Underworld - Book 7 - Chapter 43

Once everyone was gone, only Aeris, Shamash and I remained. At least, that’s what it seemed until Debra and Jeremiah turned back. The couple shared a look and nodded to one another. Then Debra stepped forward and reached out with a gloved hand. A semi-translucent golden mana-tablet the size of a small book appeared.

“A late wedding present,” she said reluctantly. “The truth is…”

Her husband walked over to stand beside her. “The truth is that we were only going to give this to you if you met certain criteria. One, for you to reach Grandmaster. Two, that you were a competent caster. Three, that you weren’t insane with power, and finally, that you proved to be an ally to the Illuminated Cathedral.”

I hesitated to reach out and take it because I wanted to make sure there weren’t strings attached. “If I’m honest, I don’t see how I’ve proved to be an ally to the Illuminated Cathedral.”

“You allowed our family and friends to participate in the beast tide,” Debra reminded me.

Jeremiah as always didn’t sugarcoat anything. “You haven’t. Instead, we want to give you a chance.

“It was our duty to inform the Cathedral when you reached Grandmaster. Even if we’ve left, our loyalty still remains to our country of origin. We believe wholeheartedly that it will benefit everyone, including you and your people, but we’ve also put you in a difficult position even after you’ve been nothing but welcoming. This will hopefully let us show our sincerity. Please.” He motioned for me to take the mana-tablet.

With a sigh, I did. “What is it?”

Debra laid out its contents. “It’s a collection of excerpts from manuals, spell tomes, and the personal notes of some of the Illuminated Cathedral’s greatest Light Mages. It includes the personal notes of the Chancellor himself. It focuses on advance uses of Light Magic, a brief history of some of our most impressive feats, and has a primer on the theory behind the highest level spells.”

 She gave me a worried look. “I know you’re considering using Scorching Sun to combat this Colossal, Elorion, but casting such a spell without the Focal Lens is anything but simple. It’s just as likely you’ll summon a large Artificial Sun, and, as powerful as that can be, it’s not the same as the spell you were able to cast in the vampire realm. A true Scorching Sun is a reaction of the natural elements and mana as it is a spell. It becomes self-sustaining for a time and burns with the heat of a genuine star, because that’s exactly what it is. It’s not possible to simply channel extreme amounts of mana into your spell and force it to happen.

“This will hopefully help. I just wish we’d given it to you sooner…”

“Thank you,” I said. “I feared it might not be that easy.”

“None of the greatest spells are easy to cast. And even if you can pull it off, true mastery of such magic might not be possible. The more you practice, experiment, and develop your Light Magic, the more powerful your magic will grow.”

The couple left us. Aeris and I were pondering the same fear.

“Is there even time for you to study it?” she asked.

“You have half a day, at most,” Shamash said. “The two of you should be able to escape once the Colossal arrives, but that won’t be the same for the others. Only your friend Travis has the speed to outrun such a monster once targeted. You must decide what to do with the others.”

“What level is it,” Aeris asked.

“It could be as low as 60,000 and as high as 100,000. It’s not a Colossal’s level that makes it so formidable. From what I can tell, this one should be near the middle of that. The greatest benefit of killing it won’t come from the experience. It will come from absorbing what’s left after its dead. For you humans that don’t have any ability to convert flesh and blood into power, killing it will be of little benefit to you.”

“You get all the good stuff,” Aeris said, giving me a nudge.

I nudged her back. “I can’t deny that. I married you, didn’t I?”

When glancing at Shamash, I found him still and silent. It only took a peek into the mana realm to see he’d attached a mana thread to the tablet and was already reading it.

I was about to say something when his eye flickered to me. “This does complicate things,” he admitted. “I’ve only been able to categorize and skimmed through the primer. According to this, the lady Light Mage is right. There’s a categoric difference between Artificial Sun and Scorching Sun. And even with exponentially more mana, Artificial Sun can’t compare.

“Is it possible for me to figure it out in time?” I asked.

“I don’t know.”

That was not the kind of thing one wanted to hear from a lich.

“Give me a few minutes,” I said.

Aeris nodded.

Taking a seat right there between the necropolis and the defensive walls, I slipped my perceptions into the mana-tablet. With such high Intelligence and Wisdom, reading at high speeds was nothing, but I had another advantage I hadn’t had much chance to make use of recently. Time Crawl.

As my senses delved into the assortment of writings, I found far more waiting for me than I expected. There were several manuals on different spells, Light Magic and magic theory, and even the elements. The excerpts were vast and copied from ancient writings with a more topical approach. The personal notes weren’t just from Bishop Mather either, but many past Chancellors.

I wasn’t surprised when Shamash spoke to me. He even matched my perceived time with his own version of Time Crawl. “This is not just some gift. Some of these entries go back thousands of years. What you have in your hands can only be found in one place. The Illuminated Cathedral. And not just anyone has access to it. It’s perhaps one of the most valuable assortments of information on Light Magic in existence.”

“And they just gave it to me?”

“Your suspicions are well placed. I don’t believe the Whitfield’s have any intention of holding this favor above your head, but the moment others in their order find out then they most certainly will. If this Debra wasn’t the current Chancellor’s own sister, I don’t think you would be seeing this unless you agreed to move to the Illuminated Cathedral and stay there.”

