Path of Stars, Ch 16: Soul Wraith (Patreon)

The demons were a good distance away, since they’d been hanging back from the fight, but it wouldn’t be long until they were here. The Wild Spirits were shielded behind him, but with the level difference between him and the Outsiders, winning was unlikely.

Nonetheless, he’d chosen his path and he had to try. Fortunately, he’d made a lot of artifacts over the past few months.

It was time to fight like an Artificer.

A wave of artifacts flew out of his cloak. With a flicker of his hand, he gathered a handful of them and pushed them toward the priestess.

“Defensive and healing scrolls,” he explained quickly. “Use them as needed. What’s your name?”

“I’m called Alora,” the woman said as she accepted the scrolls and held them tightly in her hand. Her other arm was wrapped around the knight. She was looking at Sam with hope, but also a trace of caution, as if she weren’t quite sure about him. “Be careful. Those demons have strange abilities. I’ve heard legends of them, but I’ve never met one before. I’m afraid they might have been released by a traitor in my family.”

“Released?” Sam sent her an astonished glance as ideas began to tumble through his mind. “Released from where? You know how they got here?”

“There is a forbidden area my family protects,” Alora began to explain. “It has the same feeling of energy about it as these three, but I can’t be sure until I go and see it. If it’s true, it means one of my family members might have something to do with it. No one else could have opened the wards, since they’re bound to our bloodline.”

It looked like she wanted to explain more, but whatever else she was about to say was interrupted as the old man in her arms coughed, pulling her attention away.

There was no time left to question her anyway, so Sam pushed the question to the back of his mind as he tossed a stack of scrolls to Sleset and told him to use them on the golems. Without support, the golems would be destroyed within a few hits, but if Sleset could empower them with some better defenses, they might be able to make a difference.

At the very least, it might help them to protect the Wild Spirits.

At the same time, another dozen items joined the ones that were already circling around Sam, but that was the limit of things he could hold ready at once. Runes flickered from his hands and sprang outward, creating three concentric circles of silver light that seized the artifacts and held them, like they were haloes around a star.

The first circle was defensive items, a combination of shielding crystals, scrolls, and some single-use barriers. The second and third circle were all offensive items. There was no time to create new runic bracers, so instead he pulled out the artifacts he’d used on the bandits that had given him the Ice Drake.

In one hand, he held a metallic white blade with a gleaming crystalline edge that reflected the starlight like ice. It had strange facets on it and the surface was covered with a light dusting of ice crystals. Burning blue-white runes were etched across the surface to create an intricate pattern.

This was Hoarfrost, a blade that he’d fashioned from two dozen Ironclaw Wilding talons and condensed into a single object. Its appearance was the result of a condensed spatial enchantment and it looked slightly ethereal in his hands.

In his other hand, he held a burning red gemstone that was similarly ethereal. Jagged runes for fire spun through the interior of the gem like solar flares, rising up to the surface where they burned with a flicker of crimson heat before falling back toward the center. Images of other gems appeared in the depths, each of them displaying a different rune. This artifact had been created from dozens of Flameshadow Stalker lifegems.

He’d named it Inferno, the counterpart to Hoarfrost.

He’d poured a lot of time into each of these artifacts before he left his forge, imbuing them with his deepest understanding of Astral Ice and Fire. Although they weren’t a perfect replacement for his bracers, they were decent weapons.

He let the blade and the gem float beside him as he reached into his cloak and drew out another scroll and then a Heroic-tier Aura of Astral Ice from his storage. This scroll was the strongest defensive barrier he had. As he fused the aura into the scroll and activated it, a set of sparkling blue-white armor appeared across his body in intricate detail.

It looked very similar to full plate armor with a breastplate, pauldrons, arm and leg greaves, and even ornate ice gauntlets that covered his hands, but there was no helmet to obstruct his vision. Instead, icy runes drifted across his cheeks and throughout his hair like blue-white tattoos.

The same runes drifted across the armor, flowing slowly from one side to the other as they shimmered with essence. A faint white mist was constantly released from them and drifted around him in the Void. It sparkled like ice crystals as it landed on his cloak and condensed into frost.

