Chapter 795: Curses (2/2)
It was pitch black. Her eyes had adjusted instantly but the hall was empty. Besides a few piles of metal. Destroyed Guardians she assumed.
“It’s strangely quiet,” he sent back.
“Think so? I mean it’s an underground ruin,” Ilea answered. Though she supposed he wasn’t wrong. Usually there were at least some insects she could hear, or in a Taleen dungeon some gears. “Let’s find out then.”
He nodded, the large form of his metal armor starting to float in perfect silence.
That does look cool. Ilea spread her wings with a smile on her face. Finally a meeting I want to attend. Her wings moved as she was lifted off the ground, the two adventurers flying past the remains of a few Guardians, craters showing in the hallway beyond. One large enough to suggest an Executioner had been destroyed. “This is all too boring and narrow. The One without Form probably set this up.”
“No furniture or anything,” Kyrian sent.
Ilea wondered why Aki had put this place on the priority list, flying out into the next hall. Her eyes widened at the plethora of craters. It reminded her of the battlefield she left behind in the City of Glass, the void creature protecting the phylacteries easily capable of producing something like this. Void void void. Everything is void. Did the Ascended infect this place with monsters too? On closer inspection, she found that the spherical indents were more likely explosions from various Taleen machinery. Bits and pieces of surviving shrapnel suggested as much.
“Ready?” Ilea asked.
“What do you mean, ready? There’s nothing here?” Kyrian asked.
“Not yet. I’ll use Monster Hunter,” Ilea sent back.
He glanced at her with his shining green rune eyes. “That will inform every single creature in the vicinity of a few kilometers.” He paused and nodded slowly. “Yeah. Let me prepare something first.”
“Let me know when you’re done,” Ilea said, floating in silence as metal appeared and split into needles, an entire swarm flying out to etch runes into the hall. What are we? Adventurers that actually prepare traps? She rolled her eyes at the novelty, looking at her ash covered hands before she charged up Monster Hunter.
“Done,” he sent less than a minute later.
“Great,” Ilea answered and released a whistle, the sound reverberating through the hall and out into every connected hallway. She could hear it echoing for a few seconds.
Nothing responded for a while. Then, something stirred in the dark.
A being appeared in the hall, leathery wings and no eyes. Twice as large as a man. It hung from the wall, six legs touching the stone. Its head moved with fast patterns before a strange set of mouths opened.
Ilea could feel vibrations when she saw a slight wave of magic ripple through the hall.
[Craw Listener – lvl ???]
More of the creatures appeared in the hall, a few first, then a few dozen. All at level eight to nine hundred.
“Greetings,” Ilea sent to the first one, using both her telepathy and her mind magic communication to try and inform the being of their presence.
The creature didn’t respond as more Listeners appeared in perfect silence, the walls now full of the strange insect like beings.
Ilea felt the attack coming, a bright golden barrier flaring up about twenty five meters away from their position. Immediately after the defenses were struck by a hundred invisible spells. “Ready?” she asked with a smile.
The hall shook, cracks in the barrier already forming.
“Sound magic,” Kyrian murmured as several flying flails appeared around him.
“Now you can level your resistance,” Ilea said with a smile. White flame flared up around her as she cracked her neck and knuckles. “Ah, I missed this.”
“We were fighting like… two days ago,” Kyrian said. “Never mind.” He chuckled.
Silent Memory appeared in Ilea’s hand when the barrier shattered, a small golden shield on her arm before she rushed forward. “Last warning. Run away,” she sent to the creatures, using another wave of Monster Hunter to send the same sentiment.
She hoped they wouldn’t.
A split second later, she was struck by a set of sound magic waves, unable to teleport them away or dodge. Still she flew on, her mantle only partially defending her against the strange intrusion. Her organs shook within her body, the creature she reached unable to teleport away due to her aura. She swung her hammer, the metal impacting with a dull thud, flattening half of the monster before silver threads lashed out and shred the rest of it apart.
Ilea teleported about thirty of the beings close to her and simply held up her hammer, the threads going wild. “Feast on their flesh,” she sent with a grin, her mantle splattered by blood and guts as the sound waves turned the gore laden air into a whirlwind of chaos.
She flew unmoved, having faced horrors in Kohr far more terrible than these dungeon dwellers. The fires of creation would not wield to such displays of magic. A beam of heat flared up, disintegrating a few dozen of the monsters. Ilea smiled, tasting blood in her mouth as she healed her shaken innards. Combined efforts. Impressive. Silent Memory had finished its feast of the surrounding creatures, the threads looking for more, the gem in the hammer head glowing, almost joyous.
