Gravel crackled under my boots as I stepped from the red door that imploded in on itself after I closed it behind me. Rocks slid my foot down the inclined mountain side, forcing me to drop my palm to the dirt in order to catch myself. Looking up, there was no moon overhead but rather countless glimmering stars illuminating the night sky. All of which were shaped in constellations I can't recognize.
Okay Korbin, this either isn't earth, or I'm not as familiar with the stars as you'd like to think.
The mountainside itself consisted of a strange red soil, and giant multicolored rocks and boulders. Further down, billowing smoke and glimmering flashes of firelight illuminated over the steep hill. Carefully descending a few steps further revealed a cliff, as well as the source of the fire 20 feet below. A hunched elderly woman wearing black robes emerged from the mountain, approaching an altar crudely crafted from sticks and bones. Atop the altar lay a young man, unconscious with dried blood around his wrists. Ducking down, I carefully resumed my descent down the mountain diagonally, hoping not to alert anyone yet.
A pendant necklace dangled from the poorly postured old woman's hand as she stood over the young man, mumbling some sort of incantation in a language I can't recognize. Dark green energy swirled around the pendant, intertwining with its chain until finally seeping into the pendant itself. Finally, the elderly woman lifted the young man's head and clasped the glowing green pendant around his neck. As the pendant contacted his chest, the man's eyes shot open as his body bent back unnaturally lifting him from the altar. A layer of light blue translucent energy raised from the man's skin, vacuuming into the back of the pendant that projected a round 2 dimensional culmination of strange runic symbols.
The blue energy streamed upward from the center of the glowing glyphs hovering atop the pendant that lay resting on the man's chest. A transparent blue outline of him manifested above the necklace glancing panicked around the mountainside.
"What's going on?! What are you doing?! Please, please let me go!" The young man begged, his soft voice sounding like he was pleading from the other side of a hollow empty palace. The old woman didn't even acknowledge the spirit's words, instead lifting the staff in her other hand and pointing it toward the pendant.
"Please, I have nothing! You said you had medicine, this doesn't feel like medi-AHH!" The ghost's pleas were violently cut short by a beam of green energy blasting from his face and eyes into the night sky. A cacophony of incoherent whispers filled the air as dozens of green and blue streams of transparent clouds spiraled down the green beam of light. The man's spirit slowly expanded from absorbing whatever was flying into it as I made my way onto the flat path leading to the altar.
Finally, the old woman's shivering hand dropped her staff as she collapsed to her knees breathing heavily. The green beam immediately dispersed from the spirit's mouth and eyes. All at once, the man's spirit sucked back into the pendant, extinguishing the campfire in front of the altar. Seeing my opportunity in the dark, I ducked down lightly shuffled around the altar, finding a large purple boulder to hide behind.
"Hahaha!"
A small ball of fire crashed into the pit of wood, reigniting the campfire almost immediately after I reached the boulder. Peering around the corner, the old woman's pale, wrinkled face cackled gleefully as she reached for the pendant on the young man's body. Before her hand clasped out the chain however, the young man's hand snatched her wrist. The old woman struggled trying to pull her arm free, while the young man's arm exponentially expanded by the second. His body grew both in length and in mass, to the point his legs touched the ground while laying on the crumbling altar. Finally, the young man lurched upright, his eyes glowing a bright green.
"We will not serve as your medium for the atrocities you've committed on the spiritual realm any longer. We are not your resource, nor will we be your victims. We are what remains, and what will become. You, you will be neither." The young man's towering figure scooted from the altar, lifting the old woman in the air by her wrist. Her staff erupted in a ball of flame before jabbing it in the young man's face. He didn't even bother moving his head, letting his skin melt away as he carried her toward the edge of the mountain.
"Release me! I command you to relea-" the monstrous young man snatched the old woman by the throat with his free hand, ripping her arm out from its socket like tearing a plastic seal from a beverage cap. The old woman stared blue faced at her bleeding shoulder socket, before being tilted and violently slammed head first into the ground several times. Finally, after the sickening squelching of her skull shattering on stone repeated numerous times, the monstrous young man tossed her body off the mountain. He walked straight back to the altar, laying back down and closing his eyes.
The moment his hands folded over each other, the world itself began to melt around me like pouring water over an acrylic painting. The sky itself obscured into a blur of light, while the purple boulder in front of me reshaped into a solid stone pillar. The mountain's pallet of colors all drained away, as the terrain reformed into a large, two layered white stone chamber. Three other competitors stood at different sections of the temple-like structure, with only one on the same level as this young man laying on the stick altar and myself. Based on the shape of their shiny steel armor and oversized bow, I could only assume this was unfortunately a member of the Guardians Consortium. The other two competitors stood on either side of the room on the second floor, peering over stone walls at one another wide eyed.
