The heat intensified as they went deeper into the Western Sector, making it hard even for the adventurers, with their higher physical stats, to move with their usual agility. The air shimmered, distorting the distance into a mirage of black rock and grey fog, while the smell of sulfur coated Nick’s throat with the taste of rotten eggs and copper, filtering through his wind bubble, although without the danger it would have otherwise brought.
They had reached the edge of a massive caldera, a bowl of jagged obsidian that was clearly the remains of an ancient volcano. Despite its age, through the swirling, oily mist, Nick could see the glow of magma rivers. This was clearly still an active area, and the dungeon’s heavy presence only made it more hostile.
"It’s down there," Nick murmured, tapping the Shard against the blackened earth. "I can feel the mana being pulled in.”
Honestly, it would have been almost impossible to miss, since what used to be a widely spread network of power now went through half as many anchors, making each one stand out all the more.
By the time we reach the southern anchor, it will be shining like a beacon.
"I don't see an obelisk," Malik said, squinting through the haze. He kept his shield raised, even though the heat radiating from the metal rim was already making him sweat heavily. “Though to be fair, I can’t see much at all.”
"It’s hidden, but it’s here,” Nick replied, narrowing his eyes as he pushed [Empyrean Intuition] deeper.
Yet even with his spiritual sight, the details remained blurry. The ambient mana here was extremely dense, much thicker than in the fungal forest or the canyon. It churned and roiled in a chaotic storm of Earth and Fire that muddled his senses.
If I hadn’t been able to catch a glimpse of a presence keeping everything running, I would have thought it was a miracle that the ritual was still going on after so much disruption. But I guess that’s the power of a Prestige ritualist.
He didn’t know what he would do when he finally faced such a being. He doubted they would repeat the mistakes that Changer made in Alluria. But at the same time, even Prestige classes had their limits, and a Greater Ritual failure couldn’t be stopped just with raw power.
“If Nick says it’s here, then it’s here,” Raphael said. “Let’s try to move forward. Willow, keep the shields up. I don’t want to find out what that fog will do to us if it touches our skin, and we need Nick to be free to cast.”
Willow nodded, though Nick sensed a flicker of annoyance she was quick to hide. She looked pale, but she easily summoned a shimmering bubble of cool air around the group to take over for him. It would drain her mana constantly, but without it, their lungs would burn in minutes, and while it wasn’t particularly pleasant to be relegated to support for the whole fight, her firepower in the fight was nothing compared to what Nick could summon.
I suppose I’ll need to talk to her eventually. I don’t want resentment to grow between us.
It wasn’t something he would have cared about before, but this mission was teaching him that maintaining cohesion and trust among teammates was more important than pride.
For a long moment, nothing happened as they started moving into the caldera proper. The only sounds were the wet bloop of bursting magma bubbles and the hiss of steam vents.
Then, the earth shook.
It began with a low vibration in the soles of their boots, rattling the loose gravel. Then, the magma lake below erupted.
A geyser of molten rock shot fifty feet into the air, coloring the fog with shades of fiery orange. From the heart of the eruption, a massive shape emerged from the surface.
It was hideous. A fusion of salamander and wurm, its body was a sleek, muscular cylinder of obsidian scales that glowed from within. It lacked wings, but its limbs were thick and powerful, ending in claws that looked capable of tearing through a castle wall. Once its arc was completed, it fell back down and swam through the lava as effortlessly as a shark through water.
As the beast crested the magma wave, it shook its massive head, causing droplets of burning rock to spray across the caldera. Where the drops landed, they twisted, writhing, expanding, and within seconds, solidified into smaller, quadrupedal shapes.
"It’s spawning more monsters!" Monte yelled, charging his rapier with a skill.
A dozen of the smaller lizards—copies of the Magma-Scale Iguanas they had fought earlier—scrambled up the caldera walls, their claws gripping the glassy rock, and moved toward them with unerring precision.
"Fire!" Raphael roared. "Don't let them reach us, or we’ll be swarmed!”
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The battle started with a bang as the spawn opened their jaws and released streams of pressurized magma.
"[Glacial Wall]!" Yvonne yelled, slamming her greatsword into the ground. A barrier of ice burst out, instantly turning into steam as the magma struck it, but it held just long enough for Malik and Ord to step through and engage.
She truly is more than she appears. But I suppose I knew that from peering into her memories.
Nick stayed in the backline, firing a [Jet Stream] at a leaping lizard and knocking it out of the air into a steam vent, but his eyes were fixed on the Guardian.
The notification flickered in his peripheral vision and was dismissed instantly. The spawn were distractions. The real threat was the mother.
The Guardian wasn't attacking directly yet, preferring to circle the magma lake, creating waves that washed against the caldera walls, but when the number of spawns dropped too low, she opened her mouth and exhaled.
A dense, black smoke poured from her gullet, heavier than the surrounding fog. It spilled over the edge of the lava and began to rise, filling the caldera like water filling a cup.
"Visibility is dropping too low!" Tessa shouted, loosening an arrow blindly into the smoke and walking closer to the edge of the barrier. "I can't see anything!"
