Aster Fall, Ch 37: Ice Pillar (Patreon)

The adventurers were not in good shape. Cesten was standing on his own and it looked like he would recover shortly, but Selis, Arena, and Obel were a wreck. Many areas of their skin were ash grey, with areas that had hardened completely to stone, especially on their hands, forearms, and legs.

Obel had been doing better at first, but whatever artifact or other defense the wizard had used against the Aura of Petrification must have worn off.

“I don’t think this is a curse,” Arene gasped out, as she looked down at her hands, which she had trouble raising. Her voice was strained and her skin was flushed white and red, as if she had a fever. “I’ve tried to remove it, but it doesn’t work. It’s something else.”

“It’s stopped now that the basilisk is dead,” Krana observed as she set to work on Arene, holding a healing scroll in one hand. Her eyes were shimmering with silver light as she examined the damage. “It is truly stone.... We may need to remove it and then encourage your body to regrow the damaged areas.”

“You mean chop it off,” Obel grunted as he tried to sit up, before giving up and falling back to his back. He was out of shape and it looked as if part of his belly had turned to stone. “Just do it.”

Sam gave the wizard a glance, mentally upgrading his courage. He’d expected the wizard would be the least enduring, but it seemed he had hidden depths.

As for Selis, the Lykaris wasn’t even able to speak. Half of her jaw had turned to stone and she could only mumble.

He shook his head as Crystal Focus ran through the damage and he considered the new Shatter Aura ability that he’d gained, but as far as he could tell, there was no longer any trace of the Aura of Petrification. It had done its damage and left, and now they had to deal with the aftermath.

“I’ll gather the experience,” he said as he passed a few more healing scrolls to Krana. “Maybe they can gain a level and add something to Constitution to help.”

Collecting the experience and auras didn’t take him too long. He could tell that the adventurers received a portion of it, from the silvery glow that surrounded them, but he didn’t ask for details.

As for him, it was enough experience to push him to Level 62. He added the new points to Intelligence and Aura, as well as one to Charisma, since it was one of the traits that wasn’t rising from gathering essence.

That and Wisdom were the two attributes not rising, and he wasn’t sure why. Perhaps it wasn’t in the nature of essence to be wise or charismatic? Or it might have something to do with his bloodline, which the World Law had mentioned when it offered him the paths.

Either way, he didn’t want to leave weak areas in his attributes. He’d just seen what that sort of weakness did to the adventurers against the basilisk’s aura, and Charisma was required for dealing with people.

He also gathered the materials from the basilisk that hadn’t turned to stone, primarily the spike on its tail, its core, and the cores of all the Coldfangs. As for the basilisk’s remaining eye, it was quickly shrinking as it hardened into some type of a gem, and he took that as well. If it continued at the same rate, within an hour it would be the size of his hand.

When he was finished with that and with gathering the auras, eight Auras of Frozen Blades had separated from the Coldfangs and rested in his hand.

Aura of Frozen Blades (Advanced)

The boost to his Wisdom had helped. His chance to gather a Basic aura had maximized at 85%, when he reached 45 Wisdom. Now, his Wisdom was 55, and he had a 75% chance to reclaim an Advanced aura.

He rubbed his chin as he did the math and sorted out the possibilities. If Advanced auras maxed at the same percentage, he would need another ten points in Wisdom to get there. Training Wisdom was good for his perspective on life, so there were other advantages to it as well.

When he was finished, he checked on the adventurers, but they were in the middle of a long recovery. Krana had helped Arene to heal, and now the priestess was pouring her efforts into regrowing the parts of her body that had been petrified.

He grimaced as he looked away from the scene, but there was nothing else to do to help. Arene could heal the others once she recovered. It looked like it would take a day or two to put them back together.

Instead of fussing with them, he headed for the building where the basilisk had been hiding, his curiosity rising. Halfway there, his father joined him.

“So, what do you think this was all about?” Jeric said gruffly, looking around with folded arms. “These ruins have something to do with Ice magic...and there has to have been some reason that monster was hiding here. What makes this area so important?”

Sam’s attention moved to the stones that he could feel beneath the snow, where the enchantments were hidden now, as he turned the ideas over.

“Ice magic by the peak...ruins that seem to gather it, a connection to the moons...perhaps an elemental affinity pillar...” he was muttering to himself as he pulled ideas together. “A Grand Flaw and Outsiders everywhere...an escaped prisoner from some hole in the seal.”