The suspected Guardians Consortium member lunged for the pendant immediately, snagging the chain in his hands and attempting to rip it from the monstrosity's neck. Instead, his arm jerked back violently while the pendant didn't budge. The young man's green eyes shot open once more, slapping the heavily armored man face first into the ground with a single hammer punch. I stayed behind the pillar, running an Identify on whatever creature the old woman created out of that guy in that projection.
[Guardian Of Spectral Sovereignty (Level 14)]
I chuckled to myself at the guardian on guardian violence as a flash of bright green energy popped around the monstrosity wearing that damned Pendant. Peering around the stone pillar, one of the competitors on the second level of this strange stone temple unleashed a stream of green, fire-like mana at the Guardian Of Spectral Sovereignty. They wore a mixture of armor types, with very thin cloth pants and a hood surrounding a shiny steel chest piece. His brown leather gauntlets were covered in thin metal spikes, though they only ran about halfway up his forearmes.The Guardian raised his bloodied fist in front of his face as the mismatched mages energy slowly melted away at his cloth robes and unnaturally protruding muscles. Checking across the way however, the final competitor who'd come in in full cloth robes was nowhere to be found.
Alright, only one not dumb enough to engage immediately.
"There's no escape for the living willing to exploit idle spirits any longer. We will not bow any longer!" The Guardian bellowed, stomping its foot into the smooth stone floor while withstanding the constant green stream from above eating at his skin. The ground shattered underfoot as the monster's foot pierced through the floor. The guardian completely dropped its guard, letting the mismatched mage's jet of mana melt through the top of his head as he bent over. The guardian's hands latched around a chunk of broken stone before spinning and tossing it up at the mismatched mage.
The mage above disappeared behind a cloud of white dust, though I'm not willing to write them off as eliminated just yet. Not after that ice mage somehow withstanded being launched out of the tower by that demon pretending to be a kid, only to take one of Cassi's lives at the bottom shortly after. Instead, I let the guardian take a few paces towards the hallway across from me with its eyes trained on where it had launched the stone. Considering this construct is familiar with this place, I assumed a path heading up to the second floor must be.
Perfect, go fuck around up there for a while.
After seeing the strange, glowing symbols that empowered the pendant and this behemoth of a being wearing it, I couldn't help but wonder exactly how intricate a ritualistic skill could be. The symbols that twisted and reshaped above the pendant itself hummed with insane levels of mana, but it took time for that energy to accumulate. That witch of a woman who created the symbols however, fed only a fraction of the mana that was then generated by the blue symbols and fired up into the clouds. Front here, apparently spirits were ripped from wherever the hell they reside and absorbed into the pendant. What's strange is, those symbols didn't look all that dissimilar stylistically to those I'd seen in Andolis's chambers when he was explaining lithoma-…
There's no way, right?
My eyes fluttered recentering my attention on the towering Guardian marching through the hallway across from me, turning at the end and ascending toward the second level. Slowly, I crept toward the hallway's threshold. Orange infernal mana emitted from my boot as I began attempting to replicate one of the simpler looking runes I'd seen on Xernilia from memory. After a full minute of struggling to keep my mana lines steady, a swirling formation of orange embers illuminated before quickly fading away.
Oh motherfu-
*THUMP*
The mismatched mage's body bounced off the stone behind me, grunting with each skip off the ground. The ground lightly shook under the guardian's heavy stomping as he jogged back through the hallway I stood outside of, attempting to create my first mana powered runic symbol. Not seeing reason to be sandwiched by the two, I retreated back behind the mismatched mage shakily clambering to his feet.
"Truce! This things to fucking strong to fight eachother!" The mismatched mage proposed through a crackling voice. Not willing to commit to anything with a stranger, I ignored his plea and began charging a fireball. The mage must've mistaken my silence as agreement, nodding with a grin and summoning a mass of green clouds from his palms.
"You flee from a fate which you've sewn through your own apathetic greed. We run no longer, nor shall you." The guardians' chorus of voices vibrated throughout the stone temple. Its heavy footsteps halted before becoming visible through the hallway leading to the second level, with only the mismatched mages labored breaths to fill the silence.
*BOOM*
The wall beside the hallway threshold crumbled as the Guardians powerful frame blasted through, wrapping its massive hands around the mismatched mages arms and torso. Bones cracked and shattered as the mage squirmed fruitlessly, his bloodshot eyes bulging from his skull. Waiting until the Guardian fully emerged from the wall, my hand thrusted forward launching a ball of infernal flames at the monster made from what I can only assume is hundreds of spirits. The mage fell lifelessly to the floor before the fireball impacted, blasting into the guardian's chest and setting his entire body aflame.
