Published at 16th of February 2024 2:25 pm

Chapter 2.66 Blade Wrapped In Shadows

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Despite the dire and terrifying circumstances, Nox struggled to suppress a smile as he ventured deeper into the dungeon. It felt like he was finally living his ambition. Best of all, he was alone with Lillin. The pair hadn’t received any isolated delving time since the first rift with the Beauforts. It was precisely the kind of future they had dreamt of before leaving the Golden Isles. Nox wanted to conquer dungeons, gathering resources, power, and weapons to destroy Sundarshahar eventually. Meanwhile, Lillin desired an assorted feast of dungeon lords, bosses, and criminal mages.

The pair weren’t truly alone. Not even Lillin’s inhuman senses had the power to detect Kris in her invisible form. Even though her magic focused only on visible and invisible light, her spell made her entirely undetectable to all human and mimic senses. As an expert ward crafter and breaker, she also had the means to ignore other forms of detection. Kris lingered just close enough to see and hear them for all they knew.

It didn’t matter. She knew all there was to know about Nox and Lillin, and they trusted the professor. Neither cared if she heard their conversation. The professor had also marked him and Joey with her tracking spell, ensuring she could locate both groups without trouble.

“You’re far too chipper,” Lillin commented. “You’re a new adept in a high-expert dungeon. Stop behaving so relaxed.”

“Why?” Nox asked. When he continued, he pretended their Intermediate Dungeon Theory professor had picked him for another question. “Mana burn is the primary killer and injury of low-ranking mages in high-tier dungeons. The ambient density burns and damages their circuits.”

“And your sigil prevents that.” Lillin rolled her eyes when he continued.

“Exactly. It's part of the reason why Kris insisted the others stay by the portal. The spatial anomaly is affecting the mana density. It will also increase the closer we get to the dungeon lord. Most adept delvers stay near the periphery of higher-tier dungeons or rush between warded safe spots created by their superiors. There aren’t many trinkets or artificed devices to survive mana burn.”

“Just don’t get careless, alright?” Lillin sighed. “This is the kind of place overconfident fools die. Mana burn is the least of our worries.”

“I’m not overconfident,” Nox replied. “I might look relaxed, but that’s mostly because of Otis.” The gremlin directed them down side tunnels, helping the pair avoid Wellspawn. “I would be more concerned if we detected any dungeon beasts.”

“The few I sensed are moving away from the mountain’s heart,” Lillin replied, frowning. “In fact, I feel multiple beasts powerful enough to count as bosses moving away from us.”

“Maybe the dungeon lord or whoever is commanding this mess wants them to assault the city,” Nox said. “It’s possible they don’t know about the portal yet.”

“Shouldn’t the dungeon lord be aware of everything going on in their domain?”

Nox shrugged. “Not if they’re no longer the one in control or they’re lending most of their strength to the cult leader. Think beyond what we’ve learned in Intermediate Dungeon Theory. Only healthy and powerful dungeon lords are omniscient. Otherwise, they will only discover our presence if we kill a boss-class beast, trigger a powerful trap, or a detection ward.”

“Do you really think this place would have wards?” Lillin asked. “I know it's a high-expert dungeon, but the structure and state of things tell me the lord didn’t care about the interior. They’ve done no construction or modifications.”

“That might be true, but we’re not just dealing with a fallen god and their minions, are we?”

“No.” She sighed. “There’s a blighted cult in here, too.”

“I reckon we'll be fine,” Nox told her. “Mages are easy to kill as long as we get the jump on them.” He held out a handful of pink and white rune-covered marbles. “Thanks to Joey's Fae Fire, I have more than enough tools to ensure our advantage.”

The pair didn’t have to go much further before they encountered the first humans. None resembled Nox’s mental image. He expected hooded and cloaked individuals like the cultists from the meeting at the Smythe mansion. Instead, they dressed like noblemen out for a casual Seventhday brunch.

The first group consisted of four individuals. One wore a half-plate and carried a broad axe. Another carried himself like a fencer, and a saber hung from his waist. The remaining two looked like ordinary mages. Three of them fell victim to a sleeping draught.