To the side, Sleset was using the scrolls he’d given him to imbue blue-white barriers onto each golem, and the automatons were standing in a defensive arc behind him with their shields raised. Their spears were slanted across the top as they pointed them at the approaching demons.

Sam stood in front, towering over them all as waves of ice and fire swept around him. Compared to him, the golems looked like toy soldiers.

The soul wraith and giants had nearly reached them, so Sam seized Hoarfrost and Inferno again as he activated a handful of the artifacts floating around him and sent a wave of attacks to greet them.

Streaks of bright crimson flame, icy nets, a field of burning sapphire stars, compressed blades of white air, and two spears forged from ice that glimmered with runes shot toward the enemies.

The soul wraith was leading the way with a hideous gleam in her eyes as her tongue flapped to the side. It was far longer than seemed possible as it touched her shoulder. The two giants were just behind her, each of them nearly as tall as Sam.

The wraith spread her skeletal wings wide and gleaming blades of blood red light soared away from the edge, heading to meet the icy net. The giants also reacted, their muscles swelling as they punched at the spears that were whistling toward them.

A shattering explosion erupted from where the attacks met. The blades of red light from the soul wraith arrived first and sliced through the ice net with a corrosive hiss and completely shredded it. Their light was dimmer as they passed through the other side, but they still had a threatening pressure as they crashed into the streaks of flame.

The flame resolved into a field of nearly a hundred whistling meteors that swept over the red blades and shattered them in turn, but the majority of them were destroyed. Only a few scattered meteors made it past the collision as they headed for the soul wraith.

In that instant, it gave Sam a comparison of the soul wraith’s strength. Each of those scrolls was as powerful as a single strike from him, but it had taken two to deal with one attack from the wraith. She probably wasn’t twice as strong as him, but she definitely had a dangerous advantage.

Behind the wraith, spectral images of large grey-red fists covered in dull stone crashed into the ice spears and the impacts caused an explosive echo that warped outward in a sphere of mixed red and blue light. Shards of ice and fragmented runes were mixed together with broken chunks of the spectral fists, but each of the attacks canceled each other out.

At that instant, another pair of red blades tore forward from the wraith’s wings and obliterated the rest of the meteors as she headed through the gap. A few of the sapphire stars were caught up in the collision, but she completely ignored the rest of the spells that were heading toward the giants. Her eyes were locked on Sam.

Behind her, the rest of the sapphire stars and the air blades reached the giants at nearly the same time. Their muscled bodies glowed with a shell of dull red as they released one punch after another, covering the air around them in layers of explosive light as the attacks crashed together.

The resulting explosion was so bright that it temporarily hid them from view, but he doubted it was enough to kill them.

Before he could send any more attacks to meet them, the soul wraith suddenly shot forward in a blur of red light. The distance between them evaporated as she reappeared in front of his face, her skeletal wings stretched wide as her claws slashed toward his throat.

Bone white claws crashed against the layer of icy armor around him. Runes flickered, twisting upward from the surface of the armor as they met the attack and twisted before exploding. The claws were blown away, but a crack ran across the armor just below his chin as a layer of blue-white frost turned to dust and blew away.

Sam’s reaction was as quick as he could make it, but Titan’s Wrath was reducing his agility. Alora’s calming spell had helped him to focus, but it hadn’t got rid of that. He only had time to raise Hoarfrost and slash toward the soul wraith before the demon spun away and came back again.

This time, the wraith’s skeletal wings led the way. The forward edge turned crimson as bloody arcs sliced toward him.

Hoarfrost met her in the air. The icy white dagger separated into a dozen blades that all shimmered with crystalline blue light. Frost exploded along her wings, shifting the angle of the attack.

At the same time, broken runes erupted outward from his armor in a shower of scintillating light that filled the Void with blue-white crystals. The space between him and the demon crackled as twisting sheets of ice formed and exploded, shattering under the forces present.

