Return to Jorgaldur Volume IV: Reunion

Murderous impulses (III)

They were staring at the first zombie that was coming to them when it just Exploded. Before they could snap out of their stupefaction, the second one also Exploded. Besides, it didn't seem like either of them wanted to recompose.

It was disconcerting, but it didn't end there. One after another, up to a total of nine, the zombies approached them and Exploded.

"Are they committing suicide?" Goldmi asked out loud, stunned.

"It seems so..." Eldi had agreed, without leaving his astonishment.

"So... The specter was really telling the truth..." Gjaki reflected.

The result was that they died easily after the elf purified them. They were extremely vulnerable in that state, broken down. Nothing protected them from light magic.

"Tsk. They've found a quick way to die. It's not fair," the specter protested.

Both ghosts and skeletons would have done the same if they had found themselves in the situation of the zombies, but they couldn't die so quickly. Furthermore, if they approached the living, they would undoubtedly try to attack them, no matter how much they wanted to die.

"We've gained a lot of experience," Eldi discovered.

"Yes, we're getting closer," Goldmi was happy.

Those zombies weren't like the others. They were more powerful, and had gained consciousness. At least, it was enough to commit suicide. Therefore, they gained much more experience by killing them.

As the goshawk hadn't warn them of new arrivals, once she had recovered enough mana, the elf began to eliminate the undead accumulated at the entrance with Light Pillars.

The high human Loaned Mana to her after a while. It didn't take long for her sisters to also transfer it via Mana Link, under the watchful eye of the sentient undead who was looking at them from a distance. There were at least three which had been on the verge of running towards the living, but had managed to hold back, largely due to fear. The last one who had tried had been attacked by the others. It had barely managed to survive.

The specter was the one who was observing the most closely, and was feeling how the aura of purification became stronger and stronger. The process may have been slow, but he could feel it in his very essence. Not in vain, he let the Light Pillars reach him while floating over them.

It still took them a day to get to 100. It had been incredibly easy and fast, much faster than they could have imagined. In the game, it had taken weeks to raise those last five levels.

Of course, weeks was also too fast. More than a native of Jorgaldur would die of envy if they found out.

At 100, both Eldi and Goldmi had recovered the Gate spell. They could now use all the Exit Gates that they had created on their travels.

In terms of skill, the high human had regained Permanent. It allows structures built with earth magic to be permanent, by combining them with the rest of the elements he had mastered. It may not seem like a great skill, but it was the only one that could create structures that would last. In the game, he had spent hours with it, so he had it at 10.

The elf had regained a skill somewhat similar to Eldi's. Shelter stimulates plants to take a certain shape, grow in a certain direction, move their branches where required. It is a slow skill that requires enormous patience, but the results are spectacular. Secretly, in the game, Goldmi had created a house inside a tree that she had surprised everyone with. Unfortunately, the place had been corrupted long ago.

As for the goshawk and the lynx, both had recovered Always With You. They invest half of their mana to return to her sister, by creating a small gate wherever she was.

"What do we do now?" the vampiress asked, while looking at her companions.

They had accomplished what they had come to do there, their levels had risen to 100. Nothing was holding them back in that land of death, or almost nothing.

"We have to try to purify them, we promised it," the elf refused to leave.

"In their own way, the Oracle asked us to do it. I'm with Goldmi," the high human agreed.

"I knew you would say that. Let's start with these," the vampiress smiled widely.

So they did it. Once again, the elf cast Light Pillars, while her companions prepared for possible attacks, or lent mana to the elf.

"It doesn't go up anymore. No more power. Will it be strong enough?" the specter asked himself after a while.

His words were heard by those who were waiting, and one of them was the first to fall into temptation. It came out of its hiding place to quickly head towards the living, under the attentive gaze of the others. Especially, of those which had been about to go too.

To its surprise, some Tentacles crossed its path and trapped it. The specter was incorporeal, but the Tentacles were made of mana, so it couldn't free itself from them easily. The undead didn't have the strength to break them, but it could deform its body to escape from them.

When it did so, it found itself in a Light Prison that the elf had summoned. These past few days, she had been practicing with the spell at home when she had mana, even locking her daughters inside it. Of course, the twins could just walk out, although they had only done so when they were tired of playing prisoner.

The spell had raised to 6, and she had also managed to control the size, and the thickness of the crisscrossing bars.

The specter wanted to leave by attacking the Prison, but the elf managed to balance the mana to reinforce the attacked part. That way, the prey practically had to destroy the spell completely to overcome it.

Meanwhile, Eldi was attacking with Lightningballs, which disrupted the specter's attacks and weakened it. Gjaki would have done the same with Darkballs, but that magic would have weakened the prison. Instead, she summoned Clones and made them Blow Up on their enemy.

The lynx Shredded and burned it, while the goshawk collaborated with some Wind Blades.

Only when they believed it was sufficiently weakened did the elf attack with Lightballs. Meanwhile, Eldi switched to his axe with Purifying Touch to Scratch it continuously. Gjaki now wielded a whip made of light with which she Grabbed her enemy.

They had weakened it first so that the elf would need to invest less mana into purifying it. That way, they distributed it better. It should be remembered that although Eldi could Loan his mana, some got lost along the way.

It soon disappeared. Although, as with the last undead, they didn't notice any experience gain. It was as Gjaki had told them. There was something that prevented them from going further. The vampiress believed that they could overcome that barrier, but neither she nor the other visitors knew how.