Chapter 13:
Descending Tower of Blood
The storm had not subsided when Izuku awoke the next morning, but it had died down. The rain and sleet were minimal, but the overcast clouds and wind were turned up to eleven. They could easily hike through it without being heard, nor would they hear anybody else. If they kept to the foliage and trees they could remain completely undetected up to their goal.
"I have already packed the rings and amulets you found. I did my best to alter the chain mail to fit you, and the throwing daggers are in your pack." Isendra told him. "And those potions you didn't recognize are called strangling potions. If you throw or break one, it releases a plume of poisonous gas. You will want to be careful with them, but I'm entrusting them to you all the same. As a means of escape."
During the first watch Izuku had searched the den and that was all he found. He didn't feel any great magic from the rings or amulets, but they would take the things to Cane all the same. Who knew? They could be powerful after all.
He removed his hard leather armor and put the chainmail on underneath it before re-donning his clothes. They weren't nearly as form-fitting as Isendra's, but he would grow into them. Or, more likely, he'd find better armor long before that.
"We shall eat as we walk, come along." Isendra ordered.
Izuku donned his pack, snatched up the bread, cheese and cured meat that passed for a sandwich and followed her out.
The howling wind tore at their skin as they advanced eastward, and the rare drop of rain felt like sewing needles made of ice piercing their skin. They marched on all the same.
He did his best to eat his breakfast as they walked, but the wind fought to steal it from him every step of the way. Between that and his constant weariness, checking every which way for Fallen, undead or worse, it did not make for a pleasant meal. By the time he finished it, the rain and sleet were beginning to pick back up and the clouds were darkening once more. Still, they trailed forward until mid-morning when the storm returned in full force.
There they were, in the middle of a storm, soaked to their toes and without any sign of shelter in sight. They began running forward through the dark trees and underbrush, with him holding onto Isendra's belt to help her keep a pace that he could follow. They came across no best or fallen as they ran, uncaring of the noise they were making for even they could not hear it over the wind and thunder.
Soon, Isendra stopped and looked back to make sure she had his attention. When their eyes met she motioned northward. He followed her pointing with his gaze but saw nothing. When she withdrew her staff he followed her example and they creeped forward. When they broke through the next line of trees he saw what she must have noticed from her taller vantage point, a roof of rough stone above the next line of trees. They creeped towards those ones as well and peered beyond it.
A single stone building, perfectly square but crumbling, stood steadfastly against the storm. A clearing of unkempt grass and leafy detritus surrounded it, but no sign of watchmen or life of any kind. It even lacked a door, and from the outside the place looked like it ought to be condemned. Isendra nodded for them to charge forward. Fire bolt at the ready, Izuku did so and together they sprinted through the last of the rain they would suffer for that day.
He let the spell die on his lips when they entered a room barren of life or anything else really. The ability to hear his own footsteps as they fled away from the open doorway was like being a deaf man given a hearing aid. It was a relief beyond words.
Isendra put down her pack and, with a wave of her hand over it, drew all the water from the leather and cloth container. She then did the same thing to her body, as if wringing out her clothes with mana.
"Um." Izuku said questioningly.
She looked at him and took pity, performing the same quasi-spell on him.
"I don't know why water spells never occurred to me." He said dejectedly.
"Because they have no combative use, outside of being a precursor to ice spells." Isendra told him "But little spells like those can do wonders for comfort, morale and utility."
He nodded at the wisdom.
By now their eyes had adjusted to the dark abode, as had their other senses.
Izuku immediately felt something wrong about the place, and his eyes focused on the ladder leading into a gap in the floor. Presumably, to a cellar, but his senses warned of something far worse. Much like the feeling of magic, but thicker, heavier, like tree sap that reeked of rotten meat.
"You feel it too, Izuku?" His mistress asked.
He nodded gravely.
"A twisted miasma, a living madness. There is evil in this tower." She said, "Or more accurately, beneath it. And seeing as we cannot leave, let us cleanse it."
