D’Vorak’s POV
“By Shalora’s tits, what the fuck was that?” I asked as soon as Sean had taken off and I was sure he was out of hearing range. I turned to look at the others, and at least D’Vaen was as shaken as I was. Elendria looked like she was torn between being frozen in fear at the power and ripping his clothes off.
“I had heard of something like an ascendant aura, but that was insane. I felt like a little kid, trapped in an alley by the guard after getting caught stealing.” D’Vaen said.
“I hear that,” I nodded, “It reminded me of that time we stumbled upon an elder sphinx. That creature was so far above us in power that we might as well have been ants to it, and everyone knew it. The aura of power, it was the same.” Even thinking about that horrid trip sent shivers down my spine. The only thing that had saved us was the cat’s indifference.
“What about you Elendria?” D’Vaen asked.
“Wonderful.” She said, shuddering again. Shaking her head clear, she gave us an embarrassed look. “Sorry, it’s an elf thing.”
“The power discrepancy?” I asked, having a bit of knowledge.
“Yeah. There are people who act like trees, while others act like vines. The trees grow tall, supporting the vines. The vines bring up nutrients, in turn supporting the trees. That wave of power just solidified in my mind that Sean is a tree that already towers above the forest. I’ve got to find a way to catch up to him.”
“How close are you to evolving again?” D’Vaen asked before I could smack him. Poor bastard had never fully grasped what tact was.
“I’m up to level 28 of 50.” She shrugged.
“Damn. Do you have any plans on how to gain levels?” I asked.
“I was hoping the two of you would try and evolve. That could give me a few days to see if Sean will take me hunting. I gained four levels during the siege, which is the most I’ve gained in years. Decades even. A solid week of hunting deep in the Monster Lands could get me up there, and I can finally get rid of the pathetic evolution I was forced to take.” She started out normal, but was practically snarling at the end. I could even see a few wisps of cold swirling off her skin.
“Easy now,” I warned, interrupting before D’Vaen could ask something stupid about why she took that evolution. “I think we can arrange that. After we can all do a smaller hunt to get myself and D’Vaen some levels as well. Don’t worry, I’m sure you will be catching up to Sean.”
“Well, maybe not as high as he goes, but as close as we can get.” D’Vaen added, and I just shook my head.
“Come on. Let’s get this bear back and wait on Sean. There are a few new animal tracks in this area I’ve seen, and I want to get as much info on them as I can. D’Vaen, you and Elendria should stay in the city. I’ve got that speaking stone if Sean gets back early, but I really think I can get a better evolution if I work at it.” The other two nodded, and we worked together to break our small camp and head back out of the swamp.
* * * * * * * * * * * * *
Sean’s POV
I watched through mana vision as I flew, following the veins of pulsing power back around the mountains and over the Bog of Eternal Shadow. Like a black spider web, the lines pulsed with repulsive power. Just north of the actual center was where they all converged, and that was where I was going to strike. I took stock of the situation, hovering nearly two miles away from the center. I started channeling mana into a meteor spell, and I knew that I could alter parameters to create a custom explosive impact. I love you system, let’s play!
I want a solid iron asteroid, send it at an angle of 45 degrees. Let’s start with a 25 meter diameter at 17 km/s. What? Air burst? Oh we can’t have that. I don’t want a crater strewn field, I want destruction! This bitch crossed the line, double the size! Hmmm, still exploding in the air, but it is a much tighter spread. A 1,500 feet deep crater that is nearly ¾ of a mile across? Yeah. I can live with that. I can live with no fireball on impact and a measly 5.3 earthquake. My mana level dropped, but my pool was quite a bit larger than the last time I had done this. A grim smile lit my face as a streak of doom shot straight toward the center of the swamp. Just before impact, I felt the stirrings of my new danger sense. It was the feeling of someone watching you, causing the hair on the back of your neck to stand up, only increased a few times. Not wanting to ignore my new instincts, I immediately created a mana bubble around me. Just in time, as the impact sent torrents of wind slamming against my shield.
