The Nursery

After taking care of a few more smaller patrols of myvarg, we came to the nursery. It was a long chamber with a high ceiling. Dozens of egg clusters were scattered about. Four caregivers roamed around inspecting the eggs. One leaned over an egg and regurgitated over it. The egg glowed and the vomit was absorbed into the egg.

"Vesta, Alfvin, pull their attention." Runa ordered. The nearest two egg clusters exploded in fire. As the caregivers let out clipped howls, other myvarg started to crawl out of recesses in the walls. I could see two guardians, two hunters, and three tunnelers. There were less than what we had fought in the last chamber.

We entered into our fighting pattern that had been working thus far. Added to this fight, the caregivers would spit an acid-like substance at us. Runa and I couldn't intercept all the spit, leaving our mages to have to use Blasts of Air to redirect them or use their water motes to wash it off who it landed on.

As the fight progressed we were dealing more damage than receiving. With Verdandi's healing even the wounds we were taking were being removed. It was only a matter of time until we overtook them.

Then a loud howl came from behind us. It had the sound of a myvarg but didn't have the clipped nature to it. The sound caused the chill in my heart to deepen. Even the myvarg we were fighting pulled back at the sound.

"Holy shit, we have a problem." Njall yelled.

With the myvarg pulling back we had a chance to look behind us. A grey mist was rolling down the tunnel with a mutated myvarg coming towards us. The body was larger than any of the others, with patches of fur on a hardened shell. At its elbows they split into two forearms. Its face had an extra eye on its forehead and its mouth, while still having mandibles, also had a long tooth filled snout.

"Apocalypse mist." Verdandi had paled when she saw what was coming towards us. In my soul I also felt the mist was not natural but didn't have the context of what it was. This is what came off of apocalypse beast that caused animals and people to change into monsters.

"Follow me." Runa raised here mace high in the air. As she brought it down a purple energy burst forth. The myvarg around us howled in terror and started to flee and she led us further into the chamber.

"Circle up, ranged in the middle. Mages create a Wind Wall. Verdandi do what you can about the corruption." She said. A Wind Wall wouldn't hold back enemies or projectiles but would help keep the mist from us.

I was placed at the opposite end of Runa with Njall and Dagrun on my sides. As the mist reached us, it was pushed to the sides by the mages wind. What little did make it close to us was burned with a golden light from Verdandi. The mutated myvarg clashed with Runa as Kalfr and Ivarr aided her.

The mist started to fill the chamber and be absorbed by the eggs. As they started to tremble the other myvarg started to rush into the mist to protect them. Their forms began to twist and take on a warped appearance similar to the one that came with the mist. The eggs began to burst letting out mutated infants myvarg.

Without Runa's psychic spell to pull the myvarg to me, I was having trouble keeping their focus. The other two showed their skills but their wounds were adding up. With Verdandi focused on the mist she couldn't handle healing all of our wounds. The infant myvarg were becoming a nuisance, they were easy enough to kill but there were just so many of them. Our mages would normally be able to eradicate them en mass with their area spells, but also had to focus on the mist.

The shrill cry of a bird suddenly filled the chamber. I glanced back and saw Vesta holding up an orb with red and yellow swirling within. As she sent her mana into the orb the cry intensified. Flames leapt off the orb and took the form of birds. They dived into the myvarg burning through their ranks. The adults were wounded as the infants were burned to a crisp.

The orb then dimmed to black and she pulled it back into her Storage Ring. While the flames helped relieve the pressure of the monsters, she had let up on her Wind Barrier. Part of the mist came forward and made contact with Njall. He screamed in pain as his flesh burst with fungus. Verdandi pulled him back and started to heal the wound.

Vesta looked weak but put her Wind Barrier back in place. We had to shift our circle to make up for the loss of Njall. Without the infants the pressure on us was lessened but without Verdandi we had to deal with little wisps of mist coming towards us. When I saw some of it heading towards Dagrun, I pushed her to the side and concentrated my Osgar aura on the area that it touched.

Pain shot through my body and I felt my aura foundation tremble. My flesh, however, remained intact. What also surprised me was the golden glow that enveloped my arm where the mist had touched. It resembled the spiritual magic that Verdandi had been using to burn it away. More than that, from the part of the mist that had touched me, the mist was burning away to a golden shimmer.

