Legacy of the Fallen (Ascend Online Book 2)
Page 65
“The Grove and I’ll tell you later,” I stated, shaking my head before jerking it in Ignis’s direction. “There’s no time to get into it now; we need to keep moving. We have no idea just how many spirits are attacking us.”
“A lot. Assuming that what we just faced is any indication,” Sawyer growled, but nodded in agreement with my statement. “Let’s go; we can catch our breaths along the way.”
Taking a brief moment to consolidate our two groups, we resumed our search through the camp, the shouts and screams that had been echoing through the air earlier having faded as the surprise of the attack wore off, and Adventurers began to fight back. Using the sounds of fighting as a beacon, we rushed towards them, looking to rescue and relieve those who found themselves under attack. As the minutes passed, we gradually found ourselves working towards the front of the camp as we moved, coming across several groups of both Adventurers and spirits, adding the former to our ranks while ruthlessly dispatching the latter.
“Rah!” I grunted as I slashed a crackling Splinter across my body and into the slow-moving leg of an Ætherbound Monstrosity, feeling the tip of the blade shred the layer of Gremlinhide that armored it and discharge itself into the spirit underneath.
No sooner did my attack land than I yanked my blade back towards me, using its edge to intercept the outstretched claw belonging to a Shade that had chosen that very moment to press forward. Just barely slicing through the wrist that the claw was attached to in time, I was then forced to twist my body awkwardly to avoid a vengeful fist belonging to the Monstrosity that I had just injured a heartbeat earlier, the movement putting me square in the path of yet another Shade’s claw that I hadn’t seen until it was too late to avoid it.
Hissing as the spectral claws bypassed my armor and raked my chest, I forced the injury away from my conscious mind and returned the favor to the offending Shade, slashing Splinter through its head and seeing it vanish in a dull flash of energy. Bringing Splinter before me, I turned my attention back towards the Monstrosity, just in time to see Sawyer’s axe sweep through its ghostly head, the attack causing it to vanish in a spray of energy and for its body to lose its shape a second afterward.
“It’s down! Everyone forward!” I called out the moment that I saw the massive spirit disintegrate, all the melee Adventurers in the ragged line on either side of me rushing against the Shades that had clustered around it. Weapons flashed, and magic thundered through the air as we rushed the now unsupported Shades, their numbers far too few to pose any threat without the Monstrosity hindering our movements.
“I think that has to be it for the stragglers,” Sawyer said to me after the last the Shades had been killed, the two of us watching Alistair and a few other healers rush forward to heal the newest group of Adventurers that we had rescued. “Anyone else has either linked up with another group and moved on, or didn’t make it.”
“Looks like it,” I agreed, glancing around the disrupted camp all around us, hearing the constant thunder of magic and shouting echoing from the further areas of the camp. “Let’s get—”
A near deafening boom of magic echoed through the cavern, cutting my words off as it reverberated through the chamber. Glancing at Sawyer in a momentary surge of panic, I felt Amaranth’s voice shout through my mind.
he answered almost instantly.
Fueled by a sense of urgency that I’d never felt before, I sprinted through the heart of the camp towards where I sensed Amaranth to be, all the other Adventurers rushing to follow behind me. With the camp passing by me in a blur, it wasn’t long before I saw what my familiar had warned me about, my heart skipping a beat as I took in the battle ahead of me.
Glowing with a bright emerald light, a massive horde of Shades and Monstrosities filled my vision, with several dozen of their Phantasm cousins soaring through the air high above. Before them, I could see a large group of Adventurers that were clearly trying to keep them from overrunning what remained of the camp, but were gradually being forced backward, lest they end up enveloped by the attacking spirits.
“Oh damn!” I heard Sierra’s voice exclaim from behind me as we ran, followed by countless other, far more colorful curses from the Adventurers following us.
“You could say that again!” I called back, catching sight of Freya’s spear as it briefly appeared over the thickly packed horde of spirits as a large number of them suddenly swarmed forward and over the group’s flank closest to us. “Shit! They’re getting overwhelmed!”
Pouring on every ounce of speed that I could muster, I charged forward towards the advancing spirits, watching them curl around the group’s edge, quickly beginning to surround them. But before the spirits could completely send the Adventurers into disarray, we arrived, slamming into their extended line unexpectedly and scything straight through it. Within seconds, we cut down dozens of the attacking Shades and had them back on their heels, erasing all of their forward progress they had managed to make as well as giving the beleaguered Adventurers the time they desperately needed to reform their ranks.
“You guys made it just in time!” Freya greeted us with a relieved shout as both she and Amaranth fell in on either side of me as the ranks organized themselves, my familiar rushing to reunite with me the first moment that he could. “We barely had enough time to form lines before they hit us!”
“I know the feeling!” I replied with a grimace as I slashed Splinter through the horde of Shades in front of me. “It’s been like this the entire trek through the camp!”