I hovered for several moments, watching the results of my spell. There was enough water in the swamp that I could actually see the pressure wave rippling out from the impact, causing the water to geyser upwards on occasion. The force of the impact didn’t cause as much airborne dust as I assumed would happen, probably from the lack of fireball. “Wait a minute, no notification?” I muttered as I looked down. “How wonderful, you managed to survive. Let’s take a closer look.” With that, I dove forward, sending a blast of gravity ahead of me to knock down any and all dust in the air. It created an impressive ripple of rapidly clearing air in front of me, and soon enough I was at the bottom of the crater. There were two major magical sources, and they both disgusted me for different reasons.
The simpler of the two was a pitch black scale that radiated the anti-divine air of Apophis. The other source was an elongated torso and head, though the bottom half was tattered at an angle and it was missing the left arm. It was a sickly looking white, and it was leaking a horrid black ichor. From its back, hundreds of fleshy vines shot off into the distance, while a thick core of them extended down below us.
“YOOOOOOUUUUUUU BASTAAARRRRDDDD!!!!!” It screeched at me, “Do you know what you’ve done? That was centuries of regrowth!”
“Fuck off. You were warned about the consequences for trying to use them in an illusion against me.” I snarled, using a wind blade to sever the remaining arm.
“AAAAAAH!” It screamed again, this time in a bit more pain. As I watched, however, the ichor from the arm reconnected, twirling around the ichor from the counterpart and pulling the two parts back together.
“Interesting. High speed regeneration, you must be the core of the second calamity. But if you have been regrowing for centuries, why haven’t you reformed yet? You should have finished long ago.”
“Pah. Ignorant humans. You think it is easy to regrow in such a place? Thousands of alchemical cocktails reacting with each other and bits of my body, playing havoc on the ambient mana. I’d like to see you recombine even a finger if you had to sort things like that,” it growled out. We stared at each other for a second, before I noticed mana concentrating in its hand.
“Stop that.” I ordered, slicing the hand off once again. This time I used a bit of fire magic to try and burn the hand away, but it would regrow faster than the flames could consume it.
“Is that all you got human?” It chuckled, flesh quivering in a rather nauseating way.
“Not at all.” I said, imbuing a bit of spirit and my own health into the mix.
“GAAAAAAAAHHHHHH!!!!!” It screamed in pain as the bright white flame rapidly consumed the hand. Luckily it burned out before the last of my mana did, though I did stumble a bit. Draining mana at 50 times the spirit really downed the pool. I sat down to recover my mana, while the calamity panted in pain.
Half an hour and some change later, and I was back up to full mana. “So, Apophis snuck you a scale of his somehow to enhance your recovery.” I said. I had been watching, and there were obvious lines of energy traveling from the scale to the body. Even as I watched, the severed arm had regrown a few centimeters.
“Hehehe, that’s right human. And there’s nothing you can do to stop me. Soon I will rise from this accursed swamp and feast upon these lands. And since Apophis has already killed your summoned hero, there’s nothing you can do about it.” I flinched at that last bit.
“What?” I asked, leaning forward.
“Oh? Did your gods not tell you? Of course they didn’t!” It cackled gleefully. “The hero thought him far more powerful than he truly was, and ended up perishing in the defense of a stupid dungeon! There is nothing standing in the way of Apophis’ victory!”
The creature kept ranting on about their impending victory, but I tuned it out for a bit. It didn’t matter how they thought that I was dead, the fact that they thought I was meant I could deal a devastating blow to them if I could figure out their plan. Not only that though, but that also meant they had no idea who I was. If nothing else, I needed to find a way to hide my identity. I turned back to the creature, studying it. Most of the lines from its body spread out into the depths of the swamp, but there was a thick branch that headed straight down. What could be important enough that it needed to be buried deeper than 1,500 feet?
