Aster Fall, Ch 43: Iceblood Trap (Patreon)

He had an hour to prepare and the Outsiders shouldn’t know he was aware of them. His thoughts burned like wildfire as he considered the best approach. He wanted something that would destroy them.

A few minutes later, he reached the hideout he was aiming for, a small ice cave he’d dug out beneath tumbled pillars, and he sank into meditation to recover his essence. He’d been worried about an army finding him, but with a bit of time, perhaps he could turn this into a bloodbath for the other side.

There are two issues to address, the Guardian Star announced, interrupting his thoughts. The sense of personality about it was even stronger than it had been that morning, when the star had started to refer to itself as “I,” and now its voice held an overtone of seriousness.

“What is it?” Sam asked as most of his attention turned to enchantments he could use against the Icebloods. Perhaps he could magnify his elemental manipulation....

If he used the Aura of Frozen Blades to imbue a snowstorm, it would turn into a storm of cutting ice, or he could enhance an Ice scroll with auras and mix it with a Fire attack. Either one should cut down a few of the monsters.

Maybe he could do both? He just didn’t have a lot of time to prepare enchantments.

Your actions today suggest a self-destructive desire for battle that is dangerous to your mission.

Analysis of your recent advancement indicates your Charisma is balancing the chaotic aspect of Essence in your spirit. You should invest in it more in order to keep a balanced mind.

Ideally, it should be at least one quarter of your Intelligence. That is 45 Charisma. Currently, you only have 40. It will also be valuable for persuading others to work with you. Repairing the Seal is not something to be done alone.

His first reaction was to ignore the star and go back to planning how to destroy the Outsiders, but he shook his head and focused on what it was saying. He’d just been thinking about how Charisma was important, and now the star’s analysis supported it.

“Fine,” he muttered, pulling his attention away from the Fire runes he could use with some difficulty. He was enjoying this battle, but he had the presence of mind to realize it was a little odd. “I’ll add more later.”

The advice made him wonder if the madness that was attributed to Outsiders was part of the essence system, as well as how they dealt with it. They had to have some way to increase their Charisma, or whatever attribute they used.

Having more Charisma would be valuable anyway, once he figured out how to block Analyze and could conceal himself in an illusion. He wanted to get into the city and see what it was like.

Unfortunately, that would have to wait until he figured out the right enchantments to get through the wards.

Second, the star said, drawing his attention back to it, the Icebloods that are approaching have a strange layer of Essence around them, as well as talismans of some type. They appear to be executing a shamanic group spell to strengthen themselves and the monsters with them. The average level is 68, but it would be wiser to evaluate them higher.

Even with your unique class and capabilities, facing this many monsters at once will be difficult.

I recommend that you work with the Moonlight Relic. You should retreat to the storeroom and study the enchanting patterns there. You may be able to activate one of the relic’s old defenses.

Sam let out a low growl at the thought of retreating, his fangs flashing. The star’s advice was similar to his father’s, taking the safer course, but what if the enchantments didn’t work or the Icebloods turned and led their monsters to attack his father next?

No, he needed something that would stop them here.

He pushed the anger aside and looked inward at the core enchantment the relic had given him. It was a shining silver moon hanging in his mind. So far, the enchantments inside it were too complex to unravel, but he did feel more connected to the ruins around him, as if everything were familiar.

Activating a part of the relic was a long shot, one with a timeline and variables he couldn’t control. He would have to study the enchantment and then take who knew how long to repair whatever was broken.

He grimaced, shaking his head. The star’s perspective was different than his. It was a good plan if he were by himself and didn’t care about time.

Unfortunately, neither of those were true.

He needed to eliminate these monsters and then work his way down to the flaw. However, the idea of using the relic did give him an idea.

“The relic was built as a spatial seal, or something like that, right?”

Affirmative. It was built to stabilize dimensional space within the local region. At full power, it might cover a tenth of the planet. There should have been a network of similar relics, each of them working together to create a defensive system. However, it appears it was never completed.

There is some evidence that the Western Reaches were intended to be a formation to extend the relic’s area of influence by tapping into the natural mana on the peaks, but that stage of the plan is missing from the relic’s memory. It is likely that the battle which destroyed it took place first.

“So it would truly be the world's diadem...” Sam muttered to himself as he thought back to what he’d seen the night before, with the peaks of the Western Reaches stretching out like diamonds in a crown. Then he pulled his attention back to more immediate things.

“Are there any working enchantments that could help?”

The only enchantments in the ruins that might apply are some traps like the one which captured you, the basic energy distribution network that is part of the stones, and two layers of spatial defense, one of which is used to maintain the integrity of the stones here. The other supports spatial integrity for the relic’s core systems, which exist half in this dimension and half in another.