Before either of us could say anything more, the spirits surged forward to meet our reinforced ranks, a new level of ferocity appearing in their attacks. Forced to focus solely on staying alive under their onslaught, all rational thought fled from my conscious mind as instinct took over, guiding both my blade and body to wherever they needed to be at that instant. Flashes of combat intermixed with fleeting moments of pain were all that I could remember from the next few minutes that passed, the battle descending into sheer chaos as the living desperately tried to outfight the dead. It wasn’t until I found myself taking a step forward that conscious thought began to return to me, several more steps passing until I finally realized what was happening.
“We’re pushing them back!” I shouted as I took yet another step forward, seeing that the endless wall of spirits before us had thinned and was no longer as thick as it was before. I could even see the tunnel looming in the distance ahead of us, the once flood of ghosts erupting from passage now only a trickle.
“This is our chance!” I roared, thrusting Splinter in front of me as I felt a second wind surge through my exhausted body. “Everyone, charge! Send them back from the hell they came from!”
A roar rose up at my words, and all the surviving Adventurers leaped forward with renewed energy as we cut through the scattered ranks of Shades and Monstrosities. A staccato of magic momentarily drowned out our cry as the few still-standing mages spent their last dregs of mana and rained down a hail of missiles on the spirits before us, their efforts adding to our momentum.
Charging at the head of the group with Freya and Amaranth on either side of me, we blazed a path forward and before long found ourselves rushing through the tunnel. Slowing ever so slightly as the terrain shifted under us, we relentlessly pressed onwards and eventually found ourselves on the very edge of the Twilight Grove. Resisting us with their last dregs of strength, the spirits put up a
desperate effort as they tried to stop our progress, but they didn’t have anywhere near the numbers that they had at the beginning of the battle and the result was a foregone conclusion.
A crackling slash of Splinter, combined with a powerful spear thrust marked the end of the last Monstrosity blocking the tunnel to the Grove, causing a ragged cheer to rise from the Adventurers in the front ranks as it died. Yet, even as the spirit faded, I noticed that a pale emerald light remained in the tunnel, shining through the nearby entrance. Exchanging a worried glance with Freya, the two of us rushed forward into the Twilight Grove, Amaranth and all the other Adventurers following closely.
“Oh,” I breathed as I looked out over the distant jungle, standing in the very same spot that I had been when I’d first laid eyes on the place. “Oh, no.”
“What happened?” Freya whispered from beside me. “This…this…”
Her words trailed off as we all focused on the distant Ley Line, the once azure light emanating from it was now a sickly emerald hue, bathing the entire cavern in its eerie light. We all stared onwards wordlessly for several seconds, the only sounds filling the air being the scuff of feet and everyone’s labored breaths. Then without warning, a sudden tremor shook the entire cavern around us, causing everyone to shout in surprise. Reaching out reflexively, I grabbed hold of Freya as the two of us staggered from the unexpected earthquake, but managed to stay steady on our feet.
Ending as quickly as it began, the shaking stopped, and the distant Ley Line pulsed before growing ever so slightly brighter. At that same instant, a soft chime that I had never heard before sounded in my ear, followed by a bright text that filled my vision.
A World Event has begun!
Deep within a forgotten place, a legacy of a bygone age has been awoken, bringing forth a vengeful host denied passage to their eternal slumber. Driven by vengeance against an ancient enemy, they will reach for a river of unimaginable power, corrupting it with their foul touch. Unless their efforts are checked, they will bring about a cataclysm the likes of which the world has never seen, bringing ruin to the region and beyond.
My blood ran cold as I read the alert and I felt Freya’s grip tighten on my arm. Tearing my eyes off the Ley Line, I turned my head slowly to look at her. Staring back at me with a numb expression, I saw her shake her head in disbelief, her mouth opening and then closing, unable to find any words to say.
“Lyrian…” she finally managed to get out on her second attempt, turning to look back towards the Ley Line as she spoke. “What are we going to do?”
“I don’t know, Freya,” I replied, feeling a heavy lump form in my throat as I too looked back at the Ley Line, watching its emerald light play off the cavern walls.
“I just don’t know.”
Chapter 47
The aftermath of the battle took us a few hours to sort out.
At first, we all found ourselves sitting on pins and needles overlooking the now tainted Grove as we nervously waited for a follow-up attack from the spirits or some further sign regarding the world event that had just started. But after a calm and eventless first hour, we all decided that there wasn’t a second attack coming and turned our attention towards the damaged camp, making sure to leave a handful of vigilant guards to watch for any sign of movement from the distant jungle.
For the next two hours that followed that, we picked through the damaged, and in some cases, still burning, remains of Camp Sentinel. After getting the fires under control, it didn’t take us long to determine that the Grove facing side of the camp was a complete write-off. All the furniture, tents and supplies that had been unlucky to find itself there had been destroyed or scattered during the chaos, making it easier for us to simply clear it all away and start over again.
