Chương 139: Heart of Undeath

Ryland dutifully looked over all the students once the effect of the Glyph of Exorcism had passed. He had already cast a Glyph of Tranquillity high over them all just in case someone got up and became unreasonably angry at everything that had transpired. In truth, anger was a very reasonable response after everything that had transpired. He certainly wouldn't blame any of the Rhellians for it. They had done nothing to deserve this.

"Are you alright?" Ryland asked the last student he had checked up on.

"Suthor, yes?" The Rhellian boy groaned as he got to his feet. Then he quickly backed off, eyes widening as he recognized the sub-Academ he had more or less assaulted during that guest lecture.

"I'm… alright, yes. Thank you." Ryland turned to the High Academ.

"There, you see? Everything is fine." The High Academ wasn't even looking at Ryland. Since the second set of tremors from the latest use of the Glyph of Exorcism hadn't faded yet, he was still looking around everywhere, his eyes glowing with a tiny Glyph on his irises.

"You truly think this is over?"

"Not at all. I merely stated that everything is fine. Which it is. And I intend to keep it that way." In truth, High Academ Zevo's recalcitrance about Ryland's intentions weren't baseless. Right after using the Glyph of Exorcism again, everything in the Crypts had turned insane. It wasn't an unforeseen event. Ryland had known this would happen. Especially since he had cast the Glyph more than once in quick succession, its spiritual expulsion effect compounding rapidly. There were a lot of consequences as a result.

More of the frazzled, amorphous half-manasouls would be wandering the halls of these Crypts. More of the Crypts' structures would become unstable, with more instances of possession becoming likely. But Ryland hadn't been lying. He was intent on ensuring that nothing truly harmful occurred to anyone within these Crypts. So, he began casting his magic again, slowly unchaining his manasoul to aid his efforts." [Omniscience]," he incanted first." [Realm Way]." The first spell was obviously there to let him see.

Enough of the Crypts' mana imprisoning was disrupted that Ryland could finally push his mana wherever he wanted and get a good look at the entirety of the underground catacombs. This included rifting wherever he wished as well. Which was where his second spell came in.

Essentially, since much of the mana it tended to carry away through its walls was now dislodged thanks to the power of successive Tier [19] Glyphs of Exorcism, Ryland could now guide that mana himself rather than letting the Crypts' material do it. Essentially, his second spell with the Soul Glyph of Rift was both bringing in the mana-conducting atmosphere of Realm 93 while also carving up space to create distinct paths for the mana to follow.

Just like what the Crypts was doing using its own structure as an enormous conduit for magic. The only difference, the only point of complication here, was that it wasn't just mana. There were manasouls involved as well. That was much harder for Ryland to carry along when compared to just mana. It wasn't that he couldn't do it. He had tampered with souls themselves. Paralimb was just another rift away. But messing with Fate might bring in even more complications than he wanted to handle right that moment.

Instead, he figured he might as well deal with the source of the tremors.

"The fragmented manasouls," High Academ Zevo said.

"They are no longer being directed away. They are no longer following the route that was created for them specifically."

"Indeed," Ryland said.

"I intend to fix that."

"How?" Zevo's eyes widened even as he finished asking the question.

"You don't mean…"

"Indeed. The partial manasouls are being drawn to the Dreadlich. Keeping it entombed and imprisoned is the real purpose of the Crypts. Well, that, and whatever else is stored within these dark and dreary walls. But for the moment, the Dreadlich is our only concern, so we'll handle that first."

"You broke the Crypts." Zevo's voice had gone thin, losing much of its earlier conviction and strength. Now he just appeared resigned.

"And now you want to break the very reason for the Crypts to exist."

"I intend to break nothing. Only a flawed system set up to benefit the one who put this whole thing in motion." If the High Academ found anything offensive at that, he didn't mention it. He was long past that point now. Ryland took one last look at everyone to ensure they were all alright. [Omniscience] hadn't revealed anyone else suffering anything like possession or any other trouble, so he was reassured that things hadn't deteriorated to any dangerous levels yet.

But he still didn't intend to leave things unfinished here, which was why he was about to leave.

"Sir," Viren said.

"You're not going to head to wherever the Dreadlich is, are you?" Ryland smiled at the boy.

"I am. Since I might be partially responsible in its resurgence, I suppose I ought to act and put a stop to it as well."

"Can I come?" Viren asked.

"If he's going, then so am I," Acrypha said.

"Someone needs to keep him from jumping into the Dreadlich's wide open maw."