It burned a decent amount near me before the shimmer disappeared. Not having to worry about the mist, I lunged toward the nearest myvarg with my aggressive stance. After pushing its claws to the side I sent a Moonlight Lighting Slash through its neck. It flailed on the ground as I regrouped with the others.

To my other side Ivarr was moving on a bad leg and while he had Runa to help with the myvarg, the mist was getting closer to him. My aura foundation had settled down, so I pushed forward into the closest bit of mist near him. The same pain racked my body and my aura foundation trembled more than before. As the mist burned away like last time, I found my shield arm to be heavier and harder to move. It might have been effective, but I doubted I'd be able to do it again without damaging myself. Ivarr gave me a surprised look as the mist burned away around us.

Shortly after that, Verdandi got Njall in a stable condition and started to take care of the mist again. As we killed the final mutated myvarg the mist started to dissipate. Once we were sure that it was safe Runa used the Communication Stone.

"Command, we just encountered apocalypse mist in the nursery. The nursery has been taken care of but we don't know if its spread." She said.

"Roger that, we haven't had any other reports of apocalypse mist. Do you need assistance?" A voice came from the stone.

"We are fine for the moment, but will need to start heading out." She replied.

"Good to hear. Ragna's team just entered the queen's chamber. You should be fine heading towards the exit." They said.

"Rest up. We'll make our way out as soon as you are recovered." She said.

Verdandi grabbed my arm and it felt like I was being stabbed by hundreds of needles as a golden glow surrounded my arm.

"Are you an idiot, diving into the mist like that?" She said.

"It didn't affect me like it did Njall." I replied.

"Maybe not physically but your spirit is a mess. Your aura is also damaged. If you didn't have such a powerful spirit, you'd be dead or a monster by now." She let go of my arm and scowled at me. "I've done what I can but you need to take it easy for the next few days."

After that she moved on to the others. Everyone, even Runa, had some wounds. Those in the middle had been hit by the caregivers spit, spots on their clothes had been burned away. Fulvia had a red mark on the side of her face and her hair on that side was burned short.

"Where did you get a Minor Phoenix Orb?" Alfvin asked Vesta.

"It had been a family heirloom. They gave it to me as a parting gift in case I ended up in a situation that I didn't see a way out of. It was a lot more draining than I thought it would be. It'll take months to recharge." Vesta was sitting on the ground leaning on her staff.

"You did wonderfully. We'd all be dead if it wasn't for you." Kalfr sat down next to her. He pulled her shoulder to lean against him and she was too tired to resist. I thought about saying something when Runa beat me to it.

"Kalfr, I want you and Dagrun to check the reeses around the chamber to make sure nothing is hiding." Runa said. It looked like he was about to say something but she gave him a harsh look. He begrudgingly got up and did as he was told.

I was about to take his place when she gave me an order. "Wilmaer, check out the corpses and harvest what you can. We'll be leaving as soon as we can." Her look towards me was more sympathetic and I had the feeling she was trying to avoid the two of us from arguing. Fulvia ended up taking his place for her to lean on.

Ivarr let me know he had some training in harvesting and the two of us went to work getting what we could from them. The apocalypse mist had messed up their anatomy, which made it more difficult to figure out what was what but it also gave us rarer finds.

"Thank you for stepping in when you did." Ivarr said.

"You're welcome." I said.

"Your spirit… I've never seen anyone outside the Bishop of Thurdinheim with such power. He'll probably want to talk to you after this is over." He said.

"I'm not interested in becoming a follower of the Light. I've always worshipped the Spirits." Though I wasn't that religious. The basic doctrine of the Spirits was that they preserved the natural order of the world with each one having their own nuances. They didn't require the same level of devotion that the church required.

"Something the church doesn't like people to know is that you don't have to be a believer to use spiritual powers. While I use a prayer to activate my Invocations, they aren't necessary. I could help train you if you'd like. You wouldn't have to become a believer." He said.

"Unfortunately I live in Torinheim, so that isn't feasible." I said.

"Understood. Whether it's a follower of the Church of the Holy Light or someone else, I think you need to get training in how to use spiritual magic. If you're this strong at your age, I can't imagine how strong you could become in the future. This world needs strong people." I could feel his sincerity. If I had to guess I'd say he joined the church because it gave him a chance to help others more than having a strong faith.

After we finished we rejoined the others. Not too long after that we received word that Ragna's team had killed the queen and were on their way out. When she felt we were rested enough, Runa started to lead the way towards the exit.