NOVEL NEXT 141 - Helping the Builders
From the lower level, Div and Dana felt Suce's presence as it reinforced the walls around their position and the builders' hideout. While they were hidden below the mountaineers who were trying to force their way into the builders' base, an earth spirit was more than capable of extending its sense through the ground.
Even a relatively young one like Suce.
If Suce knew they were there, so did Gennorina, and by extension, her entire crew.
With only the faint, pale light filtering from above, Div and Dana exchanged a glance. They didn't need to speak to understand each other.
They would fight.
Silently, to avoid catching the mountaineers' attention, Div used his hands to tell Dana about their opponents. There were fifteen of them. That was a lot. Too many to face head-on, even if they had support from the builders and Suce.
But Div wasn't planning on facing them head-on. They were not on the same floor, and clearing the rubble of the collapsed tunnel while in front of the invaders simply wasn't feasible.
Granted, Suce could probably help with that, but Div had a better idea.
His Rotlife Sense was already wrapped around the enemy, specifically the strongest-looking one.
It was never easy to figure out the strength of people through Rotlife Sense. Admittedly, there was a pattern of Evolved Rank hosting stronger rotlife, but it didn't always hold true.
Still, Div focused on a warrior with particularly robust intestinal flora and started weaving his spell. If reaching the mountaineers was going to be difficult for Div and Dana, the same held true for the mountaineers reaching them. Div fully intended to take advantage of this to inflict as much damage as possible.
The stone mages could be an issue, but with Suce's presence, Div had to assume they would have a hard time breaking past the rubble.
This was the reason why, unlike his usual tactic, Div targeted the strongest warrior. With the element of surprise working in his favor, he hoped Turn would take hold inside the man.
It did.
"Careful, I was hit with a spell," the man grunted, prompting his comrades to raise their guard.
Div frowned. This was a significant weakness in Turn. Anyone with a rudimentary level of control over mana was able to disrupt it and prevent it from taking hold.
It didn't sit well with him.
He had shaped Turn like a spiral, forcing the symbiotic rotlife to curl in on itself, turning what kept a body running into what brought it down. But he was beginning to suspect the spiral was wrong. Too artificial. Too controlled.
Control was important. Something he and En had been striving for since they awakened the Rot Heart. He still remembered the mangled, throbbing corpse of the first cyclops he killed all those years ago. The memory alone was enough to make him gag.
When he was making cheese, fish paste, or any process that required care and attention, control was mandatory and beneficial.
But when it came to battle magic, perhaps the approach was misguided.
Div pulled his mana back. He let the Rotlife Sense expand outward instead, brushing gently against the others. Not to attack. To observe.
The man affected by his spell was slowly waning. But he was losing strength like a flower withering under the sun, not like a warrior who'd been pierced by a spear.
Why not?
Div could be forceful. His Rot Heart afforded him the mana reserves he needed for that. Yet, since learning Rot Magic, he had sparsely made use of his unique advantage.
Magical heart bloodlines were considered among the most powerful precisely because they were near-endless sources of attuned mana.
"I'm an idiot…" Div whispered.
Dana looked at him, puzzled. "Why?"
Div shook his head. "Never mind."
His desire for control wasn't coming from nowhere, and his spells were useful. He just wasn't making use of his biggest advantage.
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Rot could be controlled and harnessed. But, with the image of the cyclops corpse filled with maggots imprinted in his mind, Div knew that rot was truly fearsome when it was untamed.
Div focused back on the first man. He knew the spell had taken hold. Barely. The man was wilting, yes, but too slowly. Too cleanly.
It was rot, but compared to the effects his mere presence had on the environment when he had no control over his mana, compared to the sheer destruction he had wreaked on the horde of wyrmrats. This version of rot was incredibly mild.
It was restrained, almost gentle. Although the victim of his spell would certainly describe it in less favorable terms. Div made no mistake; the spell was killing the mountaineer.
Yet, rot could be so much more. It was chaos, hunger, warmth, a silent fire that could devour everything in its path.
