Aozaki Aoko [547-549] (Patreon)

Chapter 547 – The Sleeping City Beneath the Glacier

Everyone moved cautiously through a tunnel naturally formed within the glacier. In their hands, lanterns burned with unquenchable magical flames, illuminating the cold and dark path.

They’d been advancing in the tunnel for over forty minutes when a radiance of green and purple shone in from the exit ahead. Even Aoko couldn't help but raise her hand to shield her eyes.

It was a city right out of a dream—or so Aoko had initially thought. But when she saw the true face of Ythryn, she had to take back that judgment.

Compared to the Raya Lucaria Academy, Ythryn couldn’t be called dreamlike, but it had its own unique style. The entire city was carved and built from some kind of black rock, exuding a heavy, imposing atmosphere.

The city glowed with a psychedelic light, ablaze with lamps, yet one couldn't feel any warmth. This was not only because nearly all the illumination came from unquenchable magical flames, but also because the entire city was embedded in a massive glacier.

Ythryn looked as if it were built on a giant obsidian disk, which tilted slightly towards them, creating a peculiar sense of pressure—it felt like the city could roll over and crush them at any moment.

Of course, this was just an illusion. Aoko, keenly aware, sensed gravity magic suffused throughout the city. No matter how much the city might tilt, its residents wouldn’t even notice, as long as they were within its boundaries.

At the edge of the city's circular base stood a ring of watchtowers, sharp as beastly claws, guarding the interior of this floating city.

From their vantage point, they could see the city’s center was dominated by a cluster of massive towers. At their base, structures resembling the roots of a massive plant grew into the floating disk. Through the windows, colored lights flickered inside.

Around the central towers—the city’s districts—were six neatly divided, petal-shaped oval sectors, each filled with various residential buildings.

Two of these petals were more than half-frozen by the glacier. If they wanted to explore them, they’d have to melt the enormous ice first.

Aoko’s sharp eyes caught a section of the city’s foundation that looked as though it had been broken off. Its size and shape were very close to the base of the Nether Spire—likely the place where the wizard’s tower had once stood, before the floating city crashed.

“This is a miracle…” Simon murmured. “I’ve read in books that many floating cities were just a mountain chopped off and flipped upside down to build on—very crude. But this city is completely different!”

“Yeah,” Aoko agreed, nodding. “It looks like Ythryn’s design and construction were fully and meticulously considered. At the very least, its base was carefully selected, then sculpted and modified. It must be a late Netherese work.”

“Alright, you two, enough marveling,” Edgin patted Simon’s shoulder to hurry him along. “Let’s hurry up and check out the city. I can already smell the treasure!”

“…I’m afraid what you’re smelling isn’t treasure,” Aoko suddenly frowned and cast a detection spell. “There are still residents in this floating city!”

“Residents? What kind of residents?” Holga was baffled. “This thing’s been buried here for two thousand years. How could anyone still live here?”

Aoko didn’t answer. Instead, she cast Eagle’s Eye on Holga; Simon did the same for Doric and Edgin.

Through the effect of Eagle’s Eye, the bard could see the details hidden in the city’s shadowy corners. Edgin was shocked—not only were there residents in Ythryn, it was bustling!

“What are those?” Edgin asked in confusion. “They can’t be humans, can they?”

“Nothics,” Aoko narrowed her eyes. “These aberrant beings were once arcanists, transformed by a magical plague that swept through the city, turning its residents into monsters.”

“I’ve heard of them,” Simon nodded. “Most live in the Underdark. Their gaze alone can harm you, and they can force you to reveal one of your secrets!”

“Oh, that second ability is even scarier than the first,” Edgin joked, feigning nonchalance. “If we go in, will we catch that plague?”

“Not in the short term,” Aoko estimated. “But if we linger too long, even my magical wards may not keep us safe forever.”

“So, speed is of the essence?” Holga hefted her axe, coming to her own conclusion. “As long as these things are still afraid of my axe, it’s no big deal!”

“Exactly,” Aoko agreed. “If we kill them fast enough, neither curse nor plague can catch us!”

She quickly cast various protective spells—resistance to otherworldly forces, elemental endurance, energy resistance, protection from evil—on the party. Simon, not to be outdone, added his own wards.

“Remember, don’t touch anything strange,” Aoko reminded them. “Wait for me or Simon to check if it’s safe before you collect anything, understood?”

Everyone nodded and followed Aoko as she led them along a naturally formed icy causeway into the city from the south.

Cold lights bathed every street and alley of the silent city. Floating, orb-shaped magical constructs ignored the arrival of Aoko’s group, continuing their millennia-old patrols of the sleeping city.

