Chapter 437: Legacy of Holo’s Shade Part 2
Holo looked behind her to the city that sprawled below and the Ebon Tower that stood tall at the very heart of Hollow Shade. “It’s time you learn the truth of this place, the terrible legacy the Ebon Lords and I left behind.”
“What legacy…?” Elzri asked quietly, the slight tremble in his voice betrayed his anxiety.
Holo glanced at him, Loh, and Ismene, respectively. “I suppose to understand what was left behind we must start at the beginning… A little over three centuries ago, the god of the deep earth learned of a very old secret; that many centuries prior the family of an Ebon Lord had discovered an ancient artifact from the Age of Titans… Selyndra’s Key.”
“I’ve never heard of such a key,” Elzri said.
“Neither have I,” Ismene added.
Loh furrowed her brow but said nothing.
“I don’t expect any of you to have,” Holo said. “The key was discovered almost a millennia ago. Why Caligo wanted the artifact, or the limits of its abilities, I do not know. Yet Caligo was willing to do anything to obtain Selyndra’s Key.”
Holo leaned her back on the wall’s parapet. “Unfortunately for Caligo, he had no idea which family possessed the key. You see, the Ebon Lords had been waging war against each other for countless years, killing one another, taking their lands and wealth in the process. The treasures an Ebon Lord possessed could have been owned by a dozen Lords or Ladies before them. To make matters worse, Selyndra’s Key had gone largely unnoticed. Even if one of the Ebon Lords happened upon the artifact they wouldn’t know what it was, they’d probably just mistake it for another glittering stone and toss it into one of their treasure vaults.”
“So how did the ebon god find the key?” Ismene asked.
Holo shook her head, “He didn’t. No, instead, he began to look for the Ebon Lords. One by one, he killed them and everyone in their household. When he couldn’t find the key in their treasure vault, he’d move on to the next Ebon Lord.”
Ismene’s face paled in silent horror.
“Even the Ebon Lords stood no chance against a deity,” Elzri muttered pensively.
Loh clenched her fists, “The Monster in the Dark…” She remembered that night on the blood moon, of how easily the god had massacred every mage in the vicinity and how he enjoyed every moment of it.
“It wasn’t long before the other Ebon Lords began to notice that their peers were dying out rapidly,” Holo explained. “The Ebon Lords knew they were being hunted. At first they thought it was some intricate assassination plot, but when they discovered what was actually hunting them, they realized there was nothing they could do to stop it.”
“At the time I was searching for Caligo myself, trying to keep an eye on his machinations. When I found out what was happening, I went searching for the Ebon Lords and I gathered the survivors.”
“The Holo Alliance,” Elzri recalled from the history books. “The first ever alliance between the Ebon Lords since Lord Koval. How did you manage it?”
Holo scoffed wryly, “You’d be amazed how fast sworn rivals band together when they have a common enemy. And since I couldn’t let Caligo get a hold of Selyndra’s Key, I united the Ebon Lords under a common goal, survival.”
Holo closed her eyes and tilted her head towards the sky in somber reminiscence. “I knew there was no way I could keep the Ebon Lords all safe from the Monster. Caligo was too powerful and his influence stretched across the ten Null Realms. So I designed a plan, a gambit so monumental that the only ones who would ever dare attempt it were the insane, or desperate.”
“...What plan?” Loh whispered.
Holo sighed and opened her arms wide, “My horrid, beautiful legacy.”
“Holo’s Shade,” Elzri said in grim confirmation. “How did you do it? How did you create the shade wall?”
She smirked, “Tell me, young man. What do you know of ethereal energies?”
“They are the energies around us, unseen by the naked eye,” Elzri answered.
“Could you name these energies?”
“Are you joking?” Elzri frowned.
“Humor me.”
Elzri sighed, “The 11 elemental energies and the 10 chromatic energies we call mana. Along with the life-force energy and perhaps void mana, though the latter has yet to be proven in any trustworthy capacity.”