"It’s not just smoke," Nick warned, pulling the adventurer back. "It’s superheated ash. Willow, maximize the shield! If that touches us, we’ll die."
The temperature inside the bubble suddenly rose. The team huddled closer, their world shrinking to the twenty feet of clear air around them. Outside the bubble, the world was a swirling gray nightmare, lit only by the lizards' glowing eyes as they crawled toward them.
"We can't fight them like this," Monte hissed, parrying a claw that lunged out of the smoke. "We're blind."
"We have to," Raphael said, though his voice was strained. "Let them come to us and take advantage of the rocks to slow them down."
Nick wasn't casting offensive spells anymore, having decided that his contribution to the fight wouldn’t shift the outcome enough to matter, and instead was sending thin blades of wind slicing into the rock floor and the nearby walls.
Scritch. Scritch. Scritch.
To an outside observer, it would seem he was missing shots, his wind blades cutting pointless grooves into the obsidian.
But he was carving sigils into the stone, ancient symbols borrowed from Earth’s Onmyodo traditions, and adapted to this world's abundant mana.
He linked them with thin lines of spiritual mana, forming a web that stretched across their defensive perimeter.
This Guardian is different, Nick realized as he carved the character for 'Boundaries'.
Unlike the Eastern Guardian, there wasn't a hive mind here. The lizards were independent offspring, and he couldn't use [Spirit Crunch] to wipe them out because there was no shared soul to overload. Additionally, he couldn't attack the Guardian through a sympathetic link because she had severed her connection to her brood the moment they were born.
She was an island of power, staying far from the fight and wearing them down with the patience of an old predator.
I can't drain her either, Nick concluded, watching the massive shadow circle in the smoke below. The ambient mana is too thick. If I open a void here, the dungeon will just flood it with more fire before I can touch her core. I’ll be caught in a battle against the domain again, and I don’t think I can win it here.
He felt the echo of the Tree of Life inside him, the sapling trembling against the oppressive heat. He had mastered Nezach, but to overcome this, the endurance it provided wasn't enough.
I need to think differently. Gevurah is the sphere of Judgment and Limitation.
It was also Mars's domain. The idea that fire must be controlled, that power must be limited to hold significance. It is the sword that prunes the tree.
"Nick! A little help?" Malik shouted, buckling under the weight of two lizards hammering on his shield.
"Buy me thirty seconds," Nick snapped, not looking up from his carving. "And don't step on the runes."
"Runes?" Raphael glanced down, noticing the glowing grooves in the rock for the first time. His eyes widened as he recognized the array's complexity. "What are you doing?"
“I’m preparing a gift for the expectant mother," Nick muttered nastily.
The Guardian roared again, and the smoke thickened. The heat was becoming unbearable, even with Willow’s shield, as the edges of the barrier were starting to fray. The massive monster was also preparing to surface, slowly dragging her enormous bulk onto the ridge with the clear intention to crush them once and for all.
She was confident, the apex predator in a domain of unchecked chaos.
Chaos, Nick thought, finishing the final stroke of the pentagram. That’s a double-edged sword, I’m sorry to say.
He slammed the butt of the Shard into the center of the array, coalescing mana into the material world and drawing the attention of every lizard nearby.
"Cover me!"
The team tightened the circle, desperately fighting to keep the lizards away from him.
Nick closed his eyes, ignoring the screams and the noises of battle. He poured everything he had into the Shard, shaping it and giving it a specific purpose.
The crystal atop his staff started to glow with a harsh, brilliant white. It cut through the fog like a lighthouse beam, eliminating all shadows across the caldera.
The runes on the ground ignited.
Nick started to chant in a rough, improvised way, drawing from memories of a time when exorcists bonded spirits with paper and willpower alone. He had many more advantages than they did and gladly took advantage of them.
“The White Demon. The interdiction of the Shogun. The Divine Smith."
The words were keys, unlocking the concept of Judgment within his soul as he accessed memories of a distant history.
"By the Five Elements, I bind thee. By the laws of the Northern Sky, I restrict thee."
A discordant note tore through the ether. The dungeon roared in defiance, and the Feral God’s domain struck back, attempting to crush this foreign force that dared to impose order on its chaos.
But Nick stood firm. He embodied [Gevurah]. He was the judge, and this beast had been found wanting.
"Impure shapes, return to dust. False fires, bow to the True Sun."
The white light grew brighter, forming a pillar that soared directly into the smoky sky. The smoke swirled and broke, pushed back by the overwhelming force of the spell.
Down in the magma, the Guardian paused. For the first time, the massive beast looked up, her reptilian eyes narrowing in something that looked strikingly like fear.
She could clearly sense the change in the air, the presence of a dangerous predator in her domain.
"Evil spirits, hear my command," Nick whispered, yet his voice boomed with Authority. “Begone from the world.”
He swung the Shard downward, aiming directly at the beast in the lava, and the pillar of white light folded in on itself, transforming into a single, blinding spear.
