Amun.
8th of Sextrand, 1492.
Mii'etus Praesyris.
23:41
***
I admit I got a little frustrated. But, as I stated before, I was beginning to lose my patience. This place was a veritable shit hole and I wanted nothing more than to leave.
Evar and the Hun'ana's were the last ones on the list aside from Eban, who I was supposed to spend a tenday with before I spent another tenday in G'eldantaar.
Supposed to.
"The Matrons and their Demon Queen be damned!"
I grinned as Evar grasped my hand, breaching the dam of divine ki in my spirit as the deal was sealed. I watched the violet energy Etan created ebb into his spirit and pulse as it met his ki, releasing the faceless form of his true self from his spirit.
Appearing as a humanoid shrouded beneath a black veil, it lowered its blue-violet eyes and shot skyward, ejecting itself from the Mortal Plane to enter Eotrom on a trajectory to a dying star.
As the distant star went supernova, so too did Evar's ki release a shockwave through his divine tree and tower, upturning countless tons of stone as his domain adapted to his changing spirit. I felt the energy rising and falling as it cascaded over and into the scattered drow monks within, all of whom accepted the blessings willingly, forcing them to double over as their flesh bulged or reeled back as they screamed like Evar.
As it waned, it seemed to ping or otherwise attract the attention of something else, as a wave of crimson webs more foul than anything I'd felt before ebbed toward the tower, flowing into the ground, the distant spiders, and the minds of the many drow stationed in and outside the tower. Including Z'ress.
She stepped toward Evar, reaching her hand to her hip, and seemed to freeze when Iris stepped before her, arcana packed in her augmented fists while divine mana poured off of her spirit. Z'ress fought against the crimson webs to grasp onto it. Iris didn't care. She went straight for the neck and then went for the necks of Z'rynda, their brothers, and their slaves; crushing them wholly.
"Finally!" Sovereign Galendra sighed, causing the lingering darkness to thicken and obscure her form, and silently, she skittered across the walls, ceiling, and floors, eager to resume her demonic feast.
I felt a touch of necromancy pour from Iris a moment later, prompting Leary to funnel mana into his 5th thoracic vertebrae to erect a semi-transparent barrier of incorporeal bones around Iris and Evar, giving me a thousand-yard stare as his brain overloaded with information about his new nature, Eotrom, the Legions, and his station within mine.
"So, what of you all?" I turned my eyes about the crimson eyes shining in the dark. Their visages, swathed in endless shades of gray, were limned in a radiance of varying degrees as they stared, shied away from, or scowled at me. "You may not be monks suited for the Halls of Excellency but you are my fellow drow, and so there is a place for you in my Legion."
Pausing, I looked down to pin on the spider-shaped brooch given to me by my mother. As it was on that day, it was positively filled with the same blue-violet arcana in the well she also gave me; a dissimilar energy to the red-violet arcana within the identical brooches worn by Evar, Eban, Ilar, and the other members of House Za'Darmondiel.
"I have a Legion I'm forming too, you know." I lifted my eyes to the widened eyes, agape maws, and radiant frames. "A Legion that does not exist on paper, who accompanies me and wars alongside me as I scour the Mortal Plane. A Legion of the most elite destroyers. A Legion of those called 'evil,' those called drow. Zed Legion.
"And so I ask: Will you spread Darkness across the Mortal Plane with me? Or will you remain here as slaves of the Demon Spider?"
I did not wait for their answer. For the first time since I formed my divine realm, I let the energy in my Divine Well flow indiscriminately. Or rather, it would be more apt to say I released my restraint on it.
Divine mana flowed through my Orison Vestibule first, where it seemed to adopt a mind of its own as it analyzed the countless prayers streaming in from the Falls and sent a trickle out through the Credence Cortex to give them the terms of this deal of deals.
The rest went through the Divine Sea to strip untold quantities of the mana and arcana within, infinitely sourced from Telin or whatever processes he imposed on the procedure. The combined energies radiated from my spirit like light from a star, shifting to the gold, silver, blue, and sea green of my domains as they passed over the surroundings.
Divine mana seeped into the drow who accepted it without them even realizing it. Their spirits churned, however, adopting violet, gold, and blue hues as the divine mana assaulted the crimson webs shrouding their minds, releasing their souls to be claimed by the undying night. The arcana and mana went for their bodies, first shifting the color of their eyes to the same hues as their spirits before they fell or reeled back in pain.
