5.12 Unvaulting

Difference: Minimal

Irwyn was contemplating whether he should escalate his actions or just keep defending as the situation developed. For the moment, he had settled on repeatedly feigning exhaustion and thus baiting massive waves of relatively more powerful undead attempting to finish him off. Though by the third time he did it, the enemy had clearly grown wise to the trick. 

He had noticed the supernatural darkness settle in like a mist around him about two minutes after Waylan had left and a second battle at the level of Domains had clearly begun. Unfortunately, he could not actually see what was happening. Even with his incredibly enhanced vision, the sheer blackness was its match. He could peer perhaps a few meters deep, but that was not enough to access the situation. 

Whichever option he chose, there were risks. If he kept his cards close to the chest, it could possibly lead to casualties or even defeat on their side. On the other hand, if he let go fully and showed the true extend of his power, he would use up his one chance to truly surprise the Rot by bridging the chasm between Conception and Domains. Not to mention the internal turmoil that would unleash within the Federation. The problem was that he did not understand how dire the situation actually was.

Then there was a mighty crack which reverberated through the room in more ways than just physical. Irwyn still couldn’t actually see, but he had to guess that it was the device that had made everyone vanish. The vague direction seemed right. Irwyn lowered the output of his magic, hoping to glimpse a bit more of the situation. But the changing situation did nothing to diminish its magic.

A few seconds later, a presence snuck through into his barrier. He very briefly tensed, but immediately recognised it to be Elizabeth’s. Practically only she could so seamlessly enter through the labyrinth of the ‘gap’ in his defenses after all, designed specifically for her passing. 

“Holding back on the fire?” She immediately questioned.

“I am afraid of hitting Waylan,” Irwyn admitted.

“Was it him that broke the the rotten thing?” Elizabeth asked.

“Maybe? He had gone out before you returned.”

“I will go retrieve him, he will probably be near the broken device. Alice will also try to bring back some more of our forces. So be careful to not hit anyone.”

“Wait! Are things… under control?”

“They should be now. If Alice can pull through, and she will, everything will be in good shape.”

A moment later Elizabeth was gone again. Irwyn kept holding the doorway against the still ongoing stream of undead, but it was thinning. He couldn’t tell whether that was because their numbers were lessening or because he had been deemed too hard to crack. Probably the latters, as the Rot had to have reserves. Irwyn had been putting more than just two Concepts into the fight in terms of firepower, but he still would have noticed any undead at the peak of Conception, yet there had been none so far.

Irwyn felt magic behind him, surging and wearily allowed it to manifest. Because of Elizabeth’s warning he did not lash out as a group appeared. First he noted Alice and Desir. While the latter looked perfectly fine, the former was collapsing into his arms. The Time mage was visibly spasming and taking heavy breaths. But Desir did not seem particularly alarmed, so the situation seemed to be within expectations, or at least manageable. He couldn’t help with any health issues anyhow.

Next he noted the rest, all of them wearing that cracked skull iconography to some extent. There was no trace of Elizabeth’s cousin among them either. 23 lingered somewhere across Conception and Two more were Senior Inquistors with a Domain. One was clearly simply Soul, while the other was esoteric in some way. It had something to do with sharing of burdens and strengths. Maybe something focused on leadership? A specific word did not enter Irwyn’s mind. 

“Hey,” he nodded towards Desir as everyone got their bearings and stared at him. “Welcome back.”

“Glad to see you alright,” the shapeshifter nodded.

“Assuming that really is your companion,” the leadership-adjacent Inquisitor interjected. “It is deadly to be left alone against so many.”

That gave Irwyn pause. Sure, his own group knew he was actually quite a bit stronger than the facade he had shown… but the average two-Concept mage could likely not weather half of the assault he had just taken on. Simply looking at his age, him being not only alive but unharmed stretched credulity.

“How do you propose I clear myself then?” Irwyn therefore asked the group of professionals.

“What large City did we visit at the edge of the Glass desert,” Desir immediately asked.

“Cyphers are notoriously unreliable, as anyone subverted will still know the answer,” the other Inquisitor pointed out immediately.

“I don’t know,” Irwyn easily admitted, even with the extra moment to think.

