CC 10: Thesaurize ~ Twenty-Five!

There were several options that Joe could pursue at this moment, but was going to go with what Jaxon had mentioned, which did make the most sense: taking the message as literally as possible, using Essence Cycle to try and see the flows of power and where they had broken. From the very little amount of information that Joe had been able to gather about Vanaheim, it was a wizarding caste system, where those with the most power had the most influence.

If that ended up being accurate, it would make sense that they would be interested in the additional senses that could be given by royals, and leave it as a backup in case they locked themselves out of their own vaults. With that in mind, and going off of the context clues in the wording, Joe closed his eyes to block out his physical sight.

To his surprise, with his extra senses fully active and trained on the door in front of him, the words still seemed to be burning on the back of his eyelids. He couldn’t read the script directly, but two of the sections seemed dull and gray instead of mimicking the shimmering opalescence of the others.

“It’s… not enough.” It took him a while to make that realization, but simply seeing it didn’t reveal what he needed. Joe activated his Magical Synesthesia—another sense given by a ruler—and attempted to listen to the magic of the building itself echoing out into the world around it. He manipulated a single strand of mana from the tip of his finger, bringing it closer to one of the two spaces. Something began letting out a high, clear note, and Joe paused; uncertain if it was a warning tone, or excitement over being whole once more.

He pulled his mana back, dropping it down to the secondary space, which also let out a note, but of a different tone. Joe watched as both tried to reach out and grasp the final circuit they would need in order to open, and frowned. “The coloration. It’s… wrong.”

At first, the Ritualist had ascribed the strangeness of the words to being broken, not their completed versions. But as he read over them again, an ability he hadn’t been able to put much use into was practically shouting at him. “Both of them are wrong. This is a trap, the actual Runes are somewhere else.”

Usually his ability from Tatum to see if written words were ‘true’ or not didn't work with magical enchantments or the like, but this seemed to be an exception since the instructions were actual words instead of magical formulae. Keeping his eyes closed, Joe fumbled the vault, seeking answers as his head began to pound with terrible pain from keeping all of his extra senses activated at the same time. He could feel steam boiling off his skin as body heated up, and his mind began overloading with sensory information.

But he was able to look deeper. Reading over the ancient words, he attempted to see the magical cores of the Runes instead of what was written on the surface. “The physical is but an illusion. Let your mind's eye perceive the depths of the lock’s inner workings. Feel the resistance as the door relinquishes its grip on the world.”

Over and over, he repeated the words as his headache built. Finally, he noticed a discrepancy. Looking closer, he found a word that was actually acting as a lock, instead of being a part of the instructions as it was pretending to be. Using the mana he’d extended on his finger, Joe scratched out the single word that had been translated as ‘the resistance’. With that gone, the instructions read as, ‘feel as the door relinquishes its grip on the world’.

There was a burst of static electricity as the Rune fizzled out, followed by shouts of anger and confusion, which cut off as the door let out a grinding *clack*. Having clearly been closed for untold millenia, it loudly protested as gears began shifting, mechanisms became moving, and the enormous entryway began unfolding. Joe released his orb as well as his other skills, gasping for breath as he massaged his throbbing temples.

Perception +3!

Luck + 2!

Socar led him away to sit as the doors continued to shudder and grind. “Are you going to be okay, buddy?”

“Yeah. Just need a moment. Gained a couple Characteristic points. Perception makes sense, I pushed it to my limit, but why so much Luck?” Joe was already feeling better, but took all the time he needed until he felt perfect. He hopped to his feet, rubbing his arms with his hands to try and get the blood flowing. “Is it just me, or is it getting colder?”

“Colder for sure.” Heartpiercer pointed at Jaxon, who had stopped moving entirely, his eyes open and lightly frosted over. “Are you sure he’s not part snake? Whenever he's left alone too long, he tries to hibernate.”

“Snap out of it, Jaxon!” Joe called at his friend, who began wiggling back and forth once again.

Right about then, the doors began opening enough to see inside. One of the Dwarves even had his face pressed up against the gap as it widened, and everyone was clamoring to do the same. Then that Dwarf went stiff and let out a strangled gasp as a wrist-thick icicle slammed through his face and out the back of his head.

For a mere instant, there was total silence as the Dwarf fell back, caught by the press of bodies behind him. A blast of frigid air pushed out of the doors, flinging them wide and sending dozens of gathered people flying. Joe's heart seemed to fall into his stomach as the open doorway revealed a dimly lit antichamber filled with an eerie aura.

Instead of treasures or artifacts, a chilling sight awaited them. Dozens of Undying Ice Wraiths were standing there, those in the front showing signs of moving, while the ones directly behind them seemed to still be coming out of a coma-like state.

Congratulations! You have opened the Vault of Winter’s Life! A new enemy type will be added to future Beast Waves for any settlement you are a part of on Jotunheim!

Quest update: A vault you issued a quest for has been opened! Make sure to accurately assess the value of its contents.

Going by the cursing and shuffling, Joe was certain he wasn’t the only person that had gotten the first message.

The area erupted into chaos as wraiths unleashed their icy powers, some of them vanishing entirely as they entered stealth and closed in on the intruders. The already frigid air gained a frostbite aura that slowed the reactions of the warm-blooded people, sapping their energy. The very essence of decision-making seemed to freeze in their minds, leaving them vulnerable to the sudden and vicious attack.

Around the entirety of the area, a blizzard sprang up; engulfing the area in a whirlwind of snow and ice. The raging storm cut off any chance of escape, creating an arena where visibility was reduced to mere feet. It also had the unfortunate effect of making the stealthed wraiths even more effective, allowing the creatures to strike from unexpected angles and sowing further chaos among the ranks. Joe finally got to witness what happened when one of them managed to grip someone with the blueish-green touch spell: the affected limb turned black nearly instantly, succumbing to a devastating frostbite that left the area looking as though it needed to be amputated immediately.

