Ke'an watches as the lisetaur's upper humanoid body falls to the ground and the lower drake-centaur section slump limply on the spikes. He has never seen a creature like this one before and wants to take its power but does not have the material to complete the ritual required. Even if he did he no longer has enough magic and with no additional life forms to power the ritual it would fail anyway.
Ke'an places pressure on the gash on his neck as he walks to the wall at the base of the pillar. He sits down in a meditative position letting out a long tired breath. He looks at the magnificent blade of the war machete as he lays it across his lap. The weapon is a gift from his Goddess Batri as proof of a coven between them and it carries her divine blessing. Ke'an is not alone in getting gifts from a deity though and Batri is known to be generous to her devoted followers. She is even known to be more giving than Al'kalin, her father and the God of Generosity. Even so, his weapon is special even among her devotees, as he is chosen to perform a task no other was chosen for and the dancing inscriptions on the blade are proof of such.
The unique weapon is no less impressive having been forged by a Goddess. His eyes linger on the weapon as he remembers her warm grin when she presented it to him before he left on his rite of passage. The weapon will have to be returned to her after the trial and reforged as part of coming of age within the clan. He surges a burst of magic into the weapon that removes the rock enchantment as he takes out his stamps and restamps the weapon this time with the one labeled healing.
The sari'vas first form aps, circulates magic throughout the body to aid in quickening the natural healing process. The technique can not be used in combat as it requires absolute focus of the magic flow through the mana veins in the body. The enchantment on the weapon works to refine the natural magic of the wielder before reintroducing it back into them for its rejuvenating effects. While the gash on Ke'an's neck is not serious, losing blood while climbing is a recipe for disaster. It does not take long before the bleeding stops and Ke'an wastes no time in standing back up to continue his climb.
"Okay, I am getting out of here." Ke'an says as he again looks at the dead creature. "Eh… next time I will be taking your power as well but for now you are freaking me out."
Even with the beast dead Ke'an can not shake the feeling that something is wrong. He pushes those feelings to the back of his mind as he continues his climb up the wall having to rest several times before he feels that he made actual progress towards the levitating monolith. The world became awash in the fluorescent purple glow of the unknown megastructure. The closer he gets the more it feels like he is trespassing on something that is unnatural and wrong.
The pillars now are packed so tightly he has to find small gaps between hundreds of them to continue climbing up. He notices that the material the pillars are made of has changed. The pillars near the place he arrived in this world were stone and looked no different than the rocky ground they rested in. The hexagonal shapes now look like a dingy knockoff version of System's scales without the beautiful galaxies and stars within the firmament. Ke'an felt disturbed to the core by the blank absence staring back at him each time he saw one of the strange formations. It doesn't help that he is in a forest of them and the number only seems to grow.
Several hours pass and he decides it is time to finally rest and get some sleep. By this point there are so many pillars cluster together he essentially has entire platforms he can walk across. Ke'an scouts out a spot he could sleep. He is cautious about running into more of the lisetaurs and is fearful of what could happen if more of them showed up or if they found him while he slept. He had not seen any traces of the freaky monsters since the one he killed, but after he sits down in a small nook between several pillars he looks out for any abnormalities for an hour. He finally gets comfortable after being adequately satisfied he isn't being hunted.
Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.
"Wish System would have told me to bring some food." Ke'an says as he pulls out a small canteen attached to the back strap of the bandolier. "Luckily this was filled before I left."
Ke'an could have taken some of the meat of the lisetaur but his clan is against eating the meat of monsters and for good reason. Eating monsters without knowing what it will do to you is a good fast track to death. He takes an unsatisfied swig of his canteen and soon after drifts off to sleep. He wakes to the all too familiar screams of the lisetaur. This time however his worst fear is realized and instead of just one he hears two screaming in chorus.
Ke'an quickly and quietly enchants his boots and machete with rock and his gun with fire. He activates lesser lycanthrope as he surveys the area with his senses. The area he chose to sleep is nestled tightly between several of the pillars which may have saved his life as the lisetaurs are too big to fit in the confined space. However he is still unsure what the trial's win condition is and is just hoping making it to the glowing pillar will be enough.
He climbs out of the alcove and squeezes his way through pillars that by this point is more like a cave network than individual pillars. He hears the lisetaurs around him not bothering to be stealthy since they can not reach him anyway. He finally makes it to an opening and climbs his way out. The pillars have made a bowl around the main glowing monolith in the center which levitates abnormally in the air. The unnatural structure bathes the area in what Ke'an recognizes as a purple and less brilliant variant of the same semi-solid light made by System's power.
The entire area felt wrong, like stepping into a graveyard and desecrating the tombstones. He could not help but feel like he shouldn't be here. The light feels like a perversion of divinity, a facsimile of the power he witnessed in System. It did not feel demonic either but rather the angry rejection of reality. Worst still, Ke'an can tell that the monolith is conscious but not quite alive. The unusual effects bending reality in the area is all due to its magic which is flowing out so thick that Ke'an could almost see it amongst the purple light even without his magic perception activated.
"With this much magic flowing in the area I could probably siphon it directly." Ke'an says to himself. "System's book described freestanding magic as stagnant reality. It can be manipulated by beings of higher consciousness and is a rather inefficient way to saturate an area with magic."
Ke'an pulls out his machete and focuses on pulling the unnatural magic towards himself allowing the weapon to absorb it. A sudden jolt of energy rings violently through Ke'an as the alien power flows into him. The magic is foul and domineering; he can feel an alien mind within it trying to rip him apart from the inside. He keels over throwing up blood and pus as his body reels from the shock. It feels like hands are clawing their way into his very spirit and staining his soul.
The magic Ke'an absorbed is quickly spent and he decides not to try that again. As he looks up he sees two figures climb up from the far end of the pillars over two hundred meters away. He is quick to make out the forms as the lisetaurs he heard earlier as they quickly gallop towards him. Ke'an stands up still sickened by the magic he tried to absorb and in no condition to fight. He pulls out his revolver and tries to aim but with his vision blurring and his motor control impaired he is not confident he can make an accurate shot until they are closer.
It takes only seconds before the lisetaurs are within Ke'an's range. He shoots the gun at the closer of the two Lisetaurs, the fire enchantment causing the weapon to glow with a faint heat. The bullet explodes on impact staggering the first creature as the second rushes past it and Ke'an misses his second and third shot.