A. F. Kay

Divine Apostasy Book 7 - Chapter 39

Added 2022-10-29 08:50:33 +0000 UTC

Chapter 39

Ruwen stepped out of the rune gate into a clearing five hundred feet wide. Hundreds of stone pillars formed a giant ring around the open area, and they all had gate runes. The other Adepts grouped together, everyone looking around at their new location.

Mountains rose around them, blocking out the weak sunlight that storm clouds tried to smother. Distant thunder or possibly a battle between Gem Fortified fighters echoed off the steep sides of the nearby mountains. Cool air howled through the passes swirling around them, the strong scent of sulfur causing him to wince.

The Founders had come through the portal first, followed by the Adepts, and finally the Addas.

“This clearing is the only safe zone in this area,” Mist said. “All the Clans are forbidden to fight here.”

Thorn pointed at holes dotting the mountains surrounding them, and finished by pointing at the large concentration of them ringing the areas where the mountains met the valley the clearing sat in. “Those are entrances to soul stone mines. Digging through the rock or searching the natural caverns for the stones has a low success rate but is much safer than roaming the mountain passes and lava pools.”

Mist raised a hand. “While the mines will keep you out of the elements and safe from the dangers on the surface, they are not safe. Be vigilant for other Clans. They allow you to enter but will attack on your return, hoping to steal any stones you’ve found.”

“Where are the greatest concentrations of stones?” Echo asked.

“The lava pools,” Dusk said. “But know they are filled with creatures, some as Fortified as you, Adept.”

Echo pressed her lips together and nodded.

All the Adepts except for Ruwen, Sift, and Echo shivered in the cold air.

“My sisters and the Grandmasters will meditate here,” Dusk said. “We will return to the trial when you’ve collected a thousand pounds of soul stone, or you’ve all died trying.”

“If these rocks are so important, wouldn’t this go faster if you helped?” Sift asked.

“Yes, it would,” Thorn said. “And the Founders of some Clans are here doing just that. The Bamboo Viper Clan, however, is not so weak. Our Adepts can succeed without such compromises.”

“Our first trip to Savage Island,” Ruwen said glancing at the three Founders. “You told us to focus on surviving. Now we could all die before finding the stones you need. What changed?”

Dusk smiled sadly. “It is a consequence of going too fast. Like all things, rushing to the end creates more problems than it solves. In the past, this group would have spent months together before reaching this point. The trials, coupled with the first four visits here, would have cemented trust in each other and the Steps while providing new knowledge and skills. Instead, we have jumped to the end.”

Ruwen frowned, uncomfortably aware this lesson applied to his training of Sift. “How long is the wait to do this the traditional way?”

“At least three months,” Dusk replied.

Ruwen and Sift looked at each other and Sift shook his head slightly.

Sift’s thoughts were with Lylan and Hamma and it would be impossible to convince him to stay so long. Not that Ruwen could afford to either, he had his own disasters brewing back home.

Ruwen turned back to the Founders. “Can we split the class? Those that want to go fast and those that want the traditional process?”

“No,” Thorn said.

Ruwen’s stomach knotted. He wanted to balance his need to get home quickly with the proper lessons for the other Adepts. Now he felt terribly selfish for wanting to proceed so quickly. His desires meant the others would not have the proper training to face these last two visits to the island.

The problems Ruwen faced required attention and could not wait three months. That meant the Adepts here would suffer, so he could fix the issues he’d created somewhere else. None of that was fair to the Adepts, but he wouldn’t feel guilty about it either. In the past, he would have carried this guilt for days or weeks, but as his problem became bigger, and the stakes higher, he needed to make the hard decisions and then move on.

Ruwen stepped to the front of the group and turned to face all the Adepts. “I can’t wait three months, and I’m sorry you will suffer for it. I didn’t make this decision lightly and I’m sorry I can’t explain.”

