I am sorry, what?!

"I- no!" Balthazar yells, wildly whipping his head around as if to shake off some sort of effect. "Back off!"

I use [Identify] to get their Class or Race, wanting to know what we are dealing with and just what Balthazar made while it's gathering its thoughts.

[Sporemother - lvl 47]

"My memories are… fuzzy… but I like you," she says, taking another step towards us.

"Those aren't your memories!" Balthazar lashes out, creating a huge spike of shadows that flies towards her.

She blocks the spike with her hands, bracing against it and digging into the ground as roots spread from her feet. "You," she accuses, straining against the spike, "you promised!"

"What's happening Balthazar?" I ask helplessly.

He doesn't respond but instead begins drawing runes on the ground in a frantic manner. Shadowy mists gather around his finger, resembling a swirling vortex of obsidian, as they reinforce his actions enough to allow him to edge the runes into the solid stone.

"He…" the [Sporemother] says, letting the spike hit the wall behind her, " is embarrassed, stuck. "

I raise my revolver and point it towards the [Sporemother], threatening her. "You better explain yourself or I'll start shooting."

"Do not trust it," Balthazar yells before she can answer, grabbing an old revolver from beneath his coat.

It must have been one of the first working revolver models with not a shred of Magitech from the looks of it and no cylinder, being only able to shoot once before having to be reloaded. A Flintlock.

He raises it and shoots at the [Sporemother], blowing a hole into her shoulder, before dropping it next to the runes. "That isn't your body!"

She staggers back as the wound regenerates, threads of fungi connecting and repairing her shoulder. She steadies herself with the roots on her feet as she asks "Why do you hurt me, father?"

"Stop calling me that! I never wanted this!" He yells as I shoot at her.

My shots impact her body but don't deal nearly as much damage as Balthazar's due to my restrictions.

I do wonder how he managed never to trigger a single Fire gem but Cinder might have overstated their sensitivity. I wasn't keen on finding out.

She tilts her head and starts to walk towards us as Balthazar finishes his array. He presses his hand onto the middle part, leaving a bloody handprint and activating it.

"You never wanted this?" She asks with an approximation of a snarl, "You two made me and then left! At least she was merciful enough to seek me out…"

The rune array fades away. I hope that was supposed to activate the bombs and we just can't see it instead of an attack.

Seeing as my regular shots are ineffective, I decide to throw caution to the wind and use [Twin Infusion (Elemental Infusion): Explosive] to charge my bullets.

[Vona: This is a bad idea, Grant. We did not choose you just for you to kill yourself.]

I don't have the mana to spare so you'll have to lift this from my thoughts.

I do not care, you gave me tools and I am using them to help those I care about. Kara could survive the explosion with how sparse the gems are spread here but the [Sporemother] will die or be hurt enough for her to flee.

I just hope that a monster picks the [Sporemother] off if she survives.

[Vona: You have a duty to complete.]

Balthazar glares up at the [Sporemother] and replies, raising his voice to match her volume as he continues to draw runes. "Look how you rewarded her, you killed her!"

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"I… assimilated her," she explains as Kara steps in front of me with her dagger raised high. "She is not dead, only… forgotten."

Balthazar reloads the flintlock and holds it against his knee. "Don't force me to do this, let me end your suffering."

"End my suffering?" She screeches, stopping in front of Kara and glaring at Balthazar past her. "Sure, because that worked so well last time, Father!"

"I am sorry," Balthazar says, pressing the trigger and causing everything to go to shit.

The [Sporemother] jumps forward, taking a bullet from me without slowing down, colliding with Kara and throwing her to the ground. Kara stabs the [Sporemother], sinking her knife deep into her neck and twisting, ripping out a big chunk.

Balthazar blows off his knee, creating a huge burst of blood-tainted shadows that fill out and expand the runes, filling out a majority of the room and enveloping all of us with only a few gestures from him. He starts chanting through gritted teeth

“In the depths where shadows weave, I call upon darkness, ready to conceive. From the subterranean realm, I rise, Master of shadows, hear my cries...”

