Chapter 68 When We Catch Up.

  Shamesh’s Reality Bubble faded away a few seconds after the last of the ice magic had. The hallway was frozen over like a painting of a yeti’s home. In the center, near the doors to the garden, there was a circular orb made of ice. It was glowing orange from the flames of the woman that existed inside it. There was movement inside the ice before, suddenly, a fist burst out. Lenna yanked her hand back in and grabbed on to each side of the hole that she had just made. With aura enhanced strength she ripped open her icy prison and stepped out. “That was cold.”

  Isaac chuckled. “You had me worried for a moment.” He told her. “But I see you are fine.”

  “Mostly.” Lenna replied. “My fingertips hurt, quite a bit actually.”

  “Come here.” Isaac said and met her in the middle. He poured death flames through her to heal what he assumed was frostbite. “You used Perdition, didn’t you?”

  “I did.” Lenna confirmed.

  “Did it hurt?” Isaac continued.

  Lenna shook her head. “The spell did not, no.” She informed him.

  Isaac smiled. “Good. You can cast it whenever you want and, as long as you can do it without hurting yourself, I will never complain.”

  Lenna nodded. “Considering the only alternative was freezing solid, I assumed that you would be fine with it.” She replied.

  “Yes.” Isaac confirmed. “Now, if you are ready to move on, let’s continue.”

  “I am.” Lenna agreed.

  “Shamesh, the reality wall, please.” Isaac said and gestured towards the wall of reality magic that had sealed off their hallway from the garden.

  Shamesh bowed. “As you say, my Lord.” He replied and moved to stand between the duo and the door. “Command: Be Undone.” He spoke aloud and fired off a Disintegrate spell. His spell was disrupted and crushed as it activated. Hidden wards had activated to prevent him from getting through the wall.

  “If any of those had activated on any of the previous spells, we would be having a very different conversation right now.” Isaac stated with an incredible amount of seriousness and worry. “The creator must’ve assumed that whoever would end up opening the door would not be a mage. The runes are there just to slow down the mage after whoever opened the door was already dead.”

  “That’s odd.” Lenna said with a slight tilt to her head. “Most of the other traps have been hyper-lethal on purpose, why would they make this one differently. This one seems to be made to simply slow down whoever is coming for as long as possible.”

  “Whatever, or whoever, is on the other side of this reality wall must need time to escape. If whoever was after them had made it this far already, then another hyper-lethal trap would be unlikely to stop them.” Isaac offered. “I’ll melt the wall. As soon as you can get in front of me, do it. I’ll be vulnerable for a moment from both sides of the wall.” He ordered both of his party members and stepped up to the wall of reality magic that blocked their way. Isaac placed both of his hands on the wall and started pouring mana into it. Five, then ten, then fifteen, twenty, thirty, forty, fifty, sixty, seventy five, ninety, and finally, one hundred and five percent of his mana regeneration rate forced its way into the barrier that attempted to keep them from their destination. Isaac spread his arms wide while he kept his palms on the wall. “Go.” He told Lenna and she forced herself through the blackness that the barrier had become.

  The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation.

  As Lenna pushed through the corrupted barrier, she felt like she was moving through a thick and viscous liquid. The barrier bulged, stretched, and rippled as Lenna forced herself through it and out into the garden. The reason why she had gone through before Isaac had properly opened up the barrier was because he was using its opaque state as cover from whoever was on the other side. Once Lenna was through, Isaac mentally took hold of all of the dark mana in the spell and locked it in place. He felt his thoughts getting slippery from the massive amount of mental drain that gripping that much mana gave him. Usually he would be able to control that much mana with little more than a light sweat but the spell was still trying to guide it in different ways than Isaac wanted it to go. He clenched his jaw and fists in effort as he solidified his control over the spell. Isaac took a step back and yanked. The barrier was pulled from its position like a blanket being ripped off of a sleeping child. What was left of the barrier crumbled and faded away in a matter of moments like the discarded toy that it was.

  Shamesh moved in front of Isaac and then out of the way to allow him to pass as soon as he was certain that everything inside was fine.

  Lenna had scanned the area as soon as she had entered, and had found only one potential threat, and he looked like he had gone a round through each of the nine layers of hell and had somehow survived.

