Wild Era 3, Ch 28: Hellfire

The necromancer was too far away for Kelin to attack easily, but the bone wraiths were heading on a path that wasn’t far from him as they flew toward the island.

As they approached, he moved forward to meet them.

Unfortunately, he couldn’t show them any mercy, even though they’d been hostages a short time before. 

Now, they were undead infused with necrotic energy and the will of Undeath, or perhaps the Lord of Bones, if those ruins on the island belonged to him.

His Wildfire had died out from all the damage it had blocked, but now a snap of his fingers called it back to life. It flared with power under the effects of Mystic Renewal, returning with a vengeance. 

It was half as strong as the original, bolstered by the echo of Ascending Flame, but that was still enough to fill half the sky with waves of swirling prismatic flame.

“Impossible!” The necromancer stared in shock as he stepped backward, a flicker of unease passing across his features. “How do you have so much energy left?”

A flick of Kelin’s hand sent the wave of Wildfire toward the closest wraiths, where it washed over them and seeped into their bodies. 

“You can’t stop my wraiths!” The necromancer shouted as he sent out a wave of power of his own, one that bolstered the wraiths with pale white light. “It’s futile!

“The power of the Lord of Bones has infused them. They’re the last part I need to activate the ritual. It’s earlier than I wanted, but it will still work. Perhaps this is a sign that it is past time!”

Kelin didn’t bother to reply. Instead he looked toward the wraiths and clenched his hand.

The wraiths that had been touched by Wildfire first exploded, followed a moment later by more.

Waves of rainbow flame billowed outward, swirling through the air, and the rest of the wraiths were wiped out a second later.

Their levels were much lower than the undead the necromancer had brought with him earlier and their resistance to Wildfire was nonexistent.

“Destroy them if you want to!” the necromancer shouted, growing furious now. “I’ll just make more! You think you can save these people? I’ll show you how wrong you are!”

When he looked back at the necromancer, the man was already turning and heading back for the ship.

The elemental was keeping the ship from capsizing, but it was smaller than before. It had lost a lot of energy in the last exchange. 

Despite that, it had managed to recover the trident from the ocean and was holding onto it again, using it to reinforce the barrier around the ship, which was in terrible shape now.

It looked like a shipwreck with a quarter of its hull torn out. A gaping hole revealed the cabins inside and part of the hold, while broken boards and other fragments were floating around inside the shield.

Only the elemental was keeping it from sinking. Water moved at its command, keeping the ship floating above the waves and tilted to one side, so that the hole was facing upward. Without that, it would have sunk in minutes.

Kelin changed his path as he flew to intercept the necromancer. 

Thanks to the man’s teleport, he was closer to the ship than the necromancer was, which meant he should be able to get there first. A few moments later, he was standing in the air in front of the ship and blocking the man’s path.

“This is as far you go,” he said, ignoring his injuries. “You’ll never get that temple to work, and these people will not be your sacrifices.”

“Who are you to stop me?” The necromancer snorted as he paused a short distance in front of Kelin. “You guild adventurers are all the same. You think your gods and your way are the only possible ones. That sovereign you all follow...what has he done for me? The Lord of Bones offered me real power to crush my enemies. You think you can compete with that?”

“Shortsighted and stupid,” Kelin said, shaking his head. “Without the Sovereign, humanity would have been nothing, relegated to the weakest worlds and with barely any hope of rising. Thanks to him, we are some of the strongest in this era.”

“The only strength I believe in is mine,” the necromancer snapped. “You dare to keep blocking my way? I’ve changed my mind about recruiting you. Even being one of my undead is too good for you. You think you know how to use flames? I’ll show you what a real flame is before you die.”

He began a strange chant, one that caused streams of bone-white light to swirl around him. The energy swiftly formed into a swirling white fire, one that raged with a sense of burning bones and ash, but rather than being hot, it was cold.

As the fire took shape, it was larger than the man himself. It burned the air around him, making it feel like everything was a frozen charnel house and corpses were burning away to nothing.

Waves of power flowed away from the flame and warped the sky, turning the clouds to brittle shapes that disintegrated under the force. The sky cleared and even the storm that the elemental was holding around the ship began to fail.

“The Lord of Bones has granted me power to conquer this world,” the necromancer hissed. “The emperor sent me here, but he didn’t realize the truth. This flame is the light in the darkness, a power that I have worked for years to master. 

“It is called Bone-Freezing Hellfire and it has the power to destroy death itself. It is only a fraction of the true flame, but it is enough to kill you. Dying to it is more than you deserve.” 

The necromancer let out a shout as he pushed his hand through the air toward Kelin.

The flame swept through the air with a sound like shattering crystal. Clouds, ash, and water vapor in its path froze and fell apart, turning into white dust. 

It was more like disintegration than combustion, but there was still a strange aspect of flame in the way the hellfire moved.

The flame had a fragment of Law embedded inside, one that was more complete than anything Kelin had run across yet. It was closer to the Fourth Evolution than the Third, nearly a Concept of its own.

Space was beginning to warp around it.

At higher levels, fire didn’t just burn material. It could burn other elements, space, and even time.  This one wasn’t on that level yet, but it was showing signs of getting there.