“You will suffer the most. I’ll make sure of it! Apophis will grant me this world, and I shall take great delight in slowly devouring it! But for injuring me, your fate will be worse than death. I’ll force you into a paralyzed state, keeping you alive with magic. Unable to move, you will watch as I control the minds of your women, forcing them to birth my children until their wombs are worn into uselessness! Then savor their pain as their faculties return to them and they are confronted by the very abominations they birthed! As my children slowly devour their mothers, I will pluck their souls from them at the very cusp of death, sealing them away in the same soul gem that allows me to power this very swamp! They will become endless playthings for my children, transferring their soul from golem to golem until it is shredded into oblivion, never to be reborn again!”
“Alright, I’ve had enough of your blabbering.” I said, reaching out with divine magic and slashing through the strands of power strengthening the creature and creating a sphere of power to prevent it from reconnecting.
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“Wha? How? NOOOOOOOO!!!!!” It rapidly devolved from stunned silence, to confusion and finally to impotent rage. It glared at me, but the most it could do in the state it was in was quiver its extensions.
“Now. Let’s see what you’re hiding down here, shall we?” I asked, using earth magic to clear a tunnel following the trunk of tentacles. I ignored its panicked pleadings, pulling up a crystal the size of my torso. Most of it was clear, but the central portion was a cloudy white that seemed to shift at random times. Emerging from the top was the branch of tentacles from the creature.
“Leave it alone!”
“Now why would I do that? I have a feeling that this is the soul crystal you were so happily describing earlier. Are you panicking because I’ve cut you off from your power source, and now I am going to remove your soul crystal. I would say this won’t hurt a bit, but I really have no idea. Good luck!” I chuckled as I encased the connection between the crystal and the creature in divine power. I let it flow around like I was using mana detection, and I could see that the tendrils were connected with thousands of tiny hair-like projections. I surrounded them with magic, then flash fried them all at once, along with several feet of the creature’s tendril.
“GAAAAAAAAH!!!!!!” It screamed in agony again, but that didn’t bother me. I was far more interested in the information the system was giving me.
Enormous soul gem
The only function of this crystal is to store souls for further use. With the proper skills, souls can be interrogated, tortured, or used in puppeting golems among a myriad of other things.
Containment: 37% filled
Average soul condition: Tattered
Best soul condition: Slightly tattered
Worst soul condition: Near fragmentation
“Are these? Are these the souls of those who fought against you?” I asked with growing horror.
“Hehehe, of course. They lost, and their souls became mine. But we can make a deal. I can show you things. How to absorb their power over time in such a way that they can’t overwhelm you! All their knowledge and skills could be yours!”
“Piss off.” I snarled, not wanting to hear anything else from the creature. I wanted to end it, but I didn’t think I had enough power right off the bat. I had an idea, but first I needed to get these souls somewhere safe. I flew up into the air, making sure I took the scale of Apophis and the soul gem with me. Instead of heading toward Elendria and the others, I turned and headed south and slightly east. I would need divine help with these souls, and the closest that I trusted was in Shineheart. Bruin might be gruff, but it was obvious by what he had his temple focusing on that he cared for his people.
* * * * * * * * * * * * *
Commander Gronig’s POV
“Brom, what do you have?” I shouted as I watched the most recent batch of scouts return.
“Sir! We dared a half mile into the swamp. No sign of what caused the impact, but it’s the strangest thing sir. The swamp seems like it has gone back into hibernation or something.”
“Come again?” I asked as I got closer to the group. “It sounded like you said the swamp got quiet again.”
“It did sir. No movement, no attacks.”
Helena walked up to us and continued the report, “It was odd as hell sir. The mana was the calmest I’ve ever seen it. No general flow, no sense of purpose.”
“Ok. So we have a strange impact, powerful enough to shake the ground. The swamp that was the most active it has been in the last 20 years has dropped back down to a fifty-year low, and we have no idea how it happened,” I summarized as I stared at the scouting party.
Brom chuckled, “Got it in one sir. I guess that’s wh-“
“INCOMING FROM THE AIR! NORTHWEST OUT OF THE SWAMP!” One of the sentries shouted, and everyone immediately broke into motion. The entire scout party split up, crossbows and wands pointed to the sky. I had followed Helena, trusting in her shielding abilities. We watched as the indistinct figure rapidly closed the distance.
