Seo-Yoon was the only one who enjoyed flying across the hilly terrain on the back of the flesh, bone, and blood serpent that Adam had sculpted. It was narrow and long, with a mostly anatomically-correct design that improved its handling and speed, thanks to how Adam’s shaping magic functioned. From outside it looked a bit like a multi-hued rollercoaster, since it was draped in the flesh and hides of many different goblins.
Chien and Diwa clearly didn’t like rollercoasters, since their lodies were nothing but dismay and nausea, while Heiner seed to mostly just regret his earlier statent due to the appearance of the serpent. Natalia held on for dear life, more worried about crashing than upset with the rapid motion.
Still, it was impossible to argue with the results, because they flew from Old Town to the church near the Blue Vein river in approximately an hour. On foot or with horses, it would’ve taken half a day at least.
The Golden Horn would have been amazing in this stage, Adam thought to himself. A sha it got destroyed.
He’d managed to more or less confirm what Heiner’s crude map had shown, by using his blood sense as they flew to triangulate many of the inhabited areas of the stage, and their relative distances to each other. It was a pleasant surprise that the orb of insight showed a stage layout for the larger worlds, since it was going to be impossible to predict how things might change in his future loops.
I really want to try it out on the Floating Sea to see what it reveals.
Adam brought the serpent to a halt atop a hill looking down on the old church and the river beyond it. Everyone stepped off and Chien had to steady himself to avoid collapsing. Diwa looked like she might puke.
“That was fun!” Seo-Yoon exclaid. “Are we flying back the sa way!?”
“It would be the most convenient,” Adam replied.
Diwa retched.
“You can shape your magic into anything, right?” Natalia asked.
“I can,” Adam replied.
“So, why this??”
“The magic is stronger the more realistic it’s shaped,” he answered.
“Next ti, just turn it into a closed carriage, please,” she begged him. “I thought I was gonna fly off about a dozen tis.”
“It’ll be slower, but sure, I’ll give it a try,” he promised.
“There’s a lot of them down there,” Chien remarked, looking down on the church after he’d managed to regain his composure.
The church looked much like the one in Old Town, except it was in ruins, with most of the ceiling destroyed and one of the side walls collapsed. Behind it roared a blue river, carving through the landscape and providing a treacherous crossing for anyone attempting to swim or sail across. From where they stood, it was impossible to see any bridges to the other side, which ant enemy reinforcents were unlikely to be a problem. In the far horizon was a massive fortification, blackened like coal and rising up along the mountain it nestled against.
That must be the Forlorn Castle.
Filthy and tainted lodies resonated up towards Adam from near the church, belonging to about forty forlorn soldiers, amongst which was a heavily-armoured banner carrier, and a warrior with two swords wearing a black helt and a faded blue tunic. Neither was a forlorn knight, despite being the sa size and appearance as the knights from stage four. The real knights were supposed to be much taller, the sa size as the captain they’d all fought. Basically, what had been knights in stage four were now just elites, and what had been bosses were now knights. Given the power of the captain boss and that group stages scaled up the enemy strength, Adam predicted that the forlorn knights would be quite a lot more trouble than Elia had made them out to be, especially considering that they would return from death if their remains weren’t burnt with a true fla.
Adam pulled so of the blood out of the serpent to create the Beckoning Crimson spell, and then he activated it alongside kingly raint, turning the sculpted vessel back into a suit of armour.
“You have to teach that!” Seo-Yoon told him, pulling on his elbow eagerly. She’d clearly been able to see the way he manipulated mana, and it was possible that she could pull off so blood spells like Beckoning Crimson if she used her magic absorption powers with her staves.
“Maybe if we get so downti later,” he replied noncommittally.
“What was the lightning attack you used against the demon?” Chien asked Heiner. The ntion piqued Adam’s interest, since he’d been wondering the sa.
