SB: Chapter 264 – Vorunhusk The Soul Shredder, Ritual Ingredient (Patreon)

Previous Chapter | Next Chapter

I had the golem walk me through the controls of the Heartforge Bastion crafting ritual multiple times and even sketched out diagrams and practiced, until I knew all the settings and what to do from memory.

Once I started things up, I had to get out of there as quickly as possible. Since the ritual would be so strong, it was likely to collapse a large portion of the complex. I did make sure that I knew how to divert a flow of Mana from the primary motivator to the device I needed to destroy the cursed blade.

If I did that without starting the ritual, the monster would instantly notice, that it wasn’t sucking up all the Mana. And even if it didn’t move, all the Mana from the primary motivator passed under the Heartforge Bastion.

“One more time,” I said to myself as I looked at the tables I had set up with diagrams of the control room. I had confirmed that everything matched the golem’s description. I had also checked the surrounding chambers for anything useful. There was nothing, everything had been cleared out like I thought. The monster also had clearly come down the elevator shaft, or as the golem called it, the ascender shaft.

“Step one, adjust all ritual components to full open. This lever, pull all the way back for soul flow. This lever for Mana flow to runic arrays. This lever for the primary motivator interlocks. All adjustments are mechanical and will take five seconds to complete adjustment after levers have been moved,” I stated. This was the riskiest part, but even with that timeframe, I doubted the monster would react after being in such a deep slumber for so long unless directly targeted.

A ritual bypassed a soul’s normal defenses to danger, which was another reason why rituals were so insanely dangerous.

“Step two, adjust the primary flow diverter, to send all Mana from the primary motivator to the rest of the complex. Turn this valve wheel all the way to the right tightly. That will divert all Mana flow. This should take a few seconds at most during the five second timeframe while the mechanical components from step one adjust themselves.” The Mana system of the complex was a closed system using a special potion that could act for a very long time.

The monster was drawing out the Mana from the potion, which the Heartforge Bastion was designed to allow, before looping back and filling up from the primary motivator. I had to hand it to the designer of this place, they truly were a genius.

“Step three, deploy the ritual focusing arrays. They will deploy from wall panels throughout the room, walls, and ceiling. The monster is far enough away from the edges of the room that it shouldn’t impact any of the panels. This will take another five seconds, but can be activated concurrently with the other steps,” I said then moved onto another area of my mock control setup.

“Step four, release the main safety interlock. This would normally require a key to unlock the physical lock from the lever, but by removing the entire panel around the lever, it can move without having to detach the lock. Pull the lever and the Mana and souls would flood into the runic arrays, activating the ritual process,” I said.

“Step five, run, run as fast as possible to the device chamber and begin the process of destroying the cursed blade, before evacuating the entire complex until the ritual is completed,” I said with a nod.

The golem gave me an affirmative, but I didn’t need its confirmation. I knew I had all the steps precisely down. I should be able to activate them all in under five seconds. Once the ritual was activated the Vorunhusk would be trapped and killed.

It felt a shame to risk my Tier 3 Reforged Beginner’s Blade, but it was necessary. I had Ozy carefully rework the metal and break the runes that enchanted it. The Tier of the enchantments dropped by one tier and would eventually decay, but that was fine. Thankfully the golem possessed knowledge of a suitable runic structure to use, since I had no idea about that kind of thing.

While I might know runes, runic structures from a millennium ago involving souls weren’t common knowledge. If the blade survived, it would become a Tier 4 weapon for sure. If it didn’t, then it was a worthy loss to complete this quest and get rid of that Tier 7 cursed skill.

As for recovering it, that had to wait until the ritual completed no matter what. I might be crazy by the standards of other rational beings who knew about rituals, but I had an understanding of the risk. With the monster’s soul and Mana present, the ritual would grab onto the Vorunhusk first before looking to grab onto other ingredients. The Vorunhusk was far too much of an ingredient as it was.

As for the final outcome, I just knew that there would be a lot of Mana released, but everything else was guesswork and beyond my understanding. I had a range of possible outcomes, but not the experience to know which outcomes were the most likely to happen.

After a final night’s sleep, I then packed everything up and had Ozy, the golem, and Boris with the sword case all go to the workshop with the Eldarin Soul And Physicality Annihilator. The golem had explained the process to me multiple times and it wasn’t that complicated.

Just get out the cursed blade, place it inside the device, turn on the device. Its purpose was to destroy failed creations. As for why it wasn’t down with the rest of the main equipment, there was risk of interference with research and other rituals being done. The more technical equipment was kept up top for easier access, repair, and use.

I also suspected that low ranking individuals could be made to do grunt work without having to access more sensitive areas of the Soul Forge complex. Once the cursed sword went in, we would all quickly leave out from the Grand Entry Hall where I had first entered this place.

