Chapter 8-231: The Central Spire (2/2)

The tighter they packed themselves, the faster they died.

It turned out I could add Alchemical Bomb damage to the Burst effect of a Good Spell of the same Element, as long as I was using Blessed Bombs. Since I was defaulting to Fire and Lightning here, that definitely wasn’t an issue, and in tight quarters, the ChainedBursts were taking an extra +4d6 off the undead that were flying in every direction when the Bursts went off.

So, the effect wouldn’t work with Bolts, Lances, Storms, Cones, Comets, Rays, Orbs, or Fans, but it would work with any kind of Burst effect.

At least until I got Bombs that did alternate area effects, maybe?... La, la, la...

Pointedly, it would work with Pyroclasms, although I only did that once, as I wanted more rep counts, not mass extinction so quickly.

I’m sure the undead thought they had me when their forces started pouring in behind us, especially after we entered that long hall past the door. I was flying, Sleipner’s bike was Itemized, and Master Fred was dual-wielding him and Idiot. Zipping Alicorn Lances were flashing out non-stop to poke undead getting uppity, girt with some Wrathfire for basically instant kills. Swathes of fire were exploding up as Walls of Fire here and there to really irritate the undead with double-damage Goodness, and basically make the area behind us impassable.

They were also not happy when my Casting Rate doubled, and then tripled. I was allocating Shardrays to their Casters, Shards to their minions, and Repeat Spells were streaming backwards nonstop to take care of the undead coming in behind us without fail.

They also didn’t like the way I could Shape the stone around here, which foiled trap after trap they tried to spring on me. I sealed off slits in the walls, locked up pits, reinforced ceilings and falling blocks, wedged tight closing walls, and either threw open concealed chambers or simply walled them over in passing. One of my thoughtstreams was wielding my Duskstopped Stoneshape at VII smoothly, taking advantage of the fact we were inside a mountain brimming with cold Earthpower and using it against them constantly.

Even magically reinforced stone bowed to the Shape Stone at VII, and if I could only do forty cubic feet at a time, quite low by my standards, that was still more than enough to mess up everything that needed messing.

I don’t think they were very happy when they finally did get some Bolts and Bursts of lightning, fire, acid, cold, and their negatively-charged variants through, and found we had Spell Resistance of 41, and we were almost as unstoppable to magic as their own Golems.

Perhaps they despaired, perhaps they welcomed the coming chance at death... because they didn’t think it was permanent, and who knew which way they regarded it when the unfamiliar vivic fire took them, and burned them so clean the Shroud couldn’t bring them back.

The stone of the mountain was dark and deep, but my path along it was soon blinding, brilliant white, touched by many unwhite flames having a good ol’ time of uncounted bones and long-dead flesh turning to dust beneath it. In front of me or behind me, I made no distinction, and Killed Them All.

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Their traps were locked up.

Their minions were exterminated.

Their spellcasters were useless.

Their magical defenses had been ripped apart by Dispels and Spellflares more potent than a score of their Casters working together, the feedback disrupting and destroying defenses that had stood for ages.

Their wise and powerful dead elders, returned to lead them, had exploded in unwhite fire that was giving them uneasy vibes.

Their Constructs and Golems and Animated guardian minions had been blown into rubble.

The mad song of the boreal wind was having no effect on us, nor was the chill.

The holy starfire was coming, and with it a Song that was burning along the threads of magic, with a power none of them could remember ever seeing.

Too strong, too pure!

Bright lights in the darkness, changes in the Song as vivic energy thrummed on the wind, and the necroic power on it blazed and ignited, sweeping forth out of the long entry tunnel that led into the ancient necropolis of the people here.

They did try to focus their attention on Master Fred, perhaps thinking that breaking the person with less offensive power would swing the odds in their favor. That proved incredibly hard to do, as massing up just drew my attention, and not massing up meant they couldn’t use cooperative Casting to try and break through his impossible Spell Resistance. Trying to avoid my attention long enough to do that was not easy, and impossible once they started Casting and I noticed the effect on the manasphere.

I swept through the (un)living areas, Shards swooping through the maze of tunnels and caves, Seeking all the undead hiding within them. Unless their caves were sealed shut, the Shards could find a way there and extinguish those hiding. If they were sealed, that simply meant I had to Reach out with Shape Stone and make a hole for them to enter and do what needed to be done.

The conduits of command led me onward, and Trailfinder kept me on the path even if I couldn’t follow the areas of greatest traffic through the labyrinthine depths pretty easily. Traipse the same roads for thousands of years, the difference is obvious...