Wild Era 2, Ch 25: Lich of Decay

It took precisely an hour for the silver light of the Path to fade from Maro, Galin, and Serai. 

When it disappeared, their classes were different.

Kelin analyzed them with a light touch, just enough to see what had changed.

Serai. Winter Sylph. Level 101. Spirit of the Falling Snow-Winter Enchantress. 

Galin Shieldmount. Mountain Dwarf. Level 101. Earthbreaker Fortress-Earth Warder.

Maro Toren. Human. Level 101. Axe of Rage-Weapon Smith.

Their primary classes were all Epic, thanks to the abilities they’d upgraded earlier, and it looked like they had followed his advice about subclasses.

Serai had an upgrade to her racial class and an enchanting subclass that focused on Winter, while Galin had stuck to his defensive build and added Earth elemental wards.

Maro had upgraded his Fire Berserker class to a higher tier and focused his smithing subclass on weapons.

Their subclasses were Rare, but that was probably the best they’d been able to get. They would need another Epic ability or two first, especially one that related to their subclass, or to level all of their subclass abilities to the maximum like he had.

They were a well-rounded team for creating weapons, defending an area, and enchanting.

He wasn’t sure what specific abilities they’d obtained, but since it was a First Evolution change, they would only have obtained one new ability each for the subclass.

“Congratulations,” Kelin said as he looked over at them. “Was it what you expected?”

“So strange,” Maro said, shaking his head. “It was a world of fire with raging spirits flowing around me, but an island of calm at the center. Then an old berserker showed up and taught me a few things.”

“It was a Winter elemental for me,” Serai said, “in a land of crystal palaces and falling snow.”

“Dwarven cavern here, with ornate carvings on every wall and legends of my people,” Galin said briefly. “An ancient place...I’ve never seen those caverns myself, only heard about them in stories. It was something.”

“Now you have to buy the drinks,” Kelin said as he grinned at them.

“Hey, no, you were first, so you have first dibs on buying,” Galin’s protest was mixed with a laugh.

They joked around for a few minutes before they got back on track and each of them explained what they’d gained.

“I have a new ability to imbue Winter enchantments,” Serai said. “I only know a couple of patterns though. It relies mostly on my innate affinity. Then my racial class got stronger...rather holistically when it comes to magic. I can even do this.”

Her form dissolved into a swirl of snowflakes and she appeared again a dozen feet to the side, smiling at them.

“The distance is short,” she said, “but it’s very quick.”

“That’s useful,” Kelin said, nodding. 

Short range teleports were excellent for a pure mage. He might learn one soon too, but she’d beat him to it.

“I can help you gather more enchantments,” he added, “but I suspect you’ll start to see them everywhere, as long as you study forms of ice magic and Winter. You’ll naturally acquire more.”

Serai nodded thoughtfully.

“Mine’s a straightforward upgrade to my Fire Berserker class,” Maro said, “but it’s specialized on axes. I learned Axe of Rage that matches the class name and then one of my old abilities upgraded to Eye of the Storm, which focuses on maintaining a clear mind while gathering rage as energy. I don’t have to worry about losing control as much now. 

“And my subclass is a specialized version of my last class, using fire magic to refine weapons. I can only do very basic strengthening enchantments though, nothing complex.”

“More will come in time,” Kelin said, nodding as he turned to Galin.

“I followed your advice and focused on one combat class,” the dwarf said. “Since I had a shield subclass, I made this a defensive main one, which helps to merge my old axe and shield classes together. It’s a pretty good merger of abilities and still has solid offense. 

“Then I took a warding subclass,” he added. “It focuses on earth magic wards and defense. The main ability is just called Earth Ward. It’s general, but flexible. I learned a couple of patterns to make wards with it, both temporary and permanent ones.”

“Good choices all around,” Kelin said approvingly. “You all have some forms of magic and both offensive and defensive abilities, and Serai is more nimble than ever.

“My Evolution upgraded my fire-based mage class,” he added, joining in on the explanation so they would feel like it was fair. “My spells do more damage the longer they last, and for my subclass, the talismans I create have an echo effect.”

He explained briefly and then moved on.

“More importantly, we’re all about the same level now,” he said. “I’m only one ahead of you.  You’ll start to pass me soon since my experience is shared with Gaius, but I’ll catch up later.”

After this dungeon, while they were resting back in town, he was going to head out again. He would only take a brief break to make more talismans if he ran too low. 

“Let’s finish this,” he said as he stored away his work table. “We can clear out the last of the undead, which should be easier, and then take care of the boss.”

He dusted off his hands as he stood up.

He’d made a handful of talismans while waiting, but he was down to about seventy-five shielding talismans and fifty infusion ones, under half of what he’d started with.

