Vol3 Chapter 2
And Into the fire.
The world reformed around Crane, the transition wasn’t as bad as he thought it would be, except for the fact that he appeared on the ceiling. Keagan roared and the flames on his paws intensified. As we fell from the roof he turned his body around to face the floor, cats always land on their feet. Though he didn’t land, the flames on his feet flowed and he started running on the air. Crane activated Loki’s shoes and was enclosed in the gravity manipulating flight magic, he slowed and turned rightside up. He met Keagan’s eye before looking around to see where random transfer had taken them.
The area was a baking pit, not too different from the inside of a volcano, a chasm that extended in every direction but up as far as the eyes could see, and lit by the lava that flowed in streams and lakes of glowing red and yellow molten rock.
Crane opened his inventory. Most of the items damaged or destroyed, the cauldron he used for alchemy was distorted, the mithril bracers, his sword, and cold steel armor were broken beyond repair, and the several of the small accessories including all his rings had lost their effects. He was a bit disheartened by the loss of the rings, they each increased a craft skill by two levels resulting in higher quality products, but he accepted it all the same. Random transfer had hundreds of risks. He knew could have ended up in the bottom of the ocean, or maybe in the bottom of one of the lakes of lava. His fire resistance was strong, but not strong enough to survive that. He took out one of the few items to survive, a small pointed loaden stone hanging from a string. When held by the string the point would face the direction of the closest leyline. It pointed to the roof. Crane thought, ‘Figures’, if he want to use random transfer again, he’d have to write another enormous spell circle of runes like before in the plains. But the roof where the leyline threw him out was filled with stalactites and far too uneven to make another. Another leyline would have to be found to use the spell to get out of here, but ley lines were spread out far apart, it was unlikely he’d find another around.
He checked the equipment he had stored to see if the transition had affected any of it. Random transfer converted the target to mana and injected them into a ley line. Though the ley lines in truth were actually the spiritual roots of the tree Yggdrasil, they provided and cycled mana throughout the worlds. The spell could only be performed on the tip of a root, a special type of leyline that ended at a point, like the one at the roof of the chasm or the field he had fled from. It could take you anywhere, but would always end at another root tip. The flow of mana is always changing, so where the injected mana from one tip would go was impossible to predict.
He flew done to scout the immediate area. Broken stone structures of an ancient city were all over. However it was difficult to determine when it was destroyed. An old city of old stone destroyed a week ago looked just like an old stone city that was destroyed a century ago.
He called out, “Keagan, anything around here?”
He said, “Some far below, many around.”
“Show me.” They flew over to see a group of orange lizards that seemed to be made of stone and drank from a lava river like it were a stream.
Crane spotted one that was alone and decided to test the strength of the creatures in the area.
“Keagan, equip,” he called out. The mystic fire cat nodded and ran over to to Crane on the air. His flaming form turned completely into blue fire and rushed towards him. Crane lifted his arms as it surrounded and enveloped him before becoming solid again in the form of a tiger skin cloak. This was one of the perks of being a mystic fire cat, he had gained several abilities upon transformation, including shape shifting. The best part about it was that the cloak’s stats changed when Keagan got stronger.
It had been awhile since he last wore it so Crane opened up his inventory and looked at it’s stats.
Cloak of Mystic fire
Durability 180/180
Defense 50
This cloak seems to be made of the skin of a mystic fire cat, but it still feels alive. Blue embers glow on the surface that burn bright when danger is near.
Other properties unknown
Requirements:
Level 300
Strength 700
40% Fire Resistance
Effects:
When danger is near the embers burn hot, damaging anything around.
Fire damage is absorbed by the cloak.
From an outsider’s perspective you wouldn’t know it was a false form. The effects were actually a result of Keagan’s ability to sense fighting spirit and protect the wearer. The only problem was that the stronger Keagan got, the stronger Crane had to get to wear it.
He flew down and walked up to the lava lizard. When it noticed Crane it let out a hiss and faced him. A moment later it spat a fire ball, no, lava ball at him. Lava had heat damage as well as fire so even wearing the cloak, lava could still damage Crane through the cloak. He dodge and held out his hand before saying, “Strike of Niflheimr.”