It is a sad sight to compare it to what it once was.

Before he could ask, a map of the ruins sprang into his mind, highlighting the areas that were still functioning. There were no traps on the first layer, despite its better condition. The builders must have used a different defense here.

What did exist was a densely woven network of energy, as well as many buildings that had semi-functioning enchantments. As he looked over the map and at the route the Outsiders were taking to reach him, an idea began to turn around in his mind.

“Would the relic help, if I can get one of the enchantments working?”

Almost certainly. The Outsiders are a threat to it and their presence here goes against its primary purpose. However, it does not have the ability to act independently at the moment. The trap that captured you did so automatically when it detected your essence.

If you want the relic to assist, it might be able to power a larger enchantment or one of the defenses, but you would have to repair it, and that would take time. That is why it is more advisable for you to retreat and prepare.

“No, I’m not going to run and hide,” Sam refused. His eyes burned with crystal flame as he put the pieces of a plan together. The core enchantment for the ruins flared in his mind as his awareness flowed into it. He didn’t understand it at all, but there was one thing he’d seen before and could recognize.

The search sent a piercing stab of pain through his mind from the weight of information in the enchantment, but he pushed it aside as he kept looking. It hadn’t been designed to harm him, but his Intelligence wasn’t high enough to handle the level of complexity.

Fortunately, he didn’t need to understand the full thing. He just needed that one specific part that had to be in here somewhere. It should be unmistakable at the first glance, especially to him.

The key rune to the trap that had been on the control pillar.

Night would come soon and moonlight would be everywhere throughout the ruins, woven into the enchantments. He remembered the cutting force of the strands in the trap when they headed for him. Thanks to the relic, that force was engraved into his soul.

He just needed to find the rune that would bring moonlight to life and then he could work with it, using the same concept as he did for the star rune on his bracer. It might not be exactly the same as the trap, and it would take some effort, but once night fell, he would have all the resources he needed.

His search through the core enchantment continued, pain spiking behind his eyes. After about half an hour, he looked up, his eyes gleaming with sapphire flame as a trail of blood ran down from the corners and streaked across his cheeks.

“Let’s get back to the control pillar.”

---

The core rune glowed in his memory as he laid his hands on the control pillar, looking at the dark sigil there. He’d paid a price to find the rune in the core enchantment. His mind felt like a mana storm had burned through it and his eyes were weeping blood.

Now, there was another step missing that he hadn’t planned on. He needed to find the connection between it and moonlight. The aspect that bound them together.

The trap rune was extremely complex, a condensation of an entire enchantment somehow folded into a single sigil. He would have compared it to the three-dimensional pattern on his amulet, but that was laughable.

This rune didn’t exist in three dimensions. It existed in at least six...and perhaps more. It was woven through aspects of time, aura, and other things that he couldn’t grasp yet.

Without the core enchantment, it would have taken a lifetime to understand. Fortunately, the core enchantment and the control pillar were holding the rune stable, similar to his bracer, and he already had a connection to its concept.

His mind crackled as he pushed his awareness into the rune, searching for how the trap had functioned.

Below, the Outsiders were nearly to the first layer, which meant he didn’t have much time to set things up. He might have to lead them on a chase around the layer. He could feel the Guardian Star’s silent attention on what he was doing, but it couldn't help.

Above, the daylight was beginning to fade. At the edge of the horizon, he could see a blue shimmer that marked where Caelus would rise. He turned his attention away as he focused on the rune.

Time passed as the sky grew darker, and eventually the first ray of moonlight fell on the pillar as Caelus crested the horizon, illuminating Sam with his hands pressed against it.

As soon as it did, a rumble of rising power from the pillar flared through his meridians, touched the moonlight strands and core enchantment, and curved back like a moonlit lightning bolt.

The force of it made his hands shake as his nerves sizzled, but at the same instant, the moonlight flowed into the trap rune between his hands, flooding through it with the whisper of the night’s arrival.

The rune was broken, but as the moonlight washed through, it came to life for a moment, illuminating the spirals of the enchantment and the flow of energy inside. It was only for an instant, but for Sam, who had been searching for that single connection with his entire spirit, it was enough.

The trap rune and one other rune for moonlight floated up from the enchantment in his mind and snapped into place. Sam staggered, his hands falling free from the pillar as the two runes merged into a single concept in his mind.

Then he fell to the ground, his body twitching from overloaded meridians and an exhausted mind.

It had been at least two hours since he’d started studying the pillar and the Outsiders must have flooded the first layer. Thoughts of them finding his father made him twitch as his hand tried to close, but the only thing beneath him was snow. Its cold warmth pressed against his skin like a balm.

