Chapter 857 Threads

Chapter 857 Threads

Ilea knew the attack was coming, teleporting the moment the cannon was fired. She saw silver shrapnel spread out from the flowing weapon around one of the warrior’s arms.

The silver wires lashed out, immediately turning to attack her new position as she flew above the bones. Ash burned white and spread out in the hall as spears formed above her. Ilea sent a wave of space magic against the incoming threads, stopping them for a moment when she saw the golem throw a silver sphere towards her with its second upper arm.

She looked at the framework and tried to teleport it away when a pulse of curse magic extended. Her spell failed to activate, golden shields forming when the sphere exploded with a shrill sound. Silver shrapnel spread out and broke through her barriers, her wings pushing her away but not fast enough to avoid some of the metal pieces. Ilea could feel the silver dig and burn into her mantle as the golem charged, now half covered in flowing silver.

She dodged the axe strikes and tried to teleport, the spell failing to activate. Ashen limbs locked with silver threads as she raised her armored arms and burning ash to block the incoming axes. White flame spread over the golem, coming away with dripping silver fluid. She saw the cannon move her way and activated Embered Heart.

The sphere of heat and fire extended outwards, pushing aside the threads and slamming into the large silver covered golem. The cannon remained aimed towards her, firing a split second later.

Ilea moved as fast as she could, raising walls of ash and summoning barriers. She saw her golden barriers shatter on impact, her ash pierced before the shrapnel dug into her mantle. Sizzling heat melted away at her defenses, some now already reaching her skin. The flame of creation burned away the remains quickly, but the damage came just as fast.

She watched the fabric, the wisps moving in strange patterns before it stabilized. Fabric tear activated right before the threads reached her, bringing her close to the entrance and to the other side of the large hall. She felt the curse wash past her right when she appeared, not quite where she had aimed for.

Annoying. The silver was gone by now, but her wounds didn’t heal quite as quickly as they should’ve. Suppose that’s why this thing is still standing.

Ilea watched the golem turn, now entirely covered in slightly shimmering silver armor, the threads growing from its crown zipping around the hall in search of their target, some ripping through the walls and floor, cutting past bones and rusted armors. She saw another sphere of silver form in the free upper arm of the golem.

Her white flame flickered, unable to stick to the flowing silver as lumps of it were shed from the massive warrior. Liquid silver burned into the stone floor as the fires quickly consumed the substance.

Might as well see what happens, Ilea thought, summoning Silent Memory into her right hand. She was ready to store the divine artifact or cut off her arm and flee in case it turned on her.

A silver thread wrapped around her arm, the red gem still glowing with light.

More silver threads rushed out from the hammer as Ilea watched. She smiled when the threads intercepted those coming from the crown.

“Dope,” she sent to the object, blasting away the incoming silver sphere with a wave of space magic. While teleports failed to activate in the disturbed fabric, she could still manifest the simple form of her manipulation.

Ilea saw the object explode against the ceiling as two dozen burning ashen spears formed around her. She raised her brows when a whisper resounded in her mind. Incoherent sounds she could not even place as a language, nor was it an attack.

From the crown?

Her spears shattered against the armored golem as she dodged the incoming silver covered axes. Her ash and fire spread out once again, her limbs scraping against the now hardened carapace of the golem, not a scratch left behind.

Once again she found herself looking at the barrel of the silver shrapnel cannon. Her barriers were not enough to stop the projectiles, the hall not large enough to stay far enough away to dodge, and the curse prevented her use of teleportation in a way that she couldn’t even work through.

I’ll have to ask the Meadow about that.

Arcane energies flooded her every cell as Ilea activated her Fourth Tier. She knew that the longer she fought, the more resilient she would get against the spells and silver of the warrior.

The cannon fired.

Ilea didn’t care. She pushed forward, letting go of her hammer as the silver crashed against her ash, punching through several layers of her mantle before being burnt away by the enhanced white flame covering her entire form. Her shields shattered against the axes, one of her ashen limbs managing to fling away another silver sphere coming her way. Ilea met the charge of the warrior, two dozen silver threads intermingling and scraping against each other above and to the side as the crown and her hammer conducted their own battle.

She used her intrusion on the first punch. While she felt her magic got past the silver, little of it managed to enter the golem itself. The second punch was converted to pure physical power. The impact reverberated through the hall as silver burned against the ash that protected her hands and forearms. Much of the force was absorbed but cracks showed on the metal. Another punch shattered an entire section around the golem’s leg.

Ilea dodged the swiping axes with a backwards jump, a sphere exploding nearby, burning through her barriers and the walls of ash she had raised. She was gone before the liquid silver reached her. Another blast of the cannon was met by a chaotic surge of Ilea’s Embered Heart, neither spell stopped by the other and neither of the beings reacting to the impacts. The threads above were in a stalemate as Ilea shattered the silver around the golem’s right leg, finally reaching the stone when a shell of earth grew from the exposed limb, her next punch pulverizing the defensive spell before her next struck into the knee. A horizontal axe sweep struck her in turn, Ilea willing to trade the hits as she was flung aside by the heavy impact, silver burning away at her rapidly regenerating mantle.

