Chapter 79 - The Power of Blood

Essence exploded from Celaine in a burst of green fire. Instinct propelled Hump back as a wave of pressure that swept through the cavern. It felt like needles against his skin. Like a sword at his throat. Yet he didn’t look away—couldn’t look away. He stared at Celaine, eyes grabbed by a force that allowed for nothing else, and in that moment he knew with complete certainty that his life was no longer in his hands. This was different to the cold, merciless winter of Kelisia. This was the hunter. To move was to overstep. To breathe was to be noticed. The entire world was a hunting ground, and everything upon it was game.

Hump’s legs felt weak. How could so much power exist within a person? Just being close to Celaine was painful, yet she showed no sign of discomfort. No sign of pain. She was at peace.

In her outstretched hand she held her Brilliance, a streak of ghostly essence binding it to her chest, feeding it even more energy. The brightness of it grew until it shone almost white. Around her, grass sprouted from the stone floor and tunnel walls, green and lush as the energy that fuelled it. It rose until it covered Celaine, concealing her like a stalking predator.

Then slowly, the grass began to twist around itself, forming long strings of coiled grass. They swayed in a way that reminded Hump of Dylan’s vines, merging with each other to form Celaine’s first circle. God glyphs filled it. Her first major blessing—Hunter’s Instinct. There was no pause as her second circle formed around it, her two minor blessings dividing the ring into two halves.

As the power grew, Celaine’s face contorted. Her breathing quickened. Hump braced himself for the god pillar he knew would appear next. He waited for that dreadful, deadly power to truly descend.

But the pillar never came.

The grass continued to grow around her, twisting into her third circle like climbing vines. It emerged slowly, reminding Hump of a cultivated flower gently ushered into being. Soon, three perfect circles surrounded Celaine. The third was divided into thirds by thick lines of grass. There was a flash of light, essence flared, and Hump felt the pressure intensify. The soft grass turned hard as stone, shining like the most brilliant emerald. Sharp, harsh vines sprouted from the outer ring and twisted into glyphs. With each glyph, Celaine’s aura grew stronger. It wrapped around Hump and pressed him down, squeezed him tight, as if he’d been gripped by a giant hand.

He needed to breathe. Needed to turn away and hide. Yet all he could do was watch and wait, marvelling at the terrifying yet beautiful sight.

“Hump,” Bud’s voice shattered Hump’s daze. “They’re coming.”

Right, the spirits, he thought. Heart thundering in his ears, he forced himself to turn away and face the spirits. Channelling essence into his staff, the glow of red was faint compared to Celaine’s power, but it was enough for him to glimpse the spirits in the cavern beyond.

Hump aimed his staff, forming the channels of Essence Blast in his mind with newfound clarity. He filled those channels with fire. A chill swept through him, but he poured more essence into his staff. The focus simmered with bubbling flame, willing him to set it loose. To let it burn.

Bud and Dylan stood just ahead of him, a gap between them for him to aim. Their weapons were ready, if any spirits made it through, they would be greeted by the combined power of frostfire and nature.

The spirits flowed into the tunnel silently, streaks of black in the darkness now illuminated by the radiant green that poured from Celaine. They filled the tunnel like smoke, streaming closer and closer still.

Hump let his essence go free. “Blast.”

The impact jarred his arm as a wave of red swept forward, the heat searing Hump face. It filled the tunnel with a dragon’s roar. A second later, a chorus of piercing wails tore through the cavern. Hump flinched at the painful sound, for a moment thinking his attack had failed. He waited for the spirits to emerge from the flame, but the sound was gone as quickly as it started. The fire faded next, and only darkness lay beyond.

Hump slumped against the wall. The suddenness of using such a large Essence Blast left him feeling cold to his core.

“You alright?” Bud asked.

Hump nodded, catching his breath. “Just need a minute.”

“I’m glad you didn’t hit me with one of those in our duel,” Dylan said, still staring into the darkness.

Hump let out a breath. “If I’d known you were going to trip me with a vine, I might have been tempted.”

He turned so that his back was to the wall and watched Celaine as her new circle took form. Glyph after glyph formed in the grass, each shimmering green as it solidified in place. When the blessing was formed, intent radiated from it.

The markings appeared simple, yet there was a complexity to them that wizards had yet to grasp. There was more to controlling magic than the number of channels and affinity. Hump couldn’t look away. He craved to know what it was. How did they hide such power in so few runes? It was a timeless mystery that only the gods could answer.

Hump’s spellbook shook.

Before he could think, Celaine slammed her Brilliance back into her chest. She gasped as power filled her, lungs expanding, whole body glimmering with its light. In an instance, the pressure was gone. All that power now contained inside Celaine’s body.

Hump blinked. It took a moment for him to realise that his body was back under his control. Owalyn was gone. He glanced at the others who were both as wide eyed as him. Even the spirits had retreated, forced back until they were pressed against the distant walls.

