Divine Apostasy Book 12 - Chapter 77

Chapter 77

The monster emerged from the central shadow, spreading across the chamber floor like a spilled barrel of tar.

It gathered itself, twisting into a slick rope that piled into a light absorbing mound. Scrolls on the right-wall’s stack fluttered toward the creature as if caught in a slow inhale. The table and chair fragments that had survived the previous fight swirled along the ground, circling the monster as if caught in a vortex.

“Ink Blot,” Lyra told Rami.

Almost immediately Rami posted the details she’d taken from Lyra’s mind into Chat, altering it to look like a familiar Notification.

Target: Ink Blot

Type: Shadow Ooze

Description: A slick, amorphous ink entity displaced from the library’s shadows. Propels itself by shaping ambient air pressure and can slip between contiguous shadows. Dampens sound to mask movement and silence casters.

Library Section: Overdue

Effect (Passive): Rippling Hide- High resistance to piercing and blunt damage.

Effect (Passive): Ink Refill - Minor self-repair when in any shadow.

Effect (Triggered): Pressure Slide - Uses rapid pressure differentials to accelerate and change direction.

Effect (Triggered): Hushing Silence – Reduce the air density in a wide area to interfere, muffle, or cancel any sound dependent magic.

Effect (Triggered): Shadow Slick - Line-of-sight shadow transit.

Effect (Triggered): Gasping Vertigo – Create a sudden and violent air differential that disorients a single target.

Strengths: Mobility (shadows/pressure), Sound Suppression, Damage Mitigation (deformable mass), Minor Regeneration.

Weaknesses: Heat, Light.

The Ink Blot shifted into a human-like form as Kysandra vanished from the far group. Ruwen felt a pull on his Shadow, like someone had jumped onto his back. He assumed Ky had anchored herself to his shadow in the Destruction Realm and it foreshadowed her imminent arrival. He turned his head expectantly.

A heartbeat later Ky jumped upward out of Ruwen’s shadow with a brightly glowing Bliz over her shoulder.

“Hey kid,” Ky said to Ruwen as she leaned forward to deposit Bliz. “I really hate Ink Lords.”

“I remember,” Ruwen said with a laugh.

Ky Blinked away, reappearing ten feet behind Tremine who had squared off with the Ink Blot.

“Tip my wagon that woman is fast,” Bliz muttered as he deactivated Glow. “Had me over her shoulder before I could react.”

Ruwen hugged Bliz.

“Careful,” Bliz said jokingly, holding up the crystals in each hand. “These are my favorite Crazors.”

The crystals disappeared, falling into Bliz’s Void Band so quickly Ruwen almost missed it.

“Horseshoes?” Ruwen asked. “Are you trying to marry it?”

Bliz grinned, leaned close, and whispered. “That only worked once. Luckily, I figured out another use.”

Una strode toward the Ink Blot as Tremine raised his free hand, casting a pair of force walls that slammed into the creature, squishing it into a black pancake. The Void contaminated particle wrapped in chaos energy remained ready in his other hand.

Ruwen’s team drifted toward him, but they all kept an eye on the fight, ready to jump in if required.

Hundreds of horseshoes covered the chamber floor, and they all rose into the air at once.

Ruwen slipped into Harmonic Sight to see why and traced the magical flows back to Bliz.

“I named a drink after the first ooze I fought,” Bliz said. The horseshoes shone as he poured Mana into them, and he yanked them toward himself with a mass Retrieve.

The metal radiated intense heat and around fifty of the horseshoes smashed into, and then through, the Ink Blot as they tried to return to Bliz. The Ink Blot boiled wherever the horseshoes touched, and the sound of sizzling liquid filled the chamber.

Bliz used air magic to angle the returning horseshoes up and around himself and fire magic to reheat the metal, before sending them back at the Ink Blot. The temperature dropped twenty degrees as Bliz’s skin frosted over in some type of ice armor.

“Elemental Mage?” Ruwen asked.

Bliz understood Ruwen’s real question and answered while keeping his focus on the Ink Blot. “I know its common and generic, but it’s what I dreamed about on the farm as a boy. You’ve opened things up so much now, it really doesn’t matter where you start. All the advanced Specializations are still reachable.

The air around the Ink Blot distorted and Ruwen unraveled the oncoming pressure wave before it could reach Lyra. The creature had no bones, just fluid with different densities. It manipulated the air pressure around itself in quick pulses, decreasing the pressure in the direction it wanted to travel.

“Don’t let it back in the shadows,” Lyra said. “It can heal there.”

Bliz nodded his thanks.

Rami sent stats to group Chat. Numbers flickered across Ruwen’s vision describing everything from the monster’s speed to its estimated resistances.

As Una neared the Ink Blot, the air surrounding it thickened and wavered. Ruwen’s heartbeat sounded louder as the environment went silent.

Scouts just detected two more groups headed this way, Overlord said. I lost a third scout which means there’s something unfriendly nearby as well. ETA is five minutes if they find and use the most direct path.