It obviously wasn’t the necromancer’s own power. He’d borrowed it from somewhere, probably a dungeon or the temple on the island, but it was surprising that he’d been able to keep it under control.

Despite that, it wasn’t something Kelin could hope to face at his current level. Even the slightest brush with it would kill him. 

His Wildfire might help a bit, but it didn’t have enough power to block it outright, and he could tell that he wouldn’t be able to break down the energy to turn it into a resistance before it killed him.

Despite that, he watched calmly as the flame came closer.

“That little fire might be impressive to you,” he said. “But to me, it doesn’t count for much.”

It was more than enough to kill him and not leave anything behind, but his past self truly wasn’t impressed.

Most importantly in a fight like this, you could never let the enemy think they had won, not unless you had a trap waiting for them and were trying to lure them into it.

A war was fought with the mind as well as with fists.

In this case, no ploy was necessary.

The necromancer had made the wrong choice in trying to use a flame against him, no matter how strange it was.

He was paying attention to the flame and as it closed in, he reached into his storage and pulled out a chunk of wood, which he hurled at the flame.

It wasn’t a large chunk, just a foot or so long, but it was as heavy as iron. It had been badly scorched in the past, leaving its surface mottled with ashes, but only one half was charred, while the other still held traces of bark.

This was the Ember of Ash, one of the rewards he’d obtained from the Ashen Halls. It was a Rare-grade spirit wood that had been completely altered by the Law of Ash.

When he found it, it had been powering the heart of a massive storm that he’d stayed in for three days, working on his Constitution and abilities. All it needed was a spark of a powerful elemental flame to ignite it again.

A hundred feet in front of him, the chunk of wood met the Bone-Freezing Hellfire.

The cold white flame rippled for a moment, as if it were trying to continue on its path, but then it trembled and began to gather around the ember, which was floating in the air.

As swift as a breath, the flame was pulled into the center of the wood and the chunk began to glow with heat.

It was a different heat than the last time Kelin had seen it, but it was still part of the Law of Ash.

Ash could be cold as well as hot.

The ember drew in all of the flame and energy exploded outward. 

A storm of ash followed it. 

It didn’t seem possible that such a storm could come from so small of an object, but massive clouds of ash roared out of the ember, swirling like a galaxy. 

They swiftly expanded into long currents, turning like the arms of a whirlwind as they spread outward, and engulfed Kelin and the necromancer both. 

Burning waves of cold heat and what felt like a sandstorm stripped away Kelin’s skin and threatened to hurl him backward, but the storm didn’t allow it.

At the same time as he was pushed back, the suction of the storm pulled him forward, keeping him in place.

If he wanted to fly it out, it wouldn’t be a simple thing.

His eyes were blinded by the ash and the outer layer of his skin was already disappearing. His mana was draining away trying to block it, so he let most of it through, relying on his healing to keep up.

The storm hadn’t been this fierce the last time, but he’d already done this once and he had a Basic resistance to Ash, as well as a powerful Constitution.

The necromancer didn’t.

At the same time, Gaius’s runes glowed across Kelin’s skin, absorbing a lot of the damage for him and making it even easier.

He couldn’t see anything, but his mana and soul senses told him that the necromancer was in a much worse state than he was. 

The man was shouting as he tried to fly away, but the suction of the storm pulled him back in. Through the thin connection he had to the artifact, Kelin pushed the ember closer, keeping the necromancer in the worst of it.

Then he began to walk forward, using the pressure of the storm behind him and his minimal control to make his way there.

The necromancer was shouting and relying heavily on his mana shield to block the worst of the damage. He was also searching for an exit, but it only made him spin in place.

Kelin slowly crossed three quarters of the distance, watching him the entire while.

Skeletal figures and wraiths appeared around the necromancer from time to time, as well as a layer of bone armor, a veil of white flames, some defensive talismans, and even artifacts, all of which absorbed some of the damage, but it didn’t take long for them to flicker out.

The power in the storm was incredible and a lot of the necromancer’s own mana had gone into the flame that ignited it. 

It left him drained.

The rest of the power came from the Law of Ash and the destruction of the spirit wood, which was full of energy that was being slowly burned away. The bright half of the wood was turning dark, but it would take a while.

The fire had been dangerous, but it was only a small part of a Law. 

The Ember of Ash had a much stronger one. It had absorbed all of that power as fuel and was now using it to create even more ash. 

A blazing white core in the ember showed that the flame was still there and burning. 

It was hard to tell when it would go out. Perhaps it would last until the wood burned away, or perhaps it would die out first.

Kelin waited, focusing all of his attention on keeping the storm centered around the necromancer. 

It didn’t take much effort, so he turned his spare attention to healing himself and slowly adjusted to the power of the storm. It was stronger than the last time he’d experienced it, but he was managing.

He hadn’t gained his resistance until the end of that challenge. Now, he had that and Gaius to help protect him as needed.

Slowly, he pulled back the stoneskin covering his body and left more of himself exposed to the storm, finding the balance as it tried to destroy him and he healed.

The ember was a unique opportunity, so he didn’t want to waste it. 