The others spent a few minutes adjusting to their new abilities and planning how to use them, but besides that they were ready in quick order.

Waves of unpleasant grey rain mixed with strange shadows began to fall across the city as they headed out from the bone cathedral. 

It was unsettling weather and it made him wonder what was happening in the world outside, but he pushed it aside as they searched for the remaining undead.

They spent hours tracking back and forth across the streets and eliminating everything they found. 

There were about fifty left and with their Evolutions finally matching up to the dungeon’s level, their progress was smooth. 

What had been overwhelming attacks had become just a regular strong hit, something that could be blocked with Galin’s shield or Maro’s axe. 

The undead were still stronger than them by a dozen levels or more, so they got knocked around a bit and had to rely on tactics and gear, but it was nothing like before. 

Their weapons and spells tore into the undead and their defenses didn’t suffer as much.

Kelin didn’t even need to use talismans to help protect them. He just had to patch up a few wounds here and there.

As they cleared the monsters and headed toward the final boss, they gained another level, reaching 102 to match Kelin.

Eventually, there were no more undead left throughout the city. They scouted the streets for a couple of hours and Kelin used a Soulfire Infusion talisman to boost a sensing spell that flared outward to make sure.

“It’s time,” he said as he turned toward the boss’s location. “We’ll be there in an hour.”

The final encounter was inside a castle on a hill above the city. The road snaked around the hill on broken cobblestone streets as they headed toward the gate.

Towering columns of stone twisted upward beside the road like a dragon’s spine, while the sheer cliff to their right fell for a hundred feet to the city below.

When they reached the gate, it was thirty feet tall and almost as wide. A massive stone portcullis hung above like a giant mouth waiting to fall. 

Dull black inscriptions crawled across the stone of the walls. As the grey sunlight touched them, they moved subtly like crawling things.

“Creepy,” Serai muttered as she looked at them. “Are all undead magics like this?”

“Some of it,” Kelin said, frowning at the inscriptions. “Some are like the geometric and elemental enchantments you’d expect. It depends on their history and what they were before they became undead. 

“I think this is the Lord of Decay’s preference. These inscriptions feel like they’re eroding the stone, but they must have a way not to. Perhaps they erode enemies instead. Try not to touch them.”

“His hospitality leaves something to be desired,” Galin grumbled as he moved farther away from the wall, “but maybe if I were as dead as that Tomb Guardian, I’d like it better.”

“I’m not planning to end up that way,” Maro said, shaking his head as he gripped his axe, “seeing that once was enough.”

Serai raised her hand and a layer of ice formed over the inscriptions, but the enchantments hissed as the writhing energy inside grew stronger. The ice turned dark and fell away in chunks, dropping from the wall like it was rotting.

“Unpleasant,” she murmured as she turned away from it.

Kelin glanced at the effect and then shook his head. He pulled out a handful of shielding talismans and layered them five deep over everyone, including himself.

He wasn’t sure what they would be facing and he’d rather not find out the hard way that they hadn’t prepared enough.

Then he checked the spells on his staff and headed forward.

The gate opened onto a bailey inside, followed by a smaller gate in an interior wall, but the castle itself was partially broken, missing chunks of the roof and some of the walls, and tumbled stones covered the area.

The gate was half open, showing a shadowy path inside.

He scanned the area, tracing the energies that surrounded the place, and frowned. The soul energy here was strange, mixed with multiple signatures that showed recent activity.

“There might be more than one thing inside,” he said. “Some of the signatures look like living beings were here recently, which could mean someone else has entered the dungeon. Get ready.”

His warning made everyone’s expression grow heavy as they looked at the entrance. Their hands checked their weapons as their alert level rose.

This was a guild-registered dungeon, so if the guild had known about another team, they would have been told. That meant the other team was running it rogue, which was dangerous. 

It was also the main source of conflict between adventurers. 

There had been no traces of anyone else in the dungeon until now, so they had either snuck in and run past them toward the boss, or they’d entered earlier. 

With the guild guards outside, it had probably been earlier, but if the boss had been killed, there would have been an announcement. Then the dungeon would have tossed everyone out so it could restore itself.

They had either died or they were still there.

Kelin checked the spells on his staff and kept a couple of talismans in his free hand as he led them forward.

The opening in the inner gate was covered in shadows, but as they passed through, rays of grey light came through the ruined ceiling and illuminated the interior of what had once been the great hall of this castle.

Broken stone chairs and long tables were scattered across the area, but most of them had been hurled to the sides of the hall, leaving a path in the middle clear that led up to a dais at the end.