“A very Irwyn answer,” Desir nodded. “The Rot would have figured out the right answer from their memories. I trust he is still himself.”

“Unless they already know exactly how this should go,” the same Inquisitor said. “That kind of test is completely meaningless without…”

His words were interrupted by Elizabeth reappearing right by his side. She glanced at them and immediately asked: “Why have you not joined the battle yet?”

“We are discussing your companion’s possible subversion.”

“His magic is exactly the same as before. The Rot would not have been able to do such a precise reconstruction in just a few minutes. Irwyn, let the Senior Inquisitors pass. Both of them will stop the undead trying to flee through the other passages, rescue those still holding on in their battles, then one will join the ongoing fights while the other prevents further escape while assisting from a distance. Everyone else, if you are in good condition, prepare for cleanup duty. The rest will hunker down and secure the other survivors in case they had already been replaced.”

The two Domain mages had vanished halfway through the command joining the fray. Irwyn was surprised by how unquestioningly they had obeyed Elizabeth despite their obvious prior doubts. Was her word and judgement trusted enough to dispel them or was he still being suspected? He was not inclined to allow a deep probe into his mind even in an emergency.

“You are in charge of them now?”

“They voted on it,” she explained with a shrug.

“Five minutes in a room with a few Senior Inquisitors and now they already follow your every whim,” he shook his head in mock disbelief. “Maybe they should be worried about a different kind of subversion.”

“You should rest. Keep whatever you have left in reserve,” Elizabeth said with a grin. “I will join with the cleanup once the Raveners have been put down.”

“I think they haven’t spent their peak Conception mages,” Irwyn warned. “I don’t believe I have seen any.”

“There might be very few,” one of the younger - which still meant at least triple Irwyn’s own age - inquisitors spoke up. “A Ravener necromancer can forcefully carve a Concept into an undead near the peak of Conception. That allows them to spawn great swarms of meagre-ish Draugr, but such methods prevent them from achieving any future carvings of their own.”

“Best we are ready for unexpected resistance anyway,” Elizabeth nodded, then turned towards the room. “I am the only one who can see through the darkness, correct?” No one else spoke up in a moment, so she continued. “We should have established communications. The Senior Inquisitors are getting half lost. At least they have no trouble locating the Raveners. The situation should be stabilised now, even if this confusion might result in more escapees.”

And indeed, things calmed down afterward. With most of their Domain mages in battle - Elizabeth’s Cousin and one more Inquisitor had apparently stayed behind in that prison place - the situation quickly turned overwhelmingly to their advantage. Six mages specialised in fighting Raveners against four of those, one of which was not even a dedicated combatant. It was enough of a numbers advantage that they even had to leisure to take things slowly.

Ten more survivors besides Irwyn had been brought to them and then promptly separatedm just in case they were no longer actually alive. Waylan also let Irwyn know he was fine and safe within his barrier with a few light pokes. Then it was down to waiting, as the Senior Inquisitors took no risks. A group of the weaker Inquisitors that had been teleported by Elizabeth also decided to go up and update their superiors on the situation. With communication blocked within the vault, it was needed to physically move out first.

Not that the undead ever stopped trying to attack them. They just changed tactics. Instead of constant hordes, they instead opted to attempt ambushes. At random times, particularly stealthy Draugr tried to infiltrate or take someone out with an sudden attack. With everyone on guard though, that never amounted to anything.

At last, the Raveners seemed to grow desperate and attempted a final suicide attack of sorts, at least from what Elizabeth was narrating. They seemingly tried to detonate their Souls in an attempt to kill or at least seriously wound some of the Inquisitors fighting them. But thanks to the relatively controlled pace of the battle that ended up unfruitful. 

Their Domain mages had clearly been prepared for something of the sort and countered. Irwyn still couldn’t see how exactly, so he only felt the tremendous waves of spilling mana wash over everything. Moments later, the putrid smell he had been mostly ignoring basically halved. The main battle was over, the result better than they could have hoped for after the ambush.

