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Arcanist - Chapter 98
🕑 Added 2025-05-15 15:34:03 +0000 UTCVireth pulled at the chains around the doorknob, checking for one last time to make sure she would be left alone during the Assembly. Her collection of shadows, lined across the shelves in the room—each one placed neatly in vials bound by her [Soul Threads]—stirred slightly as she lay over her couch.
She counted the days for the last week like a child promised a big surprise for her sixth birthday, even if she got odd looks from the cult members who seemed baffled to witness the Ninth Witch of the Wretched Mother’s court smiling widely instead of being confronted by her usual cold demeanor.
Pull yourself together. You can’t make another mistake in the Assembly!
Vireth nodded with strength and closed her eyes, caressing the ring she wore on her right index finger.
It was strange. For years she had to rely on the ring given to her by her Mother to take part in the Midnight Assembly, which turned out to be an Ancient Cursed Artifact. But now, she could feel the invitation being presented to her from beyond the gate in her chest cavity.
He is real… This whole thing is real!
She giggled as she let the call take her to the Spiritum.
….
Baht wheezed out a breath, one hand shading his eyes from the sandstorm erupted out of nowhere and without prior warning. The Sagaharan Desert had been silent for the last week, but today it seemed as though it wanted to remind the poor souls suffering through its endless reaches of its damning, eternal wrath.
The winds nicked him badly as he made his way to a singular cave jutting out of the wavering waves of sand, flung himself inside and down through its depths. It was biting cold here in the evening, but the walls around him provided a much-needed relief for his worn bones.
He stopped when he couldn’t hear the screams of the storm anymore and sat groaning down to the ground. With a Lifesurge, he fixed the slits opened around his bare arms, washing them with waves of lifemana before managing a clumsy stitch.
It’s too hard to get a sense of this. I can almost feel the wound’s existence like it is alive, but whenever I try to do something about it I lose the connection.
Lifesurge (Basic) 2 > 3
He clicked his tongue when a notification popped after he was done with the effort. Lifesurge had been a part of the legacy he’d gotten as a reward for passing his Fourth Trial, but as always, the System didn’t do anything to actually help him.
Then he felt a sudden pull coming from his chest cavity.
It’s time for the Assembly.
He nodded and leaned his back to the wall. He had contemplated bringing the matter of Lifesurge to the Arcanist for some time, but decided it was too soon for that. He would at least become Proficient in the skill before asking for help. He didn’t want to come off as a talentless fool to a mighty Ancient.
…..
Saah removed the rotten skin from his fingers and threw them away into the pile by the side of the door. It had been months since the last shipment, but for the Assembly he had to get a new set even though the Bone Collectors insisted it wouldn’t be fit for an undead of his stature.
He took his time patching his bones with the recently delivered skin, then placed the eyes with practiced ease before allowing himself to take a breath. Mana rushed into his Heartstone, sending a tremor across the newly fitted skin.
This would have to do.
After all, even if they suspected it, nobody knew in the Assembly that he was a Lich from the Seventh Legion.
The Arcanist… He definitely knows.
He shook his head and checked the iron door one last time. The members of the Midnight Assembly weren’t the only ones he was keeping secrets from.
Nobody in the Legion knew that he was the only undead other than the Abysmal Lords who had access to the Spiritum.
…..
“I’m late!” Ansel said and slammed the door of his dorm shut with force. His chest felt like it was about to explode. Something in there was calling out to him, which had nearly cost him a solid beating from Professor Mackley when he choked on his own spit in front of the whole class.
Everyone thought he was making a fool of himself, but little did they know Ansel had choked on his own spit out of pure excitement.
Yes!
This call was coming directly from the Arcanist himself. There was no way he would let some fools get to him when he was about to take part in another assembly with an Ancient One at the helm.
They would learn. Understand in time what it meant to ridicule him.
Before that, however, Ansel had to calm his heart.
He had to mind his manners in front of all those monsters waiting for him in the Spiritum!
……
Fog churned and twisted the moment Valens found his way to the simple seat hidden from his sight. He sat down, and the scene changed around him.
An invisible weight settled upon his body.
The throne felt icy cold underneath his skin.
Slowly, he forced himself to blink against the pressure. The hall and the other seats, the blurry faces of the members, the ever-present fog shading most of his visage… He took it all in, and when he tapped a finger to the throne, the members rose and bowed deeply in respect.
“With your permission.”
“Begin,” Valens said.
“As per your instructions, I have looked into this Evercrest Family,” Saah started right away, sweeping the giant table with his glinting eyes, which were almost unnaturally bright today. “And I have found that they have strange ties to the undead.”
“The undead?” Vireth echoed. “How? Is it related to the Endless Mist?”
“Indeed,” Saah nodded. “Most of the knowledge was beyond my reach, but what little I’ve managed to find suggests that the Everfog of the Undead Liches has an intricate relation with the Endless Mist. I suspect the Legion has at least been inspired by her in some ways.”
“The control of mind,” Baht mused loudly. “The Ancient families are truly terrifying. To think they have dared to strike a deal with the Ancient Ones… It takes courage, and a degree of madness to even attempt that.”
“That’s not the end of it,” Saah continued. “Back in the Ancient Era, the Evercrest Family were at the helm of an organization called the Chimeric Order. It has been recorded that though they kept a low profile, their members were known to be masters of shapeshifting.”
“Sir,” Vireth said as she turned vehemently toward Valens and spoke with a low voice, “I have also looked into this family. It seems they have vanished right after the Ancient Era ended. For centuries there hasn’t been a single mention of them in the records of the Wretched Mother’s court.”
