Inferno a litrpg adventu.., p.2
Inferno: A LitRPG Adventure (Elemental Mastery Book 2), page 2
Zephyr flew up and caught Nella in his arms before she could fall again. The ranger blinked and exhaled a few times before she looked at him.
“Thanks, Zeph!” she said, her face pale. “That was a close one!”
“We’re not out of this yet!” he told her, as the dragon rounded on them, another sphere of flame materializing in front of its open maw. Before he could do anything, the fiery sphere flattened out into yet another crimson-blue beam of lethal heat.
It’s too fast to dodge! Zephyr cast his Lightning Shield spell, knowing that it would be useless in the face of such overwhelming power. Nella clutched at him tightly as the crimson-blue radiance of the beam filled his vision.
But then the beam curved. There was no other way to describe it. The dragon had been higher in the sky than Zephyr and Nella, and it had breathed fiery annihilation down upon them. But just as its breath struck home, it swung upward, venting its fury into the infinite skies instead of vaporizing the two of them and likely entire swaths of the battlements.
A pained grunt of effort filled the air. Zephyr’s gaze flashed in its direction. It came from Gabriel. The Phoenix Knight was still on the battlements, surrounded by smoking heaps of grotesque, metallic things with too many twisted limbs. His hands were raised, and his eyes blazed with orange-red light. With his Mage sight, Zephyr saw the wisps of Inferno ether that wafted from Gabriel’s palms and how they trailed a path from where the dragon’s breath had curved.
The Phoenix Knight had saved them. He’d somehow managed to seize control of the dragon’s fiery beam and turn it away from Zephyr and Nella. Just as Zephyr opened his mouth to thank Gabriel, the Phoenix Knight gasped and fell to his knees, breathing harshly.
“That… I can’t do that more than once every few days,” Gabriel cried, looking at Zephyr. The Phoenix Knight was bleeding from his eyes and ears. Avora was standing behind him, his too-youthful face stricken with alarm and concern.
“We’d better beat this monster, then,” Nella snarled. Lightning blazed from her eyes once more to coalesce into her sky-wyrm’s massive form. Zephyr released her, and she hopped astride her lightning beast. Electrical arrows flashed into existence within her palm, and she put one of them to her bow.
Zephyr nodded and called Ponderous Inevitability back to his grasp once more. A tug at the back of his mind told him that Vincent had returned as well, brought back to the fray by his cloud elemental. Zephyr flew higher into the sky, followed by Nella, until he was level with Vincent. Together, the trio squared off against the dragon.
But the winged creature didn’t seem like it had any further stomach for battle. It shuddered and clawed at its brow, where Zephyr had seen the night prince emerge. Strange sounds fell from its maw, and Zephyr only needed a heartbeat to recognize them as moans of dismay and confusion.
“I’m going to turn it into ashes with my Condor Barrage spell,” Nella said. “Vincent, do you have another Cloud Concert talisman left? We can use it to summon a thunderstorm so Zephyr can hit the monster with his Ion Fall spell.”
“No, we’re out of Cloud Concert talismans,” Vincent said, referring to the strips of inscribed paper in which mighty Tempest spells could be stored. “But I can try a Cloud Call spell.”
Cloud Call (Master)
Conjures 3 large clouds that can produce rain, 100 feet casting range, 50 ether per cast, 10 minute duration
“That’s not very useful,” Nella said. “Never mind, then. Just keep us covered with Cosmos Bastions while Zeph and I take this monster apart.”
“Wait,” Zephyr said, pointing at the dragon with his sword. “Look. Something’s wrong.”
Vincent and Nella looked at the dragon as it moaned and clawed at its brow.
“We hurt it badly with our spells just now,” Nella said. “All we have to do is finish it off.”
“I don’t think so,” Vincent objected, shaking his head. “The dragon was shrugging off my Cosmos Invocation spells, something not even the most powerful Shadowswarm entities can do. I don’t think we managed to hurt it at all. Scratch or singe it a bit maybe, but definitely not hurt it in the slightest.”
“It’s possessed by a night prince,” Zephyr said. “I saw the Shadowswarm monster. It greeted me and said that it was glad to see us here.”
