Book 4, chapter 8

The traveler guild's main teleportation hub in the city of Verdant was busy as usual, despite the early morning. Thousands of people, humans, arachnids, and Allevark came and went each day.

Occasionally spattered amongst the crowds were small groups of the stout lizard-like humanoids. Though it looked hectic, the teleportation hub was organized with guards and attendants.

Attendants collected the toll for arrivals and departures, while others made sure the travelers got on the correct teleport platform.

Everything was going smoothly until one of the taller platforms in the central plaza flashed, and screaming filled the guild hall.

Before anyone knew what was happening, the Drawkveer that had just arrived via the teleportation array started killing everyone on the raised platform.

They were long and sleek lupine creatures with wide snouts filled with rows of teeth and wicked claws that could rend metal.

What's worse, these creatures radiated clouds or miasma that made even the world river recoil. Unprepared for the attack, the guard, as well as the three people on the platform were set upon.

In seconds they were all dead or dying, being gutted, or having their necks crushed in those powerful jaws.

Panic filled the plaza, as people ran for their lives, the mass panic hindering the guard's ability to respond to the threat quickly.

By the time the officials were able to deactivate the arrays and block any further transport, over a hundred undead had already come through the transportation hub.

Not just the bestial Drawkveer, but something far more terrifying. Drenched in a cloak of miasma, a flesh golem appeared, the ten-foot-tall abomination letting out an ear-splitting screech.

It didn't attack like a mindless idiot but instead directed the lesser undead around it. Under the guidance of the flesh golem, the Terlashar leaped down into the crowd below.

It was a slaughter, as the Drawkveer worked together. Under the flesh golem's command, they tore the civilians and guards apart, their speed and strength enhanced to the peak of E grade by his skills.

With a mental command, some of the Drawkveer broke through the mass. They rushed out into the street, taking their rampage outside.

If nothing was done, hundreds would die. It was a fact that filled the flesh golem with some glee. His tamed beasts might be enough to secure the plaza and reactivate the teleportation arrays, allowing the others to follow.

If he did that, he would be rewarded immensely for his efforts. The lord commander praised bold action, and would often offer valuable treasures to people who showed initiative.

The flesh golem's excitement slowly faded as the defenders rallied. One of his pets was kicked so hard it flew across the courtyard, slamming into the wall with a loud crunching sound.

More of his pets died in the next few seconds, their mental links disappearing one after another.

They were falling like flies. His narrowed on a group of living cultivators that were advancing on him, mowing through his tamed beasts with unbridled ferocity.

The golem glanced back toward the inactive teleportation array. It had made a mistake coming here alone and now with no way to escape, it would surely die.

The flesh golem snorted. Death was only the beginning. If he was going to go down, he would take as many of the living with him as he could.

With a mental nudge, he urged his pets to flee into the city, to avoid strong opponents, and to kill as many as they could.

***A trilling alarm echoed across the city, startling Zee from her studies. She looked up from her book, out the second-floor window at the cloudy sky.

"What's that sound?" Bastion asked, sitting at a table, and eating a sandwich.

Zee tucked her book away inside her spatial storage, walking over to peer down into the street. People were running away, with looks of terror on their faces, some of them screaming in fright.

"I think the city is under attack," Zee said, her eyes flitting to a creature as it leaped on an Allevarks back. With brutal savagery, the creature tore into the woman's spine with its vicious teeth.

Another one crashed through a window across the street, holding an arachnid's thin hairy leg in its maw. She had never seen these types of monsters before, but that didn't really matter right now.

If left unchecked, these monsters would kill more innocent civilians.

"I'm going out to help, you coming?" Zee asked, glancing back at Bastion who was already headed towards the door.

"Of course, let's go find out what's going on," Bastion said, unhesitatingly heading into danger.

Knowing people were dying as they spoke, Zee didn't bother to take the stairs, phasing through the outer wall.

Her sword slipped soundlessly from its scabbard as she drew it, appearing in a puff of mist on the street.

She was right in the path of one of the wolf-like monsters. Blood dripped from its teeth and wickedly curved claws, its patchy fur caked with ichor and blood.

Noting her arrival, the monster growled, and unhesitatingly leaped in for the kill, going for her throat.

It was fairly small around waist height, but it moved incredibly fast. Her aura flared around her, crashing waves drowning the area.

The waves were ethereal like mist but carried an undeniable presence of ferocity. Stepping to one side, she lashed outward, her sword cutting a ruthless arc towards its side.

Infused with spirit echo, her sword cut through thick skin, muscle, and bone alike. The monster yowled in pain, staggering as its guts spilled out onto the stone.

Thick blue flames clung to the wound, filling the air with decaying fog. Spinning on her heels, Zee didn't hesitate, and three shards of metal broke off her sword.