For the first time, this mighty Guardian of Spectral Sovereignty showed signs of mortality, its many voices growling through clamped teeth as it stumbled back over the stone debris. The orange flames burned its body far quicker than it had suffered under the mages green jet of mana, indicating my attack must pack a big enough punch to really hurt this thing. In one swift move, I summoned my battle axe to my hand while launching another uncharged fireball with the other. The guardian plunged toward me, only to be knocked back by another fireball. I charged forward, hoping to deliver a slash to the back of its neck as it kneeled down.
Before I could get in range however, another competitor in all white robes leapt onto the wall beside the guardian, kicking off and snatching the pendant off its neck. They landed in a full sprint down the hallway, leaving a bright white flash in their wake.
FUCK!
Operating on pure memory, I rubbed my eyes sprinting down where I believe the hallway the slippery newcomer sprinted down. My vision cleared just before slamming into the wall at the end of the hallway, instead kicking off and running up toward the second level. The white robed runner was beelining towards a gap in the middle of the wall when my fireball crashed in their path, causing them to run up the wall with a flash of white light. Movement out the corner of my eye interrupted my follow up cast, as the Guardian decided to toss another massive stone fragment aimed at me.
Rolling forward, I landed in a full sprint after the elusive light caster who sprinted down the stone wall and through the opposite hallway. The guardian tossed a second hunk of stone, forcing me to fully commit to beelining through the same hallway after them. Turning the corner, my head barely weaved under the light casters boot that slammed off the wall behind me and back to the floor in a flash. I raised my axe to counter attack, only for the blade to clank off the tightly cramped hallway wall.
Fine.
Dropping the axe, the light casters incredibly fast punches deflected off my palms and away from my face and body in succession. I caught their wrist on the final punch, pulling it to my chest to snag their neck. The mage caster instead lunged through my legs, flaring a searing hot flash of white light through the hand I had a grip on and forcing me to release them. The robed light caster took off in the opposite direction down the hallway, before another fireball blasted in front of their path.
"Stop. Fucking. Runni-"
*BOOM*
The Guardian's upper body blasted through the ground below, interrupting my command and causing both of us to cascade down to the second floor along with massive stone fragments. Seeing its towering figure standing wide eyed below, I contorted forward with both hands aimed for its face. Just before slapping both hands onto its cheeks, a torrent of pure infernal flame streamed from my palms, almost instantly melting away the top layer of the guardian's face. Pushing off its skin that melted like hot wax in my hands, I lunged toward the light caster who leapt from the ground and onto the wall. The bottoms of his feet illuminated a bright white light, like headlights in the night as he sprinted along the wall.
A mixture of frustration and respect at their escapability danced through my thoughts as I dashed after the light caster. Jumping into the wall and kicking a foothold into the stone wall, I leapt up onto the second level they quickly ascended to. As I turned the corner down the same hallways that had collapsed, another chunk of stone smashed through the walls behind me. Staggering forward, my head lurched up as the light caster ran along the wall to the other side of the collapsed floor.
Not seeing a better option, infernal energy surged into my legs empowering my jump across the 10 foot gap. My feet barely hit the floor before redirecting my infernal mana into my axe, casting the orange bubble of my Chaotic Accord around the light caster. The dome fully formed just as they sprinted through the wall, where the chains of my Hellish Binds snagged around their ankles. The light caster slammed to their face, however a bright flash of white light immediately severed my infernal chains.
"Oh so it's a fuck me kind of day huh?!" I yelled after the light speed competition making them turn while still laying prone to chuckle at the comment for just enough time.
For less than a second of momentary distraction allowed me to catch up enough to swing my axe forward overhead, cracking into the stone floor below as the light caster rolled away. Not willing to allow that kind of space to be made, I ran after their rolling body as they pushed off the ground to their feet in one fluid motion. Instead of running away, the pendent thief kicked off the wall swinging their shin bone towards my skull. I ducked under, while firing another torrent of flames as they flew overhead. The light casters body flared with a bright white flash that immediately extinguished my flames hitting their body.
I lunged forward, hoping to snag the light caster by his loose flowing robes when he flipped back through the hole in the floor. Not willing to continue wasting my energy on a wild goose chase, I stopped and began drawing another infernal runic symbol on the floor. My focus pushed past perfecting the curving lines and focused on pouring my mana into each swipe of my glowing boot. The heavy thump of shattering stones pulled my attention away from the makeshift symbol, forcing me to abandon it entirely just when I felt something beginning to click.
Leaping through the hole in the second level hallway, my vision barely caught a glimpse of the light warrior turning the corner on the second level across the gap in the floor. I staggered, landing atop the stone rubble below and barely getting my hand up in time to cast a fireball point blank into the charging Guardian's melted face. The towering culmination of spirits recoiled back, struggling to put out the flames dancing across their body. Looking back up, the light caster leapt over revealing a smug grin underneath their long white cowl. Just as their feet planted onto the other side, several orange fiery tendrils wrapped around their ankles. The all too familiar sensation of mana being drained from my resource pool confirmed I'd successfully placed an infernal glyph of my own.