Three Isa runes, the Thurisaz rune, and the Berkano rune appeared in the air and combined into a single connected form that glowed for a moment. The next moment an ice spike formed and struck the underside of the lava lizard.
After Crane’s rune magic skill and rune mastery both hit advanced, he could set specific sequences of runes to form spells that activated with a command phrase he could choose. Strike of Niflheimr used Isa’s ice attribute, Thurisaz’s piercing attribute, and Berkano’s earth attribute to make an ice strike that came from beneath. Such spell sets cost less than the combined mana cost of the runes but still likely cost more than the cost of a similar spell. Crane could cast fireball with two Kenazs and a Fehu, but the spell still cost about 50 mp, while such a basic spell for a beginner mage would only cost them 20 mp.
The lava lizard’s hide wasn’t pierced, even from the underside. The tip of the icicle shattered from the strain and the lizard only got a sore spot and some air time. It dug into the ground upon landing and got away before Crane could do anything else. Not that there was much he could do, his strike of niflheimr that could split boulders didn’t even knick the hide of the lizard. He still didn’t know how strong it was, but its defense was too much. He activated Loki’s shoes again and lifted off after having lost interest in the lizards so he could start exploring the ruins.
The city was medium size, about five or six kilometers across. He couldn’t fly high enough to see it all at once due to the ceiling, but he had at least circled it. He still didn’t know where he was though, perhaps in some volcanic mountain range that had been hollowed out with lava flows.
The blue embers on his cloak flared intensely for a moment. He scanned the area for enemies but saw nothing around. The cloak flared up again, but only on his right side. He looked around to the right and saw nothing on the ground, but he did see a dozen or so floating black dots heading his way. If they could fly too he had little advantage, he knew it wasn’t worth the risk to fight so he flew down to hid.
He still couldn’t see them clearly, so he called for some assistance. “Vares, hear my call, come forth.”
After a chunk of his mana was used for the summoning, a small gust of wind blew, and from it appeared a small see through bird. The wind spirit said, “By our contract I have come, what task do you wish of me?”
He pointed towards the black dots and said, “I want to hear what they saying.”
It nodded dispersed back into the wind. Crane hid in a stone house and waited. A few moments later the room was filled with voices.
“Why did master Gartanos send us here? There’s nothing but rock.” The voice was loud and sounded stupid.
“We do not question the master, he tells us to investigate, we do so.” There were several grunts of agreement and several grunts of disappointment. Crane thought that these guys may have come because of the mana surge that resulted from the backlash of random transfer.
He had to be quiet and listen, a sound tunnel extended both ways between the group and himself, anything he said would be heard by the others. Vares knew this but had said nothing. All of the spirits Crane had contracted with were still pissed off at him. He had contracted with a large amount of different spirits as practice just so he could use spirit bind on the wind spirit king of the Coden Mountains. He didn’t know that forcing the contract would cause a disruption in the climate and cause an enormous storm so strong it blew the trees right off the mountain and destroy everything for a hundred kilometer which of course got him a large amount of infamy. The mountain recovered eventually but it would take time before all the spirits forgive him.
The scouts split up and the sound tunnel dissipated. Crane walked outside, carefully moving around to find one and see it without being seen. A minute later he spotted one flying overhead. It was a pitch black humanoid creature with bulky muscles, great black wings, large horns, and a terrifying face. In other words, it was a demon.
Crane silently cursed his luck. He remembered an article he had read about a 200 member party expedition into a demon filled dungeon. There were no survivors. The users said that demons were about level 500 and had powerful dark magic, but they all died too quickly to give more details. The research around the place said that gods do not allow demons to exist on the surface, which is why demons need a contractor to be summoned, but the dungeon was far below the surface which is why there was no limit on demons.
If a demon scouting party is here, Crane realized this entire chasm could be filled with them. As strong as he was, he knew himself no match for a batch of level 500 flying demons. And there could be worse out there as well. If demons are the normal mob, what could be higher? A thought to make one shudder, he refocused on the situation.