Izuku nodded again and let her take point. She approached the ladder and cast a simple light spell from her hand, peering down. She motioned that the way was clear and climbed down the rickety structure. Izuku feared it would snap under her weight, not that she had a significant amount of it, but because he heard several of the rungs crack when she stepped on them.
She held her arms out for him to throw her something and looking around he realized their packs were still where they had left them. It would not do to leave those behind. He tossed hers down first, then his. Figuring he weighed significantly less than her, he climbed down after her instead of opting to jump into her arms as well and it held.
The room they entered was almost identical to the one above, save for the loose bones strewn about and several puddles of fresh blood. It looked like they weren't the only ones to try and shelter there from the storm. Most notably of all, was a broken down wall where it looked as if a giant mole had burrowed into it and down into the earth below.
This time, he took point. He crawled forward with bended knees and peered beyond, only to discover somebody had buried the French catacombs beneath the small building. Barely wrapped skeletons filled crevices in the wall and well-maintained torches lined the walls at seemingly random points. Oh yah, this place was definitely occupied.
He walked through the hole in the wall and Isendra followed him through. Before they could even catch their bearings they were pounced upon by two crimson goats. Scratch that, they were goat men, and they were completely covered in blood. They looked more intimidating than they actually were. The first fell to an ice bolt through the heart, the second Isendra merely bashed on the neck with her staff, creating a satisfying crack of breaking vertebrae.
They glanced at each other and both shrugged, before continuing on their way.
As they went deeper they came upon a wide open hallway of pillars and torches. It held multiple exits, one on each wall, and from each of them swarmed in horrors Izuku had not seen before. More of those bloody goat men, a strange birdlike creature made of ethereal mist and ectoplasmic bone and gray fallen. Most startling of all were tall, blue women with horns dressed in the garb of Kashya's rogues.
Isendra and Izuku turned the entire hall into a Christmas light show. Pulsing waves of lightning and repeating fireballs scorched every inch of the walls, ceiling and floor until nothing remained of their enemies but splattered and cooked bodies.
"So. What are the blue rogue mimics all about?" Izuku asked.
"They are corrupted rogues. Their souls poisoned by darkness in life and bodies transformed into what you saw in death. You witnessed part of the process for creating one in the burial grounds." Isendra explained.
Izuku felt his stomach churn.
That was what they were trying to turn sweet Alexis and haughty Mary into? That was abominable, not least of all because the real women themselves were far superior warriors than this trash. Smarter, wiser, kinder, and more skilled in every way. Even if you were evil, the efficacy of these undead hordes was so minimal that he had to wonder why they bothered.
His wondering didn't last long, for he knew the reason. Psychological warfare. What they lacked in combat ability they made up for by inspiring terror and disgust and despair in the loved ones of those taken.
And descend they did. Into a second level, then a third. Along the way they faced no challenge, not even by the pitiful standards of the first level of this death trap. It was on the fourth level that this finally changed. There they were confronted by a wall of corrupted archers that unleashed their arsenal on them. They retreated back through the doorway they came from, and the arrows bounced harmlessly against the stone walls.
They heard the entire line of archers march a single step forward and a few took potshots through the doorway from the far left and right sides, hoping to get them at an angle.
"We need to draw them nearer, so that we can get them all in a few spells." Isendra whispered over to him.
They heard the entire phalanx march another step forward. These ones probably hadn't caught onto them being sorcerers, or else they would have preferred to stay back and hole up. They were in for a big surprise.
Izuku and Isendra took turns peeking out and throwing loose rubble at the dumb undead. Each time they did so more arrows flew through the gap and they barely avoided having their faces turned into pin cushions. It was working, as each time they fired they took a step forward and upon peaking one last time he realized they were close enough for a nova.
"Okay, I'm going to coat you in ice armor. I need you to flee back but be seen so they can all fire on you, then I'll vault out there and get them with a nova. I'll need you to come in after me." Isendra explained quickly.
Izuku accepted his role as target practice with a nod and with a wave of her hand Isendra coated him in a thick layer of ice. His entire body now felt comfortably cool with the thick two-inch layer of solidified water covering everything except his face and joints. It did feel a little cumbersome though. Isendra repeated the spell on herself and nodded for Izuku to begin.
