Tale of Eldramir

As Ezekiel was being escorted from the Cruor’s Desolate territory, the Tillsmont expedition had managed to make way and meet up with a second expedition on their way to the base of the Sanafalls expedition. Luckily, there was little to no fuss from the second expedition when news was properly provided. It seemed as though all the expeditions had been having a hell of a hard time figuring out how to get past the various Legendary Spirits that were blocking their path.

There was one incident, where one of the Adepts suggested that the expeditions team up to take out the Legendary Spirits blocking their way. They had the numbers now. With four Legendary Hunters and two Grand Scholars, it would be child’s play to get past any individual Spirits on their way to the Temple of the Void.

This suggestion was immediately shot down, as they didn’t wish to kill the Spirits that were undoubtedly a part of the defenses against the Cruor on the island. There was a reason that the Guild Leaders present were attempting diplomacy first. Worse yet, killing one of the Legendary Spirits might cause the rest to team up to act against all the expeditions, not just theirs.

Unfortunately, even though the expedition was quick to pack up and leave, it still took some time to prepare to bring all their forces into retreat. Worse yet, the Sanafalls expedition was still some distance away. Overall, it took quite some time to finally make land at the main base of the Sanafalls expedition.

Not even the artificial dock that allowed the larger ships to disembark their passengers was spared. Fiana, George, Nina, Martin, and Sasha, who was brought along but would ultimately stay on the ship with the other Apprentices, were somewhat devastated to see the once well put together shelters of the base were now nothing more than broken mounds of dirt and stone.

Even the auxiliary areas were destroyed. The cultivation areas where food was being grown were nothing more than torn up craters. Storage areas and research stations were broken and shattered. The command center was even worse off, and there were no signs of life to be seen anywhere.

“By the Ancients...” One of the Hunters of the other expeditions muttered as he saw the devastation to the Sanafalls expedition.

“I know we already accepted your words, but to see it turn out to actually be true...” Marwyl said as he saw the remains of the base camp. “But I have to ask, where are their boats?”

That was probably the strangest thing at the moment. Beyond the destroyed buildings, there were no ships anywhere in sight. Nothing from the Sanafalls expedition, nor anything unknown, that might’ve been from the Cult of Light.

Members from all the ships of both expeditions made their way to the shore in rowboats. Including the members of the Sanafalls expedition, not including Sasha who was too weak to participate at this time. They were hoping to find some clues with the rest.

“Perhaps they decided to move to a different area when the Sanafalls expedition holed up in their Ruins?” Yorn said as he stepped onto the ground. He and his avian Spirit began wandering around through the broken base.

Several more Hunters joined him on land, walking around to see if there were any clues in the broken base. However, something strange happened with the Adept Cavern Mages that made their way along the shore.

“OY! We got something underground! Seems like tunnels!” One of the Hunters called out.

For a moment, nobody said anything, confused by the strange and out of place geological features. However, after giving it a thought, the members of the Sanafalls expedition turned pale.

“Scholar Fiana, what’s-” Marwyl began speaking, but was cut off from Fiana’s frantic scream.

“EVERYBODY BACK ON THE SHIPS!!! WE NEED TO GET AWAY FROM SHORE!!!” Without bothering to wait around, Fiana and the rest of the members of the Sanafalls team immediately made their way back to the water, not even bothering to wait for the rest as they retreated.

Now, many of the Hunters were confident in their abilities when it came to being able to do battle with a variety of threats. Be it Spirits, Cruor, or enemy Hunters and Mages, Hunters belonging to a Guild were well trained, and more than capable of facing threats at their own level. In large numbers, they sometimes managed to survive an assault from a higher Tier. If the element of surprise was with them, they may even deal a lethal blow before having to run away.

Yet not a single one of them was willing to sit around and wait, when an Adept Scholar who knew the lay of the land that they were in told them to run away as fast as possible.

Those that could, took to the air, or simply made way to the water with their Spirits carrying them along. Others started pushing off the shore in rowboats as soon as possible. Yet many of them had spread out, and while they heard Fiana’s scream, it still took them a few seconds before they got to the boats. Seconds that nearly cost them their lives.

