Chapter 841 Will

Chapter 841 Will

Ilea felt the blood and bone magic take hold as the first enemy weapons reached her ash. She grit her teeth, feeling her canines extending. The shift was less extreme this time, her muscles tensing as pulses of powerful blood magic expanded through her.

“Not quite as good as my new toy, but you’re not bad either,” she sent with a smile. Silver threads rushed out as she slammed her claws into the first of the knights. They extended and punched through his back before she cut upwards, slowly grinding through the metal plating before she came away with a chunk of his skull. She grabbed the damaged knight and threw him forward, crouching down to avoid a strike before she body slammed another enemy. Bones cracked and metal thrummed, the walls shaking from the impact. She raised her hands and slapped them together, the head between exploding in a splatter of gore, much of it absorbed by the threads and spells of her divine artifact, now melded against her arm, the hammer head resting atop her shoulder.

The Baron will take issue with that, she thought and threw the corpse into the next enemy, catching and incoming sword before she shattered it with her magically enhanced strength. Several spears punched into her stomach, forcing her back slightly. More weapons glanced off on her mantle, the knights now all around her, the melee growing extensively chaotic as she jumped up to the ceiling, pounced down onto one of her enemies before her claws and tail of silver threads shred through armor and flesh below.

She came out on the other side when her hammer started to recede, the silver threads hanging on to her arm as the weapon flowed back into its usual form. The glowing red light had dimmed considerably.

“A little more formidable than what we faced last time, despite their level,” she sent and jumped back to avoid a slash. Her injuries healed, her ash recovering, she glanced at her weapon. “That was fun. But you should take a break now.”

The hammer vanished into her domain, Ilea watching the corridor of ripped apart and burnt knights. Golden light shined from more than a dozen, injuries healed by the strange power imbued into their insignia.

Enough playing around, she thought, the switch in her mind returning once more. This time her ash was set alight, burning with the white flame of creation. Two dozen limbs of black ash formed on her back, two wings spreading in the tunnel. She activated her fourth tier.

And rushed forward, a smile on her face as all of her spells were imbued with arcane energies. Every punch sent waves of magic slamming against steel and flesh, more yet intruding the very frameworks she could see within her extensive dominion. Ash and fire spread, faster and more destructive than she had ever felt it move before. Metal plating was punched through like paper, heads and limbs ripped off by the sheer force of her momentum. Embered Heart released in a sphere around her, blasting away ten knights and the very stone of the cavern. The ash flowed onward, like a torrent of burning fires, stealing health to heal her arcane form.

Ilea didn’t stop, mowing through the onslaught of knights with a flurry of fire, ash, and arcane energies. She laughed, spinning in the air as her wings sped her up. She felt unstoppable. She was unstoppable. Ilea once more reached the point in the tunnel where she had started off, impacting the last knight with twenty ashen limbs and a punch of Archon Strike to his chest. She slowed and turned in the air as bits and pieces of liquid glowing metal splattered to the ground. Little remained of the knights she hit directly, her wings bringing her back to the ground as the arcane power left her form.

Ilea took in a shuddering breath, her health sitting at just about half, returning to full in mere moments thanks to her returned third tier healing. She smelled burnt blood, hair, metal, and bone, watching the glowing hallway, white flames still flickering on the walls. Golden light emanated from two pieces of armor, humanoid forms shaped back into existence by the powerful magic, metal and weapons reforming as the knights once more prepared to fight.

I missed two, she thought and walked towards the first, the knight already charging.

Ilea blocked his sword with her ashen limbs, punching three times to damage the fully recovered knight with her intrusion magic. She pushed her destructive healing into him. Aiming her Embered Heart, she focused the little heat she had gathered and burnt away the center of the chest piece, the glowing heat burning deeper still. Her limbs had cut into his head by then, her flames consuming what was left.

The last of the knights she took down with her ash alone, a torrent of fire engulfing the advancing humanoid, burning away everything below his armor, the metal glowing when the knight fell to his knees.

Ilea focused on three of her limbs and cut into the chest piece of the warrior, ripping out the one remaining symbol in the bunch. Storing it away, she waited for the last notification to pop up.

‘ding’ ‘You have defeated [Knight of Marahn – lvl 848]’

‘ding’ ‘You have defeated [Knight of Marahn – lvl 782]’

…

‘ding’ ‘You have defeated [Knight of Marahn – lvl 902]’

‘ding’ ‘The Arcane Eternal has reached lvl 775 – Five stat points awarded’

‘ding’ ‘The Ashen Titan has reached lvl 770 – Five stat points awarded – One Core skill point awarded’

‘ding’ ‘The Primordial Arbiter has reached lvl 769 – One stat point awarded’

Even got one level each for that. Cool.

‘ding’ ‘Ashen Limbs reaches 2nd lvl 20’

‘ding’ ‘Telepathy reaches lvl 19’

‘ding’ ‘Warhammer Mastery reaches 2nd lvl 19’

Probably worth getting that to the third tier. Ilea pulled up the general skill third tier possibilities to check if her Ashen Limbs skill was even listed.

