2990 Life from Death (Part 2)
"I can't let those fuckers escape. If they report my position, this will never end!"
***
Away from the Garden, Life Vision showed the presence of an unknown Life Force lingering in Zoreth's, Rutha's, and Ryka's life forces.
"Okay, have you memorized that?" The Shadow Dragon asked, receiving nods in reply. "Finally!"
The bite marks on her arm sizzled with a screech for a second before healing at a speed visible to the naked eye. Her flesh and armor fixed the damage in an instant, returning to their full power.
Everyone but Lith and Bytra looked at her in amazement.
"As I said, I'm an Eldritch." She answered their silent question. "I could have fed upon whatever the bats had left in my flesh and healed whenever I wanted. I kept the wound open for your sake since my body is part pure Chaos and makes the foreign energy signature much easier to spot."
She pointed at their open wounds that due to the mana flow and life force they contained almost cloaked the foreign substance to perfection.
Almost.
Now that the Awakened knew what to look for, they could see it clearly.
"Take a good look and imprint it in your memory before healing. That's the energy signature of our enemy." Xenagrosh said.
"How can you be sure?" Azhom raised what was left of her eyebrows in disbelief.
"Because the bats carried the smell of the shadow disciple and so did our wounds." Zoreth had brought a handful of ashes of the fallen undead with her.
"These are from the bats." She used air magic to split the grains based on their smell. "These are from something that was stuck to the bats."
The second kind of ashes looked identical to the first and had already lost any trace of energy signature.
"Whatever it was, it controlled the bats while they were alive and fueled them after turning them into undead. I know that because while I fed upon the bats, I also fed upon this thing. I have no clue what it is but I'm certain it was alive."
"I can vouch for that." Lith said. "The energy signature on your wounds is very faint but identical to that of our mark."
His words dispelled the few doubts left and opened lots of questions. The whole situation made no sense.
"Unless…" Ryka knelt in front of the ashes of the undead, dipping her middle and index fingers and bringing them to her tongue. "Yeah, this is undead already."
She spat and then did the same for the ashes of the unknown enemy.
"Shit, I was right. Our enemy is plant folk, no, a Fae!"
How she could know with certainty the taste of her own species was disturbing at best. Yet the ruthlessness of plant folk was well known and there was no time for moral considerations.
"This explains everything." Strider nodded. "Fae like Ryka can tap into the Garden and with that kind of power at their disposal, powering up lesser undead is child's play.
"To control the living, our enemy must have parasitic or symbiotic abilities. What kind of Fae can do that?"
"Do you want them listed in alphabetic order or based on their land of origin?" Rhuta sighed.
"Never mind." The Zouwu cursed their bad luck. "Still, how did he control the undead from a long distance and how did he find us?"
"Good question. Remind me to ask him before I kill him." Lith said.
***
After healing everyone's wounds, a second Chaos Steps brought them back to their departing point. Since the enemy seemed to know their position despite all their precautions, they kept the light on.
The Awakened kept their formation more spread out to allow for short-range spells and walked without the Hush zone, speeding up the pace.
They met several twists and the tunnels often branched into different directions but Xenagrosh's nose always found the right path. Whenever they encountered a corpse, no matter how little, they destroyed it from a safe distance.
'Watch out!' To further improve their reaction time, they also kept a mind link active at all times, but they used it only for emergencies, relying on words for normal communication.
Lith had seen with the Eyes something coming from below Zoreth, above Strider and Ryka, and from the side walls near Solus and Unanna. The mind link allowed him to pass the warning in time while also pointing out the source of the incoming threat.
Maergron's goal was to split the group or at least test their prowess since the cloaking devices made direct readings impossible.
Three tier five Raging Suns erupted from as many little holes under the Shadow Dragon's feet. They were not enchanted, the holes served as a focus for Maergron's mana and to condense the spell in nigh-solid pillars of violet flames.
At the same time, the ceiling turned into a thick wall that came down like a shutter, exploiting the pressure of the tons of soil above to gain the speed and momentum of a freight train. Last but not least, the humidity on the walls condensed into ice lances.
Each spell was meant to kill in case it hit its target or isolate them from the others in case of failure. The Ears allowed Maergron to not only have his spells ride the world energy of the Garden to their destination but also to borrow its power to exceed tier five magic.
"Oh, please." A slash of Sky Piercer severed the world energy from the mana, snuffing the Raging Suns like candles.
"Earth magic against a Titania? I guess our enemy knows our position but has no idea who we are." With her newfound deep violet core and the physical might of a Griffon, it took Ryka a single punch to shatter the stone wall.
What survived the impact she countered with an earth spell of her own. She spread her roots within the soil, adding her physical strength to her mana and making up for the gap in magical power.
Unanna unsheathed his six weapons, one for each of her hands, ready to intercept the ice projectiles before they hit him or the petite, weak woman.
Solus spread her arms open with her palms out, using Domination to take control of the ice spell and turn its energy against itself. Earth Vision allowed its user to perceive things from a distance but it was limited by the speed with which sound traveled through the rock.
There was a delay between the moment Maergron's enemies moved and when the resulting sound waves reached Maergron. A delay that made his willpower brittle and allowed Solus to hijack his spells while passing it for simple elemental mastery.
"Wow!" Unanna said in admiration. "We might have the same core, but you are the best mage I've ever met."
"Thanks." Solus replied. "But let's keep our guard up. Our array sensing spells detected nothing a second ago which means that our enemy is not limited to Necromantic spells to attack us from a great distance. It's like being surrounded by undetectable traps."
"Almost undetectable." Bytra and Strider said in unison while staring at Lith with a puzzled look on their faces.