Mounds of sand and stone started trembling, and as the last of the boats started making its way into the water, countless worms of sizes varying from smaller than a human to bigger than the ships out in deeper waters broke through the ground.

A horrifying cacophony of shrill shrieks echoed across the water as the Death Worms that lined the beach moved to attack. Amongst them were two Legendary worms that started making their way into the water, quickly moving forward and nearly reaching the closest rowboat.

A spear of fire and tendrils of shadows quickly pierced the sides of one of the worms, while the water around the other froze and turned into icicles that also cut through its flesh. The Guild leader from the other expedition followed this by sending a wave that sent all the worms in the water rolling back to the shore. Seeing the powerful numbers that were blocking them from their prey, the Death Worms returned to the shore, burrowing beneath the sand once more.

As the rowboats made it back to the larger ships at sea, the members of the Sanafalls expedition were immediately brought forth for questioning. Even Sasha, who had been brought over from another ship. Forced to stand at attention in front of the Legendary Guild Leaders and Grand Scholars, all five were incredibly nervous. None of the Legendary Mages in front of them looked happy. Even Marwyl, who had shown himself to be incredibly supportive of their venture to wipe out the Cult looked upset.

“I thought you said that the Death Worms weren’t anywhere near your primary camp. That the remained in their nest, and so long as you didn’t go near it they didn’t make any attacks.” Marwyl’s voice was calm, but also held a restrained fury. Had they reacted a moment later, then several Hunters would’ve died. Eaten by a Legendary being they were told was not a threat.

“I swear, by the Ancients and upon my soul itself, when we were operating out of the base we stayed well away from their nest, and they never once strayed outside it. There was some worry that the Worms inside the city might be an issue, but nothing about the Worms that were outside.” Fiana said in a rush.

“If anything, it might’ve been the Cult that disturbed the nest. No one in our expedition actually died when we faced them. If the cultists died in the Worm’s nest, then they might’ve gotten a taste of the Death of humans.” George followed up.

Marwyl closed his eyes in thought, while the other Legendaries pondered Fiana’s words. Given that Death Worms were Spirits of Death, they would indeed flourish by bringing death to flora and fauna. Spirits would really give off Death mana when they perished, as they were composed of their own elemental mana that was condensed into an instinctively created animal form upon their formation. But a number of humans dying and being consumed by the Death Worms might just whet their appetites enough to leave their nest.

“Given our lack of a Legendary Cavern Mage at this time, we won’t be able to make landfall so long as those things are there to sneak up on us. We’ll have to make our way further down the coast, well outside their territory. Perhaps we’ll have better luck making our way inland, to the caldera, and then moving back around.” Yorn voiced to the group. It was not a bad plan, all things considered.

“No objections? Marwyl asked his peers. No one seemed to disagree with the plan. “Then that’s what we’ll do. If we can find the cultist’s ships, then we’ll take them out on the way. Open the sails. We need to get moving.”

With that said, the Legendary Scholars and Hunters made their way back to their personal ships. As sails were unfurled, the ships began to move once again. Fiana glared at the coast, hating the fact that they were once again going to be delayed. She could only hope that the Cult was having as bad a time as they were right now.

While the two expeditions that had arrived to reinforce the Sanafalls team were dealing with the Death Worms, the Cult of Light were dealing with their own issues. Specifically, their lack of progress in getting their team to the top of the Spiral Path formation.

It had taken them days to wait out the storm and get far enough inland, while still having to deal with assault by the Death Worms. Ultimately, they managed to get their forces past the rim of the caldera. It seemed like the Death Worms were also not able to pass the rim of the Caldera. Likely because it was reinforced by the Legendary Spirits that had formed the Caldera over the centuries in times past.

Currently, the leaders of the Cult were gathered in a makeshift tent shelter as the rest of the Cult worked on setting up a proper base that they could efficiently defend.

