Lith hadn't seen Kalla during the last three years, they just talked from time to time when her communication amulet appeared online . Lith understood how difficult the process of safely splitting one's core was and he thought that endangering his friend's life just for a social visit was beyond idiotic .
Once he reached the White Griffon, Lith asked the Headmaster to have his teacher ring back . He didn't have the time to fly around the forest searching for Kalla .
Albeit short, his meeting with Marth provided him some vital information .
"I never met Kalla the Wight after Balkor's attack . I honestly believed she had died by the hand of a Valor . " Marth replied when Lith asked him about Kalla's whereabouts .
"I would love to contact Scarlett, but she left the White Griffon for good . We have a new Lord of the Forest, Sentar the Thunderbird . "
'That's why Kalla needed my help . ' Lith thought . 'With Scarlett gone, there is no elder Awakened one that could cure her . Light magic it's one of the hardest elements to master . '
Sentar had conflicting feelings about both Kalla and Lith . The former she considered an undead, which made Sentar reluctant to even stand in her presence . The latter had the stigma of Scarlett considering him a possible threat .
Yet Sentar remembered how her former leader had considered Kalla a close friend, as well as how much M'Rook and Protector liked Lith . She brought him to the Wight's quarters without asking questions .
When Kalla had mentioned a lair, Lith's mind had pictured some sort of natural network of caves, maybe a dungeon . A place riddled with corpses and undead, respectively the failures and successes of her research .
The entrance was an arch made of stone that led to an underground passage . It was the only part Lith had imagined right .
The moment he stepped inside, he thought to have entered a penthouse back on Earth . The room looked like an antechamber realized to allow Evolved Monsters to move without having to shapeshift .
Everything was oversized, from the corridors leading to the other rooms to the over four meters (13') high ceiling . The floor was smooth, with no imperfection nor stain visible .
'This isn't a natural cave at all . Someone carved everything out with earth magic . ' Lith thought in surprise .
"Thank the gods you're here!" A giant mass of brown fur charged at Lith like a truck . Lith wasn't scared, he had recognized Nok's voice . The moment the Byk hit him, Lith realized how wrong he was .
Even with Nok's momentum, the impact was too weak . The fur was full of white streaks and now that they were close enough, Lith noticed several bald spots .
"Follow me . " Nok bit Lith's left sleeve, tugging him forward without even waiting for a reply .
Lith exploited that contact to use Invigoration . Nok was now an adult Byk . His huge build was proof he had at least inherited his mother's physical strength and of how well fed he had been .
'What the heck has happened to him? I can't find any trace of disease or injury on Nok, yet his life force is as weak as when he was just a cub . Did he suffer from Kalla's experiments too or what?' Lith thought .
They passed through a series of rooms . Each one was bigger than Lith's house and filled with state of the art equipment for all kinds of magical research . There wasn't a single inch in any room that wasn't filled with books or magical protections to prevent a failed experiment from causing a cave in .
The Alchemy and Forgemaster labs almost made Lith turn green with envy .
'Where did Kalla find the money to afford all of this stuff? I thought she was interested in Necromancy, not crafting arts . ' Solus jotted down everything they had seen, hoping to recreate most of the machinery once she reverted to her tower form .
Some devices were an improved version of what she was used to seeing in the White Griffon's departments .
When they reached their destination, Lith had no doubt it was a Necromancer's lab . Several glass tubes were lined up against the walls . Each one held a corpse floating into a translucent preserving liquid .
The floor and the ceiling were covered with magic circles similar to those Lith had found during his own research about souls in the army database . They had been carved in the stone with darkness magic . Their purpose was to prevent the mystical energies from dispersing .
In a way, Necromancy was similar to Forgemastering . Creating higher undead required a lot of mana and each corpse could only be used once . The magic circles increased the odds of success by saturating the atmosphere of darkness energy, making it easier for it to condense into a stable blood core .
Kalla lied in the middle of one of the oddest circles Lith had ever seen . Her body was lying still on the floor with most of her bones and muscles exposed . Her Evolved Monster form was partially undead, so she had no need to breathe .
The small shroud of darkness that covered part of her skull and abdomen proved she was still alive . Lith rushed to Kalla's side, noticing that one of her eye sockets was empty .
Only the one still covered by the darkness was lit by the red light of undeath .
"So you managed to arrive on time . " Kalla noticed Lith's presence thanks to his smell . She was running on fumes . The sight was the first thing she had lost days ago .
"Don't talk . Save your strength and let me see if there's something I can do . " Lith used Invigoration on her and discovered an unsettling anomaly . Just like Nok, her body was fit as a fiddle, yet her life force was fading away as they spoke .
"I stand corrected . Tell me what happened here, otherwise you'll die healthy . "
"There's not much to say . " Kalla replied . "I had reached the final steps of my research . My body is now able to withstand massive amounts of darkness energy without being destroyed and my mana core has been freed from its cage .
"All that was left was to split it into two perfect half and store one into a magic crystal I prepared beforehand . It took me months to adjust its wavelength to match the one of my core . The trickiest part was…"
"What happened?" Lith cut her short .
"The splitting of the mana core was a complete success . Alas, the removing part couldn't have gone worse . I underestimated the task and paid the price . I believed that becoming a Lich was just like any other greater Necromancy spell .
"The magic circles I prepared are perfect to contain darkness magic, but are otherwise useless . The moment I brought one of the two new cores outside my body, it disappeared like smoke, leaving behind only its darkness component .
"It forcefully attempted to fuse back with the remaining half of my mana core, but it was already in a critical condition . To trigger the split, I exposed both my body and core to tremendous stress . The sudden imbalance almost killed me .
"From that moment, I grew weaker by the day . I tried all the light spells I know to no avail . "
Note : Please download the sponsor's game to support us!
No Comments Yet
Post a new comment
Register or Login