Before any of the Adepts could respond, Ruwen faced the Founders and bowed. “I respect your traditions, but I will not put the lives of those here at risk by not using my capabilities. Restricting my abilities during the trials I understand, but the situation here, as you’ve already explained, is different, and I will treat it as such. I won’t trivialize our stay here, but I won’t let anyone die either.”

Ruwen waited for the Founders to respond, but they only returned his gaze with neutral expressions. That was good enough for him.

With a thought, Ruwen pushed the Insect Repellent shield to its maximum distance of one hundred feet. Immediately the gusts of wind calmed, the shield turning them into a breeze instead. Channeling fifty Energy per second into the level eighteen Collector spell Greenhouse, he raised the temperature ten degrees in a hundred-foot radius, the most he could at the spell’s current level. The current spells should be enough to stop the shivering of the Adepts.

Once again Ruwen missed having access to his Spirit. He had spent all that time alone learning how to create powerful Spirit versions of his spells, and now he couldn’t use them.

Ruwen focused on Sift and used Sphere of Influence to speak telepathically. One of us needs to stay with the group.

After a moment, Sift responded. Fine, I’ll do it, but you need to stay next time.

Ruwen nodded and turned to the Adepts. “I’m heading for the lava pools, and anyone is welcome to join me. I would recommend however you stay with Sift who is entering the mines. With a large group, the mines should hold no dangers.”

“What about you?” Nymthus asked.

“I have many advantages keeping me safe,” Ruwen replied.

“Everyone with me,” Sift said. “Let’s get out of this wind.”

“I hate the smell of sulfur,” Tarot said. “It reminds me of the Infernal Realm. I’m going with List Boy.”

Tarot squirmed on Ruwen’s head and a moment later shot toward Sift.

Sift strode toward the closest mine entrances two thousand feet away. With a few glances at Ruwen, the rest of the Adepts followed. Everyone but Echo.

“What?” Echo asked when Ruwen looked at her. “I’m not letting you get all the glory.”

Ruwen nodded, turned, and jogged in the direction of the strongest sulfur scent. As he’d told the Founders, he didn’t use Sixth Sense or Survey to make finding the soul stones trivial, and he toggled off the Resource tab on his map as well. He stopped channeling Greenhouse since the cold didn’t bother him and pulled his Insect Repellant shield up against his body.

Echo followed a couple of hundred feet behind Ruwen, and he wondered at her true motives.

This high in the mountains only scrub brush survived. All the pine trees started a few hundred feet below. After five minutes of jogging, the rock turned from broken granite into hardened lava flows. Another three minutes and Ruwen slowed to a walk as the pumice under his feet turned soft.

After a moment of thought, Ruwen stripped down to his underwear, dropping his formal attire in his Void Band. He didn’t want to destroy them which seemed likely as the temperature had increased thirty degrees already. The lava must be close. He tried to ignore Echo’s presence but made the mistake of looking back before continuing.

Echo had followed Ruwen’s example, except she’d taken everything off. He whipped his head around and tried to ignore what he’d just seen. How in Uru’s name would he explain he saw Echo naked while he stood in his underwear? That might test even Hamma’s patience.

Striding forward, the heat continued to increase, as the valley Ruwen walked in narrowed. Two minutes later the path he’d taken ended at a thirty-foot wall made of oozing pumice. It dripped down the cliff face like wax from a burning candle. Not wanting to turn around and face Echo again, he leaped the thirty feet up.

Ruwen cleared the wall and glimpsed the source of the half-melted pumice, right before he splashed into the edge of a bubbling lake of lava.

Ruwen sank into the lava and he controlled his instinctive panic, reassuring himself the lava wasn’t hot enough to harm him. After a few seconds that proved true and he swept his arms forward, as if swimming. His Diamond Fortified Strength made the motions effortless even though he swam through molten rock. He couldn’t bring himself to open his eyes though.