Sharp spires like towering trees, shattered domes, and a pitch-black castle radiating magical power combined to create Ythryn’s unique, haunting beauty.

The group carefully crossed the causeway, officially entering Ythryn. Aoko immediately felt a force tug at her body, then sensed a change in gravity.

A giant statue at the city’s edge served as the staircase for Aoko’s team, perfectly connecting to the icy causeway and easing their entry.

Aoko squinted at the giant central spire. Only after setting foot in Ythryn did she realize that the vital tower was sealed by a cylindrical forcefield.

Mystra had told her the location of the mythallar—the source of the city’s power—was likely inside that central tower. To get in, they’d need to find a way to break the forcefield.

Chapter 548 – The Living Spell

“Watch out!” Doric suddenly shouted. “Gargoyles!”

Aoko tore her gaze from the central spire’s shield and looked up, seeing a group of gargoyles swooping down from a nearby tower, shrieking.

Since Doric was the one to warn them, Simon reacted quickly. He chanted a quick spell, clenched his right hand, then flung it forward—a ball of golden light streaked toward the gargoyles.

The golden powder burst among them, dazzling their eyes. The stony creatures reeled, several colliding and crashing to the ground.

Some shattered on impact, others were smashed by Holga’s axe, dying instantly.

The few still airborne flailed blindly, clawing at their eyes.

Aoko pointed her staff—a nearly colorless orb of energy shot toward the remaining gargoyles.

“Twin Metamagic—Maximized—Quickened—Shatterburst!”

The orb exploded among them, a shockwave disintegrating their bodies. They tumbled from the sky like their kin, smashed to pieces.

Edgin breathed a sigh of relief, but before he could speak, a bolt of lightning shot from the shadows. The bard didn’t react in time.

Holga’s eyes widened. Instinctively, she tried to pull Edgin away, but only managed to grab his sleeve.

But the imagined disaster never happened. The dangerous-looking lightning veered aside at the last second, doubling back and striking something in the shadows instead. They heard something shatter.

“Whew, close one,” Aoko wiped imaginary sweat from her forehead in relief. “It’s too dangerous to stay out in the open. Let’s explore the residential district first!”

To make that lightning rebound, Aoko had to use quickened, silent, and still metamagic techniques at once. If not for her arcane artifact’s power, she would have been drained.

Edgin nodded silently—the situation just now had been too close for comfort, even for a seasoned bard.

“Remember the giant statue at the entrance?” Aoko whispered as they entered the quiet streets. “It might not just be a statue.”

“Wait, you’re not saying it’s a super-gargoyle, are you?” Edgin asked nervously.

“Of course not,” Aoko shook her head. “But that thing is dead. It’s just petrified now, which explains its odd pose.”

“This place is creepy!” Edgin grumbled. Soon, they found the enemy that had attacked Edgin in the shadows.

Aoko soon realized it wasn’t a natural creature, but a construct.

“This might be a Galven magen,” Aoko prodded the bald, humanoid construct’s head with her staff, puzzled. “But it’s not quite like the ones I’ve read about. Did the arcanists here modify the design?”

“Um, maybe now’s not the time to study construct models…” Simon glanced nervously at the shadows. “Shouldn’t we check out that spire first?”

“No problem,” Aoko nodded. “Our ultimate goal is the two central spires, which are sealed. Maybe we’ll find clues in the surrounding six towers.”

The party pressed on, soon reaching a spired tower’s gate.

Though it was their first time seeing it from outside, everyone felt a strange familiarity. Its four-story, wide-base-narrow-top design was just like the Nether Spire they’d explored before.

It seemed Netherese arcanists had embraced standardized construction; the flying tower and the other five here were identical.

Aoko used a knock spell to open the door from afar—and three Demos Magen charged out.

These blue-skinned, bald-headed constructs looked much like the earlier Galven Magen, except they wielded melee weapons instead of wands.

No big deal for melee fighters—Holga and Doric made short work of them, reducing them to scrap with brutal efficiency.

“It’s so familiar in here,” Holga looked around the entrance hall. “It’s just upside-down! Even the room layout’s the same!”

“We’d best stay cautious,” Aoko warned. “Remember how I said a lot of constructs had wandered off from the Nether Spire? Who knows what’s still in this one!”

She handed Simon the controller for a shield guardian, then summoned it from her dimensional space.

“Let it take point,” Aoko said. “Traps could be nasty, and I can’t always react in time.”

Simon nodded, recited a couple of short spells, and the shield guardian unfolded and marched down the corridor.