“I smell something, its over there.” One of the demons flying near me called out. I felt a cold shiver crawl up my spine. There was only one option if they could smell me out.
Crane said, “Speed force.” Raidho and Fehu appeared and combined. Raidho for movement and Fehu for haste. One of the demons saw the glow of the activation and charged at me. Crane ran like the wind.
“After ‘him!” Said the stupid one.
Speed force used a simple rune configuration and was like a long distance dash, but it had no upper limit on speed. However the faster you went, the more mana you used, exponentially more. Running twice as fast as one speed used 4x more mana than that speed. Also if he tripped or ran into a wall he would receive a great deal of damage. He had died more than once from that.
He ran faster than the demons could fly but slow enough to control his movement and still look around.
The demons started casting black magic and curses at him. Wherever the attacks landed exploded like a grenade, something that was unnerving considering how strong the rock around here was. Crane saw a lava lizard and ran up to it to test how strong the magic was. A demon cast something that looked like black lightning at him but he ran off. The lightning hit the lava lizard behind him and it exploded, just like the rocks did. Before Crane could even think ‘Holy Sh-’, another bolt was cast at him, forcing Crane to keep running.
He thought about calling the wind spirit king to manipulate the wind, allowing him to fly faster then the demons ever could, but calling the spirit took most of his mana, (which was quite a lot) and keeping Loki’s shoes activated used mana as well, it would be little different from the current situation.
Crane thought about surrendering, but then saw a crack in one of the buildings large enough for him to squeeze through, but too small for the bulky demons. He raced to it and slipped through just as another black bolt passed by. He heard destructive sounds as he passed through, it looked like the demons were trying to get through by force, but the rock wasn’t that soft. He ran through a tunnel that went down and split in three directions. He chose straight, but before continuing he figured they would still find him eventually. He decided to destroy the entrance to the hall, and further along, the entrance to all three passages. It would take time to move through the debris and by then, Crane would be long gone.
The only risk was that this passage could lead to a dead end. He decided it was better than the alternative and used all his strength to destroy the passages before the demons got through.
Using a small torch he found and lit with kenaz, Crane ran down the narrow hall for about two kilometers, destroying the passage every few hundred meters.
At another split he chose right, but this time didn’t destroy the crossroad in case this next path was in fact a dead end. Eventually he found his way to a locked door. “Open Sesame.” Three of the rune Ehwaz came together and glowed for a moment, the door unlocked. Crane found it odd that the spell worked on doors but not chests. But Ehwaz was the rune of a new path and you can’t walk through a treasure chest.
After climbing the stairs to see what was beyond, he almost had to pinch himself. It was a library. Although the book shelves had toppled over and the light was dim, the books themselves were in vertical stacks all around. Crane walked over and picked one up, and sighed in disappointment. “Of course it would be in a language I can’t read.”
He wandered around the fallen shelves for a while, and then he saw the last thing he expected to see. There was a young, beautiful white haired woman with ashen skin, sitting cross legged and reading from a stack of books on the floor. At first glance she looked like a dark elf in her early twenties, but you couldn’t tell an elf by her age anyways so that didn’t matter. Crane looked down at his cloak to double check, and the small embers made no notice of her, meaning she may not have been dangerous.
He decided to break the ice and casually walked up to her to say, “Hello, can I ask what language these books are in?”
She looked up with a terrified expression that slowly got calmer as she looked him over. Although Crane appearance was different from his real body, his avatar’s age was the same. She saw a 16 year old boy, a little tall for his age but no taller than herself. Her eyes spent some time looking at his regal looking cloak and red feather hat.
She slowly asked, “How..? How did you get down here?”
Crane didn’t mind that she ignored his first question, she seemed like she would bolt if he did anything so he calmly answered her question. “I was chased into a building and found a tunnel that lead here.”
She shook her head, “No, how did a mortal get to the abyss?”
Crane though, ‘Abyss? Maybe that’s what this place was called.’ “I turned myself to mana and traveled through the ley line, wound up here by chance.” He answered without thinking only to realize unless she knew a lot about magic she wouldn’t even know what a ley line was.