She slid to a stop and watched the silver threads, the golem firing its cannon at her divine artifact. The hammer was struck and impacted the ground as its silver threads receded, twitching.

Ilea’s fourth tier deactivated as she used her space manipulation to send a small wave towards herself, starting behind her hammer. An ashen limb rushed out to catch the artifact before it was pulled back into her hand. She tried to heal the thing but couldn’t form a connection, not that she had ever been able to do so.

“You alright there, buddy?” she sent, finding the red gem slightly dimmer than before. Her white flames burned away the silver still clinging to Silent Memory.

Once more, threads burst out of the hammer. Fewer than before, but they spread out in a way to defend her.

“I like this hammer,” she said, looking at the golem that shoved bits and pieces of stone back into its knee before silver once more flowed down and hardened, all the sections she had destroyed back and unblemished.

Ilea’s ashen limbs joined the silver threads of Silent Memory. “And you shot that hammer,” she added as her heat gathered and her weight started to increase. If she couldn’t teleport, she might as well increase her heat generation and resilience. This thing can’t kill me in a single strike already. She raised her fists. “Bring it on.”

The golem charged as silver threads clashed with each other.

Ilea started summoning small arcs of ash to send away the thrown silver spheres. She used her wings, shields, and her mantle to take the axe strikes and the shrapnel from the cannon. Her strikes in turn left dents and cracks in the silver armor, but not quite enough to break through fully. Her fires burned bright as she sacrificed health to strengthen them, both to damage the armor and to prevent all the silver from getting to her skin. Her healing was more effective dealing with her sacrificed health than damage from the burning and corrosive silver magic of her enemy.

An axe strike shattered a golden shield, breaking through a wall of ash before digging into the first layer of Ilea’s mantle. Her punch broke through silver, bits and pieces scattering in every direction. A blast of shrapnel slammed into her chest from point blank range, digging deep into her ash but failing to penetrate all the way to her skin. Ilea punched with her other hand, more silver coming loose. A few threads got past those of her hammer and her ash, cutting into her ash with powerful slinging strikes. She felt herself being pushed back and used her wings to stay, her limbs rushing out to wrap around the barbed silver cords.

The second axe came for her neck, the mantle already damaged from the previous strikes.

Primordial shift activated, Ilea summoning all the ash and fires that she could, the axe struggling to find purchase on the writhing flesh, flames, and space itself. She willed it all towards the golem, watching from within her own fabric as she grinned, the entire golem covered in a blazing inferno. Ilea felt a pulse of curse magic pass but her spell remained, more flames coming to life as she sacrifices tens of thousands of health to fuel them.

Ilea willed her shift to end, her third tier healing regenerating the lost health for a chunk of her mana. She watched with a smile as the golem took a step back, shedding liquid silver to get rid of the raging flames. The Fourth Tier returned. Runes came to life atop her regenerating mantle, the flames flaring up as her arcane power flowed into everything she was, and everything she had willed into existence.

“You are no god,” she spoke, and closed the distance. Her hammer once again brought the threads to a stalemate as her first punch slammed into the liquefied silver armor covered in her fire. She felt the shock travel through the air, her muscles, and her bones. The second punch struck, her weight already significantly higher, her resilience against the creature and its spells constantly increasing. The third one dug deep, chunks of rock flung aside as her Fourth tier pushed her ever onward. Her shields slowed an incoming axe strike and the summoned walls of ash held.

Each punch shattered stone as burning ashen limbs ripped into the less resilient material of the golem itself, the white flame now burning the rock itself as liquid silver flowed down to prevent further damage.

Ilea devastated the golem as much as she could before her health reached half. She moved her wings, her weight too much for them to provide more than a jump back. She raised her hand to catch the hammer following her every move as the shimmering runes around her faded. Healing flooded through her as her mana regenerated, her weight and resilience still increasing.

The golem had collapsed to one knee, the stone of its insides dug out, arms moving fast to shovel what they could back into the massive humanoid shape. Silver flowed down to rebuild its armor as barbed threads clashed in the space between the two fighters.

Ilea watched the sparks as she took in a few deep breaths, her frayed body recovering mana and gaining more weight. She saw the silver armor of the golem reform once more but not nearly fast enough. Her wings thrummed with power as she charged them, shrapnel digging into her barriers, the golden light shimmering as the Azarinth Star deflected the attack with mere cracks in the floating shields.

Blue runes came to life once more, and Ilea shot forward, her wings enhanced by arcane power. She impacted the recovering golem with a crash, her increased weight and subsequent momentum toppling the large creature as her fires mingled with liquid silver and stone. She raised her fists and slammed them down onto the creature, any spells and axes deflected or ignored. Punch after punch, she worked through the silver and then the stone.

When her runes faded, little more than half a head and spread out burning debris remained. She stood up and watched as the burning bits and pieces tried to get back together, most of it burnt away long before it could reach the growing central mass. She struck with a single charged punch, all her intrusive spells converted into physical force. Splinters, bits, and pieces of rock exploded outwards as a ding resounded in her head, followed by a few more.