“Why are we still waiting? We should be making our way to the top of the bluffs by now!” Gwen exclaimed. She was covered in additional scars, having suffered from a direct attack from the Death Worms as they made an attack on the Cult while they were moving. “The skies are clear; we should be assaulting the damn Ruins already!”

“We need to set up a proper base of operations in case there are even more problems that will be popping up later on.” Meryn explained as they once again gathered to discuss their plans.

“Then why is Francis not here!?” Gwen asked. Only Gwen, Kameira, and Meryn were currently within the boundaries of their still developing base. Most of the structures meant to sustain them were developed, but since they were starting from scratch it took longer than it had to set up within the remnants of the Sanafalls expedition bases.

“He’s scouting, since he’s the most efficient and powerful flier amongst the Followers.” Meryn stated.

Off to the side, Kameira sat mulishly as she and the rest of the Followers of Radiance had run out of alcohol. So, she was forced to deal with the current issues whilst sober. Something that she hated more than anything at the moment. She’d much rather be out and about, scouting like Francis was.

“The moment he gets back, we can begin-” Meryn found himself cut off as the entire island shook from something happening in the distance.

As the Legendary Hunters in the tent tried to stay upright, Kameira failed and fell to the ground in a heap, as the tent fell down around them. Gwen and Meryn got out with their Spirits, but Kameira was stuck under the collapsing frame and sheets that made up their temporary command center.

Several seconds passed before the shaking stopped. When it did, many of the structures that were being built were now toppled. Hunters and Spirits were moaning in pain as they found themselves with rubble on top of them. Those that hadn’t been hurt moved to get the injured people out and over to what remained of the medical tent.

A loud and thunderous boom reverberated through the camp. Bright light temporarily blinded everyone who was looking in the direction of the command tent as a bolt of lightning shot upwards. Kameira, who had gotten stuck in the collapsed tent, had a snarl on her face as blood ran down her forehead from where a wooden beam struck her while she was surprised.

“What the hell was that!?” She screamed at Meryn and Gwen.

“I don’t know, now calm down and get your head treated. I don’t need you incapacitated due to a concussion when we begin our assault.” Meryn yelled back. Kameira just growled at him but seeing him and Gwen preparing their mana in case Kameira attacked made her back off. Instead, she let out a howl of rage as she stomped her way over to the medical area.

Turning away from the tantrum throwing Legendary, Gwen threw a questioning look to Meryn.

“You know that that was, don’t you.” She said quietly.

“Not for certain, but we need to move faster. The moment Francis returns, so long as he doesn’t believe that a storm will pass in the next day or so, we bring all our forces to the top of the bluffs. We need to get into that Ruin as soon as possible.” Meryn said.

Gwen smiled at Meryn’s words. She was finally getting what she wanted. But there was still a hint of concern nagging at the back of her mind. A part of her just needed to know what that earthquake came from.

“While I’m overjoyed that we’ll, hopefully, be moving out quickly, I still feel I need to know what that was.” Gwen said.

Meryn took a moment before he replied. Turning to look Gwen straight in the eye, his voice wavered as he replied.

“I think it might’ve been something Mythical.” He said with his face set in an emotionless glare. “I only pray that I am wrong, but from what we know of the island, there is no reason for any naturally occurring earthquakes. Not according to the knowledge that we have of such phenomena.”

Gwen looked shocked for a moment. Before her face took on an incredulous look. She couldn’t believe what Meryn was saying. No; she didn’t want to believe what Meryn was saying.

“You’re joking... You’re joking!” She exclaimed. “That’s not possible! All the Mythical beings are accounted for. Even this far from the Continent we would know if a Spirit broke through to the Mythic Tier!”

“That depends on how old it is.” Meryn said in a deadpan voice. Gwen fell silent at that.

“It couldn’t have just been several Cavern Spirits working in tandem?” Gwen asked in a hopeful plea. “We know that the caldera isn’t natural. Perhaps the Spirits on the island are... making renovations?”

They both knew that Gwen was grasping at straws. The expanse of the shake they just experienced was also something that was too widespread to have been caused by even a large grouping of Cavern Spirits. Worse yet, since there were no Spirits attacking them right now, it meant that the Spirit that caused it was nowhere near them right now, and even Legendary Spirits had a range limit that would put them close enough to sense.

