Three blurs moved at high speed through the landscapes of the Shadowlands… Rafael used only his powerful body to run, Vitarys was enveloped in several wind spells, while Liza glowed with a crackling violet energy. In less than 27 minutes, they reached the tunnel entrance.
The place used to be an old, disused mine that had recently been purchased by the Order and was now used as a facade to conceal the underground station that transported the numerous cargoes arriving by train from the depths of the Shadowlands.
Aside from the broken magical defenses at the mine entrance, there was little damage to the structure itself. There were also no signs of the bodies of the dead apprentices or those still alive.
"What now?" Liza asked.
Vitarys also looked at Rafael silently, awaiting his instructions.
Rafael took a soul stone from his inventory, threw it on the ground, and muttered a magical chant, causing the mud to rise alongside the stone, forming a small, crude statue of a clay man.
"Liza, stay here at the entrance and give us cover if we need it. If Vitarys and I aren't back in 10 minutes, or if this statue breaks, get out of here quickly and tell Zaya to declare a state of emergency throughout the Order."
Liza waved him off, staying outside and keeping watch, and the two finally entered the tunnel.
Walking more slowly, they soon reached a hidden entrance inside the mine and finally entered the familiar tunnel with several tracks.
***
"Luckily, there weren't any wagons here this week, so whoever broke in didn't find anything here." Rafael thought as he carefully examined everything.
Soon, the station area was left behind, and the many tracks narrowed until only two remained in an even narrower tunnel.
The environment was dark and damp, with only the glowing moss on the ceiling and walls providing some visibility in the darkness. Rafael continued to observe everything as they continued deeper into the tunnel.
Soon, a strange yet familiar scent filled his nose. And his ears picked up faint noises coming from ahead…
The smell was something Rafael recognized from his time in the Mage's Throat dungeon. His system also quickly confirmed the lack of oxygen in that part of the tunnel. What his ears picked up soon showed in his vision were several dead red crows, some still struggling on the ground, trying to breathe one last time.
Near the struggling crows, the luminous mosses were all dead as well, leaving the rest of the tunnel completely dark.
Rafael quickly understood how the apprentices and these crows had died without even realizing what had caused their deaths. Of course, the lack of oxygen wouldn't be a problem for him, as he still had powerful, altered lungs, but since he remembered he had Vitarys by his side, they would have to act quickly.
"Hold your breath, Vitarys, there's little oxygen up ahead, and we need to be quick—"
"Shluk!"
"AAARGH"
Rafael was mid-sentence when he felt extreme danger coming toward him from behind...
A large spear with a tip plated in Valyrian Steel, glowing with powerful wind-affinity energy, pierced his chest. It was too fast for him to avoid at this close range, and when it pierced, it caused far more damage than just a normal wound...
Of course, Rafael didn't even need to look back to recognize that familiar spear belonged to Vitarys...
Using all his strength and ignoring all the system's warnings, he moved away from Vitarys toward the raven corpses, only to notice them all glowing a luminous green as he approached.
"Poison Blast!"
"Boom"
"Boom"
"Boom"
The several small explosions filled Rafael's surroundings with a virulent green mist that quickly poisoned him and simultaneously infected him with various diseases. But since the poison and diseases didn't exceed the Medium level, they barely had any effect on his powerful body.
Realizing that the wound in his chest hadn't healed and was still bleeding, he checked the system messages:
[BEEP]
[Attention!]
[You have suffered Major Damage(Holy) to your body and Minor Damage to your soul…]
[The passive spell Regeneration has difficulty healing you due to the Holy element contained in Valyrian Steel…]
Rafael placed his hand on his chest, covering the front of the large wound that refused to heal due to the presence of the holy metal at the tip of Vitarys's spear, and finally spoke:
"Why, Vitarys?"
Vitarys just stared at Rafael coldly with his violet eyes and remained silent. But a voice answered for him…
"Because he is under my control…"
When Rafael turned toward the source of the voice, he saw a human-shaped shadow emerge from the darkness of the tunnel. This shadow wasn't the only one to emerge; several others with powerful energies revealed themselves. And along with them, several curses and restrictive spells struck Rafael, who was now surrounded.
"Take care of the girl who remained at the tunnel entrance, leave the rest here to me."
Vitarys nodded and turned, running in the opposite direction of the tunnel where Liza was.
After the man's final order to Vitarys, Rafael also finally recognized and associated the voice with a figure he had personally seen decades ago at the Grand Auction of Asshai...