“…did it also call you Sacred One?” Nella asked, furrowing her brow in an expression that Zephyr had come to recognize as one of deep suspicion.
“Yes.” Zephyr nodded uneasily. “It did. It also said that it wasn’t expecting us yet, which suggests that it knew we were coming here. It just didn’t know when.”
“Hmm.” Nella’s gaze flickered down to Avora. The Grand Sage was helping Gabriel to his feet. “The more I learn, the less I like what I hear from that fellow.”
“That fellow is the Grand Sage!” Vincent said. “Show some respect, Nella!”
Zephyr was torn. On the one hand, Vincent had a point. Avora was a famed hero and a descendent of Tarkus Avora, the legendary mage who fought alongside Caruthas and who helped defeat the Elemental Anathema, a primordial evil that once threatened to shroud the world in eternal death and darkness.
On the other, Grand Sage Avora had lied to the trio multiple times already. Also, Avora had concocted a plan to utilize nightsteel, a highly dangerous substance, to extinguish all the Dark Labyrinths across the realm in one fell swoop. The plan had succeeded, but it had also allowed Shadowswarm to attack the Tempest School and bring about Archmage Xanthus’s and Master Venn’s deaths. Several other Storm Scion initiates had died that day too, along with some innocent guests and Tempest School staff.
Zephyr wanted to trust Avora, but right now, at this moment, he felt like he couldn’t.
“Let’s talk about that later,” Zephyr said. “We have to worry about the dragon first.”
“What’s there to worry about?” Nella said. More lightning burst from her eyes. Tempest ether howled around the ranger as she began to cast her Condor Barrage spell. Zephyr knew how devastating it was.
Condor Barrage (Master)
Conjures 60 lightning condors, 10 feet summon range, 80 ether cast, 1 minute duration
Beneath the open sky, where Tempest ether flowed freely, the ranger could cast the spell in rapid succession, filling the heavens with electrical birds capable of melting steel, stripping flesh from bone, and utterly annihilating Shadowswarm entities upon contact.
“No, wait,” Zephyr said. “The dragon isn’t evil, remember? The night prince is controlling it.”
“I don’t think that matters, Zeph,” Vincent said, his voice laden with regret. “Shadowswarm corruption can’t be undone, remember? All those Blackguards we fought… there was no way to save them except by ending their lives. And Archmage Xanthus, too. He…”
“That’s right, Zeph,” Nella said, clenching her jaw. Amongst the trio, the ranger had surprisingly grown closest to the eccentric, yet ultimately kindly Archmage. She’d adored Xanthus, but she’d also been the one to end his life with her own spells when the Shadowswarm had taken him. “I don’t like killing anything I don’t have to, but if the dragon really has been possessed by Shadowswarm, then the best thing we can do for it is to kill it right here and now.”
“I know,” Zephyr agreed, sighing. “It’s just that…”
Zephyr didn’t know how or why, but he felt as if he could feel the dragon’s pain, hear its lamentations as if they rolled forth from its maw in words. Somehow, he also knew that the dragon wasn’t beyond saving. The hold the Shadowswarm had upon it didn’t go beyond its flesh; the dragon’s soul was still inviolate, which was why it was still fighting the night prince, choosing to tear at its own face instead of fighting the trio.
Or he could be imagining it all, his ruminations mere wishful thinking borne from his sorrow over Archmage Xanthus’s death and his awe at the dragon’s terrible, yet beautiful form.
No, that’s not right, Zephyr thought. I’m not being delusional. I can feel something from the dragon, and it’s because of my Inferno Aspect.
Zephyr brought forth a codex display.
Ascender Name: Zephyr
Magic: Tempest (master), Inferno (initiate)
Tempest Aspect: Soul of Thunder
Inferno Aspect: Dragon Lord
Ascender Name: Nella Heartseeker
Magic: Tempest (master), Inferno (initiate)
Tempest Aspect: Radiant Seer
Inferno Aspect: Meteor Rebuke
Ascender Name: Vincent Trefori
Tempest Aspect: Forge of Wind
Inferno Aspect: Igneous Vault
A mage’s magical Aspect determined the kind of spell variants he would acquire as he learned new spells. The trio knew all the main Tempest spells, the two most prominent of which were the Invocation and Ring spells. Invocation spells involved the unleashing of powerful lightning bolts or electrical beams, while Ring spells conjured defensive barriers that negated dark magic.
