193: Divine Mausoleum (Patreon)

Vir and his wolf guides Leaped along Mahādi’s empty streets in silence. The oppressive weight of death always hung over the dead city, but now, without Ashani to accompany him, Vir felt it more acutely than ever.

Trying to keep his mind off such dark thoughts, he focused on his power gains instead. It wasn't tough to do, with the world appearing in slow motion when he activated Haste. Previously, it'd sped him up to just over twice his normal speed. Now, it was closer to five times faster. 

So fast, in fact, he actually had to keep it off most of the time, or the world simply became frustrating to interact with. Forget speech, any interactions with other creatures was tedious. Luckily, if he wanted less of a boost, he could always reduce Prana Current. 

The ability did, however, allow Vir plenty of time to admire the Imperium city. While the streets had their fair share of unique touches—like the black material of the road and the marks that bordered it glowing blue—Vir found them analogous to roads he’d traversed in the Human Realm.

The highway system, however, was unlike anything he had ever seen. Fifty paces wide, tall walls stretched on either side, and above them, even taller buildings soared into the sky. Imperium engineers had excavated into the ground to submerge the thoroughfare that wound through the city like a snake’s body. Sometimes passing through dark tunnels miles long, the road seemed to run forever.

Vir could scarcely imagine the amount of traffic the highway had supported in its glory days. When added to the Imperium’s aerial modes of travel, it hinted at how truly gargantuan Mahādi’s population had been. Sonam was quaint in comparison.

While Vir had initially worried that the Ashfire wolves would be blinded by the tunnels’ total darkness, if they had any issues, they certainly didn’t show it. The beasts navigated the tunnels with ease, dexterously bounding over obstacles and slinking under others. Vir wondered if they possessed sight similar to Prana Vision.

Of the dozen wolves Ashani kept as her companions, seven had stayed behind to guard her home, leaving five to guide Vir to the vault. The runt of the litter was among them, serving as leader. It came as a surprise to Vir. He’d have thought its larger brothers would have taken that role, but the pack seemed to respect this particular wolf.

Runt was a relative term in this case; the beast was a good deal larger than the largest wolf he’d ever seen in the Human Realm.

They guided him expertly, leaving the thoroughfare to avoid roving Ash Beasts along the way. In the tunnels, they would sometimes duck into maintenance passages that ran parallel to the main one, both to bypass collapses, and to avoid beasts that lurked within its depths.

The serpentine corridors were both cramped and full of blind turns, but the wolves navigated through it all without hesitation or fear, and the journey proceeded uneventfully.

Vir admired their intelligence—and was also thankful that the prana in this realm drove most beasts insane. If all Ash Beasts kept their minds, Mahādi would be even more dangerous than it already was.

The prana grew denser by the minute as they pressed on, forcing him to reactivate Barrier to keep the prana at bay, though he intentionally kept it weak. Every moment he spent in these prana-dense lands, the stronger he would grow. Vir only wished he could spend another few weeks here to acclimate, but the danger was too great. He'd have to take what he could.

Vir breathed in relief when they finally emerged from the dark tunnels. There was something about dark, dangerous places that still scared Vir; the trauma from his experience under Daha still haunted him to this day. Ironic, given that he relied on the power of shadows extensively in fights.

The wolves guided him up and out of the highway, and Vir began hungrily scanning the terrain. When he’d first set out, he had hoped to find something useful in the rubble that dotted the streets. Even Imperium junk was bound to be a treasure in its own right, after all.

Sadly, he found nothing. It was to be expected, Vir supposed. The city had been blown away in the explosion Ashani had shown him—obliterated. Preservation inscriptions had rebuilt the buildings and the roads, but as Ashani had said, not all inscriptions were created equal.

The result was a bizarre skeleton of a city. The buildings were there, but the accouterments of life were not. No decomposing furniture, no debris, no signs that this city had ever supported life.

Vir had stopped into a handful of the tall buildings on the way to check. For Artifacts, and also to map his progress through the city. Navigation was complicated by the jungle of spires, so he’d been forced to ascend to the buildings’ rooftops to orient himself and jot down his route.

Something told Vir he’d return to Mahādi one day, and having a map of the place could come in handy when he did. It might also be a valuable commodity in both the Human and Demon Realms.

Climbing was easier said than done—some towers boasted a hundred floors or more, all nearly identical, differing only slightly in their floor plan. Some rooms were small. Others gargantuan. All were bare.

He’d given up after a handful of such fruitless experiences, opting to just climb the central elevator shafts to the roof for cartography. Even with his speed, searching ate considerable time, and he had a mission to accomplish.

The vault would be where he’d find any treasure… But making it there safely and back was another matter entirely, even with the wolves guiding him. The voice of fear crept into his thoughts.

Ashani’s warning of the Yaksha warrior rang in his head as he bounded through the streets.

He’d need every edge he could get. An Artifact weapon or armor would have been nice, but Ashani had none. Based on how casually the vendor in the memory vision had hawked his Artifact chakrams, Vir had hoped to find some lying around.

That hope had been dashed. Even the buildings’ material would aid him, if he could only break off a piece. But even that had proven impossible.