Two pierced the monster's heart, while one embedded into its eye, piercing its brain. She didn't have time to celebrate the quick kill, quickly pulling her sword's shards back to her.

The second monster let out a loud howl, ignoring her as it gleefully pursued the civilians on the street running from it.

She cursed and ran after it. The damned thing was fast on the open street, outpacing her. Just before it reached its next victim, the monster staggered and tumbled, an arrow protruding from its lead leg.

It yelped loudly, scrambling to get back its feet. The monster didn't have time to recover its bearing before a second arrow pierced its back.

Following the trajectory of the arrows, Zee spotted Greg atop a nearby roof. He rained hail on the monster, riddling it with arrows with deadly accuracy.

By the time she caught up with it, the monster was already near death, pierced through the lungs and neck.

A ruthless swing ended its life, and the monster went still, an odd turquoise smoke leaking from its body. Whatever that was, it was foul, worse than the toxic smoke in the planar space and she wanted no part of it.

Covering her mouth she backed away, wary as the smoke spread outward. She looked around, spotting Bastion helping a man who was missing a leg.

Greg waved at her from up in his roof. "There is more over there," Greg shouted.

She cursed, turning towards one of those arachnid-type creatures. They looked terrified, trembling in fear. She could swear someone told her what that species was called, but for the life of her, she couldn't remember.

"What the hell was going on?" Zee asked, shaking off the unhelpful thoughts.

The spider-like creature rubbed its legs together, agitated. "I, I don't know. They just attacked us out of nowhere."

Realizing this person was too terrified to give her any real information, she vanished, reappearing next to Bastion down the street.

He had his belt tied tightly around a downed allevark's severed leg and even stuffed a peak F-grade healing pill into the man's mouth.

For someone who always griped about money, he didn't hesitate to use expensive pills to help the injured.

"Are you coming?" Zee asked, on edge as she heard screaming several streets over.

Bastion wiped his bloody hands on his cloak and stood. "This one should pull through. Let's go, it sounds pretty bad over there," Bastion replied.

She had to agree. They ran down the street, rounding several corners, before stumbling right into the midst of chaos.

Three cultivators, each around mid-E grade were currently holding back ten of the wolf-like creatures.

At the back of the group, a human raised his wooden staff, and shouted, "We need to pull back, there are too many Drawkveer,"

As he spoke, one of the lupine creatures rushed in from a side alley. The monster leaped over thirty feet, intent on catching the staff user off guard.

The man's eyes widen, as he noticed the threat too late to react in time.

As if he had always been there, Bastion appeared in a gust of wind. He reached up and for lack of a better term, caught the wolf with an open palm.

The several hundred-pound monster froze mid-air, all of its momentum robbed. In one fluid motion, Bastion returned all that kinetic energy in the form of a punch.

The punch looked soft, gentle even, and yet, all of that force was applied to the size of a fist. With a loud crunch, his fist crushed the monster's rib cage turning its vitals into mush.

With a meaty thud and a loud smack, the monster collapsed onto the cobbles twitching.

He seemed unfazed by Bastion's sudden appearance, rejoining the fight without hesitation. The staff user raised his hand, a ball of darkness flying out.

"Who are you guys?" The staff user asked.

"I'm Bastion, the pretty one is Zee and the archer on the roof over there is Greg,"

"I'm Beckman, that is Jen, and Terri. Mind helping out?" Beckman asked.

"Sure, but what are these things?" Bastion asked.

Beckman launched several blades of darkness that skewered one of the Drawkveer, as they spoke.

"They are Drawkveer, lesser undead, of the Terlashar hoards," Beckman replied.

Bastion kicked one of the creatures in the head, staggering it long enough for Zee to thrust her sword through its neck.

"Undead? How the hell are their undead in the city?" Bastion asked.

Beckman scowled his expression hard.

"They came through the teleporter about an hour ago. There was even a flesh golem beast tamer. Before it died it sent all of its pets to run wild in the street," Beckman said angrily.

"That's not good," Bastion replied.

Beckman furrowed his brows, and the street rumbled, as an explosion of darkness tore one of the Drawkveer apart.

"That is the understatement of the century. When these oversized mutts die, they spread miasma. We need to find a purifier before it gets out of hand," Beckman said.

Down the street, Zee appeared amidst five of the creatures, ethereal waves crashing around her. Her sword shattered into several dozen pieces, creating a hail of death around her.

It left the five monsters as nothing more than corpses riddled with holes that burned with an azure flame.

Beckman watched on, his mouth agape. "Just who is she?" He asked.

Bastion grinned. "I told you, she is the pretty one,"

Jen scowled back at them, "Stop your chit chat, we need to finish these ones off,"

"No need to get snappy, Greg and Zee have it in hand," Bastion replied, with surprising calm.