He let the Law of Ash tear at him as he kept his mana balance on the positive side and slowly recovered.

The necromancer was not so lucky. 

His level was helping him a bit, but he was only at the Third Evolution. He didn’t have a Law to defend himself with, nor did he have a durable physique or an elemental to help. 

The Law of Ash was an endless power battering at his shields and his body, weighing down on him with every moment.

Few mages had the endurance to survive a storm like this. Even when Kelin had gone into the first one, he had done it slowly and carefully. He hadn’t just jumped into the center, which was where the necromancer was now.

One by one, the man’s artifacts were wearing out under the battering of the storm, even as he struggled to keep finding more. A sphere of bone disintegrated in his hand, followed by a pale white shield he summoned from a scroll.

A wraith appeared around him, cloaking him in shadows, but it wasn’t long before it was torn to shreds and disappeared with a howl. Necrotic energy flowed away into the storm and was torn apart, buried in the sky.

It took time, but eventually all he had left was his mana field. 

The man’s face turned paler as he struggled to keep it up. 

Tendrils of ash swept across the surface of the shield, brushing it in a way that looked almost soft, but the impact sent him staggering backward.

“No!” he shouted, although the words were barely understandable. “I am Zares Tobara! I am the inheritor of the Lord of Bones! I will not die like this! My honor will not allow it!”

Kelin had to read the emotions in the man’s soul and piece together the words from reading his lips, but he got the idea. 

He only watched and waited. 

By then, almost two hours had passed. 

He was still injured, but his mana was fully recovered and he was alternating between letting the storm batter him and blocking it as he worked on his Ash resistance.

He kept a careful eye on the ember, but it wasn’t disappearing quickly. The wood it was made from was immensely durable and the amount of ash it could generate was enormous. There were powerful Laws at play and it was far beyond what a normal piece of wood the same size could have done. 

The white fire at the center, however, was slowly growing weaker and the storm was losing its potency.

It was slow and not enough to save the necromancer, but the flame was about ten percent weaker than it had been to start.

If the Bone-Freezing Hellfire had been out in the air by itself, it would have encountered random elemental energy and other things that opposed it and burned out quickly, but the wood was insulating it.

Eventually, the necromancer staggered as his face grew even paler and he fell to one knee. His mana was in disarray and only sparks remained. Flickers of white energy were flaring all around his body and fading like dying embers.

His mana shield shattered and the storm swept in.

Ash tore across his body, stripping his skin away until muscles were visible. And then those began to disintegrate as well.

Before the storm could kill him, Kelin moved.

He walked through the storm and stopped in front of the necromancer. Then he reached out and grabbed his head in his hand.

While the man’s mana shield had been up, he hadn’t been able to beat through it to reach his soul, but now he could.

“Feel free to resist,” he said as his soul energy poured into the man’s awareness. “It will only make it hurt more. It’s the least you deserve.”

Soul Search poured into the man’s mind and tore through his memories and awareness as Kelin searched for the answers he wanted.

The necromancer screamed from both the Soul Search and the storm that continued to rip his skin away, but Kelin didn’t stop.

In comparison to what the necromancer had done to the people on the ship and probably thousands of others, it was nothing.

Eventually, he finished searching through the man’s memories. His hand rose as he formed a killing blade of soul energy and he swept it down, cutting the necromancer’s soul in half.

The man collapsed in the air.

Kelin stripped it of its spatial items and then kicked it into the storm, where it was swiftly torn to pieces.

Then he turned and headed for the Ember of Ash.

As the owner of the artifact, he had a small ability to control it, but the flame that had been used to ignite it was beyond his abilities, so he would have to do something else.

A high-grade spatial crystal appeared in his hand.

He didn’t have the ability to suppress either the Law of Ash or that hell flame, so all he could do was contain it. 

When he arrived, he took out a thin mithril stylus and began to engrave tiny, almost imperceptible runes of containment on the sides of the ember, creating an enchantment around the entire chunk.

As he worked, spatial energy slowly flowed into the stylus and the runes. That crystal and then another crumbled away to nothing.

It took him almost an hour, but eventually he finished the last one, and as soon as he did, he activated the enchantment.

A web of spatial energy glowed around the crystal, humming with a brilliant blue light, and spread from one end to the other, sealing the entire chunk of wood. 

It also sealed the flame and the area around it, keeping a thin barrier between that and the wood it was burning. 

The two parts were separated, as far apart as the sky and the earth, and unable to touch. 

Spatial energy was one of the best seals to use for a problem like this.

Almost instantly, the storm of ash around Kelin stopped flowing and the winds died down. Then drifts of ash began to fall through the air.

They spread out on the wind and collapsed into the waves below.

For the first time in hours, the sky was visible, shining with a blue majesty and a bright sun.

Off to the side, the elemental stood guard over the broken ship, holding the trident as it kept a barrier around it. The ship looked the same as before, but people were gathered on the deck now, looking out toward Kelin.

Many of them looked injured.

He gave the ember in his hand a check to make sure everything was sealed and then he tossed it into his storage.

He flew down toward the ship, pulling out healing talismans as he went.