“Something about this area is important,” Jeric agreed, listening to his son. “Maybe the Ice Sylph’s story about this being a special place for Ice, and Lenei’s idea about the seal being focused here, are true.”

“There’s definitely something going on with the enchantments and the moons,” Sam agreed as they headed to the ruined wall that led into the building. “It’s not clear what yet, or what the original purpose was, but Ice is important. There’s no way that snow would have built up so quickly otherwise.”

“Lenei needs us to scout,” Jeric added, “but we shouldn’t leave the adventurers alone here until they’ve recovered. We may have to wait for a day.”

Sam frowned, his gaze turning up to the area above them, where the adventurers had planned to go for the pillar. The ruined temple up there was silent. Whatever had been there must have seen their fight, but they had either fled or were hiding. Perhaps they’d retreated to the main Flaw.

He didn’t want to delay here, but leaving the adventurers alone at this point was the same as killing them, and that wasn’t something he could accept.

“We may not be able to give Lenei clear directions,” he agreed, his frown deepening, “but perhaps this basilisk will be enough evidence to pull the church to the ruins anyway. Let’s see if there’s anything inside and I’ll contact her. It must have been here for some reason.”

The front half of the building had been destroyed by the basilisk’s exit, but as he got closer, it was clear that it was not the original work. The stones had only been stacked into place by a later hand, without the enchantments that were holding everything together.

Otherwise, they wouldn’t have fallen so easily.

Inside, the tumbled stones gave way to swirled enchantments on the floor, similar to the ones outside that had summoned the snow, but here they were quietly humming. At the center of the space, the patterns flowed together into an ornate, circular sigil that was nearly ten feet across.

At the center, there was a crystal plinth that glowed with a steady silver-green light. There were strong currents of mana rising up from the enchantments on the floor and flowing into it. The mana filled the crystal pillar, which shone with light, and from there, it was somehow dispersed into the air, disappearing.

“What is that?” Jeric muttered from beside his son. “A nexus point for these enchantments?”

The word nexus resonated in Sam’s mind and he started, looking around the room again.

“You think the adventurers were wrong about the elemental pillar being up above?” his father continued, staring ahead of them. “Maybe that thing’s what they were looking for.”

“Or maybe there’s more than one?” Sam offered as he walked forward slowly, examining the pillar. All around it, he could sense the subtle flow of energy coming in from outside and concentrating, but it wasn’t primarily Ice. It was something else, closer to pure mana.

“Interesting...” he muttered as he took in the rest of the room. It looked like this had once been a more complete building, perhaps a node of some type for the ruins when they had been new. Now, it was still doing that task, but it wasn’t clear how effective it was.

“What were these ruins?” he wondered, his hand stretching out in front of him as he touched one of the flows of mana that was moving through the air. It tingled, like a frozen stream, but the cold invigorated him, changing to a strange sort of warmth that filled his body.

A moment later, he felt his mana rising, before he pulled his hand away and dispersed the mana back into the surroundings, where it rejoined the current. The Initiate of Ice trait was interacting with the flow of mana here, for some reason.

The flow of the elements through the mana around him also pulled at his attention, his new ability adding depth and clarity to what he could see. There was something here, if he could just figure it out....

A sharp cry from outside pulled his attention away as one of the adventurers was being healed. He frowned in their direction before he turned back again. How did they expect to survive the ruins with their level of strength?

If they hadn’t encountered them, the adventurers would be dead by now. The first band of Coldfangs would have eliminated them. He grumbled to himself as he put the blame for the delay squarely on them. When it came down to it, the Flaw was more important than the lives of the adventurers, but he also couldn’t bring himself to let them die.

A dilemma that defines the human condition.... The logical route was not always the correct one.

While the adventurers healed, perhaps he would have some time to study the enchantments. He also wanted to stock up on more healing scrolls and restore his protective ring.

“Arene is mostly healed,” Krana said from the entrance, her voice resonating off the stones. She walked up beside Sam and looked toward the crystal plinth at the center of the room. “What by the Nine Smiths is that? It’s invisible to my Sight.”

“Really?” Sam sent a surprised glance at her and then turned back toward the pillar. “Some type of control node, I think. The basilisk must have been watching it. I doubt it was smart enough to use it.”

“That implies it was put here as a guard,” Krana replied as she studied the pillar. “It does look like a formation. I’ve never heard of a pillar like this in the ruins before.”

