Chapter 339: Two Wrongs and No Right (2/2)
While Julia was still trying to comprehend what she was seeing, the golden-eyed man suddenly stopped and dropped the ghoul in his makeshift torture litter, causing him to groan in fresh agony.
”This is where the ritual is supposed to take place, right?” He demanded coldly while surveying the room.
”...Yes…”
”Then where is everyone? Why is this chamber deserted?”
The ghoul hesitated, clearly uncertain about how to respond. Finally, he whispered weakly, ”I don't know…”
The man frowned down at the creature for a few seconds before nodding. ”Very well, then you are no longer of any use to me.”
Before Julia had even finished registering his words, several more spears of stone lanced up from the stone slab, impaling the ghoul in a violent and lethal manner. Without a second glance, he calmly proceeded towards the center of the room, stopping just outside of the area enclosed in the four obelisks.
After exchanging a confused glance, Dorn and Julia followed after him, making sure to step around the bloody remains of the ghoul and leave a fair amount of distance between themselves and the killer.
”There is a barrier here...a powerful one.” The man muttered to himself, apparently forgetting that he was not the only one in the room. ”It's...fluctuating? But what...no, there is a connection. I just need to follow it...”
”How are you holding up, my dear?” Dorn whispered, distracting Julia.
”We are trapped in the deepest chamber of a ghoul infested, ruined city along with an emotionally unstable mage who probably has the power to level this place and everyone in it should he feel so inclined. How do you think I'm holding up?” She replied sardonically.
His face twisted at that. ”I am sorry, for what it is worth.”
She sighed and offered him a strained smile. ”Like I said before, don't apologize. I am here because of my own choices, and nothing else.”
An answering smile appeared on his face, equally strained. However, any feeling of camaraderie was quickly interrupted when the golden-eyed man suddenly turned and faced them.
”Alright, I've figured it out.”
”Ah...yes? What is happening?” Dorn asked hesitantly.
”The ritual to break this barrier is taking place somewhere else, apparently. As far as I can tell this,” he gestured towards the stone slab surrounded by monoliths, ”is only the focal point of the sealing magic. The actual control node for the channeled mana is several floors above us.”
”I see...I take it that means we must resume our explorations.”
The man blinked, and then suddenly laughed. ”Hahahaha, no, no we've gotten to where we need to be. Stopping this ritual is easy from here. We just need to break the barrier before they finish.”
Silence fell for a few seconds while they digested this latest revelation. Finally, Julia mustered up the courage to ask. ”Um, wouldn't that be exactly what the ghouls want?”
”You'd think so, wouldn't you?” The man replied, a slightly manic glint entering his expression, ”However, this barrier is a lot more complex than I've been giving it credit for. It is designed to both seal and weaken its prisoner, keeping whoever or whatever is trapped here from escaping easily. You see, it should be incredibly difficult to completely imprison a being of god-like power with this sort of barrier. Quite frankly, it's far too weak to accomplish that kind of thing.”
Julia glanced around the room again, trying to imagine how something this complicated, not to mention produced by the magically advanced High Elves, could possibly be considered weak.
”However, the people that made this chamber were quite clever.” He continued jovially. ”They managed to tie components of the barrier to pieces of the trapped being's soul, ensuring that any damage sustained by the seal would have a correspondingly devastating effect on the being's power and essence. That is why the ghouls are going through the trouble of using this convoluted ritual to free their god.”
”Um…” Julia tried to speak, but found it hard to come up with the right words.
”Essentially, my dear, he's saying that simply breaking out of this trap would not be difficult for the trapped being, but doing so would cause him or her irreparable damage. Thus, it is allowing its imprisonment voluntarily, likely biding its time until something changes.” Dorn offered.
”I get that, but I am curious as to why your plan is to simply break the thing out. It's supposed to be some kind of god, right? Wouldn't it still be pretty dangerous, even if it was weakened? Wouldn't it make more sense to go deal with the ghouls directly and prevent it from escaping in the first place?”
”No that's…” The man started before trailing off, a confused look on his face. ”That would…”
He shook his head as if to clear his thoughts. ”No time for that. The ritual is reaching its conclusion, so we need to stop it soon if we want to bring this to an end.”
Satisfied, he turned back to the table and began to concentrate, obviously beginning whatever internal preparations he needed to break the barrier. While he was doing so, Julia found herself wondering who he was trying to fool.
[If time was such a factor, then why did we take so long to get here?]