Just by looking the door gave Nora a cold feeling, as if it was alive and sucking the live out of her. And it was. Nora knew very well that the door was alive, the eye on the door was what the night mother used to communicate with people.
Nora wanted to leave immediately, Nora knew that no good was going to come from meeting the night mother. If she got caught by her, there was no telling what might happen to her. With how weak she was right now, all the night mother needed to do was flick a finger and she would die.
Turning around, Nora tried to run but a wall of shadow stopped her.
Dammit, she caught me!
The wall of shadow then wrapped around her like a cocoon, trapping her inside. Once inside, the scenery changed, all she saw was eternal darkness. Nora started to float in darkness. She couldn’t feel the ground beneath her nor the air around her, her senses had suddenly became displaced. She couldn’t even tell the difference between up and down.
Suddenly, the curtains for the night swiftly opened. Formed from the darkness surrounding her, a humanoid figure of a women appeared before her. She had extremely long smooth hair. it was the color of night. It wasn't possible to imagine for how much time one had to live in order to have the hair reach such length. The figure raised its pure black hand and touched its head, causing it to morph into a beautiful face. However, that face was exactly identical to Nora’s.
“Oh my, what a surprise, for the first time in eons, someone managed to fool me. You’re alive, little undead and what more, as a weak girl. Hahaha, this is such a great surprise.”
“Ahehehe, erm… I don’t know what you’re talking about, me undead? Preposterous… You wouldn’t mind me leaving right? I’ve got an appointment right now.”
“Don’t try to weasel your way out of this, little undead. No secret can hide from my sight. Your lies can’t fool me. Now then, otherworlder, Aran Snow the prince, Kel Kazan the death lord, pawn of the abyss and Nora Valen the noble, tell me, how are you alive?” the night mother spoke while changing her face. Each time she spoke of Nora’s past names, she changed her face to look like them. The only time she didn’t change her face was when she called Nora the otherworlder.
Since she knows about it….
Nora raised her eyes with killing intent, piercing it through the night mother.
“Nice to meet you, my little princess. Fret not, i won’t tattle, i doubt there’s anyone in this world who can offer me something worth that info.”
“Speak, what is it you want with me? You wouldn’t have brought me here otherwise.”
“Patiences, my little princess. I’m still quite giddy over the fact that you turned into a weak little girl. Hahahahaha, I truly am surprised. I didn’t know that’s what you were into. Hahahaha, is that why you keep rejecting all your followers advances? Hahaha, i haven’t had a laugh like this in decades.”
*Tsk*
Nora clicked her tongue and waited for her to continue. She was too weak right now. Maybe if she was at her peak, she could pressure her to stop her teasing, but currently, she wasn’t strong enough. Thus, all she could do was to endure her teasing and hope that she was still the same as before. If she was, Nora had some chances of bargaining.
“I’m still quite curious as to how you managed to avoid my sight and trick me and everyone else in the world into thinking that you died. So now tell me, how did you do it? It can’t be reincarnation, even with your knowledge on the cycle of life and death, you aren't strong enough to escape the cleansing of the reincarnation cycle. You’re not a god yet.”
“Ohhoho, i thought you weren’t the type to do free deals? Where’s your rule for equivalent exchange? Why should i answer your question without anything in return?” Nora tried to put up a brave front and hoped that nothing changed since the last time they met.
“You’re right, i am not the type to do free deals, even if it is in my favour. Then tell me, what is it you want to know in exchange, I’m willing to answer worth equal value.”
Nora went into deep thought. Since the night mother had just tossed a bone to her, Nora wanted to make full use of it. Getting a question answered by the night mother was something all great masters of the world yearned for. Due to her power to see everything underneath the night sky and having a limitless lifespan, the night mother was a being filled with knowledge and answers. The night mother was a being who knew all. If one had a question that no one had an answer, the night mother was the one to look for.