He covered his head with both hands and ran backwards away from the door, but listed towards the line of sight of the door so all of the archers beyond could see him. His first indication that they did was the ten or so arrows pelting him in the back, each feeling like the strike of a hammer even through the three layers of armor he wore. His second indication was the eleventh through twentieth arrows either whizzing past him or landing true themselves.
When the telltale flash and clap of lighting filled the hallway from behind him, he turned around, gritted his teeth and charged through, letting loose fire bolt after firebolt at the neatly organized line of archers. The larger, yellow one in the middle took three all to himself, but by the end of his barrage they were all reduced to bonemeal, and he was reduced to a crumpled heap on the ground.
"Owwwwww." He groaned as he took off his hard leather coat and lifted the chain mail beneath it.
As he expected, Isendra came to him to look at the damage.
"That is already bruising. Let me get you a healing potion." Isendra consoled.
"Mana too, please." He asked nicely.
Rapid firing fire bolts could really take it out of you.
Isendra handed him said mana potion and he drank it while she rubbed a handful of healing potion onto his upper and lower back.
It took a few moments of deep breathing and tentative stretching before he was confident enough to stand up. He refastened his chainmail and made to do the same with the hard leather armor, but got a good look at it first. Several of the arrows had gotten through the ice and pierced the leather. If it weren't for the recently discovered chainmail he would have been a goner. hell, if they had been equipped with proper bows and well-maintained arrows instead of the rusted and worn out crap he would have been a goner. Isendra must have taken all of this into account, or else she never would have suggested such a stupid maneuver.
He re-donned his leather armor before picking up his pack and Bane Ash.
"I am ready to go on, mistress." He said apologetically.
The fourth level was filled with more of those ghostly aspirations, each like a misshapen bird made of ghostly bones. Eerie-looking, but not particularly tough.
"They are ghosts, Izuku. Wraiths." Isendra said. "Driven mad, consumed with hatred for the living
Izuku took this in stride. After all, he'd dealt with sorcerers, zombies and demons. Why should ghosts be a surprise? Even if they didn't resemble what he imagined tainted ghosts would look like.
And thus, they descended to the fifth floor beneath the ground. The air felt different here. It was warmer, more humid. It smelled like clean steel and bathroom tile.
"I think this is it." He said.
"I agree. Step carefully." She commanded.
They creeped through the empty halls like thieves in the night, as they went deeper the humidity grew until their vision was filled with thin, but noticeable steam. Following it they came to be inside of a great hall of sorts, with walls covered in scones of fire. For the most part, it looked like normal, if large and tiled, great dining hall devoid of all furnishings. In fact, the only thing worthy of note was a large tub in the middle of the room.
Jacuzzi was a better word for it, one filled with thick, red, boiling blood.
He wasn't expecting a beautiful, butt-naked woman to slowly rise out of it like an AV actress, but he was unsurprised by the fact that she almost looked to be made completely out of blood herself, even her eyes.
"Ah, guests. Care to join me for a blood bath?" The thing said to them.
Izuku hurled a firebolt at her and it exploded against her face. He half-expected her to splatter like a water balloon full of blood, but instead it exploded against her with seemingly no harm, only for her to then catch fire.
She was cackling as the flames consumed her, and Izuku realized they were almost certainly her own flames.
Okay then. Fire not good. Fire not friend.
He switched gears in favor of hurling ice bolts at her while Isendra hurled chain lightning at her.
Neither slowed her down to a notable degree as she charged towards them and so they split to either side so as not to cluster. This turned out to be an extraordinarily good decision as a split second later a wall of fire erupted where they had just been standing. A real one, the kind that made his attempts at the spell seem like that first attempt at a firebolt in comparison to the real thing.
With her attention split between them she chose to focus on the obviously stronger of the two and bore down on Isendra.
