Chapter 859: Maddening Shrieks

Chapter 859: Maddening Shrieks

The power trickled in, helping...immensely.

Deep within the Ravener’s cavern, Uldar’s construct drank deeply of the energy that Lord Aenflynn had provided. Its flagging stores of strength began rising again, allowing it to make adjustments within itself.

“Thank you,” the Ravener said. “Thank you for a taste of the creator’s power. Your aid will always be remembered.”

‘My pleasure,’ Lord Aenflynn answered. ‘Just hurry, this conflict I am involved in is not easy-Gah! I must concentrate! I must leave you to your fight.’

The Ravener felt the connection between itself and Uldar’s old friend abruptly end.

For a moment, the construct felt a...sensation...growing inside. A loneliness. Like a longing for something. Companionship. It understood that. It had felt it over the eons when it had not heard Uldar’s voice for some time.

Perhaps the creator’s old ally would make the passing of ages far easier to bear.

But to face those ages, the Ravener must win this battle.

It would not waste the gifts Uldar’s old ally was bestowing upon it. Drawing upon its reserves and the new channel of power, it adjusted its internal processes. Since the empowering fear had been hindered, it would no longer be able to produce an infinite supply of dungeon cores.

So, it must do with making less, and only focus on crafting cores that would make its most devastating monsters. Skystriders. Skyfire Swarms. Gale Makers. Spawn Knights.

And of course, the formidable creatures it had yet to unleash.

Living Cores.

All of these Spawn would be its most elite forces. They would crush resistance and put the fear back into the mortals.

These elite monsters would also form its guards.

Soon, the Heroes would come.

Already, it could feel a Usurper nearing.

The final confrontation was inevitable.

“The trial moves to the next stage,” the Ravener’s surface rippled.

Spawn Knights exploded from the construct’s form, quick, vicious and powerful servants: the perfect guards for its labyrinthine tunnels.

“Creator...if you are in the after-world...” it paused. “Then guide me. Spawn!”

Its words echoed through its vast chamber.

Its legions watched it eagerly.

“Go. Go into the tunnels and prepare. Soon, battle will come.”

With cries and bloodthirsty screams, its elite Ravener-spawn charged into the tunnels, making their way to their posts and ambush-points.

When the battle came, they would be ready.

And in the meantime...

The Ravener opened pathways of power to certain dungeon cores around the fae realm.

###

“It’s real quiet,” Alex whispered.

“What was that, archwizard?” the engeli asked.

“Nothing.” He said, watching the forest below them intently.

Trees swayed, wind rustled their leaves, and the sounds of animals calling to each other reached them from below the canopy. The atmosphere no longer felt unnaturally quiet, to indicate a trap or illusion...but still, something was odd.

He looked around the wilderness, seeing nothing obvious.

Not yet.

And that had been bothering him.

‘We've been following the path for a while now,’ he thought. ‘We should be getting closer to the Ravener, but where are its guards? Dungeons serving as outposts? Patrols? Why is it so damned quiet?’ He looked around. ‘There should be something guarding the area. Anything. I don’t like this...’ for new novels

He called an army of summons, just in case. ‘I don’t like this at all.’

###

‘I...like this...’ Claygon thought.

His lower arms stabbed his war-spear through a behemoth’s bone armour, impaling the creature from front to back. The monster howled, trying to pull the weapon free, but the enchanted tip was already doing its grim work, draining its life from it.

In heartbeats, the monster’s struggles slowed and its movements weakened. Bone armour loosened, as flesh withered within it.

A final dusty cough, and the monster was still.

The explosion broke the creature’s magic, and for a moment, Claygon’s companions recovered.

But, the Ravener-spawn emerged from the explosion, scorched but still alive.

“Everyone...move away!” Claygon shouted.

“No!” cried Isolde from another part of the battlefield. “My will is not so weak as to shatter from this thing!”

She unleashed a spear of lightning at the creature—encased in liquid—arching it through the air, finding one of the creature’s wings. The monster shrieked again—flames sputtering to life within the wing’s membrane—yet it kept flying.

Flesh shuddered.

Spikes of stone flew from its hide like javelins, raining down at horrendous speed.

Cursing, the wizards teleported away—reaching for their warrior companions. The spikes fell, striking the earth, digging deep. Many crashed into Claygon’s iron form and detonated.

Explosions of fire and clouds of noxious gas burst from the spikes.

Claygon remained unharmed.

The creature’s bulging eyes rolled, many focused on the wizards as they reappeared several hundred feet away, scattered in all directions. But most of the Ravener-spawn’s gazes focused on the golem, clearly acknowledging him as a threat.

Its flesh rippled once again, partly-transparent petrifiers sprang up along its form, dropping to the earth. The True Seeing spell Alex had placed on Claygon revealed the creatures, making stopping them as simple as catching fish in a barrel, and the golem stopped them before they could even orient themselves.

The petrifiers’ turned their many eyes on him, but could only die when the fire-beams struck them, blasting them out of existence, exploding their detonating organs.

He flew at the giant Ravener-spawn, noticing its burnt body was beginning to heal.

‘Need to stop it...from...recovering...’ he thought.

Again, the golem unleashed a fire-beam from his central gem, striking the flying creature dead centre. The explosion drew another shriek from the beast. Claygon flew through the flames, levelling his spear at the burning creature as it shot more stone spikes at him, they exploded against the golem’s metal form, slowing him, but not stopping him.

With another cry, the enormous Ravener-spawn beat its four flaming wings, pulling away from the golem, gaining altitude.

Claygon simply cocked his upper left arm back, transferring the war-spear to that hand and throwing the weapon with all his might.

It hissed, cutting through the air, embedding itself in one of the Ravener-spawn’s many eyes.

The eye split, foul black liquid poured out, the war-spear was so deeply embedded in the creature’s body, that it vanished within its bulk.

The monster wailed, shuddering, beginning to wither.

Its burnt flesh could not heal, Zonin-In’s weapon saw to that, absorbing the creature’s life force. Powerful wing-beats slowed, Claygon caught up to it.

His iron hands snapped into fists like battering rams, delivering heavy blows, pounding its flesh, stopping it cold.

Its mouths—-at the end of their stalks—turned uselessly toward his iron surface. Claygon reached for them, pulling them off like he was plucking rotten fruit from a tree.

The creature shrieked, trying to fight again, to unleash its maddening cries, but it might as well have been screaming at the wind for all the good that did.

It continued to wither. Its strength continued to wane. Soon its flesh had desiccated to the point where Claygon could see the end of his weapon’s haft protruding.

He reached for it, twisting the war-spear in the Ravener-spawn, opening the wound wider, allowing him to reach inside.

Power gathered in his palm, the sound warning the monster of what was to come.

Its bulging eyes grew wider.

And Claygon released the fire-gem, directly into its body.

The beam of fire could not possibly miss its target, and the monstrous creature seemed to double in size, light, heat and flame roaring just beneath its skin’s surface. Flesh rippled, mouth-stalks flailed weakly, its screeching sounding like the whine of steam escaping a kettle.

Then, it ruptured. The fire-beam exploded within the monster, tearing it asunder.

Flames wrapped the golem, licking at his iron form.

“I don’t know what you were...but that is the end for you...” he said, before flying out of the burning explosion.

He froze as he emerged, looking around.

“Oh...no...”

More of the same Ravener-spawn were rising from the earth, transforming, turning into living dungeon cores.

Most turned their attention to his companions.

But some?

Some vanished, carried elsewhere by fae.

Carried to Thameland by fae.