“It’s interacting with the Ice mana here, and with Initiate of Ice,” Sam agreed as he examined it. It was located just at the center of the room. The stones around it were pristine, as if no dust had ever touched them, whereas the ones farther out had chips of stone and bits of rubble scattered on top.

“The enchantments here are more active than elsewhere,” he said as he pointed out the new stones around the pillar. “Do you think this just appeared?”

“With the moons activating the ruins...perhaps,” Krana frowned. “Researchers have been all over these ruins, but no one understands them. As for Initiate of Ice, the Ice Sylphs have a strange connection to these mountains, especially if their origin is true. Perhaps the trait is linked to the magic here...two sources from the same origin.”

The pillar hummed with the flow of mana, drawing Sam’s attention to it whenever he looked away. There were tiny crystalline flakes of ice drifting in the air around it, forming within the flow of energy, and it gave off a bright, blue-white light.

“I’ll study it while we wait,” he decided. At least this way, he wouldn’t waste time while the adventurers recovered. He also needed to make some more scrolls and repair his shielding ring.

A few moments later, he had a message scroll in his hand as he recorded their find for Lenei and sent it off to her. Then he turned his attention to the pillar, sitting down beside it as he began to study the flows of energy.

Behind him, his father and Krana looked around the room and gave each other a wry look as they withdrew, heading back out to check on the adventurers.

---

The rest of that day and part of the next passed as Sam replaced the cracked core in his ring and meditated on the crystal pillar and the flow of Ice energy. The energy moved in curling strands, from ones as thin as a thread to ones as large as him.

The resonance of natural runes echoed through it at a higher level than he was able to understand, but meditating on the energy and being exposed to it was changing something in his concept of Ice.

He held the runes for Ice and Crystal in his mind as he studied, as well as Fire, sensing how they resonated here. He also practiced with Elemental Manipulation, reaching out to mold the energy in the air around him, but he wasn’t able to move the flows of Ice.

All he could do was manipulate the free Ice energy that was gathering around the area like a fog between the rivers that were the enchantment. Even that was useful as he formed one rune and then another, working to see which variation had the strongest influence.

He summoned crystal flame, weaving it through the Ice currents as he studied the crystallization effect and tried to trap the energy in his Crystal Field. After that, he tried to simulate the flow of Ice, changing the structure of the field and compressing it to match.

By the time the adventurers were healed, there was a thoughtful look in his eyes. He hadn’t gained any notifications, but it felt as if something significant had changed in his understanding.

The adventurers came in to see the pillar as they recovered, but after touching it and trying some ceremony, they grumbled and left again. Whatever they were looking for, it apparently wasn’t this one.

Sam ignored them, his attention on a flaming Ice rune that was changing shape between his hands. It was made of crystal flame and he was using it as a model to refine his understanding of how his magic could compress into a crystalline structure, comparing it to the Ice around him.

Eventually, he heard his father calling him and he stood up with a sigh, letting the rune fade away into the flow of natural energy. Then he headed out of the building to where everyone was gathered.

Cesten and the other adventurers were mostly healed now, although patches of their skin were still white or a newly regrown pink. There was an even more determined look in their eyes than before as they stood around the area, bundled up against the snow and cold.

Sam glanced down to his own clothing, which was his usual cloak over his shirt and breeches, and he gazed heavenward for a moment as he held back another curse about the adventurers’ uselessness.

“We know it’s not a good idea,” Cesten was growling in response to something Jeric said, his hands raised angrily as he gestured in the air toward the ruins above, “but we can’t go back now! We have to get up to that elemental pillar and see if it helps. At least that way this trip will be worth something!”

“You don’t want to stay here for too long,” Jeric said as he gave Cesten a grave look. “If the Outsiders wanted this area before, they’ll probably come back for it. That pillar up above is the same.”

“Help us get there and then we’ll go,” Arene spoke up, a pleading look in her eyes. “I know we’re not strong enough to survive here with the Outsiders around. We never planned for them. Please.... This is the difference between life and death for us.”

“We are only common adventurers,” Selis said with a grimace, agreeing with Arene. “This is our chance to become something more, to break out of the frame that the world gave us. We have to seize it. Even if we die, at least we will have tried.”

“No, we cannot ask you for anything more,” Obel said weakly, shaking his head as he disagreed with Arene. His arms were completely white and pink, a mix of new skin and remaining spots of stone that hadn’t been healed yet, and his face was still flushed. “You’ve done more for us than you needed to, and I recognize that. Please, don’t feel pressured. We will survive on our own. If we fail, we fail. That is fate.”