A single throne made of bone sat on the dais, engraved with the same decay enchantments as the walls outside. It was seven feet tall and three feet wide, its presence stark and bleak.

Sitting on the throne was a lich with a crown of necrotic flames and dark robes that hid most of its body, but its bones were visible between the gaps. Its eyes shone with a frozen blue light that surveyed the interior of its hall.

Scattered on the floor in front of it were the remains of an adventuring team. 

There were tumbled limbs, ruined cloaks, shattered armor and weapons standing up from their bodies. Some of it was driven through them and others were still gripped in their hands. 

Trails of their blood were splashed across the floor, creating a wild mosaic below the throne. 

Dark and cold runes burned among the blood, squirming like maggots, and trails of the same energy covered the bodies, slowly digging into them.

The voice of the Path echoed in Kelin’s mind.

You have discovered the Final Challenge of this Remnant

Slay The Lord of Shadowfall.

That was all the Path said, but Kelin’s analysis filled in the rest. He scanned the lich on the throne first.

Lich of Decay. Level 135. Elite. 

Lord of Shadowfall.

The undead was ten levels over what it should have been, which was explained by the corpses scattered on the floor. 

They’d given it a lot of experience. More importantly, they’d given it something else.

There were the remains of a few undead servants in the hall, things this team must have killed before they died, but they no longer mattered.

The team had taken their place.

The lich looked up at their entrance, but it didn’t rise from its throne. Instead, lines of necrotic energy writhed across the former team’s bodies as it infused them with a massive amount of mana.

The bodies twitched and jerked. Patches of skin decayed from their bodies, showing glowing white bone as their eyes were filled with blue flames.

Kelin analyzed them one by one as they rose to their feet.

Bone Mage. Sarathian. Undead. Level 121.  

Archer of Decay. Sarathian. Undead. Level 120. 

Rotblade Warrior. Sarathian. Undead. Level 122. 

Silent Thief. Sarathian. Undead. Level 122. 

Necrotic Priest. Sarathian. Undead. Level 124.

They no longer had names, just a single undead class. They were also all Sarathian, which perhaps explained why they’d been running the dungeon rogue.

The empire wasn’t on good terms with the guild right now.

“Damn liches...” Galin muttered as he stared at the party. “Even if they’re rogues, they deserved a better ending.”

“They’re Sarathians too,” Serai said, sounding puzzled. “Does this have something to do with their undead cores?”

“No time to worry about it,” Maro said as he raised his axe. A wave of flame made the air crackle around him. “Now we have to clean up after them. We can figure out their story later.”

“Their levels should have been the same as they are now or a little higher,” Serai said as she was surrounded by a freezing wind. Snowflakes clung to her hair and staff. “That lich can’t be normal. Be careful.”

Kelin agreed with her, but he didn’t waste time on words. He had already tossed a sigil into the air and drawn a warding circle on the floor. 

As the lich raised its bony hand and pointed at them across the distance, the undead team ripped the weapons that had killed them out of their bodies and gathered others from the floor. 

Wielding the stained items, they turned as one and moved forward.

The thief disappeared in a blur as it melted into the shadows, while the priest began chanting a spell, and the rot-infused warrior raced forward as it raised a two-handed sword.

Their movements were fast and fluid.

At the same time, the archer and mage began to attack from range. A rain of a dozen dark arrows shattered against Kelin’s ward while a wall of necrotic flames leapt upward around the outside.

The attacks didn’t break through, but they obscured some of the view.

Kelin tossed a soulfire infusion talisman at his barrier to reinforce it and then he created a sphere of flames and hurled it across the floor, where it erupted into an inferno around the priest and mage.

Immediately after, he let out a wave of Soul Paralysis, which focused on a blur that was closing in on his ward. 

The Silent Thief froze as the shadows faded from around him. His form was a mix of decaying flesh and skeletal bones as he wielded two dark short swords. 

Maro leapt forward at the opening, swinging straight for it. A six-foot long axe of flame formed a duplicate around the one in his hands and sliced into the thief’s chest. 

The thief flew backward, bending around the blow as a charred line of cracked bone appeared on his chest, but as he tumbled across the floor, he recovered. 

The undead kept a hold of its blades as it planted a fist on the ground and sprang off of it. It tumbled through the air a couple of times as it dissipated the force of the blow and then faded into the shadows again. 

The priest and the mage let out crackling hisses as they stepped away from the inferno, but Kelin willed more mana into it, expanding its dimensions so it would follow them.

The archer had dodged off to the side and was continuing to send a rain of arrows down on the ward, but Serai focused her attention on him.

She stepped up to the edge of the circle and began to hum, creating a soft and lilting sound that turned piercing at strange moments, like the howl of an icy storm.

