Rise of the Devourer

Book 2: Chapter 54 — Reunion

Time flowed past as Noah meditated in the vault. The many artifacts naturally boosted the mana density inside the area, speeding up his progress nearly ten folds. With a deep inhale, Noah felt the mana flow into his body in a steady stream, the final level ticking in place.

Mana Reversal has reached level 10.

Mana Reversal has ranked up to Intermediate.

Skill Fusion unlocked.

[Mana Expulsion], [Aura Control], [Mana Sense], [Mana Reversal], and [Mana Control] can be fused into [Mana Mastery (Intermediate)].

Would you like to combine these skills?

Yes/No?

Noah opened his eyes, letting the notification remain. He selected No, closing the fusion option, before looking back at Zax.

“How’s Snow doing?” he asked.

“Better,” Zax replied, busy with something else as the dragon tinkered around with some artifacts.

Noah got up from his meditation spot, heading next to the Dragon, as he saw a holographic projection floating in front of him, showing the castle in its entirety.

“What’s that?” Noah asked, trying to touch the projection.

Zax grabbed his hand. “Don’t touch anything,” he said, glancing back at Noah. “Any changes you make here will reflect within the castle itself.”

Noah pulled back his hand, looking at the projection in surprise.

Zax waved his hand around, runes flowing freely, as he answered his question. “This is the control rune Ryugan setup for the castle. We can see what is happening and where from this place. Though many parts have broken down over time and from corruption by the Abyssal entities. But we can assign resources, manage how much mana is spent on which defenses, among other things. It lets us control the castle, and this entire Astral rift, by extension.”

“Looks almost like a mini game,” Noah said, watching the various runes fly by. “Can you see the cultists?”

“Indeed. We’ve sent many of them to places they would rather not be in via teleportation already. The rest wizened up and quickly left. But those within the castle still remain hidden. We’ll need to cleanse the area on our own,” Zax said.

“I can help,” Noah replied.

“Indeed, we were hoping you would,” Zax said, before pointing to one section of the castle that expanded. “This is the central chamber, where the root of the corruption is, if we remove this, most of it will be gone. It’s very likely that the cultists have kept the Shard you seek there as well.”

Noah saw the chamber, barely visible and flickering within the projection. Dark tendrils covered it in overgrowth that spread outwards into the entire Astral rift from within.

Zax moved his hand, as the chambers shifted, and Noah saw a different section appear in front of him. “This is where one of your friends is. If you vouch for them, we can bring them within the vault.”

“I can. Not that you need me to, you could stop all three of us if you wanted,” Noah said.

“We’d rather it does not come to that. But we trust you, and your companions,” Zax said, as a rune spell formed at his finger tips. “We’ll send you to both of them, once you are ready, we’ll bring you back.”

Noah nodded, and Zax touched the rune on his fingertips onto Noah’s chest. A brilliant light flashed, before Noah felt his body slip into the gap between the realms, as he vanished.

***

Aurelia walked through the sewers, her eyes glowing with a flaming effect. She hadn’t thought she could hate a place more than her home, but the last two weeks had proved her wrong. The constant darkness, scuttling of monsters and the filth was about to drive her insane. The entire thing was a maze and she was slowly starting to go insane.

With enemies all around, and her food supply empty, she was regretting ever coming here. Even with her constitution and rank, the lack of sleep combined with the constant vigilance was starting to get to her, making her paranoia shoot up through the skies. She could barely settle herself down anymore. Not unless she was meditating.

Using her aura to deter any creatures that may begin to get some ideas, she sat down against the walls, closing her eyes for a brief few minutes.

With a flaming glow, her astral script appeared in front of her eyes.

Aurelia Fauster’s Astral Script

Race: Human, 22 years old

Rare Path of the Berserker Monk level 139.

Rare Path of the Flametouched level 137.

Legendary Path of the Cinderborn level 122.

Power increased to 708.

Agility increased to 518.

Constitution increased to 465.

Mystic increased to 578.

Rare ability Fury Strike has reached level 41.

Rare ability Heat Vision has reached level 39.

…

Legendary ability Embers of Fury has reached level 27.

May your Path light the dark.

Aurelia let out her breath, feeling her attributes sink within her soul. The only good thing that had come out of her being here had been the increase in her level and skills. The constant combat had been taxing, but was also good practice for her to gain a hold on her new skills. Her armor had also made most attacks barely a threat.

Getting up from her meditation spot, Aurelia continued making her way, scanning the area with her heat senses to see if anything would attack. The pathway had continued to twist and turn around, but by now she was certain that she was getting close. All she had to do was to find an exit.

Walking down the hallway, Aurelia continued to let embers flow past her hands, burning the many tendrils that crawled around the area, seeping into the rock and cracking the foundations. The un-death plague creating zombies was another problem she’d had to keep a watch for constantly. Even small mistakes would cost her, though thankfully nothing powerful had found its way to her yet.

What was happening here, it was bad, and if it spread out from the rift in a big city like Heartillia… she didn’t want to even think about it.