Guardian, you must stand. Your task is not complete.

The Guardian Star’s voice echoed in his mind like the chime of a gong drifting alone on the ocean, its sound sweeping out across the waves.... Sam groaned as he shoved the feeling away, his hand lifting to touch his head. It felt like he’d stuffed it full of rocks and then tried to break them by smashing it into a wall.

Guardian, you must stand. The star’s insistent voice echoed in his mind again, rousing him before he could drift off.

The Outsiders are working their way through the first layer, laying a new ambush for you. They do not know who you are, but they are aware that someone is hunting them there. They have already had too long to prepare.

“Urgh...” Sam muttered eloquently as he clenched his muscles and then relaxed them again, his talons digging into the snow. His body felt hot and swollen. The cold snow was relaxing, so he buried his hands in it more deeply, letting the feeling bring him to awareness.

The threat of the Icebloods crashed down on him as his mind cleared.

“Moving...” he muttered as he forced himself to his feet, staggering. His Constitution was working to heal his battered meridians, but it wasn’t fast enough. He pulled out a healing scroll and activated it, letting the white heat flow through him. Healing scrolls weren’t good at repairing meridians or the stress in his mind, but at least it might take the edge off.

“Let’s go.” He turned away, tilting to the side before he caught his balance, and then he pushed himself onward, heading for the barrier.

---

Without the teleportation system that had once existed, there was only a single staircase that provided access between the first layer and the second, and the Icebloods had established an ambush throughout the area surrounding it.

Monsters were stationed to guard the corners of buildings, main avenues, and open plazas, each of them within hearing distance of another. If a fight started, it would only take a moment before the entire group swarmed the area.

The Icebloods were hanging back near the staircase, keeping themselves at the center of their trap as they conducted some elaborate ritual.

He frowned as he examined the layout. He wasn’t sure what it was, but he didn’t like the look of it. They were setting up bone shards and talismans across the area, near each monster.

Whatever they were doing, he was going to have to interrupt it, and that meant pulling them away. There was no way he was going to walk right into their plans.

He was hidden in a building more than a mile from them, letting the headache fade and his meridians heal a little more. The trap rune was complete in his mind, like a single strand of the core enchantment that had come to life for him. He just needed to apply it. That required time and a way to catch all of his enemies.

He still didn’t have a trap to use it in.

After a few moments of searching the map, he gave a brief nod and then he darted out of the building, ghosting away across the snow to the spot he’d chosen.

On the way, he touched the Amulet of Swirling Winds on his chest, checking in on his father. Jeric had been busy, leading the others to eliminate the monsters and beasts near the temple. So far, they’d cleared everything within a mile of their base and a bit more than that in the direction away from the Grand Flaw.

No larger force had come to stop them yet, but Sam didn’t doubt that something would appear eventually. Perhaps the Outsiders just wanted to deal with one problem at a time.

Lenei had also made contact. She’d convinced most of the church forces to gather at the ruins, now that there was evidence of a Grand Flaw, but it would take them a bit longer to arrive, since they had already started to disperse across the valley. They would also have to work their way through the ruins.

Once they arrived, Lenei would meet up with Jeric and the adventurers, and their forces would converge on the closest Flaws, working to seal them one by one as they approached the Grand Flaw.

Sam pushed those thoughts out of his mind as he arrived at his destination. He was near the outer edge of the ring and about a mile from the closest monster. The enchantments here were damaged, but the moonlight ribbons throughout the streets and plazas were still present.

He darted to the edge of the plaza, examining it for a long moment as he looked at the stones and the moonlight, imagining what it needed to be. Then he nodded and ducked into one of the tumbled-down houses nearby as he began to collect materials.

It took him about an hour, and he checked on the Outsiders’ positions repeatedly to make sure they weren’t moving, but eventually he finished the arrangement of what he wanted, setting the last piece of broken green crystal into place.

All around the plaza, he’d laid out shards of the green crystal from the windows, as well as chunks of stone and other objects from inside the homes that had once held heating or other enchantments.

All of the objects were laid out in the pattern of the trap rune, aligned with the swirling, silver-green lines of the relic’s energy from the stones below. Around them, he’d frozen the snow into ice and carved the trap sigil into it, creating a fragile runic frame.

He needed something to hold the form of the trap, and these were the best materials he’d been able to find. In another place, it might not have worked, but nothing within the relic was a normal material. All of these items were highly attuned to the energy here and designed to accept input from an inhabitant of the city. Even the snow was infused with the Ice concept that created it.

If it didn’t work, he’d created a secondary plan, which involved turning the center of the plaza into the biggest fireball he could, but he had some confidence in this approach.

Now, he just needed to set up the last part of the moonlight sigil and get the Outsiders here.