Sam’s bones shuddered with the impact and he felt his body warp, but his cloak flared with a blinding light as it wrapped tightly around him, stabilizing the impact. He’d also learned from the battle with the lizard and the thunderous strike it had dealt. He let his essence flow with the distortion, his body bending as he was flung backward.

Sam flew backward like a comet until he smashed into the wall of golems. Two of them were crushed into lumps, the chunks of ore that formed them bending into unrecognizable patterns as the runework empowering them shattered. The rest gathered around, however, making a net with their bodies that captured him and stopped his flight.

Behind them, Alora’s eyes were locked on them as she made one hand sigil after another to command them.

Sibilant hisses came from Sleset to the side as he unleashed the spell he’d been preparing. A network of icy green sigils that were curved like fangs appeared and shot toward the golems, sinking into their surface. A sense of strength and agility radiated from them as they began to move faster. The sigils writhed over their bodies as they concentrated on their chests and hands. Spectral green spikes appeared from their knuckles, their tips shining with crystalline venom.

A moment later, Alora activated one of the scrolls Sam had given her, creating a giant wall of ice in front of them that blocked the soul wraith’s return.

Sapphire flames roared around Sam as he pushed himself upright and away from the golems. It wasn’t a second too soon, since just then the ice wall shattered as two giant crimson spikes tore through it from the far side.

The wall exploded into chunks that flew across the area, creating a field of scattered ice that glimmered like a frozen sea.

Sam’s expression turned grim as he evaluated his options. The soul wraith’s strength was even higher than he’d thought. Through the haze of ice, she was already curving around for another strike, and behind her he could see the two giants swiftly approaching.

Even as he saw them, the giants raised their hands into the air and then slammed their huge feet down into the Void with a thunderous echo. An enormous reddish-gray wave appeared around the point of impact and then jagged lines like cracks in the earth surged across the distance toward Sam.

Flares of gray dust flew away from the cracks as they expanded into massive chasms a hundred feet wide and over a thousand feet long. Streaks of red bloodstone mingled with the gray earth at the sides of the chasms, giving them a hellish cast like open jaws as they reached toward him.

In that instant, Sam made his decision, but it came with a grimace. Runes flared around his hands as they flooded into Hoarfrost and Inferno, setting into action an enchantment he’d never planned to use. He threw both of the artifacts at the giants and they disappeared in streaks of white and crimson light.

As soon as they were gone, he reached out and tapped on one of the scrolls floating around him. A surge of yellow Earth energy swelled around him as a massive chunk of stone appeared that was nearly two hundred feet wide in every direction. The boulder shot forward like it had been flung from a catapult, heading for the bloodstone chasms.

The chasms struck the boulder with an explosion that sent shockwaves crashing through the Void. The boulder exploded into fragments and earthen shrapnel flew in every direction. In the air where it had met the chasms, rippling yellow and gray waves rolled outward, most of them heading toward Sam.

With a growl, Sam stepped forward and stomped on the Void. A ripple of yellow Earth energy rolled out from that point like the prow of a ship. A moment later, the ripple split the oncoming energy down the center, driving it to both sides like a wedge. The echoes of an earthquake shuddered through the Void as the remaining energy sheeted to the sides, passing by Sam and the ones behind him.

Before the Void could become still again, the white and crimson streaks he’d sent into the distance reappeared, each of them heading for one of the giants as they swelled in size. The blade of Hoarfrost was expanding massively, its structure warping as runes rose and fell from the inner structure of the blade to the exterior like a waterfall.

To the side, the same thing was happening to Inferno. The gem expanded until it was a crimson fireball fifty feet across, and it headed directly for the second giant. Golden and red runes burned brightly on its surface, fluctuating as if they were under massive stress.

A look of hesitation flashed across the giants’ faces as they turned toward the two artifacts, and they raised their hands as they started to summon a gray defensive shield, but they were a moment too late. Hoarfrost and Inferno doubled in size again as the runes on them took on a piercing light and then the artifacts tore straight through the defensive shield and into the giants’ bodies.

Then they exploded.

