- 9TH DUNGEON, 3RD CHAMBER -
Seuvial rolled her scrolls and packed them neatly in her satchel, these were her precious memories, she could not go anywhere without them. These texts were derived from the many experiences that she had encountered, and she believes that these will assist a new generation of the Holy Knights in the future.
One scroll was not packed within the satchel yet, she recognized the parchment and knew exactly what she had written in it.
She then recalled what happened...
A few weeks ago Seuvial and her brother Vedial were following a trail of the recently escaped Greyhearts, however, during their search they witnessed a column of lightning descend from the heavens near the outskirts of Oris.
At that moment, they expected an array of world-ending disasters to begin occurring having feared that the Greyhearts had finally unleashed the power from the Heart of Oris. However, when the end of the world did not happen, their group rushed towards the direction where the column of lightning had descended, expecting the area to have been destroyed by the phenomena.
Strangely enough, what they encountered was not what they expected to have been at the sight.
A lone madman experimenting with shock magics, his clothes had been in rags and his mind was far from sane when they first encountered Darrel.
The Holy Knight's first assumption was that Darrel had been weakened after casting such a powerful spell, little had they known that he was hiding latent power within him, which he slowly build up and unleashed on the squires.
'Ancient magic.'
After witnessing this Vedial immediately took action and easily subdued Darrel, but what occurred at that moment was far more unpredictable than they could comprehend. Vedial's armor had cracked and neither of them knew what the cause had been, the Holy Knights had made a lot of errors and they understood that.
However, the Thirteen could not afford to make any mistakes, especially ones that could have the potential to blow up in their faces like the spell-less wizard.
Seuvial's mission had later been taken up by Vedial, who rode north to investigate an old mining dungeon that had stopped communicating with Moriandia. So to let off some steam, Seuvial had raced back to where they had captured Darrel and started to investigate the area.
This was the one thing they had been unable to do after capturing Darrel since their squires had required healers, and the cage carts holding other escaped prisoners they had captured along the way needed to be escorted back to Oris.
As Seuvial investigated the area she came across a half-buried crater with ancient magic symbols surrounding its edges, and after finding this she rode her horse east, away from Oris, and then returned days later.
Seuvial exhaled.
"Are you ready Calestian?"
Calestian rose from his seat and nodded his approval, it was moments like these that showed the denizens of Morland the usefulness of Holy Knights to the land.
The two Knights exited the cave and were met by the band of ragged dungeon miners led by a large bearded mortal by the name of Greyan. Seuvial followed by Calestian walked ahead of them as they made their way towards the final chamber of the ninth dungeon.
"Ashes?" Darrel asked.
"That's what's left of them." Greyan remarked. "The Holy Knights blessed our weapons with Moria's grace."
"Did they do mine too?"
"Ha! For what? Sweet dreams?"
Greyan snorted with laughter as he made fun of Darrel, for a mortal considered an enigma within the prison he appeared to have made friends with this band. Seuvial increased her pace to try and block out the tedious chatter.
To no avail.
Darrel and his party kept up with the Holy Knights until they reached the Ingress to the final chamber of the ninth dungeon. If it had been up to her she would have preferred the prisoners be sent back to their cells, but the only way out of this dungeon for normal individuals was to clear all the dungeon's chambers and exit through the final Ingress.
"We are here." Calestian announced. "Stay close and you will survive."
The group nodded and walked through the Ingress with the Holy Knights and when they appeared inside the final chamber, they could feel the weight of the lich's fear aura in the air. The chamber was pitch black and there was no sign of light in sight, Seuvial found it unusual for a creature on the upper floors of Oris to exhibit this much aggression.
"Calestian."
Seuvial beckoned to her squire who immediately understood his mentor's wish. Calestian moved in front of the group and then raised his arms towards the dungeon.
"[Lustre Allay]"
A brilliant light immediately burst forth from Calestian's hands and proceeded to scatter through the chamber in form of sparkling particles. The dark aura immediately dispersed from the air, Seuvial could feel the effects of the fear aura vanish with it.