“SOMEBODY TELL ME WHAT WE ARE DEALING WITH!” I bellowed.
“FLYING HUMANOID WITH SILVER WINGS!” The sentry shouted back, adding, “IT’S SLOWING DOWN!”
“HAIL THE GARRISON! YOU STILL IN CHARGE GRONIG?” The figure called out, stopping just outside of arrow range.
I jogged up the stairs to the wall, squinting at the figure, trying like hell to figure out just what was going on. “Aye, I’m Commander Gronig, but I’m afraid I don’t recognize you friend.”
“It hasn’t been that long has it? I’m Sean, I came through with Bribis and his caravan.”
“Sean? SEAN! BY THE GODS!” I shouted, finally remembering who he was, “Stand down everyone. Sean, get your ass over here and explain what you can about this mess. I’m sure you are in the thick of it.” I watched with a bit of jealousy as he glided down, dropping easily onto the rampart and dismissing the silvery wings. For some odd reason he was carrying a cloudy crystal and a white sphere with him.
“Sorry about all the trouble Gronig. I’ll explain as quick as I can, but I need a favor.”
“I can’t promise the world, but we can try. Come on down and let’s grab a beer.”
“No time,” he said, shaking his head, “So the quick version is this: The swamp pissed me off, so I dropped a meteor right in the middle of it. Turns out the calamity is still alive, and drawing power from Apophis to rebuild itself. I stole the scale it was using and the soul crystal that allowed it to make all the illusions in the swamp. Now I need to go back and scour the land, destroying every last bit of this bastard that I can.”
I stared at the mad man for a bit, before shaking my head. “Fuck me running boy, but you don’t do things in half measures, do you? What’s this favor you need?”
He chuckled, and I caught a bit of unnoticed tension subtly leaving his shoulders. “These poor souls aren’t doing so well, and I need someone I can trust to guard the crystal until I can drop it in the hands of the gods. Your group is the closest, and more importantly I trust you.”
“Aye, we can watch the crystal for you. But where are these souls from?” I asked, dreading the answer I knew was coming. Sure enough, I could tell from the storm clouds that crossed Sean’s face that he was about to say something I wouldn’t like.
“These are all those that lost their lives fighting the calamity, and were claimed by the swamp ever since. Think of all that loss, and realize that this crystal isn’t even half full.”
“By Bruin’s beard!” I heard one of the soldiers mutter, and I couldn’t help but agree with him.
“Do what you need to, just make sure this ends. We’ll guard this crystal with our lives.” I swore, and I gave a grim smile as I heard all the soldiers within earshot salute as one, gauntleted fists slamming over their hearts.
“Thanks Gronig. Thank all of you. Now, I’m off to end this. It probably goes without saying, but stay out of the swamp for a bit.” Sean said, growling a bit as he handed over the crystal to a pair of guardsmen. Seconds later, his wings erupted and he shot skyward, taking off toward the swamp.
* * * * * * * * * * * * *
Sean’s POV
I took to the skies once again, thankful that the commander hadn’t been changed. A short flight, and I was over the edge of the swamp once again. I hovered, pondering just what I needed to do. Massive devastation from a meteor spell would likely work, but there were issues with that. Mostly because there were garrisons around the swamp to keep an eye on it, and I didn’t want collateral damage. Ordinary magic was out, as the creature was highly resistant as it was, and getting to it through the swamp was going to be tougher. My personal reserves of health weren’t high enough to blast it away with divine spells.
“That leaves you.” I said in resignation, opening a bit of the cage I was holding the scale in. “System, I don’t suppose there is any penalty for using the enemy’s divine power against them, is there?” I asked, but didn’t get any answer. Not surprising, but still annoying. Manipulating physics just a bit, I isolated a small portion of the oily divine power. A bit of fire magic, and it burst into a powerful dark flame. Sighing in resignation, I set about to do what needed to be done. A thin stream of mana ignited the power, and I moved clockwise around the swamp leaving a swath of black flames in my wake. I had little fear of the flames spreading outward, as life avoided the swamp. There was a natural quarter mile buffer zone of minimal mana and life surrounding it.
