With Lumen now there, Aylie’s voice came through stronger than before, holding a clarity to it that gave Zalia a bit of strength.
“The other spirits look like they are degrading to me as if in their extended time in the mist they are dissolving. I fear… I fear that the mist is made of other people’s souls.”
That sent a shiver down Zalia’s spine as she looked around. How many people had this happened to that it could create such a large area of mist?
“That’s horrible. How many can you see that are still in one piece?”
Aylie looked around at things that Zalia could not see.
“Many, dozens stand here around us.”
Zalia looked around but could see nothing. It was chilling. She wondered if Matthias was here somewhere, his soul separated from his body. He had been one of the leaders of the Morning’s Shade beside Hidey and Hildebrandt. During her time there, he had been a bit cold and dismissive to her, yet he had fought for his kingdom just as much as the others had. If he was here, she would try to save him too.
She wished that Hidey could have been here with them. He would have been a powerful boon to their cause, especially so when it came to infiltrating the Astar settlement. No one was as sneaky as that shade. It was unfortunate that someone was still out here using his true name to control him.
With Lumen now here, Zalia hoped that they would be able to affect the great wall that blocked the spirits from entering the town. If they could, that would mean freedom for her family.
“Aylie, I want you to go around and speak to the other souls. Tell them that I plan on breaking a hole in the wall. Hopefully, some of them will understand and be ready for it.”
The amorphous form of Aylie nodded, achingly slow, before heading off into the mist. Ember followed as well, silently stepping away. Zalia’s heart ached at the sight, wishing that she had Ember’s warmth and strength to bolster her own. She turned to Boreal
“Boreal, one of your abilities lets you get help from wildlife, right?”
Boreal dipped her head and a little box popped up in Zalia’s vision.
Active 3 - Predator and Partner - spell - targeted
Tin - you can use your cuteness to make others less aggressive towards you. Alternatively, you may instil a primal terror instead.
Iron - you’re able to slightly affect the actions others take in regards to you. Additionally, you can cause others' bodies to betray them, causing them to freeze or run in terror.
Bronze - You become the embodiment of fear in the animal kingdom, radiating an aura of dominance and terror that can influence even the most ferocious of beasts. Wild animals will instinctively avoid confrontation with you, and you can call upon them to aid you in times of need. Additionally, particularly cowardly enemies may turn on their allies when confronted by your presence in battle.
Silver - Enemies that are scared of you are frozen, literally. They are inflicted with Frostbite and cannot move.
“Okay good, can you and the little ones try and find some others to help us? We’re going to need every bit of help we can get.”
“Of course Zalia,” Boreal replied, before collecting her children and moving off into the mist as well.
That just left Zalia and Lumen.
“And we, litt- large Lumen, are going to find ourselves some help from nature.”
Lumen bounced around excitedly and Zalia gave the wolf a calming pat. They made their way off into the mist towards the town.
When Zalia arrived near, she found a spot nearby but still a good distance out. It was here that she started preparing a ritual.
The day she had entered the kingdom of Endaria, there had been a large battle between the forces of the kingdom and the rebellion. Knight Alara had been leading one side, with the other led by an incompetent leader she had never learnt the name of. In that fight, a huge Gold rank elemental had interrupted the fight, dragging the attention of both sides and leading them to fight together. It had been a true force on the battlefield, unkillable to the point that both armies had to flee.
She wanted to make something like that.
Most of the rituals she had created that awakened little pieces of nature had been really small scale. Little activated living rituals that would create a low-rank elemental to distract the enemies for a while. They weren’t particularly powerful, being less so than the ones created by Nature’s Wrath.
A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.
She started off here doing exactly that. Each ritual created a different type of elemental, earth, air and fire. These were all living rituals, yet to be activated. The elementals that these would create couldn’t move far and were all Iron rank despite the magic being used to create them being Silver rank.
That wasn’t the same for what she started next.
The final ritual Zalia began planning out was huge. It also wasn’t a living ritual, it was going to be a single-time ritual instead. That would mean the elemental it created wouldn’t be linked to any one location but it would also last for a much shorter time. That was okay, as all it needed to be was a distraction.
