“Ah, the Great Old Ones at play,” the Monolith nodded, raising his head high. “Well played, to gain only a Token and not be taken instead.”

  “I am a Servant of Heaven, Elder, and that is TRUTH.”

  For a moment, the corrupted mana of the intricate weavings of the Falatacot cultists was searingly obvious in all directions.

  The burning eyes of the Monolith widened significantly, and then he slowly bowed his head. “So you are, Summoner! A True Word, and Well Spoken!” With disconcerting ease and lightness, the great tortoise spun around to face the altar. “What do you seek done here?”

  “Move the altar of the Radiance to the surface, Elder. We can erect a suitable shrine around it there.”

  “It will be done! Depart to a safe distance while I manage the eruption.”

  “Lord Mick, take them out. We’re on the way!” I announced in Magevoice. This time, Kris’ Disk swirled out and under her instead of me, while I bowed. “Elder, thank you for your grace!”

  “For the Radiance and the Lost Light, this is a small matter! Know that you have called upon Ancient Schotiel for this solemn duty!” he boomed back, the temperature already over a thousand degrees in the place and climbing. “Get you hence!”

  “A final gift for Elder to use…” I palmed a fistful of golum jewels, and I filled the chamber with an Arcane Primal Divine Sacred Purified Vivic Wall of Fire using them as the fuel for the Permanency.

  The flames could have burned him without difficulty, but I’d Summoned him up with Holy mana, and he was Good-aligned. Furthermore, he’d gifted me with his Name.

  Magic of the Holy Metas does not harm Good souls in the slightest, regardless of how profoundly dangerous the flames are, and so the vivus wouldn’t even touch his fiery self, save to heal him.

  His burning eyes turned to consider the transcendent power and beauty of the Fires all around him while we henced, and we were outta there.

  ---

  Tight and disciplined, the lads and ladies on Disks were all out of the room by the time Kris and I got there, and I zipped up the vertical shaft at top speed. Kris just crouched on her Floating Forge behind/below me while a less-dim spot up above grew rapidly clearer. Behind us, the stone all flowed closed as Crown scraped the stone and sealed it up smartly on our heels.

  I broke into the open sky, shooting a hundred feet up and over before my momentum and this world’s hate of aeromancy took over and King Gravity solemnly bade me head back down towards the ground, waving a chiding finger. I saw the Mick retreating along our backtrail. The waters would have been convenient, but, you know, scores of Spawn Points between us and them, and the weaving tunnels of the Dungeon had actually taken it down and underneath the N’cthail temple, so my hole actually brought us out only a hundred paces uphill of it.

  The popping of all those traps going off below was like bells breaking against the Sublime Chord, pinging all around us. About a second later, the ground lurched, and the Mick and his doubled row of trailing Disks all bounced into the air as a visible wave of dust and small stones blew past him.

  Behind us, superheated gases blew the spire-like top of the Dungeon completely off, basically turning into a blowtorch of flame a few seconds later.

  I glided down next to the Mick as he was likewise sliding down the air in a long, controlled skiing motion, totally ignoring the extremely loud cracking and crunching coming behind us as the Dungeon began to break down and break up, flows of lava surging forth as the caves and tunnels of the Dungeon below gave way.

  “Gordammit,” the Mick swore as we glided into range of his Claymore’s Sound Bubble and the rage of the new volcano was cut off, “we’re gonna have t’ Seal all them Spawn Points again, ain’t we?” he whined dramatically, and all the others in the interlinked Sound Bubbles groaned along with him like dutifully-trained Roaches and Skeeters.

  “Not likely, actually. They’ll end up scattered around the new Caldera, and their nature will likely change with the new Radiant Lord claiming the location,” I informed him serenely.

  “Ach, so we’re NOT going t’ have a time o’ it getting our Radiant Infusions?” he asked brightly, his mood whipping back to great cheer instantly.

  “Tomorrow,” I said calmly, looking back as the first plumes of lava began to jet a hundred feet into the air and started forming the caldera that was coming.

  In the middle of them, a great rounded form, surrounded by a shining ring of transcendent Flames, stood guard above a simple stone altar where a point of Light gleamed, waiting for us.

  -Anyone see any spotters around?- Kris /asked in Fellow-Mark. -I want to convey my appreciation for their astute planning and warm welcome.-

  Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

  Everyone paused, including me. The Mick and I braked, still twenty feet above the black ground, and turned with everyone else to look around. Masks of Clarity gleamed on everyone’s faces as we all stood there and looked around while slowly drifting towards the ground.

  -We don’t have the angle to see the shore spawns, an’ they knew we were coming from up top,- the Mick /remarked, looking back towards the temple.

  “If Elder could see to it the heavy mana disrupts dimensional travel for a bit longer, we would like to extend the welcome of the Lost Light and the Radiance towards the undead who set these events in motion.”

  The great horned head, plumes of fire lighting up like horns at the corner of his eyes, turned in my direction.

  Unseen flames running along the Veil with disruptive influence became a bit stronger and steadier than they might have with the new fireflow coming into being.