He was right. Seeing their defeat, the last two monsters tried to flee. A humanoid suit of armor appeared from mid-air slamming to the ground with a loud clang to block their paths.

Its massive glaive whooshed through the air, cleaving one of the startled monsters in half, hitting with so much force that its glaive buried itself into the stone.

Without Dern in control, the armor looked like a puppet, stilted, and awkward. Still, its strength was undeniable.

The last monster didn't even hesitate, fleeing down the street as fast as it could. Sadly for the monster its attempt at escape was futile. Several conjured arrows shot down from the roof, piercing the spine and neck of the last Drawkveer.

The monster collapsed, sliding several feet before it came to a stop, letting out a pitiful whimper. Heart racing, Zee glanced down at the ichor on her sword and cloak. It reeked of miasma, making her feel dirty, just from proximity.

It felt just like that turquoise mist that radiated from the corpses. That stuff just felt wrong, her instincts screaming at her to stay away.

Her lungs still burned from breathing some of that smoke in earlier, and she even felt the poison in her blood. She wasn't too worried though.

The heart of fire beat loudly in her chest, and she could already feel it burning away the toxic energy. Still, it wouldn't be good to allow more of that stuff inside her body.

Even if it was being cleansed by her bloodline talent, it was very unpleasant to breathe. One of the three cultivators, Jen if she wasn't mistaken rushed over to her.

"Your injured, let me look at that, I need to cleanse it before the rot settles in," Jen said.

Zee raised her left arm, revealing the gash on her bicep. The wound looked a bit sickly, but that taint was already fading, the heart of fire hard at work cleansing her body of the poison.

It hurt like hell, but it was shallow and should heal in a few hours considering she had eaten a Peak F-grade healing pill.

Jen cocked her head, noting the rot was quickly fading.

"You have a skill to purify? Can you help me cleanse the others?" Jen asked.

Zee shook her head. "Sorry, my skill only works on myself," Zee replied, seeing no reason to reveal that it was her bloodline doing the cleansing.

Wait a minute. She was forgetting something. Weren't rituals incredibly diverse? Surely there were rituals that could cleanse miasma.

"Actually, I might be able to help," Zee said, her words making Jen's tired face light up.

She withdrew the book the old geezer gave her and flipped through its pages. One of the rituals was designed specifically to cleanse harrow rot poison.

It was very specific, but rituals were flexible. With some know-how, she might be able to change the core function of the ritual.

She furrowed her brows as she examined the complex ritual diagram.

If her studies taught her anything it was that being specific in a ritual meant more complexity. She needed to remove the trigger focus of this ritual and add one to target miasma.

Jen stood by, watching her with a raised brow.

"You are proficient with rituals?" Jen asked curiously.

"Uhh, I wouldn't say that. I dabble," Zee said, walking over to a dead Drawkveer.

"What are you doing? Aren't you going to help me cleanse people," Jen asked hesitantly.

"Maybe. Let me test this on something that is already dead." Zee said.

After her first catastrophic tests when trying out her spatial affinity with Pikar, Zee was unwilling to take such risks again. She had no desire to watch someone explode or some other nonsense because she didn't understand the ritual.

Thin streamers of pure energy leaked from her aura, slowly forming odd shapes in the air. Some of the wisps of energy fell down to surround the dead Drawkveer on the ground.

It took a bit of focus, but it was far easier when she was allowed to follow the diagram written in the book. The last energy construct snapped into place, and she grinned as the ritual lit up.

It actually worked, and on the first try no less. All that practice was paying divot ends. Well, now for the final test, to see if it actually worked the way she intended.

With a whoosh, the ritual activated, and the energy in the air shuddered. Like it had a mind of its own it shot down into the Drawkveer at her feet, burrowing into its skin.

Like a flesh worm, the energy wriggled under the skin, until the ritual had been completely absorbed into the body.

The sight of the flesh rippling under fur was incredibly disturbing making her blanch. After a few seconds, the ritual finished whatever it was doing, leaving the Drawkveer with much paler skin than before.

"Huh, not sure if that worked or not," Zee muttered to herself.

Jen, who was still standing nearby, spoke and sounded a bit creeped out.

"Watching that ritual gave me the shivers. It looked like rot worms were burrowing under the Drawkveer skin," Jen said.

Zee scratched the back of her head sheepishly. "Maybe I shouldn't be messing with a ritual I don't understand," Zee replied, flushing.

Jen shrugged.

"I mean, it's not a complete waste. Look at the Drawkveer corpse, it's no longer leaking miasma. Your ritual must have cleansed the corruption from its body," Jen said excitedly

Zee glanced down at the mutt. Jen was right, it's corpse no longer radiated that vile smoke.

"Huh, well, that's pretty cool," Zee said.

"That's one way of putting it. Could you cleanse the other corpses while I see to the injured? We don't want the miasma to spread and get a foothold here," Jen said.

