The First Lich Lord

Chapter 105

Out of the gloom, a clawed hand made of red vapor suddenly slashed. I plunged Mercy to where the body should be even as I let the blow land. The attack glanced off my force shield as Mercy found its mark.

A cloud-like form hovered there, with a twisting column of vaper that narrowed as it connected the body to the ground was suddenly seeable. Mercy was deep inside its body, the blades magic already dissolving the creature. It fell apart before I could even scan it.

Maxwell, you should do your death lullaby, I said, watching the wisps of the creature vanish.

Why? That just puts things to sleep.

Yes, but it uses death magic, I said. Whatever these things are, my death magic is very good at killing them.

They must be made of nearly pure blood magic, Raven suggested as Maxwell began to play. If nothing else, I bet his song will make them visible.

As the death lullaby played out, Ravens words proved very true. Different specters floated closer, wicked claws and other appendages reaching to snare us. The music infused them with death energy, and I could see it eating away at them.

Now visible, I struck out with my own magic. Ribbons of death energy erupted from my fingers. I used them like whips to tear the creatures apart. Raven did the same of her own dark magic, but it wasnt nearly as effective. I prevented my cannons from firing, yes it would kill whatever it hit, but I was worried what that projectile would do if it hit something else in the room. I was never able to get a scan of the creatures, but they were most likely some kind of lesser blood elemental.

We continued forward with Maxwell playing his song, and the specters became so prevalent, that I cast an area of effect damage spell, something I very rarely used. With it spreading out from me, though it was more mana intensive, it meant far less effort on my part to take them out.

We came to a set of stairs leading up. They werent large, only a dozen steps. We mounted them quickly and found another similar set wasnt far away. This pattern continued for three sets of stairs, and at each interval, the creatures assaulting us got bigger but no less able to deflect my magic.

At the top of the stairs, a huge forge glowed a malignant bloodred. The power it gave off dwarfed what Friar Brown and I had found. This was the source of the magic feeding the ziggurat above us. I was fascinated, the mouth of the forge had been rendered like a toothy monster. An anvil made of pure black metal was set before it, complete with workbenches and tools.

At different points around the forge, I could see places that were literally meant as places of sacrifice. Where the blood of their victims had flowed into the forge. I gasped at a sudden pain wrenching my insides. The amount of raw blood magic emanating from the forge was tremendous, enough so that it was eating away at me.

We need to fall back, I hissed. This is the source of all the magic here but its also very dangerous for me and my creations.

The others agreed and we gave the forge a wide berth as we explored the rest of the floor.

The combination of Maxwells music and my magic continued to be effective even when we ventured down to the next floor. It was far smaller than the previous floor, and to my surprise we found yet more staircases leading down. No corporal monsters faced us as we ventured deeper, but the presence of the blood magic weakened.

Below the forge room were rooms full of abandoned archives, yet surprisingly well maintained. Clearly magic had been used on the scrolls and books stored here in some kind of stasis. Examining the books was only partially helpful, as I could not read them. I got an inkling for what they were for based on the diagrams and picturesrecipes for the forge or instructions for different rituals.

The bottom and final floor of the ziggurat was different than the rest. The regular landing chamber was replaced with a singular large room with a map on a large pedestal. The map was of the floor, depicting a maze of different tunnels. Each tunnel led to a room with an icon indicating each. One particular room at the far end where multiple tunnels converged looked oddly familiar. Some could easily be for weapons or other things from books to armor. There were no stairs leading down, however there was one spot indicated as an exit. We followed the map to the exit.

There was a thick stone door that took some working to figure out how to open. A hidden latch that when flipped, smoothly slid the door aside. A smooth stone tunnel led away from the ziggurat, carved out of sandstone. Several long veins of quartz wound along through the walls. I shifted the light coming off Mercy from its natural purple light into a pure white, daylight-like spectrum. It took effort to maintain it, but provided a much better insight into what I was looking at. The quartz in the sandstone was red, matching the color of much of what I had seen in the ziggurat.

We were about to turn to leave when I noticed something. Coming from deeper down the tunnel was a nearly palpable presence.

Theres something down there, I whispered.

Maybe its a monster, Raven whispered excitedly. These last floors have sucked.

We ventured down the tunnel. I elected to leave the hungry horror back, although there was no longer a presence of blood magic that would harm it, the sheer size of it would block the tunnel. The two insectoid zombies scurried forward in front of us.

As we traveled, the presence grew, and after about twenty meters I noticed that the red in the quartz was fading until it was almost gone, the quartz only a slightly pinkish white. Natural quartz could absorb magic, so we mustve been nearly outside of the effect of the magic of the pyramid. I realized the sandstone surrounding the base of the ziggurat must be full of the stuff.

After another twenty meters, the quartz began to darken once again, shifting from white to gray. Another twenty meters the quartz looked more like obsidian it was so black.

Zeke I heard strain in Maxwells voice. I dont know that I can go further.

I looked over at him and was surprised to see his skin incredibly pale, his eyes bloodshot, and the veins standing out along his face were darkening. Raven was in a similar state.

Whats going on? I feel nothing, just a growing magical I trailed off and closed my eyes and focused on what it must be. Oh, its death magic, a lot of it too.

Can you shelter us from it? Raven asked in a pained whisper.

I dont think so. It was one thing to counter the blood magic with my own, but even the aura I emitted affected you poorly. Its probably best for you to turn back.

You plan to keep pushing on? Maxwell asked. Youll be by yourself and unsupported.

Ill be fine, I assured him. Whatever waits for us down there is emitting a tremendous amount of death magic. It might be more powerful than me, but death magic is no threat to me no matter how powerful it is.

Unless an undead giant crushes you, Raven warned. Just because youre immune to death magic doesnt mean youre immune to being crushed.

Ill be careful, I promised.

Maxwell and Raven headed back the way wed come while I continued on. I kept my promise and was careful, with my minions scouting ahead, and Mercy held at the ready. In this tunnel, I might not have the room to swing, but a spear could still be effective if I could keep whatever was trying to get me back.

My minions disappeared into a chamber where the tunnel ended. Nothing had attacked them, I caught up a few moments later. The chamber I stepped into was circular. In the middle was a large stone coffin with elaborate designs carved into the gray stone. It depicted a mostly human-looking man dressed in a splendid robe laying peacefully on his back as if asleep.

Around the chamber were thirteen other coffins, each of them ornate and displaying both men and women similar to the one in the middle, all resting. The one at the center of the chamber was by far the most elaborate, but that did not make the ones around the outside any less so.

The death magic emitted by this place washed over me like a torrent. Whoever these people were, I knew two things about them. One, theyd been powerful individuals in life, and two, they had been dead for a very, very, very long time. This small necropolis had been forgotten by time along with those entombed here, except, evidently, those who built the ziggurat.

I didnt dare disturb the coffins, not yet anyways. Instead, I stepped back out to the hall, and noted some carvings of a language I did not recognize around the doorway. I pulled out a pencil and some paper from my bag of holding and began to draw them out. I had no idea what they meant, but I was certain it was important.

With my notes taken I returned to my friends, knowing they would be worried about me. I explained what I found and that it was best left alone until we knew exactly what it was.

On our way back through the archives, I grabbed several books on rituals, not that I wanted to learn the rituals of this accursed place, but because I knew ritual magic the best, and understanding it could help me learn the language.