“The Rending Blade Magic doesn’t work anymore, so we can assume that leaves channels of power untapped that the Lost Light can exploit for the upgrades, and the Blood used channels that were actually reserved for the Font. Likewise, the Mana Capacity Matrix is no longer in place, so we can assume it will be a constant effect more appropriate for the Lost Light,” I judged calmly. “You said it improved the Swords, Lord Mick. Base damage back then was a given, something similar to what we do with Profound Weapon. To hit AND damage?”
“Aye, but not speed…” He trailed off as he looked down at Bunita’s Kiss, Kris and Commander Briggs having stopped and now staring at it. He glanced up at them, back down to his Claymore, and called out, “Rogar, hand Her Highness yer Glaive now.”
Startled, the squad leader of the Roaches drew the short-hafted version of Accent from its scabbard and tossed it to Kris, who caught it nimbly and looked it over quickly, tapping on it with her black nails up and down its gleaming blue-back length, the spiraling motes a neutral white.
“Well, damn,” she muttered, staring at it. She passed it over to Briggs, who likewise tapped it with his thumbs, staring at what was within it, then also shook his head in exasperation and tossed it back to Rogar, who caught it deftly and sheathed it, to much confusion.
“Jadework quality?” I asked simply, and Kris nodded, holding up two fingers.
“Well, wouldn’t that have saved some forging time,” Briggs muttered, then his broad face brightened up. “And it will in the future!” he pointed out cheerfully.
He wouldn’t have to get any of the Weapons of any Knights of the Lost Light to Jadework quality. That was definitely a plus, even to a Natural Smith like him.
Also to me, as it meant I wouldn’t have to waste that many more Fabricates on my Staff getting it to Jadework quality, either.
“We’ll see if it equals the skill of Her Highness,” the Mick sniffed, and Kris grinned in appreciation. “But, aye, a good thing to find out,” he had to admit. “Gives ye both time to upgrade me Armor, or sommat!”
“Everyone raise hands if they now want Armor of the Lost Light, too!” I called out, and everyone’s hands shot up, including those of Kris and Briggs. “Maybe we can put in a special request to the Font to upgrade or something…”
“Or feed it a whole lot of Fire Infusions so it can do so?” Briggs asked thoughtfully.
“Every damn Order o’ knights an’ guards an’ cultists an’ factions an’ whatnot has their own sets o’ Armor,” the Mick pointed out righteously. “’Tis only fair, don’t ye think?”
I glanced at him. “I don’t think the Lost Light would be about shadowslake, Lord Mick,” I pointed out as we resumed our course. “You’d likely have to go everbright!”
He recoiled from me as if stung. “What? ‘Tis no fair! ‘Tis disqualicrimnation against the more intelligent an’ refined martial combatants, ‘tis! I be filin’ a protest, sure as Aru rises, on behalf of all me unkillable subordinates what use the stuff between their ears more than the average knight!” he proclaimed righteously.
The Roaches didn’t know whether to be supportive of their teacher, or to roll their eyes again.
“I am forced to concur. The Lost Light’s ultimate goal is to stand strong and lead in the light, not strike from the shadows,” Princess Kristie admitted over her shoulder, while we headed towards another cluster of banderlings, these ones having orange armor on the Predators. Color-coding for convenience and all…
“No wonder the undead didnae like ‘em,” grumbled the Mick. “Like as not blinded ‘em with all the glitter when fightin’!”
“The wonders of Devasight never cease proving themselves!” Kris agreed with a laugh. Then conversation fell off, although the Mick grumbled with spirit as we kept advancing.
-------
“Not near as many Fire Elementals as the Crater, but a lot more Golums around,” the Mick remarked as we made our way up towards the crack in the top of Mount Lethe, ignoring the mine entrance for the moment. While it would be interesting to see if there was a final spawn of the Scroll down there, or if the magical waters at the bottom of the mine that wiped memories still flowed, it wasn’t anything urgent to investigate… although I had to wonder about the possibilities of a spring that connected to the mythical River of Forgetfulness, and now understood why it was called Mount Lethe…
The Mick’s observation as a Plasma and Vapor Golum were sliced through with cold Weapons from four directions each made Kris glance at him warily. “Really? How many more Golums?” she asked carefully. “Because these gas and those magma golums over there seem awful familiar, Lord Mick.”
He paused a moment, glanced at me. “Weren’t the golums at the Crater a wee bit enhanced too, lass?” he asked me carefully.
I replayed the spread of creatures inhabiting the active Crater at the lake there, turned my eyes to two spawns of magma golums standing there with another spawn of Diamonds close to the crack, along with two clusters of Fire Elementals. “This might seem strange, Lord Mick, but there were only gas golums of plasma and vapor at the Mt. Esper Crater. There were no magma golums on the landscape at all.”
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“Huh.” He tilted his head slightly. “Apologies. I be mixing things up with the big crater at Tenkarrdun. Stronger magmas all over the place, and diamonds both normal and enhanced older types, too. More to the point, then, are those magmas Summons?” he pointed at the trio grimly.
I blinked, literally not having been paying too much attention to the fact. Of course they’d be Summons, brought in by whatever Elder Elemental was in charge here…
“No,” I blinked. “They’re not?” The utter lack of Conjuration Magic was a dead giveaway. I’d been focused too much on the air swimming with pyromana to notice without paying strict attention to the fact.