Those who were apprehensive looked at them with morbid dismay as their screams subsided and they stood to reveal taller, more muscular bodies with more voluminous hair. Some saw their skin adopt more earthly tones while others experimented with the evolved natural abilities they saw visions of, taking flight or manipulating the darkness to distance themselves from those loyal to the Spider.
Pouring my spatial mana over the darkness, I Bamfed them to safer grounds just as the crimson-eyed drow leaped into action, surging forth as a single unit as if they were commanded by a hive mind. Their eyes flared and dozens of them took up their arms, lunging toward me, Iris, and Evar mere moments before the tide of drow and spiders poured into the hall from every angle, chased from all sides by the umbral claws of Sovereign Galendra ripping and tearing into spider ass.
Sighing, I looked down at my shadow and poured necrotic mana into my throat. "Report."
"RAAHHHH!" The mass of unbridled barbaric fury that was Lana launched from my shadow toward the closest spider, screaming at the top of her lungs as heat roiled off her skin, her veins bulged, and her eyes filled with the glow of my arcana. The undead horde behind her had been unleashed by the time she crossed the distance. Hundreds of zombies, skeletons, and undead shadows rushed to fill the warehouse-like space, covered by the spells of Caleb and Neil's undead mages arcing high overhead.
Lana came crashing down on the barn-sized spider's foreleg with a thunderous roar, landing on her fist to crack the chitin some, yet the waxy flesh simply congealed back into place once she rebounded off it. Lifting its leg, the spider poised its blade-like leg overhead before stomping through Lana's belly with enough force to crack the tile beneath her.
It raised its legs as if to evade the ectoplasm spewing from Lana's body but stomped again, albeit not before Lana rolled and raised her arms to block. Its foot pierced Lana's arm, pushing her deeper into the ground and deeper as it went for the kill.
Undeterred as any undead, Lana met the demon spider with equal intensity, lashing out at the fleshy chitin with clawed hands, fists, and teeth alike as the maw bit into her and then reeled back in disgust once she was no more.
As before, I noticed the waxy flesh reforming over the damage while Lana reconstituted and ordered the undead mages to focus their fire on it. Blasts and spears of fire and water billowed into steam around the spider moments later, concealing the massive granite fist materializing above the spider.
Before it fell, the passive effects of the Masterful Tactician perk cast a line of wicked mana from my Cursed Well to the spell. Its attachment saw the line thicken into a conduit connected to my gravitational core, and out the purple mana poured, filling the granite with enough gravitational energy to darken the fist with a purple hue and slowly lift the spider off the ground.
And then it fell.
The purple-black granite fist obliterated the spider on the descent, sending its legs and guts flying in every direction, only for them to be dragged into an orbit around the plummeting spell. The impact released a gravitational wave across the floor that seemed to turn it into water, given the way it undulated, throwing everything in its path to the ceiling and back down to the gaping hole the spell disappeared down. Countless drow, spiders, and undead went with it. Yet many more remained.
With the freed space, Bruce and his melee squad of undead shadows entered the fray, bounding in all directions while Zaraxus emerged from their rear. The power of his gaze released a deathly cold chill that made air itself stand still and glow pale blue before falling as a thin layer of dry ice. that froze many drow in place. The spiders were undeterred, continuing to rend the army of shadows overwhelming them.
A cold sneer was all he offered before he raised his arms before him, unleashing the absurd magic I gave him to form a pillar-esque spear of ice and stone that increased in size as his lunar aspects pulled debris into the spell. It launched at the spider like a cannon, deafening ears as it whistled the short distance to smack against its hide and deflect toward the ceiling.
Uncaring, the spell continued to the drow behind and above the spider, who aggregated their mana to erect a shield. The lunar mana that remained on the spider persisted, however, spreading across the waxy chitin to freeze it in place, leaving a crack unhealed.
'Interesting.' I grinned, sending mental orders to Zaraxus to bring the spider's temperature down, allowing Lana's minions to capitalize on their weakness. By then, Lana reformed, so I sent her to address the crimson-eyed drow, steadily bolstering their ranks with mana-forged blades and arcane spell casters.
I called upon Zaraxus' unnamed first officers in response. The higher undead dove through my shadow, swimming beneath the horde to engage the drow from the rear.
The wind wraith was the natural exception, phasing through mortals and undead alike as it unleashed volleys of necrotic wind blades with wild abandon. The spiders ignored them until their cold edges successively slicing into them froze their waxy chitin, broke it apart, and carved through their innards, felling several out of hundreds of varying sizes. Meanwhile, the drow put their all into arcane defense, doing everything from raising the temperature, ripping spells apart, or deflecting the wind blades with projected attacks; and nary was falling.