Even with the ability to fly, taking out the swamp was a massive undertaking. It took nearly ten hours just to complete one lap around, and I had to land at the end because I was out of mana. Luckily for me the black flames were still burning. Half an hour of resting, and I was set to take off once again. An added bonus of my vision modes was that I could see in shadow with no real effort on my part. It was disconcerting, as the darker shadows ended up looking like it was noon, and everything was in an odd sort of greyscale. The black flames slowly consuming the swamp were bright white, so bright that it took a few minutes to adjust to the brightness.
My second trip around the swamp went a bit faster, but I was being a lot less careful about spraying the flame. As far as I was concerned, everything in the bog needed to die. The only issues I had with my project was having to slow down around the pandacorn range. Those magic hungry bastards were casually absorbing the magic as it fell. In the end I had to resort to driving them off with bursts of ultrasonic sounds. Once they were gone, I had to take yet another rest before starting round three. All told, it took nearly two full days before I found myself dropping into the central crater once again, to be met with the agonized wailing of the calamity.
My head was hurting, and not just from the crying. Channeling that much magic over the past two days had left me in a bit of a brain fog, and short on patience. “Oh for fuck’s sake!” I cried out after a few minutes, walking over to the torso and bending it forward. A conjured metal needle enhanced until it was white hot easily pierced into the spine just at the base of the neck of the creature. All movement of the tentacles immediately stopped, though the wailing kept on for a few seconds.
“Wha? What did you DOOOOOO? I CAN’T FEEL ANYTHING!” It started shrieking.
“ENOUGH!” I shouted, slapping the creature across the face to get its attention. Once it took a few moments to calm down, I explained to it, “Look. I’m not one who intentionally tortures others, and I honestly forgot that you would feel everything as I was destroying the swamp. I couldn’t cut you off, as I didn’t know what your tentacles would do. So instead, I cut your spinal cord and seared it off, so that you won’t be able to move or feel pain as your body is destroyed.”
“Kill. You. Devour. Soul.” It panted, the light of reason having gone from its eyes.
“Damnit,” I swore, “I was hoping to get some information out of you.” I ended up taking several hours to rest and recover, and by the time my brain was closer to normal I could see some traces of the black flames burning their way down the sides of the crater as they made their way to the central portion of the monster. It still took another hour and a half, but as the flames finally entered the central area with us, I used mana blades to sever the tentacles from the body. A bit of telekinesis consolidated the creature to a simple mound in the center, away from the flames that were just now burning themselves out.
“Why?” I barely caught the whispered question.
“Those flames were created using divine power from Apophis. I don’t want him to get credit for finally destroying you,” I said with a shrug, turning to face the creature, “Do you have any last words?”
“No. I’ve no words for you, nor your doomed planet. I did what I was created for to the best of my ability. Though it rankles to finally lose after all this time, I find myself empty. I have no hatred for you. No desire for retribution. I don’t even have the energy to think of a proper curse. Go on and end it.”
“Though an enemy of this world, my rage at you has burnt itself out. My whatever awaits you beyond this life give you better options than what you were handed in this one. May the gods of this world take pity on you. Burn, in a sphere of divine flame,” I raised its body with telekinesis one last time, igniting it in a miniature sun of divine flames. It only took seconds before the notification popped up.
People of Vitae, rejoice!
The second calamity that has slumbered in the Bog of Eternal Shadow has been destroyed! Magical residue from the battle still remain, but the consciousness that has plagued our world has finally been vanquished.
Title earned: Calamity bane
You have dealt the final blow against a powerful enemy of this world. All of Vitae stands in awe of your accomplishments. This title will always be active, and you may now display up to two titles at once if desired.
Effects:
+10% damage to creatures not native to Vitae
Your aura has been enhanced with the Light of Vitae! When active, lesser shadows will be immediately destroyed. Greater shadows, and any that are possessed by shadows will take constant damage.