237, 2/2

by inkadmin

The sky above the curtain of wheat lightened from absolute black, to soft blue, and then bright sky. Clouds blew above. Erick stood up.

Just like Wess had said would happen, Erick stood in a patch of golden wheat that surrounded a white pillar about 4 meters tall. The manasphere of the second floor was at 60% density, so Erick’s mana sensing range was only about 10 meters, but with his senses enhanced by his All-Seeing Eye, Erick could still see through all illusions.

The main illusion that caught his eye was the sky. It wasn’t a sky at all. It was a layer of Darkness. The horizon was not blue, but black. There was no Riam in the sky, nor sunstone. It was the same as the sky in Utopia had looked to his All-Seeing senses. Erick tuned his Sight a little bit less, and the illusion of blue sky returned.

Erick turned his attentions back to his near surroundings.

Wess stood ahead. Clarice popped up in the wheat behind Erick.

And the world around them was one of days-old violence. Blood, shit, and bodies crowned the land and piled in the low valleys, baking under a bright sunstone overhead. Rolling plains scattered with fresh and old gore lay in every direction—

Clarice asked, “It occurs to me that the only way that anyone would have thought to come into a dungeon floor to hide out was if they had the information that Wess had pulled up earlier. This means that there was insider information being given to outsiders. So: How?” Clarice asked Wess, “You’ve investigated everyone in the control rooms already?”

Wess grumbled, dissatisfied.

Clarice narrowed her eyes under her silver helm. “Results inconclusive?”

Erick grinned, and held out a hand, palm up, as he readied mana inside his body. “I can answer that one. Someone showed me this ability not too long ago. Traditionally, it’s a way to read the mana in the air, to see what’s happening around you. But because of how the Glittering Depths are set up, this ability actually causes the dungeon to spit out text, as with [Identify]. It’s not that useful in almost all situations, but it does allow for a few fun possibilities.”

Not many people could read the mana like it was a book. Erick hadn’t been able to until Quilatalap had shown him how, when the two of them were at Storm’s Edge and Erick needed a way to check on what a dungeon looked like, at its base. This was Book Magic of a much higher sort than [Identify]; this was Book Magic that was as much aura control as it was [Witness], so it couldn’t really be blocked by a dungeon.

“That’s an incredible vulnerability,” Wess said, frowning. “I can’t believe it even worked before.”

Clarice breathed in a little deeper than normal. “You can do that? [Identify] the dungeon?”

Erick nodded. “The Script codified this spell as [Mana Reading], but it’s really just another form of aura control that is devoid of actual intent.”

Clarice’s reaction was an expected reaction. When Erick had done this earlier around Wess and Kinder, Wess had been wary, and Kinder had cursed about dragons breaking things. This dungeon-reading tool of Quilatalap’s hadn’t done much, though, except for revealing the status of the current area, like Wess had done when he just asked the dungeon to reveal the status of the many copies of the second floor.

This was Erick’s final trick to test out before he needed to just go to a mana chamber and make a proper metamond. It might not even work, but Erick was hoping he would get more than a simple spit-out of statuses, now that he was actually inside one of the Second Floors.

Erick flickered mana under his palm, just letting his aura out, not really doing anything at all. What he had tried to do back at the Workshop was to manually [Cascade Imaging] for people, but that didn’t work; it was too much external magic, into a Reality that was inhospitable for that sort of thing.

But this was just trying to let his mana flow on the natural currents of the air, and to lace that mana with understandable Book.

Mana broke away from his skin in little white glows and managed to make it ten centimeters into the air. That’s when Erick knew the unformed ‘spell’ was working; his aura had matched to the control of the dungeon. Erick couldn’t really do anything at all with this ability, except for asking questions.

Erick smiled. “Please show me the status of this floor, and any invaders.”

It was a [Far Bolt] for that part about ‘invaders’ to work, but Erick tried it anyway, because communication was key in magic and many other places in life.

“That’s an incredible vulnerability,” Wess repeated, frowning, even while the air was populating with text. “I still can’t believe—” And then Wess gasped, as the expected text gained even more entries. “Holy Atunir.”

