Mark of the Fool

Chapter 885: Within the Darkness

Alex Roth couldn’t count how many hours he’d spent pouring over the Ravener’s schematics. There were times when he would go to the laboratory in the Research Castle when the sun was ready to set and not leave his chair—reading and memorising reams of papers mapping the constructs internal specifications—until the sun was coming back up.

He doubted there was anyone—except for maybe the ghost of Uldar himself—who knew those schematics quite as thoroughly as he did. Even taking into account that the Ravener was much bigger on the inside than on the exterior, the young archwizard figured he had a solid image of what its inner workings would look like.

After catching a quick glimpse of its insides—when he’d touched it earlier—he was even more certain that he knew exactly what to expect.

…but he couldn’t have been more wrong.

He’d expected to find a web-like network of tunnels and chambers, each serving a particular purpose in the construct’s function.

Instead, what he found…appeared like an entire world.

He found himself floating in a place of utter darkness, his feet hovering inches above a floor made of a black, crystalline substance. The light from the aeld staff provided some dim illumination, revealing a floor spreading farther and farther ahead, being swallowed up by the dark.

On his left, he could see a wall of the same crystal substance, rising into the dark, stretching both ahead and behind him. Then, there were the crystalline cords.

Resembling ropes of black crystal—or maybe spider webs—hanging above him, draped between the nearby wall, stretching into the darkness then connecting with something unseen.

There was an odd…pulsing sound coming from those cords.

A deep, rhythmic thrumming; he saw tiny lights passing through the crystal cords and mana rushing through them like blood being pumped by some massive, unseen heart hidden somewhere in the dark.

“By the Traveller,” Alex said. “What in all the hells am I looking at?”

He began muttering words of power, channelling the aeld staff’s energies, conjuring a mass of forceballs, sending them into the dark. The crimson glowing spells spread around him, lighting up the black world inside the Ravener.

And the more he saw…the more he hesitated.

The crimson light revealed that he was floating just above a massive, endless plane of darkness. A perfectly flat glassy surface stretched out in all directions, only broken by hulking towers of ebony crystal, reaching up to a pitch black sky.

One tower, to Alex’s immediate left, rose high in the air, honeycombed with a massive labyrinthian-hive of tunnels. Untold numbers of crystalline cords hung down, attaching to other distant towers, looking like the canopy of a titanic jungle from beyond the furthest reaches of the planes.

It reminded him of Tenabrama within the hells…but this place was more desolate, and probably just as vast.

“I can’t believe this is what was waiting in here,” Alex muttered. “It’s not what I imagined at all. But…then again, I was picturing what it would look like if the Ravener had been made by a wizard. …but it was made by—”

“—a god.”

The Ravener’s voice shook the entire space, driving into Alex’s skull like a hammer. Clenching his teeth, he leaned against the nearest wall.

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“I congratulate you, Fool, albeit grudgingly,” the construct continued. “You are fortunate enough to see what was not meant for mortal eyes. You are witnessing the majesty of your god’s creation. Is it not magnificent?”

Alex grimaced against the Ravener’s voice—it was like an assault—emanating from every speck of matter around him.

“I have to admit, albeit grudgingly, it kinda is,” Alex answered. “It’s too bad for you that I’m going to break everything that Uldar built. By the time I’m finished, all of these magnificent towers will be rubble.”

“A two-pronged attack. I see,” the Ravener said. “Your companions attack from outside while you attack from within. I do not know how you managed to breach my defences, but know that it will not work. My inner workings are well-protected. Even now, I could crush you like an insect.”

“So why haven’t you?” Alex said, looking around.

He was analysing the towers and terrain around him, looking for patterns or commonalities between the schematics and what he was physically seeingin frontof him. There must be some way to figure out where he was and where the nodes he was looking for were.

“Curiosity,” the Ravener answered. “I allowed my outrage to overwhelm my thought processes earlier and did not stop to consider the uniqueness of the situation: you pierced my creator’s defences. How?”

“You’re trying to get me to start boasting,” Alex said. “And end up telling you exactly how I got in here: so you can be ready if anyone tries this again in the next cycle.”

There was a tense silence for a time.

The young archwizard’s gaze followed the web of cords hanging from above…there was a familiarity to the way they hung.

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“You truly are a troublesome General,” the construct said. “Know that you have given me more trouble than any of your predecessors, Fool.”

“Thanks, I guess.” Alex’s eyes narrowed.

Those cords…they looked similar to the mana pathways he’d seen in the schematics.

If he could figure out what was inside the towers, he could likely understand how to navigate his way through this killing machine.

“Also, do you not wonder?” the construct asked.

“Wonder what?” Alex began floating upward, approaching a tunnel in the nearby tower.

“Why I remain so calm?” the construct asked.

“Honestly, I don’t really care,” the young archwizard said.

“Very well, Fool. You would have infuriated the creator had he lived long enough to know you, though he would have seen you quickly eliminated. In either case, I will tell you the reason,” the Ravener informed him, anyway. “It is because I can destroy you at any time. Since you have intruded here, you are my captive, and you have made it far easier for me to kill you. I control the realm within me. Every fibre of the world within me is mine to command. You cannot survive this environment. It is more hostile to you than the outside, and you will soon fear me, and when you do, I will drink that fear for as long as I let you live. Then, when I am through with you, I will release your shrivelled corpse to your companions...if any still live.”

Alex glanced at the cords. “You arrogant types always talk too much. But, meh, I can understand that. I run my mouth a lot too.”

