Book 4, chapter 21

A dense haze of smoke hung over the dark city of Verdant, the aftermath of the constant hammering of anti-aircraft defenses. The defenses ranged from towers with arrays that shot out condensed beams of light, to balls of fire that streaked up into the sky before exploding.

It was an effective method of downing the Terlashar ships, though not quite as good as the etched grenade launchers. The city's defensive arrays were a lot more destructive, though not near as long-ranged as the grenade launchers.

With their losses so far it seemed foolish for the undead to have their fleet of ships to enter above Verdant in range of the anti-air defenses, at least at first. The undead never attacked directly, probably in fear of antagonizing her grandpa, whose ship hovered high above the city.

Still, that didn't mean the Terlashar couldn't attack indirectly. With every ship, the city's defenses destroyed, some debris fell over the city, and most of those small chunks contained miasma. Initially, it seemed manageable, but now it was getting out of control.

The turquoise haze was a huge pain in the ass to get rid of, requiring complex arrays and hard-to-perform rituals to remove. Delta and several other D-grade cultivators were doing their best to stop the falling debris, but they couldn't stop everything.

Zee's efforts were much less flashy but were helpful in their own way. She had spent most of the day, and even into the night putting out fires and cleansing miasma. After a bit of experimentation, she was able to alter a ritual enough to douse the fires by extracting the air and suffocating them.

The miasma was a different problem, as it spread rapidly once it touched living material. Moving from one impact site to the next, she roamed the city finding more miasma to cleanse or fires to put out.

As it turned out, her methods were horribly inefficient. The city was too large, and the impact sites to widely spread for that method to be effective. Still, Zee was doing her best to cleanse the miasma or put out fires before they took hold. Doing it all by herself was simply impossible, but she was determined to help the best she could.

Under the dimly glowing stars above, miasma swirled, her ritual diagram drawing it in. The ritual glowed in the air around her, drawing the deathly energy away from the rotting remains of what used to be a two-story building. The energy gathered on a single focal point, creating a whirlpool above her sword.

The death spirit inside hummed excitedly, happily gobbling it all up. Like water flowing down a drain, the miasma disappeared into the gem embedded in the pommel of her sword. The gem used to be crystal clear, but now it was a faint turquoise, having absorbed miasma from over a dozen such rituals.

Biting her lip, Zee idly watched the familiar process.

"Are you sure it's a good idea to keep feeding the spirit in her sword?" Zee asked projecting her thoughts. In his armored form, Dern walked over and poked the blade of her sword with his comically small glaive.

"I am sure it will be fine, what could go wrong?" Dern asked.

"Ohh, I don't know. It could blow up, or turn on me, and turn me into an undead," Zee said, nervously.

"Now you are just being paranoid. Feeding the death spirit more miasma is a good idea. If we keep this up, who knows, your sword might evolve again," Dern said.

That made Zee perk up. "Evolve? Why didn't you say that before." Zee asked, her earlier nervousness replaced by excitement.

Dern snorted in her mind. "I knew you would see reason," Dern said.

Zee was going to reply, but a familiar figure hovered down, her usual golden glow dim. Unlike when they met earlier that day, Delta looked exhausted, her shoulders slumped with fatigue.

"Are you two about done? We need you in the stacks to help contain and remove some miasma," Delta said, her tail swishing lazily behind her.

"We just got finished. Aren't the stacks a little too far for us? Surely there are groups who are closer that can deal with it," Zee asked, noting Delta's singed robes.

Delta grimaced.

"There are closer groups, but most of them are occupied. The miasma in the stacks has gone unchecked for hours. There are several recently turned undead roaming about," Delta replied.

"Fanfreaking tastic," Zee cursed under her breath. She hefted her sword from the ground and sheathed it at her hip. "Why has no one dealt with it?" Zee asked.

"We are short-staffed," Delta replied with a shrug. 

"Do you have anyone who can help me?" Zee asked.

"I will see if I can find you some help, but no promises," Delta said, before hovering up and disappearing over the rooftops.

Zee let out an exhausted sigh. She rather envied that woman's ability to fly around, it would be incredibly convenient right now. Sadly Zee was only an Early E grade cultivator, lacking a skill that offered flight.

For now, she was stuck with the good old-fashioned method of using her wayward walk to teleport from rooftop to rooftop. It was still a hundred times faster than mortals who had to walk everywhere, but it felt incredibly slow compared to the ability to fly around.

Zee supposed she could open a gate, but that was like jumping in front of a lizard-drawn cart and hoping she didn't get run over. Her grandpa was a specialist when it came to the spatial affinity, but they hadn't had enough time lately for him to give pointers.

Well, and she hadn't asked. After almost freezing to death in the tundra, then almost getting eaten in the Null, Zee was wary of using her spatial affinity again.

Besides, it's not like it would take all that long to reach the stacks with her movement skill. Her energy pool was quite large now that she was early E grade, and had opened four of her inner gates.

