Loremaster
EXP: 74,034, Level: 11
Level completed: 76%,
EXP required for next Level: 2,966
Going home. One does not cross the veil between realms lightly. The gateway found beneath Alerar was once in a generation, perhaps the last functional portal left in the world. Going back through meant contending with the legions of hell and Alerar alike. There was another way, but not one for the weak willed or faint of heart. The magic sealing Hadia was ancient and unfathomable in scale, a cosmic wall built by the bloodied hands of a thousand mages. And I have to rip through it with my bare hands.
After a long search, Elijah had found the spot. From the Hadian side, nothing marked it as more than another swath of ash-swept rock amidst the endless wastelands. Peering into the aether though a sorcerer’s eyes, however, told a different story. The threads of reality, glittering prismatic strands of magic, were tattered and stretched thin. The veil between worlds was weaker here.
Time grew short, as the feral demons would soon resume their hunt. The wind carried their distant howls.
Elijah traced out several constellations. Licks of flame swirled up his arms and around his hands, focusing into glowing, needle-like shapes at the tips of his fingers. He drew them across the stone, charring the surface in the shape of complex runes and glyphs. In a perfect world, he’d have had his library and laboratory and all the time he needed, instead of rushing to prepare a ritual he made up from fragments and memories.
The demons’ shrieks were closer, now. Elijah’s fingers worked furiously, burning sigils and arcane geometry into reddish stone. Mumbled words spilled from his lips, disjointed syllables and sounds that felt wrong from a human’s mouth. They were charged with power.
Thunder cracked! A bolt of lightning streaked down, slowly like a stone sinking through water. It froze inches from the ground, pulsing its sickly green light. The hair on Elijah’s arms stood up. He spoke a word in ancient elven, and then the same word but… wrong, like speech turned inside out. The lightning bolt widened, prying open the veil between worlds. The sound of tearing metal reverberated through the earth.
Elijah jumped to his feet and reached through the wound in reality. He felt the tattered edges of the veil. Warm, damp air from the other side hit his face. He pushed and strained, and… stopped. He couldn’t move further forward.
“No, no, not good.” The fraying threads of the veil tangled him up. He could see the mortal world beyond, a dark, damp cave. Beside a pile of ashes where a fire once burned, a woman stirred. In a panic, he reeled back, the opening between worlds collapsing. He landed on his back, gasping. In the distance, monsters howled.
He hated to admit it, but some things even he couldn't overcome through brute force.
Last edited by Christoph; 01-18-2022 at 07:08 PM.