‘General skills available for third tier advancement:’

- Ashen Limbs

You have integrated ashen limbs into your fighting style long before even receiving this skill. It is no surprise that you have pushed it to the very limits of the second tier. More awaits, if you are willing.

Sure, three points to spend. Any little bit helps.

‘ding’ ‘Ashen Limbs reaches 3rd lvl 1’

Ashen Limbs 3rd lvl 1

You have mastered the ability to fight with limbs made entirely of ash. Required manipulation is reduced by 29.1%.

2nd stage: Increases the speed at which you can form ashen limbs by a static 25%.

3rd stage: Increases the Harmony of your ashen limbs by a static 25%. Imbue at total of one limb per level in the third tier with up to 500 mana to increase its durability and potential sharpness. Effect is lost upon destruction or removal of imbued limbs.

Ilea felt the change instantly. The control she had over her limbs felt sharpened in a strange sense. As if she was more conscious of their movements. Imbuing was downright instantaneous. Scraping against the stone walls with her limbs, she found the difference noticeable but not extensive.

A nice addition to my collection, she thought whilst cutting up the walls with her limbs.

Ilea stopped the movement and proceeded to burn away the remains of the knights, once more summoning the last symbol she had cut out.

The piece thrummed for a short moment, golden light flaring up when the last remnants of the knights were burnt away.

She looked into the light, tried to see with all her layers of perception.

“Godslayer…” The voice resounded in her mind. Echoing in a strange pattern, both close and far away.

Ilea felt shivers run down her neck but she ignored the feeling, familiar with feeling the presence of powerful beings. Instead she tried to gauge the magic, the capabilities, what the being was, and where it was located.

“What purpose hast brought thine coming?” the voice asked, echoing once more. As if hundreds of voices spoke at the same time. A harmony.

Ilea could see the magic move, as if specks in the air all around her. They gathered, as if pieces of a whole, coalescing close to the symbol and finally imbuing it. The glow was just a physical side effect. She could feel more specks float towards what she assumed to be a focus, though she couldn’t quite place the type of magic.

“I’m hunting monsters,” she sent back, deciding on the simplest answer. At least there was some type of being that wanted to communicate, though she knew it at least had to do with the knights getting resurrected. If they had come here to fight the void creatures as she assumed, Ilea was willing to lend a hand.

She watched the strange magic gather once again. The energy felt calm in a way, gentle.

“A creature most foul resides in the depths of this dungeon. Valiant knights you have slain, remaining to fulfill their sacred oath. Willst thou join their cause?”

“I don’t know what creature it is. I’ll have to see it first to decide, but if it’s a monster, I’ll likely take it on,” Ilea sent back.

“If thou willst it, I shall guide thine path,” the voices spoke, a chorus within her mind.

“Sure, I wouldn’t mind a guide,” Ilea answered, looking at the golden light engraved into the steel. “So, how does it work? You just tell me to go left or right? Or a golden arrow of light?”

Instead she felt a pulse of magic. Telepathy, but what was sent weren’t words but knowledge. She felt as if she knew to go back the way she came, then the tunnel to the right, and down.

“Neat. So who are you?” Ilea asked as she walked towards the indicated location. She didn’t expect a trap, but would certainly welcome one.

“I am not, and yet remain,” the voices spoke.

Ilea turned the corner and found the tunnel she knew to be there. She walked a few steps and looked down. “Here specifically, in this dungeon, or in general? I mean if you remain, why do you say that you are not? You obviously exist, in some manner.”

“Remnants of will. A reflection of what hast once been,” the voices spoke.

Ilea jumped down and landed with spreading wings. The fall was at least thirty meters, perhaps higher. More corpses littered the grounds here, the void spheres all around. She looked down at the insignia. “What’s it like being a reflection?”

“Fading. Remaining by the wishes of old. Souls long gone. Anguish and sorrow, persevered through hope and believe. The will ist all that remainst.”

Ilea hadn’t really expected an answer. She walked through another tunnel and turned right. “Sounds pretty exhausting. Do you have a name?”

“I… not here. No longer. These lands have forgotten.”

“You don’t know it anymore either?” Ilea asked.

“I do not,” the voices spoke.

Interesting. And still it remains here. For its will? Or for someone else’s will.

She came into an expansive cavern, her eyes scanning the dark. She found pillars of stone rising fifty meters high, connecting ground to ceiling, interspersed within a knee high lake of murky water. More dripped down from above and onto the hundreds of faded corpses, knights, skeletons, and monsters of the void. Ilea didn’t miss the more recent signs of battle, and the void spheres left behind by explosions she was more than familiar with.

“Did I come to the right place?” Ilea sent, but she found the connection gone. Suppose I did, she thought, spreading her wings to avoid the corpse littered waters. Piles of bones and ancient leathery skin mingled with rusted weaponry and armor. A constant drip of water sent tiny ripples over the otherwise undisturbed surface of the lake.