I lower my revolver, wary of the risk of friendly fire, and charge towards them. With a kick to the head, I aim to incapacitate the [Sporemother], trying to tear her apart with my tendrils. Their incorporeal nature makes it difficult but they manage to find a little purchase, rotting a few of the growths on her body.

“By the hidden stars beneath the ground, I summon the eclipse, profound. Runic symbols etched in earthen hue, Harness the power, my purpose true...” Balthazar continues to chant with tears in his eyes, pouring his blood into the shadows.

The [Sporemother] shrieks in pain and focuses on Kara, seeking to get rid of the obstacle. She tries to rip her to shreds, dragging her claws over Kara's surprisingly tough skin, trying to penetrate it and rolling in the shadows as they start to eclipse all light.

It’s getting difficult for me to see the two as they roll away from me but seeing the [Sporemother] puncture Kara's arm, I tackle them and push my revolver against her throat, blowing holes through it.

Kara grabs the loosely connected head and rips it off before using it as an improvised weapon. She repeatedly smashes the head back into the stump of her neck as the [Sporemother] continues to move.

Dozens of spheres condense out of the darkness, like a rain of shadows that got stopped midfall, as Balthazar continues chanting “With earth as my ally and shadows as my might, Banish the fungal plague from the light. Roots of darkness, spread and intertwine, Bring forth destruction, make the enemy mine…”

How long is that fucking invocation?

I glance over at Balthazar who is laying on the ground by now, chanting while staring at the ceiling, lost in a trance. Vines of shadows snake upwards from the ground and split off into all of the spheres, increasing their size and dotting them with metals and earth.

The [Sporemother] delivers a powerful punch to Kara’s face, releasing a burst of spores from her fist that make her convulse and lose her grasp on the [Sporemother]. Taking advantage of this moment, she frees herself and dashes towards Balthazar with a shriek as her head slowly regenerates.

Balthazar stretches a hand upwards, wreathing himself in darkness as he speaks the last of the invocation. His voice is charged with mana, reverberating and amplified by the cavern, commanding the very fabric of darkness.

“In the realm beneath, where darkness thrives, Let the enemy's demise finally arrive. By earth and shadow, let them be ravaged, Eclipse Obliteration, in darkness, we consume!”

The vines of darkness surrounding us respond to his rule, slithering towards the nearest spheres and forming ethereal arrows that erupt like serpents, their sinewy forms undulating with otherworldly grace.

The theatre of shadows unfolds as these arcane projectiles surge forth, extending the ‘shaft’ of the arrows and staying connected to the spheres. Each arrow pulsates with eerie luminescence, casting an eldritch glow on the scene. Their purpose is unmistakable as they hurtle through the air and close the distance to the [Sporemother] in less than a second.

They easily pierce through her, keeping her suspended in the air and bouncing before the rest impacts, keeping her steady and completely arresting her momentum.

The spheres start to shrink as spikes grow out of the ‘shaft’ of the projectiles and needle her, trailing along the roots of her body and corrupting her very being, seeking to devour. The entire cavern has faded into darkness, leaving us floating in the void with streaks of the [Sporemother] blacked out, consumed by the arrows.

The void retreats in one fell swoop, dropping the disintegrating [Sporemother] on the ground in front of Balthazar who is writhing in pain, a similar darkness colouring his veins black.

“How?!” the [Sporemother] screams. Trying to pull herself towards Balthazar, but she only quickens the corruption of the void. “How did you know?”

Balthazar coughs up blood and cranes his neck to look at her. “You have the same tell as Eve,” he simply states, watching her squirm in pain as death approaches. “My Gas Bombs will destroy the rest of the infested, it’s over.”

After a quick check on Kara, I step up behind the [Sporemother] and aim at her head. It is a shame to kill her like this but I can’t let her find a way to escape or survive.

I activate [Reap Shot] and dump the last of my mana into this round, charging it with pure Dark.

My heart stops for a moment as I get no kill notification but I remember having them disabled earlier and quickly check manually.

[Your party has killed a Sporemother- lvl 48]

[Oblivion: A percentage of the target's highest stat (Mana Capacity) has been added to yours. +10 Mana Capacity]