Caera Denoir POV
It might be around a week or so since we entered the relictombs. Since Arthur spent most of the time in a meditative state, to converse and train with Erith, he would wake up every couple of hours and help me with my decay control.
He just found the right words to explain what I had to do, how I could control it even better and how I could modify fire spells, so I could use decay with them as well.
Since Seris didn't have the ability to control soulfire, I doubted she would be able to give me such precise advice in the future, so I used the time well and trained every minute. The further I would advance in here, the more Arthur would be able to teach me and I wanted to make Seris proud of my progress, when we came back.
Right now I am training my latest rune, an emblem that allows me to fill my weapon with fire, so with an attack the fire would continue with the motion and would extend my range by a couple of meters. To be more precise, that was the state of the spell one week ago. Since then my understanding of the rune had improved a lot and I was able to use the crescent of fire as a projectile.
I concentrated on my rune, letting my mana flow into it as well as using decay, which engulfed my crimson sword with black flames. I swung it once, toward a rock a dozen meters away. The mana left the sword and an arc of black fire flew through the air and split the rock in half.
"I see you're making progress" I heard Arthur's voice form behind me. He was still sitting in his meditative position, so he probably just woke up.
"Yeah, I am really starting to get the gist of it." I agreed, as he got up and stretched his limbs.
"I think it's time to continue to the next zone, Erith has taught me everything he could and he has a plan to get us out of here." Arthur announced. "We get Eriths real body and he should be able to lift the barrier. Then we send him through the portal alone and then we can leave."
"What do you mean, his real body?"
"He is encased in a crystal, so he can't move on his own. But he told me where it is, so we just need to go there."
I was still in awe that he can sense aether. The way he described it to me, how the aether moved and how it behaved, like it was sentient, it was truly something else. Mana in comparison was just there, idle, until someone or something influenced it, but apparently aether always moves on its own, like waves in the ocean.
Arthur was leading the way, walking down a street toward a tall building, with a clock tower on one end.
"How are your other spells? It seems like you have no problems with the decay mana anymore." Arthur asked me, having a curious look in his eyes.
"I can use them even better than before, even with soulfire infused."
"Maybe you get the chance for a new rune after this ascension. If you show Seris how much you have improved I am sure she would support you."
I nodded. I was hoping he was right, I can't wait to get a new one. My three runes were all fire based, so I was hoping for a rune of a different element, to be more flexible. In my previous ascensions I had already run into problems, as one zone was in a volcano-like setting and all the beasts had a high resistance against flame attribute mana. The only thing I was left with was my sword and body augmentation and while it was possible to beat the zone, it was a lot more tiring than it had to be.
It must be nice to be able to control all elements.
Arthur Leywin POV
We entered the building, which reminded me of a church from my previous life as it had the same architecture. I followed the way Erith had shown me and soon enough we stood before the right door. I noticed that the door wouldn't open, even when I imbued my hand with mana. This may not be all I could do, but I also didn't want to destroy anything and risk hurting the crystal.
So I activated my will instead and saw that the door was under the effect of a spell. The spell was made from pure mana and did not emit any signature. Without the ability to see mana particles I would have never been able to detect the spell. The complexity of the spell was remarkable and its structure reminded me of a chinese finger trap. The beads of mana intersected similar to it, sealing the door shut, no matter how much strength one used.
I decided to go with the simple approach and simply cut the spell, but not before memorizing the spell. As the seal broke I could instantly feel the signature of the crystal. The way the aether and mana combined was simply stunning.
Inside the purple crystal was Eriths body, but it looked different from the appearance of the djinn I had seen in his memories. Despite him being in an idle state, his skin was a lot paler and almost transparent, with only a bit of the once bright magenta color left.
'Ah, there you are. I can't wait to get out of here,' I heard his voice.
"Then lets go" I answered "Caera, could I get your help? It's quite big, so I could use a second pair of hands."
She nodded and grabbed the other end of the oval crystal and we carried it back toward the barrier surrounding the portal. Meanwhile Erith worked on the deactivation of the barrier, something he couldn't do from back there, as his influence over aether wasn't strong enough, to move that much aether from that far distance away.
After a couple of minutes he declared the work done, and indeed the aether particles surrounding the portal had stopped forming a barrier.
"Well, in that case, we really just have to throw you in the portal?" I reassured myself.
"Yes, the portal should detect me as a djinn and should send me to other djinns, if there are any left. If there are no others left the whole thing is pointless, but I have to find out."
"Well, in that case thank you for your teachings." I said goodbye.
"Don't worry, with your talent for mana and aether it's likely you will learn a lot even without me. I have a feeling that we will meet again." Erith answered before we threw him into the portal.
A few seconds later we entered as well, bound by the simulus.
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>1.1k words
Late chapter again, dont know yet, when I will get the time to write 36.