Chapter 91 - Not In Kansas Anymore

Stopping himself from immediately sending his soul back to his original body, Ryan took a few moments to calm his frayed nerves. He was in no danger of dying, and the strange feeling he was experiencing all over his body was uncomfortable, but not anything that he couldn't withstand.

With nothing else to go on, he started to make his way to the soft light that was far off into the distance. With each heavy step, no sound made it to his ears, but he could still 'hear' the vibrations that would run up and down his body. He counted himself lucky that he didn't have a heartbeat, if he did, he thought that the sound would drive him mad.

He walked for several minutes, but still, the light he was chasing never seemed to get any closer. Whatever magic that made this room so large was lost to him, he only wished to have some of the tools that Professor Kal possessed so that he could 'see' the arrays causing the phenomena. With the thought of magical arrays crossing his mind, he halted his steps. He was in danger of triggering any traps if he could not see them, without the use of his magic, he had no way to do so either.

Shrugging his shoulders, he decided not to worry about it. He was already exceptionally far into the room and hadn't triggered anything as of yet, and the fact that any living thing would have died immediately upon entering the room meant that the likelihood of traps also being in place were low. Although low, there was still a chance, so Ryan unsheathed his sword and continued onward toward the soft blue light.

His eyes were so incredibly dry, every time he blinked it would feel like grits of sand were digging their way into the whites of his eyes. Any tears that he made would evaporate before they had a chance to do any good. It made much more sense to him to just keep his eyes open, so that's what he did. It was difficult at first, the natural instinct to blink was very strong, but after a while he was able to overcome the urge.

He had all the time in the world to practice his control over the bodily functions of his puppet as he walked. Even after an hour of keeping up a constant pace, the blue light had only grown in size but not clarity. He was committed though, with no other landmarks to go off of he only had two choices, continue on, or return back to his body. And the choice was already made, he would much rather endure the extreme discomfort for the entire week than be lectured by the Professor for giving up early.

Ryan had no way to tell the time, even if he had a pocket watch there was no light nearby for him to see it. While Professor Kal had opted to wear his storage ring on his meat puppet, he had not. He was much too worried about loosing such a treasure and the items kept within. He had even hidden away the summoning amulet he always wore around his neck, so he was only in possession of what he was wearing and his sword.

What felt like at least half a day had gone by, after walking nonstop, he had gotten close enough to the blue light to just faintly make out some characteristics. An enormous ice-blue diamond sat suspended above the ground. Obsidian bands seemed to be wrapped around the wagon sized gemstone, before trailing off into the black void, to someplace that he failed to see. Urged on by his curiosity, Ryan quickened his pace.

Luckily for him, along with his undead body, his stamina was also infinite as long as the mana gem held power, so it took him little time to make up the remaining distance to the source of the light. Once the diamond came fully into view, he stopped in his tracks. The 'diamond' that he saw at such a far distance was actually pure ice that had formed into the shape of the precious gem. The black lines wrapped around it were really arm-thick steel chains, runes were carved into the hard metal that were also glowing faintly.

At the center of everything, trapped within the magical ice and heavy chains, was an ethereal beauty. Long, golden hair, frozen in time, draped over her sizeable bust, concealing them from view. Her face was the definition of tranquility, Ryan felt more at peace than he ever had just by staring at her perfect features. Flawless, cream-colored skin still looked supple and tantalizing, even when viewed through the thick ice.

Even though Ryan was faced with the most beautiful woman that he had ever seen, and she was completely naked, he felt no sexual urges, only sympathy. While the woman's face looked so peaceful and serene, and her skin so youthful and full of life; everything from below her ribs looked withered and decayed. Her creamy skin had wilted and blistered; Ryan could see the pus clearly from the other side of the ice. Her arms, although slender, conveyed strength and vigor, were sharply contrasted by legs that were atrophied and distorted.

Something was very clearly wrong with the woman imprisoned inside, Ryan didn't know what though. He had never heard of any condition that would affect the body in such a way, not even his Necronomicon spoke of such a thing in its passages. It was up for debate on if the woman was even still alive; who knew how long she had been here, or if she had died before being entombed.

Taking his long sword, Ryan tapped on the magical ice. He couldn't hear anything, but could feel the vibrations running through the sword and up his arm. They told him that the ice was extremely hard, much harder than his simple steel sword. He then turned his attention to the chains wrapped around the frozen prison, looking closely at the dozens of runes carved into its surface.

Amazingly, most of the runes he recognized. They weren't the ones commonly used in today's magical arrays, but were much more similar to the ones that Professor Kal had been teaching him as of late. The way they were arranged suggested that instead of securing the ice, as one might think due to the chains themselves, they were being used to supply the ice with a continuous stream of mana. The runes continued on, repeating themselves on each link that he could see before fading off into the abyss.