It spanned several hundred meters, dozens of pillars spread out in between. Ilea squinted her eyes to see the doorway made of steel, at the far side of the lake. That’s the entrance. No wonder there were void creatures here. Probably summoned by whatever Ascended built this thing.

She moved her wings, slowly making her way towards the distant doorway. The number of dead creatures was staggering. Thousands. An ancient battlefield. The last stand perhaps, of the knights of Marahn. The ones that were sent here at the very least.

Ilea felt a pulse.

Magic coming from ahead. Potent and of a familiar kind. She watched the still waters and saw something flow out of it. A round shape, a sphere, its surface made of seeping flesh, writhing like a living brain. Its removal from the lake did not cause a disturbance.

The sphere around one meter in diameter floated upwards in the dark cavern, two wings of purplish red each over ten meters long sprouted from the living flesh. They moved with a serene pattern. Magic glowed from the creature, coalescing.

Ilea could damn near taste the mana. Void of course, as Aki had warned. And she wasn’t disappointed. This thing was powerful, whatever it was. Enough to challenge and halt the Knights of Marahn.

Enough perhaps, to pose a challenge to a traveling godslayer.

Her own wings moved a little faster, though hers were nowhere near as large. The dark red illumination was not enough to truly show the floating shape, but with her eyes she could see it well enough.

Ilea felt the attack coming. Near as fast as some light magic spells. Her shield formed and was shattered a split second later, most of the powerful purplish beam burning into her mantle instead.

Her void magic resistance was at the peak of the third tier, and still she felt the impact. Three of her layers were gone in an instant. Another beam followed.

This time she teleported, right before it struck.

The sphere seemed to move with her, but the beam wasn’t as fast as Ilea’s movement through the fabric. Though it was close.

Four more spells followed, the fifth one struck home again.

Ilea tried to teleport longer distances instead, watching the stationary sphere as she healed the damage done to her ash. Mere moments passed as a few dozen beams came and went, her mantle reduced and recovering, her skin burnt away and healed. She found her flesh resisted the magic a little better than her ash, but the output of the creature was still rather insane. She wondered if it had been specifically summoned, or if it had simply been the last of the void creatures down here to survive. The one to stop the knights.

She got more used to the rhythm as the seconds passed, her resilience against the creature’s magic slowly growing. Forming a set of ashen spears with her third tier of the skill, she sent three of them towards the creature.

Ilea watched it move its wings, the creature folding into itself before it appeared a few dozen meters to the right, opening its wings as it appeared. She didn’t miss it. There had been no teleportation. The creature left the fabric, and returned in a different place.

Well that’s annoying, Ilea thought and sent out a few more spears, the being vaporizing them with another set of beams. It’s stupid enough to be distracted by a few projectiles though, she thought, teleporting a few times to avoid the next attacks. That’s an interesting ability though. I wonder where it goes. If not the fabric. Could I latch on? Would I want to latch on? My anchors are here, but what if the fabric isn’t connected at all, wherever this creature goes?

She decided not to test it, though she assumed the answer was nowhere. Similar to what she had experienced from the Void Lord’s spell. I suppose my third tier resistance will protect me either way. I can’t be ripped out of space itself after all.

Ilea summoned her wyrm focus cannon and teleported past the beams, sending out a few more spears before she aimed. Teleporting two meters to the right, she used her spell, a beam of near white fire flashing up, striking the ball where it writhed, a pulse going out and removing the white flame from existence.

“Have you decided godslayer?” The chorus of voices returned to her head, though she couldn’t see the insignia anywhere.

Ilea dodged a few more beams when the creature paused for but a moment. Even a monster in the two thousands couldn’t cast spells without breaks it seemed. Minuscule ones, but breaks nonetheless.

“If that ball is the creature, I’m already fighting it,” Ilea sent.

She teleported once again when she felt dozens of magical sources flare up all around her. She thought it a spell from the monster, but quickly saw the specks of golden light all around the lake, more coming from near the entrance.

The voices now resounded not within her mind but from all around, echoing through the caverns as the sphere started firing beams of void magic into the waters.

“An oath you have sworn. An oath to stand against all those who would defile our lands. I call you now to fulfill that oath. Stand for Marahn. Stand for Lavien. Let her golden light burn within your hearts. I bid you stand!”

A pulse flashed out and the golden lights dimmed once more. In their stead rose battered knights, their weapons overgrown, their armors worn and decrepit. And yet they stood, and then they charged, running through the knee high waters with their ancient weapons held high. No voices resounded, no charge was announced. A forgotten field of battle, once more alive with undying will.

Ilea smiled, watching dozens of knights rush at the creature, teleporting to avoid the beams. Ten had fallen already, most before they had even fully risen.

It’s a bit of change. But why not. Let’s fuck up that ball of flesh. For Marahn, I guess.