tearing them in half and popping them like balloons of blood, leaving jagged piles of torn flesh.

Lump absorbed that blood and immediately wove it into a sustained fire of Blood Darts.

Kali Kik and Indigo stood back and supported the avalanche of damage.

It happened so quickly that Six didn’t have an opportunity to properly analyzye them himself, so he did it on the one remaining creature that threw its stone weapon to the ground in surrender.

Rakth

Level 1

Hmm, so the system refers to it as a rakth. Neat.

Irduth approached the pitiful thing in the beginnings of a Chains of Kynairos clearly intending to end it. He raised his glowing hand and Kali Kik interposed herself between him and the cowering monster, he broke his cast and glared at her.

“What are you doing, you stupid woman?!” Irduth howled.

“It surrendered,” she explained softly. “There is no need.”

Irduth sputtered for a bit. “There is no need? It is a pest that should be purged lest it prepare more traps for our return, as it was most likely doing.”

“It has surrendered.” she calmly reiterated.

Irduth gripped his tome so tight his knuckles cracked, “It is a lesser being and deserves to be purged! It is imperial decree.”

“We are no longer soldiers of the empire Irduth, you must let go of the old ways!

“The decrees are wise, Kynairos wills it.”

Kali Kik huffed and looked to Six for support, and the instant she turned her attention away from the priest, he reached beyond the woman and blasted.

Reaper’s Scythe!

A killing scythe blade of copper leapt from his hand and neatly bisected the ratman, two halves falling to the ground in a wet slump.

Kali Kik immediately responded by loading up and throwing the most devastating haymaker she could muster.

Irduth saw it coming but couldn’t dodge on account of being in dirty boxing range and being a shit close combatant.

It was almost comical seeing Irduth get rocked. Kali Kik followed through perfectly and Irduth was staggered a few feet back, barely holding on to his book.

He began to retaliate, “Rebuke of Ky-” but cut his spell short when he saw Keegan and Narhurin lurch towards him.

Instead the half-orc gathered himself up and cleaned the little blood off his lip before staring down his nose at Kali Kik. “I will remember this,” he promised.

She shook her head in frustration at him. “Senseless.” She looked back to Six. “Will you do nothing?”

Six shook his head, no. “Now is not the time for punishments for infractions so minor. Rest assur-”

“Minor?” she questioned.

Six laughed at himself, he felt edgy but he couldn’t afford to be soft. “Focus Kali, we are on a mission and the death of this creature, while unfortunate, will not jeopardize party cohesion. It was unnecessary and will be addressed at a later time. Right now we have a mission.”

She sniffed her derision at him but he didn’t care, he knew she would do her job and heal people even if they were her enemy.

They moved on to leave a bad location but at a slower pace to decompress from the awkwardness of that last conflict. The streets were empty and many of the buildings had begun to fall in on themselves or had been victims of the empire’s sacking, the organic shapes shearing off in jagged lines.

It was a haunting landscape and a hollow oppression built the deeper the delved into the city. It made them feel on edge, it built a continuous tension within every step they took. It was almost maddening.

Then they heard voices speaking zleenish.