∼ Six Feet Under ∼

Chapter - 104

"By the Grey Mother's tits! What in the abyss happened 'ere?" Short, stocky, and with a beard as mighty as the stench of rotgut wafting off him, a dwarf stood on the precipice of a cliff along a mountain pass, staring down into the valley that was once lush and grand. Now but a pile of rubble. A cloud of dust rose high to the sky, blotting out most of the morning sun.

The explosion had been heard for miles upon miles. No dwarf or gnome worth their stature hadn't heard it. It had even sent the strongholds littering Argon's Spine into a state of panic, fearing that the mana vein to be acting up. However, their pyres, ever blazing strong with the mercurial energy of the world, assured them that not to be the case.

From Harj'vol to Muz'duú, most all the dwarven cities had mobilized to inspect.

Had it been a powerful monster awakening from its slumber? Two masters of Argon battling out? A mana anomaly?

Coming upon this sight of utter destruction, it definitely had been a mana anomaly alright. But just what had caused it? Or rather - who?

As other dwarves joined the first to peer down at the destruction, they all bore a mix of astonishment and frowns.

"Gúndri, what do the stones tell ye?" One of the older dwarves asked, the age in his beard as white as new-fallen snow.

The dwarf spoken to - an even stockier fellow compared to the rest - lifted a carved rock over the plummeting edge, the rune upon it lighting up with a mix of colors that only the runecarver could interpret. "A powerful spell gone awry," He answered curtly, hiding away the rock in a pouch on his belt lined with various other inscribed items.

"It was powerful alright. But a mage capable of doing this - and then messing it up? Eh, that doesn't sound very plausible, now does it?"

"You think those pansy wand-fiddlers from Arcanum overstepped their bounds again?" Another of the dwarves grunted with disdain.

"I thought they were the tinkers' problem. They shouldn't be this far north." The one from before chimed in.

"Humans, gnomes - bwah! I do no care. This be a Ravenclaw problem. Their territory. Their mess." The old one scoffed sagely. He nodded towards the distance, a contingent of heavily armored dwarves marching towards the destruction. "We should get a move on. The others clans will be here soon too."

...

Nyx's eyes opened to darkness and rock. But the fact he could open his eyes at all was a good sign, he supposed. He was covered in a sticky mixture of dried blood, dust, and other unidentifiable things. But he was alive. At least... he thought he was...

Looking around, he found himself in a dome of dirt, rock, and rubble. On the inside of the dome was a faint transparent layer of mana, barely there. Barely visible. Yet, it held. The spell! It had worked!

An improvised version of a barrier and a mana discharge.

By pulling on the enormous amounts of mana drawn by the anomaly Nyx had inadvertently created, he had funneled it all into the spell rather than let it burst his core. And him with it... By the use of his split mind, the thing that had nearly killed him before the anomaly itself had, projecting his mind within his manifestation and staying conscious in the physical world, he had created a link. A bridge so to speak. One where the inordinate amounts of lethal mana could pass - as if a leak in a dam.

It could've gone wrong in a million different ways. But he succeeded. He had survived. By the sheer strength of his will - or the hubris of his pride. Nevertheless, Nyx had completed his first [Words of Power] spell, a rune-based incantation, evident by not only the fact that he was still living and breathing but also because of the prompt awaiting his notice.

He had managed to rank up his [Words of Power] mastery. And this was not long after the last time during his encounter with the old wizard fart. What he had done was not merely constructing and activating a system-aided-less spell - he'd gone above and beyond. Managing a high-tier combination of runes powered by an unstable source of ungodly amounts of mana with mixed affinities had a tendency to draw achievement in the eyes of the System.

So yes, it definitely warranted the reward. But whether it had truly all been by pure luck or skill - that remained to be seen. The fact that it had ranked up so soon yet again, however, a mastery that was notoriously one of the hardest one to ever master, had to mean he had done something right.

Muttering a small prayer to Aria's teaching, he'd make sure to pester her about some more lessons. Though pester would hardly be necessary considering Aria's passion for passing on knowledge.

Looking at the shattered rocks all around, pressed against the fading barrier's surface, he wasn't exactly sure how he was supposed to get out. With his new body, being crushed by these rocks wasn't really a worry. However, he'd be stuck nonetheless. Just how much was on top of him? He'd have to find a way out, and soon. For this barrier wouldn't last much longer, and neither would the air he was breathing. Something he very much still needed to survive.

Quite the troublesome situation.

Though as a demon, he needed considerably less than his enlightened counterparts. Plumbing down cross-legged on the ground, Nyx frowned, thinking. Retrieving his status absentmindedly, he noted the changes.

Nyx paused. Eyes glued to his mana. From advancing both his core and mind, he had doubled his mana reserves. A considerable increase to be sure. But it also meant something else. He could finally summon his familiar again! 

However, he wasn't so sure Fisty would make this matter better as opposed to worse than it already was. She was reckless and messy like that. One option still remained though. One that Nyx had been steadily awaiting as much as he had getting to see what Fisty was capable of. It was time to get a second familiar.

One that hopefully could get him out of this predicament...

Finding the air already thin and difficult to breathe, Nyx did not hesitate and moved fast. His sharp nail carved into the stone effortlessly, flowing with a fluidity and expertise never seen before. His [Words of Power] mastery reaching superior rank was really showing itself already. But as he was finishing up the last runes, a mimicry of what Aria had once drawn for him back in the forests of the Heartweald, he paused.

Before completing the ritual and jumping into the infernal beyond, he reasoned he should probably assign the five unallocated attribute points he had laying around to both vitality and endurance in the hopes they would provide him just a little more time. Which he did gladly.

With one deep breath, Nyx pressed his hand against the circle runes he had drawn around himself. No longer in need of Aria's capabilities as a scribe, he called upon the demonic mana he was now so intimate with. He didn't need complex and subverted ways of coming in contact with the infernal storms of lost souls. Because he was born from it.

As each rune began glowing, one after the other, a snaking tendril of demonic mana stretched out into the nothingness between here, now, and nowhere. When the last rune lit, as if the tendril pierced the veil, finding a likewise tendril searching for it, the connection snapped taut. As if a string, strung.

Nyx opened his eyes to the infernal beyond.

Konge

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