Zephyr’s Tempest Aspect was the Soul of Thunder, which meant that his Invocation spells gave rise to spells that augmented his body and enhanced his close-combat abilities, such as Lightning Infusion. His Ring spells produced equivalent effects, such as his Lightning Shield.
Nella’s Radiant Seer Tempest Aspect meant that her Invocation spells manifested Eyebite effects, in which lightning tendrils streamed from her eyes to incapacitate and cripple her foes or form various lightning beasts that fought alongside her in battle. Her ring spells took the form of electrical snares, traps, or barriers that had destroyed thousands of Shadowswarm entities.
Vincent’s Forge of Wind Tempest Aspect could be seen most evidently in the delicate crafting hammer of cobalt-blue light in his hands. With it, Vincent could inscribe powerful Tempest enchantments onto weapons and instantaneously forge lightning armaments and powerful defensive barriers, such as his Cosmos Bastion, for Zephyr and Nella.
The trio had acquired their Inferno Aspects as they battled the twilight fiend that had possessed Archmage Xanthus. Zephyr’s Inferno Aspect was Dragon Lord. He wasn’t quite sure exactly what that entailed, but a certain empathy or affinity for dragons wasn’t out of the question.
Nella and Vincent caught on to Zephyr’s thoughts quickly as they looked at the codex display.
“It’s saying something to you?” Nella asked. “Because of your Inferno Aspect?”
“Whoa. That sounds scary,” Vincent shuddered. “What’s it saying, Zeph?”
“It’s not saying anything to me,” Zephyr clarified. “It’s just… I can feel its pain, and that tells me that what has happened to it isn’t the same thing as what happened to the Blackguards and Archmage Xanthus. The shadow has caught the dragon, but it hasn’t taken it yet.”
Vincent nodded soberly. Nella sighed. Blackguards were broken, tormented people who gave up their souls and lives to the Shadowswarm so that they wouldn’t feel any pain or misery anymore. They existed in blissful, murderous euphoria until the Nexuses of the Dark Labyrinths in which they resided were destroyed. This resulted in their deaths as well.
But that also meant that the dragon’s plight was different from that of the Blackguards. It still felt pain, which meant that its soul still kept the shadow at bay.
“Alright. I’m convinced,” Nella said. “How can we help it? There’s a night prince somewhere inside it, you say? Maybe if we hit the dragon with enough Tempest Magic, the Shadowswarm monster will come out.”
“Or not,” Vincent objected. “It’s clear that the dragon is highly resistant to Tempest Magic. Why wouldn’t the night prince stay inside so that our spells can’t touch it?”
“We’ve got to do something,” Zephyr said, adjusting his grip on his sword. “We have to…”
Zephyr’s words died in his mouth as the dragon wheeled around in the sky and soared away, its magnificent wings carrying it from the trio faster than they could ever hope to fly.
“It’s getting away!” Nella said. “We must—”
“No,” Zephyr said, shaking his head. “We don’t know where it’s headed. Or even where we are, exactly. Let’s regroup, check on Gabriel and Grand Sage Avora first, and then decide what to do next.”
“Sounds good,” Vincent agreed. Nella put her bow away and let the Tempest ether she’d channeled dissipate in a shower of sparks.
“You’re right, Zeph,” Nella said. “It’s too risky to just charge in blind like this. We need to find out exactly what’s going on and why that idiot Gabriel brought us here, right into the middle of a fight.”
Zephyr nodded. The trio descended back to the battlements, where an entourage of crimson-robed mages—Phoenix Knights all—now stood. A tall, powerfully built woman with a shaved head was talking to Gabriel and Avora. Her crimson robes were sleeveless, though a quick look revealed that the sleeves had been torn off instead of omitted in the sewing. She reached out and put Gabriel into a headlock as the trio approached.
“Ah! No!” Gabriel protested. “I did everything you told me to do, Brass!”
“That’s Archmage Brass to you!” the woman roared. “I definitely didn’t tell you to burn an entire city block of the capitol down and beat four royal mages into comas!”
“They started it!” Gabriel said. “Balls of Fire, it’s true! I didn’t do anything wrong!”