Vir spotted a pile of rubble and diverted, Leaping to it. The wolves stopped and followed. They’d been confused the first few times he took detours like this, but had soon learned to expect it.

The rubble was piled high in the street. The mound of wreckage was so tall, Vir had to Leap to climb atop it.

Another fallen spire, he thought, rummaging around the wreckage. More rust than metal, this wasn’t the first he’d come across. As Ashani had mentioned, the preservation scripts had failed over time, leading to more collapses.

Just more rubble, Vir thought, punching his katar into a plate of metal that was slightly less rusted than the others. His Prana Blade passed right through.

It was almost as if the preservation scripts prevented the building from aging, but when they failed, all those years of decay came rushing back.

To be useful to Vir, the preservation script would have had to have failed very recently. Vir looked up, wondering if a skyscraper would oblige and come crashing down.

Alas, it was about as likely as Janak appearing to aid him, so Vir returned to the road and followed the wolves deeper into the city.

He’d lost count of the number of Ash Beasts they’d avoided when he finally understood his folly.

There is a building that collapsed recently! Vir thought with excitement, entering the nearest skyscraper and bounding up its central elevator shaft—to the annoyance of his guides.

Most buildings’ lifts were no longer functional, but the shafts that ran up their spine made for easy ascents.

He kept an eye out for anything valuable, though like the others, the floors were empty.

Reaching the roof, Vir found the horizon, attempting to situate himself. The jungle of towers made it difficult, but his rose higher than most, affording him a commanding vantage.

The map he’d constructed also helped.

We’re actually pretty close…

Burning landmarks into his memory, Vir jumped off the roof, falling faster and faster as he fell, feet first.

He didn’t have to fall this way, of course. Descending the elevator shaft wouldn’t have taken all that long, and was arguably safer.

Previously, Vir might have agreed. Now, though, he didn’t need to rely on ground prana to break his fall. Besides, it was fun.

Pulling airborne Ash prana into his legs, Vir focused his will on absorbing the fall, priming the Talent before his boots struck the ground.

The instant he did, prana flared, dampening his fall. His knees bent, but he stayed upright.

The Talent depleted the Prana Armor on the soles of his boots, but Vir had already decided he’d keep that area unprotected—he needed a gap in the armor to suck prana in from, and the bottom of his boots were as good of a place as any. It was an unlikely target for his enemies.

Vir could almost feel the Ashfire wolves around him rolling their eyes.

“We’re gonna take a quick detour.”

— —

Vir led the wolves to the collapsed structure, pausing only to add to his map, or to allow the Ashfire wolves to guide him around any enemies that happened to be in the way. They were still far enough from the core of the city where the truly world-ending beasts lurked, but that didn’t mean the ones that prowled here were lightweights.

Vir suspected most of the beasts roaming around here boasted Balar Ranks easily over five hundred.

Like the Phantomblade he was currently eyeing, standing on the rubble of the recently collapsed spire.

It was a foe he’d prevailed against, once. In the mine under Avi. When Cirayus had asked him to defeat one in the Ash, he’d refused—the beast had posed too great of a threat in that time.

Vir had come a long way since then. Like the Ashfire wolves, though, this Phantomblade was larger than its Ashen Realm brothers.

Larger, and with tens of thousands of tiny spikes, along with several large ones.

The small ones will be hard to avoid, Vir thought.

Its prana density was also higher than Vir’s body, since it lived closer to Mahādi’s central spire.

Vir wouldn’t dare fight it, normally. But it was sitting on the rubble he was after. Rubble that might actually have a piece of Imperium steel that hadn’t rusted through.

It was just a guess, but judging from its prana density and what Vir knew of its lesser siblings’ Balar rank, Vir estimated it somewhere between four hundred and six hundred.

He wouldn’t be fighting alone, though. Vir glanced at the Ashfire wolves around him. While he’d only seen them fight once, he thought they might individually rank around one hundred. Certainly not low, but Ash Wolves’ danger came with their pack coordination. The combined strength of this group of five could easily exceed five hundred.

Then there was Vir’s own strength to consider. The last time he’d been tested, he ranked sixty. Since then, Vir had learned Prana Blade, Blade Launch, Prana Channeling, Prana Barrier, and had multiplied his prana capacity at least twenty fold.

As he was now, here in the Māhadi Realm, Vir didn’t think he’d rank much lower than five hundred himself. It’d be a different story in the Demon Realm, where he’d lose the infinite reserve of Ash prana, but for now? He rivaled the strongest Talent wielders in the Human Realm. He rivaled Mejai of Ash.

Or so he thought. It was time to put the theory to the test. If there was something useful in that pile of rubble, Vir would be making a mistake leaving it there.

“You guys up for a fight?” he asked.

The wolves regarded him quizzically, but understood his intent when he brandished his katar in one hand and a chakram in the other.

The leader made a series of whining, wheezing sounds, and the other Ashfire wolves tensed, moving away.

“See if you can distract it. Get it to attack,” Vir said, unsure if the wolf understood his meaning.

Four wolves scaled the nearby buildings, climbing onto perches surrounding the Phantomblade. The leader stuck next to Vir.

“Alright then,” Vir said, cracking his neck as he sunk into his shadow. “Let’s take this thing out.”