The World Dragon breath spread through the space like a morning fog, dispersing the corrupt energy, and leaving only pure Unholy Energy along with the suppression effect.
Now, it wasn’t trying to kill Karl, which was an improvent. But the space still felt wrong, and there was no sign of the creator.
There was no way that he would have missed the fact that strangers had entered his space, but he hadn’t taken any action to try to eject Karl from the space.
Cara flew out of her space, exploring the new environnt, and then called for Karl to join her.
[Hey, fly over here. I found a guy.]
That was promising.
Karl flew over to where Cara was circling a stone platform on a mountaintop, which had been created from precisely cut stones, carved with layer upon layer of runes.
The stone of the mountain wasn’t actually one piece. It had been stacked, each slice of stone as thin as a wafer and inscribed with protective runes, and spells.
So of them Karl knew. So he didn’t recognize.
But there were a few things that he could say for sure.
First, the man in the middle was a four-ard Giant of the Titan Clan who had failed an attempt to ascend to immortality.
Second, the other bodies had been Giants, but also Lich Lords when they were alive. The undead aura was unmistakable, and their shattered phylacteries were still sitting in front of them.
What exactly had transpired during the failed ascension, Karl couldn’t say for sure. But it appeared that they had tried to do it while the mana of the world was too thin, and their preparations had proven too weak to handle the tribulation lightning.
The scorch marks from repeated lightning bolts had shattered most of the top layers of stone, and left the man in the centre as nothing more than charred bones in a pile.
"Well, that explains most of the issues in the aura of this place.
Now, where did they leave the item that is causing the suppression? Once we find that, we can work on disabling it." Karl muttered to himself.
Cara looked up from where she was rifling through the pockets of the deceased.
Right, they had co here for a specific shiny thing.
Oh, it was probably that stick in the cloth pile.
Victorious, Cara held up the sceptre that the failed Immortal had been holding, then frowned when she realized that it was lted on the end.
It had taken a direct hit with tribulation lightning, and it was complete scrap, with the top nearly lted off.
Not her problem.
Karl took the damaged Immortal Rank magical item, and sighed. That thing was completely useless now, and it was stuck at full output, with the control portion of the inscriptions lted.
The best that they could hope to do was to destroy it and wait for the effect to fade.
Karl examined the runes on the sceptre, trying to work out a thod to deactivate it, as destroying it would not be easy.
The damage didn’t make it easy, but after a few minutes of work, Karl ca across a partially intact phrase that only made things more concerning.
{Control wand... Runic Array... Link to the Divine... Call down the Ascended}
Once again, Karl sent his mind to probe the mountain.
The item wasn’t causing the suppression effect. It was the controller for the effect, and presumably had co with instructions on how to make the suppression array.
The top layers of the array had been shattered by the Tribulation Lightning, leaving it only partially functional, but Opal was developing a great ntal image of how things must have gone down.
She wasn’t sure why they had thought that the array was intended to mitigate the damage from the Tribulation Lightning. But it had certainly failed at that.
Or, perhaps it had done that as well, before it was broken?
No, the Bronze Dragon said that the Giants knew what they were doing when the suppression effect started. So, this person had obtained it later, intending to use it as a way to beco Immortal.
There was too much dumb in one spot.
This show would have to be a cody.
[Karl, was this his space?] She asked, trying to form a proper setting for when she perford the play for others.
Now that the miasma was clearing, Karl was able to focus on the lingering mana that wasn’t coming from the damaged sceptre and the mountain.
The magic of the mountain was different from the magic of the rest of the Tiny World, and there were multiple layers of spells cast over the landscape. This place had been used by generations of Giants after it was created.
Possibly by a Clan or Sect?
"No, he didn’t make this place, and he didn’t make the mountain. Assuming that the dead Titan who was holding the sceptre was the last one to use it.
It might be possible that a new leader took over and misunderstood the nature of the artifact.
You should never try to ascend while sitting on a suppression artifact. If anything, you would want sothing that enhances your own strength and regeneration.
There is so brilliant rune work here, though. Look at how these layers of protective runes are used to link the other effects together so that they serve as a buffer that keeps mana in a form that is nearly inaccessible, instead of targeting living things in range.
It would be too easy for the powerful to simply shrug off the effect completely if it targeted them. But in this way, they altered the mana of the continent in a fundantal way." Karl explained.
[He’s having a nerd mont. Let him think, and he will realize sothing about mana manipulation.] Cara guessed with an air of authority, as if she had foreseen the outco.
Karl chuckled at the thought of Cara acting like the responsible elder to her little brother and sister. But Hawk did not understand the concept, and didn’t care about it, so he didn’t stop her from ’helping’.
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