Cool air, at least cooler than the lava, struck Ruwen’s face, and he opened his eyes. He moved his arms and legs slowly, keeping himself afloat in the lava, thirty feet from the cliff he’d jumped over. The lava lake continued for another five hundred feet and ended at a small set of cliffs that climbed like stairs up to what appeared to be another lake.

The upper lava lake boiled, sending spouts of liquid rock into the air. It spilled down the cliff-stairs in a glowing orange lavafall, the intense heat warping the air and causing the whole scene to waver. It was beautiful and hypnotic.

It was at that moment, something bit Ruwen’s right calf and pulled him under.

Having never swum in lava, Ruwen had thought the slow-moving pressure waves he’d felt had come from chunks of rock or semi-solid pumice. He’d been wrong. They had come from some type of creature, one that had a lot of teeth.

Ruwen let the creature pull him down. It jerked its head from side to side, probably trying to rip his leg off. They reached the bottom of the lava lake and he reached down, running his hands along the beast’s head. What type of creature lived inside lava?

Whatever it was, it had a long head. Ruwen pulled the mouth open wide enough to remove his leg and then released the creature. It immediately snapped onto his right arm. He could have moved out of the way, but his curiosity had gotten the better of him, and he wanted to see it above the surface.

With a push off the bottom, Ruwen shot upward, pulling the creature along. He burst through the top of the lava lake like a whale coming up for air. Splashing down, his back made a loud smack as it struck the viscous liquid. He kicked his feet slowly, keeping himself on the surface, and raised his arm to see what had attacked him, causing his Perception to trigger.

Name: Obsidian Eel

Level: 68

Health: 1,935

Mana: 250

Energy: 2,275

Spirit: 0

Armor Class: 1,720

The eel had a shiny black color, like polished stone, and its scales overlapped each other, allowing it to twist, but not nearly as much as a snake or water eel. Ruwen couldn’t find its eyes, and he guessed it spanned over twenty feet in length. Two feet of that length was its mouth, filled with razor-sharp black teeth.

The Obsidian Eel tried again to tear Ruwen’s arm off, and he flicked his arm forward hard enough to fling the eel into the lava twenty feet away. The creature immediately righted itself and swam through the lava, directly back at him.

“I gave you a chance,” Ruwen said as the eel came into arm’s reach.

As the eel opened its mouth to attack, Ruwen pushed its mouth to the side, grabbed it behind the head, where he guessed the body began, and squeezed his hand into a fist.

The Obsidian Eel had an Armor Class of over seventeen hundred, more than a plate armored Fighter with a tower shield. Ruwen’s clenched hand crushed the creature’s neck, severing its head from its body.

Almost immediately, as if Ruwen had covered the area in black blood, he felt dozens of pressure waves approaching him from off the floor of the lava lake. He didn’t know if they approached him to battle, or to eat their fallen brother. Maybe both he thought and swam away.

From the far edge of the lava lake a pack of nine glowing wolves trotted from the shore directly onto the lava, their huge paws keeping them from sinking, at least while they moved. Their bodies didn’t look solid but made from the lava directly, and heat radiated off their bodies. He focused on the biggest one in front.

Name: Greater Magma Hound

Level: 88

Health: 2,726

Mana: 400

Energy: 1,690

Spirit: 0

Armor Class: 990

They raced directly toward Ruwen.

Near the cliff he’d jumped up to find this lake, in an area Ruwen had thought only contained pumice, a boulder separated itself and floated toward him.

Name: Cinder Mammoth

Level: 79

Health: 3,285

Mana: 1,100

Energy: 2,900

Spirit: 0

Armor Class: 1,990

Ruwen found Echo watching him from three hundred feet away. She stretched out on a rock, as if enjoying the sun.

They both sensed the newcomer at the same time and Ruwen turned his attention to the top of the lavafalls, his Perception providing the details.

Name: Ash Specter

Deity: Unknown

Class Type: Cultivator - Topaz