“So, ignoring the mystery of void mana, how would you describe life-force?”
“It is the energy produced by every living organism. Skilled individuals are capable of manipulating it for combat or other physical abilities, such as healing.”
Holo nodded with a smile, “Quite right. But if life-force comes from living organisms, where does mana come from?”
“From the world around us.”
“Ah, but where exactly?”
Elzri narrowed his eyes, “...I do not know.”
“And that, young man, is the crux of the matter,” Holo said gravely. “The heart of our world is the source of all mana in the Null Realms. Mana seeps out from the heart and stretches across the realms in concentrated masses that flow deep below us, like underground rivers with endless small branching streams. These smaller streams are spread out across the entirety of the realms, like roots of a tree. The mana from these streams rise up from the ground and permeate the air around us, which eventually is absorbed by the hearts of individuals who have adapted to its presence.”
“Mageborns,” Loh guessed.
“And every elemental species in the land,” Holo corrected. “The chromatic species are the only ones whose general populace are unable to absorb mana.”
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“And why is that exactly?” Ismene asked intently.
“A story for another time,” Holo answered.
Ismene’s expression grew disappointed, but she nodded in acquiescence.
“So these small streams of mana, they exist all around us? Right underneath our feet?” Elzri asked.
“Yes, but the rivers, the large channels of mana flowing through the realms, those are few. We call them leylines. And the only place in the entire Ebon Realm where several of these leylines converge in a single spot is—”
Elzri’s eyes widened in realization, “Here.”
“The center of the city to be precise.”
Elzri, Loh, and Ismene turned in unison and stared at the Ebon Tower standing tall at the very heart of the Central District.
“I call it the Crosspoint,” Holo said. “Unlike the mana floating around us, the mana in the leylines are inaccessible to a mage. The sheer amount of power flowing through the leylines is just too great. Think of it like trying to use a bucket to contain the Dire River.”
“Impossible,” Elzri answered.
“Precisely. However, if there was an individual capable of interacting with all the vast different energies flowing through the leyline, say an individual with the talent to manipulate the ten chromatic sources and one whose mastered their abilities to the highest degree, that individual, hypothetically, could use their own body as a conduit to draw out some of the chromatic energies within a leyline.”
“An Ebon Lord,” Loh surmised.
Holo shrugged, “Of course, however, such an enormous surge of energy would burn right through a person, leaving them nothing but ash.” She raised her index-finger, “Unless— There wasn’t just one Ebon Lord. What if there were dozens, all working in unison, functioning as conduits, siphoning vast pure amounts of energy from the leylines? Then, all you would need is a device capable of directing all that energy into a spell the likes of which the world has never seen.”
Holo pointed her finger at the dark structure in the distance, “I designed and created the Ebon Tower to be the nexus of all that energy. The tower guided all that energy to create a web of intricate spells that could last eternity.”
“You created the shade wall,” Ismene stared at the wall underneath her very feet, swirls of dark black energy pulsating through the magestone.
“Not directly. Magestone is created from an ordinary rock’s long-term exposure to the leylines. Since the Crosspoint lies beneath this very land, there were countless veins of magestone all around us. Using the power of the Crosspoint and the Ebon Tower, we brought forth the magestone out from the earth and into a seamless wall.”
“And the shades?” Ismene asked softly. “Where did they come from?”
“There are many spells connected to the walls and this city through the Ebon Tower. One such spell binded the souls of our fallen enemies into the magestone wall and transformed them into shades.”
“You used soul magic?” Loh asked. “That is true black magic. But you’re a master of Orange spells. How is that possible?”
“The spell was cast through the tower, not me.”
“So you’re saying a tower is capable of casting true chromatic magic?” Elzri noted.
“No. True chromatic magic can only be cast by dragons and true chromatic mages. With one exception.”
“Which is?” Elzri asked.
“Tell me, young man, of all the mageborns in the realm, which chromatic mageborn is most prevalent?” Holo asked.