Izuku took the open invitation to shoot her in the back, but shooting her in the back repeatedly. He aimed directly for the spine and the third ice bold pierced it right above the base, where it met the pelvis. What would have left most people incapable of using their legs did nothing to slow her down. Not even the usual slowing effect of ice spells seemed to slow her arrogant walk towards Isendra. The flames enveloping and emanating from her erased all ice almost before it hit her.
He was now on the other side of the boiling pool of blood with their battle taking place beyond it. The steam was finally letting down somewhat, probably from all of the ice spells flying around, but he noticed the rage with which the pool boiled also seemed to have dampened since the fight began. This gave him an idea.
It was only a hunch, but his ice bolts weren't doing as much as he would have hoped, and it was surely worth a shot.
He rolled up his sleeves and coated his hands in the magical aura of ice before dunking them into the pool of crimson liquid. Then, he pulled on it, on all of the heat within and forced it to rise. White hot steam poured upwards in thick plumes, screeching like a whistle as the cracking sound of ice crystals forming came from below. A few moments later the entire pool was frozen solid.
He heard the blood-bather's scream. It sounded like his hunch was correct, her power and resilience did come from the blood. But he could not see the result of his work through the steam which now filled the entire grand hall and was so thick he could barely make out the tip of his staff in front of him.
Then, all of the steam rushed away from him as if being sucked into a typhoon and he saw it coalesce and freeze around the form of a woman, yellowed and rotten and screaming at the top of her lungs. Without her power source her true form was revealed. Isendra was standing behind her, casting a modified blizzard spell to take advantage of all the moisture in the air as fuel and force it into the dried-up old corpse they had been fighting. She screamed and screamed but her voice did nothing to slow the freezing of her entire body. When her screaming ended, she was a solid block of ice and mummified flesh.
Isendra raised her staff and, like a batter at the plate, swung at the other woman's head, shattering it into pieces.
"Hit her again!" Izuku yelled.
She obliged, swinging at the legs and snapping them apart. With the support of those limbs gone the rest of her body fell to the floor and broke apart like pottery thrown to the ground.
"Crazy Bitch." Isendra snarled before spitting on the remains.
She walked to where Izuku stood over the frozen pool of blood.
"Good instincts, my apprentice." She complimented.
Izuku bowed appreciatively but knew not to let the compliment get to his head.
Isendra walked past him to the far door. She kept her staff raised as she advanced through it, prepared for more fighting. Izuku made sure to be prepared for a fight as well as he followed her in.
What they entered could only be described as a treasure room.
The walls were covered in well-maintained weapons and armor, art pieces and several impaled corpses that were currently on fire. The centerpiece of the room was a large treasure chest that may as well have had a "Take me" sign written above it.
Their first order of business was to put out the burning corpses. They did so with a weak ice spell that probably didn't have a name and which Izuku was easily able to imitate after seeing Isendra perform it once. Each of the women was unrecognizable. but though their faces, clothes and bodies were charred black he strongly suspected they were rogues. They laid them down in more peaceful positions out of respect and intended to share this information with Kashya when they next saw her.
With that done they finally took to examining the horde.
Isendra made a beeline for the staff on the back wall, one decorated in vines and leaves like English ivy. She hovered her hand just over it and caressed the air an inch away. He could tell she was feeling the magic within to try her best at identifying it or identify as much as she could without Cane there.
Izuku went straight for the chest and opened it without hesitation. He was honestly surprised to find it full of treasure, like a real-life pirate's chest. Loose rubies and charms covered the bottom, separated by nearly a dozen coin purses, each so full to the brim of coins they looked like they might tear if lifted. At the very center, cleared of all other treasure, were two perfect trapeziums of stone with markings on them.
Isendra whistled appreciatively from behind him, somehow having snuck up on him while he looked through the chest.
"Now those, my young apprentice, are real treasures." She told him.
"What are they?" He asked.
"Rune stones. TAL, and ETH." She failed to explain. "I suppose it is time I taught you about them."
This story was ghostwritten by NonsensicalRants as commissioned by MagikUser. You can hire NonsensicalRants to write your stories as well, all you have to do is provide him with a rough outline and contact him on his patron.
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