Let’s help, Ruwen said in Chat. Overlord detected more enemies five minutes out.

Ruwen used Shade Speak to signal the same message, assuming Ky would notice and communicate it on their Chat. She saw everything.

The pressure change around the Ink Blot didn’t affect Una and she summoned a red spear with a type of magic Ruwen didn’t recognize. She threw the spear with such force she twisted in the air. Instead of coming to a rest, she continued to spin, a new spear launching at the Ink Blot with every rotation.

Sift jumped into the air, eyes burning white with Soul power. He hovered thirty feet above in case the Ink Blot tried to move in that direction.

Lyra moved from behind Ruwen to stand on Rami’s other side. He listened to the subvocalized chant she used as she cast a spell.

Drops in a tranquil pond.

My blood, ripples.

Like the storm, I swell.

Binding its fury.

On the last word, a small whip formed in Lyra’s palm, created from her own blood. She snapped it with a quick side armed motion, and it launched a drop of blood across the chamber. The blood spattered against the Ink Blot’s skin, and it stumbled and slowed. It moved with visible effort, as if walking through deep water.

Lylan had almost reached Ruwen, but she’d stopped to study Librarian Lyra’s magic.

Echo’s grimoire opened on its own, and Ruwen’s breath became visible as the book of death consumed the chamber’s heat. She placed a palm on the page, eyes closed and mouthed something he couldn’t hear or understand.

The space under the Ink Blot became a cloudy glass and a grey mist rose from it.

That was enough for the Ink Blot and it used Shadow Slick, disappearing into the micro shadows the mist caused.

Ruwen felt the bulge just under the surface of the Material Realm as the Ink Blot transitioned to its next target. He considered dropping into the Shadow Realm where he calculated he could kill it with just his Willpower, but he wanted to see what would happen when the Ink Blot resurfaced.

It was natural for creatures to attack the Healer, but in this case, it had made a terrible decision.

The Ink Blot emerged from behind Hamma, using her shadow as an exit. The spears Una had thrown remained stuck in its hide and Harmony revealed the spears funneled Health back to Una.

Hamma didn’t turn and instead thrust her staff into the air.

An awful ripping sound caused Ruwen to wince as the air above the Ink Blot tore open.

The Ink Blot triggered Hushing Silence and the area of effect silence washed over Ruwen. It triggered Gasping Vertigo as well, attempting to disable Hamma by removing the air she breathed.

Hamma’s hair fluttered from the violent pressure change, and Ruwen’s breath caught. She looked every bit the goddess she’d become, weapon raised, her expression unconcerned about the enemy at her back.

Thunder shook the chamber as white bolts of consecrated lightning descended from an invisible storm above. Instead of dissipating, the lighting pooled around and under the Ink Blot like a lake of holy fury. White fire licked the Ink Blot’s hide and the horrible smell of decaying books and burning tar exploded outward.

Lylan and Kysandra tossed daggers at each other, the weapons crossing the fifty feet impossibly fast. Like two street performers they caught and threw the blades so quickly the motions blurred. Without a word they both stopped and brought their palms together in a silent slap.

To the naked eye, their advanced Shade spell remained invisible, but Harmony revealed the threads of magic that filled the area between them. Each dagger had carried a binding strand with it, and when they clapped the quickly formed net collapsed, binding the Ink Blot in place.

Soul power struck the Ink Blot from above, a white waterfall of death that covered the creature in a torrent of energy.

Ruwen sensed the pressure change around the dying Ink Blot and wove a tight harmony around the creature using Sift’s wild Soul energy. A second later the Ink Blot exploded, but the sphere Ruwen had created contained the blast.

The sudden silence only lasted a moment, as muted Notifications filled everyone’s vision.

“What are bookmarks,” Sift asked as he dropped to the ground. He squinted and then turned to Ruwen. “Can I turn these messages off?” Then before Ruwen could answer he asked another. “Is this what happens to you all the time? I wondered why you’re always so distracted.”

“Is that a joke?” Ruwen asked in return. “If I didn’t pay such close attention—”

Kysandra interrupted Ruwen as she walked toward them, Tremine and Una in tow. “I see nothing’s changed.”

Sift frowned at Ky and then flexed his arms. “You don’t notice any difference?”

Ky shook her head. “Did you lose some weight? Your diet is terrible. I’ll mention it to Madda the next time I see her.”

The changes to Sift after Fortifying to the deity tier were unmistakable, but Ky, a master of her craft, spoke so convincingly, Ruwen believed her until logic reasserted itself.

Sift, short on logic, did believe her. “Don’t you dare say anything to my mom. She’ll have me eating the disgusting stuff I feed Shelly.”

“Who’s Shelly?” Lyra whispered to Rami.

“A shapeshifting space turtle that bonded to him. Darkness knows why. You’d think an Elder Tortoise would have more sense.”

Sift pointed at Rami. “I heard that.”

Rami laughed and winked at Sift.

The sound of rustling pages surrounded them as the loot dropped—chests, bookmarks, and cards appeared across the chamber floor.