She rose and said, “Wait here, I’ll go speak to my father.” As she turned to leave, he saw to his surprise that something was poking out at the base of her dress, following behind her. It. was a tail. ‘Ok, so she’s not a dark elf.’
Stolen content alert: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences.
He didn’t move until she had walked out of sight, that was when he sat down. There was a book next to him which he picked up and opened. He still couldn’t read the words, but at least he could examine the symbols. He noticed that some of the symbols seemed to glow lightly, some shimmered too. He looked closer at them, when suddenly the book snapped shut. He looked up to see the girl from before standing in front of me, hands on the book. She took it away and said, “Please don’t touch the books. A few of them are not normal, they could be dangerous.”
Crane said casually, “I can’t even read it, what harm could I do with it?”
She looked worried and turned to look at the cover of the book I was staring at and asked, “How long was I gone?”
“A few seconds?” He knew the answer, but it sounded like a question when he said it.
She said, “I went to see my father in the sub basement, I’ve been gone for some time.”
He thought, ‘What? But I only looked at the page for a second. Or had I?’ He looked at her and said, “Ok, I won’t touch the books.”
She nodded and said, “My father would like to see you.”
He got up and followed her. She lead him through several hallways and after about half an hour, to a large door. She opened it and said, “Father, he is here.”
An old voice came from the bed in the room and said, “Good child, now, I’d like to speak with this one alone.”
She nodded and left to stand in the hallway.
“Come closer young man, I’d too weak to come to you.” He said.
Again he checked Keagan and the flame did not seem brighter. He took a few steps forward and felt a large flow of mana. He looked down to see that a complex magic circle had been engraved into the stone floor. The one in the bed noticed him looking at it and said, “That is for me. You see I was mortally wounded some time ago, and this area gathers energy to itself to keep me alive.”
‘A good place to put it too,’ Crane thought, ‘ and beneath a leyline and in an area with so many books’. He still could not see the man in the dimly lit room, but that changed when he got closer. The man had reddish black skin and two large horns on his head and a monstrous face.
He chuckled at Crane’s shock to see what he was, “Not what you expected is it, considering my daughter. She is what your kind would call a fey’ri. Half elf, half demon. Though with a few exceptions she was given mostly her mother’s looks.”
Crane came in closer so he could get a better look at the guy. Although old and withered and in a perpetual state of dying, he could imagine what the being must have looked like in his prime. But it was different from the demons outside.
He said, “Well, time for introductions, I am Vianor, once ruler of the abyss and chief archdevil. And the one who lead you down here was my daughter, Onyx.”
‘Archdevil?!’ he thought. It was difficult for him to keep the shock off his face. Eventually he composed himself and said, “My name is Crane. I am the heir to the secrets of the first magic.”
The archdevil smiled. Suddenly the room became dark, the fire cloak raged blue fire in warning, and the archdevil’s eyes turned blood red. Crane felt that he couldn’t move, it was only the second time since heI begun playing royal road that he was frozen with fear. A dark reddish aura slowly came from the archdevil’s hand and wrapped itself around him.
And a moment later it was gone. The archdevil’s eyes changed back to normal, the room was well lit again, and the fire on the cloak simmered down.
He started back up again like that did not just happen and said, “Your strength and magic are both quite good, you told my daughter you came through the ley line?”
‘So he had just scanned me?’ Crane thought, ‘he could’ve just asked.’ Crane answered, “Yes, but I don’t think I’ll be able to leave the way I came in.”
Vianor asked, “So you plan to return to the upper world then?”
Crane was suddenly fearful, even as weak as the man was, within this magic circle he was still stronger than Crane. If he didn’t want Crane to leave, he wouldn’t be able to. However even to an archdevil Crane would not back down so shamefully, though the best acknowledgement he could give was a nod.
He said, “Good, this is no place for one as weak as you.”
Crane sighed in relief.
He continued, “I want you to take my daughter with you.”
“What?” ‘Oh crap, I meant to think that.’
He said, “She is also too weak for this place. But I want to keep her safe as well, so when you leave, I want you to look after her.”