When Celaine opened her eyes, they gleamed with bright green essence. She laughed at the sight of them, her voice chiming like a bell, echoing off the stone, empowered by the fire that still burnt within her. There was no hesitancy or confusion as there had been when Bud received his blessing. She sprung to her feet in a blur, moving faster than Hump had ever seen her. In a blink, she was face to face with him, brimming with such energy it was intoxicating. Her eyes were radiant.

“Did it work?” she asked.

It took Hump a second to realise what she was talking about. “Yes. The spirits are handled.”

“I don’t understand.” Bud furrowed his brow. “Is that it? You’ve reached the third circle just like that.” he snapped his fingers.

“Just like that,” Celaine said. “Were you expecting more?”

“I was expecting a god pillar!” Bud said. “Instead… I don’t even know what that was.”

Celaine smiled. “Owalyn does not need to use such methods. I found my blessing on my own.”

“You don’t find blessings,” Bud insisted. “You are granted them! That’s how it works.”

“Well obviously that’s not always the case,” Celaine snapped. “I felt the change in the fight. When the beast lashed out at our souls with its aura, something clicked. I felt… stronger. My essence flowed more naturally, my strength felt as if it had doubled, and I saw the world with a clarity I have never experienced before. I found my blessing, Bud.”

“I… I don’t understand.” He pressed a hand to his forehead.

Hump let out an amused breath and clasped the knight on the shoulder. “The gods are beyond our understanding, isn’t that what you say?”

Bud glared at him. “I suppose I may have said something along those lines.”

“Well congratulations, Celaine,” Dylan said. “I can’t say I’m surprised. Master Vivienne was convinced you were the closest to reaching the next stage. What blessing did you receive?”

Celaine stroked a hand over the grass runes. “Predator's Intent.”

Hump opened his spellbook and she glared at him.

“Did your book really record my blessing?” she snapped.

“We’ll see,” Hump said, watching the essence infused ink swirl across the page. “It likes to impress.”

Spellbook
Predator’s Intent

Description: Few things can match the focus of a predator on the hunt. The target fixed with your intent will have their physical movement slowed, and significantly weaker enemies will be paralysed from fear.

Predator’s Intent can be imbued into other abilities to provide additional effects and increase their power.

He read the entry out loud, raising his eyebrows at the final point. “That sounds like a powerful minor blessing.”

“It is,” Dylan said, matter of factly. “Anything that an enhance your other abilities is particularly powerful, but especially so when it’s a minor blessing that can effect a major one like this. What kind of additional effects does it have?”

“If you’re lucky I’ll show you later,” Celaine said. “For now, we need to finish searching this place.”

Hump snapped his book shut and reattached it to his belt. “She’s right. I don’t want to be in here any longer than we have to, and any survivors of Lakewood may have returned to the village. We should be there just in case.”

Without any spirits Hump was no longer careful with his essence usage. He lit the cave using Wizard Light and together they made their way to the lower level, carefully navigating the water-slick slope until they reached the pool at the bottom.

“It looks like this was where the monsters spent most of their time,” Hump said grimly. Bones lay scattered across the floor. Better than finding the half-eaten remains of people, he supposed. “You lot might as well look around for any more signs of the missing adventurers or those missing from Lakewood. I can deal with the formation myself.”

“You shouldn’t be alone here,” Bud said. “There may still be something lurking.”

“I’ll stay,” Celaine said. “I could do with a few minutes to calm my essence.”

Bud nodded. “We won’t go far.”

As they split off, Hump looked over the formation. Even at a glance he could tell it was complex. Too much so for anyone that simply dabbled in the craft; this was the work of a specialist. He’d need to ask whether the party of missing adventurers had a wizard amongst them, but even then, it would need to be someone powerful. The crystals at the core of the formation concerned him the most. Up close, their violet colour was even more vivid than before, tiny wisps of different coloured light flickering within. He sensed the same essence coming from them as he did the rest of the cave. It was denser than the atmosphere of the cave, though it didn’t feel like enough to be the source by itself.

“You ever seen anything like these?” he asked Celaine, kneeling beside the formation.

“No. What are they?”

Hump shrugged. “Some sort of essence stone is my guess. Gods know what affinity though.”

He scraped at one of the outer formational channels, just enough to peel off a bit of the red from the stone. He raised it to his nose and wrinkled it at the metallic scent. “You were right, it’s definitely blood.” He wiped his hand on his robe.

Even the language seemed off to Hump’s eye. Modern Alveronian was strongly angled and mostly formed of straight lines, while God Glyphs were sharp and triangular. This was formed of long, meandering lines with no gaps between runes.

He frowned. “I don’t even know where to start. I’m not familiar with these runes.”

Celaine paced around the formation. “Well, you’d need a lot of blood for all this. Does that mean anything?”

