Wild Era 3, Ch 35: Mausoleum

The inside of the mausoleum was filled with dense Bone essence. It filled the air like a swirling fog.

It was so dense it was almost cloying and it hung in Kelin’s senses with a strange scent, like old bones and dust. There was something sweet and wet at the edge, hinting at broken marrow and a tint of blood.

It was mixed with dense necrotic energy that was so intense there were arcs of dark blue lightning surging through it, covering the room in streams of white and dark.

Wildfire raged around him, but even it was weighed down.

In the center of the area, four beings were gathered in a ritual circle that had been marked out on the floor. 

At the center of that circle, the Elite that was the embodiment of the Challenge was pinned down by a man who was holding it with one hand.

Bonebreaker Priest. Undead. Level 245. Elite.

It was a magic user with strong abilities to affect bones, use dark curses, and to summon undead for support, but it was being completely suppressed by the man holding it down.

Streams of bone essence were looped around its limbs like chains, locking it in place.

It looked like some sort of bizarre sacrifice, a smaller ritual inside of the greater one outside.

Like the monk, the man was dressed in fashionable clothing from Sarathia, but it was more elaborate, which suggested he was of a higher status, and the energy radiating from him was even stronger.

Two younger humans, one male and one female, were sitting beside the Elite and absorbing streams of energy from it and the surroundings.

Those had to be the two brats. 

Next to them, there was a bone-armored skeleton that had a mana signature linking it to the man. 

Behind the Elite, there was an ornate altar with a cold white flame burning in a broad bowl on top. Every part of the altar was constructed of bone, including the bowl, and streams of dangerous energy gathered around it.

The signature of the flame was unmistakable. 

It was the same Wraithfire the necromancer had used and that was now in Kelin’s storage. This had to be where he’d found it.

There were the remains of some undead scattered across the room, piles of bones that had been skeletal servants for the Elite, but they’d all been killed.

It also looked like their essence had been drained. Their bones were pale and brittle.

That brought Kelin’s attention back to the man at the center.

He was by far the most dangerous thing in the room. 

Serto Teranis. Deathgaze Seer-Boneweaver Savant. Level 315. 

His classes were based on scrying and manipulating bones, and it looked like he was using a bone-locking spell to keep the Elite in place.

But more importantly, energy from the main ritual on the island was flowing through him. It hadn’t been visible from outside, but there was a whirlpool of energy appearing from the air and pouring into him.

He’d tapped into it somehow. 

It looked like a massive column of violet necrotic light in Kelin’s mana sight, a river of power that linked the man to the entire dungeon, the island outside, and this mausoleum.

He was in command of all the energy here. 

Even the boss of this dungeon wouldn’t have power like that. 

Kelin scanned the mana flows, assessing how far they reached, and decided that if he shattered the connection here, the main ritual on the island would be much easier to deal with.

The seer was a moving focal point.

The two people next to him were weaker and almost irrelevant.

Niram Herasti. Bloodshadow Sword-Boneforged Squire. Level 140.

Yelani Karusta. Direwind Mage-Bonemist Summoner. Level 141.

Their subclasses matched this dungeon and the energy they were absorbing, which was perhaps why they’d come here.

The information he’d gained from the soul searches told him that their primary classes were family inheritances from some of the stronger clans in Sarathia.

Their clothing marked a high status and he could see from their souls that they’d been gifted some abilities by their elders, but the important thing was they were benefiting from the ritual and were siphoning the energy away from the Elite, taking it as their own.

Normally, something like that wouldn’t have worked, since the Path oversaw the flow of experience throughout the galaxy, but this was from something outside the Path.

Something from a different realm.

The skeleton was already beginning to look weaker than it should have and its bones were turning pale. 

At the same time, the strength of the two youths was rising. Even as Kelin analyzed them, their levels each went up by one.

The ritual was empowering them, but it was full of necrotic energy and Bone essence, both from the Elite and from the ambient energy here. 

This had to be how the Sarathians were creating so many high-level followers. 

Those powers were settling into them in a pattern that was similar to what the monk had shown, and their skin had turned a pale white with dark veins flowing along it.

They were already half undead. 

The last figure might have been human once, but it wasn’t now.

Boneslave Disciple. Skeletal Servant. Level 305.

It vaguely resembled a human skeleton, but it had bone claws and sharpened fangs that were more like a ghoul’s, and its body was lanky. Bone plates covered it, creating an armored surface, and it radiated a sense of speed and danger.

Based on the soul signature that linked it to the seer, it belonged to him.

Kelin had stopped just inside the door and Wildfire filled the area around him, driving away the other energies and creating a zone that blazed with ethereal flames, but he was only able to extend it for a dozen feet. 

He had plenty of Wildfire, but the energy gathered in the mausoleum was much stronger. It was being fueled by the ritual outside and the essence of the dungeon.