Thankfully, however, the rear of the camp escaped with only superficial damage, isolated to the few sections where the spirits had managed to rush ahead before being pushed back by Adventurers. On top of that, the more critical camp features such as the kitchens, the crafting area, and the healing ward had escaped without so much of a scratch, allowing everyone to focus their attention on putting the place back together again. I was confident that given a day or two, the camp would be back on its feet and back to normal.
The problem I had with that thought though, was that I wasn’t sure if we had a day or two to spare.
In the few hurried conversations that I’d been able to have with the group, everyone seemed to be thinking that the world event that we’d seen after successfully defending the camp marked the start of the countdown before the Ley Line erupted. The only problem was, is that none of us could venture a guess of just how long that countdown was.
Which was why the six of us were looking for Ignis and the rest of his group in hopes of getting whatever answers we could from them.
“Finished getting your stories straight?” The harsh words left my mouth the moment that I spotted Ignis and four of his newly resurrected groupmates huddled together, all of them whispering to one another in angry tones. Yet the moment that they heard my voice, they all stopped, spinning to face me and the others with looks of both anger and guilt written across their faces.
“Lyrian,” Ignis greeted me in a tight voice, his eyes widening, then shifting off me once he realized that I wasn’t alone. “Y-you said wanted to see us?”
“Oh, we want a hell of a lot more than that,” Lazarus hissed from my left as everyone fanned out to surround the five Adventurers, setting the tone for how we expected the conversation to go.
Holding my question for a moment, I waited until Freya, Constantine, and Sierra finished moving, breaking eye contact with Ignis to look down at Amaranth beside me who had begun to growl angrily.
No. As much as a dick move it was, I instead decided to hold that particular threat over Ignis’s head until I found out what happened in the Grove and where the spirits had come from. If I didn’t like his answers, then I would be more than happy to let word slip where more Adventurers could hear and let nature take its course from there.
A course that I expected to be incredibly painful for Ignis and his group, and would likely result in them being forced to leave Aldford entirely, something that I knew he was all too aware of, given his rather subdued and anxious demeanor.
“So,” I finally began, making eye contact with the man as I spoke. “What the hell happened?”
I knew it was a simple question to start with, but I wanted to see just how much Ignis and his group chose to reveal on their own accord before we started asking more pointed questions.
“We fucked up,” Ignis said simply, his shoulders drooping downward at the admission.
“While that’s not exactly a surprise, I think we were expecting something with a bit more substance,” Constantine replied dryly from his spot in the circle. “Specifically, how did you fuck up?”
“We were exploring the Grove and trying to find a way closer to the Ley Line…” Ignis elaborated, pausing to glance at the rogue contritely. “But instead of going through the heart of the jungle, we decided to cling to the cavern walls, you know, to see if we could bypass it entirely like you usually could in other games without anything jumping us.”
“Sure,” I replied, watching the half-elf’s head turn back in my direction at my comment. Hugging the border of a region or zone had been a tried and true tactic for gamers of all stripes over the decades, allowing them to use it as a relatively safe path and
bypass higher-leveled creatures that would otherwise kill them.
“Well, it kinda worked,” Ignis said. “It took us a bit of time to figure out—”
“And several broken ankles and legs,” one of Ignis’s groupmates, a male elf, added.
“But today we finally managed to climb past the majority of the jungle and towards the far side of the cavern,” Ignis finished, nodding at his companion’s interruption as if pain and suffering would somehow gain our sympathy.
“Fantastic. You can climb a wall,” Lazarus grunted, unimpressed by what he had heard so far. “Fast forward to the part where you nearly doomed all of us and kicked this event off, if you don’t mind.”
“I-uh, well, in that case,” Ignis stammered, a brief wave of annoyance crossing over his face at the half-giant’s comments before vanishing. “It all started when we found where the Æther leaking out of the Ley Line ends up.”
That bit of information was enough to get everyone’s attention.
“It feeds into a large…lake, for lack of a better word,” he continued, sensing our sudden interest. “It’s nothing like Crater Lake, but there’s a large chasm that the Ley Line is slowly filling on the far side of the cavern, similar to the one that we have on his side, separating us from the jungle. I have no clue how deep it is, but it stretches almost the entire length of the far wall and curls back towards us. We were forced to get off the wall because of it, actually.”
“Why?” I asked while trying to picture just how much Æther must have leaked from the Ley Line in order fill that volume.
“Æther Sickness,” Ignis stated. “We wanted to keep climbing towards the Ley Line, but the moment we were over the lake…”
“You started taking damage,” Constantine finished. “Probably the game world’s way of keeping you from climbing all the way to the Ley Line and bypassing the jungle.”
“Uh, I didn’t think of it that way, but that actually makes sense,” Ignis acknowledged with a nod before resuming his explanation. “Either way, we realized that there was no way we could continue towards the Ley Line, so we decided to climb down and take a closer look at the Æther, since it didn’t quite look right, based on what we saw from both your feed and what we saw leaking from the Ley Line.”