πŸ“š the soul refiner b. 01 Part 37 of 20
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SCIENCE FICTION FANTASY

The Soul Refiner Bk 01 Ch 37 39

The Soul Refiner Bk 01 Ch 37 39

by maltry
20 min read
4.84 (4900 views)
adultfiction

Chapter 37

Jito was recovered by noon the next day. At least he was recovered enough to keep up, if not in fighting condition. I wasn't sure if my session with Myta the night before had quite the effect I wanted, but at least it had the effect that she'd wanted. She seemed a bit more relaxed at least, and the one time I'd praised her with a 'good girl' out of sight of the others showed that at least some of my commands stayed with her. I admit, watching her swoon with nothing but a couple of words was a stroke to my ego.

The other hunters returned near noon as well, reporting similar findings to Denu. At that point I saw no real alternative, I needed to go examine the warded areas myself.

"Why is it so important that you take the lead, master? Just feeling a need to run headlong into potential danger?" Myta asked me.

"If there are sorcerous traps laid, or clues to be found, I am the only one with the skills to identify them." I replied. "You learn quickly, but you don't have the experience I do with such things."

She snorted, smirking just a little. "You can look through me easily enough, and my aspect is better for getting out of harm's way. I'd rather have you in a safer spot in any case. No one else here has more than the most basic healing skills."

I couldn't fault her logic, though it galled me a little to let others take the risk on my behalf. I grinned however, as a sudden thought struck me.

"What?" She asked, seeing my expression.

""I think that's the first time you've argued with me, and you were correct. Well done, my flame." I leaned close and whispered in her ear. "Good girl."

Myta went rigid, letting out a sound like a hoarse hiccup as the wave of pleasure took her by surprise. She steadied herself by grabbing my shoulder as she swayed for a moment, then let out a shuddering breath.

"Wicked master," she murmured, glancing around quickly to see if any of our companions had seen. "I think that was stronger than earlier. Did you do something different?"

"No, but it's been less than a day." I mused. "The changes probably just haven't finished yet."

"So it might get even stronger?" Her voice rose in pitch a little, sounding mildly panicked. But there was a smile on her lips. "Best not do that when I'm fighting then.

"I won't."

We headed to the warded area, and I was firmly in the middle of the group. Myta led the way, and Ket trailed behind. For once the spirit was keeping us appraised of her position, and she'd told us that, while she couldn't find her way into the warded area on her own, she would be able to follow us. I'd suspected for some time that the leopard had some kind of spiritual tether attached to me. How else could she communicate with me over long distances? And despite my inability to find any such link this all but assured me I was correct. Whatever the link was, she must be certain that it would guide her through the ward's interference.

As Myta had suggested, I followed her senses as she passed through the sorcerous barrier. It wasn't as though I were there, precisely, I was sorting through her impressions second hand. I couldn't really 'look' at anything she wasn't already paying attention to already, but my vas was observant, and I could also nudge her where needed. She and the rest of the vanguard swept through the area quickly, so I wasn't waiting long in any case. As Denu had already told us, there was nothing obviously out of place, no signs of recent habitation. I did find traces of sorcery, however. Traces that were tantalizingly familiar.

"I think I know what this is, though I hope I'm wrong." I said to Myta. "Just give me a few minutes to confirm, and have your men keep their guard up." She nodded, and gave out some terse instructions, infected by my tense mood. I closed my eyes to better focus on the mana around me, tracing out the edge of the warded area. As I'd feared, it was perfectly round.

Almost all wards were spherical, extending from a central point that was some form of enchanted object. But wards weren't generally static things. They flexed and rippled at their edges like curtains caught in a gentle breeze, yielding to stronger flows of mana before directing them away. I only knew one kind of ward that didn't show this effect, and they weren't created by anyone living. Myta gave me a worried look as I cursed aloud, but followed silently when I made my way to the exact center of the area. There was a large boulder, sitting at the edge of a small clearing. It was covered in moss, and looked natural enough at a glance, but I knew better.

"They're hiding in a ruin of the ancients." I said to my vas, as well as the small group that had tagged along after me. "There's an entrance here," I pointed to a spot in the ground. "We can use this stone to open it."