Second Floor #4, delvers: 7, elapsed time: 1d:6h, estimate to completion: never

Invaders: 17, known major affiliations: Riam, Demon King, Melemizargo, House Benevolence, Ar’Cosmos, Crown of the Host

“Oh! It worked!” Erick smiled, saying, “Someone else is here!”

Clarice breathed out, surprised, then she said, “They must have access to a spell like this, too. But what does that mean? I didn’t know you could do—”

“It’s an unknown vulnerability that we’re already working to close. We find these people now.” Wess waved a hand, a sword appearing in his grip, pointing toward the ground as he spoke with authority, “All available Inquisitors report to the backroads of the Second Floor, instance 4, in preparation for the fleeing of the invaders. Teams Red and Yellow enter the Second Floor, instance 4, and guard the exit. We have found hints of invaders of unknown origins.” With just as much authority, Wess looked to Erick, and asked, “What are the meanings of the other affiliations on that list?”

Erick didn’t care for the accusation in Wess’s voice, but he responded without any anger of his own, “We three qualify as invaders, too, Wess.”

Wess stared hard for a moment. Then he turned back to face the horizon. “14 possible invaders. We are searching now with [True Sight] allied dragons. Inquisitor Wess and team are moving out to the Plains Base.”

Wess turned into an invisible whirlwind and moved.

Erick followed, racing across the land, his feet barely touching the top of a hill before he flew through the sky, low and fast and hidden well, to touch upon the top of another hill half a kilometer away, catching up quickly. He raced alongside Wess, in formation.

Clarice caught up. Her voice whipped away in the wind, as she called to Erick, only five meters away, “You actually are on a Benevolent Path!”

Erick already knew where she was going with this, so he said, “We make our own fate, Clarice.”

They dodged around an encampment of red-robes, moving too fast for their Bracelets of [Hidden Whirlwind]s to hide them properly, but the mages up there weren’t fast enough anyway. The Riamites saw, and they launched balls of lightning at the three whirlwinds, but Erick, Clarice, and Wess were already far beyond them by the time those payloads struck the hill and exploded in flashing red lightning.

Erick looked at the red lightning explosion, muttering, “The fu—”

“Fate is one Element that can’t be fully controlled!” Clarice stared at Erick, with calculation in her amber eyes, half-hidden in the slit of her helmet and by the illusionary wind around her. “And Benevolence isn’t controlled at all. You’re on a Path.”

Erick retorted, “Maybe so! But we make our choices in this life and in all others, Clarice. We’re not on any Path but the one of our own choosing.”

“Tell me if we see a lightning-ringed neck.”

Erick instantly and forcefully said, “If we see one I will protect them with my life until the truth of their markings can be determined.”

Clarice smirked. “And maybe I’ll help you, if you do what I want—”

“We are executing everyone there,” Wess deftly ordered. “Riamites, delvers, everyone. They’re all dying, and the Inquisition is positioned on the top floor to catch whoever might revive up there. No talking. No deliberating. Utter devastation only. Do you understand?”

“That means mostly you, Ashes ‘The Summoner’!” Clarice said, laughing brightly, as they hopped across another low canyon filled with gore, and across a hilltop blasted clean of all grass. “It’ll be like that fourth floor you never got to, but different! Don’t worry! We’ll protect you while you charge your staff!”

Clarice laughed again.

But Erick ignored her, and said, “I’ll be wanting a conversation with them when you capture them, Wess.”

“It’ll be arranged how the people above us decide to arrange it.”

Erick couldn’t fault that too much.

And besides, they were here.

– – – –

The Plains Base was exactly as Erick remembered.

It was a stretch of land the size of a small city that had been filled with farmlands and apartment buildings and other such structures here and there. Now, it burned brightly under daylight, while smoldering craters marred everything, and every third building crumbled under infernos. Fortifications were little more than scattered stone, while the only truly-intact building stood tall, with massive red tabards unfurled down its sides, flapping in the wind. The fight was over. Warriors prowled the grounds, excavating hiding holes, looking for people, while mages hovered in the sky, surrounded by bubbles of force, providing ultimate air support.