The seer was Level 315, but with that much power behind him, he was close to the Fourth Evolution in strength. 

Wildfire raged around Kelin, turning into prismatic arcs that devoured the energy closest to him and pushed it farther away. The spell should have been able to expand even more, but after a moment the flames were pushed back, still blazing furiously.

The density of the energy here was too intense. 

It was like standing at the bottom of a waterfall and his mana field nearly buckled under the backlash. He saved it by altering the structure at the last moment and diverting the force through his bones and into the floor.

His bones hummed, resonating with the mausoleum.

Whatever this ritual was, it was some type of node drawing on the main one outside. It was constantly filling the place with even more energy.

If anyone entered here without defenses, they would instantly turn into an undead. Their skin and blood would disintegrate under the waves of energy and their skeleton would leap free into the air. 

The Deathgaze Seer had been watching him resist the energy and looked amused.

“An uninvited guest?” the seer asked, raising an eyebrow. “And you are able to stand here on your own. I didn’t think you would survive for more than a few seconds, but you surprised me. I was just getting bored, so this is a welcome bit of fun.”

He barely looked disturbed by the interruption. Instead he was eyeing Kelin like an amusing toy, just like the monk outside had.

“The monk outside is dead,” Kelin said as he worked to intensify the flows of Wildfire around him. “And the skeleton he turned into as well. I’ll give you one chance to surrender. If you do, I’ll help you purge the necrotic energy in your soul. I’ll also fix those two kids you’re corrupting.”

It would be a little difficult, but he could do it, even if it damaged their souls.

“Bold words for someone in the Second Evolution,” the seer said with a laugh. He didn’t look bothered at all. “I will have to decline your gracious offer. Why would I give up such power? I sensed Liron’s death, so I suppose you have some skill. Don’t worry, I won’t hold that against you. I never liked him much.”

He gave Kelin a thoughtful glance.

“How impressive, truly,” he said slowly. “I can barely see anything about you and that is saying something. I’ve never seen the like in anyone below the Fourth Evolution.”

His tone was urbane and polished, but there was a flickering darkness in him, a coldness that saw people as a tool. 

He was apparently more interested in talking than fighting, but it was probably because he didn’t want to disturb what he was doing. He was busy helping to channel the Elite’s energy to the two youths.

“I am curious about you, mage,” he said, “and that’s a rare honor. I can’t see much else, but your skeleton radiates bone magic. It’s almost as strong as this Elite. Of course, you can see how easily I’ve subdued him. I can do the same to you. Perhaps your energy would push these two brats a little higher.”

A smile flickered across his thin lips.

“I won’t...yet. I have a better use for you. Your bones make you one of us, so we should be allies. Your bones tell me you have seen the glory of true power and what it can offer. I can show you even more.”

He kept one hand on the elite as he held out the other toward Kelin. Power radiated from his eyes, turning into streams of grey mist and illusory spirits.

That energy felt almost sentient and it tore at Kelin’s mana field, taking on the shape of skeletal hands that flared with dark light as they tried to reach through the flames.

They burned as they did, exploding into prismatic waves of flame and ethereal smoke, but the impact knocked him back a step.

He drew his Wildfire back and wove it into a shield that was even tighter. The hands burned away, but he was down to a six-foot radius by the time it stabilized.

“It’s incredibly rare to find someone like you,” the seer said. “I’ll make you an offer. Work for me. Become my follower. I’ll make sure that you have everything you need. As I rise you will rise too.”

“Take my hand,” the seer said as the illusory hand flowed through the air and reached toward Kelin again. Dark grey and white runes mixed inside of it in a complex spell form. 

It was a powerful enthrallment spell, one that wanted to turn Kelin into a puppet with barely any thoughts of his own.

“You can replace Liron as my guard. I’ll make sure you have everything that you could want, as well as everything that was his. I’ll help you subjugate his clan and give you a title in the empire. Anyone who dares to resist will be enslaved or killed. 

“I have great power over minds, enough to make everyone in Sarathia fear me. They will have no choice but to fall in line and obey. Like you.” 

The streams of mist from the seer’s eyes were part of a spell that was influencing the area. 

As it filled the space, it felt like he was the only thing in it and that he was slowly growing larger, like some type of devil or god at the center of the room.

If someone believed him, they would fall deeper into his illusion and then it wouldn’t be a simple thing to extract themselves. He would end up with almost complete control over their perception of reality and could make them do whatever he wanted.

Kelin felt a tug on his awareness that tried to pull him into the illusion and make him touch the hand, which would have sent its mana flooding through his body.

All of his words were a lie, just a distraction as he tried to take over Kelin’s mind.

Kelin breathed out a stream of Wildfire that incinerated the hand and turned the dark mist into raw energy. A wave of his hand sliced through what was left of the spellform and tore it to pieces.