Even when the mummy entered with a stomp that comically rippled the ground beneath them, they were unfazed, as they jumped with the wave to levitate in midair or maneuver across the ceiling to unleash a downpour of spells and bolstered bolts.
One drow in particular held a mana-forged hand crossbow aimed directly at me. Just like when I first saw my mother use the technique, it made me take an unconscious step back and react on instinct, withdrawing electromagnetic mana to create a violent field around my body to increase the potency of the Lightning Dragon I sent out.
She fired her weapon accordingly, and much to my dismay, the violet-crimson bolt barreled through my spell as if it wasn't even there, separating the colossal lightning bolt into many smaller arcs that danced across the ceiling to be evaded or dispatched by every drow in their way.
'Dammit!' I growled. There were as many drow as there were undead by now, and undead coated this floor of the tower. Even then, there seemed to be five times as many spiders, ranging from palm to big rig-sized. Tactics were just a word at this point, rendering the passive buffs from the Masterful Tactician perk moot. It was a bad situation to be in, and Iris and Evar still weren't done.
In other words, I had to stop acting like a necromancer and engage, starting with the biggest problem to date.
I poured my focus into my senses as I scanned the room for any members of House Za'Darmondiel, only to find none. That was preferable, and so I unleashed my sorcery without restraint, grasping onto the growing wails of the dead and dying to expand a necrotic domain beneath my feet. Simultaneously, my arcana poured through my electromagnetic core to fuse with my deathly core and coil the fused energy up my frame to my head.
Like a deathly Tesla Coil, sea-green electricity mushroomed from my head, arcing to every dwindling life signature around me as much as the metal scattered above. A cacophony of screams erupted through the caverns as necrotic electrons flowed into flesh, competed against by the likes of prayers and arcane incantations that healed wounds as fast as they could form, creating a battle of attrition between the forces of life and death.
The problem drow had yet to be impacted, however, and there were more of her caliber engaging my undead.
Once the Net highlighted her visage and displayed her dossier, I understood why. She was the Matron of Zimysta's 1st Leg. One whose station had been rendered moot and whose house and spiders had been destroyed by a draconian beast of umbral fire, Matron Myristrae Nydorden.
Even her children were gone, having either capitulated to the Sovereign or fallen prey to the beasts of Twilight. Like the other Matrons, she was in G'eldantaar, plotting, interrogating, rehearsing, and preparing; praying for as much divine power as possible before I graced their temple with my presence. Now she was here, unfazed by my spells and unchallenged by my undead.
It was just like Etan said and much like I acknowledged several times before. I was ignorant about magic. And so, magic was my weakness. I hardly knew how to cast anything other than basic spells. Nor did I know how to defend against magic. Not true magic.
Not arcane magic.
I sent almost every spell in my arsenal at her; Gravity Waves, Magnetic Attraction, Magnetic Repulsion, Lightning Dragons, Heat Rays, Gamma Shields, Death Bullets, Umbral Hands, and Noxious Breath. All of them were ripped apart on the spot, deflected, countered, or outright nullified by the sweep of a mana-forged blade.
Even Leary had his hands full managing his shield and his bone boys. And so, with no effective magic to use, it was down to my monastic abilities to protect me; lest I wanted to void her.
I felt some solace in the fact that I aspired for the class for this very occasion, giving me some confidence when I easily dodged her first two swipes. However, my mirth was stolen by the blades bypassing my flesh entirely as I attempted to block, instead cutting into my spirit to sever my spiritual hand akin to a soul rent by the Void Devil's Claws.
My ki flared along with my anger as an incessant numbness overtook my hand. Six knocks rang across the tower, echoed six times, and banged on my temple in the Under six more times, opening Death's Door and leaving it ajar. The howling breeze of death incarnate blew across the battlefield, stripping vital energy from the drow and doubly boosting my undead's prowess.
While she didn't hear the knock, the empowered roar of my undead- and Leary- opened the Matron's defenses enough for me to infuse my fist with half a pond's worth of ki to activate Flux Necrosis and sank my fist into her belly.
The necrotic ki decayed the muscles and nerves before it violently attacked her organs, leaving her stunned in place for the Furious Blows I unleashed on her.