“We need Francis to get back as soon as possible.” Gwen said. “I’m going to help with the reconstruction as best I can. We can discuss plans later, but we need to move our timetable up. Even if we need to risk a storm. We need to get that gateway open.”

She immediately ran off to lend a hand to the recovery efforts, even though her magic wasn’t useful for these types of situations.

Meryn simply nodded. He didn’t like that they couldn’t proceed safely, as they had already lost a large number of people, but they didn’t have any choice at this point. Placing a hand on his Void Pouch, he caressed it carefully as he thought about the special item that he still had on him. It was something that he’d been working on ever since they’d had to evacuate their first base.

It was something he’d learned how to make when he’d found out that he was being sent to the Archipelago. Just in case, but he’d hoped that he’d never have to make it, let alone use it. It was likely that Francis and Gwen weren’t even aware that he had it. Kameira certainly didn’t know, not she’d even know what it was. However, he could feel it in his gut. He was going to have to use it sometime before they left the island. Sometime soon, because they were officially running on borrowed time.

Deep within the hidden Ruins beneath the Bluffs, the trapped Sanafalls expedition members were currently in trouble. Even with the efforts made to ensure that they had ample supplies to last for as long as necessary, the attacks from the Death Worms seemed to be less consistent to what they had become used to. Worse yet, it seemed like there were more Legendary Death Worms that they had expected.

Hit and run tactics had suddenly become part of their hunting strategies as well. More than a few groups suffered great losses as the Worms made lethal attacks and immediately ran away. They also started ignoring the Spirits that were with the Hunters, only going after the human Mages.

“Things are not going well for us.” Carrian said as he dismissed another Hunter that had appeared to give a report. “It seems like we’ll need to pull back and cease all scouting missions for the time being. We just don’t have the means of continuing at this point.”

“At least we managed to open and clear out that hidden passage. It’s a shame that it didn’t lead out of the Ruins, but at least we managed to kill another one of those damned Legendary Worms.” Scarlet muttered angrily.

“Indeed. But now we have to deal with the worms resting in front of the only exit we managed to find.” Carrian said in return.

One of the recent scouting missions had managed to find a section of the wall on the caldera side of the Ruins that was covered in rubble. It seemed like something had happened to collapse the passageway leading to a potential entrance to the Ruins that they could leave from. But due to the collapse, they would have to spend time digging to get out.

Time they couldn’t afford when they were constantly being attacked by Death Worms. The attacks ended up getting so bad, and the Worms so constant, that they’d had to temporarily abandon any attempts to get out that way.

“We also don’t know if the Cult is even here at this point. For all we know, they didn’t find the Spiral Paths formation, and moved on to a different area of the island.” Scarlet gripped. She had started becoming more and more frustrated at their situation, and the fact that they had lost so many more people recently was getting to her.

Carrian had once again taken command after Scarlet’s mandatory break had been completed. Scarlet, who was once again injured, looked frustrated at the situation, but understood where Carrian was coming from. While Kylie looked somewhat relieved at the decision. She had been wary of sending teams out ever since the first attack on the carrier teams bringing food from the farming area took place.

“We do know that something has changed. Else the Death Worms wouldn’t be showing the tactics that they have been.” Carrian said. Scarlet and Kylie both grimaced at that.

It seemed like the Death Worms were growing smarter, as they had immediately taken out a mixed team of Hunters and Scholars with a dozen members in it. A Legendary Death Worm was the culprit, and there wasn’t a single survivor from the ordeal. The only reason they knew what had happened was because Kylie went to investigate with a full support team of Adepts.

Unfortunately, while she had the upper hand in the battle, something had changed, and the Worms were no longer as territorial as before. Instead of staying and fighting to defend its home, the Worm decided to run as soon as it started suffering injuries.