A frozen wind blew across the air, coating everything in front of her in snow and ice. Layers of it formed on the archer, trying to seal him into place.

The archer wasn’t affected by the cold, but the weight of the ice slowed him down and his firing stopped as his arms began to droop. He struggled under the weight of it, but Serai’s mana was strong and layer after layer of ice continued to bury him.

It wouldn’t be long before he was completely sealed.

Galin shout’s was next, focusing on the mage and priest. He slammed his shield into the earth and a wave of earthen mana crashed down on them, knocking them to the floor among the flames. 

The Rotblade Warrior was still loose and his two-handed blade slashed down onto Kelin’s ward, accompanied by a ten-foot-tall line of dark energy that surrounded it. The air around the attack hissed with an air of decay.

The strike sent a shudder through the ward and a crack appeared from top to bottom, but Kelin spun the energy inside, swiftly making the damage fade away into the whole structure.

Maro and Galin both leapt forward to deal with the warrior, but they were wise enough to stay inside the ward. Their weapons lashed out, one as a fiery axe and the other covered with dense earth mana.

The warrior staggered slightly under the blows, but its defense was high and as an undead it recovered quickly. It also had all of its former abilities to draw on.

A wave of dark earth and mana rose up around its feet, flooding the area with necrotic energy and stone as it formed a six-foot-high tide that swept toward the ward.

“No you don’t,” Galin growled as he slammed his shield into the ground again. “Don’t corrupt the earth like that.”

The force of his mana crashed down on the area as he fought for control of the stone against the warrior. Dark shards and earthen spears split off from the wave in half a dozen directions, slamming against the ward and flying into the distance.

Maro followed up as an arc of flame sliced into the undead’s chest and sent it staggering back again.

Only a couple of seconds had passed and the priest and mage were slowly climbing to their feet inside the inferno. Dark auras radiated from both of them, resisting the flames as they moved.

Kelin had already assessed the undead team’s strength, and given a few minutes, he was confident that their team would win without many injuries as long as they stayed behind his ward.

Despite the nearly twenty levels the undead had on them, it wasn’t significantly different from the earlier encounters in the dungeon. It would just take some time to grind them down and he could cover for any problems.

The fact that the others had epic classes now counted as well. Their true strength would be revealed over time as they added additional attributes, but they had still received bonuses to their abilities, similar to Kelin’s improvements with soul and fire magic from his class.

At that moment, however, the lich slowly stood up from its throne.

“Weak guardians...” the Lord of Shadowfall hissed. Its voice sounded like cracking bone and tendons popping. “An embarrassment to me and the Lord of Decay.”

It looked at the ward circle and its attention fixed on Kelin and Serai as it hissed again.

“Mages...be bound and silent. Here, your strength can only rot away.”

The lich raised its hands and its voice echoed across the hall. It was full of power, echoing with the partial force of a Law, but the strength came from the wards.

“Touch of Decay.”

Its words made the enchantments on the stone walls and floor surge as a disruptive force swept through the area. Instead of landing with an impact, it hissed and bubbled, surging like a wave of plague and rot.

The energy of Kelin’s Soulfire Inferno crackled as black specks invaded it. They spread swiftly, like mold, covering the flames in a haze, and the inferno wavered as their power was twisted.

An instant later, the inferno could no longer hold itself together. It disintegrated into wisps of flame that carried signs of the same rot, which continued to fall apart until there was nothing left.

Kelin severed the mana connection to the inferno before the rot could flow back toward him, but he still felt the taste of it in his mind, like a sour and putrid echo.

Serai’s layer of ice on the archer was next. Black specks flowed across it and sank in, and the ice decayed like it had been touched by salt. Massive holes appeared, swiftly freeing the undead inside.

The archer ripped free from the ice and brushed the remains away from itself, which fell to the ground and disintegrated.

Kelin’s ward followed as a wave of dark specks began to eat away at it. They spread swiftly, barely slower than they were on the inferno, and holes appeared.

He glanced up at his sigil, which was still shining brightly, but there was a dark haze gathering around it as well.

He focused on Spell Disruption, slicing away the strands of energy as they dug into the shield. 

He could see them clearly, like black threads filled with specks of dark energy, but his efforts weren’t fast enough and the holes began to grow larger.

Now it made sense why the Sarathian team had died despite their levels. 

With an ability like this, there would be no such thing as a spell defense, or perhaps any defense. It was well beyond what should have been at Level 125 or 135. 

If the rot had the same effect on their bodies, it would be even worse. It was full of the influence of the Lord of Decay, some remnant of what this place had been. 

The dangers of Shadowfall had shown themselves.