The Dwarves were seasoned warriors, and thanks to their centuries of experience were able to swiftly adapt to the situation and form ranks. Their disciplined movements allowed them to push back after only a few moments of vulnerability; weapons lashed out, axes biting deeply into outstretched boney limbs as hammers swung with deadly precision, beating skulls into powder—even if doing so required a half-dozen strikes.

At the same time, the back ranks of fighters were struggling to find their targets. Arrows were deflected off the dense bones of the wraiths, unable to find a fleshy area to penetrate or sink into. Frustration mounted as the archers shouted back and forth at each other, their already seemingly-futile attacks often blown off course by the howling wind to strike allies. Mages were having an issue similar to the archers, as any type of area-of-effect spell was going to damage their own side as well, and many single-target spells would be ineffective or downright dangerous to use in these conditions.

Still, a few skilled marksmen among them adjusted their tactics and infused their arrows with skills in an attempt to bypass the hardened defenses. Heartpiercer lived up to her name, arrows finding their mark one after another, striking true on their chests and leaving shattered bone debuffs ready for the melee fighters to take advantage of.

Long moments of the clash passed, and it was clear that they were becoming overwhelmed by the numbers and devastating attacks of the wraiths. It was nearly impossible to regroup or communicate effectively, and Joe made a snap decision to attempt a retreat. “Everyone, get out of here! Fall back, fall back!”

He tried to lead the way, but the combination of the blizzard immediately isolating him and the fact that two glowing hands reached out of thin air and tried to clamp on his face—which he barely avoided—convinced Joe that escape was likely not in the cards at the moment. A sense of desperation began to set in as the casualties mounted, but the surviving fighters struggled intensely to hold their ground.

Now back in the mix, Joe began attempting to direct his team, as he had already faced one of these creatures in combat and had a better sense of how they would attempt their attacks. The tide ever-so-slowly began to turn in their favor, the approximately eighty defenders whittling down the numbers of the wraiths as time passed.

The more of the wraiths that fell, the weaker the blizzard around them became, until a high-ranking Dwarf was finally able to be seen and heard above the storm and managed to rally the remaining people and coordinate their movements. The battle raged on with a heavy focus on brutal attacks to batter through resistances, each clash of metal against bone echoing through the howling wind and inspiring everyone to fight harder.

Suddenly, the air was its usual level of calm, with only a constant, single direction of wind blowing through the area. Joe took a step toward the open vault door, unknowingly moving out of his defended position in the formation. Two stealthed wraiths lunged forward, and Joe jumped back with a yelp, causing the first to miss, but allowing the second to latch onto his ankle.

His Exquisite Shell flared brightly where the hand was clamped, and Joe tried to shove the creature off of him, failing to do so and only managing to give the wraith another leg to grab. Intense cold literally burned at him, and he watched in real-time as the strength of his shell plummeted.

Exquisite Shell: 7,991/12,002 (Caution! Damage is continuing to accumulate!)

Exquisite Shell: 6,040/12,002

Jaxon slid into view next to Joe, his fingers jamming down into the hollow eye sockets of the wraith. With a grunt and a twist, he popped the head off of the body of the monster, and its grip went slack. “No, you numbskull! Bad! Things like this are why you get a terrible reputation, stop it! Bone voyage.”

He pulled a leg back as though he were going to drop kick the skull, but Joe's shouted warning reached him in time. “You need to destroy the head! Otherwise it won't count as defeating it.”

“Ah, what a shame.” Jaxon *tsked* at the information and began pummeling the vulnerable skull against the icy ground. The other creature had already been slain by this point, and Joe pulled himself to his feet. He felt shaky, like he would never be warm again.

“Did we get all of them?” Looking around the battlefield, the Ritualist’s eyes went blank as he took in the devastation. “What…?”

The area was strewn with fallen warriors and shattered bones, showcasing their victory, and the price that had been paid for it. Then he remembered that he could do something about it. “Everyone! Gather the bodies of the slain, clear out the skulls. Move fast; I'm a Cleric, and I can mass revive everyone!”

The lamentation and fury that had been building vanished as soon as people were able to process his words, their thoughts still muddled by the chilling debuff they’d been subjected to. Once the message was clear, everyone moved as quickly as their bodies allowed, pulling each of their fallen comrades into line next to each other.

Even with the tension that was rapidly mounting, Joe refused to activate his spell until the last of the skulls had been gathered and accounted for, then moved out of range of his magic. Taking a deep breath, Joe prepared to activate his new, upgraded spell for the first time. “It's going to suck not having any magic for a whole day, but if ever there's been a time where it's worth it… Mass Resurrection Aura!”

Anything he was going to say in the next few moments was cut off as he choked, his mana completely vacating his body and dumping into the surroundings. As it passed the outer membrane of his skin, it shifted into a dark energy that was clearly of a higher order than what his body produced naturally. There was no mistaking the fact that this was a Deity-channeled spell instead of something that Joe had managed to learn and make functional on his own.

Tendrils of darkness reached out for every body on the ground around him, and if they were too far away, Joe ensured that he got close enough for the spell to touch them over the few seconds that it was active. “If I could only combine this with Omnivault, I can't imagine how many people I’d be able to bring back in a warzone.”

As the spell ended, Joe collapsed to his knees, his connection to his mana pool severed. He couldn't remember the last time he’d felt so weak, so powerless, but just before his eyes rolled up into his head, he saw the bodies on the ground around him begin to stir.

“Worth…” was all he managed before darkness took him.