Ever since then, at least one of the Legendaries was relegated to transporting food back and forth from the farms. Of course, that likely wouldn’t continue for much longer either, as the farmlands had been totaled by the Death Worms. Repairs were attempted, and they managed to get a fair bit of food ready one last time. But with the amount that the Mages had to eat when recovering from the effects of Life Magic, the little increase in food was too little to be sustainable.

Worse yet, it seemed like most of the Hunters and Scholars were now out of their preserved rations. Which wasn’t helped by the fact that many scouts that were lost in the beginning had lost their rations and supplies when they died. A policy ended up being put in place that no rations were permitted to leave the camp when going on scouting missions.

Before, they’d have semi-regular reinforcements and resupplies to get established. Then they’d begin cultivating the land for their use once they established a safe area to set up their base. This meant that a lot of the Hunters were only prepared to survive for a relatively short time without cultivating their own food sources. Something that was no longer an option.

“It’s been a few weeks at this point, like Scarlet mentioned. It’s possible that the other expeditions have caught word of our situation. We may very well be about to be rescued within a few days.” Kylie said quietly. “Even with the setbacks we’ve had, we should be able to last for a few more days, so long as we don’t suffer any damages to our remaining supplies.”

Kylie was a woman of few words, so her statement came as a complete surprise to both Carrian and Scarlet. Neither of them had expected the woman in front of them to be giving words of encouragement and hope.

“Well, let’s hope that you’re right. For now, we’ll let the last scout teams return. Hopefully nothing else goes wrong as they come back-” Carrian was cut off as the ground beneath them began to shake.

The Legendary Mages all rushed outside. All around them the makeshift buildings and structures were shaking and falling to the ground. Several Hunters and Scholars screamed in pain as rubble fell on top of them. But while the earthquake was terrifying, it was fairly short, and ended quickly.

Looking around in despair, Carrian knew that this was going to cost them. They had barely a hundred people left, but their dwindling resources were about to take a serious hit.

“Above!” someone shouted. Everyone turned to the roof of the cavern. Several large rocks had apparently been loosened and a number of them were falling towards the camp. “Look out!”

Carrian attempted to move out of the way, barely getting a chance to look up, but was immediately struck in the head by one of the falling rocks. His vision faded to black as his hastily reinforced body crumpled to the ground.

The mood in the camp had turned horribly somber as the several Life Mages healed all the injuries they could after this latest catastrophe. It seemed that the injuries throughout the camp were not too horrible. A few crushed limbs here and there made it difficult for the Life Mages to heal wounds efficiently, since they needed to carefully place each piece of the bone into the correct position. But there were only three such instances, and those were set within a couple of hours.

The worst injury, by far, was the head injury that Carrian suffered. Hit by a rock that was larger than he was, Carrian had barely managed to reinforce himself quickly enough that he was able to survive the blow to his head. His skull still cracked but wasn’t crushed. The healers managed to repair the bone quite fast, but head injuries were difficult to fully heal.

The damage that had happened to the brain could sometimes be healed, but given the sheer complexity of the brain, it was possible that healing the wrong parts would alter the ways that the neurons and various signals that existed within flowed. It was for this reason that healing brains was considered to be something that was strictly restricted to Legendary Life Mages. At least at the level that Carrian had sustained.

As such, even though his skull had been fixed, and they were making sure to keep his brain from swelling or just shutting down, Carrian had yet to wake up.

“We need to do something. We can’t just sit here and wait to die.” Scarlet said. “I don’t know if Carrian would approve, but I think we need to try opening the caldera pathway again.”

Kylie, who had been standing next to Scarlet as they both watched over Carrian, remained silent. She wasn’t certain that Scarlet’s plan was the best course of action. Starting a fight with the Death Worms was guaranteed to get more people killed. But at the same time the most recent incident had left their supplies dangerously low, and they might only last another two or three days before they ran out of food and water.

“We wait one more day and night. If Carrian isn’t awake by the morning after tomorrow night, then we go.” Kylie finally said after thinking things through. Scarlet just nodded her head. She knew that setting out now was foolish.

For now, they could only continue to wait. Wait, and pray that their new plan would not be the end of them, or that there would be nothing but enemies waiting for them when they got outside.