Well, I suppose that is my fault, or at least I have something to do with it. It’s too much of a coincidence otherwise to think they happened to decide to move again just after I came to this world.
“If that is true…” Baht said, looking thoughtful. “Then with Sir’s arrival, we now have two different Ancient bloodlines stirring after a long period of silence. It seems it’s only a matter of time before the others show themselves, too.”
“The beginning of a New Era,” the woman who sat beside Saah said. Valens still didn’t know her name, but he remembered the resentment on her face when she said that the New Era was supposed to have belonged to the humans.
Sorry, Miss. It wasn’t intentional.
That part about the shapeshifting got him thinking, though. If the members of the Evercrest Family could change their appearance, then finding that hateful woman would be harder than Valens thought.
I wonder if they can manipulate the frequencies, too? Because if they can’t, it doesn’t matter even if they can turn themselves into animals.
“There is one other thing,” Saah muttered. “While I was looking into the Evercrest Family, I heard rumors about a strange event. Someone betrayed the Ninth Legion.”
“Baht, do you remember the odd Healer Vireth told you about?” Saah then said. “The Ninth Legion thinks he was involved with the betrayal of that particular undead. Somehow, he came up with a way to prevent the Everfog. Right now it is only limited to a single undead, but if this method spreads across the Legion… “
“The undead might rebel against the world,” the woman who sat silently by Vireth muttered gravely.
“As I’ve said before, as much as you want to believe I have all the Healers in the palm of my hand, that is not the case. I have no relation to that man, at all,” Baht said, frowning. “But to think he managed to create a measure against Everfog… Vireth, didn’t you tell me he was a Level 100 Healer?”
“It is true,” Vireth said, face growing serious. “Not only that, I got word from my eyes in Belgrave that he is planning to open a clinic in the poor ring of the city. That unstable Bishop even gave his approval.”
“A clinic?” Baht leaned closer to the table, staring wide-eyed at her. “After all the things we’ve gone through, they let a Level 100 Healer open a clinic?”
“Well,” Vireth giggled. “Unlike someone we all know, he is not trying to rally the poor against the Church. I suppose that helped with the situation, and with the recent change in rule, it shouldn’t be that big of a surprise, right?”
“You should feel proud,” Saah said from the side, smiling at Baht. “It was in part your sacrifices that made this possible. Who knows? Perhaps in the future even you could join him.”
Depends on where you’re looking at it. He gave the Church a good justification to shun the Healers, after all. If the rule hadn’t changed, things could’ve been different.
“I don’t think they will take kindly if I were to take a step into Melton,” Baht sighed. “Things might have changed, but Cornelius and I have quite the history between us. Given a chance, he would try anything in his power to do something stupid.”
“Good thing he’s not aware of your sudden return, then,” Vireth said, then she leaned forward. “But this Healer… He’s not a simple man. If he managed to heal a late-stage Wailborn, he might actually help the Sun’s Church solve the recent murders.”
“This matter is not as simple as it seems,” Saah said. “And that Healer… He’s involved in too many shady deals. I doubt he is there just to help the Church with their Holy War against the Tainted Father.”
“The Healer is not relevant,” Valens said, and at his voice, the whole table quieted right away. He didn’t want people to keep constant attention on the things he was doing, for he already had enough enemies. “The chaos surrounding Melton Kingdom is related to the Trial of a woman,” he continued, voice deep. “A woman who belongs to the line of the Evercrest Family.”
“An Ancient’s Trial?” Vireth’s eyes bulged out, fingers shaking as she stared wide-eyed at Valens. “But Sir, if that is true, then this means the whole of Belgrave is at risk here!”
“Thousands of innocent people…” Baht muttered heavily.
“A New Era is beginning,” Saah said. Unlike the others, he didn’t look half as affected by this matter. “And it’s bound to be a chaotic one.”
Chaotic, indeed.
Valens rubbed his forehead.
The rest of the meeting passed in a blur, which involved mostly the members contemplating loudly about the possible scenarios related to an Ancient’s Trial.
Some of them seemed too sure that the world as they knew it would face destruction in the future with the return of the Ancients, while others believed the Divine Orders and the Kingdoms would definitely take measures against such a thing.
That showed Valens a simple truth. While most of the members were strong individuals in their own right, they didn’t have the influence nor the power to mount a preparation against the Trial of this damned Evercrest woman. And worse, Valens wasn’t sure if they all cared for the destruction, either.
Saah, for one, seemed disturbingly calm against such a threat, while the youngest member of the group, Ansel, looked to be more interested in the magical side of things rather than thinking too much about matters that were well beyond him.
Valens didn’t blame them. He even understood the reasoning behind it.
But he couldn’t rid himself of the crushing reality that he was right in the middle of all this. His Trial was pitting him against this terrifying woman, and Saah’s words about the Evercrest Family and their ties with the undead forced him to suspect that Nomad could have something to do with this matter, too.
After all, Mr. Gray told him that the Ninth Core Dungeon of the world could only be opened from the Underworld, didn’t he?
And what use could Nomad have for a bunch of Void Riftshards that could open a Rift between Haven’s Reach and the Broken Lands, or could be used as anchors for Cursed Rifts?
He didn’t want to admit it, but he couldn’t bring himself to ignore the sheer number of clues suggesting that Nomad and that Evercrest woman were working together.
I did this. I helped Nomad with his Heartstone. It was me who gave the control of his mind back to him, and now this?
There was a heavy pressure behind his eyes as he concluded the Assembly. He watched all the members vanish into the veil of fog until he was the only one remaining.
I have no other choice. I have to clean this mess.
That meant taking action.
Yes.
He would start with the clinic.
If needed, he would scorch every speck of shadow he’d come across in this damned city.
….
