111, 1/2

The North River flowed up from below the Lower Wall of Ar’Kendrithyst, where it ascended through the North River Tower before pouring out in the upper part of the Upper Layer. All three of Ar’Kendrithyst’s rivers were similarly made. The kilometer-wide North River roared out of its great kendrithyst tower then spilled onto a similarly wide aqueduct, where it flowed mostly south, but also west. But there was a point, thirty kilometers from its headwaters, where it abruptly curved north.

This was where Erick found Dorofiend’s lair. Or rather, where Fallopolis guided him. This place was halfway down the Upper Layer, where the sky was almost completely hidden by towering, glowing kendrithyst, moisture filled the air, and a constant pounding of water on water echoed for kilometers upon kilometers.

Upon this bend in the waters, there was a deepening, and a stretching. The bend had to be a few hundred meters deep and a few thousand meters wide at its largest points, but its most noticed part were the good two dozen waterfalls that poured from high to low along the entire length. It could have been a pretty place. It was not. The entire place was a mess, with rainbow algae in some spots, green in others, and trees made of body parts growing everywhere. Some of the trees stretched up a good thirty meters. Others, were more like bushes. Every one of the trees were slightly animated. They’d probably get more animated if Erick deigned to get closer. He would not be doing that, though, if he had any choice.

He could tell that this land had not always been this way. He guessed, that if he put down his [Domain of Light], it would probably expose beaching areas all along that coast. His light would turn mud-covered stone into patios and decks, where people could sit beside the river and enjoy the ambiance. If it weren’t for all the awfulness, Erick could easily see this waterfall-laden land to be rather fun to swim in. But as it was, the water lapped against obviously dangerous algae, and rushed under moving limb-trees. No one in their right mind would think to take a dip in that. Besides, the waters were dark, too. That was another problem. The North River drank in the light of the city, all around, and it shouldn’t have. Water could be dirty, yes, and this water certainly was that, but the shadows were too thick, in Erick’s opinion.

Hovering a good twenty meters above the center of the riverbend, and with his [Lodestar] and [Greater Lightwalk] in full effect, Erick asked, “Why is the water so dark?”

Fallopolis, similarly glowing with her own dark magics, said, “Because it’s full of darkness.”

“Thank you for the non-answer.”

Without the slightest bit of rancor, Fallopolis said, “You are quite welcome.” She pointed with her kendrithyst staff to the largest of the waterfalls, near the beginning of the falls. “That’s the entrance to his underwater lair.”

“Do you care how much I destroy to get in there?”

“Not at all!” Fallopolis added, “But in this specific instance, I can tell you what will happen if you try anything aside from floating in and manually assisting whoever might be inside. If you want to hear it, anyway.”

“Please enlighten me.”

“[Watershape] will cause the limbtrees to react and attempt to destroy whatever they can reach. Since Dorofiend is dead, he is not there to stop the limbtrees inside from doing the same thing inside of his abode. If you go in with force, the limbtrees will tear any possible survivors apart. [Stoneshape] upon the kendrithyst is always a bad idea, but you knew that.” Fallopolis said, “The best way to proceed in ransacking a Shade’s abode is with [Greater Shadowalk], or similar defensive and offensive magics. You go in through the front, spread yourself out, and take what you can find, while keeping yourself as hidden as possible. I suggest speed, above all else.”

Her suggestions against [Stoneshape] and [Watershape] were things Erick had already heard from Killzone, and which were printed in bold in the ‘list of warnings’ given to everyone who dared to venture into this dark land. The kendrithyst was already under the control of shadows, so expecting either of those two spells to work how the caster wanted, was a fool’s endeavor. As far as infiltration was concerned: her suggestion about [Greater Shadowalk], or in Erick’s case [Greater Lightwalk], was something Killzone had already suggested to him. Speed, positioning, and perception were paramount when fighting in Ar’Kendrithyst, or for exploring and fighting in any odd areas.

Fallopolis added, “Good luck.”

Erick turned to the Shade, and said, “I’ll likely Domain this place, but try to keep it to the waters.”

Fallopolis smirked, and began ascending. “Thanks for the warning.”