"Sure, that shouldn't be too hard," Zee said, conjuring Dern's suit of armor.

She saw no reason to perform the ritual over a dozen times. Why not just put them in a pile, and perform it once?

She wouldn't even need to risk inhaling that toxic smoke or getting that tainted blood on her, as her summoned companion could do all the heavy lifting.

Moving like a stilted puppet, Dern's suit of armor moved at her command, dragging all the bodies of the Drawkveer into one pile.

There were twelve bodies to perform the soul-sucking ritual on, but Zee didn't dare attempt that with a crowd watching.

That brokered a question. Did the undead even have a soul for the ritual to steal? She was betting they did. Aside from the stench of miasma, these Drawkveer seemed very similar to living creatures.

Maybe calling them undead was incorrect? These creatures were like wild animals, even running when they realized the fight was lost.

They did not appear to be mindless unfeeling unthinking creatures. With the corpses in a haphazard pile, she shook off the unhelpful thoughts.

Like clawing smoke, a toxic turquoise miasma leaked from their bodies, turning even the cobbles an unhealthy grey.

Zee stood a healthy distance from the pile of corpses, watching with interest as the miasma leeched the life from everything around it.

It was bizarre as if the cobbles were being drained of all life. That shouldn't even be possible. Rocks weren't even alive, so that didn't even make sense.

She closed her eyes, allowing the rainbow hues of the world river to come into view. And there it was. As she watched, the miasma was slowly polluting the vibrant world river around the bodies, tainting it with death.

It was like a sickness gradually spreading outward to infect the world river. Zee shuddered, opening her eyes. After seeing what was happening, Zee knew that cleansing these bodies was of utmost importance.

It would be very bad if the miasma spread. With that in mind, she reopened her book and started forming another ritual.

A few parts of the ritual would need to be modified to increase its size and the number of bodies it would cleanse. That was simple enough, just altering one of the energy constructs would do the trick.

The scale of power input required would jump tenfold due to the number of corpses, but even still it should be a minor tax on her energy reserves.

She understood the theory, but once again, she was uncertain of how the ritual would work in practice. Learning from a book was much different than having personal experience actually altering the rituals.

As long as she didn't mess with the core functions of the ritual, it shouldn't mess it up too much. Zee ignored the worried onlookers, focusing on forming the framework for the ritual.

Having formed this ritual once already, the process went a lot faster this time. She stood in the middle of the street, vulnerable while she devoted all of her focus on correctly forming the ritual.

Even with strangers watching, as well as more potential attackers, she didn't lose focus. Greg was on a roof nearby, and Bastion was close, the both of them watching her back.

Thin wisps of energy oozed from her body, forming complex energy constructs in the air and on the ground around both her and the bodies.

Following the highly detailed schematic In the book, she took her time, making sure the ritual didn't have any major flaws.

Minor flaws were not a huge deal, they would just decrease energy efficiency, or lessen the effect of the overall ritual by a small degree.

On the other hand, major flaws were to be avoided at all costs. According to the notes in the book, an implosion of the ritual was a very real possibility if she allowed too many minor flaws.

It didn't take a genius to realize how bad that would be. With a soft twang, the ritual snapped into place, layers of energy connected together, looking like an odd spiderweb in the air.

"Well, here goes nothing,"

Wind buffeted her face as the ritual activated, wrapping the pile of corpses up, and sinking under their skin in moments.

Like before, there was a distinctly unpleasant sight that looked as if maggots were crawling under the skin. Not wanting to stick around and witness the display again, she let her ritual do its thing.

There were still several people on the street that needed help, as well as a few who had died in the attack.

Jen, who seemed to be a healer of sorts, was already seeing to their wounds, while the other two in her group watched for danger.

It was a smart move, considering they were vulnerable while helping these people. Glancing around at the wounded and dead scattering the street, Zee furrowed her brow.

With the help of a few civilians, Jen was seeing an arachnid with a lost leg, doing the best she could to stem the bleeding.

Zee wasn't sure how much it would help, but she pulled four small vials of murky liquid from her spatial storage.

They were Peak F-grade concoctions, each worth a hefty sum of money. Jen looked up as Zee paused next to her, proffering the four vials.

The woman's eyes brighten as she recognized the contents of the vials.

"Thank you, these will be a lot of help," Jen said.

"No problem. I only wish there was more I could do to help," Zee said.

"This is more than enough," Jen replied.

With expert hands, Jen poured some of the healing concoction on the arachnid's wounded stump, before pouring the rest in its mouth.

The spider chittered as its wounds stopped bleeding, the skin healing so fast it was visible to the naked eye. Her attention was drawn away, toward Greg as he gestured down the street urgently.

"Sorry Jen, I best be going," Zee said, vanishing in a cloud of mist.

"Good luck," Jen called after her.