The Silver rank effect of Herbal Magic allowed Zalia to create rituals of a much larger scale than she had been able to previously. The first one of this kind she had done had taken her two days to cast from start to finish, the town-wide ritual that stopped teleportation abilities.
This one would take a similar length of time and Zalia based what she wanted it to do off of an elemental she had seen before.
Years back, when she had been working as part of the Morning’s Shade still, Zalia had seen Larel fight one verse one against a huge elemental that had once been a mine. That elemental had been an earth and metal one that used lava abilities. It had been powerful and the only reason Larel had been able to defeat the thing was due to her abilities being based around constantly ramping power against singular targets.
Larel had been Zalia’s rank back then, except with only two classes not three and lacking the number of Heirlooms that Zalia now had.
The ritual she was creating had many parts. The core of it used a lot of Flame-root to recreate the lava abilities that it would have. Around that core, she placed anti-teleportation measures to stop the Astar from simply removing the elemental from the equation.
Around that was a complex set of addendums made of other herbs from Manifest to Dodge-vine to Soulroot, all of them a requirement to make this work.
It took her two days to finalise the creation. A lot of that time was spent waiting for mana to recharge so that she could create the herbs required.
During those days, she had to hide to avoid Astar attention only twice thankfully. They missed the large ritual being arrayed in the forest as well, mostly due to how hard it was to see in the mist. Boreal came back and told Zalia of her progress three times and it looked like they would have the support of the local wildlife as well. Many of the creatures around had stories passed down from prior generations speaking of a time when there was no mist here at all, before the Astar had come.
The wildlife that Boreal had managed to convince included many different species. There were a few other wildcats there, birds of many varieties, creatures that lived amongst the low-hanging flora of the mist-laden lands. All in all, a few hundred animals answered Boreal’s call.
It was a good turnout, much more than Zalia expected if she were honest. Apparently, the animals of this land hated the Astar as much as Zalia did. They were a cold cruel people.
During the time, Aylie didn’t return to speak with Zalia but many of the misty souls did gather. More and more appeared from the mist by the day and that was only the ones that Zalia could see. She imagined that in the astral there were possibly thousands there waiting. Now all she had to do was make good on her promise.
With the ritual laid out and waiting to be cast, Zalia turned her attention to the wall that blocked the souls from entering. It was their biggest problem, the plan being pointless without finding a way through for the souls.
At first, Zalia thought about creating a portal that passed through but knew that the Astar would be able to stop something like that with ease. They had shown time and again that they were much more knowledgeable about that kind of thing than Zalia was. Instead, she would have to create a hole in the wall.
With Lumen there, she could indeed feel the wall. It didn’t stop her from passing through thankfully, but she could touch it. It was like honey, thick and hard to move through.
Now that everything else was ready, she tried many things to get through the wall. Cutting it with her sword did nothing and neither did any of her magic rituals. Lumen tried to claw and bite at it with no results. Boreal used her icy magic to try and freeze the wall and shatter it, but still nothing.
The answer to their problem came when Aylie returned.
“I can feel something here. The wall is… different in Lumen’s presence.”
The misty form of Aylie floated over to the wall and brushed a hand down it. She was still unable to pass through. Then Zalia began to see a glow in the misty form of her daughter and stepped closer.
“What are you doing?”
Aylie didn’t respond and Zalia came all the way up to where she stood by the wall.
“Aylie?”
The two eyes that marked where Aylie’s face was were glowing too, a bright blue light reminiscent of the stars.
“Go, begin the ritual!”
Zalia didn’t question her and turned from the wall, running to where she had laid out the ritual for the larger elemental. It was five minutes from the wall at her top speed.
When she arrived, she stepped straight up to the edge of the ritual and began casting it.
____________________________________________________________________________________
Boreal watched as Zalia ran off and turned back to the wall. Aylie was glowing even brighter now, so much so that she had to turn away.
With a final flash of light, A piece of the wall must have disappeared because the mist billowed forth towards the town.
Everyone, the wandering souls, the wildlife of the misty forest, Boreal and her children, all stood still. Everyone except Aylie, who took one tentative step over the border and into the Astar town.
Boreal let out a low growl and ran through.
A burst of motion followed from behind as wildlife and souls alike sprinted after her, all intent on one thing.