Erick watched her step into the air, higher and higher, shooting up a good ten meters with each pump of a leg. When she was a good distance above and stopped to look down at him, he turned his attention back to the waters below. He turned insubstantial, fully falling into his lightform self, while his [Lodestar] aura held centimeters above his glowing body. His shoulder Ophiels also turned to light, mixing into Erick’s own. [Hunter’s Instincts] flared on, and he walked forward, toward the largest waterfall.

Gloom filled the wind; a thick, cloying mixture of shadows and air that Erick hadn’t considered existent until his lesson with Syllea, and that Esoteric Elements book. If he were not inside his [Lodestar], producing an aura-sized Domain of Light, he would certainly be unable to step upon the dim light of this area, because of those shadows. He would have been blocked from continuing his walk down, into the hovering shadows above the swift waters.

He was not blocked, though. His presence burned away the shadows in the air. When he touched down onto the surface of the river, his presence burned away the shadows in the water—

Showing him why Dorofiend was the Shade of ‘Dead Waters’.

Bodies laid under the swift-moving surface. Rotten, in some cases. Bones, in others. All of them naked. All of them tied up, and tied together by rainbow algae, and stuffed under the surface of the river like sardines in a can. How deep did these stacked corpses go? Too deep. Even one was too deep.

And then, one of the bodies turned a head and stared up at Erick. It slowly reached up, trying to breach the surface, but rainbow algae pulled it back down tight, wrapping harder around the wiggling corpse.

Erick paused.

… It was just an undead body, right? He had never heard of ‘living undead’, but all undead were just souls put into a body like any other. Angels, demons, undead, summoned creatures. All of them were in the same category of ‘soul shoved in body’. In many cases, it was a temporary arrangement.

Erick had never heard of sapient undead before. But as he looked down at the bodies below…

Ahh…

This was shit. This was terrible. Why did the Shades have to be like this? Insanity was not enough to explain this behavior. Erick had known certifiably insane people back on Earth. None of them he had ever worked with were like the Shades. Some of them had dark thoughts and needed a lot of medication to keep away from those thoughts, but…

This was pretty damned shitty. And it all smelled like shit, too!

Worse than shit, actually. If he were in human-form, he would have been unable to think through the stench.

Erick had the Ophiel on his left shoulder-space cast a [Cascade Imaging], searching for ‘people’.

He had never cast this spell inside a [Domain of Light], like the one that was his [Lodestar]. He had expected some sort of nice effect from ‘supercharging’ his Imaging, and he got that. A white map instantly sprung into being, while the orb above radiated power, like a miniature sun with too many solar flares. Things happened very fast, from there.

The instant-map was of a ten kilometer radius area. It was a good map, too. Towers appeared in miniature. The river showed itself as a bend in white light. The bottom of the river appeared, as well as what laid beneath; under the aqueduct. Dorofiend’s whole sub-river structure was exposed to Erick, in a few shining moments.

Not too many caves, but there were more than a few.

And then the limbtrees began to shake as they noticed a spell happening around them. They tried to grab at anything they could; anything nearby, really. Limbs broke from the surface of the waters; limbtrees or whatever they were, which were hiding. This was not a problem for Erick, as he was nowhere near the closest one. The other thing that happened was that ten blue markers appeared, one for Erick, and nine for each of the people down below, inside the caves under the river.

Fallopolis was still high in the air; a blot of shadows hovering in the only part of the air that showed the sky, beyond the kendrithyst towers. She did not count as ‘people’, apparently. Erick would leave that problem for later. With a thought, he had an Ophiel cast a [Domain of Light] upon the entire river, Shaping the magic to just above the waters, and all the way down, as far as it would go.

The river turned spectacular and awful, as shadows fled and the atrocity below the surface was revealed. But the bodies were locked into algae, and there were more pressing concerns than contained undead.

Erick rode the Domain down into the underwater lairs to solve those concerns.

