Chapter Nineteen

Tenebri Terra

“Portal magic is one of the strongest types of magics, it takes adventures of ranks twelve and up to use them. You have access to the World Below which isn’t actually underground. The World Below is a part of the Plane of Earth that is leaking into the Shadowfell creating a never-ending series of caverns and tunnels; it is a place of madness and terror. The dimensional bag is a similar thing to that but on a much smaller scale. Dimensional magic and portal magic are also two of the most dangerous also, you mess it up or combine two spells you can get ripped into another plane,” Ember explained. “Which is why messing with portal magic is a really bad idea. No one has made another spell like that in over a thousand years and those who have tried…it didn’t end well.”

Exactly, no one else will have accomplished this which means that no other dungeon could challenge me to my right to be on the circle, Wraith implored, I will risk anything to become the greatest being this world has ever seen. And you will help me.

Ember sighed. “Boss, I am a lord spark my duty is to you my dungeon and lord but it is also to the sparks under my control. If we fail then it is not just you and me that bite the dust, without us they will scatter and most of them will die.”

Then we must not fail, the dungeon affirmed. Let us begin.

Wraith let his consciousness drift as he probed the dimensional bag with his mind letting his own dark mana fill the cracks of the pattern copying it into his own memories allowing him to recreate it. The pattern was simple enough but required a great deal of mana to create the equivalent of two weeks of absorption, but the deaths of the kobolds and adventures had filled Wraith’s reservoir.

Wraith created another bag and looked at it, he knew that mixing two bags was a bad idea creating portals to the astral sea. Curious Wraith moved his consciousness into a testing chamber and had a kobold carry the two bags into the room; next he created a chain and harness so the soul spark would not be sucked into another plane. He gave the order and the kobold placed the bag of holding inside the other bag, and nothing happened.

Curious, Wraith said to himself. Ember how reliable is the information you have?

“Extremely, it is lore I learned from the Queen of the dungeon I was born in and things I saw from adventurers in the dungeon. Why do you ask?” Ember inquired.

Have you ever seen a bag of holding placed into another bag of holding? Wraith asked.

“I saw a bag of holding put into a portable hole, its basically the same thing. An adventure did it by mistake when they were looting a room sucked a couple soul sparks into the astral sea before the portal closed, that’s about when I left looking for my own dungeon,” Ember said. “Again, why do you ask?”

Because that didn’t happen when I did it, Wraith said.

There was a moment of silence. “Well that can’t be good. Are you sure you made the bag correctly?” Ember asked.

Of course, Wraith replied irritably. They are exact duplicates of each other.

“I don’t know, that is what happens its what has always happened. This can’t be good, a law of magic changing is something that hasn’t happened in thousands of years,” Ember panicked.

But it has happened? Wraith asked.

“Yes, there are certain laws written down and bound to this plane but if they are moved things start going wrong. I have to be honest I don’t know much about it,” Ember admitted.

Whatever it is, it doesn’t appear to be threatening us immediately and it doesn’t seem to be causing many problems. I was hoping to study gates to the astral plane but that will have to wait, Wraith monologed.

“Why don’t you just study the door to the World Below?” Ember asked.

The door? Wraith asked.

“Yes, you remember when you pushed your mana through the tunnel into the World Below to make it part of your territory. You were taking a tear in the fabric of our reality and making it into a permanent gate a door. You didn’t consciously do it but that is the result,” Ember revealed.

Interesting, Wraith concluded.

Wraith focused his mind again and reached out with his consciousness and touched the point in the tunnel where the First World opened into the World Below. He relaxed his mind again and focused on the patterns his mana interacted with natural patterns of the mana emanating from the reaction between the First World and the World Below. He consciously focused on memorizing the pattern fixing it in his crystalline mind where it would never fade. Wraith moved his mind to focusing on his testing room on his dungeon’s second level focusing on a section of the cave wall and began pouring dark mana into it.

“What are you doing?” Ember asked.

Making another portal into the World Below, Wraith replied.

Ember laughed. “You can’t just open up a portal on whim like…”

The side of the cavern deepened in shadow as reality pulled away revealing a dark tunnel leading deep into the earth. Glowing fungus and clusters of crystals lined the walls showing a very different section of the World Below.

“That’s not possible,” Ember whispered. “The laws of magic, what is happening?” he asked no one.

Is that spreading? Wraith asked.

“What?” Ember asked alarmed.

The portal was moving across the cavern floor the path giving way to glowing lichen and moss as the First World was consumed into the World Below.

“Shut if off, stop that now if it spreads there will be nothing left of our world!” Ember panicked scrambling back from the portal.

I can’t its going on its own. I’ll try to contain it, Wraith said his voice strained through mental excursion as he felt a primal force and will of nature press against his own pushing into his territory. He began carving runes into the stone around the expanding portal trapping the wild magic and cutting a slough made of runes to channel the magic back to his core.

The expanding portal halted, and Wraith felt a steady trickle of mana as the mana of the raw force of nature was pulled away like a damn that kept the pressure of water from building up by releasing a bit of water at a time. The mana didn’t ease up and Wraith didn’t see any way to remove the portal now that he had created it, but he smiled inwardly. If this didn’t keep his position on the circle, then he didn’t know what would.

I think we are ready for Dungeon Conclave, Wraith chuckled.