“It’s from my final spear evolution, Bolt of Zeus,” Heiner replied. “The skill is called ‘God Spear’, and it combines every thrown projectile in the air into one, increasing the damage and impact for each spear used in the combination and dealing all of the damage as lightning.”
“How much does it increase it by?” Adam asked.
“10% per projectile.”
That’s pretty good.
“Is it multiplicative or additive?” Adam asked.
“I don’t know,” he replied.
“I can sculpt so extra spears, so we can find out right now,” Adam told him.
“If it is multiplicative damage and impact, it could beco very strong,” Chien agreed. “I will help.”
“ too,” Natalia said.
Seo-Yoon and Diwa joined in on it as well, and while it reduced the mass of Adam’s raint by a fair bit, he sculpted four narrow bones spears for them each, aning they had a total of twenty-nine, counting the nine that Heiner carried.
If it’s multiplicative, that would increase the total damage and impact by almost 1500%, compared to just 290% if it’s additive.
“How exactly does the activation work?” Adam inquired.
“It pulls the projectiles into the last spear I throw, without changing its speed and trajectory. If I use it with my lucky charm and blink ring, it hits the ground imdiately,” Heiner explained.
“If it is multiplicative, it may destroy the church even further,” Chien said. “You should aim it towards the front of the enemy group.”
Adam nodded. “Good thinking.”
“This is gonna be so exciting!” Seo-Yoon exclaid.
“Be prepared to fight as soon as he’s thrown the last spear,” Chien said. “They will undoubtedly charge us as soon as they see it.”
Everyone prepared their spears, agreeing to throw them on trajectories that would take a while to hit, allowing Heiner to get all of his spears out and away before the others landed.
“Ready?” Chien asked.
“Ready!” Seo-Yoon said excitedly.
The others just nodded.
As they started chucking the bone spears in unison, Heiner hurled eight of his high into the air, his upgrades making him fair more powerful with the weapons than the others. Once Natalia threw the last of the bone spears, Heiner followed it up with his ninth one, activating the ranger’s lucky charm as he threw it with all his might.
The spear started to crackle and glow a mont after, pulling all of their flying projectiles into itself, even though a few were nearly ten tres away. It turned into a bright incandescent snake of lightning that zigzagged through the air on its homing trajectory aid at the foot of the frontmost soldier.
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It seed no different than the one Heiner had used during their fight with the Capgras Demon, but when it struck the ground in front of the small army, the result was a white-hot explosion of light and energy that vaporised fifteen forlorn soldiers in an instant, knocking all the other ones back. A shockwave blood outward and away from where it’d struck, bending back the tall grass in an expanding ring that slapped them all in the chest when it reached their hill. It left barely any smoke behind but did leave a small crater and a five-tre-wide scorch mark where it’d struck.
“Safe to say it’s multiplicative,” Adam remarked. Then he shot himself down the hill, Chien and the others following behind him.
By lifting on his raint with his magical control, Adam was able to slide smoothly down the grass, raising his left gauntlet to fire off each of its fingers like bullets. They zipped through the air, popping the heads of the remaining soldiers which had naturally taken up a defensive formation around the banner carrier.
I think it’s so kind of support elite.
Beck had only ntioned them off-handedly, since it was possible to obtain their banner weapon after killing three, but he hadn’t said much about their actual powers.
Heiner was able to keep up with Adam from the air, flapping his grafted wings aggressively to stay above the effective reach of the crossbown that were part of the enemy force. He had switched to his Arrow Rain bow, since it seed that the spears couldn’t be picked back up after the skill, requiring him to possibly wait for them to return on their own. It seed a pretty terrible downside to the skill, since it would leave the wielder exposed if they failed to kill their target, unless of course they had the second sheath upgrade and a backup weapon.
Adam rapidly changed his course as the dual-wielding forlorn berserker shot out of the group with absurd speed, holding his arms crossed in front of himself and the two swords behind his back. Up close, it was possible to see how shadowy smoke rose from the edges of his blades.