“Enslavement spells are forbidden by the Stars Alliance,” Kelin said. His words were hard and clear. “More importantly, I outlawed them long ago.”

It was one of the types of magic he hated the most. When he’d been alive, he’d personally banned them and punished anyone found using them.

The seer was clearly too familiar with them.

“The Stars Alliance is useless and dying,” the seer said, snorting as his expression turned colder. “But if you won’t take the easy path, there’s always the harder one.”

His eyes glowed like pools of dark mana as he stared at Kelin. A focused lance of energy flew across the distance between them. It was half ethereal and shadowy, and the other half pure mana.

It was also a soul spell.

It struck the wards around Kelin’s soul and exploded into fragments of raw energy, turning to dust. The fragments looked like ten thousand motes of disintegrating darkness. 

Kelin glanced down at where the spell had tried to strike his chest.

“A soul destruction spell,” he said. “It’s rare to see that in this world.” 

He was not amused. 

It reminded him too much of his death and of the old invader who had once used a Soulburn spell to nearly kill him, starting him on his path of Soul magic.

“Your class must have been a gift from the undead,” he added, “who are old masters of spells like that, but you don’t have the faintest idea of how to use it.”

He raised his hand.

“Let me show you.”

With the ritual here, he didn’t have much chance of letting Wildfire blaze free, so he decided to go for broke. 

He gathered all of the prismatic flames around him, making them coil like dragons around his arms and into his hand, where they gathered into a swirling sphere.

He poured soul energy into the flames, intensifying them until they were so brilliant it made it impossible to see anything else. His soul ached just from holding it in place. 

He shaped the flames into a spear and added a blade of Spell Disruption as the point. 

Then he hurled it across the distance.

It left behind an ethereal rainbow path that burned like a star.

The seer’s eyes widened as he saw the spear approaching and for the first time he looked startled, but he reached out to block it with a hand that glowed white and black, swirling with a mix of energies.

Fueled by the energy of hundreds of undead, the spear tore through his ward and sank into his soul, where it exploded.

The seer staggered backward, his hand leaving the Elite, and he fell out of the ritual circle.

He let out a panicked shout, rolling on the ground as he slapped at his chest, and ethereal flames leapt across his body, surging from a dozen different locations.

Kelin could feel the seer’s soul beginning to burn, as well as the power of the ritual he was connected to, and he began casting again.

A flight of soul arrows flew across the area.

Two struck the undead Elite, searing into its form and igniting the necrotic energy there. Another hit the seer.

A wave of Soul Paralysis spread across the room at the same time, freezing the two youths in place, and Kelin walked forward, his hand rising as a blade of Spell Disruption targeted the central ritual where they had been sitting.

His first attack sliced through part of the ritual connecting the kids to the undead, which was already beginning to burn, but as he raised his hand a second time, a wave of necrotic energy flooded the room from where the seer had fallen.

It was like a gate had opened and the abyss was pouring out. 

The mausoleum was thrown into darkness, with only the lines of mana and soul energy still shining, but Kelin could see well enough.

From where the seer had fallen, the man rose back to his feet, half levitating on the wave of energy. Violet streams of power surrounded him, filling his aura and the area. 

It was the pure vital energy from the ritual outside, and as it flowed through the area, it mingled with the mausoleum and turned into necrotic energy and Bone essence. 

The mix flashed like white lightning inside a dark tide.

That energy flooded through the man’s soul and drowned out the Wildfire flames, healing him at the same time. It couldn’t repair the sections of his soul that had been scorched, but it filled them in with its own energy instead, creating a patchwork.

He floated there, his eyes glowing like dark stars.

His skin had gone paler and he looked more undead now, similar to the two youths, like a lich that had a semblance of human form.

He raised his hand and pointed at Kelin.

“Not bad,” he said. His voice echoed like a sepulchre, sounding more like a ghost than a human. “But if that’s all, then this fight is over. You’ve used up all of that energy you brought.”

Kelin stood on the far side of the room, his body blazing with soulfire and the last flickers of Wildfire.

The energy from the ritual was crushing down on him now, making his bones creak, and he felt the edge of his skin hissing as necrotic energy tried to corrode it, but he ignored it all.

“If one won’t work,” he said as he raised his hand. “Then how about two?”

He snapped his fingers and a second sphere of Wildfire appeared in the air in front of him, thundering with the force of Mystic Renewal.

It was half as strong as the first had been, but streams of prismatic flame surrounded it, appearing from a strange ripple in the air like time and space had bent, and it was becoming stronger by the second as Ascending Flame began to work again. 

He poured energy into the spell as he studied the connection between the seer and the ritual. 

It was linked into the man’s soul, but Kelin could see it as clearly as day, like a dark violet thread that was floating there. 

The first spell had cast it into stark relief.

When he found what he was looking for, he hurled the sphere across the room.

A second star flared in the darkness, heading straight for the seer.