Next there was an examination of the survivors to be done. Two of the ten were determined to be undead and were put down without a chance to try anything. Then everyone left split into groups with a Senior Inquisitor in each. Irwyn’s ended up being the smalles, as it was their original group, minus Magelord, plus a different Domain mage.

It was the woman in white and red silken habit that Elizabeth had mentioned in her retelling. They had had several minutes of relative calm to catch up on the story after all. Though Irwyn had left out Waylan’s presumed part for the moment, given the number of ears in the vicinity. 

“Search for any hidden philacteries,” one of the other Senior Inquisitors instructed. “We took down all the Raveners, but any number of Draugr could use them to resurrect at a later date.”

The clean up would likely be a bit of a slog. Their Senior Inquisitor was incomparably more precise at pointing out undead than Irwyn or Desir could claim to be, so she made quick work of them. The massive hall that had been filled to the brim was culled in minutes. Irwyn was then quickly put on incineration duties, while Elizabeth vented all the smoke into the Void. 

“There is a reason you have not gone to retrieve your Cousin,” the Inquisitor stated after a few minutes. By then all the other groups had already left the hall. Irwyn likely could have been long done had he rushed, but he was taking his time to reveal less of his real power and be ready for some innovative ambushes.

“He can stew for a long while longer,” Elizabeth nodded. “And I can enjoy some pleasant absence of his presence.”

“He likely bears much of the blame for how deeply this place had been infested,” Irwyn pointed out. “How in the world did he let an entire horde gather beneath his feet without noticing anything?”

“It does border on criminal incompetence,” the Inquisitor nodded. “But… there might have been subtler influences acting on him.”

“How so?” Desir frowned.

“The Ravener that had teleported with us likely hosted a Domain of SUBVERSION, or something similar. That is why we could not detect it with our magical senses. It is a devious tool if applied correctly, which the undead usually do. It cannot twist perception into complete absurdity, but it will definitely create gaps in caution. Something similar had caused the debacle in Abonisle, which you might be more familiar with.”

“So there is a chance he was once not insufferable?” Elizabeth half jested.

“They wouldn’t fully change his personality, and not just because it would be too obvious. But they could induce negligence and dismissal of a seemingly unlikely threat. Had he seemed too certain that this operation would be easy?”

“Now that you mention it, he had repeatedly doubted there would be so much as a single Ravener,” Irwyn recalled.

“Then that is as good of a guess as we can get without an indepth session with a dedicated cognitomancer. If there are even real traces left to find. Those subversions usually happen over months or years to become almost indistinguishable from natural thoughts.”

“It doesn’t justify denying us reinforcements that I had specifically requested,” Elizabeth grunted.

“I have no doubt he will receive many black marks on his record after today, but those scarcely matter for someone who is seemingly stuck in a dead end anyhow.”

“Already out of favour, so moving his post somewhere worse would require a truly extreme failure,” Desir nodded as if it made perfect sense to him. “We cannot really make the Magelord’s life any worse despite his objectionable actions. Our complaints will at best make it even less likely he could ever dighimself out of his current position. A Domain mage still needs to be afforded some comforts, no matter their personality.”

“I think so, yes. Not that I study the exact politics, but I have met enough of these ‘Magelords’ tasked with guarding a single strategic location in the middle of nowhere. But the bar for a Penitent is much higher than what some relatively small infractions can stack up to.”

“Is this still even a strategic location with the vault so ransacked?” Irwyn questioned.

“There is a large Source of Zerekium beneath the fortress,” Elizabeth explained. Irwyn had no idea what that was, but presumed the material or whatever had to be valuable. “About 20% of the whole Federation’s supply, if I recall. The vault was build after the mine since that isn’t worth even trying to move.”

Once all the corpses were incinerated off of the floor, their group joined everyone else in scouring the vaults for hidden remnants. Not that there was much left to loot in those sealed chambers. Whatever the Rot couldn’t use they had destroyed. Most of what seemed still usable were some ingots of metal that were apparently to tought to actually destroy by whatever abomination had been in charge of salting the earth.

Desir quickly proved himself incredibly astute at spotting hidden nooks and secret cupboards. Suspiciously so. It took Irwyn embarrassingly long to realise it had probably been Waylan giving him strong hints. As a burglar exraordionaire with previous experience of scouting out the place, their sneak proved himself useful where magical senses failed. Even Alice or the Senior Inquisitor could often not detect those heavily warded nook after all.