With the speed of thought and a concentrated flick of his lightform self, expertly wielded like a hundred individual swords, Erick prevented the deaths of nine people. They had been struggling against what was either suddenly active limbtrees, or torture devices, but whatever the case, illuminated swords turned undead limbs to little more than discarded body parts. The trapped people fell to the filthy floor. With another thought, an Ophiel above, with Erick’s bag, phased through the domain to bring him a rod of [Treat Wounds]. With another thought, and with help from other Ophiel, two [Mirage Slimes] popped into the underground, turning filth to thick air, ridding the stench from the place, and making undead limbtrees into considerably less than what they were before. It would take several passes for the [Mirage Slime]s to clean up everything down here, but they would.

Five seconds after Erick began his attack, it was over, and it was also just beginning. The people were each wearing collars around their necks. Erick tentatively recognized them as drain collars. He had never studied them, and the ones around these people might be something else, but they had spikes poking inward, and that was one of the sure signs of those types of items that drained Health and Mana rather fast…

Well. Actually. If they were exploding collars, then Erick’s solution would likely solve that problem, too. Erick grabbed everyone’s collars with his lightform self, then pulled them into his light, leaving the people behind; collar free. Problem solved.

Some people did not react well to the collars coming off; worried and thrilled, terrified and already crying, arms thrown wide and screaming yet stopping after four seconds when they didn’t get a reaction they were expecting. They probably expected to die? Ah. Maybe. Erick casually discarded the collars up above, just above the waters of the river.

They exploded.

… Erick needed to brush up on his enchanting some more.

They were draining and exploding collars. He hadn’t seen any indication that they were exploding collars. He was just being safe rather than sorry.

And then another thought occurred. Dorofiend was obviously not as ‘completely insane’ as Fallopolis made him out to be. How else could he be able to keep items like those around? Or maybe he was insane, and he just had a supplier? Erick decided: He probably had a supplier.

Fifteen seconds after the whole encounter started, Erick spoke over the distraught people he had saved, “Dorofiend is dead; I killed him. But it’s Shadow’s Feast up there and you’d die if you stepped outside.”

People looked to the air, wondering where the voice was coming from. Some of them finally noticed the saturated brightness to the air. More than one person called out, asking who was there. One woman conjured a blood-red greatsword and chopped at the air around her.

… And Erick realized he was still in his lightform, nebulous self.

There were obviously some kinks to work out with regard to this form and its foibles, and when it came to adventuring in person. [Lodestar] and [Greater Lightwalk] either had some sort of mental stabilizing effect, or perhaps his current thoughts were just an occurrence of thinking he was safe, even in the most dangerous city in the world. Dorofiend hadn’t been able to penetrate this combination of spells, after all. [Hunter’s Instincts] was certainly affecting his mental state, but he wasn’t going to let that drop, either.

He did decide to return to his human-shaped lightform self. Not his fully human self; not yet.

Three nearby tortured people immediately formed ranks, pointing at him. Since the entire place was made of filth and kendrithyst, which was now getting cleaned, and thus the clear kendrithyst was now see-through, three others in a nearby torture chamber also saw Erick form into being. All of the victims were spread out in three nearby different rooms; all of them soon saw Erick.

One of them ripped a [Lightshape] at his body.

It did not work. Erick only recognized it as a [Lightshape] because it flickered rainbows against the edge of his [Lodestar].

One sarcastic young woman immediately screamed, “Who the FUCK ever heard of a Light-Shade!”

Two more people screamed. Another went from halfway screaming, to fully catatonic. He slumped to the floor. The others had various other reactions, but mostly they just backed up, forming ranks with each other. Erick was kinda really glad to see them working together so rapidly after being freed. It warmed his heart.

Erick tried telling a joke to the sarcastic woman, “Lightshades go around lightorbs.”

Suddenly emboldened, a naked orcol man said, “Let us go, sir.”

Everyone calmed; battle training took over, or maybe most of them had regained enough resources to turn on [Hunter’s Instincts], or a similar ability.

It was then, that Erick recognized that he might not need the rod of [Treat Wounds]. Aside from a bit of blood on their necks, which the roaming [Mirage Slime]s had already removed from a few of them, these people were all rather healthy. No wounds, except for recent wounds caused by scrabbling limbtrees. No missing pieces. As more of the rescued came around corners, fully putting themselves into Erick’s apparent vision to see all the commotion, Erick saw that they all seemed perfectly healthy, really. He didn’t really need them to come fully into his vision to see all of that, since he was seeing them throughout all the light around them, but it was still nice to see that they were still mentally there, according to their actions, anyway.