“Watch out for their weapons!” Adam yelled to Natalia. If she got hit, she’d spread the afflictions to everyone nearby, potentially getting them killed.
A blood barrier sprang up in front of Adam, absorbing the strike from the berserker, who had once again shot forward with sudden speed, catching him off-guard.
I can’t treat these guys like the knights in stage four. They’re much stronger and have way more abilities I’m not familiar with yet.
Before the elite could strike again, Adam fired his scoundrel’s torn bloodied glove right into his black helt. The blood hand exploded like a balloon, showering him in red and inflicting haemorrhage, which caused the elite’s filthy black blood to squirt out through the gaps in his armour. Adam instantly seized control of the blood and forced it to crystallise, causing the berserker to drop to the ground like a sack of potatoes as the insides of his head turned solid like glass.
[Forlorn Elite defeated.]
While the others engaged with the remaining soldiers protecting the banner carrier, Adam pulled apart the berserker with his magic, turning his corpse into a weapon after harvesting his heart. He still didn’t know if the Forlorn Shadow could resurrect his army no matter what states they were in, so he didn’t want to risk compromising his raint by filling it with their materials. He had left a simple effigy of the assassins’ corpses outside of Old Town and would check on it when they ca back later. His hope was that shaping them with his magic would prevent their revival.
It may be easier to bring their shaped bodies past the river’s flow to where I know the Forlorn Shadow will attempt to revive them. I need to know whether or not it will be an issue, preferably sooner than later.
Adam would be at a significant disadvantage if he couldn’t reliably use flesh, bone, and blood in the stage without risking it turning on him. Even the goblin flesh in his armour wouldn’t be safe to use if that were the case.
He coated the regrown fingers of his left gauntlet with blood fire and shot down five soldiers to open the way for Chien to smash his war hamr into the banner carrier’s armoured face. Since blood fire was sticky like napalm, it ensured that each shot to the head of the soldiers left nothing behind.
Two archers took aim at Adam, and he raised a barrier shaped from the berserker’s corpse in front of himself, but then Heiner’s arrows whistled through their heads in quick succession, dropping them both.
Diwa used her shield and spear to incapacitate four soldiers and provide an opening for Natalia. She swept through them with her large katana, slicing them apart with ease thanks to Diwa’s support.
[Forlorn Elite defeated.]
As Chien crushed the banner carrier’s helt under the head of his large war hamr, the soldiers lost much of their fine motor control, and they were able to clear out the last few survivors in no ti.
Once they were all dead, Adam harvested all of their bodies into one large clump, looking like sothing that might belong in the Flayed Lady’s domain. There were a few soldiers that Adam couldn’t harvest with his magic, the elite that Chien had slain amongst them, and he used his fire magic to obliterate these as best as possible, though not until after looting his fourth heart of darkness.
“Will the Forlorn Shadow still be able to revive them if you take their hearts and burn their flesh?” Chien asked.
“I have no idea,” Adam replied. “I need to test out so things after we find the true fla’s ember.”
They approached the destroyed church cautiously as a group, and though Adam sensed no lodies within, he wasn’t certain that ant the place was empty. The assassins’ ability to hide from him had highlighted the fact that his blood sense was not all-powerful.
The Forlorn Bulwark boss will appear here, but not until day three. Supposedly.
Adam wanted to obtain its weapon, since he knew it could work well with a speed-based build. But he had already decided to try out Fool for his next loop, so perhaps it could wait.
No harm in preparing for the future though, he thought. After all, it should be possible to pass on weapons in my Fool run, even if I can’t actually wield them, since I have the weapon rack.
Besides the bulwark, he also needed to get the sloth chest armour from Alepheria’s Tower. If he could start out with the shield and armour, he’d be able to soar through all of the starting stages with ease, perhaps beating his speedrun records.