She raised her arm to catch the hammer, the gem glowing bright once more.

Her other hand she raised towards the cracked head, barbed threads born from the silver crown still cutting through the room. She raised the whole thing with her space manipulation and pulled it towards herself. The attacks were unfocused now, only aiming straight at her when the head was but a meter away. She ignored them, finding the wires weakened now that the golem was gone.

Ilea gripped the crown with her hand, unafraid of the object so similar to her divine artifact.

[Crown of Authority – Divine Quality] – [The wearer’s domain will be unbroken]

Upward spikes pointed up from the circular base, all of it a single piece of silver. Five red gems sat embedded in the front.

“You can calm the fuck down now,” Ilea sent to the thing. “The fight is over,” she said as another thread was stopped by those of her hammer.

She was about to store the crown as she initially had with Silent Memory when she heard a whisper. This one no longer incomprehensible.

“Seek… seek… seek,” a whispering voice spoke, echoing. Both in her head and in the hall around her.

“Seek what?” Ilea asked, looking at the crown.

“Seek… the depths… of Paarah. Seek truth… below… seek…”

She watched the crown when another barbed silver wire shot out, aimed at her left eye. Before the thing could even reach her, Ilea stored the crown away. Into her dominion.

“Sounds like a trap, what do you think?” she asked the hammer which remained without a voiced opinion.

“I think so too,” she added after a few seconds. Guess this is the thing the Druned wanted. She looked at the hammer in her hand and considered, first deciding to teleport back out of the disgusting hall. She repeated her teleports until she came out on the palace roof, sitting down against one of the many spires with a good view of the sprawling underground city.

Quiet and dead, she thought. Ilea looked at the red gem embedded into her weapon and tapped it with her index finger. Can’t be a coincidence. They’re way too similar. What was his name again…

She summoned her notebook and flipped through the thing until she found the mention on Silent Memory and what she had learned from Evan.

Sanguerrihn, dwarven smith from Naraza mountains turned into a creature or god of death and rebirth. At least there are cults around his person.

Suppose one of his artifacts made its way to Paarah.

She raised her hammer and smiled. Could you bring the downfall of an entire city? She didn’t need a response. Before the Accords, most human cities would’ve been devastated by the creature she and Kyrian had found in the depths of Karth. Harthome called it madness wrought into metal, though I suppose even he knew about it so people must’ve known about these artifacts. Was the hammer buried down below Karth? But there were corpses there…

Ilea wasn’t sure what it meant, if it even meant anything. What she knew was that a supposed ancient dwarven smith, now god, had once made a bunch of cursed artifacts. And now she had the second of those artifacts in her collection.

“Kind of want the whole set now,” she murmured. The magical pulses I felt. Maybe the artifacts can sense each other?

And the crown told me to seek the depths of Paarah for some reason.

Probably a trap.

Not that it isn’t intriguing.

She stored the hammer for now and summoned some food instead. I’ll be staying here for a while anyway, might as well check out whatever these depths are.

‘ding’ ‘You have defeated [First Warrior of Paarah – lvl 1570]

‘ding’ ‘The Arcane Eternal has reached lvl 811 – Five stat points awarded’

…

‘ding’ ‘The Arcane Eternal has reached lvl 815 – Five stat points awarded’

‘ding’ ‘The Ashen Titan has reached lvl 806 – Five stat points awarded’

…

‘ding’ ‘The Ashen Titan has reached lvl 810 – Five stat points awarded – One Core skill point awarded’

‘ding’ ‘The Primordial Arbiter has reached lvl 805 – One stat point awarded’

…

‘ding’ ‘The Primordial Arbiter has reached lvl 809 – One stat point awarded’

‘ding’ ‘Ashen Limbs reaches 3rd lvl 6’

‘ding’ ‘Bulwark of Ash reaches 3rd lvl 13’

‘ding’ ‘Identify reaches 2nd lvl 10’

‘ding’ ‘Silver Magic Resistance reaches lvl 7’

…

‘ding’ ‘Silver Magic Resistance reaches lvl 20’

‘ding’ ‘Silver Magic Resistance reaches 2nd lvl 1’

Silver Magic Resistance – 2nd lvl 1

A rare magic to be sure and just as deadly. Not quite corrosion or poison, silver magic can be devious, its effects complex. You have survived and are one of few who have been exposed and lived.

2nd stage: Your body has been exposed to extensive damage wrought by silver magic. Both your skin and any element you control becomes more resistant to the effects of this school of magic.

‘ding’ ‘Silver Magic Resistance reaches 2nd lvl 2’

…

‘ding’ ‘Silver Magic Resistance reaches 2nd lvl 5’

Five levels in all Classes. More than I expected from that fight. And a shit ton of silver magic resistance. Guess that’ll be useful if I meet another one of these artifacts.

She checked the last message, glad to have followed the strange pulse of magic.

‘ding’ ‘You have freed the ancient city of Paarah from its curse – One Core skill point awarded’