  Inside the garden, there were rows of flowerbeds and indoor trees, as well as a tea table with four chairs that were tossed to the side. In the middle of the room, there was a stone circular staircase that led into total blackness. The staircase was too tight to see any further than a dozen feet down but there was clearly no light forcing its way up from beneath.

  Lenna carefully moved into the middle of the room as Isaac and Shamesh entered behind her. She quickly found the other entrance and noticed that all of its traps had been triggered as well. Unlike water and ice, the other path seemed to have been fire and brimstone. There was a small lake of sulfur on the ground in the hallway and every single surface was blackened to a ridiculous degree. “Hey, I know you.” The soldier on the ground a handful of feet away from Lenna grunted out. His words were followed by a wet cough and then a groan in pain.

  As Isaac and Shamesh approached her, Lenna let her focus move to the injured man. She knelt down next to him. “You are one of the Magistrate’s men, aren’t you?” Lenna questioned and fished a healing potion out of her Bottomless Bag.

  “I am.” The soldier said with a nod and another groan. “This place is a deathtrap.”

  Lenna helped him drink the potion and he happily gulped it down. His armor was a simple breastplate with chainmail sleeves, coif, and pants. He had steel gauntlets and helmet but otherwise his body lacked anything capable of taking a hit from a mace or war hammer. Or a fist from the man that Lenna had fought in Sapphirestone now that Lenna thought about it. That man’s fists had been more lethal than a mace in even some of the most skilled warriors' hands.

  “Thank you.” He croaked out. His armor was shredded, burned in some places, and melted in others. Lenna could tell that the melted armor was from acids and not the fire that had left him in such a state. It looked like he had been at least partially caught by the most recent trap his group had gone through.

  “Where is the Magistrate?” Lenna asked the soldier. “And what happened here?”

  “He chased them down.” The soldier explained the obvious. “Only him and three more of our men made it this far. I think it’s the court mage helping the marquess and his family escape. We had no idea that this place was rigged like a dungeon from one of those stories. If he had known, we wouldn’t have come in. It would have been smarter to just surround them on the surface and then go through the sewers to make sure that they couldn’t escape that way, like they no doubt are right now.”

  Lenna nodded in thanks and acknowledgement. “Rest, soldier, there are plenty of men that have begun their final rest this night, count yourself lucky that you will not be joining their number.” She told him and rose to her feet.

  “Believe me, dear dame, Halya’s been hearing nothing but my thanks for half an hour.” He said with a weak grin. He settled into his resting place a bit more and closed his eyes. Isaac, Lenna, and Shamesh all watched as the stress of consciousness almost immediately left the man. It was clear to Isaac and Lenna that the only reason that he had been conscious was because of the pain from his injuries. Throughout his entire interaction with Lenna, he hadn’t even noticed Isaac and Shamesh.

  “Let’s go.” Isaac told his team. “Shamesh, back in my shadow, it would be different if you could teleport, but for now, I will have to just teleport before summoning you.”

  “As you say.” Shamesh said with a bow and willingly went back into his sensory deprived resting place.

  Lenna moved to begin their descent after the Magistrate and ruling family. “Wait.” Isaac told her. “Let me go first. If anything so much as spooks me, I’ll teleport behind you. Teleporting really is just cheating and as long as you can’t teleport out of danger, I would prefer to be the one to go first. If it is a threat that we can see, that is fine for you to take head on. But if it is a threat that we cannot perceive, I trust my ability to teleport.”

  Lenna frowned but nodded after only a short moment of thought. “You are right.” She conceded. “If anything so much as spooks you.” She parroted.

  Isaac nodded and then cloaked them both in shadows. “Let’s see if we can’t catch up to the Magistrate before he gets himself killed. I feel like this entire place is one massive wizard’s tower.”

  “Come to think of it,” Lenna said thoughtfully, “are we sure that there even is a wizard tower in Port Vespera?”

  Isaac's eyes went wide as they locked with hers. “Oh no, you don’t think the tower could actually be under the estate do you?”

  Lenna shrugged. “We can ask them when we catch up.”

  Isaac nodded. “Right.” He said and started running down the stairs two at a time. “When we catch up.”