After well over an hour, every vault had been searched through by at least three groups, often more. Irwyn wasn’t even counting how many tiny philacteries they had found and destroyed, but it had to be in the hundreds just for their group. Most of those did not even belong to a Draugr, but merely Greater undead equivalent to someone in Imbuement. That seemed to be good enough for the moment. A better specialised team would do a more thorough job later. 

A few of the Conception Inquisitors remained in the large hallway to keep an eye on things, but everyone else headed back out. Once Elizabeth ferried the five remaining people who had still been stuck  She justified that as “guarding a potential retreat point for the Rot”. The journey through those corridors was boring and extra annoying because of the pervasive darkness. The enchantment meant to control it had also been broken, so even Elizabeth with her insignia ring could not disable the blinding effect without digging directly into the extremely delicate spellwork. 

Then they walked outside into a scene of utter devastation.

Where Irwyn remembered a layered fortress now stood flattened rock. There wasn’t even any rabble or hint of buildings. Even the hill they had arrived on was no longer present. The destruction seemed to reach several dozen killometers in every direction, and it was indiscriminate. He blinked, then glanced at Alice to ask if they had somehow been teleported, but she seemed equally shocked.

Before their group could recover, they were approached by a humanoid figure. Slow, only in Conception, though the exact progress hidden. Irwyn was weary for a moment, then recognised Calm. Irwyn’s own calm only lasted for a moment though, as he realised the other man was reverently holding a severed head in front of himself.

Irwyn knew that face. The visage was still full of cold detachment, as frozen as it had been in life. The eyes still open were likewise glacial, belonging to a woman that had clearly given everything for her purpose. Irwyn had not know her well, but owed much after she had likely saved his life. Because it was incomprehensibly High Inquisitor Vesuvian.

“Don’t look so frightened. I am still quite alive,” the head suddenly spoke, unbothered by the apparent lack of lungs. Or the rest of the body. Irwyn was so flabbergasted he couldn’t begin to compose a response right away.

“High Inquisitor,” Elizabeth said warily. “I think you can understand why that might be in serious doubt.”

“Confirmation protocols,” the High Inquisitor simply ordered instead of arguing. The gaggle of Senior Inquisitors shared a look among themselves, then the woman in white and red stepped up.

Everyone else moved to stand behind her, forming a two-pronged line where people placed a hand on the person in front of them before letting magic flow through. It was like a… relay of sorts. The whole group empowering or supporting something that the lead woman was meant to do. She closed her eyes and sent her own magic towards Vesuvian’s loose head.

“Confirmed,” she announced after ten or so seconds of tense silence. “The High Inquisitor is not subverted.”

That seemed to relax all the Inquisitors. And Irwyn too. If anyone knew how to tell, it would be them. Though he still worried about the long term consequences of be just a flying head, even with magic readily available. Not to mention the big question.

“How are you… alive?” He had to ask.

“I am my Soul. The body is merely an anchor that is needed for one without a Name. The foe failed to detroy my essence or its entire vessel. New flesh is already being arranged, though it will take a Life mage of similar power to mine to make it adquate.”

That seemed to border on necromancy. But Irwyn didn’t understand any of the subtleties of that. All the Inquisitors that obviously knew magnitudes more than him did not seem bothered in any way after the earlier test, so he decided to shove that question away for later when he might not accidentally insult enough powerful mages to wipe out a small country or ten.

“What happened here?” Elizabeth asked instead.

“A battle,” the disembodied head replied. “You see mostly the collateral damage.”

“And the residents?”

“Only some of those who had been in the mines had survived.”

“That’s brutal!” Alice hissed. “How many people had lived here?!”

“This is a joyous occasion for the whole Federation!” Vesuvian proclaimed with a sudden genuine smile instead. The first time Irwyn had seen the High Inquisitor show any emotion, yet it seemed almost manic. “Right in this place, I and Ezax von Blackburg have obliterated the Everen, the Blightmonger! May the scattered remnants of that abominable Soul never return.”