Wild Era 3, Ch 20: Dark Ice Behemoth

The Soul Star spell struck the behemoth at the same time as its tentacles slammed down on Kelin’s mana shield.

The tentacles should have been over a hundred feet away since he was keeping his distance, but they stretched outward and crossed the distance as ice covered them and expanded into long whips. 

Four of them struck his shield like battering rams, each of them as thick across as a human body. The impact sent him flying over the ravines of the icy maze, tumbling head over heels as streams of soulfire erupted into the air to stabilize him.

His mana dipped, but his modifications to his shield meant that his physique took most of the blow. His bones rang like a bell and his entire body ached from the strike.

The phoenix from his Flame of Life had been knocked in a different direction, but it folded its wings and sliced through the air, swiftly heading back toward him. 

It was a golden blade cutting through the storm and it was beside him in an instant. Waves of healing light fell from its wings and cascaded through his body, sending his vitality surging as the ache from the impact began to fade.

As he caught his balance and spun upright to float in place, he found he was halfway across the ice maze and standing above one of the deeper ravines.

Spirits and trap spells leapt upward from below to seize him. It was a combination of dark spirits that tried to pull him down and tentacles that whipped at his shield, each of them formed from ice and dark mist.

He didn’t pay much attention to the minor things below, but he did hurl a sphere of Wildfire at them as he stabilized himself. The spell exploded into rainbow flames that filled the ravine and the shrieks of the things inside filled his ears.

As they exploded, a current of Wildfire began to build beneath his feet, swiftly turning into a brilliant river that made the ice glow like the northern aurora. 

While he’d been tumbling across the area, the behemoth staggered as the Soul Star sank through its scales and into its soul.

The monster let out another howl that sounded like an ice cliff tumbling into a frozen ocean and its tentacles thrashed in the air. Trails of ice followed them, swiftly forming into a spiraling storm wind of icy rain and dark wind.

The behemoth’s tentacles released the ship and it slid forward on the ice, propelled by more of its limbs, as it hurled the storm toward Kelin. 

The winds were already two hundred feet across, forming a furious disk of ice and destruction, and they swept toward him like a wall covering the sky.

Kelin planted his staff in the air beside him and created a ward as he watched it come. A blazing shield of soulfire leapt upward as the ward and his sigil combined together, layered into a golden dome.

The storm crashed into his ward and sheets of icy rain sliced into it with a violent impact, making it sound like he was caught on a battlefield as enemy swords slammed into him, but the storm wasn’t able to break the layers of defense. 

His attention was on the Soul Star as it sank deeper into the behemoth’s spirit and exploded outward. Five blades of soul flames sliced outward in every direction and left devastation in their wake. 

Everywhere the spell passed, the creature’s soul was sliced apart and flames erupted upward.

The behemoth froze, its tentacles hanging in the air as it tried to understand what was happening. It was still surrounded by the streams of ice it had been summoning to create the storm.

Below Kelin’s feet, the Wildfire he’d thrown was beginning to rise, catching on one spirit after another and burning through them. Flames spread in every direction, flowing upward from the ravines and filling the ice.

Streams of prismatic light illuminated the maze from within until it looked like he was standing on top of a primordial dawn and the sun was breaking through a land of frozen time.

As the ice blazed, even the darkness that was everywhere began to give way and the area brightened, revealing ancient stones and water beneath.

It seemed like this entire dungeon was a frozen ocean cave, with ice covering the water below. 

Kelin reached out to the Wildfire and gathered it, intensifying a wave that he sent across the distance toward the behemoth.

The spell swept over it, making the creature howl again. 

By then, it was too late.

The Wildfire surged into its soul and flowed along the path the Soul Star had created, seizing the flames that were already there. Rainbow fires ignited in its path.

The behemoth let out a howl as it burned. 

Ethereal smoke surged upward from its body, tracing ghostly tentacles and thrashing limbs in the air, and its eyes blazed with fury as they turned to the same shade as the flames.

An explosion of Wildfire tore out of its body, shredding the rest of its soul and turning it to power that flooded across the area.

As the backlash of the spell swept toward Kelin, he raised his hand to intercept it. It slammed into him with a familiar force, rocking his soul wards, and then it began to change into pure soul energy.

The behemoth slumped to the ice, its tentacles loosening as life fled from its body. Its humongous form crashed to the ground, shaking the entire maze. Behind it, the ship shuddered as fragments broke away and crashed to the ice below.

Notifications began to ring in Kelin’s mind, but he let them accumulate as he focused on the Wildfire raging through the air.

Before long, everything was a sea of Wildfire and all the spirits that had served the behemoth were dead. The cave was filled with streams of flame that made it look like the heart of an inferno.

As he calmed the spell, he found a stone that stuck up from the ice and reshaped it into a seat. Then he sat down on it and turned his attention to the notifications.

There were quite a few of them, as well as all the Aura gains from using Wildfire. 

For the sake of convenience, he only focused on the most important ones.

Congratulations, Lord of Wildfire.

You have cleared the Chaos Remnant: The Edge of Night.

You gain 4 Levels.

You have reached the maximum experience for the First Evolution.

You now meet the requirements to Evolve.

He ignored the attribute gains from the levels and tossed the free points into Constitution. He could check those in a few minutes, after his Evolution.

He’d only needed four levels and this fight had been enough. 

He could feel the energy of the Path beginning to spiral around him. It was pressing on reality, bending space and the elements as it gathered.