"The creature seems to be hiding in the farthest part of the chamber Lieutenant." Calestian stated as they proceeded.
"You are right." Seuvial agreed. "After you had scattered its dark veil, I felt its presence manifest in one area."
With his mouth ajar the entranced Darrel looked around the once dark chamber now exuding with clouds of shining particles, the light emanating from them felt like the light of day that he had not seen in weeks.
Seuvial noticed Darrel raising his hands trying to touch the light, for a moment she thought that Darrel might try something.
'What's he doing now?'
However, when she saw tears trickle down from his eyes she perished the thought and continued moving.
The chamber descended further into the bowls of Oris leaving the group to wonder how deep the rest of the dungeons went. When they reached another point where the lich's dark aura occupied, Calestian reached his arms out again and dissipated the darkness with his [Lustre Allay].
"Is this truly where the lich is hiding?" Orimik whispered to Greyan.
"Seems like it."
"Then how come we haven't encountered any undead?"
Greyan paused and pondered on the question, in all the previous dungeons the party had always been swarmed by monsters. Orimik surely had a point, it was hard to fathom how monsters operated, but they all had one thing in common.
Their tendency to attack mortals on sight.
"[Lustre Allay], a light attributed ability taught to clerics." Luca jumped into the murmuring conversation. "Like your [Leo Mortis], it purges all terror effects from its user and enhances their status."
"That doesn't explain why we haven't encountered any undead yet." Orimik refuted Luca's claims.
"Aren't undead greatly affected by the light?" Darrel queried. "Then shouldn't the lingering light be repelling any undead from attacking us?"
The party paused and assessed Darrel's answer and slowly nodded in agreement, even Orimik could not find a reason not to agree with him.
Having listened in on their echoing chatter, Seuvial remained indifferent to their ideas, she could feel the lich's presence within their vicinity and knew they would be encountering it at any moment.
"Lieutenant, I found the fiend." Calestian pointed to a shadow hanging at the center of the chamber's cavernous ceiling.
"Oh. Then let's get this over with."
Darrel's party jumped into their usual formation and readied themselves to battle, seeing this Calestian chuckled at their amateurism and stood by as Seuvial walked over to the roosting lich.
"Stand aside fools and watch a true Holy Knight in action."
"This is a rare sight." Greyan muttered.
Sensing her presence the lich descended from the chamber's ceiling and loomed over Seuvial, the undead was draped with a dark cloak that flowed as it floated in midair. Its withered skull and bony hands were all that could be seen of its former body, after noting the thickness of its aura Seuvial let a thin layer of light cover her golden armor as she drew her sword.
With a deafening howl, the lich summoned three shadowy claws from its cloak which plunged towards Seuvial, but with a swing of her sword, the claws burned away with a white flame before they could reach her.
"[Equestria - Flickering Touch]"
The lich drew back in what appeared like a foretelling exchange, there was no emotion on the lich's bony face nor could it feel any at all, but Seuvial knew the creature was beginning to fathom its predicament.
"My brother and I polished this old art to perfection, the very techniques that our great grandfather Gherial used during his conquest of Morland."
Seuvial raised her sword to her face and then stared down the lich, she had already gauged its strength so there was no reason for her to prolong this confrontation any longer. The lich spread its arms and its cloak stretched out like the wings of an eagle, the lich understood the taunt and it prepared itself for a final assault.
"An interesting creature."
Seuvial commended the lich in a subtle way, it was good that she had come to destroy this fiend for if it had grown any more powerful things may have gotten out of balance.
"[Equestria - Lustre Thrust]"
The lich screeched and sent a gush of countless souls torpedoing out of its cloak and flew towards Seuvial, but with an elegant stance, she launched herself forward, briskly skipping from the ground to evade the incoming swarm of disembodied attackers, before her sword imbued with a Holy aura tore through the lich's skull.