Earth-shattering eruptions tore apart that section of the Void as the compressed spatial enchantment was released along with all of the energy that the artifacts contained. Sam had spent days pouring astral ice and fire into those two weapons and tens of thousands of points of essence. All of that was released in an instant.

Blinding blue-white and burning crimson suns were born together as they expanded in massive spheres of twisting spatial magic. Under the direct impact of those forces and the huge amount of essence they contained, the two giants were torn to pieces, their bodies crumbling away into chunks of gray stone.

Sam didn’t have time to celebrate his victory over them, however, as at that moment the soul wraith returned. Her hair was long and tangled and streams of red tears were running from her eyes, covering her face in a horrifying mask as she snarled. Her wings had three bloody spikes extending from the front edge that shot toward him like lightning bolts. Behind them, the same blade arcs that she’d used before followed. Her claws were outstretched like bone knives.

It was clear that this time, it wouldn’t be so easy to drive her back.

Sam reached out and grabbed one of the items floating around him in his left hand and activated it in an instant. A shield of molten stone appeared in his hand, covering half of his body. In his other hand, a golden blade of astral fire formed.

Before the spikes could arrive, he heard a shout from behind him and then he sensed a blur of movement as half a dozen golems leapt forward. Their speed was as fast as a serpent striking as Sleset’s spell augmented them and they charged forward, one of them toward each bloody spike. They met the wraith’s attack just a hundred feet in front of Sam in a suicidal charge.

Earsplitting shrieks of tortured metal erupted through the Void as the spikes tore into the golems, piercing straight through the shields they’d raised and into their chests, but before they could go any farther, the golems dropped their weapons and their hands slammed together around the spikes. With the remaining energy from the spells on them and a burning light from the runes across their bodies, they spun away and down, heading for empty air.

Then they exploded into a rain of red energy and metallic green shrapnel. Chunks of their limbs and torsos flew in every direction.

The shockwave from the explosion was enough to disrupt the wraith’s approach, but only by a small amount. She slammed into Sam’s chest and the icy armor covering his body at a slight angle, her right wing and the red blade on it coming around to crash into his side. He barely had time to shift his shield between them.

A crackling explosion of ice and flame resulted as his shield warped, buckling at the center until it fractured into two halves. Then his armor exploded into a field of icy runes that expanded between them, flickering wildly as they tried to absorb the impact. It was enough to dull the blow, but not enough to get rid of it completely.

Sam’s cloak wrapped around him, buffering him from the blast as a crackling field of frozen stars appeared and spread outward. Everything in front of him froze into stillness, even the wraith’s wings and talons, temporarily held in blue-white crystal.

In that instant, the golden blade in his hand came around, slicing toward the wraith in a burning arc. The wraith’s hand separated, falling away from her arm, and then Sam was crashing backward as the impact caught up to him.

Still, he kept his mind about him. The blade and broken shield in his hand dissipated, changing into a wave of astral energy as he flew backward with the momentum and reached out. Without hesitation, he swept up Sleset, the Wild Spirits, and the remaining four golems, pulling them with him.

The wraith screamed, her voice a mind-splitting shriek as she pulled back, holding her severed wrist in the other hand. The end of her arm was a sheer expanse of charred bone, but there was no blood visible.

Sam flew backward, the remains of his ice armor fragmenting into dust as another handful of items flew out of his cloak and began to rotate around him. The three concentric circles reformed as they seized the items and began to spin, releasing a brilliant, multicolored light. Silver, blue, and crimson flames were dominant.

When she saw that, the soul wraith hesitated, spiraling around to watch from a distance. Her eyes were sanguine holes in the dark. Sam returned her gaze steadily, his own eyes a brilliant silver. He could feel the hunger in her soul. He kept his eyes locked on her, refusing to break the stare as he spoke over his shoulder.

“Let’s go.”

With that, a wave of astral energy surrounded him and those with him as he began to accelerate away, swiftly walking backward into the distance as he pulled them along with him. There was an astral thread not far from them and he could reach it in a few minutes. Until then, his eyes weren’t leaving the wraith.

More importantly, there were questions he wanted an answer to.