"The hells can't protect you, you'll burn for your greed!" The Guardian roared, posturing themselves for another wild charge. Not willing to waste the opportunity, I let the infuriated monster stomp its way over to me. Once the abomination came within arms reach, I ducked under its armpit sending a surge of infernal mana into a sweeping leg kick that whipped the Guardians falling leg out from under them. The towering guardian fell head first into the wall behind me, creating the perfect platform to reach the second floor.
Leaping up and off the guardians back, my hands clasped onto the edge before pulling myself up to the second level. The light caster was still lying prone, kicking his light strobing legs wildly trying to get free from my glyph. One foot ripped from the fiery tendrils as I made my way over, attempting to kick me in my ribcage. Having dealt with Tom's unwillingness to know when to quit, my knee smashed into the light casters hurtling shinbone.
"AHH!!" The caster bellowed, gripping their shin. Leaning over, my hands barely gripped onto the pendant when the floor below bent upward and launched me into the air. The light casters' second leg pulled free before kicking me square in the chest, pushing me back through the hole in the floor and crashing back onto the first level. My spine bashed into the stone floor, sending a sharp pain through my entire body. Looking up, the guardian was already stomping its way towards me.
"That doesn't belong to you!" The guardian growled, raising its fists in the air for a two-handed smash. Flicking my hands up, two fireballs blasted into the guardian's chest and face in quick succession. I jumped to my feet, seeing the beast reeling back trying to put out the orange flames across its body. Its palm lunged toward my head as I approached, instead catching my battleaxe's blade that buried deep into its hand. I yanked on my polearm, pulling myself over its shoulder. My hands grasped onto its charred face, summoning a fireball in each hand. The infernal flames immediately fought to manifest, burning through the guardians remaining skin and skull. Finally, flames erupted from the guardian's eyes and mouth before its head exploded in my hands.
Pushing myself off its shoulders, the guardian's headless corpse collapsed to the stone floor at my feet. I opened my palm feeling a skinny, cold sensation between my fingers.
[Pendant Of Spectral Warding]
Without hesitation, I tossed the long chained pendant around my neck. Just as the cold metal bail contacted my metal shoulder armor, a white flash at the corner of my eye spun my attention to the wall at my side. The white robed light casters glowing feet scuttled across the wall, jumping forward with their fists aimed for my face. I dodged to the side, immediately summoning my Chaotic Accord from my battleaxe. The light caster kicked off the floor, leaping through the orange dome before being yanked back by my infernal chains yet again. The light caster pushed off the ground, attempting to spin back to face me when the edge of my axe pierced through his chest.
"H-…how the f-fuck do you have M-mana?!" The light caster asked, gurgling on his own blood. I smiled, realizing their rather respectable plan to let me burn through my mana pool.
"I'm not going to lie, your plan probably would have worked, nine times out of ten." I replied, ripping my blade free from his chest cavity sending blood spurting all over his white robes. I walked around to his head, sliding his cowl back revealing a pale, blue eyed and long blonde haired man. He didn't look any younger than 40, though I didn't doubt age meant very little to us nowadays. Raising my boot, I made certain to reassure the light caster he was no fool.
"You were just incredibly unlucky I was here." I said, surging infernal energy into my foot and stomping the man's skull in.
*ding*
My legs attempted to crumble out from under me, as I felt the unfamiliar aches of being low on mana. It wasn't anything close to mana exhaustion, still having over 90 mana points to spare. No, it's just been weeks since I've spent so much of myself in one sitting. I forgot how much I hate this sensation, since my mana pool has been growing through levels into intelligence far quicker than my mana manipulation training has been outputting. Not to mention I was down to a mere 30 stamina points as well, a resource I continue to despise that Tom has so much of. No wonder he felt so free to jump in and out of fights so frivolously.. All the same, the immense gratification in winning a hard fought battle far outweighed the soreness in my belly.
An odd tickle at the bottom of my chin caused me to jerk my head up, raising my axe to defend myself. Yet, there was nothing but bodies and rubble that remained scattered through the first floor of this white stone temple. Scanning the second level, my eyes locked onto a portal at the center of the walkway above. The same type of portal everyone used to leave the viewing area, before participating in another Planetary Objective. Realizing how close I was to the end, I stepped over the smushed remains of the metal plated Consortium members corpse and jogged through the hallway that wasn't obliterated by the guardian and up the ramp to the second floor.
Coming to a walk at the gate, my leg stepped through the lightless swirling threshold before being sucked in. As my body whipped through the portal, the pendant around my neck dissolved into the same light wisps that circled the blue light the witch used to summon them. A grin formed at the corner of my cheeks as my vision faded into darkness.
Fuck, I needed this.
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