“Why?!” ‘I am on a roll apparently,’ he thought.
“Because she is all I have left of her mother, and you are too young to take advantage of her naivety.”
Crane rolled his eyes and assumed the young comment referred to the fact that adult content on royal road was restricted until you turned twenty-one, and Crane was five years too young.
However he didn’t want to protect an NPC, he had too many bad experience with either letting them down or getting betrayed. The latter more often than the former.
He continued, “I don’t ask this for free. Agree to the contract and I will reward you.”
Crane had made quite a few contract, but he always was in control of the terms. And he couldn’t just make one with an archdevil of all people.
He saw Crane’s face and the lack of desire for his proposal and said, “If you agree to protect my daughter with your life until she grows strong, I will give you my life.”
Crane looked at him questioningly, that didn’t make any sense.
He said, “I will remove my life energy and bestow it upon you, “ clarifying his statement.
Crane remembered back when he saved the Ekril that an elder chieftain had done something similar, he had put all his power into his blood and gave it to Crane to drink which increased all his stats and magic resistance. After that he could no longer use the ekril exclusive blood magic or an ekril’s ability to tame monsters.
Crane said, “You would kill yourself to get her out, why?”
Vianor said, “I told you, she is all I have left of her mother. Let me tell you a story of the past. Once I was the leader of the archdevils, the rulers of the upper plains of the abyss. One day I was summoned and contracted with by a foolish group of mortal cultists. I convinced them that if they wanted to use me to rule the world, they had best form pacts with the demons under my command. They did so and an army of my subjects swept across the lands and darkened the skies. However something happened I did not expect. I fell in love with the woman who was my contractor. Suddenly I didn’t want see the world destroyed by the cultist’s blind greed, I wanted to make her happy,. I felt from her what mortals feel from the sun, a warmth that didn’t burn. I knew that I was expected by my subjects to eventually betray the cultists and blacken the skies forever, leading to a time where we could roam the upper world without being weakened. I also knew such a future would not make my love happy. “
The Archdevil seemed to grow even older as he reminisced. He continued, “I eventually betrayed them all, the cultists, and my subjects. During a great battle I dispersed the clouds and revealed the sun, weakening all the warriors who had not contract to a state weaker than a human child. Then I forcibly cut the contracts with each of the demons in the upper world. Every demon in that battle was killed, and the cultists were as well. I however was greatly weakened. My contract was still intact, but I had used all my power to cut so many other contracts. Such a thing is no easy matter, I can assure you.”
Crane didn’t even know that one person could cut the contract with another, it made him worried that someone might try to release the wind spirit king from his service.
Vianor said, “After which my love was with child, but did not survive the birth. Without a contractor I couldn’t stay in the upper world, so I returned, and brought my newborn daughter. When I arrived, I was ambushed. The other four archdevils knew of my treachery, and decided to kill me. Although having a contract prevents you from getting weaker, my kind was naturally weaker on the surface than the pits to begin with. Having just returned I was still relatively weak, and it was all I could do to escape with my life and daughter intact. The rest I’m sure you can figure out.”
Crane did have one question, “How long ago did all this happen?”
“About 1200 years give or take a century.” he answered.
Crane thought, ‘Knew she wasn’t in her early twenties.’ He said, “So tell me about this contract.”
Vianor nodded. “It will bind her life force to yours. Should her life force run out, yours will be given to her to save her. But it only works one way, she won’t be in danger if you die. It will also allow you to speak over great distances and feel each other’s location.”
‘So he is hiring a full time bodyguard.’
Crane still wasn’t sure, but the Vianor said, as if it were an afterthought, “Oh yes, did you already know how you were going to leave?”
“No.... Not exactly.”
He smiled innocently, (an impressive feat considering how horrifying and wrinkled his face was,) and said, “I happen to know of a secret tunnel that leads all the way to the surface.”
And there it was, Crane couldn’t escape the Abyss unless he took Onyx and agreed to babysit her.
Crane said, “Fine, I’ll protect her with my life until she is strong enough to look out for herself.”
“Good,” he smiled with a devilish grin that almost looked boyish. “Onyx, come in,” he called out.