It didn't mean she could use her movement skill endlessly, but she could sustain a rapid pace for quite a while. The towering buildings of the stacks came into view after nearly fifteen minutes.

In the night, the fire in the stacks was like a beacon, leading her right to it. Anyone who saw that fire would immediately notice something was horribly wrong with it. The vibrant orange and red glow was nowhere to be seen, as the flames burned with a pale turquoise, releasing clouds of ash that carried the stench of death.

Toxic clouds drifted on the wind, filling the streets for blocks around the burning buildings. The toxic smoke was like a thick fog, swallowing up several buildings in a growing circle.

As she watched, one of the buildings in the haze leaned to one side and collapsed. It had only been four or five hours, and these buildings had already rotted enough to fall over.

And to top it all off, there were at least four lesser undead shambling amidst the smoke. They didn't look that tough, but Zee couldn't blame the people in the stacks for refusing to enter that malignant fog and kill them. Even if the undead looked like walking corpses, they could probably catch and kill mortals.

As she watched, one of them tripped over a rock, falling on its face for no reason. Okay, maybe these lesser undead were harmless. Well, might as well clean them all up before she started on the cleansing ritual. They might not be much of a threat, but it would be foolish to let them roam around while she was performing the ritual.

A fist-sized suit of silver and black armor flew through the air, arcing into the haze. Dern swelled in size, he leaned down mid-air and swung that massive glaive in a viscous hack. The shambling undead was cut clean in half from head to crotch, both halves splatting to either side.

Having bisected his target, Dern landed on the street with a deafening crash of metal on stone, tumbling head over heels. "What the hell was that? You throw worse than a drunk lizard," Dern said, his voice projected to her mind.

Zee appeared beside him in a puff of blue mist as he scrambled back to his feet.

"Don't be so grumpy, look, now all the undead are coming to us," Zee said, pointing her sword at three of the creatures.

They rushed towards her, scrambling over a recently collapsed and decayed building. One of them, which was an Allevark before it was converted fell through the decayed roof, disappearing from sight. The other, a spider-like arachnid kept on shambling towards her, taking its dear sweet time.

Zee didn't bother using a skill, simply hacking at the bug-like head of the lesser undead. It didn't even bother to try blocking or even dodging. It died in a splash of ichor, twitching on the ground. With a flick of her wrist, the corpse disappeared into her spare spatial storage, head and all.

The corpse wasn't worth anything, but she could still use it for Dern's soul-sucking ritual. Using that highly incriminating ritual here, out in the open was out of the question.

Zee took a deep breath, her lungs protesting as she inhaled the toxic air. To most people, inhaling miasma was a good way to poison yourself, and become one of these idiotic undead. The heart of fire beat in her chest and the malignant feeling in her chest disappeared as her bloodline cleansed the poison from her body.

"Well, you have fun with the ritual, I am going to clean up the rest of the undead," Dern said, his armored boots clanking as he walked passed her.

Zee frowned but didn't object. After a few seconds of consideration, she decided to just roll with it, dealing with this lesser undead was simply a waste of time. If only her team was here to help, then she could solely focus on her rituals. She wasn't sure where they were, but they were probably helping somehow.

Sadly, all she had had the moment was Dern. Ignoring the rest of the shambling dead, Zee moved deeper into the cloud of miasma, looking for a good spot to set up her ritual. The radius for her ritual wasn't very wide, so she might need to perform the ritual several times to completely rid these buildings of miasma.

Even amidst the dark haze, it didn't take long to find the center of this poisonous cloud. It was smack dead in the center of a person-sized crater with a chunk of debris in the middle.

She climbed down into the crater and stabbed her sword into the chunk of debris. It might have been made of some metal alloy, but that was no problem for her sword shrouded in spirit echo.

Expanding her aura, Zee let wisps of energy leak out. A small, seemingly simple leather book hovered in front of her, a ritual diagram scrawled across its pages.  Even after having performed this particular ritual a dozen times, she still needed the book.

The book twitched, bobbing in the air, making it difficult to see the ritual on the pages.

"If you keep moving, you are going right back in the satchel," Zee threatened, struggling to keep her focus.

The book twitched in annoyance, settling down nonetheless. With that issue solved for the moment, she focused back on the ritual, pushing it outward, expanding the ritual's diameter. It was pretty simple, though incredibly draining. 

Rituals usually held one energy construct that regulated their size, and one for shape. To expand it beyond its intended size, she simply needed to change the size of the energy constructs that regulated the size of the ritual.

It sounded easy enough, though once the ritual exceeded a certain limit, a second, or even third control construct would need to be created.

Tar had tried to explain why, but the explanation went right over her head. He said something about energy density, too much stress on the framework, and inefficiencies in the ritual diagram. 

Zee shook the distracting thoughts from her mind, adding a third, and then fourth control construct to the ritual, expanding its radius to nearly two blocks.