After making several laps around the ice, Ryan still didn't have any idea what was going on. Was this woman locked away in here because she was dangerous? Or was she preserved in the ice, on her last breaths, in hopes of finding a cure to whatever disease that was afflicting her? He just didn't know, and it didn't matter anyway, he had no way of finding out in here. There was nothing but blackness as far as the eye could see, so making any other discoveries was impossible.

Before setting back out into the darkness, in vain hope of finding the way out before his mana gem exhausted itself, Ryan placed his hand on top of the magical ice. Cold was not the first thing he felt, like he would have thought, instead, he felt a shock. It was like electricity was running through his hand, causing the muscles to spasm. It wasn't a horrible feeling, not compared to what he was feeling just being inside this room, but more like a tickle that was growing by the second.

His curiosity satiated, Ryan pulled his hand from the ice. Turning around, he was dumbstruck by what he saw. Instead of the black abyss that he had grown used to seeing, nothing but soft, green grass swaying in the wind could be seen. The sky was deep blue, puffy white clouds marched across the horizon, their bellies tinted a shade of gray. The sun was warm and pleasant, causing him to want nothing more than to just lay down and bask in its glory.

Instead of giving in to his desires, he turned around in a panic, only to see that the ice was gone and so were the chains holding it. He ran a few steps, put off by the gentle breeze filling his robes. He looked down in shock once more, instead of his heavy paladin armor he was wearing, he was dressed in his robes from the Academy. He was even back in his original body, the meat puppet nowhere to be seen.

Feeling himself all over, Ryan tried to convince himself that this wasn't real. It couldn't have been. Even if he had accidentally triggered some magical array, it would have transported him inside his meat-suit, not his original body that was safely tucked away in the basement underneath the inn. What he was in now must be an illusion of some kind, one that was trying to lull him into a false sense of security. He may be young, but he wasn't stupid, the more peaceful the surroundings were, the more on guard he was.

Closing his eyes, Ryan murmured a short chant. When he felt the familiar warmth flow towards his hand, he smiled. Opening his eyes he saw a small flame burning in the center of his palm, licking the tips of his fingers with its flickering tendrils. His magic was definitely working in this place, relaxing much of his pent up fear. At least he wouldn't be completely defenseless should something happen to him. With renewed conviction, he picked a random direction and set off, keeping a wary eye on his seemingly tranquil surroundings.

…..

The 'forbidden' section of the library was much larger than what Professor Kal had originally thought it would be. It was maybe the size of his own library, set up in much the same way, and housed several thousand tomes and scrolls in varying degrees of decay. Magical lanterns hung from the high ceiling, bathing the entire room in a gloomy atmosphere that fit the rooms monicker perfectly.

Before setting off into the room, Professor Kal searched the body he had dragged in with him. Within one of his pockets was a small gemstone that had a single runes carved into it. Inspecting it closely, he deduced that it was the 'keystone' to the entire library, allowing its wielder to traverse the archive without tripping any of the arrays. Unfortunately, that item was the only thing of value the priest had on him.

Pushing the body off to the side, Professor Kal began going through the books one by one. Of course, he wasn't reading each one of them, just merely glancing at the titles etched into their spines. Still, even with this approach, he couldn't possibly hope to find anything useful in the amount of time left to him. He would just have to leave it up to fate, which was something he detested doing.

Climbing up on a ladder, all the way on the top shelf some twenty feet off the ground, Professor Kal pulled a pure white tome from the shelf. The bright color of the cover, shining out like a beacon amongst the drab shells of its neighbors, is what drew the Professor in. No title was on the outside of the book, making whatever was inside a secret waiting to be unveiled. Still perched high on the wooden ladder, Professor Kal flipped the thick book open to its first, crisp page.

"Those sneaky devils." He hummed to himself while shaking his head.

"Hiding such a thing from the world…"

Inside the radiant looking tome was a name, a name that even he thought was only a legend of old. Amaranthae Tragwyn. Legend had it that Amaranthae was the first High Elf ever to be recorded. She was also believed to have had the ability to commune with the spirits deep within the ancient forests, gleaning otherworldly knowledge of healing and arcane magic. All of today's healing magic was based on her teachings, or so it was told. The truth could have been different, but nobody really knew.

But Professor Kal surmised that at least some of it was true, at least that's what this book would suggest. Inside were techniques used for healing magic that even left him impressed. Many of the ideas inside were innovative and unique, holding the ability to allow even an amateur mage to perform miracles.

The fact that the church would keep such life saving magic from the masses, and instead opt to keep the status quo, was particularly malevolent. But then again, who was he to say what was right and what wasn't? He had done numerous things that would have caused an uproar, everyone has their reasons, even the church.. Storing away the holy grail of healing magic within his ring, Professor Kal continued his search.