There were people down there, in those fortified parts of the base who could be rescued for more of a final floor reward, or for more resources to use to make metamonds. Erick hadn’t interacted with them last time, because Kinder had pulled him out of the dungeon before he could interact with those places.

Which had implications, now that Erick thought of it.

But there was a need to interact with those places now.

The infiltrators might be down there in those hiding holes, holding out with supplies meant to keep the NPCs down there alive. It’s what Erick would do, if he had to hide out in this place, or anywhere like it.

Still, though, there was no need to go in and fight to clear away the Riamites. Fighting was not what archmages and Wizards did. They did a lot worse.

Erick stood upon a hill overlooking the battlefield of a land lost to time, and the Sundering.

He raised his staff, the prismatic white gem at the top glowing with an inner lightning…

He had been about to set that gem against his shoulder, and take aim. But… The staff was more than what it had been before its transformation. So Erick let the staff go, to float, not sure exactly what he was doing, but he knew he was doing the right thing as the not-gold staff hovered in the air right over his shoulder, and then took aim automatically.

Erick and his temporary team had stepped onto this overlooking hill two seconds ago. And now, his staff pointed the way forward.

Erick breathed.

He spoke,

“Eradicate.”

The entire length of the not-gold staff turned brilliant, molten, as power charged, and then sunk into the gem at the top. Gold solidified, dulling, then the forgotten runes and unknown words upon the staff’s length crackled with white lightning. The staff jerked, the tip pointing at the nearest mage in a bubble, maybe a kilometer away. White light flickered at the tip—

And the mage exploded into a shower of white lightning that arced through the sky and danced across the ground erratically, exploding three more people in smaller showers of lightning sparks.

Gold light flickered with every death, turning to a mist that flowed in the sky, toward Erick, toward the staff, vanishing long before it reached the staff, and yet, the staff began to take on a brighter gold brilliance. Barely, just a little. Some of the power of those deaths empowered the staff.

The gem at the top was already as bright as a second sun, laced with dark lines of metal that held it to the staff underneath—

The staff jerked, repositioning instantly, as it took aim at another floating mage. It fired.

Lightning killed several people. More gold flowed into the air, like dust.

The staff shot again, then again, again, again. Four more invisible shots silently sparked from the end of the staff, killing tens of Riamites each.

Only five seconds had passed. The counterattack began.

It was not enough.

Lightning struck exactly who it was meant to strike, and then bounced to exactly who it was meant to kill with little collateral damage. A trickle of golden dust turned into streamers, into a flow.

The counterattack came in full, Erick pulling ‘aggro’ on the entire base, as Jane would say, with Riamites storming out of their own hiding holes, filling the field with more targets. The killing came faster and faster, until the staff was spitting out dots of power that blossomed across fields of enemies, reaping tens of lives with each Bolt.

The Riamite assassins, clad in black and hidden in the wind and shadow, attempted to attack. They only made it to the next hill over, and only because some speedy mages got behind a hill and tried to approach first. The staff killed those mages, and then it killed the assassins in the shadows.

The staff shone brilliant gold, even brighter than it had been before, while the gem retained its own light—

The air sparked.

The staff shot out pure lightning, thick as a person, directly into a contingent of men, eradicating them, before it turned its attention to the roaring abomination that had crawled out of the main structure. Lightning blasted apart that abomination—

SPECIAL ACTION! PLAINS RECLAIMED! MP up!

+5000 mana production per day!

Erick barely had time to see the message before the staff turned around, blinked high into the sky, and lightning crashed down far, far away, like the judgment of a god.

As golden power flowed into the sky, the staff let out another blast of lightning, and then ten more, each bolt of power landing exactly where it needed to land, and no more. Messages suddenly appeared in Erick’s face one after the other.

Camp Cleared!

Push back Riam’s abominable forces. 1/4

MP up! +1000 mana production per day!

Rescue and Revenge, 1/??

The more you fight, the larger your challenges and the greater your rewards.