It took the fencer far too long to react. He had his back to his companions and was busy sharpening his blade. Nox guessed he had a sigil or some other form of resistance to the concoction. He only realized something was wrong when the armored aether practitioner collapsed. It was too late. Lillin was already behind him, shirt unbuttoned and mimic mouth wide open. His final moments consisted of surprise, confusion, and horror. She took a chomp out of his head and torso. Then, her giant tentacle-like tongue fished his heart out of what used to be his chest.

The unconscious delvers met similar fates. One of the mages started to stir before Lillin could get to her. Nox put her down with a dagger Shaped out of venom and lightning essence glass. It was a nasty weapon Nox thought up while dueling in Advanced Dungeon Combat. Beasts would only suffer a little immediate damage from it. But the blade and essences were ideal for assassinating soft and unaware human targets. After all, a mage's power and rank meant nothing if someone caught them unaware with no prepared spells. A marginal destabilization of the edge stunned and poisoned her. Then, Lillin finished the job before blood loss could.

The next group only had three members and stood in an open area overlooking the deep caverns inside Terrastalia. Powerful winds swept the narrow paths, making chemical attacks difficult to use effectively. So, Nox and Lillin employed coordinated sneak attacks.

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“Seriously? You can’t wait for me to walk away?” The trio’s only female member’s complaints carried through the tunnels. She sounded disgusted by the two men accompanying her.

“Lighten up,” one told her as he and the other man urinated off the path into the darkness below. “It's not like you don’t have anywhere else to look.”

“At least hurry up, will you?” She whined. “Master looks manic. It’s best if we get her mana stones soon and return to surface duties. The further we’re from herself, the better.”

“When isn’t Master manic?” The second man laughed. “I swear she’s all dust and worms inside. Her joints creak every time she moves.”

“Are you mad?” The woman hissed. “She’ll hear you!”

The men’s laughter got louder. “She won’t hear anything unless you tell her. You seriously don’t think Master knows and hears everything that happens in the mountain, do you?”

“That means one of you tattled on Brian and got him killed.”

Both men died within a couple of heartbeats of each other. Nox and Lillin snuck behind them and attacked simultaneously. He sliced one’s throat while Lillin ate the other. The woman released a panicked scream and launched a barrage of arcane bolts at the pair. There were so many the assassins had no choice but to duck for cover. Rocks trembled and cracked. Nox estimated she was at least a high journeyman, if not adept. The spell and her accent suggested Imperium origins, too. One’s spellwork said a lot about one's background.

An essence marble containing a gravity spell knocked her off-balance and interrupted her casting. Nox jumped out of cover, empowered mana arrow ready. The projectile struck the mage head-on and instantly demolished her mana barrier. Then, a second ripped into her sternum and exited through her back. The woman's mouth moved silently, and shocked eyes took the attackers in before she toppled over the path’s edge and disappeared into the darkness.

“Do you think anyone heard us?” Nox whispered.

Lillin shook her head. “The wind is too loud, and their conversation didn’t echo. I think the scream didn’t carry.”

Her hypothesis proved correct five minutes later when they encountered a couple locked in what sounded like urgent and secret love-making. The pair didn’t see Lillin coming and lost their heads to a single chomp.

“Did their Master not tell them what’s going on with Terrastalia?” Lillin asked. “How can they be so casual when the Titan is locked in a teleportation spell?”

“What if the news hasn’t spread yet?” Nox tried to think of better answers. His current hypothesis felt the simplest and most plausible. “This is a big mountain, and it's been at most thirty minutes since we arrived. We take swift communication for granted. Unless they have messenger summons or a long-ranged telepath, it will take ages for information to travel.”

“But—”

“Terrastalia has been gaining altitude and dropping repeatedly with every failed teleportation spell, but we’ve felt nothing. External stimuli don’t reach the dungeon’s interior. The lackeys don’t yet know.”

