Divine Apostasy Book 12 - Chapter 72

Chapter 72

Overlord updated the map with enemy positions along with the best location to fight. Ruwen pushed that information to the group as Survey highlighted the path to the destination Overlord had marked.

The library's suppression pressed against Ruwen’s abilities, reducing the effectiveness of their power. As he followed Survey’s route through the aisles, he experimented with Spirit, Harmony, and Soul power. He considered shifting into his Destruction Realm Saraph form to check how his Blood Nodes and Destruction based power fared, but decided he’d save that surprise for a more desperate circumstance.

The library had fixed Ruwen’s appearance, so transforming might start a battle of Wills, and he wanted to postpone that confrontation until he had more information. The entity in charge here used the same Outerverse techniques that the machines in the rift and the five Towers in the Destruction Realm had wielded.

Ruwen turned to Sift who sparkled despite the dim light in the aisle they strode down.

“How can that stuff be so—” Ruwen paused, trying to find a word other than the obvious.

“Glittery?” Sift finished. He looked at the back of his hand. “It’s like it was made to work in poor light.” His head snapped up to meet Ruwen’s gaze. “Teach me that cleaning spell.”

“Scrub?” Ruwen asked. “Do you even have the Spirit to power spells? Without a core I doubt you managed to hold much.”

Sift frowned. “How hard is forming a core? Can I do it now?” He glanced at Lylan who spoke with Lyra and whispered to Ruwen. “Lyl says I need to take this god thing slow but how hard can getting a core be?” His face brightened. “Maybe I can use Soul energy to power Scrub. Have you ever tried that? Maybe I don’t even need Scrub.”

Sift exploded with light as he saturated his skin with Soul energy. Ruwen turned and blinked the stars from his vision. Sift’s comment reminded Ruwen why he’d wanted to talk with Sift in the first place.

A whip snapped next to Sift’s ear, and he stopped emitting light. Lylan had produced the weapon from somewhere and while the crack had been loud, it hadn’t traveled far.

“What are you doing?” Lylan asked Sift. “Are you trying to pull more mobs?”

Instead of answering, Sift groaned.

The glitter hadn’t burned away and instead absorbed the Soul energy making Sift truly sparkle.

“Who uses this stuff?” Sift whispered studying the back of his hand.

“Not sure,” Echo responded. “It works really well in dim light though.”

Echo’s comment made Ruwen curious, but he focused on Sift instead.

“I’m trying to understand the magic suppression here,” Ruwen said. “How did that Soul spell compare to your normal one?”

“This one took more effort,” Sift replied, “and it barely worked.”

“Give me a percentage.”

Sift frowned as he thought about the question. “Maybe like ten percent of normal.”

“Stop it,” Ruwen said. “I’m serious. I’m trying to figure something out.”

Lylan jumped and landed next to Sift, never missing a step. “He’s right. It’s the same for my Blood magic.”

Ruwen’s friends were experiencing far greater suppression. He guessed his effectiveness was closer to forty percent and he could push far past that if he wanted to pick a fight with the dungeon. Why the difference between him and his friends?

Did you catch all that Uruziel? Ruwen asked.

I did. I’ll do my best to observe them. Keep Harmonic Sight active during the upcoming fight.

Will do. Thanks.

"This place feels like it's trying to squeeze my Soul," Sift said, touching his chest. "Everything's working, but it's like trying to run underwater."

Hamma came abreast Ruwen with a few long strides, her blonde hair rising off her shoulders from the sudden movement. She cast a heal on herself. "None of us are great at using Spirit yet, but we had a chance to experiment with spells when we picked you up in the mountains.”

“When we saved you,” Sift clarified. “Again.”

“These Spirit based spells are more powerful than the Mana ones but are definitely less effective here. Probably only twenty-five percent of normal.” She glanced down at her necklace. “Archie is having problems moving around in here as well which is a first for him.”

Ruwen hid his surprise at the low percentage. He could sense the Spirit suppression, but again, it wasn’t nearly as impactful on him.