"If you just wanted to kill me, you didn't need to go through so much trouble, Master Baron Bones..."
Rafael said these words while feigning great distress from the countless curses and illnesses his body easily shook off, thanks to one of the few advantages his new race had.
"Kill you? Why would I do that? If I can control you, the entire Order of Sages will belong to me..."
"Do you think it's that simple to do?"
Rafael asked sarcastically, trying to get more information about what Baron Bones was trying to do this time. At the same time, he tried to observe who the others were, hiding in the shadows and surrounding him during this ambush...
"If I were my past self, all I could do was turn you into an undead, but now I wield powers you can't even imagine, and I'm part of an organization several times larger than any group in Asshai... But what about you, Red Sage? What were you doing in that tunnel? The spirit I sent to investigate where this tunnel leads hasn't yet reached its end..."
"Vitarys didn't tell you?"
"My control over him is still superficial, as I haven't had the opportunity to weaken him like I'm doing with you now. Besides, I didn't imagine you'd make your elite members sign so many blood contracts to keep your secrets... Don't you trust anyone?"
Baron Bones smiled at his last comment. Rafael smiled back, still breathing heavily and bleeding steadily from the wound in his chest.
"That's because this secret is one of the most important to my Order. Besides, after the incident with the disciples you stole, you can't blame me for being too careful..."
"Well, it doesn't matter what you hide at the end of this tunnel. When I fully control your body and mind, all your secrets will be mine..."
"You wounded me in an ambush, cursed me, and removed all the air from this tunnel to weaken my fire spells... I bet you also placed some kind of barrier in this area to prevent contact with people outside?"
"Correct, but I also anticipated it. If you have any way to send messages even with the barrier, I guarantee no one would be able to come to your aid..."
Rafael, who was in contact with Natasha in the Castle of the Sages using his Blood Clone, was surprised by the Master Necromancer's bold statement and managed to send her one last message before giving up his clone to regain all the power he would need in this fight...
The individuals surrounding Rafael, hidden in the shadows, finally advanced toward him, some emerging from his own shadow and grabbing him by the legs, arms, and neck. There was even a powerful High-level curse cast by Baron Bones himself.
With Rafael completely immobilized, Master Baron Bones calmly approached him...
With a wave of his hand, a totem made of semi-transparent bones resembling a "tree" floated beside him. On this strange and unusual totem pole, several miniature souls hung from it like fruit. Some souls shone brighter and stood out more prominently in the tree's uppermost, bony branches, while others shone more dimly and were found in the lower branches of the strange, distorted tree.
Rafael could count nine glowing souls at the top, and there were at least 70 more at the bottom.
As soon as the totem pole approached his side, transparent, spiderweb-like lines emerged from it and began moving slowly toward him. At that moment, all his senses screamed danger. And after he finally got all the answers he could get, he finally decided to break free and flee.
"Space Control!"
One hundred meters above the tunnel, on the surface of the Shadowlands. Rafael reappeared, raising both hands to the sky, gathering yellow energy. At the same time, he slammed them both into the ground, shouting Asshai'i words and unleashing one of the first advanced spells he had mastered in the last 30 years:
"Earthquake!"
***
Without any flashing light, sign of magic, chanting, gestures, or use of artifacts and Relics, Baron Bones saw Rafael disappear from where he was, ignoring all the restrictions he was under, leaving everyone inside the cavern stunned, including the Necromancer himself, who revealed himself to be not himself, but rather his new Senior Lich, whom he controlled remotely.
At the same time, the cavern ceiling began to tremble, about to collapse the entire tunnel on top of them. But just as the massive earthquake began, it stopped instantly.
Soon, another shadow revealed itself, being one of the Umbromancer Masters belonging to the Shadow Society. The Senior Lich controlled by Baron Bones made only a small gesture to him before a large amount of shadows gushed from his body like ink, covering everyone inside and making them disappear from the scene…
***
Back above ground, Rafael spat blood and gasped for breath as his advanced spell was interrupted by a powerful body-type innate spell he had never seen before.
The innate spell not only stopped the Earthquake from casting, but also reversed all blood flow in his body, causing his severe wound to bleed even more…
The culprit behind this terrible innate spell stared at him with luminous red eyes filled with complacency, while wearing a new and improved version of a full-body Living Armor, which seemed to have been crystallized in fresh blood and pulsed with life along with its wearer.
It was the Master Blood Armor…
****
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