A cracking noise came from nearby, and Aurelia stopped moving, holding her breath. Focusing on her senses, she listened carefully, an found footsteps. A single pair, but fast. She could sense the mana coming off. It was something powerful.

Keeping her guard up, Aurelia pulled her aura inwards, going still as she moved ahead without making a sound. Embers burned with a deep red across her armor and body, as she began to gather the heat she had stored over weeks.

The footsteps grew nearer, moving quickly. Aurelia took a stance.

Step. Step. The sound of water splashing. Too fast for a zombie. Too even. Too heavy for a skeleton. A cultist then? She could feel hints of the void mana coming from it.

Aurelia got ready. As the person turned the corner, she leapt, scorching grasp burning with furious flames to hold whoever it was.

The next steps happened within a single fraction of a second. Blue mana flashed as the man teleported, Aurelia turned sensing it behind her. She raised her gauntlet letting the spear thrust towards her deflect off of them, as she struck with her other fist, finding it caught by a monstrous arm with claws.

Aurelia’s eyes widened. “N-Noah?”

“Hey there, glad to see you're alright,” Noah said, smiling at the woman.

Aurelia stepped back, looking at him in disbelief. “A-are you actually Noah?” she asked, finding it hard to believe what she saw. Was she finally starting to hallucinate after spending weeks in the dark?

“Yup, it’s me. I’ve got a friend who’s got a safe place we can go to. He sent me to fetch you, and then Erwest. I already found Snow,” Noah replied.

“Oh,” Aurelia said, looking at him, uncertain of what to say.

“You look… so…” she trailed off, starting to realize why she had thought he was a hallucination. “Clean,” she finally said, glancing down at herself, with grime and filth covering her armor, her hair frazzled and her mind constantly on the edge.

“Yeah it looks like I’ve had a better time than you. Let me bring you in and you can clean up, I’m sure Zax has something like that,” Noah said, extending his hand.

Aurelia glanced down at him, slightly in disbelief, before she grasped the extended palm.

A rune flashed around the two of them, and she felt herself slipping into the gap between the realms. As the light faded, Aurelia closed her eyes from the bright light flashing at her. It took her a moment to reorient herself, before she could finally see where she stood.

A pristine marbled chamber, filled with piles of artifacts so powerful they radiated mana into the air. Magic flowed around her in boundless heaps, complex spell workings layered upon one another to create this place.

As she looked around, her eyes finally met the man standing next to Noah. She did not need to use identify to tell who he was, or rather, what. Her spirit screamed it to her immediately, her body going stiff with terror as she saw death personified look at her, and give her a smile.

“Zax, this is Aurelia, the woman who’s helped me more than anyone else in this realm and who I’ve been traveling with since I first arrived on Erandir,” Noah said, before turning towards her.

“Aurelia this is Zax, he was a friend of the man who owned this realm and is helping us kick out the cultists from this realm. Oh, also he’s a dragon.”

Aurelia continued to look at Zax, somehow feeling even more intimidated than when he had dragged her in front of a goddess. A god had to follow rules, with their strengths being so incomprehensible, it stopped registering. But a dragon? She could still feel her mind telling at her to do anything to get away.

“Your friend seems to have the much more common reaction to me,” Zax said, glancing at Noah.

“I know you’re having fun with it though,” Noah said, before looking at Aurelia. “It’s fine, he’s a friend. You can trust me.”

“I- how- what?” Aurelia said, looking at Noah.

“I’ll let your friend settle in, clean up a little and fill her in on the details. Why don’t you go ahead and get your other friend in the meantime?” Zax said.

“Alright, sounds good,” Noah said, as the dragon snapped his fingers. A rune flashed on Noah, glowed brightly before he vanished.

Aurelia continued to stare, realising that she was alone now, inside what looked very much like a dragon’s hoard. With said dragon standing in front of her.

“Hmm, where do I begin. Humans shake hands as a greeting, don’t they? I’m Zax, a lightning dragon, pleasure to meet you,” the dragon said, extending his hand.

Aurelia looked at him in confusion.

“Perhaps not, may just be a thing Noah does then. I’m not caught up on human customs,” the dragon said. “Let me help you clean up first.”

As the dragon snapped his fingers, Aurelia felt every little bit of grime from her body vanish, leaving her feeling refreshed. There was even a slight smell of flowers coming from her now.

“That’s better,” Zax said, nodding to himself as if he’d done some difficult task correctly. “Would you like to rest a little before Noah returns?”

“Huh? Oh- uhh,” Aurelia found her words failing and simply gave a nod. The dragon snapped his fingers, as seats appeared in the chamber for her to sit on, more comfortable than anything she’d ever sat on.

“These were obtained by Ryugan especially for himself. They have a spell to increase the restfulness created by sleep ten fold and were crafted by-“ Zax said, but the words began to fade.

A spell pulsed over Aurelia and she found all her weeks of tension slip past her instantly, as she fell asleep.

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