Div closed his eyes, drew a long breath, and reached for his Rot Heart. The mana pulsed. It was eager. He latched onto the lingering thread of Turn still coiled inside the warrior. Not to reshape it. Not this time.
He fed it.
Mana surged through the ethereal link. More than any normal spell could bear. The pattern groaned under the pressure, but Div didn't let up. If it broke, so be it. If it held, it would do so because it had changed.
And it did.
The spiral ruptured. The rotlife, instead of curling inward, spilled out, ravenous for more. Div felt it unfold, reknit itself, spread through his target's body. The man screamed.
That was more like it.
It wasn't just his gut anymore. Div could feel it crawling along the skin, slipping into pores, clinging to his eyes, feeding on sweat, on blood, on breath. Every surface was a bridge, an invitation for more. A feast.
Rot was self-sustaining, like fire. As long as there was organic matter, it would burn.
It spread.
Div kept his mind focused on delivering more from his Rot Heart straight to his target. His opponent's attempt at disturbing it didn't matter. He wasn't trying to be subtle, to weave a delicate spell. In large enough quantities, attuned mana would conjure its properties, whether it was intentional or not.
His Rotlife Sense was wrapped tight around the cluster of mountaineers. One of them moved to check on the screaming man. Bad idea.
The rot jumped. Or, rather, it reached out.
Div didn't cast again. He didn't need to. The spell had become a vector. It was no longer his.
He watched. Waited. Counted heartbeats.
Then the second scream came.
Skill leveled up: Mana Manipulation Lv6 -> Lv7
"Div?" Dana asked. "What did you do?"
Her voice was enough to bring Div back to earth. What had he done? Well, he made his spell go out of control.
Now, it didn't even need his mana to keep spreading. Rot begets rot. Along with essence, the rotting process created more rot mana, which in turn accelerated the rotting process.
A self-sustaining, contagious, highly lethal rot magic spell.
This could be a problem.
A part of Div was satisfied with his success. As panic spread in the ranks of the invaders, he knew that his spell alone would be enough to take down this party of mountaineers.
However, there was an issue.
Div sighed. Why couldn't things ever be simple?
"Suce," he said. "If you can hear me, tell Genno and the others that they should not open the door under any circumstances. Also, they should put a mana shield between them and the invaders. It doesn't matter if it's crude, just put in as much mana as possible."
"Div?" Dana asked again.
"I managed to infect all our enemies with my spell," Div explained. "But I've lost control of it. I'm afraid it will spread to the builders."
Dana took a step back from him. "You what?"
There was no fear in her voice, but her eyes searched for his, looking for reassurance.
"I had to," Div said, keeping his Rotlife Sense locked on the infected zone. "But I overdid it. The spell turned into something else."
"You overdid it?" Dana asked. "That's one way to put it…"
"I know."
She looked toward the stone above them, toward the muffled sounds of chaos filtering from the upper level. Cries. Footsteps. Silence. More screams.
"What happens if it comes down here?"
"It won't."
"You just said you lost control."
"I did. But I'm still here."
Dana didn't flinch when he stepped in front of her. She never flinched. That's what made her so dangerous. She trusted him, even now.
"I can draw it in," Div said. "To me. Rot doesn't think, but it follows mana. I'm the source."
Dana's voice was low. "You better be right."
"I have to be."
He reached for the Rot Heart again. It pulsed with the rhythm of his body. He slowed his breathing. Then, drawing on his experience with Preserve, shaped the mana like a funnel, inverting the flow. No more feeding the fire. Now he pulled, siphoned the ambient rot-attuned mana around him back into himself.
It was painful.
The spell didn't want to leave. It had found too many hosts, too much food. But there was nothing left for it to consume. The rot had stripped flesh from bone. There were no survivors.
It began to collapse in on itself.
Div sensed the moment it was over. The last cluster of rotlife disintegrated, spent and exhausted, into inert sludge. No screams followed.
He let go of his funnel and let out a long, drawn-out breath. "It's done."
The sound of stone sliding against stone sounded from above, and, from the small hole in the rubble…
"We would very much like to know what happened here," Gennorina said. "Div, Dana, step back. Suce and I will open a path up for you."