“It could point toward it being sacrificial in nature,” Hump said. “Blood and life are both common components in summoning rituals, particularly when dealing with the more sinister realms. Both provide a stronger connection for the being on the other side to focus in on, and life is the stronger of the two.”

“Wouldn’t we see a body in that case?”

“There’s body parts all around us. It could have been eaten or destroyed by the spell. Or the caster could have used only blood as a component, in which case perhaps the spell backfired and consumed them. Of the two, it’s the most likely to have a summoned creature turn on its summoner, and this spell is complex enough for me to believe a mistake may have been made.”

He pulled out the Book of Infinite Pages and opened it to the middle.

“Did you get something?” Celaine asked.

Hump shook his head. “It doesn’t seem to recognise it. I’m going to make a copy myself, perhaps Vivienne can identify the language or one of the priests at the Temple of Hestia.”

He visualised the formation in his mind, willing the book to note it down. Essence and ink filled the page. There was no way of noting down how essence passed through the formation like when the book took a recording itself, but it would do.

Once he was done, he fit it back to his belt and stepped into the formation for a closer look at the crystals, taking care not to scuff anymore of the formational lines. The crystals were bound together at the centre, splitting off in four directions like a splash of water frozen at its peak. Essence stones were usually roundish in shape, a necessity to make the crystal stable, but these were sharp and pointed.

“With any luck, Vivienne might know what these are too.” He took out his belt knife and levered out the closest crystal. It snapped off like glass. One by one, he added them to his pouch.

“Will that change anything?” Celaine asked.

“It might,” Hump said. “Most realms are reasonably well documented. If we can figure out which the summon targeted, we can potentially identify exactly what the spirits and these monsters are, and how we can prevent further summonings.”

“We didn’t deal with stuff like this back home,” Celaine said. “We had our hands full with monsters, there wasn’t time for anyone to summon more.”

“The rest of the world doesn’t have the protection of a literal god dwelling at the centre of their village. People fool for whispers from the dark or are simple evil to begin with. I’ve dealt with a few myself during my years as an apprentice. Well, my master dealt with them, I watched.”

***

Bud and Dylan had managed to find two more medallions in the cave. They hoped that the guild would be able to figure out who the final member was from their party records, but they’d need to send a messenger to Sheercliff City before they could find that out. They recovered the heartstones of the monsters before they left, and Celaine led the way back through the forest.

It was night and they were nearing Lakewood when she suddenly stopped. “There’s fires down in the village.”

“What?” Dylan scrambled to catch up with her.

“Campfires,” Celaine quickly reassured him. “Well, more like bonfires, but it looks like people have returned.”

Dylan let out a long sigh then laughed. “There are survivors. Thank all the gods.”

Celaine alerted them to the presence of two archers as they approached. The two were on one of the rooftops, invisible to Hump’s eyes even after she’d pointed to them. Dylan called out so as not to alarm them and they were ushered down to the dock where fires raged along the shoreline. It was as they descended the hill that Hump realised that there were more than just survivors here. Dozens of people had come, forming a defensive line of spears and bows down by the dock. Hump spotted Kastin amongst them, who ran over when he spotted their approach.

“I’m pleased to see you all safe,” Kastin said. “Did you get the monsters that did this?”

“We did, Kastin,” Dylan said. “There were four of them laired up in in a cave to the west. It looked like some old mineshaft. What’s going on here?”

“The other villages have come to help,” Kastin said. “Those that fled Lakewood ran to Stremway, who sent boats out to all the nearby villagers. They all came, Dylan. All of them.”

“And the survivors?” Bud asked.

“Only nine so far,” Kastin said sadly.

“I’m so sorry. And your family?”

Kastin smiled slightly and nodded. “They live. My father was wounded, and my wife and daughter have stayed with him in Stremway. Little Sessil is there now too.”

Hump looked up as another man approached.

“This is Isaia,” Kastin said. “Isaia, these are the ones I told you about.”

“I understand we have a lot to thank you for,” Isaia said. “But I must know. Is it safe now? Are the demons gone?”

“They’re gone,” Dylan said. “We found their den in a cave west of here, where their bodies remain. I’m sorry, but only the bones of the dead remained.”

Isaia sighed. “It is already more than I could have hoped for. Forgive me, we are preparing the bodies as we speak. I cannot stay. Please, rest for the night. Kastin, can you find our friends a place to sleep and get them some food. I’ll arrange for someone to take you back to the town in the morning, if that’s alright?”

Behind the man, Hump glimpsed the bodies of the dead beside the fires, wrapped and dressed to hide their fatal wounds.

“Of course,” Dylan said. “We’ll take care of ourselves. Don’t hesitate to ask if there’s anything we can help with.”

“You’ve already done enough, my friend,” Isaia said. “These were people of Lakewood. They are my responsibility.”

Hump watched him go, fist clenched around his staff. So many more would die if they couldn’t find a way to stop this. Perhaps it was too late already.