Echo strode behind the group silently, her black hooded robe casting most of her face in shadow. A seven-foot scythe materialized in her hands before dissolving back into shadow, and the chains trapping the Grimoire of Death rattled briefly as the book tried to open. Her white hair framed her pale face, and with retracted fangs she almost looked innocent.

"Death magic is definitely affected, but not as much as my Spirit spells. Maybe this library doesn't understand Death magic well enough to fully suppress it."

Ruwen assumed whatever suppressed them was a form of Outerverse technology. That meant it would be most effective on the things that existed there. The Luminara utilized their Souls, the Radiant chakras, while the Primal tapped their blood. The Nexus machines researched Concepts and Harmonics sat in the middle of it all.

The Death Tower sat at the bottom of the Destruction Realm, one of five. Since the Outerverse didn’t have much interaction with the Destruction Realm it made sense that it couldn’t suppress Death Tower magic as well.

Ruwen turned to Hamma. “Did you see five towers in the Creation Realm?”

“Yes,” Hamma replied carefully.

Ruwen glanced at Sift. “Did either of you interact with them? I’d like to test a hypothesis.”

Sift pressed his lips together and kept his eyes straight ahead. Ruwen turned to Hamma, who looked miserable.

“You want to tell me,” Ruwen said, “but you’re worried it will make any type of trial harder for me in the future.”

“Exactly,” Hamma replied.

Rami spoke from where she walked next to Lyra. The silver thread on her Mage robe, combined with her serious expression, made her look ten years older. "This suppression is designed to counter Universe-based magic systems, but it has gaps. It’s affecting my Perception Wyrm abilities, but my Void skills appear untouched."

Lyra offered her take as well. “I don’t know how you classify my skills. I guess it’s a kind of magic. It’s certainly less effective here, which is why you found me in such a dire situation.”

Lylan disappeared and materialized beside a pillar forty feet ahead.

Something’s already in this chamber, Lylan said in Chat. And it’s not showing up on our maps like the mobs converging on us are.

Ruwen's enhanced hearing picked up a rhythmic grinding noise like stone on stone. He activated Harmonic Sight and Knowledge while extending his Mental Domain. The library's suppression resisted the attempt but he overcame it.

The grinding grew louder, accompanied by sudden footsteps that shook the floor. Ruwen Blinked next to Lylan and swept his senses across the large chamber.

The chamber stretched two hundred feet and half that wide. Each side contained a massive shelf that stretched upward into the darkness. The remnants of tables and chairs filled the space in between and three other passages emptied into the room.

Ruwen and Lylan studied the source of the grinding and a moment later the shelf to their left buckled. Three mobs emerged as if the books and scrolls there had squeezed them out of their pages.

Each humanoid creature stood twelve feet tall with bodies constructed from crystal string. No, Ruwen realized, not braided string but long sections of text. Tattered books formed armor over their torso and thighs, and pages fluttered around their forms creating a protective barrier. Their eyes glowed with the same ethereal light as many of the floating shelves.

"Lexicon Sentinels," Rami breathed as the rest of the team arrived. "They're animated by compressed knowledge. Each one contains the entire contents of a major library."

Rami couldn’t hide the desire in her voice.

The Lexicon Sentinels’ movements were deliberate and precise as they turned to face Ruwen and the others. He detected another disturbance from the other shelf and he turned to the right. Lylan noticed a moment later and did as well.

Lyra gasped as the rest of the team noticed the new arrival.

The creature flowed over the shelf like liquid shadow. It had no fixed shape, and instead constantly shifted between forms. One moment it resembled a dragon, the next a massive spider, then something that reminded Ruwen of an octopus-shark. Different colored crystals poured from it like blood from a fatal wound and as each crystal silently shattered against the floor it released a burst of mist that formed something indistinct before dissolving just as quickly.

"Shelf Wraith," Lyra said, her voice worried. "It feeds by consuming the knowledge of its host, ripping it from their mind and leaving them a husk."

The nearest Lexicon Sentinel, a hundred feet to the left, raised a massive arm, and the books on its chest glowed. Pages tore themselves free of the armor and launched themselves toward Ruwen's group.