"Hey! I'm not going to do anything stupid." Ryland sighed, but he had a smile on his face.

"I appreciate both your concern, but I believe I can handle this myself. But if you really want, you can have a small look. [Omniscience]." They both gasped as rifts appeared right on their eyes, giving them a first-hand view into the darkness that Ryland was about to head into. A darkness that was starting to grow more intense, churning into a frothing storm of pure inky black. Currents of constricting mana ran through the darkness like lightning.

It was at that moment that the tug of the manasouls started increasing. Rapidly. And it wasn't just the half-formed escapees from the Crypts' conduits. All the living manasouls resting within their original bodies felt it too. Even Ryland couldn't escape the sensation. He felt his manasoul threatening to force itself free from its binds, unleash the full weight of its power all thanks to that irrepressible tug from far beneath the Crypts.

The magic coursed and pulsed, alighting on every surface like spiderwebs catching everything. You might be reading a stolen copy. Visit Royal Road for the authentic version.

"It seems my time to act has come," Ryland said.

"Take care. This will only take a few moments. [Translocate]." A rift swallowed him, depositing him to his targeted location near the very nadir of the Crypts. At its lowest depth, where nothing should have existed. Except for this thing they called a Dreadlich. This entity that had the taste of a Calamity. Weakened, depowered, almost reduced to a Vestige. But a Calamity of some sort, nevertheless. Ryland didn't see anything at first. Everything was far too dark.

His Inscribed Glyph of Detection ensured he wasn't insensate completely, but that of course couldn't entirely replace visual stimuli. Which he was sorely lacking at the moment, so he fixed it. A Glyph of Dawn revealed the fresh horror he was supposed to be stopping. Malformed souls were being given form by a central core. Strands of tangible mana extended out from a pulsing, rotten heart that bled magic as much as blood, tangling manasouls of all shapes and sizes and stages of formation in its spidery grasp.

And just like the strands of mana holding those half-formed souls, the captive spirits were being granted tangible representations as well. They glowed blue, were ugly and misshapen, somewhere between flesh and pure energy. A state of being that Ryland couldn't fully let his brain comprehend just then. Yet more proof that he was dealing with a Calamity here. The unknowable nature of it was typical. But his arrival had changed things.

Was changing it constantly, as though whatever semblance of life was present in that "heart" and everything it had captured was responding to his presence. It recognized the threat he presented and was already preparing a counter. A tactic to survive. Ryland decided against waiting any further. He pointed one finger at the very bottom of the mess, at the half-flesh, half-magic core capturing the souls." [Translocate]," he incanted. It disappeared. But sadly not through the rift he had called in right on top of it.

No. Just before the crack in reality had formed with golden fractures, it had vanished. A quick turn of Ryland's head revealed that it was positioned right where he expected it to have reappeared—right next to one of those manasouls it had captured and was giving form to. Then it counterattacked. It was hard to accept that a being with no mouth could scream, yet a shriek tore through the air, a noise like metal tearing apart slicing through everything.

Darkness bloomed out from the heart with the speed of lightning, rapidly turning into a cloudy, jellyfish-like construct that covered up not only the core of this Dreadlich but also creating tendrils around every captured soul. Mana flickered through the entire mass like lightning in a thundercloud. Power surged off it in tremoring waves, the whole chamber beginning to shake. Ryland just cast another spell to keep it contained." [Dimensional Lock]." It was a small experiment.

One that provided unfortunate results, but did confirm his suspicions. With the modified Subglyphs that Ryland had attached to the spell, it should have kept the creature trapped, frozen in place, completely at its opponent's mercy. None of which happened. That cloud surrounding it wasn't fully physical matter that could be restricted to any singular space. In other words, Ryland would need to rely on other methods of stopping it.

The monster was already counterattacking. The tendrils gathered power, sizzling with Glyphs that flashed in the distance, before unleashing a torrent of lasering beams in Ryland's direction." [Eternal Bastion]," he incanted, protecting himself rather easily. The beams struck and blasted off him, hardly leaving a mark or scratch on his barricade.

Instead of being cowed by the display, the monster simply roared and made itself even more furious, its whole form glowing with the fulgurous power of an unleashed thunderstorm. Lightning-like blasts of concentrated mana didn't strike Ryland directly.

Instead, they crisscrossed against each other, crackling together to form bolts thicker than the tunnels of the Crypts, slamming down atop Ryland with the force of buildings fired from gargantuan cannons, exploding against him with detonations strong enough to blind and deafen giants. And yet, it still left no mark. Not against Ryland's impenetrable defence. He almost considered dodging instead of just floating there without really doing anything. That would at least consist of some exercise.