Archmage Brass was taller than even Zephyr and only slightly less muscular. Her biceps and shoulder muscles flexed as she pushed Gabriel out to arm’s length, seized him by the throat with one hand, clamped her other hand over his crotch, and lifted him overhead. Gabriel screamed with terror.
“Uhm,” Vincent said, raising a hand in greeting. “Hello?”
Archmage Brass brought Gabriel’s body down upon her knee. A sickening crack rose into the air. Nella shrieked in horror, and even Zephyr, with all his training in the ways of the Carefree Sutra, felt his heart skip a beat. Vincent fainted. He simply collapsed, his eyes rolling upward in their sockets, and Zephyr had to catch him before he hit the floor.
Archmage Brass rolled Gabriel off her knee and stood. The Phoenix Knight lay upon the battlements, his limbs spasming. Foam flowed down the corners of his mouth.
“Eh,” the Archmage of the Inferno School and Grand Master of the Phoenix Knights said, gesturing dismissively at Gabriel’s twitching form. “He’ll be fine. Just needs to walk it off.”
Zephyr didn’t miss how Avora was inching away cautiously from Archmage Brass, staying beyond arm’s reach. He didn’t blame the Grand Sage. In fact, Zephyr had to gulp and fight down an urge to flee as the Archmage walked over to the trio and stuck out her hand.
He reached out, only for her to clasp him wrist-to-wrist, in a fashion typical of warriors, and give it a hearty shake. Archmage Brass did the same with Nella and Vincent too, though the latter was still limp and unconscious.
“The three of you must be Avora’s pet projects,” she said, her voice loud yet distinctly feminine. “I saw your little tussle against our latest problem. Very impressive. As far as sheer power goes in Tempest Magic, each of you is at least as strong as, if not stronger than, Xanthus himself.”
Archmage Brass sighed and shook her head.
“The poor old man,” she said. “It’s really too bad. I was hoping we could go on a fishing trip sometime next year. I guess some things are just not meant to be.”
Zephyr glanced over at Nella, not missing the way her eyes lit up at the mention of fishing. The ranger had acquired a curious love for the activity during her time at the Tempest School, along with a considerable taste for fish.
“Oh well. What is, is,” Brass declared. She gestured behind her, to the battered, cracked, yet defiant walls of a massive inner keep, adorned with another layer of battlements and turrets. “My name is Archmage Xila Brass, and I bid you welcome to Blackstone Keep.”
Chapter 2
Blackstone Keep, Zephyr would soon learn, was a fortress the Phoenix Knights maintained just beyond the pass through the Zu-Shan mountain range, which ran down the middle of the south-eastern continent. Avora had placed the keep’s location in Zephyr’s mind, allowing Zephyr to bring everyone here with the Wind Walk spell, but he hadn’t known anything about the surrounding terrain beforehand.
That’s the problem with Wind Walk, especially when I use it to get to a place put into my mind without having been there myself first, Zephyr thought as Archmage Brass led the trio and Avora across the courtyard behind the curtain wall and toward the inner citadel of Blackstone Keep. I wonder if anyone else can use Wind Walk like that. But then again, I don’t think anybody else can have information just placed into their mind like the Grand Sage did with me.
The trio had the Codex of Ascension within their souls, and it had proven to be a powerful tool that organized their spells and magical abilities into a neat, easily accessible system. Even more importantly, the Codex of Ascension drew upon the strength of slain Shadowswarm, converting it into essence orbs that the trio had used to attain the highest levels of mastery in Tempest magic within a year. Many mages would never accomplish such a feat, not even after a lifetime of studying and training.
In contrast, Avora had a similar spiritual artifact called the Codex of Elucidation within his soul. According to him, the Codex of Elucidation was passed down from one generation of Grand Sages, who shared his bloodline, to the next. As far as Zephyr knew, the Codex of Elucidation worked in a similar fashion to the Codex of Ascension except for one critical difference. The Codex of Elucidation couldn’t harvest essence orbs from slain Shadowswarm, which meant that Avora’s mastery in all three elemental magics was acquired in the traditional fashion: endless studying, continuous training, and countless battles against creatures of dark magic and servants of evil. By any accounts, Avora was a hero of mythic proportions.
