Chapter 12
Dark purple lightning tears apart the laboratory, striking the central wing and tearing its way through the floor and into the labyrinth beneath it. Streaks melt through the metal, and even dissolve away portions of the enchanted exterior. Nothing is safe from the barrage of high tier magic above.
The golem stands once more and begins scanning the room for its foes and its master. It moves slowly, hulking through what is left of the central wing. The golem is oblivious to the lightning from above, a streak tearing through the ceiling and making contact with its shoulder only to fizzle into nothingness.
Each of the mages find themselves covered in rubble and badly wounded. 'We make our exit now. Aurelius will be far more difficult to catch now, and this laboratory is a lost cause.' The leader telepathically communicates with his allies, then teleports from within the rubble back to the association. Soon after the second and third mages follow suit.
From above Azemir continues his assault for about a minute before his mana runs out and the high tier spell fades. "Consider the contract fullfilled Aurelius." He says and then he himself fades away, returning to the hells beneath this world.
The laboratory itself is now in shambles, the dark purple lightning has destroyed the buildings integrity, and has left little more than a husk of what Aurelius began with. Within the ruins, the Jet Black Golem continues its patrol, pacing through room after room. Inside, remains range from burning books on shelves; melted steel walls fused with the ceiling and floor, to large empty holes where a room should have been.
The noise from the battle settles over the course of minutes, silence falling over the mountainside. Soon enough the howl of frost wolves can be heard echoing, as they can sense the overwhelming presence that once stood at the top of the food chain has vanished from their territory.
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Aurelius holds tightly to his barrghest friend, the pair fall through the tear in space. Aurelius can feel his skin crawl at the sensation of rapidly falling in between the worlds, something that is merely uncomfortable to him now after having experienced it countless times. The trip through the tear in space lasts but a moment and Aurelius can feel the two of them exit into a black abyss. The pair falls a short distance to cold hard stone. A moment later a harrowing wind sweeps through the area carrying with the countless wails and tortured screams.
The barrghest lets loose a howl of pain from the sound carried in the winds, and Aurelius quickly casts a silence spell around the pair of them, which negates the sound but not the wind itself. A stabbing pain causes Aurelius to wince at his side as he feels something burn into his skin, but the darkness prevents him from investigating the wound.
Aurelius activates one of the rings on his finger, causing a display to appear. Images of various objects illuminate the air in front of him, of which he moves his hand through a pair of goggles which suddenly appear in his hand. He then deactivates the ring and places the goggles over his eyes.
The goggles pierce through the darkness, causing Aurelius to see everything around him as if it were broad daylight. Stone walls are all that he sees in every direction. Something akin to natural cave walls, only that there are countless serrations extending between three inches and several feet deep into the stone faces of the walls. The tunnel itself looks to have a circular shape, and through the center flows a river of water from which droplets occasionally fall to the walls, ceiling, and even the roof.
Aurelius finds himself puzzled for a moment, soaking in the idea that water is dripping in all directions. He then activates the ring once more and retrieves a bag from the display of images. The bag is made of an elegant silk, and its interior is simply a dark void. Aurelius reaches into the void of nothingness and retrieves a book before paging through it.
By now the barrghest has recovered enough to gather its bearings. Its eyes catch sight of Aurelius holding a book, though it now sees that there is no color. Understanding itself well enough, the creature knows that this space lacks a source of light to illuminate the grey world held within the darkness.
Its curiosity is peaked, so he moves to look over Aurelius shoulder. He watches Aurelius flip through pages with a variety of written words and images of fantastical places. One is of a massive forest, another is a far stretching wasteland where nothing grows, a third is a glowing citadel on a mountainside, and finally the page that Aurelius stops at is one with images of caves such as the one they currently stand in.
The barrghest opens its mouth to speak, but finds that it cannot. A heavy wind continues to batter the pair of them, and he surmises that Aurelius must have cast a spell to ensure that the shrill noise that was heard momentarily can no longer harm them. He watches Aurelius close the book, return it to the bag, and return the bag to his ring. He then makes a few hand gestures and casts a spell unbound by the silence they currently reside within.
'It seems we have been transported to the windswepth depths. So we will need to climb up a layer to where the majority of the settlements are located to find the right ingredients for a spell to transport us back.' Aurelius transmits his thoughts directly into the Barrghests head. Another burning sensation can be felt at his side, which prompts him to lift his shirt and observe a black spot that has two lines stretching out an inch from its center.
'What is that marking.' The barrghest responds, making a mental note of where they will need to go, but having no knowledge of how to get there.
'It seems that they have attached a powerful curse to my form. If my memory serves, this one will spread as i use magic, and upon reaching my brain it will render me catatonic. I know the counter curse, but i do not have any of the ingredients to cast the spell to remove this. We will need to be careful moving forward.' Aurelius explains to his friend, taking a few steps in the opposite direction of where the water is flowing to.
'What is going on with this place? The water droplets are not following the same rules as i recall from where we came from.' The Barrghest replies as he begins to follow behind Aurelius.
'The gravity in this place is strange. It flows to the stone, so there are not walls and ceilings as one might think of traditionally. The floor wraps around itself and there is simply one continuous plane that can be traversed.' Aurelius explains. The aura of silence emanates from him, keeping the shrieking sounds that would have otherwise pierced their ears at bay. The wind itself though, posed its own problem.
'How do you suggest we travel through this wind. I can shift through space at short intervals and shimmer between space to reduce the effects of the wind on myself, but i am not sure how you would keep up with me if i were to travel at such a pace.' The Barrghest communicates as he vanishes from behind Aurelius and appears a few feet in front of him.
'If i do not have to worry about moving slow for your sake then we can make haste. I have trinkets for such as occasion as this.' Aurelius replies, tapping his slippers together and causing magic to encircle him.
The wind from the terrain which had been wrapping against him up to this point now began parting before it crossed his space, leaving him standing in a place with no wind. The magic of the slippers then lifts him off the ground and allows him to skate across the air as if he were sliding across ice.
Aurelius darts forward, down the long corridor. The Barrghest following close behind, flickering in and out of space while teleporting short distances. Between the teleportation and flickering in and out of space momentarily, the wind became little more than a light breeze to him.