Erick pointed up, saying, “There is a Shade up there. Her name is Fallopolis.” He pointed everywhere else, saying, “There are Shades everywhere, tonight. It’s Shadow’s Feast, and you cannot leave for ten more days, and neither can I.” He offered, “Anyone have any wounds? I have a rod of [Treat Wounds], though it doesn’t seem as though you need that.” Erick continued, “I can get you food and clean up some of the exterior for you so you don’t have to worry about that sort of thing, but as far as I know, you’re going to have to find a way to survive the next ten days.”

One small human man, not a child but short enough for it, asked, “What’s wrong with our skills?”

“Time dilation.” Erick said, “Shadow’s Feast is a 12 hour event that takes 240 hours to complete.”

Several people instantly cursed; some quite colorfully, in languages Erick didn’t know. One lady said, “I told you so.” To which the short man replied, “Fuck off.”

Erick said, “I’d offer to take you with me, but I’m probably going to get shoved at other Shades, in an attempt to kill them or die in the process, and then I’m headed toward the actual gathering of Shades. So do you want to stay here? Or somewhere else nearby? I think you should stay here. I can clean out the waterfall area above easy enough, though you will have to defend yourselves from here on out.”

“Who are you?” asked a redscale woman. “How can we trust you?”

“Erick Flatt, Archmage of Spur,” he answered, without hesitation. “And you should trust your own power more than mine. I’m just one guy, and this is Ar’Kendrithyst.”

A man scoffed. A woman frowned; disgusted.

Another woman, a greenscale, and one of the only ones to look at Erick with any measure of hope in her eyes, said, “He’s Erick Flatt; I seen him before.” She pointed at an Ophiel, saying, “And that’s his [Familiar], Ophiel.”

Ophiel heard his name and trilled in violins, as people stared at Erick, and at Ophiel.

Erick asked, “Should I bother clearing the river above? This place is only going to be defensible if you can keep the shadows away, under your own power. This [Domain of Light] is coming with me.”

“I have defensive light spells,” a woman said.

The orcol man said, “It’s as safe as any other.”

“I can breathe again,” said a woman. “The stench is gone.”

A few people murmured thanks to the gods, for that.

The small man said, “If we don’t have to go out for food, then we can make it 10 days.”

“Then I’ll clear out the area above. Those undead will be gone before you know it.”

Erick left them for their talks, and went above, to stand atop the river. First, he laid down a [Withering], sculpting the spell to the shape of the waters, and the land just beyond. Notifications poured in, like drops of rain, indicating kills. ‘Abyss Crab’, ‘Zombie’, ‘Rainbow Algae’. The entire waterfall area and plots of land beyond burped and roiled with a minor hurricane of thick air, as enemies died to drying magics.

The entire place suddenly looked a lot better, as the stench of the undead under the water was [Cleanse]d away.

There were a lot of zombies under that water, after all. A lot of cleaning had just happened. But who knew that the zombies would have rads? Or that they had water in them? Well. Obviously they had water in them. They were underwater zombies. But besides that: normal zombies did not have rads. All the undead that Erick killed over in Odaali did not have rads. These ones must be a special variety. A monstrous type of zombie. With water in them.

Now that Erick thought about it, the water in them was odd, too. Maybe they were waterlogged, and the water had gotten in their auras, and become a part of them?

Or maybe… Dorofiend was the Shade of Dead Waters. He likely used water magic in his zombies? Maybe. Whatever. Erick’s second option would have been [Wintry Sea], but then [Withering] had worked. It was odd that [Withering] had worked.

Odd, in all ways.

Whatever the case with these strange undead, Erick called his Ophiels down, and sent a few more [Mirage Slime]s into the river, just to be sure the place was clean. Most of the undead were dead now, though. He almost sent [Fulmination Aura]s into the water, but it would likely reach the people below, so that was a non-starter. Erick would not ever want to swim in this could-be-idyllic waterfall land, for it was not cleaned by any stretch of the imagination, but the larger threats were dead, and if the people below couldn’t handle what was left then they were beyond his help.