We would get at least 5 kilometers away, and observe until the ritual ended or we had to run further away. As for the sword case, I was having Boris still carry it. While tempting to leave it behind due to the insane weight, it had cost 1,000 platinum to make. The raw materials alone were easily worth half that.

Even my mother would hesitate before throwing away 500 platinum. That was how valuable the case was and how much effort the College had put into it for me in return for the knowledge I had brought back.

After that it was about finding a dungeon entrance we could use to return to the Eldarin continent. Without a sword, the lower layers of the dungeon would be more dangerous and difficult, but I could handle them with my other non-enchanted weapons and spell skills. It would be harder, but it was doable since I had Ozy in support.

The following morning, everything was packed up and everyone was moved into position. I entered the monster’s sensory field and checked the runic plates in the Soul Array Hall. They were fully saturated with the monster’s Mana, so no problem there. I had been worried about this so I double checked and it was on the way to the Heartforge Bastion, passing the control room.

I carefully went to the altar and set the Reforged Beginner’s Blade on top of the altar. The monster shifted slightly and my Danger Sense began to rise slightly. While the enchantments on the blade had been broken to put on the new runic structure, there were residual Mana traces. I had to hurry.

Entering the control room, I placed myself in the optimal position. Taking a steadying breath, I stopped hesitating and acted.

First step completed. I had a five second timer now. My Danger Sense was rapidly spiking as the monster began to wake up due to the mechanical movement inside its Sensory Field skill.

Second step, the valve wheel became stuck, for a moment, which caused my heart to skip a beat. I put more effort into it and the valve began turning away as I felt a lot of resistance. I managed to finish turning it all the way at the six second mark. I turned off my Danger Sense since it was too distracting at the moment.

Third step, I moved all the way across the control room and pulled the lever to deploy all the ritual arrays across the Heartforge Bastion. I was at the seven and a half second mark.

Fourth step, I pulled the final lever, activating the ritual arrays. Total time, nine seconds.

That was when I felt something staring at me and it wasn’t happy. Oh, shit! The monster had the skill Soul Gaze and could use it through its sensory skill!

Soul Shield!

My Tier 4 skill Soul Immunity blocked most of the damage, before the skill hit me. I was too late with my defensive skill Soul Shield. I staggered back by a couple steps as the Mana began to spike. My body and soul spasmed and I could feel blood leaking into my lungs, digestive tract, and across my body. I rushed out of the control room and I couldn’t help but look back at the monster, without any sensory skills.

There was a swirl of Mana through the entire chamber, so thick I could see liquid Mana condensing on the floor and visible Mana in the air. Thankfully the materials used to build this place were highly resistant to Mana to prevent interference with the rituals being done. I raced down the corridor and back up the stairs, not even sparing a glance at the containers in the Soul Array Hall.

“ACK! ACK!” I coughed up blood as I raced up the stairs. My soul was still shaking, but thankfully a wall and my skill had blunted the worst of the damage. If I didn’t have both present, my soul would have been blasted away instantly by the attack. It was the monster’s class that added a ridiculous amount of power.

I dreaded to think what its Tier 6 skill would do. I exited the Crucible Spire and raced to the workshop where the rest of my team was waiting. I activated Danger Sense again and it was still screaming at me, thankfully it wasn’t as bad as before.

Entering the workshop, everyone was present. “Is the Eldarin Soul And Physicality Annihilator online?” I asked the golem.

“Yes, but my connection to the primary motivator has been compromised. I can no longer tell if it is functional,” the golem said as I began unlocking the sword case with the key needed to unlock it.

The case opened up and more Mana poured into the air. I struggled to lift up the blade, but I managed and placed it into the open chamber of the Eldarin Soul And Physicality Annihilator.

“Start the device,” I ordered the golem. It began pulling various levers as I closed and locked the case back up.

“Take it,” I told Boris who nodded and put it in its special carrying pack, which he then put on his back.

“The process will complete in approximately seven and a half minutes due to the Mana and physical density of the object. Please stand by for the device to complete the annihilation process,” the golem said.

“Do you need to do anything else?” I asked it.

“It is standard procedure to set the device back to neutral after use, to confirm the chamber is clear and allow others to make use of it without having to worry about cleaning up a prior mess,” the golem said while I put my spatial pouch back on my hip.

“Command execute, follow me quickly,” I ordered and coughed out some more blood. I pulled out a healing potion and quickly downed it. It helped a bit with the physical damage, but the real damage was to my soul. I quickly left, with Boris, Ozy, and the golem following me.

We ran out of the main entrance as the Mana in the area continued to grow. As we entered the slush and ashen waste the ground began to shake. I almost fell when I felt the Tier 7 curse skill on my soul fade away.

I couldn’t help but grin. After all that headache, I had finally gotten rid of that Seraphim Quest.

It wasn’t the time to celebrate. I didn’t have us stop running until we had cleared the complex by five kilometers, having us stop on an outcropping of stone.

Previous Chapter | Next Chapter