Chapter 73: Make it rain

Chapter 73: Make it rain

Sofia let Pareth slide down the wall, leaving behind small trails with his claws. Sofia and Alith would observe from a safe distance. The chicken skeleton was in serious combat mode, wearing his halo, an armor of light and his weapon of light that had been morphed to Chicken claws of light? If there was ever a dangerous chicken in the history of chickens, it was this one.

It touched ground on the paved road, between two mansions. Perhaps there had been gardens around the mansions originally, now those were nothing but five or six meters deep pits. Same thing for any fences that might have existed before, it was long gone.

Could the lesser Phageids even get in the mansions? Now that I think about it they werent good with stairs Theres no way they could climb their way into the mansions. Where the hell have they gone then? The palace?

The skeleton flitted away on the straight road going straight for the palace. He got quite close until he ran into an invisible wall. So that explains why the palace has been preserved. One more point to my mana eater Phageids theory.

Alith also had something to say about it, Think someone lives in there?

And they wouldnt have come out when we were busy destroying the outer city? Id be more inclined to say whoever locked themselves in there is long dead, just like the elf who had the ring.

Only one way to find out.

Pareth attacked the invisible barrier, the zone near the impact rippled with blue light. That was it. It gave a few more attacks with the same result, the barrier was still there, invisible and undamaged.

Maybe you should just bolt it.

That would be our last resort I guess, your mithril blades might work too? It would be nice if we could just get through without breaking it, if it can keep the Phageids away.

To the mansions then, Id like a simultaneous description if you can please.

Sure. Sofia ordered Pareth to enter one of the mansions. The skeleton ran there, jumped over the garden pit and entered through a window on the ground floor. Then Sofia entered her narrator mode, Empty, as usual, larger rooms than the outer city though. Its not unlike a regular human mansion I think. No traces of any Phageid yet. Entering the second floor through the main stairs.

Still not much, smaller rooms, long corridors, all desperately empty. Theres round holes in some walls and floors, maybe they had water pipes or something like that.

Alith interrupted her, Water pipes?

I thought the nobles of your world had that like ours? Its all in the name, pipes that bring fresh water to like cook and stuff. With servants pumping the water to fill the reserve every day. Its the middle option for those not quite rich enough to get magic water taps but still rich enough for luxury. Most people only have their toilet with piping like that to prevent the smell. Did you not pay any attention when we were at the inn in Drakron?

I dont spend much of my time marveling at toilets, no.

So their plan was to take this squid out as quietly as they could, and learn from it to clear the rest. Before that, they had Pareth check every mansions third floor from afar through the windows.

As they feared every mansion had its own orb and Phageid squid. Besides one that had two squids. These Phageid squids werent all the same size, different levels guaranteed, so they decided to hunt the smallest of the bunch first. They would try to do it as quietly and cleanly as possible.

If all went to shit, they would turn back to the fly around and blast everything with lightning plan, in which Alith and Pareth would have to fend for themselves on the ground. Because they couldnt stay near the forming [Angels bolt]s.

Looking over the mansion occupied by the weakest looking Phageid, they were about to start the attack. Only one detail was posing problems. They didnt know how to get the thing to come out of the house. They had a lot of ideas they wanted to try out, but as it was they knew too little about their enemy to be sure of the best approach.

One thing was certain, they wanted to have access to Sofias [Heal undead], so they didnt want to fight inside the mansion.

Will it even come out though? The other one didnt move after you teleported Pareth away.

Who knows, lets try our ideas one by one.

If the Phageid went out of their way to eat mana-rich items and people, as Sofia theorized, then they might be able to make it come out, maybe even lure it into a trap. But they could be wrong, and the thing also looked like it was protecting the big sphere Maybe its trying to eat the sphere too? Wouldnt that mean theyve all been trying and failing at that for centuries?

Unless time flows differently here Or the city wasnt like that when the elf owned the ring Whatever, time for action.

Sofia deployed her wings, the holy light lit up around the white bones, and she took flight. Hovering as far as she could from the windows on the top floor of the mansion, she summoned some blood inside.

It was instantly answered with the sound of something heavy slamming against the Midenicite floor. Sofia couldnt see but some part of it had to have crumbled.

It attacked the blood? If we can make it destroy the ceiling like that then we could fight it in there.

Sofia flew higher up, as high as she could and over the mansion, then she summoned some blood mid-air. It fell and landed on the roof right above the creature.

No reaction this time. I guess since this crystal cannot hold mana it must insulate from it pretty well. It also cant see it and probably not hear it

That means the Phageid squids from the other mansions shouldnt be too reactive to us fighting this one, if they have a similarly limited perception, thats good news.

The next test was to do the same things with big chunks of crystal instead, to see if that was enough to prompt a reaction.