But he figured he'd rather just end things. The creature wasn't completely foolish. Having recognized that its ranged power was doing nothing against Ryland, it switched to direct confrontation. Magic sparked on and around it with a halo of frightful violence, so bright that it nearly lit up the whole underground chasm. Then it rammed in with even greater fury than that storm it had unleashed mere moments ago." [Everlife Spectre]," Ryland incanted.

Then he slapped his glowing skeletal arm to the right just as the monster reached him. It shrieked out again like thunder, shooting across the space to collide with the chamber wall. The collision was tremendous. Another flash that lit everything up, enough to show just how cavernous of a space Ryland had arrived in. He ignored the deafening crash of the monster striking the chamber, simply taking in how huge the space was. They were really far down. Then he turned back to his opponent." [Grasp of the Gigantes]."

A colossal rift cracked open, an arm big enough to cradle a castle punching out into reality to stab into the cloud of dust. There was another world-rending screech. The air itself shivered as the huge rocky arm grabbed the pseudo-Calamity, squeezing hard as fracturing power ran along the enormous arm and attempted to subdue the monster. It started escaping the next instant. Ryland wasn't surprised. He had already seen proof that its form wasn't properly tangible.

Even the addition of subduing magic wasn't enough to hold it. Hmm. It appeared he'd need to handle the matter much more directly. The monster was gathering more strength even as it escaped Ryland's clutches, its mana churning into a magical hurricane within its amorphous form. Then it fired an even worse storm than the last time, several of the bolts cracking against the rocky arm with enough force to start tearing it apart.

Ryland himself was unaffected by it again, but he wasn't paying attention to the attack's effect on him in the first place. Instead, he was counterattacking." [Rifted Wall]," he incanted. All across the barrier spell he had already erected, his rifts popped into place. Golden cracks tore open reality to swallow down the maelstrom of blitzing mana that the half-formed Calamity had unleashed. A moment later, it exploded.

The rifts across Ryland's barricade had connected to another spherical rift, this one centred within the Dreadlich's stormy form. All the power it had shot out to destroy Ryland now poured out of the second rift to detonate within the monster's own amorphous hide. Where it had been dark as a thundercloud before, now it glowed like an electrocuted sun. The screech was undeniably horrific, but like everything else, Ryland ignored it and cast [Translocate] once more.

"I have you now," Ryland said, appearing right next to the heart of the creature. He immediately clasped it in his spectral hand. Ryland could probably have managed it even with the Dreadlich's monstrous form around him. It wasn't as though it could have gotten past his barrier. But in this way, he could destroy it a lot more easily. After all, he was [Translocating] away again, Calamitous heart in tow. A very distant part of Ryland had to admit that it was a thing of beauty and wonder in a very abstract sense.

Mana writhed through it, alive with incandescent fury. Storming with the frenzy of irrepressible life. Mana so dense, it was in a tangible form that sought to leap right out of Ryland's grip. He was just about to crush it. To end this whole Dreadlich saga for good, putting a final stop to the need for the Crypts to draw away souls, to conduct mana, to be the prison that it was. A new presence stopped him. One that felt like an impression of the pseudo-Calamity.

As it drew closer, Ryland realized it was less of an impression and more like he was dealing with the impression. Instead, what approached him was the real thing. As though, he had been merely subduing a poor copy, and the original had finally decided to present itself in sheer annoyance." No!" came the screech from far above, rapidly nearing Ryland's location. Ryland wasn't at all surprised to see another dark cloud drawing nearer, though this one had something of the shape of a person to it.

The head of one at least. And that voice… It wasn't unfamiliar.

"How dare you!" the cloud screamed.

"You traitor! How dare you mess with the work of the Great Pious!"

"Great Pious, is it?" Ryland said.

"You," the man said. His form was coagulating into a proper figure, slowly becoming a real mage.

"You…"

"Me," Ryland said.

"Hmm. It seems things are a little more complex than I had originally imagined." And they were already complicated to begin with. He couldn't fully pierce through the veil of intentions and subterfuge that was wrapped around the entire situation, but something told him very squarely that there was a great deal going on, at levels he hadn't quite thought about yet. For if the Flourinus Order was present, in a circumstance such as this, then this whole business wasn't over.

Especially since, as Ryland's senses confirmed, there was a piece of him with Pious.