Aoko’s first target was the library in the west wing. She needed to understand the city’s current state, especially how to get into the two central spires.

But as if she’d jinxed it, the shield guardian had barely entered the library when it was flung out, pinned to the wall by a giant translucent hand.

“Bigby’s Hand!” Simon exclaimed. “Is there a spellcaster here?!”

Aoko also suspected the tower’s master at first, but soon realized the hand was attached to a slime-like creature at the wrist.

Her eyes widened as she recognized the foe: a living spell.

Chapter 549 – The Arcane Octad

A living spell is generally considered to be a spell that, due to unknown factors during magical wars, gained sentience.

They refuse to dissipate, lingering on ancient battlefields, surviving on ambient magic.

Some believe living spells are obsessed with slaughter, feeding on life—but that’s a misconception. They have sentience but no intelligence or personality; absorbing magic is mere instinct, not conscious choice.

Outwardly, a living spell usually resembles the original magic—e.g., a living Evard’s Black Tentacles looks like a mass of slime and black tentacles; a living Cloud of Daggers is a swarm of flying blades.

Strangely, living spells are classified not as aberrations or elementals, but as oozes, like slimes or gelatinous cubes—a mismatch with their magical origins.

However, from the Karsus Chronicle, Aoko had learned that living spells could be artificially created, though the method was lost.

Seeing this living Bigby’s Hand, Aoko immediately wondered if the mage tower held the secret of creating living spells. If she could learn it, she’d gladly set up powerful living spells as guardians on her own domain.

As for their lack of intelligence and limited control—Aoko was confident she could solve that problem later.

While Aoko pondered, Holga charged, swinging her adamantine axe—but no matter how fiercely she struck, she could barely scratch the living Bigby’s Hand. Force spells are inherently resistant, and the living spell inherited this trait.

Edgin and Simon tried magical attacks, which hurt it a little but not enough to hinder its actions—at most, it was like giving it a bath.

Aoko realized the living hand itself wasn’t valuable, but the books inside the library might be. And there were six such towers, plus two central spires…

She began casting. A green ray struck the living spell, which shuddered violently, screamed, and finally crumbled to gray dust.

To counter a force spell, a disintegrate or other force-based spell is best. Force spells are mainly used to defend against other force attacks. Disintegrate—or the 9th-level spell Sphere of Annihilation (which Aoko didn’t know yet)—are the go-to options.

“All right, Simon—have the shield guardian check the library,” Aoko said. “Let’s hope there aren’t more living spells. If we fight inside, the books might get destroyed.”

Simon blinked, then quickly nodded, sending the shield guardian to patrol the library’s shelves, occasionally flipping through books to check for traps.

Fortunately, there were no more living spells. The tower’s master had clearly considered this; otherwise, a living prismatic spray or fireball would have ruined the library on its own.

“All clear!” Once the sweep was done, Simon nodded and parked the guardian at the entrance.

Aoko eagerly entered, scanning the labeled shelves for anything important.

The others searched for books to their liking. Holga found a comfy spot, set her axe against the wall, and sat down to drink from her flask.

To understand Ythryn, Aoko started with the city’s general history.

Though she didn’t find a detailed chronicle, she gleaned much from various records and poems.

For example, Ythryn’s ruler was a lich named Iriolarthas, who was passionate about collecting and researching ancient artifacts and magic of Faerûn—hence why she went to the Sea of Moving Ice to retrieve the giant kingdom’s stone spindle.

Because its founder was a lich, this dark floating city came to be known as Necropolis Ythryn, with many undead creations roaming its streets.

The city was once governed by Iriolarthas and seven other arcanists, each a specialist in a magical school. The ruler’s own tower, the necromancy tower, was at the city’s center.

These eight arcanists were called the Wizards of the Ebon Star—the city’s highest council.

Each Ebon Star spire was a magical school. Any resident’s magically gifted child could choose any of the eight towers for entrance exams and admission.

By these measures, Ythryn was a progressive force within the Netherese Empire.

Aoko also found some interesting details about daily life in the city.

For example, the arcanists played a sport called Chain Lightning, a complex team competition that tested spellcasting and teamwork.

Every mage received a custom staff made from the massive Nether Oak at the city’s arboretum, a lucrative draw for outsiders during the Netherese era.

Hours passed. The team ate and rested, but Aoko remained focused. She’d just found a crucial record: how to break the forcefield around the central spires.

The book described a ritual—the Arcane Octad—originally used to unite the power of the eight towers and protect the mythallar within the two central spires.

It also included the reverse ritual, the Rite of the Arcane Octad.