Ilea teleported. She appeared in front of a wall covered in the sound magic creatures. Waves of magic struck her, the combined effort of nearly a hundred beings. She closed her eyes, feeling herself be pushed back ever so slightly, her eyes resisting, her muscles, skin, and organs shaking. Ilea raised her arms, the golden shields she conjured shattered in moments. She glanced at the hammer and let go, a silver tread wrapped around her arm as it let itself dangle down, landing in a flurry of threads, the red gem glowing with foreboding light. Death and Curses. “Go wild,” she sent, feeling her Space Manipulation charged to the highest point. Ilea savored the power, her palms held out towards the incoming sound magic and the beings that cast it.
Ilea smiled as she released a wave of pure space magic, the invisible power near instantly slamming into the dark wall before her. The enemy magic stopped. A smear of dark blood and pieces of flesh remained as a shock wave of air hit the ceiling and adjacent walls. Not a single one had survived.
She turned to see the hall lit by white fire and green curses, her friend floating past as his dark metal shred and flattened the creatures. Ilea teleported and healed him, the injuries not as extensive as she had expected. “Nice armor,” she sent.
“Sound is still difficult to deal with,” he answered, waving a hand as six flails flew past, spinning and impacting the creatures, one killed with each strike.
“You’re a terrific exterminator,” Ilea sent as she felt the heat in her chest charged yet again. She flew around, using fabric tear to collect another large group of the monsters, her aura activating right after to prevent their use of teleportation. Arms spread wide, a sphere of heat and fire expanded from her at the center, sound magic, flesh, and bone burned away an instant later. She glanced to nearby movement and saw her hammer move along the wall, threads of silver impacting the stone before it flung itself into groups of Listeners, waves of curse and blood magic flaring out, the threads cutting through the monsters like steel through paper.
“Is that a good idea?” Kyrian asked, a few hundred runes activating before green light flared through the hall, a few hundred flying monsters convulsing before the curse took them. “Letting it go off alone.”
Ilea raised a brow under her horned mantle, the hall returning to relative darkness. “You’re not allowed to ask that, after that spell.”
“Fair,” Kyrian said and moved on to the next group. Few remained.
“Besides. Silent Memory knows who’s in charge,” she said and flew closer to the hammer. “Right?”
The thing sent out threads, striking the ground before it flung itself towards her. Thorned silver threads spread out, one moving around Ilea’s arm before it pulled itself closer, the handle landing in her hand.
Strange. She felt a pulse, as if the hammer asked to use its power.
She hissed, feeling the power absorbed by the hammer. It thrummed with curses. With blood. Instinctual, she felt something touch her very core. A wish. A memory of death and bloodshed. A promise of power. She could feel the change it wanted to achieve, a burst of power. A gift. Though her resistances were too high to allow for it.
We could try, she thought, feeling the thorns move around her arm, magic flooding her. Bone, blood manipulation, and a sinister curse. She smiled, feeling the slow changes. Ilea had felt the corruption back in the Descent, had experienced death, blood, and bone magic before. This was different. An addition more than anything, the nature of the magic similar to what she felt when using one of her own spells. It felt right. She grinned and removed her resistances. Do your worst, hammer.
Ilea grit her teeth, her eyes opening wide when she felt her blood boil. Wings of bone broke out of her back, her ash moving aside to allow for the changes. She could feel her body shift and break, her bones cracking, extending, claws now where her fingers used to be, long like swords. The hammer had downright merged with her arm, Ilea flying in the dark as the white flame flowed over her ashen mantle. She could see herself in her dominion, three, near four meters large now, a monster of bone and claw, silver metal shimmering between the flames and ash.
The curse shook her very form. It spoke to her, whispers. A plea. One she was willing to answer.
“Should I run the fuck away?” Kyrian asked.
She looked at him with a grin. “I told you. I’m in charge,” she sent and sped up, crashing into a group of monsters, three of them splattered below her clawed legs. Silver threads moved out as she moved herself to the left, a clawed hand catching one of the beings, their teleports useless against her inhibiting aura. Ilea grinned as she squeezed, the monster squashed like an insect within her massive clawed hand.
Bone and ashen wings moved on her back in serene patterns as she healed herself against the empowering magic from the divine artifact. She looked up and addressed both her hammer and her friend. “Let us hunt.”