“Huh,” Kris said, the tip of Quaver rising and starting to hum, the motes of Lost Light frozen crystals swirling about him. “That vapor golum is deflating and leaking, not disintegrating,” she pointed out.
“Scold is here?!” Selena blurted out for everyone’s benefit. “Sir.”
“And has likely been here for a while if he’s added some minions to the defenses.” Briggs had his eyes on the Diamond Golums, Endure still in base hammer form. “As I recall, those things explode if hit with fire at death. Let them vent before we attack, and I don’t think anyone is going to care if you take a frozen lead for us, Ryin.”
I looked at the two golums, both deflating and coming apart as vivus ate at them rapidly, heavy gasses decompressing and blowing past us as they did so.
“Right. Double Shardrays to the magmas, sweeping through all of them. Commander, take out the Diamonds fast. The Elementals will blip out immediately, we’ll only have to Wolfpack the magmas with too much Health.”
“I hear Chain Frost Vulns an’ Imperils in the breeze!” the Mick said cheerfully, turning his ear.
The Triadspell of both those spells exploded over the entire assortment of creatures there, bouncing from one to the next in chiming tones of icy blue and pale gray shells of energy ripping out from them, taking down their natural armor and magnifying their vulnerability to cold.
They didn’t even get to turn and shoot out spells before the Split Cold Chained Shardrays slammed into them.
The enhanced Magma Golums didn’t die, but I ripped a thousand Health off five of them, twice that off one of them, and all of the Elementals blew apart and discorporated. Even the Diamonds, pretty resistant to cold, tottered at the slamming impact of that much frozen fun messing with their energy matrices.
Everyone around me was charging, but Endure led the way… and nobody was going to be worrying about the Diamonds, because Briggs’ Hammer bounced between them like a ping-pong ball, scattering frozen shards of crystal all over the side of the volcano before roaring back to his hand.
The Magma Golums came striding heavily down to meet everyone, right into a volley of concentrated Icephasing Arrows which had a great time with their double-Debuffed arses. Under those and two Shardings from Kris and the Mick, the more heavily wounded golum didn’t even make it to the fighters, and the rest of the golums found themselves engaged with two Roaches in two teams as the boys played Melees, and Briggs, Kris, and the Mick made a tight little cluster with them, where everyone got to hit at least two of the golums, and Briggs and Kris got to hit three.
I added some Cold Darts because I could, making sure not to wince at the cracking of flash-frozen rock splintering and spraying all over the place as the Magma Golums were ripped apart hastily. Cold flames Burned all over them, and I Countered three different attempts to get off Platinum Fire Bolts, because I could.
Kris’s chosen victim went down first, being hit by her, the Mick, and Briggs. Briggs’s target went down next, as she moved to help him directly, freeing him up in just seconds more so they could both flank the two golums fighting the Roaches and whittle them down.
I popped the Mick’s target twice for him, just to help out some, but he was deftly flash-freezing it down, and his was collapsing before arrow fire and a lot of Weapons brought down the other two.
“Hoy de doi, two intact cores!” Kris said, grabbing the intact Black Rocks out of the cooling, crumbling remains of the unheated golums with unerring precision, crushing them out of some larger pieces in so doing even before they could fall away. She waved them at me for attention, more high-demand Scarabs to be carved, and then tossed them into her Masspack.
I Sifted through the scattered crystals and gemstones dropped by the golums and the Elementals further up the hill, little more than spare change with the volumes of pyreal we were Burning… but the gemstones were actually a form of currency now, given that pyreal was only seeing one use, and if people were hoarding anything, it was the gems that came off the Elementals and golums of this land, the only ‘fast’ way to make something valuable that didn’t rely on a massive exploit.
The crack itself loomed before us, not too long… but there were more Elementals on the other side.
These Elementals were REAL Elementals, however, and I took the lead, lighting up my celeste wings and bringing up the Ritual of the Fiery Heart. Everyone else had their Weapons of the Lost Light out as they carefully followed me forward.
The Elemental looked like a big, crude tusker made out of fire, and it puffed itself up and pounded on its chest in front of me, as if challenging me to advance.
“Do the Elementals of Lethe forget their old promises so easily?” I asked calmly in Magevoice. “Or has that little golum who does not belong here been whispering falsehoods and lies to you, and making you forget your Oaths?”
The Elemental clearly didn’t want to fight me, able to measure my Aura and not finding it hostile, even if a bunch of cold critters were behind me. It could also feel my power, and the fact I could probably just reach out and take absolute control of it if I desired made it extremely wary of me.
I waited calmly, staring at the guard, until there was a roar and a rumbling from behind it. The oversized tusker of living flame, easily half-again the size of King Bobo, happily flowed aside on the red-hot ground, and allowed us within.
The space inside Mount Lethe was an ersatz courtyard again, not much different in size from that of Mount Esper’s Hellion, although the walls around were the actual volcano, not just a shaped-up extrusion coming out a lake.
I lifted an eyebrow at what was waiting there, as the massive humanoid figure with skin like gold and hair of flame was not a true Elemental, although there was little doubt he was a noble of Elemental Fire of sorts, definitely dominating all the Elementals around him with heroic appearance and demeanor.
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