“Should I give it back?”

“Now that it’s revealed, I’m quite certain that if you did then it would be a death sentence to whoever had it in their position. What do you think the Head Mistress would’ve done is she knew? The Pastor and his wife were at Matriarch’s Crown before they came here for your wedding. They are either the biggest of fools or possess indomitable courage.”

“Then… Must I get rid of it?

“You misunderstand. You’ve joined the succubus. In giving it to you, they’ve given it to her. If she were to ask you any question about its contents, you’re in no place to refuse. But Lilith is far too cunning to put you in such a position when she can just ask you about specifics about Light Magic and its uses.

“Enough of this. We must first find everything on Scorching Sun and the uses of Artificial Sun. Time is not our ally.”

For what seemed like hours, I scanned through the mana-tablet’s contents. When we found something, I began reading it while Shamash continued to look through other works.

I got a good idea why Debra had been so insistent that Scorching Sun was a difficult spell to cast. Difficult… It was all but impossible. There was a reason the last few Chancellors, many of whom had reached the leveling soft cap, couldn’t cast it themselves. If they had used the Focal Lens they could have. Likely any Light Mage with enough mana could.

Something else became painfully clear. The level of Scorching Sun I had cast was at the lowest possible level. I’d only had a maximum of what, 50 million MP at the time. The Focal Lens had helped, but what I’d done was little more than light a spark. I had ignited something I couldn’t even fathom. To use the amount of mana I had now to not just kindle a Scorching Sun into being, but to forcibly feed it…

Artificial Sun was actually capable of far more than I ever would’ve expected even without the transformative change into Scorching Sun. Its primary difference was that it wasn’t self-sustaining. It was basically a mass of heavily charged Solar Mana. The more mana, the more powerful it could become. But that was also its limitation.

Scorching Sun probably shouldn’t even be considered the same spell as Artificial Sun. It was the Focal Len’s ability to greatly focus the mana cast that made it possible for the reaction to take place. The reaction was no other than nuclear fusion. The exact same process that happens inside a star. In other words, Artificial Sun was an imitation, while Scorching Sun was the real thing.

I probably took longer than I should before removing my perceptions from the mana-tablet. Our hour for deciding was almost up.

“How’d it go?” Aeris asked, showing no sign of annoyance for me taking too long.

“I think I can do it. In theory…”

“Good. What about the others?”

I stood pulled her in. “You trust Xaphan?”

She nodded.

“Then we be honest with everyone and let them decide for themselves. If it doesn’t work, then we run. If it does…”

“Yeah. Yeah. You drain a mountain of corpses and grow more powerful than ever.”

I shook my head. “That not how this works, Aeris. If I can really cast Scorching Sun, then there will be nothing left. Well, maybe a little. We’re doing this to protect our home.”

She tried to mask it with a grin, but I saw her lower lip tremble. I kissed my wife.

We felt Mistress Nava touch down. She wasn’t shy about interrupting. “I can’t wait any longer. What did you two decide?”

Not everyone decided to stay. The majority of the Dire Wolves would flee to the north, but Liulfr and Brynhild would stay. It was the same with the goblins except they’d return to the Dungeon Level and their many hideouts. Master Khaba and Mistress Nane would also stay. Since we’d decided to remain, Sister Nava wouldn’t be outdone. She too had the speed to flee from the Colossal, so it wasn’t much of a danger for her. Perhaps it was the same for our Dire Wolves and goblin friends. The Whitfield’s would send their children with the people of Sanctuary while staying themselves. Most everyone would remain in the necropolis and only flee through Lower Sanctuary toward the Head Mistress’s dungeon if we failed. If that happened, then Khun would fill in the tunnel with rock. He’d already expanded, so he could always open a new tunnel later if the Colossal ever moved on.

We decided we wouldn’t confront the monstrosity close to our home either. It was about a hundred miles from Sanctuary when Shamash was able to sense it, and it would only take about half a day for it to travel that distance. So we’d confront it when it was about ten miles away just to be safe. But before that, Aeris and I approached the Primordial.

“Xaphan,” from where she hovered nearby in her Wisp Form. “We wanted to inform you that we were going to turn off the Dungeon Aura. We assume the beast tide will continue for a time, and the Colossal will still arrive in half a day.”

The Primordial Cat kept his gaze on the south but spoke where both of us could hear. “Yes. It is too late for it to turn back now.”

“Then we have your blessing to turn off the aura?”

“Do as you will.”

When we returned, I took a seat in the southernmost tower of the castle walls and returned to my studies. Using Time Crawl would allow hours to become days for me. I needed every minute I could get.

As for the Ireki Wraith, Shamash said he had him taken care of if we had to flee. I didn’t care enough the guy to pry deeper. Instead, I dug deep into how Laser could be used to create nuclear fusion, and it was theorized that it was actually a mixture of Laser and Artificial Sun that created the best environment for Scorching Sun to exist.

It had been centuries since the Illuminated Cathedral had anyone that could cast Scorching Sun without a Focal Lens, so there was no step-by-step manual. It was all based on theory, and what scholars could glean from historical narratives. The only real option was to read everything. So that’s exactly what I did.