Chien and Natalia pushed open the wooden doors, casting daylight into the dark interior of the old church. The entrance was partially blocked by the collapsed external wall and debris from the caved-in roof, but they were able to crouch-walk down past shattered pews to reach the back of the church, where an empty dais stood.
“I don’t see it,” Chien remarked.
Seo-Yoon looked around. “It’s nearby. There is mana flowing up through the floor.”
“There must be a catacombs or sothing,” Adam said. He didn’t actually know where inside the church the ember was supposed to be, so he could only guess.
After a few minutes of searching the gloomy church ruins, Heiner spoke up. “Over here!”
Up against the wall opposite the one which had collapsed were so inconspicuous stairs leading down. Chien led the way while Adam and Diwa brought up the rear.
It’s definitely down here. I can feel it.
Adam was mildly concerned with the fact that just an ember of a true fla had such a potent holy aura. He wondered if he’d even be able to travel with whoever carried an actual fla.
Since he didn’t want to air-fry his own body, he switched to the aspirant’s cowl and saw the sa holy mana that Seo-Yoon must’ve spotted. It flowed through the air on so unseen wind, and he had to guide Diwa around concentrated clouds of it as they ventured down below the church.
The catacombs looked much like the ones where Adam had fought the necromancer in Moonport, except it was miraculously intact, and in the centre of the second chamber was a small silver brazier with a single quietly-smouldering chunk of pale Centennial Oak.
Adam put a hand out to stop Diwa, since both chambers were flooded with holy mana that slowly drifted out from the ember.
“We’ll wait outside,” Adam told the others.
As they retraced their steps back up, Adam thought back to the thing he’d found near the necromancer’s body.
< < Secret Relic > >
< Twisted Symbol (Rare) — An icon carved to resemble a servant of the First Light, twisted and warped by unholy power >
I wonder if I can use it here or at so other place of worship.
Adam brought out the compass once Diwa and him were back outside in the fresh air. She watched him curiously as he spoke into it. Its golden arrow snapped to point directly west towards the Oath Spire mountain.
There’s a chapel at its summit, so maybe my hunch is right.
After a couple of minutes, the others returned, Chien holding the brazier in his arms. Fortunately, the ember’s release of holy mana was quite subdued, and it seed the catacombs must’ve been slowly filled with its energy over a long period of ti.
Adam was able to get close enough to inspect it.
< < Quest Object > >
< True Fla Ember — The smouldering remains of a sacred True Fla. With the proper care, an ember such as this may bloom once more >
“I hope this thing was worth it. There wasn’t even a chest down there,” Natalia said with a frown.
“It’ll be worth it,” Adam assured her.
“Are we taking the serpent back?” Heiner asked.
“He promised he’d make a carriage this ti,” Natalia replied.
“First I’ve got a bit of an experint I want to try out,” Adam told them.
As they watched, he went over to the large clump of lded-together forlorn corpses and created a bone sled to pull it towards the roaring river behind the church.
“I’ll co with you!” Seo-Yoon exclaid, running after him.
None of the others moved to imdiately follow.
That’s probably for the best.
If it goes wrong, I want them to be able to run away quickly.
Adam really hoped the Forlorn Shadow wasn’t as powerful as he feared. If it had the power to revive corpses regardless of their state, then it would be an understatent to say that he was screwed.
He stayed with Seo-Yoon on the church-facing side of the river while floating the mass of flesh, blood, and bone across its clear-blue water. To the naked eye, there was no sign that the other side was any different from where they stood, but since they both wore the aspirant’s cowl, they saw how tainted dark mana rolled across the grass in pulsating waves.
Adam set the bone sled down on the grass.
The mont he released it from the grasp of his control sigil, the dark mana imdiately rolled across it, penetrating deep into the mound of corpses.
He tried desperately to get a hold of it with his magic again, but it was too late.
Then the corpses started to stir.
“Shit,” Adam muttered.
< < Optional Stage Objective > >
< Defeat the Amalgamated Knight >
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