He dealt with the other notifications quickly.

For defeating the Dark Ice Behemoth while at a lower Evolution, you have earned an Epic Ability Reward. You may choose one Ability to advance by a single tier, to a maximum of Epic.

Make your choice now.

He considered the options again, but he already knew what he was going to choose, so he did. His Subclass needed the boost to get to a higher tier before the next Evolution, to make sure he got a better version.

Congratulations, Lord of Wildfire. 

Your Subclass Ability: Artisan’s Sight has gained a tier and reached Epic.

At the Epic tier, your Perception of magical artifacts, natural energies, and the flow of mana is enhanced by 60%.

At this tier, you gain an improved awareness of the natural forces of the world and their interactions, which is necessary to harness the more powerful aspects of runic engraving and enchanting.

An Artisan needs to see the mana of the world, as well as to determine the quality of the objects he encounters. This ability dramatically enhances your perception, boosting your awareness of natural energies and the flows of mana, including energies that are not intrinsic to your own nature. 

As the ability changed, he felt his perception of the world and its energies leaping upward. He could even see some of the flow of energy in the darkness around him, which he had missed before.

The bonus from the ability had only increased by 10% over its previous Elite tier, but its enhancement to his perception had become far more powerful.

He was content with the choice.

Crafting aside, perception and the ability to change what you saw were the foundation of magic itself. 

He turned his attention to the only important notification that was left.

For clearing this remnant while at a lower Evolution, you have earned a Reward that corresponds to its intrinsic nature, as well as your success in the dungeon so far.

As the Path spoke, a shimmer in the air gathered endless streams of mana and energy, which swiftly condensed into a crystalline shard on his palm. 

It was about six inches long and three inches across with a hexagonal pattern like a column of  pure sapphire, but it looked like it was made of black ice and it felt freezing to the touch.

Despite the temperature, it didn’t harm him.

You have gained a Shard of Dark Ice (Epic Elemental Shard, Soulbound). 

Affinities: Ice, Darkness.

This item can be used with a corresponding spell to summon an elemental with the matching affinities of Ice and Darkness. 

Once an elemental is summoned, the shard will take the place of its heart and act as its core, reducing the mana expenditure and the need for other spell components, while improving the control to an instinctive level.

The duration of the summoning depends on the skill of the summoner and the amount of mana infused. This shard is durable and can be reused without limit, but while it is difficult to damage, it is not indestructible.

The shard shimmered on his palm, radiating a sense of power, and it was a clear match with the Spirit of the Dark Ocean spell.

There were always good rewards for running a dungeon while under-level and especially under the recommended Evolution.

This one was worthwhile. 

It would make it a lot easier to summon a Dark Ocean Elemental, but he would have to test it out later. 

He tucked the shard away in his storage and turned his attention to the power of the Path that was building around him. 

It looked like a golden and rainbow whirlwind covering the cavern, like the Wildfire that he’d summoned had burned away everything in existence until only this storm was left.

The voice of the Path echoed in his mind.

Are you prepared to Evolve?

“Yes,” he agreed. 

The word echoed out into the storm of power, making it swell even higher. Then the storm swept toward him and the world disappeared.

Space and time froze.

It felt like the world was turning around him and only he was staying still.

When he could see again, he was standing in the Void and looking out at the stars. They gleamed in a thousand colors as they stretched away endlessly into the dark. Between them, streams of power from the elements and other sources filled the distance, creating a grand tapestry of life.

The same as with his First Evolution, there was no guide to help him while he evolved. He didn’t want one and the Path knew it.

There was only a table beside him with a cup of steaming coffee and a plate of cookies, which he looked at and chuckled. 

He wasn’t sure if the Path had put that here or if he had done it unconsciously, since this realm was basically a reflection of his inner self.

He had been enjoying his coffee and the snacks at the resort.

Since it was here, he picked up the cup of coffee and took a sip. Then he grabbed a cookie and bit into it as he looked out at the stars.

It was good thinking food.

Outside, time was moving slowly. No matter how long he spent here, only an hour would pass in the real world.

Each of the stars was a potential class and the energy between them was a representation of his own affinities and experiences, like his traits. 

He reached up into the sky and his hand stretched across the Void. When he pulled it back, he was holding one of the stars. 

He examined it for a moment before he put it back.

Then he pulled down another one and looked at it.

It was easy for him to sort and compare the classes here, but a closer look revealed some of the abilities that came with each class, so he needed to consider them.

Before his First Evolution, he’d been pulled in to meet the Sovereign of Silver Chaos, who had explained how he died and about his potential to become the Sovereign of Souls, if he was able to grasp it.

That meeting had set the foundation for his current Path.

The Sovereign had told him to look for him again during his next Evolutions, but so far Kelin was on his own, which meant that the Sovereign trusted him to make his choices.

He did want to meet the Sovereign again and ask about the state of the war, as well as if he knew about any remnants of Irian that were still in the galaxy, but it could wait until he was finished.

Right now, his biggest concern was finding a Path for his Second Evolution that would take him closer to his goal. 

He’d added Ascending Flame and Flame of Life during his First Evolution, which pushed his abilities closer to the idea of a soul’s rebirth in flame, and he also had Mystic Echo from his subclass.

What he needed now was something to continue the process, to grasp the concept of flame leading into reincarnation and the cycle of souls.

Time slipped away as he studied the stars, searching through one after another.