Look of curiosity and understanding passed across the faces of the group, in nearly equal measure.

"You have experience with the ruins of the ancients?" Hati asked the question they were all thinking, and I grimaced at letting slip one more secret.

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"This type of ruin, specifically. The ancients were not one people, it's just the term we use for dead civilizations, who had knowledge beyond our own. I recognize this type of ward and entrance."

"If they're in there," Cato started, "why not just drop a few trees over the entrance? Or can we disable it some other way?"

"That's half of a good plan," I nodded in approval. Myta was the one who understood immediately.

"They're connected underground, aren't they?" She asked, but didn't wait for my confirmation. "There's two other warded areas nearby, and those are just the ones we know about. If they're connected, sealing one entrance won't do much."

"That's... how would you even build tunnels like that? And why?" The sergeant shook her head in disbelief, but I just shrugged.

"I don't know, that's why they're ancients."

"So, we need to seal two entrances as best we can, and then follow an unknown force into an unmapped warren, and try to distract them from leaving." My flame stated it matter-of-factly, not sugar coating the situation. "What can you tell us about the interior?"

"It depends on how similar they are." I replied. "I've only been through one other ruin of this type, so there's no telling how similar they will be. The entrances were identical though.

"The ruin I visited was extensive, like an underground warren. The tunnels would branch and recombine without any clear pattern, and there were traps. Easily sensed by a sorcerer, but deadly. The walls can't be breached, we never found anything that would damage them, and the entryways would appear in clusters. Just like these." I went on for some time, describing my past experiences as the men organized to block and trap the entrance, directed by Cato. He had apparently inherited at least a portion of his father's skill.

We finished the day by performing a second round of spirit tempering on our first batch of volunteers. It was a risk, but our situation called for risks. All those who had gone through the first ritual successfully now held enough mana for at least three more nodes to be purified. Hati and Denu had their entire spirit bodies refined. We treated seven people, more than we'd planned for in that first, disastrous attempt.

Our next day was a repeat of the same, traveling to the second warded site, blockading the entrance, then strengthening more of our fighters. That was all we could afford to do. Over half of our people had been through the ritual twice, and we even lit large bonfires to restore Myta's mana as quickly as possible.

I debated myself for awhile, withdrawing to attend to the rest of the company would put us on better footing. But most of those who remained had only been able to purify a single node in the first round. Pushing them further would take days more, and the Pure might uncover our interference at any moment. We opted to do without, resting up for a dawn assault.

Ket was willing to serve as our scout, even though the walls of the ruin blocked her ethereal passage, and muddled her senses. Those with only mundane sight would be unable to perceive her at all, and even most sorcerers would need to be actively searching to spot her cloaked movements. I triggered the door, a disc of stone that rose from the forest floor, floating to one side. Not a single clod of dirt fell away from it, some magic holding the disturbed humus in place. Neither did the soil spill down into the sloping tunnel it revealed.

In a flash, the spirit leopard was gone, and our group began to quietly follow. There was little point in waiting too long, as there was no immediate greeting party, and our descent was required. Ket moved quickly, and she'd let us know as soon as she found anything of note.

The tunnel concerned me, looking a bit different than the other such ruin I'd been in. It had the same, rounded configuration, and the same slick walls that reminded me of glazed pottery. Translucent near the surface, but opaque within. The differences however, were stark, and I wondered how much of my information would still be applicable. Instead of brilliant white, the walls were a fleshy tan color, with dark veins of red-brown running through. There was still light coming from the ceiling, its sources somehow embedded beneath the surface. But these lights flickered, and their color shifted, making the walls seem to shift and undulate. An impression that was only enhanced by the fact that all the surfaces were uneven. Running a hand over the revealed the waves in the stone, and more than a few people scuffed their feet or stumbled across a gentle, but unseen irregularity in the path.

When the tunnel opened up into a nearly circular chamber, I breathed a sigh of relief. Here at last, we saw signs of a camp. Marks of a fire, discarded waste, and on the walls there were charcoal marks that were clearly trail signs.