My first blow was a low kick to the kneecap, then my leg snapped up to massage her bruised belly. An elbow to the face followed through as she doubled over, yet she recovered with a vertical swipe as I lashed out again.
"Hah!" I laughed as the ki within me began spilling out from my severed spirit like wildfire. With the Door Stop holding Death's Door Open beneath me, however, my ki was unlimited for the next hour.
Sneering, I reversed the flow, stripping every ounce of the vibrantly dense liquid within my first pond as it gathered in my right hand as a semi-solid sphere of sea-green ki. Holding my hand like a pistol, I fired my first Necrotic Ki Beam directly into her eye.
Akin to her mana-forged weapon, the compressed sea-green beam barreled through her mana veil as if it never existed and shot through her orbital like a bullet. A bullet so cold it inflicted frostbite on the surrounding skin before the head could even snap back. A bullet with such a sickly radiance that it forced necrosis to spread on the parts it never touched. Yet it did not penetrate all the way through. As if it hit the back of her skull, the beam pushed her through the air until she slammed against the ceiling, releasing her skull from the beam still barreling through the stone.
As I turned to survey the battlefield, the blue pulse I'd been waiting for cascaded through the tower, capturing everyone's attention for a critical moment. My wicked mana poured from my frame as the undead capitalized on their moment of weakness, releasing weapons and felling armored bodies to be claimed by the blue mycelium threads.
Looking around, I saw Iris forming the new bodies of her M&Ms, still shielded by Leary's barrier and skeletal minions. Meanwhile, Evar seemed to be coming out of his stupor.
With that, it was finally time.
I once again allowed my divine mana to flow freely; albeit this time, with guidance. Breathing deeply, I connected to my family's darkness, spread throughout the Darkworld, and placed my light at its center.
I expanded my mind beyond the Tower of Might to the twilight swamp Tava and Reina have been spreading throughout the Falls, then expanded more to connect the tap of that tree Reina sowed and ride the roots to the most draconian parts of the First Sanctuary; if only to guide the energy back to my spirit and into my throat to infuse Twilight within my voice, amplified by the Void Devil's Tongue.
"Gloom Falls."
The most draconian parts of my twilight poured through the Tower of Might, erupting to swathe the greater Zimysta Falls in the fires of darkness so deep they couldn't begin to comprehend. The interwoven Divine Tree was submerged in the umbral flames, now pouring out to contact the swampy twilight and flash to eldritch steam that would soon feed the entirety of Shujen's Darkworld.
As the blue wave flowed back to Iris to form the bodies of her new companions, it seemed to beckon a wave of that gilded darkness to our location, ridden by the beast of my twilight, desperate to end those retched things they called spiders and protect Evar coming out of his stupor.
I paid little attention to either of them, instead allowing my divine mana to flow freely while I took flight deeper into the tower, gathering necrotic darkness in one lung and light in the other.
Iris unleashed her power as I passed, warping her new troops out of dodge while Leary dropped his barrier and took flight, spreading his sorcery over the tower to summon bone domes around every goblin he could see. I wove through them as they sank into the ground or shot through the open walls to disappear, watching Evar be pulled toward those like him by the gilded light.
With them out of the way, I turned my attention to the tower around me to search for the largest patch of the divine tree trunk and plummeted towards it, the Void Devil's Claws extended and primed to impale the divine wood. Being made for souls, however, the abyssal claws sank into and were subsequently halted by the grains, causing my momentum to transfer into the trunk with an earth-shattering crack. Being indestructible, however, the abyssal blades continued clawing and peeling back the bark to reveal those rich veins to my maw.
As I inhaled, I poured my will over those vibrant grains, imagining the divine tree's death and subsequent rebirth before I unleashed my Twilight Breath.
A cone of fiery gilded darkness shot from my mouth and impacted the tree at point-blank range, spreading the unholy pure energies to the four winds to kill and decay and reform what existed into an accursed mockery of itself. The violet grains lost their luster as the necrotic darkness seeped within, blanching to a pale gray that drank in the golden smoke to give a new hue to the grains, soon pitting the tower in a dusk-like ambiance.
The draconic and twilight beasts within roared in delight as the roots above, next to, and beneath them shifted and bulged, uprooting ancient stone to unleash my corruptive light on the spiders and those they called friends. The drow and demon spiders flailed as their footholds were drawn into orbits around the floating debris, leaving open and largely unaware of the monsters reaching their maws toward them, bringing an end to the Tower of Might.
Giving rise to a Tower of Light.