“Okay, i’ll answer first. Right before i died, i used all my life essence to create the final horcrux and stored a portion of my soul inside. Then i waited for a person whose soul and will is weak enough for my soul to devour. And because my soul was so weak and small, it easily flew under everyone’s radar. This body i’m in is the person who touched my horcrux.”
“Wait, even if you devour her soul and take control of her body, it should be impossible for a person to control a foreign body so fluidly. Your soul and her body are not compatible.”
“Is that another question?”
“Yes, i’ll raise the value if you answer it. Despite your current lack of strength, i must admit that my knowledge on the inner workings of the soul isn’t as deep as yours.”
If you come across this story on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it.
“Very well then. Whenever a new soul take over a body, there’ll usually be conflict between the two souls. The two souls will clash until a winner is formed. The winner would then devour the loser and gain control of a body. However, in my case, our souls did not clash. The other soul was very weak willed and willing offered it’s place to me. However, due to my weak soul strength, i was not able to fully devour the soul. The leftover parts of the soul merged together with mine in my moment of weakness.”
“Hahaha, this is truly interesting. I did not think that it was possible for two soul to merge without losing a part of themself. Very well, you have satiated my thirst, ask away and i shall answer.”
“Answer me this, where are my other horcruxes located? They seemed to be sealed somewhere, i can’t sense where they are.”
“Hmm…. With the first answers you gave me, it is not enough for me to tell you where all the 6 horcruxes are. I can only tell you the location of the one you have the highest chance of getting. Moreover, with the second answer you gave me, it’s still not enough to get the second location. However, i can tell you something you might fine of use.
For the location of the king chalice, it will be in the continental center of the underground world in 3 years. On the date 13th december, it’ll be under the least amount of protection. That’s all i can say for now. If you want more, come find me in the continental centre before that date, i’ll tell you more if you’re strong enough.
As for the extra note of info, i’ll tell you what the orcs and goblins are planning. The orcs are praying to me and asking for my service. I won’t tell you what they ask for,, but their plan is to attack the portside town on the day the guards are most laxed, the day of the festival celebrating your death. In fact, the alla forest, there’s a large group of orcs waiting for the festival to begin.”
“Wait wait wait, how strong do I need to be before you tell me more?”
“AH ah ah, my little princess, that's another question. I can’t answer anymore of your question, you currently do not possess anything of worth to me. And oh yeah, before i let you go, here’s a little parting gift,” the night mother spoke and laughed while pointing her finger at Nora.
A beam of light light shot forward and burying itself into Nora’s chest. The black energy wormed itself into her, digging like roots into her heart.
“This will lead you to me when you reached the continental center. So bye bye now, do hurry to grow strong please, i’ll need you in the future, hahaha,” the night mother waved her hands and laughed.
With the figure of darkness gone, the darkness that surrounded Nora immediately disappeared, pulling Nora back to the real world.
Lying on the cold hard rock, Nora’s heavy pants of exhaustion and fear rocked her. Her body was perspiring heavily.
Fucking bitch!
Nora cursed the night mother in her mind. Despiting gaining info on things she wanted to know due to the exchange, Nora still felt cheated. She felt as if she was dancing on the palms of the night mother hands. She hated by toyed and used as a pawn. Nora wanted to scream and punch something to release her anger.
However, since the she was too weak to fight back against the night mother. Nora decided to take her anger out on the group of orcs nearby. They had already noticed her heavy breathing.
Instantly casting a 5 circle spell ‘bone wall’, the barrage of magical attacks from the orcs was blocked. The flurry of ice spears, fireballs, rock bullets and many other spells was blocked by the large white skeleton wall. Only a few stray shot managed to overpower it and hit Nora’s mana shield.
Going on the offense, Nora consumed some souls and decided to cast a spell. There was no point in her fighting with her blade, they were too many. Aoe magic spells was what Nora needed to deal with all of them.
Raising her hands up towards the sky, Nora channeled her mana and spun them around, causing a large light blue magic circle to form above her. After it was done, the 6 circle spell, freezing storm, glowed brightly, illuminating the dark murky cavern.