Sam walked up to the edge of the circle, looking around at the adventurers as a sigh built up. His father, Krana, and Lesat were standing across from the group, and he moved to join them.

“Lenei replied earlier,” he added, looking around at all of them. “The Church is sending a single team in this direction, about half a dozen people. They’ll be here in a day or so to take control of this area and study the pillar.”

He wasn’t entirely pleased with that, but since he couldn’t stay, it was better to let the church have it than the Outsiders. He was also fairly sure by this point that the pillar wasn’t a control node, but some subsidiary system of the ruins.

It was functioning, but it wasn’t the central point. Letting the church take control of the area shouldn’t cause much trouble, even if it would be difficult for him to come back here.

There was one advantage to the church showing up, which was that he could foist these adventurers off on them.

“We need to go up and see what’s there anyway,” he said, forcing himself to be polite as he looked up at the pillar. “So, you may as well come along. After that, you can return here and take shelter with the church forces, or let them escort you out.

“At any rate,” he added, “we can’t spend any more time here, so let’s go see what that pillar is all about.”

---

The trek up to the pillar was longer than it looked, since they had to find a pathway up to the next level first, which took them two hours out of their way. The snow drifts throughout the ruins were as deep as ever, and the adventurers tramped along on top of it with their snowshoes, sending strange glances at Sam’s party.

“How are you walking on the snow like that?” Arene asked, when she couldn’t hold back the question any longer.

“I’m an enchanter,” Sam replied blandly, before he returned his attention to the area in front of them. “The enchantment to compress snow under footsteps isn’t too complicated...it just takes a higher-level Ice core.”

The answer was true, even if his response was an evasion. He didn’t like lying, so evasiveness was the next best way to keep his secrets. He actually had created a design for something similar over the last day, using Crystal Field’s compression and the compacting nature of Ice as a guide, but he hadn’t tested it out.

“That must be mana-intensive,” Arene muttered, but she turned around again when Sam didn’t add anything else.

When they reached the ruined temple, the area was covered in new snow that obscured any obvious marks of enemies, but there were compacted areas beneath it that jumped out in his senses, places where claws and tails had compressed the snow.

A lot of them had been here, perhaps even more than had been below, but the traces had been wiped away by the mana flow of the ruins.

The ruin was a small circular building that did look something like a temple with a double-layered, curving roof and a spire-topped portico, but only the adventurers’ map gave it that name.

The doorway was a gash of darkness that led inside, with a faint emerald green in the distance.

“We’ll have to prepare inside,” Cesten declared as he looked around the area. There was strained expectation in his voice. “We’ve brought the cores and mana crystals to offer, the formation pattern to lay it out, and the blood of Ice-element beasts. If it works like it’s supposed to, the power of the ruins will increase our elemental affinities, improving our bodies and augmenting our spells.”

“And then we might be able to hold our own against monsters at a similar level,” Selis muttered, as orange flames flickered around her.

Sam shook his head as he listened to them. It sounded like a faint hope. Most of the time, power came from levels and the tier of your abilities, or the equipment you had. More powerful abilities were rare and harder to acquire.

The problem they had was what everyone with common classes and abilities faced. In his opinion, they’d be better off studying stronger skills, gaining better equipment, and working toward an improved class at their evolution, rather than placing their hopes on this.

This idea of boosting their elemental affinity.... While that could happen, and the Initiate of Ice trait was one example, he doubted it would work the way they thought.

Crystal Focus didn’t reveal anything else besides the faint tracks of what had been here, so he said nothing as the adventurers ran awkwardly across the snow, their feet pressing down the snow just like the monsters had.

A frown flickered across his face as he looked at the snow drifting down, the tracks that they were leaving, and then the green gleam in the darkness of the doorway.

Before he could raise a hand in warning, Cesten ran across the entrance to the temple, his broad arms brushing across the stones of the doorway. From deep within, a brighter flare of light appeared as the mana flows shifted.

There was a loud chime as a pulse of Ice energy blasted upward from the stones hidden below the snow, and then suddenly everything disappeared. The temple, the snow, and the light were replaced by darkness that stretched into infinity.

Streamers of blue, green, and purple light cut through the dark, weaving swirling patterns like flowing clouds as Sam floated in the middle of nothingness. He couldn’t sense anyone else within range of Crystal Focus.