Myta held up a palmful of flame to illuminate them better, these marks could provide us some invaluable information. But before she could do more than glance at them, the deathly quiet was shattered by inhuman shrieks.

Chapter 38

"Demons!" I barked, as the shrill, unearthly cries echoed around us. It was a guess, rather than an observation, but I was certain of it. We already knew that the Pure had been working with demons, and almost no other creature would react as strongly to such a minor use of sorcery as Myta had just displayed. Even many types of demons wouldn't care, but those with aspects of hunger or desire would pursue even the barest scraps of mana, and those with aspects like hatred or rage would lash out at any available target.

"Try to keep the fight near this doorway," I instructed my vas, nodding toward the hallway that led deeper into the ruin. "If we keep the battle confined, I should be able to prevent us from drawing more." I couldn't tell how many voices were headed toward us, but no matter the number, it was already too many.

Myta situated herself and Hati directly in front of the doorway, and chose those fighters with the coolest heads to flank them to either side. The group formed a tight semicircle around the opening, the best coverage we were likely to get. The tunnel was broad enough for three people abreast, assuming two were willing to stand on the upward curving edges of the floor. I was directly behind them, I needed to be if I intended to suppress the mana of the fight. At that range I could also bring my lancet to bear, and we needed every advantage.

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Our hasty preparations were barely completed when a cloud of oppressive gluttony rolled down the corridor like thick fog. The presence of the demons reeked of carrion and the sour breath of famine victims. More than one of my companions clutched at their stomachs with some mixture of hunger and revulsion. As soon as I saw the hunched and vulture-like shapes of our foes I pushed my own presence outward as far as I could, while still keeping it tightly leashed. My mana would sweep up and contain the excess, violent mana of our conflict, keeping it contained.

This was what I had been doing diluting our purification rituals, which in turn was an extension of veiling my own presence, something I'd been practicing for years. It was similar in effect to a ward, a ward created though a spell, rather than an enchantment. As a spell, it required concentration, and excellent mana control. I wouldn't be able to use any spells for combat, but then I wasn't proficient in a great number of combat spells in any case. The lancet would serve me well enough.

Three hulking bodies charged toward our defending line. They had been human once, and were wrapped in the tattered remains of dark hooded robes. They all showed physical changes that gave them the traits of vultures, but in haphazard ways, as though a manic taxidermist had simply found a box of random leftovers and decided to get as creative as possible. The lead demon had a bird's talons in place of one hand, and an outsized wing for its opposite arm. An extra pair of beady eyes sat above cataract-clouded human ones, and the upper part of a hooked beak replaced its upper lip, allowing spittle to pour from a human lower jaw. Perhaps seven or eight feet tall, the monstrosity was remarkably light on whatever lower extremities were hidden under the tattered sable fabric that clothed it. And it closed the distance to Myta's blade in moments.

The two other demons were caught up in some squabble, presumably fighting over which would get to take the first bite out of us. Their delay was fortunate, as the reader of this ungainly flock bound up my vas' blade. Not through any sort of foresight or skill, but simply by dint of surviving the large blade of the glaive stabbing into his chest. Its ribs caught on the blade, and it struggled to drag itself farther down the polearm. Grasping at her with its filth-covered talons. Riversteel blades could pierce the flesh of demons, but did nothing to negate their incredible vitality.

I was about to attack the demon's spirit with my lancet, but Myta simply pushed her fiery mana through her blade. That bypassed the protection of its own spirit, and the creature ignited from the inside. It took far more of her mana than she'd expected, and I could feel her surprise over the effort. Hati, and another warrior I didn't know, helped push the smoldering corpse off her weapon, just in time to meet the remaining two.

I knew that my flame could handle one more demon, especially now that she was prepared. Hati and the other soldier on her left however, were far less able. The sergeant had her spirit as enhanced as it could be, without becoming a sorcerer herself. So she was far more physically capable, her natural affinity for the earth aspect also granted her increased strength and durability. Broad, and powerfully built, she set her center of balance low and attempted to block the monster. She successfully set it off balance, but slid backward into our rear ranks. The other soldier spun, planting his glaive in its back with a series of rapid strikes, clearly mindful of what had happened to Myta's blade.