With so much of her energy flowing through it, the ritual trembled ominously. Not quite done, Zee added a fifth control construct and tried to expand the diagram again. The ritual expanded a few meters wider in every direction, before starting to shake again.

She was tempted to expand it further, but this was already pushing it. This was the largest scale ritual she had formed by at least double. If she kept going and the ritual failed, she would receive a backlash that might kill her. Deciding it was good enough, she sealed the framework in place. The ritual diagram snapped taught, and she gasped, collapsing to her hands and knees.

She gritted her teeth as the ritual drained her energy reserves. It felt like she was a lemon, and the ritual was squeezing every drop of liquid from her body. It was a very unpleasant sensation, one she should have expected considering Tar's warnings.

Her head throbbed, and her vision blurred, as her energy reserves fell at an alarming rate. Thankfully she hadn't forgotten to implement a failsafe into the ritual diagram. The ritual stopped the draw of energy, just short of making her pass out.

Zee gasped, her arms shaking, as she took deep calming breaths.

"That was too close," Zee said, through labored breaths.

Nearby a dense vortex of miasma formed over her sword, funneling down into its pommel. Well, at least the death spirit was happy, greedily gobbling up all that energy. 

Dern's armored boots crunched on the gravel-covered stone as he walked over.

"You never learn do you," Dern asked, his mental voice disapproving. 

"What? it worked, didn't it? I got all of the miasma in one ritual," Zee retorted, feeling a bit queasy.

"Yes, but what if the failsafe didn't work? Or what if you accidentally made yourself the focal point for the ritual?" Dern asked.

"I know, I know, I was careful," Zee replied, trying to stand.

She made it halfway, before collapsing back in her face in the dirt. 

Dern snorted. "Careful my ass, you can't even stand."

Zee groaned," Are you going to just stand there gloating or are you going to pick me up?" Zee said, laying face first on the street.

Dern hefted her none too gently onto his armored shoulder like a sack of wheat. 

"Well, this isn't very dignified," Zee said, with a grimace. 

"Maybe you should think about that next time before you do something stupid," Dern retorted, his uneven gate making for an unpleasant ride. His spiked pauldron didn't help either, the spikes digging uncomfortably into her side.

He leaned down to pick up her sword, "Hey, be gentle," Zee admonished, wincing as the motion of bending over forced a shoulder spike to dig into her collarbone. 

"Oh stop being a baby, this is your undue punishment," Dern said his tone amused. 

"You are the worst," Zee said with feigned outrage.

Dern sent her a mental grin," I am glad you like my services because Yukna's shop is about an hour away by foot," Dern said.

Zee groaned," Just leave me behind, let the undead take me," Zee said. 

Dern laughed, the sound almost manic. As if to put salt in the wound, a small leather-bound booked bobbed after them, seeming amused at her plight. 

Thankfully, Zee was spared from an hourlong trek through the city riding on Dern's spiky shoulder. Not because Dern let her off easy, no she simply didn't have the energy to maintain his larger form for that long.

She was only able to keep him going for all of five minutes after the ritual before he had to shrink back to his much smaller, and less costly size. 

He set her down in a dark, dank alley, which smelled of refuse, piled high with trash. Cultivating in such an unpleasant environment was a chore, but she managed, spending the next hour or two recovering some of her energy reserves. 

She still felt awful, her legs wobbly. That ritual had really messed her up.  It appeared that two hours was not enough, she needed proper rest to recover. 

Having no other choice, considering it was the dead of night, Dern expanded his size again, and she was back to being a grumpy sack of potatoes.

They were nearly out of the stacks into the more affluent areas of the city when Delta found them. Looking as tired as Zee felt, the scary lady with the war axe settled onto the street in front of them. 

"Are you alright?" Delta asked, her expression worried. 

Zee looked up from where she lay atop Dern's shoulder. "I have been better. How are you doing, you look like shit," Zee said.

Delta actually smiled, though it seemed forced.

"I could say the same about you. What happened, why are you being carried," Delta asked.

"Nothing to worry about, I am just taking a small break, I will be back on my feet in no time," Zee said.

Dern jostled her as he shifted," She over-taxed herself, and can't walk right now," Dern said helpfully.

"Is that true?" Delta asked, not the least bit startled Dern could talk mind to mind. 

"Yes, but all that miasma is gone, so I would say it was worth it," Zee replied, her tone defensive. 

Delta let out a tired sigh. 

"Just what I needed, more problems. How long till she recovers," Delta asked her question directed at Dern.

"Hard to say, she overtaxed her energy channels," Dern replied.

Delta grimaced," Damnit, you are the fifth ritual specialist to overtax yourself today, if this keeps happening we are going to be screwed," Delta said unhappily.

Zee perked back up on Dern's shoulder," Wait, others have the same problem?"

Delta ran a paw down her catlike face. "Yes, performing so many rituals in one day is not healthy. What a nightmare, we need more people, and we just don't have them," Delta said.