  Kris hopped off her Disk as we hit the ground, and I stepped onto it for sake of simplicity. Our line of retreat reversed, and we were now headed for the southern end of the most volatile area, where Summons were being shaken off their feet and had their eyes glued to the liquid fire being belched out of the earth, unable to flee.

  It took only seconds to reach a better angle. “Eleven o’clock from the temple, out in the water!” Milee saw the flash of red first.

  “Two of them!” towering Colmus added quickly.

  “Drive right through the spawns. I’ll make the hardpoint for the fight. We can retrieve the Wagon later.” It was currently disguised as a running ridge of black stone within the area of the Wall, which was currently actually completely sealed behind us so something didn’t sneak in while we were busy and annoy us by undoing our work through the opening.

  The Mick glided a stride behind Kris, giving her the lead position and making her the auto-target for the Summons we were going to run on through and past.

  The Deepsong rang out, accompanied by the Deepchord, and the sleeches and remorans fell to quivering prostration as we swept by them. The undead ruschk, Falatacot cultist spawns, prancing black and red mukkir, and Blighted coral golums weren’t so helpful, but were having problems keeping their feet in the wake of the quakes.

  The shades, hovering on clouds of shadowy voidsmoke, weren’t so affected, and so were also happy to chase and throw War Magic at our flanks.

  Gros and Kopf snorted in contempt from their positions at the rear of the double lines, taking all such shots on their great Shields and sneering at the things chasing after us.

  I brought up a Twinned Admixed Chain Crown of Stars coldly, forty times four blazing motes of Lost Light from Crown peeling away in a solid spiral from its length and multiplying around my head in readiness, like I was wearing a diadem woven from the stars of the firmament.

  We blew past the last spawn of golums there, the lot of them trying a couple swings as Kris swept past them… and a long line of cleaving Swords chopped through the closest golum as she batted its weighty arm out of the way.

  The undead watchers couldn’t rightly not see us coming, but it wasn’t going to do much good. I brought up my Shards around me, forearm-sized short javelins blazing with So Much Magical Shit, the waters around us a chorus of worship to The Deep that was actually drowning out most of the roar of the fires of the earth being let off uphill, and the stupid bastards had the idiocy to be standing in Its waters?

  I Spellwarped my Crown of Stars, and starfire lit up the day and threw all else into shadow.

  The first group of six didn’t have a chance as a good two hundred Star-Shards became four beams of Burning annihilation, all focused on their crimson priestess, then Chaining out and through the rest of them.

  There was nothing for anyone to carve though as Kris blew right through evaporating mist and falling dust across the top of the singing waters, and the other group turned to run.

  My normal Shardray volleys of Spellwarped Shards smashed into the backside of their priestess leading their flight, letting them all see her blow into less than glowing ash and mist… and then all four Shardrays arced around and came right back at them, meaning they were running right into their own annihilation.

  Fucktards.

  Kris braked in a nicely impressive arc of splashing water, cutting a solid arc as she came around. The Mick deployed the lines behind him at the same time as he followed her around, while I plunged Crown down to touch the white sand at the bottom of the utterly clear waters beneath us all.

  The incoming hordes of Summons chasing us, splashing energetically through the waters, saw the Wall of Stone heave itself out of the surf in front of them. I Shaped up secure footing underneath everyone else even as the Skeeters and Vanguards were rolling off their Disks. The Archers were moving into overhead firing positions, while the Support Mages and I were looking above the eight-foot wall that was enough to give us targets to Imperil and Vuln.

  The Mick and Kris were right on the edges, Gros and Kopf split one to each flank of them, helping contain the push as the Knights of Lost Light spread their lines, and the defense was on.

  Summons didn’t readily use tactics, so the idea of spreading around the fighting combatants didn’t occur to most of them. Their programming was flexible enough that when they couldn’t reach Kris or the Mick they went after the next nearest target, which meant the flanking Knights were constantly gaining their own attackers, moving back into the defensive line, and a new flanker took up the end of the line.

  Imperils flashed off, then Fire Vulns. The only difficult ones to kill would be the Coral Golums, as bludgeoning was the best attack against them, meaning the archers couldn’t help against them… but it also made them the best targets for Nippo and Thera to Bludgeon Vuln and then pound into with War 7’s in tandem.

  I didn’t bother to get fancy, simply flashing a Phoenix Healing Fireshard Ray through everyone every twelve seconds, dealing with the accumulated damage, and with Empowered Healing, the extra Health not used became temporary Soak for one minute per Caster Level… or more than long enough to take the brunt of the next spell attack, if such happened.

  The rush of hot and cold energies cycling through them and flaring up to defy incoming War Magic from annoyed Summons was not something I’d employed often, basically a Mass Curing variant that only worked because of Phoenix Healing Flame.

  It was only an I Valence, so I could keep it up for quite some time as needed, and still have another Crown of Stars on hand for spot healing on top of it.

  Backed up by some really potent magic and the Archers on duty hatracking each fighting Summons one by one starting at the ends, the Knights there were freed to wrap around and Wolfpack and kill the things even faster. Our impromptu hardpoint held and butchered things one after another with increasing speed.

  ============================

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