My arm was slashed by some flailing appendage as the demon slid parallel to me, and I lashed out with my fist and my lancet together, allowing what presence I still had around my body assist the blow. Demonic spirits were always badly warped, often to the point where they were sickening to examine. So I just struck at anything that looked like it might be vulnerable. Behind me, more soldiers shouted defiance, and I heard the meaty sound of blades cleaving flesh. Rancid blood showered me, and I wondered vaguely if Myta's silver flames might be needed to strip the oily substance off of me later. A snick and crunch made me shudder, imagining someone had just lost a hand to the beast, but there was no accompanying scream. Our would-be vulture went still instead, sagging heavily to the ground.

On the other side, Myta was just turning to aid us, her foe having been defeated before ours. The combat had taken no time at all, and I had every combatant clean themselves as quickly as possible, checking for even the tiniest of scrapes. These creatures would no doubt kill with the slightest wound, they were toxic to their marrow.

Disposing of their spirit remains was an incredible challenge, and confirmed beyond any doubt that the aspect of these demons was the same as the viridian contagion. I couldn't let their anima decay down here, nor could I hold it all in my own spirit for purification. And, as Kubek had already told me the consequences of releasing this mana into a forest, that also wasn't an option. I had to offload some of the filth onto Myta, which I was desperately loath to do. I had her empty more of her reserves incinerating the tainted corpses before doing so.

Minutes into the ruin, one battle, and we already had to retreat. My vas and I had to meditate to cleanse our spirits for the rest of the day. At the closing tally, we wasted a full twenty four hours to clear a single room. Ket was furious to have missed the fight, having gotten caught up in chasing the trail of the Pure monks. Unsurprisingly, they had traveled much farther into the tunnels, away from their demonic guard dogs. The ruins were just as convoluted as I had hoped, but that had caused her to pass the demons by. I made a note to myself that the spirit could be dangerously single minded.

On the upside, she had located the main encampment of the Pure. She was certain that they had at least one mote demon with them, and three sorcerers. Of course, there were hundreds of mortal men. She wasn't big on counting, but I estimated from her description that we were outnumbered roughly ten to one. Better than I'd feared, but I had been desperately hoping their main force was still offshore.

I suppose that was what I got for hoping.

Realistically, their numbers didn't change our plans. The news was both better, and worse, than I'd feared. Had there been more sorcerers and demons, and fewer troops, we'd have been far worse off. Myta managed to get back in fighting form by the next morning, while I had about half my reserve of mana. I'd needed to expend a fair amount in healing the men who took sick. Everyone who was exposed to the demons' blood was affected, and that was almost the entire company. Hopefully I'd have more time to rest in the ruins. But again, I'd seen here hoping got me.

We returned to the ruin, following and erasing the markers the Pure army had left for themselves. It took us two more days to reach the area of the runnels where they were encamped, and wonder of wonders, nothing else had yet gone wrong. Denu and Ket were our primary pathfinders, with Hati being surprisingly effective at finding and remembering the paths through the tunnels as well. I kept a map, which was fortunately not too onerous. The ruin was a single layer. Even though it had many confusing branches, they didn't deviate far up or down.

"We are likely very close to Bani by now," I noted to Myta and Hati. The latter looked at me sceptically.

"We've been traveling the right direction, but that trip would take weeks at the rate we're going." She snorted, though her amusement was good natured. "I think all the twists and turns have addled your head."

"These ruins aren't like some others," I replied. "They don't contain powerful and mysterious artifacts of unknown function. The tunnels are the artifacts. They do strange things to space."

She looked at me blankly, and I sighed. "A day's travel here covers about a week's travel overland. If they found an exit close to it, they could be at Bani's gates tomorrow."

She blinked, and then nodded grimly. It was just one more indication that we had no time to spare.

Chapter 39

We waited until 'night' which was to say, until the Pure camps settled in to sleep. Perhaps they had some way of telling time in this dim underworld, but we only guessed at it. Our plans were simple. The winding corridors and mid-sized rooms of this underground realm were perfect for ambushes and choke points. We would hit them swiftly, and often. Avoiding the elites where we could, and leaving no survivors. Uncertainty would be our ally.

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