The temperature dropped drastically, causing mist to form in the air. Ice shards formed around Nora, creating a whirlpool of sharp ice shards. The whirlpool shredded the group of orcs into mincemeat as her mana plummeted. Her small stock of souls she previous acquired was instantly gone as she used all she had to fuel the spell.
Soon, all her souls disappeared. Nora stopped channeling the spell and looked at the aftermath. The large group of orcs was completely decimated. Only three heavily injured orc were left standing. They had a multitude of ice shards poking out from their bodies while the rest laid on the floor, their blood frozen solid. All around her was ice and snow, even the surface of the lake of tar was frozen.
Turning her attention to the survivors, Nora rushed towards them while summoning her blade. Since she was out of mana, she decided to do it the good old fashion way.
The three orc gazed at Nora in sheer terror. Never in their life had they seen such destruction before. However, noticing that Nora was out of mana, their fear of her vanished. Forcing their frosted body to move, they crushed the ice shard apart and spammed a barrage of spells at Nora while one of the orc rushed towards Nora to meet her in melee combat.
Using her superior mobility, Nora dodged and weaved past all the ranged attack and clashed against the charging orc. Her blade met his sword, causing sparks to fly. Nora was pushed back by the force as her body wasn’t buffed by mana while the orc’s sword was cracked due to clashing with Nora sharpness enchanted sword.
After she was pushed back, Nora was bombarded with spells, shattering her mana shield and knocking her down. However, due to her high magic resistance, Nora was only slightly bruised.
Charging at the orc once again, Nora dodged as much as she could and placed her faith in her armour and magic resistance to tank all spells that she didn’t manage to dodge.
Arriving at the orc, Nora slashed at him and broke his sword in two before inflicting a large wound on his chest. After hitting him, Nora used a snowdrop movement technique to get behind him. Swinging her sword, the ray of blue light flashed as the orc fell to the ground.
Not taking another glance at him, Nora took his soul and consumed it to gain some small amount of mana before rushing at the spell casting orcs.
Using the mana she just gained, Nora created another mana shield and used the remaining to boost her body. With enhanced speed, Nora whizzed past all the flurry of spells and arrived at the two orcs.
Being close ranged of mages, Nora needed no time to kill them. With her glowing blue blade, Nora easily destroyed their mana shield and slashed them apart.
Nora took their souls and consumed it, refilling her empty mana pool by a bit. After she was done with them, Nora picked up the orcs staffs and walked to the other dead orcs. Nora needed to be close to them to store their souls. Roaming around the frozen battle field, Nora consumed the souls of the orcs and store the rest after she was full.
However, as soon as she was done refilling her mana, Nora heard a scream and saw Evelyn flying towards her.
“Master, the commander’s coming, due to the frozen tar lake you created, the whole group of them are walking towards you!”
Turning around, Nora saw that she was right. The group of hobgoblins and their commander was just a hundred meter away from her.
Sensing the danger, Nora immediately casted raised undead on all the orcs around her. As she did that, the frozen bodies of the orcs slowly rose, breaking the ice shards poking out of them into pieces.
After all the bodies rose, Nora turned to face the commander who was staring at her in anger. His veins on his forehead bulged at the sight of all the fallen orcs. He waved his arm out and instantly, the scene changed. The frozen cavern was changed into an open field with swords lining up the places where the walls stood.
Illusion mage huh? This’ll be fun.
Waving her arms by her side, Nora channeled her mana and used some souls to fuel her next spell. Now that she was fighting a monster who was stronger than her, she need to use the strongest single target spell she had.
*Crack*
Yellow flames appeared on her hands and blew apart the illusion, causing cracks to appear in the air around her hands. All around her, the empty space of the field cracked like a screen, creating fissures in the air. Although there was nothing in front of her, she knew he was right in front of her. With her most powerful lv100 spell ‘soul fire’ ready, Nora gazed at the empty field in front of her and spoke with a grin.
“Ready to dance?"
[http://i.imgur.com/Dy6TSVE.jpg]
Nora and Evelyn ^