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853. Spring of Darkness
🕑 Added 2023-07-23 18:09:35 +0000 UTC--- Colossal Dungeon, the Crypts---
“Has the miasma become clearer?” Lydia asked Mike beside her.
The two anthropomorphic beasts had been fighting side by side swinging bats and swords respectively. In a short pause, before they wanted to run up to the next elite who was surviving Jess's ocean of fire, Lydia noticed a change in the environment.
The darkness that had been impenetrable, even with night vision skills, had mostly cleared up. She felt like she was now able to see almost the full extent of the crypts, the negative status effect of the miasma's encroachment had also stopped worsening.
“Does that mean Seth is already done?” Mike asked surprised. Although the people of Minas Mar had gone all out to try and beat the blacksmith, it seemed like they were no match for him.
However, when they turned to the passive stone coffin on the podium, the boss had not vanished yet. The colossal skeleton in dark robes was still bent over the edge of its own coffin, burning like a torch. Their thoughts were interrupted by the buzzing of wings.
“Why did you guys stop? Are you tired already?” Jess asked, breathing heavily. The fir mage of drenched in sweat, but on a brave expression, trying her best not to look tired.
“Are you okay, Jess?” Lydia asked a little worried.
“I'm totally fine!” “She ran out of mana potions a while ago.” James popped her confident act like a balloon. Even when the fire mage had been laughing all the time as she took her revenge and made it look easy, she was on her last leg.
“Well, in that case, it's good that it seems like Seth is going to finish soon. Look at the surroundings, the miasma is almost cleared, “ Lydia explained why they came to a stop.
“Oh, now that you mention it. You are right,” James said with a mixed expression. It was good that they were out of the hot water, but it also mean that they were going to lose the bet. Yet, a smile grew on his face when his eyes stayed on the tired Jess.
They had survived. They had become strong. They were even able to contribute on such a large scale. There was really nothing to feel bad about in this situation.
“No need to be depressed. Here, take some of my mana potions. Let's clean up quickly, maybe we can finish before Seth is done;” Lydia suddenly said, and handed Jess a bunch of potions.
“You can have some of mine, too,” Mike added another stack of potions. The two were currently acting as vanguard, so they didn't need as much mana to keep on fighting, as a mage did.
“maybe find Azul and share with her, too.”
“I will!” Jess said, suddenly back in high spirits. James could only smile wryly. He had just come to terms with the bet being lost, then Lydia suddenly did that.
“Fine, let's go them. Good luck you too.” the couple split up again.
…
“hehe, I did it,” Evee laughed to herself behind Mina and Lyxiss.
“You have been doing something on your own for a while now, Evee. What did you do?” Mina asked curious in between casting magic,
“Yeah, what have you been doing while we were busy with pest control?” Lyxiss added a little more aggressive.
“I worked on my come back. That guy tried to steal my babies, now I will have him suffer the same fate,” she said confidently.
“You mean you are going to take control of the undead? How?” lyxiss asked a little confused. The miasma was the medium of control and the source of the power for the undead. I was too thick to overcome its influence, even if Evee had the divine protection of Persephone, the queen of the Underworld.
“Have you not noticed? The miasma has been declining constantly since Seth started “fighting”. I have been waiting and preparing for my chance once the miasma concentration was low enough. I will end everything in one go and we will wind this bet!”
“Are you serious?” Mina asked surprised, interrupting her chant.
“<Spring of Darkness>!” the immortal witch called out.
As if waiting for her command, lines of flowers started blooming all across the crypts. Intricate patterns created by a tuft of black daffodils created magic circuits. As they opened their blossoms, they shone in a bright blue light, reminiscent of Seth's spirit flame.
Matching the flowers covering the crypt floor and pillars, the colossal undead still left standing, also shone in an aura of blue light. Whether they were fighting, or attacking, all undead suddenly stopped moving.
“Oh, shit...are you serious right now, Evee?” Lyxiss couldn't hold back when seeing the scene.
“Urgh, maybe I went a little too far... But it worked, right?” the witch acknowledge as she staggered back and forth. Lyxiss hurriedly supported her.
The chosen of Persephone looked at her work. She had spent the last hours spreading the flowers all across the crypts, even further than Puffle's light managed to shine. Now she was flooded with the response of hundreds of new subordinates, all extremely powerful.
She could feel being overwhelmed and couldn't help but let go of controlling some of the stronger ones, leading to some of the flowers and elite undead losing the blue light.
“Sorry, I couldn't handle taking in all of them...” she pressed out as she felt her mind slip away. Her last act before losing consciousness was transporting all the undead she was able to steal into her personal space.
Suddenly 90% of the undead in the crypts had vanished.
…
Eschok screeched in despair, seeing so many of the souls under his control being stolen away. These were not just simple dungeon spans, but the actual soldier he brought to the dungeon. It didn't matter if they died, as they would be revived back home, but now they were irretrievably stolen from him.
Seth looked on in surprise as suddenly most of what was left of Eschok's army vanished in thin air. He didn't need anyone to tell him, that this was Evee's doing. The spirit blacksmith had felt the same energy on those flowers, as he felt from many of his skills. As the wife of Hades, Persephone's powers were bound to have a similar aura about them.
“Wow, this was a move I didn't expect at all. Things are working quicker than expected,” Seth mentioned, since the miasma was also thinning out a lot quicker than at the start, making him suspicious of what else was happening in the dungeon. Maybe Eschok was not the last boss?
“You will understand, that I have to hurry now, right?” Seth asked with a smile, as he increased the power of the Flames of Phlegeton, to the point that Eschok was on the cusp of being turned to ashes at any given moment.
The only thing not touched by the fire was the Lich Kings crown. This was for one simple reason, Seth really wanted to harvest it. The colossus's whole crown was made up of <Necronite>, the material Seth had once used to make Evee's gauntlets.
It was only an epic material, but it was pretty much the best thing for necromancers. With his current knowledge and skills, just how much stronger could he make Evee, if he used it to make a whole armor set for her?
With the size of the crown, Seth was even tempted to try making Necromancer golems. A golem army, with each golem leading an even bigger army of undead? An exponential increase of troops, if only undead were not so unsanitary. He doubted he could make golems with the same skill to put their undead into a separate space like Evee did.
Maybe if got his hand on a few liches... he shook his head, getting rid of the dangerous thoughts. Sometimes he had to ask himself whether he should do something. Necromancer golems were definitely a step too far.
“I think it is time to end this,” he finally spoke up, seeing that the miasma had cleared out and Eschok was falling apart into big chunks of ashes.
“I know you won't die from this, but listen here. If you dare to come back, we are going to be running this dungeon again. At that time, I will make sure that Evee is able to take ALL of your minions away from you.”
He gave the Lich a last warning before he fell apart. But Seth did not relax yet. He stayed vigilant for any changes, since there was an irregularity with the miasma before, however, his worries were scattered when a treasure chest and the return formation appeared before Eschok's sarcophagus.
This meant the dungeon was truly cleared.