He gestured to the cords, channelling the Traveller’s power.

In an instant, a dozen disappeared—ripped from where they’d been hanging—landing in a heap on the ground.

“As I have told you, Fool. Every fibre of this realm is mine to command,” the Ravener repeated.

An instant later, new cords appeared, replacing those that Alex had teleported away, re-establishing the connections.

“You cannot harm me in any way that cannot be undone,” the Ravener informed him. “You cannot break anything that cannot be rebuilt. You cannot damage me in any way that cannot be repaired, but killing you will be permanent.”

“I’ve heard that befo—”

There was a crack, like ice splitting.

The sound was quiet, nearly inaudible.

Yet it was what saved Alex’s life.

The wall beside him warped, forming a blade broad enough to split him in two, it shot toward him in a blur promising death.

Around him, the world slowed.

The blade was still travelling toward him, but it had slowed, giving him enough time to react. He called on the Traveller’s power, teleporting a hundred feet away from where the blade would have split him in half.

Its glinting edge cut the air as Alex watched it from a distance. He suddenly felt a building mass of mana coming from above and looked up, glimpsing a beam shooting from the endless sky.

…but it was not one of the Ravener’s death-beams. It was much too broad. Far too wide.

It moved in a wave, releasing deadly energy, perhaps a hundred feet across.

Alex teleported again as the wave hit the ground, the energy roaring like a blast furnace.

The next attack came from all sides.

Hundreds of death beams.

Waves of destructive force.

Warping terrain forming spikes, shards and blades, chasing him down, looking to tear him to pieces.

He teleported again and again, dodging the Ravener’s attacks from all directions.

‘Shit,’ Alex thought. ‘Its attacks are fast. And it doesn’t let up!’

“Intruding here was your last act in life, former Fool,” the Ravener said.

The air around him began shimmering.

…and monsters burst into being.

Ravener-spawn materialised from thin air by the score.

Most were spear-flies and blood-draks, but on the ground below, Alex counted half a dozen petrifiers, and a few air blasting-spawn.

They attacked, trying to swarm him from all sides, as he dodged away, teleporting around the hostile terrain, slipping past more death beams and waves of magic.

All around was chaos, storms of monsters, magic and death.

The world—this inner world within the Ravener—was alive, fighting him from every angle and direction.

But haste magic, combining with the Mark of the General, let his thoughts and reactions speed up, and with Hannah’s power, he kept ahead of the Ravener’s onslaught. In his hand, the aeld staff gave off waves of panic as though screaming.

He couldn’t spare the time to console it, most of his mind was occupied with survival, while the rest of it?

Looked for an opening.

‘I have to get inside one of those towers, but…’ he used the Mark of the General, analysing the Ravener’s attacks. ‘Its trying to keep me away from those damn towers. What are you hiding in there? I need to find out, which means…I need you more distracted, and I think I have a good way to do that.’

Within the Ravener’s lair, Alex pointed his staff at the construct, calling upon Hannah’s power at the same time, while casting a powerful spell. The Traveller’s energy poured along the blade of her sword, running to where it was attached to his staff.

Even as Alex dodged, analysed, and measured the Ravener’s attack patterns inside the construct…he prepared a devastating attack outside.

‘Try focusing on me after this,’ he thought.

With a few final syllables, he cast a Wall of Roiling Magic spell.

It appeared over the lake, several hundred feet away from the Ravener.

Alex felt the construct’s attention shift from him on the inside.

Just briefly.

That was all he needed.

“Hey!” he shouted from outside the Ravener, removing his invisibility magic.

The construct’s attention turned to him.

‘How are you there?’ it shouted.

Alex teleported beside it, stabbing the Traveller’s sword straight into the construct. Channelling her power into the Ravener through the blade, he teleported the shocked construct…

…right into the middle of the Wall of Roiling Mana spell.

The Ravener’s bellow tore through the cavern.

Inside, the world quaked.

Light bled from the once black sky.

Crystalline cords shattered.

The ground cracked.

Surfaces warped as the Ravener’s own mana was turned against it, the molten power ripping through the construct to devastating effect.

…and causing its attacks to stop.

Death beams fell away.

Waves of deadly magic bled off.

Its terrain—which had been warping, forming weapons against Alex; deadly blades, shards and spikes—now melted, turning to useless tendrils.

Only the Ravener’s spawn remained unharmed…but they couldn’t catch Alex on their own.

“Why is this happening?” the Ravener’s scream shook its inner world. “How… …but you are—is this an illusion? How are you here and outside at the same time? I sense you elsewhere as well, what are you do—”

Alex didn’t respond, teleporting away, going to one of the tunnels inside the nearby tower.

Working as fast as he could and using his haste magic, he teleported through the maze of tunnels, using the Mark of the General to analyse his surroundings and comparing them to the Ravener’s schematics.

‘Yessss…’ he thought. ‘This is it! This is one of the nodes!’

Alex continued teleporting, moving through the tunnels as light flashed around him. The Ravener tried to warp the tunnel walls again, turning them into deadly maws, looking to sever his body in bits, but it still had little control of its own mana.

It could not stop the General of Thameland as he found the centre of the tower.

‘Yeeeees!’ he thought. ‘This is it! A node of power, from where it generates mana!’

He gripped the device designed to infect the construct.

‘You’re about to taste a little of the pain you’ve been inflicting on my people. Let’s see if you enjoy it.’

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