Chapter 683: Beings lurking in the Deep (2/2)
Helpful, Ilea thought and walked forward. She couldn’t feel an instant push nor was there overwhelming power. No, the magic here was way more subtle. Beyond even what Eve could do. Might actually be close to what the Enavurin showed me back in the Descent.
“Hello? Anybody home?” she sent in the general direction of the magic’s origin. At this distance she couldn’t discern how powerful or far away the source actually was but if it could communicate, it would be close enough.
“A being capable of telepathy…,” came the answer, almost like a whisper. The words were spoken in Elos Standard but Ilea could tell the pronunciation wasn’t exactly right.
“Yes. And I’d appreciate it if you could stop trying to get into my head,” Ilea said, still feeling the tendrils of magic trying to get past her defenses.
“You have entered my domain. And those who enter, are susceptible to my presence,” the being said in a calm tone, as if it was explaining the circumstances to a child.
“I’m clearly not just food. And it might be dangerous to antagonize me like that,” Ilea answered.
“Your threats are confusing. If you possess such great power, why do you not remain in your domain?” it asked.
It sounds genuinely confused, Ilea thought, a little taken aback. “I don’t have a domain. I travel around the world. I’m sure you’ve come across beings like that.”
“Yes, but rarely ones receptive to the mind. If you truly are such a being, then there is nothing here for you. Leave or become nourishment,” it whispered, as if it was a choice between whole and low fat milk at the grocery store.
“Well, your threats don’t make much sense to me either,” Ilea replied and walked away. A few steps were enough to get her out of the creature’s mind magic range. The invasive spells stopped immediately.
“Find anything?!” Pierce shouted.
“I’m fine, there’s a mind magic being in there but nothing quite as ridiculous as an Enavurin,” Ilea sent. She appeared above her armor and glanced at the Elders coming her way. She dismissed the ashen copies. “It’s weird. I think it just attacks everything that comes into its domain, but I don’t think it’s moving around.”
“It attacked you?” Pierce asked.
“Yes. Become nourishment or leave,” she said. “Not exactly the broadest spectrum of options.”
“It’s clearly intelligent,” Verena said. “I’ve not heard of a stationary mind magic creature like that however. Do you know how far away it is? How large is its domain?”
“It’s pretty extensive. The range isn’t exactly on the Enavurin’s level but it’s impressive. I’d have to get closer to find the source even, which is something that hasn’t ever happened before,” she said.
“So you go in and kill it?” Pierce asked. “Do you think we can survive the magic?”
“You can certainly try. How high is your mental resistance?” she asked.
“Not as high as yours. It was one of the first general skills I got to the third tier, but I didn’t have many opportunities to train it. It’s pretty rare,” Pierce answered.
“Not in my experience. But maybe I’ve just been lucky,” Ilea said.
“Unlucky you mean,” Verena said.
“If you’re offering to help us, I’d love a bit of resistance training,” Pierce said.
“Unknown high level being… an arcane healer and space mage nearby. An acceptable risk,” Verena said.
“Sure, I’ll just work on my armaments and new abilities,” Ilea answered and vanished into her armor once again.
The two women entered the mind magic spell’s area and glanced around. “There’s no magic h-” Pierce started. “Oh… wow, that’s some advanced level mind magic. I don’t think I would’ve noticed that without your mention.”
“So you would’ve died here,” Verena said.
“No,” Pierce answered. “I don’t exactly need my mind. Neither do you, as far as I remember.”
“You’re giving secrets to whatever creature is listening,” Verena said.
The lightning mage shook her head. “Verena, she has a name you know. Just because she’s an absolute monster doesn’t mean you should call her a creature,” she said and glanced back at the massive armor. “She’s still… in a few ways, human. Maybe one or two. Her hair at the very least.”
Verena ignored the remark and sat down, beginning to meditate as her brows twitched from time to time.
Pierce instead walked from one side to the tunnel to the other, her eyes focused onto the distant light. An occasional burst of lightning flashed through her mind.
Ilea couldn’t quite make out what the spell did but the elder’s focus seemed to return whenever the spell hit. A perpetual wake up signal, I suppose. Verena is getting calmer with each passing minute instead. Her defenses are getting stronger.
She moved her massive arms around, keeping a piece of her perception on the Elders as she tried to repeat the few dancing steps she had learned from Claire. An ashen partner would’ve been helpful but the tunnel didn’t quite allow for two war machines of her size to coexist in a dancing manner.
The ground rumbled with each of her steps. Ilea felt her balance waver when she couldn’t quite turn her momentum in the right direction. Her hand turned, an invisible force pushing her shoulder forward as she slammed down with her left heel. She moved into a spin to finish the set of steps, her titan form spreading its arms in a graceful gesture.
Pierce had stopped her walking and instead glared at Ilea.
“To increase the difficulty. You’re not doing a good job. It’s getting in your head,” Ilea informed her and resumed her self imposed dancing lesson.
The manipulation is incredible. If I can even influence something this heavy…
Ilea tried no to rely on her space magic too much, her steps slowly improving in the span of the next few hours. She incorporated her gates to create an endless ballroom for herself and the wispy ashen form she had added after getting the idea, the two of them dancing through the gates with graceful booming steps. I wonder if Felicia would enjoy this kind of ball as well. An occasional use of Primordial Shift let her test the limits and weight differences between her various forms.
It would take time to get used to everything, which made her decide to postpone any skill enhancements at least for the time being. Each of her spells would additionally take quite a hit if reset to the beginning of the third tier. Probably should focus on my two main classes first, even though these skills are just so much fucking fun. Seeing the twitching eyebrows of Pierce with every single one of her heavy steps just pushed her joy to higher levels. Dancing had never felt quite this freeing. I’m sorry Claire. It turns out my heart is filled with spite.
What kept her going was the fact that Pierce would do the same to her if their roles had been reversed. Though I’d actually be grateful for the resistance training help.
For now they could take some time to train, but Ilea soon started to think about their options. She would go back to the Pit in a few days’ time, that much was sure. But simply leaving this mind magic monster down here felt wrong. It seemed mostly just a stationary predator that preyed on everything that walked into its domain but already it had killed dozens of dwarves from the settlement far above.
Then again if they knew about it, I could just mark off the area of its influence. It would continue to consume other monsters but that’s not exactly any different than what everybody else is doing.
She decided to check out the caverns on the next day, to see if she could at least recover any bodies or gear, and to have another chat with the creature so rudely trying to get into her mind. Maybe I can convince it to leave this place at least. Bring it somewhere north where the Meadow could prevent awakened beings from stumbling into its realm. Or maybe I could suggest a plant based diet. Wait, does it eat the flesh of beings or their minds themselves? This opens up so many more questions. Ah, let’s be honest, it’s probably not going to be more diplomatic than it was today.
The thunderous dance continued, debris falling from the ceiling as a web of cracks spread out wherever the massive being moved. Ilea couldn’t help but smile at the welcome pause from near constant battle. The only thing she missed was music. Not that there were instruments in Elos capable of competition against the one woman construction site of reinforced and living steel.
‘ding’ ‘Dancing reaches lvl 6’