Winding paths and narrow bridges led the pair deeper into the mountain. Eventually, Lillin’s senses guided them along the horizontal instead of vertical. The internal gales weakened, allowing sound to travel. Nox heard several distant but muffled conversations and saw arcane lamps moving in the distance.

Nox and Lillin avoided targeting unaware cultists if they were too far off their path. Lillin didn’t mind since her senses didn’t highlight any of them as particularly delicious. However, her gluttonous nature and the forever desire to store body mass made close but easily avoidable targets hard to resist. It was the first time Lillin had access to such a feast, and Nox believed adult cultists terrorizing the continent knew what they were doing and were all equally guilty. So he let her have her fun.

Things got hairy at one point when they attacked a duo in a windy tunnel too carelessly. They had no trouble killing them, and Otis, surprisingly, sensed no danger. Then, a party of three walked in on the pair just as Lillin was liberating them of all mana gems and expensive-looking weapons. The two groups stood in surprised silence, staring at one another. Then Nox successfully cast Crystalize Essence just as the trio unleashed a barrage of bright and loud spells.

The chaos drew a group of three. This time, Otis warned them of the approach. Nox guessed the first party had a spell capable of countering the gremlin's detection powers. Then he and Lillin had attacks coming from two sides. Trap Foam erected a temporary barrier, giving them enough time to deal with the first party. Nox forced them to pause and dive for cover using an empowered arrow. Then Lillin used the interruption to charge in, wearing a full suit of gravity armor.

Mimic physiology and the spell didn't just make her defenses almost as sturdy as Caitlin's. It let Lillin move faster and with agility far greater than that of an ordinary human. Haste only made her speedier and more deadly. She also had the senses and reaction time to put most sensory-magic-focused mages to shame. Facing an unrestrained Lillin was not a fair deal for most rift lords or bosses of a similar rank. Ordinary journeymen and adept mages had even less of a chance.

The second party broke through the hardened foam barrier as Lillin mangled and ripped the first's limbs. Nox had to deal with them alone. Fortunately, they'd taken just long enough to destroy the barrier for Nox to weave lightning and frost essence into an extra powerful arrow. It ripped through the vanguard before unleashing a Journeyman storm spell on the rest. Temperatures plummeted as lightning danced between the floor and ceiling. One fell to electrocution while Nox sniped the others during the miniature maelstrom chaos.

Only a single party member survived long enough to get within melee range of Nox. He had suffered enough damage to make him careless. When his sword swing missed, he failed to maintain his balance. The effects of Haste only made things worse for him. Artisan’s Arm successfully caught the mage’s weapon while an aura stung Nox’s skin. The aether warrior proved competent when Nox stabbed his essence crystal dagger up at the man’s lower jaw. He caught the arm with his free hand and followed with a headbutt.

Nox suffered a bloody nose but also successfully cast Galvanizing Touch. The cantrip demanded minimal mana and concentration to activate. It stunned the man long enough for the dagger to switch hands. Nox’s aim wasn't as accurate with his left arm. He missed the upswing but got the opponent’s neck on the way down. He destabilized the blade's edge, shocking the aether warrior from the inside and filling his body with venom. Nox needed healing and mana pills to fix a broken nose, a fractured radial bone in his left arm, and several strained muscles, but they successfully slew both groups without attracting anymore.

The duo crossed several bridges and found themselves in a monstrous cavern housing a little town of geometrical buildings. They had reached the mountain's heart. A lone pyramid stood at its center, and an invisible force attracted Lillin toward it.

“That's where our dungeon lord and Well of Pestilence is,” she said, appearing an odd combination of excited and disgusted.

A narrow flight of stairs crisscrossed down the wall to the settlement below. Azure and lilac mana lamps illuminated the streets. Nox’s stomach dropped as he studied them. He saw Alexander struggling against restraints as a giant man dragged him to the pyramid. His sister lay unconscious on an identical cultist's shoulders. Nox failed to spot Joey or Kris. The Woodsons were in trouble, and there were far too many aether practitioners ahead for a stealth attack. Fortunately, the pair's captors marched in the same direction as Nox and Lillin’s destination: the pyramid.

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