Onyx came back in and said, “Yes father.”
Vianor said, “Child, this one here is returning to the upper world. I want you to go with him.”
She looked confused, “No, my place is here. Without me, you..”
Vianor continued for her, “Will die? Of course I will. I was always going to die. You think that you stay here for me, but I consider it the other way. Were I to die, you would be alone, so I refused to die. Now this one has agreed to stay with you until you are strong enough to be on your own.”
She looked like she wanted to argue, but he held up a hand and said, “No, I have been dying long enough, it is time for me to go. Now give me your hand, both of you.”
Crane and Onyx each presented a hand, he turned and held one in each.
A life link is being forged, if unblocked, your life will be taken and given to the other party should that person’s life be lost.
Do you wish to block it?
Yes|No
Vianor looked at Crane assessingly. He had likely figured out from the scan that Crane had put several protection spells on himself at the cost of some of his maximum mana. Without it, the Archdevil could have forged this lifelink with or without Crane’s consent.
Crane tapped the ‘No’ icon.
The life link will be forged.
Progress 0%
Crane watched the progress bar, some spells were so lengthy and complicated they included such bars. After about five minutes the bar reached 100%, and the archdevil let out a deep breath.
Lifelink Contract Established.
He looked at Crane and said, “Now, for my end of the deal.” He stuck out a fist and concentrated. Soon it started glowing crimson.
Crane asked, “How does this work? How will it affect me?”
The archdevil said, “I put my life force into a ball of energy and give it to you to absorb, after which my life will slowly fade. When you absorb it, you’ll gain my abilities and skills at their weakest levels. Since you have no devil blood so you won’t be able to raise them to what I could do in my prime, but with time and effort you can still make great use of them.”
Crane nodded and looked at Onyx. She looked like she was holding back tears.
Soon Vianor’s palm opened and a crimson sphere the size of an apple formed. Vianor looked too weak to talk, so Crane reached out and took it. Vianor muttered, out of breath, “Place it.... to.. your chest... and it’s yours.....”
Crane said, “Yes, its mine, and I’ll do with it as I please.” Crane took the sphere and placed it to Onyx’s chest where it was absorbed into her at the touch. She flinched at a sudden pain and closed her eyes. Crane looked to see shook in the archdevil’s face. ‘Now that look alone was worth it,’ Crane thought.
Onyx opened her eyes a moment later, they glowed a fierce red, but just for an instant before returning to normal. Suddenly she was emitting a scarlet aura, and the embers on Crane’s cloak brightened a bit. Onyx looked down at her hands to see what looked a bloody mist coming from them. That too died out after a moment, as did the cloak’s blue embers.
Vianor looked up at Crane, weak and frail and barely coughed, “Why?”
He was an archdevil after all, used to working with greedy mortals. He never even considered that Crane had no interest in the powers of an archdevil no matter how strong. Crane believed he was strong enough as he was, and since he wouldn’t be able to use the power to its fullest anyways, why not give it to someone who could? Someone who not only had devil blood, but shared it with Vianor himself.
Crane only said, “You have given me your life energy, keeping your end of our deal, and I will still keep mine of course. Besides, with your life energy, she will become strong enough to fend for herself quicker, so I won’t have to protect her for as long.”
Crane could see him slowly come to terms with the logic, when suddenly he started a coughing fit. Onyx rushed to hold him, and Crane decided that Vianor might want a private moment with his daughter before the end, so he left the room to stand in the hall.
About fifteen minutes later, Onyx emerged from the room, tears still flowing down her cheeks. She looked at Crane and said, “He.. he wanted to thankyou.. “
Crane nodded and said, “He rests now?”
She wiped away her tears and nodded.
The pair made their way up to the library when Crane suddenly remembered to ask, “Hey, your dad told you how to get out of the abyss right?”
Suddenly she froze in realization, and slowly turned to look at Crane with a nervous expression. She muttered, "uh oh.."
Crane heard a small voice in the back of his head say, ‘You make a deal with the devil, you’re gonna get burned. Hahahahaha..”
Crane frowned...
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