Elzri’s eyes widened, “...Chromatic Black.”
Ismene’s expression brightened in realization, “Because black mana is most prevalent in the Ebon Realm.”
Holo nodded, “Yes, the realms were named after the chromatic mana that flows most prevalent within their territory. All forms of mana flow through the Crosspoint, but black mana is the most abundant of its chromatic energies. By using the Crosspoint, the Ebon Lords were able to draw out pure black mana and create the city-wide soul spell, an enchantment.”
“Brown magic combined with true black magic…” Elzri muttered.
“In conjunction with the Ebon Tower, yes.”
Ismene scoffed in wonder, “Only the Ebon Lords would have been capable of such a feat, they were always the rules of nature magic. They truly were something else.”
“Do you think such a feat came without a price?” Holo asked in a frigid tone. “Do you think using one’s own body as a conduit of such vast amounts of raw power came without consequences?”
Ismene furrowed her brow, “You said the Ebon Lords worked together to prevent the burden—”
“—To prevent their bodies from being instantly incinerated, yes. But that level of raw magic still wracked their bodies.”
“What are you saying?” Ismene whispered.
Holo sighed, “There is a reason why not a single Ebon Lord lived many years past the founding of the wall. Well, except for—”
“Atreus Thorn,” Loh answered in grim realization. “The Last Ebon Lord. And the only one who hadn’t become an arch-mage yet by the time the city was founded. Alastair never participated in the creation of the wall, did he?”
Holo said nothing, but the look in her eyes was answer enough.
“The Ebon Lords all died because of your spells and your tower,” Elzri said in disgust.
Holo glared at him, “The Ebon Lords knew the price of their salvation. Without the wall Caligo would have entered the city and murdered every last one of them.”
Elzri crossed his arms, “How are shades capable of stopping a god?”
“There are more spells woven into these walls than those of shades,” Holo said, though she refused to elaborate.
“So, the Ebon Lords stayed safe behind the walls and Caligo never got his key then? Is that it?” Elzri asked.
“They would have stayed safe, but one by one they grew anxious about being confined inside the city. They left covertly and came back every so often, or at least they thought they were being covert. The sun god, Solis, caught one of those Ebon Lords. I do not know whether it was luck or by design, but the Ebon Lady who was caught, unfortunately, turned out to have been in possession of Selyndra’s Key.”
“What does the key do exactly?” Elzri asked pensively.
“Its exact powers are beyond my understanding,” Holo admitted. “Solis thought he could use it, however.”
“To do what?” Elzri asked.
“I’m not certain. He was stopped before he could fully realize his goals, but in the aftermath the Schism occurred.”
Elzri, Ismene, and Loh all paled at her words.
“A-Are you saying that Solis caused the Schism through the power of the key…?” Ismene whispered in horror.
“All I know is that on that day, the realm bridges fell apart and the Null Realms lost contact with each other. The birthrate of prime mageborns fell drastically and the world has never been the same since.” Holo ran her hand through her hair, “If we hadn’t stopped Solis and destroyed the key… I shudder to think what else might have happened.”
“We? As in you stopped Solis, a god?” Elzri asked skeptically.
“I played a minor role. It was his sister that dealt the decisive blow that day.”
Ismene frowned. “Lunae?”
“Goddess of the moon,” Loh whispered thoughtfully.
“It’s all in the past now,” Holo said. “What is important is that Caligo blames the Ebon Lords for the loss of Solis and Selyndra’s Key. The god of the deep earth has been planning his revenge for many years. Caligo is the mastermind behind the valley tribes and the one who orchestrated this war.”
“How do you know so much…? Why should we trust you…? We don’t even know who you are.” Elzri said with a wary expression.
Holo smiled tiredly, “I am just an old woman who has walked through these lands and seen more than my shares of horrors. Believe me, I’ve made more mistakes than you will ever have, but I’ve learned from my share of those tragedies. So, if you truly wish to save your House and this city from the battle that is at your doorstep, then you are going to need my help.”