“I’m thinking we just head toward the big burning light?” Finn replied tightly. In truth, he didn’t know, but he could feel it.
The ruddy light that gleamed down the tunnel was only getting stronger with every bounding step closer. It illuminated the rocks, turning them from ochre to orange, and it grew hotter with each step as well.
It was more than that, too. Maybe it was because Finn was on the Fire Ascension Path, and so in some sense a devotee of the Fire Asai, or maybe it was the fact that he was Level 31 and only nine levels away from being on the first rung of the ladder to an Asai ascension…
The Knight-Defender could feel the power that was ahead of them. He felt the hammer of it against his body, his mind. It felt fierce and…pure.
The tunnel twisted, turned, and moved downward. He had no idea how long they had been following the light, but all sounds of the fight behind them had receded.
What was he going to do when he found Esther and Sesuuk? In truth, he didn’t know. Being a Realm Founder, he could open a portal to Blackwood any time he wanted, so he planned on seizing her and escaping…
If Sesuuk, his own patron, let her go, that was.
Finn snarled. He had no doubt that Sesuuk had deceived him. Had played them all. The Lamakai had been a good ally, but he had always looked after his own interests. Perhaps there was a good reason why he wanted to seize the Prism of Fire—presumably it was as powerful as the Prism of Shadow Finn had so recently held—but what he couldn’t forgive was using his own sister to do it.
People aren’t tools. They aren’t puppets.
“Finn!” Rosa called.
His attention snapped back to reality, and he saw they were coming to a large cavern filled with a brilliant star of light.
For a moment, Finn and the others were blinded, but his eyes grew accustomed almost immediately as he skidded to a halt. This cavern was so vast that it looked more like an amphitheater. Flutes of melted rock ran from floor to ceiling like pillars or ribs along the walls, and scattered across the bare, sandy soil were rows upon rows of stone cairns, barely as high as Finn’s knee.
This was some kind of natural temple, he thought, but what hung in the air at the back of the cavern, and what was happening before it, were what drew Finn’s eye.
There was a huge ball of light, turning and throwing off a red glow. It was almost impossible to see into, but as the light shifted, Finn thought he saw a sparkle of something in its center—a celestial crystal, fluted and pointed much like a Hearthstone…
The Prism of Fire! Finn was hit by the wave of its power, and he felt his whole body shake. This was a part of the Asai of Fire, that powerful, warlike god whose followers across the Celestial Engines must have numbered hundreds of thousands, perhaps millions.
Then a new color cut across the brilliance. It was a vivid lightning strike of toxic green that painted the cavern in a poisonous light.
What? Finn blinked. It was the color of the Qlippothi, he was sure of it.
There were two small shadows before the light, and Finn recognized the defiant, wide-legged stance of one as well as the flare of ragged hair as Esther raised her hands toward the crystal.
“Esther, no!”
There was no way she was powerful enough to seize the Prism of Fire, he was sure of it.
Standing beside her was the tall, slender form of Sesuuk, pointing at the prism.
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“Now, Esther! Now! Take your future!”
Finn started to run forward. Whatever Sesuuk had in mind, it had to be bad. His booted foot had barely hit the floor when he saw that Esther’s hands were raised and surrounded by the green qlippothic glow.
“Concentrate! FEEL your power! Call to it!” Sesuuk was saying as Finn ran forward, vaulting the cairns in his way.
There was a sudden flash of noxious green from the crystal, and Finn felt it like a wave of nausea hitting his body. It forced him to stumble and slow. There was a reason why he had to have an enchantment laid upon him before he had traveled to the Qlippothic Realm. Its energy was antithetical to celestial energy. It ate, and destroyed, and ravaged, and killed when it was introduced here, like a spiritual antimatter.
You have been struck by the qlippothic wave for 50 points of damage.
Finn staggered to the floor, and he heard low moans from Rosa and Tobias. He looked up to see that Esther now had her hands pointed at the crystal. There was some sort of energy flow between her and it. The green was flowing out of her and toward the crystal, then back to her.
“That’s it! Draw the power to you! Do it, girl!” Sesuuk supported himself against the cavern wall as another battering wave of qlippothic power pulsed outward from the prism.
You have been struck by the qlippothic wave for 50 points of damage.
Finn growled in frustration. He had enough Health, he knew he could survive this, but maybe not for too long. Whatever it was that Sesuuk had convinced Esther to do, it could kill everyone!
The green fire between Esther and the crystal was only growing stronger, and the flashes of light from the prism looked to be getting stronger.
“ESTHER!” Finn roared, forcing himself to his feet.
There was an explosion at his feet as one of the cairns blew apart.
You have been held by the Level 20 Undead Lamakai Priest.
Huh?!
He looked down and saw a skeletal hand clutching his ankle. He could clearly see the sinew, bones, and the scraps of scales that held it all together. It was connected to an arm, a shoulder, and then there was a flat snake’s head bursting from the rocks and sinking its fangs into his calf.
You have been bitten by the Level 20 Undead Lamakai Priest for 40 points of damage.
Finn roared and kicked out, easily breaking the hold. His strength was so great that his kick crushed the reptile’s head and knocked the creature back against its bed of rocks.
“Finn, they’re everywhere!” Tobias shouted as cairns all across the chamber broke apart.
Finn’s mind raced as he backed up, seeing creatures starting to crawl out. Perhaps they had been laid here as gifts to their god, but something was awakening them now. He recalled the words of the Asai of Shadow about how the Prism of Time was infected. Damaged, somehow, by the Qlippothic Realm, and that was what had allowed the undead to rise.
The undead, the anti-living, were the qlippothic in the cosmos of the Celestial Engines.
Finn suddenly saw what was happening.
“It’s the crystal! It’s awakening them!” he shouted as his blade flashed and tore through a skeletal body half out of its grave. Whatever Sesuuk had convinced Esther to do, it had triggered this. It might even be making it worse.
“Headshots!” Rosa shouted as she vaulted, spun in the air, and landed one blow through the skull of an undead Lamakai priests. She swiftly turned to deliver a second blow.
Another hand grabbed Finn’s ankle, and he raised his boot and slammed it down on the skull of the undead, smashing it with ease.
But they were all around them, and there were more rising every second.
Then another wave of green energy hit him.
You have been struck by the qlippothic wave for 50 points of damage.
“Esther, stop!” Finn shouted as he swung his blade, catching one of the undead under the shoulder and tearing its arm apart, but it kept coming. It lashed out, striking him with a small ceremonial dagger that seemed to shine with an eerie blue light.
You have been struck for 80 points of damage.
Finn hissed. It was a magic blade, clearly, and perhaps only one of any number of magical artifacts that these ancient priests had been buried with. He raised his blade, meaning to sever that arm too, but before he could bring it down, he felt clawed hands seizing his arm and shoulder.
The skeletal hands were large, and their clawed fingers reached almost all the way around his shoulder.
“What the—” Finn looked up and saw the largest undead creature yet. It was a Lamakai that had developed along the same line as the prophet-king. Its torso was an elongated curl of ribs extending down and coiling on the floor as it rose from its cairn. This undead snake-man was smaller than the prophet-king that Finn and the others had left behind, but not by much.
“No, Finn!” Rosa shouted as Tobias backed toward her, firing wave after wave of green energy from his Bedrock Shield. They were both looking at their friend as the giant creature lifted him up into the air, and more of the undead creatures surrounded them.