So he gathered the Ophiel holding onto his bag, and had that Ophiel take out a few good items. He had that Ophiel hand those off to another Ophiel, who then activated [Duplication Aura]. For a good ten seconds, and out of the sight of the people below, it rained wind, sandwiches, salads, and desserts into the waiting arms of other Ophiel. It was a lot of food, so it should be enough for nine people for ten days. But maybe not. So Erick had the low-mana Ophiel continue with the copy aura, until Ophiel vanished; mana spent. Erick conjured another Ophiel, who trilled in violins at his reappearance.

Erick looked to his food. Now this! This was enough food for nine people for ten—

There was a kill notification. It was for a human. Erick only really noticed it because it was for one percent Participation.

“Shit.”

Erick instantly flickered down to the caves below. A body laid in the center of the room. The short man. He was now a very dried-out man, and very dead.

Someone screamed at Erick. Another backed away. Another shot a bronze [Force Beam] at him, which was completely ineffective; it turned to bronze glitter as it touched his [Lodestar].

The orcol man yelled louder than the rest, “Everyone shut the fuck up!”

And they listened, for some reason. Ah. Erick probably just resisted a mental effect, maybe? Another perk of being a lightform existence in his own [Domain of Light]? His Class Ability, Light Dedication, probably helped, too.

The orcol man asked Erick, “Did you kill him?”

Amidst quiet complaints and hard stares, the greenscale woman spoke out, loud as she could, “It was a [Withering]! I know it was.” She rapidly added, “They warned us against this possibility when we came to Spur! Didn’t you get the same talk?” She gestured to the body, “You know what happened to him!”

The woman with the red conjured sword inhaled, like she knew what that meant. She drove her sword into the dead man’s chest. It was a perfect [Strike] of some sort; the body crumbled like a dry sandcastle. A glittering rad appeared beside the man’s withered heart.

Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.

The greenscale said, “He was a cannibal! Yes! That’s what I was trying to say.”

An argument began again, but Erick had no time for this. He raised his voice, and gently vibrated the light, getting everyone’s attention with a firm, “Okay.”

They looked to him.

He said, “I cleared out most of the river above with [Withering]. There are still dangers out there.” With a thought, he had an Ophiel, and all of the food, flow down through the ceiling as a large ball of light. Some people backed away. Others stood firm. Erick conjured a large table with boxes and had Ophiel rematerialize the items into the proper locations. While he did that, Erick said, “Here’s some food and water. Sorry for the limited selection. Sorry for killing that guy.”

The red-sword woman said, “He would have killed us.” She said, “Thank you, Archmage.” She looked to the group. “Now we know none of us are shadelings, or cannibals.”

The orcol agreed. “Better he’s dead, now.”

A few people murmured agreements.

Erick almost wanted to cry over the guy; to mourn, to linger. But he couldn’t.

One woman stood over the body, saying, “He was fine when we fell to the Shade, two days ago.”

The sword woman asked, “Can you check me for rads, with your light?”

Erick responded not with words, but with the casting of a [Cascade Imaging]. A narrow cast, with slightly less than a one-for-one distance, with the cascading orb atop the ground and the map filling the entire room. Some gasped. Most did nothing at all, except to stare as lightform figures of themselves appeared in the air before them, along with blue markers inside all of their intestines. Some of the blue markings were outside of those intestines, and headed toward the heart.

“Holy gods,” whispered a man, touching his own chest, and the image of himself in front of him.

Erick knew what had to be done. With a grave voice, he offered, “I have rods of [Treat Wounds].”

Everyone accepted.

The bloody work took several minutes, and eight charges of the rod.

When he was done, Erick watched some of them conjure specialized lightwards to keep the shadows at bay, then he dismissed the [Domain of Light] covering them all. He bade them goodbye, and good luck.

He rejoined Fallopolis in the sky above.

Fallopolis said, “Good work! Their chances of survival have gone up considerably with the removal of the most obvious threats in the river and the proto-rads inside their bodies. If you’d’ve come back before solving those two problems, I would have suggested you go back.”

Erick eyed her. “Would you have? Really?”