Chapter 662: Wormholes (2/2)
Human
Lands
Low
Mana
“Right. But she could go there if she really wanted to?” Ilea asked.
Yes
Painful
Slow
Death
“Okay. So don’t piss off a dragon to the point where it would accept its own slow and painful death to exert revenge. Got it,” she said.
The Fae giggled and hugged her face from the side.
Happy
Survived!
Ilea smiled, sending a wave of fire over the newly forming silver, making sure not to detonate the core. “I’m glad too. Another close one, but my space magic pulled through. And I didn’t have to worry, you were on your way anyway.”
Truth!
“Sorry for calling for you in such a dangerous situation,” she said. “It was a bit reckless of us to stay after we learned about Audur.”
Violence
Reckless
He shrugged.
Fun.
Caution
Boring
“Partially agree. But normally creatures don’t have an anti space magic aura that prevents my escape. But maybe I’ve grown a little complacent,” Ilea mused, checking the few messages she still had pending.
‘ding’ ‘You have escaped Audur’s domain – One Core skill point awarded’
‘ding’ ‘Ashen Wings reaches 3rd lvl 3’
‘ding’ ‘Displacement reaches 3rd lvl 30’
‘ding’ ‘Space Shift reaches 3rd lvl 29’
Ah come ooooon. Just one more skill level. It would’ve been so perfect, she thought, blasting away the silver.
“Ilea, can you make sure he doesn’t kill her?” Verena asked from a few dozen meters away.
Feyrair stood over a charred Dragonkiller, her murmured insults failing to inflict the damage she hoped they’d do. He looked downright triumphant.
“He won’t,” Ilea said, reading through the rest.
‘ding’ ‘Deviant of Humanity reaches 3rd lvl 18’
‘ding’ ‘Veteran reaches 3rd lvl 26’
‘ding’ ‘Void Magic Resistance reaches 3rd lvl 9’
Just for escaping that thing. I guess it really was quite close. If she wouldn’t have fallen for that ash copy trick…
She didn’t finish the thought. They would’ve had to find another way to escape. Ilea thought she herself could’ve maybe even managed. The others though, she doubted it. They likely wouldn’t have had the necessary resilience and regeneration.
Don’t dwell in the past. You learned that you’re not ready for a dragon yet. Who would’ve fucking thought.
More importantly, Ilea had found the third key.
She summoned it, finally inspecting the thing.
[The Silver Key – Ancient Quality] – [Enchanted]
And the One without Form helpfully let me know that three keys would make me a real Key Warden. Which might answer a few questions. And surely pose some new ones too.
She stored it again, a chunk of mana used to make the key find its place within her storage necklace.
Intricate
“Yeah, it’s from the Taleen. Same as this thing here,” Ilea said to the Fae, pointing at the sphere held up by forming silver metal, the skeletal Pursuer once more burned away by her spell.
Destroy?
“Hmm… that’s the question, right?” Ilea mused. “There’s something I’d like to try.”
She once again tried to displace the core, failing in the endeavor but not entirely without progress. Using the spell a few more times, she could discern the enchantments preventing her from moving it. Somewhere etched into the core, but not overly complex in its nature. Certainly nothing that changed as frequently as Audur’s aura.
Compared to figuring out the dragon’s spell, this puzzle proved rather manageable. The fact that she didn’t have a monstrous creature hunting her definitely helped, not that Ilea easily panicked, with her high level meditation, experience, and constant healing.
“Hmm, think someone could track this being?” Ilea asked the Fae.
No
“I see. Guess I’ll trust your expertise,” she said and glanced at the others. “Come gather round, children. We’re leaving this dreadful place behind.”
“No more of the artifacts around that you sought?” Verena asked.
“Good point,” Ilea answered, summoning the locator and activating it. “Nope, just a direction.”
“Not quite as lucky this time,” the woman said with a light smile. “What level is that thing anyway?”
“Eight fifty,” she said. “Keep some distance. The detonation when its destroyed is quite… extensive.”
She sent another blast of fire onto the regenerating silver, her eyes opening wide as a realization hit her. This was exactly the way someone would have to transport her, if they managed to destroy her brain somehow. And it would be so easy to kill it at this point.
“Verena, why didn’t you save me?” Pierce asked, her lightly charred form joining them, the woman wearing half burnt rags.
“Dress yourself,” Verena said with a hiss.
“My state of dress reflects my tragic loss. Elven kind really is superior to my weak self,” she said, her body language suggesting frailty.
Nobody seemed to fall for it.
“Where is it you would take us?” Hereven asked, now joining them too, the tone in its voice suggesting it had missed what had transpired earlier or it simply hadn’t cared.
The unfazeable, Ilea thought. Guess if you live near a dragon for that long, it’d become hard to care.
“I didn’t plan for you all to meet already, but I think it’s fine at this point,” she said. Verena and Pierce had worked together with her, the former even helping out when her life was on the line. And now they had met the Elves and behaved, better than expected. “I need some time to breathe, and there’s only one place I’d feel at least somewhat safe right now.”
“I hope you don’t mean your house. Those cats aren’t going to help against that monster,” Pierce said.
“There’s no reason to believe she can track us, nor that she would go to the human plains. Dragons shouldn’t have the best time in that kind of mana density,” Ilea explained and activated her third tier transfer once more.
“You don’t want to explore this dungeon?” Neiphato asked.
“I don’t think so,” Ilea said. “At least not now.”
She connected everyone to her transfer, including the regenerating Pursuer core that was so helpfully given into her care.
Pierce was back in her black armor, lightning flowing through her as she sighed. “What a downright humiliating day.”
“I told you about the risks,” Ilea said.
“You’re beyond madness. But true, you did warn us. Let’s hope tomorrow brings a few more creatures like that, my skills haven’t grown like this in years,” the woman said.
“Who are you anyway?” Feyrair asked.
“I told you. Dragonkiller Pierce. Elder of the Shadow’s Hand and your undoing. In a few decades that is,” she said with a toothy grin.
The elf hissed. “In your dreams, human.”
Ilea glanced at the two and sighed, her spell manifesting after the runes had fully formed. She did have to admit that they made a rather fetching pair.