As they continued on, the hallways and rooms continued to be plain until they got to the last room, and the enemies continued to be stupid and easy to handle. The final hallway was more than twice as wide as any of the others, and it ended in a pair of doors that swung into the hall. The hallway was plain but Serenity could see the texture where different layers of paint covered the doors.

Serenity opened the door to look into what had to be the boss room. It was an enormous, peaceful-looking room with water features all around; waterfalls filled two of the walls, while small pools with fountains dotted the rest of the room. At first glance, Serenity didn’t see a boss, so he slowly stepped inside, still looking but also watching for more traps.

When Raz stepped into the room, all of the fountains started increasing in height quickly. Serenity could now see a pattern to them; they seemed to form a star around a central fountain that was taller than the others.

The water splashed out of the pools and puddled on the floor.

Were there enemies in the water or was this just an elaborate trap?

Serenity tugged on his Vital Sight and examined the water. Everything glowed a little; a dungeon always did, especially the walls. Serenity tried to ignore the background vitality of the dungeon and look for the concentrated spots of vitality that indicated monsters.

There wasn’t anything - no, wait. There was Death energy animating something in the middle of the closest fountain. It seemed to be growing - no, not growing. It was simply rising into the room. “There are monsters coming up through the fountains!”

Katya hurried into the room as Serenity took a couple of steps forward to make space.

The fountains rose even higher and Serenity focused on the center fountain. It was larger than any of the others, and there was a larger, deeper reservoir of Death magic animating the monster. “There’s a big one in the middle. Can you take the ones on the outside if I distract the big guy?” Serenity had to shout to be heard over the noise of the water from the fountains.

“Go! We’ll handle the small fry!” Katya yelled back.

Serenity triggered his boots to Far Step beyond the center fountain. It took three steps, but he didn’t use the boots’ magic very often, so they were holding up well. He stopped in the water of the fountain, and could barely hear Katya’s next yell. “AHH Glowing eyes! Serenity, watch out! There’s a second one!”

Serenity could barely hear Raz’s shout. “That’s Serenity! Attack the small ones!”

Serenity’s attention was on the monster rising from the fountain. It appeared to be a drowned priest; given the apparent gold and jewels used as decoration on the robes, it was probably the High Priest. It wasn’t actually any taller than the ones rising from the surrounding fountains, and Serenity couldn’t tell how fancy they were - the water got in the way - but it seemed unlikely they were as bedecked in finery as this one had been, before it drowned. Its clothes didn’t seem to have survived the water particularly well. They seemed to be held together by the embroidery and what appeared to be strands of metal, rather than by the cloth itself.

Serenity sent mana into his scales and skin to harden them. He wasn’t good with water, particularly, but this seemed like a good time to use some of the Void magic he’d been reading about. Not liminal Void this time, but the Void that was the absence of anything. The Void that ate, and called itself Hunger, Desire, and Need.

He channeled that Void into his naginata and it disappeared from his sight. He could tell where it was because it was linked to him by magic, but it no longer appeared as an object; instead, it was an absence.

He swung the void-naginata through the fountain, and it left a swathe of missing water. It slammed into the priest and took a chunk out of the High Priest's clothing and side before the priest’s magic stopped it in its path. As water fell into the weapon, it continued to disappear; the naginata was as easy to move in the water as his weapon normally was in air. Void was definitely a good choice; water would normally make fighting harder.

The High Priest reared back and YELLED. Serenity gritted his teeth and swung the naginata at the creature’s head, forcing it to dodge and stopping the shout. Serenity was certain it had been a magical effect, but he thought his resistances had kept him from suffering more than a mild headache.

Serenity pushed forward; if possible, he wanted to force the priest out of the fountain. Most undead weren’t particularly helped by watery conditions, but Serenity knew that some were; the Final Reaper had used them when he needed to deal with some particularly irritating residents of a water world, before he’d started taking the easy way out.

For a moment, Serenity was back in the waters of Artssynna, surrounded by enemies who had conspired to kill a friend. The moment vanished, but not before Serenity charged the enemy in front of him and stabbed.

It was fortunate that the creature in front of Serenity was an enemy, because the blade of the naginata tore through its chest. It wasn’t enough to destroy the former high priest, but it would prevent it from shouting again.

Serenity felt himself pelted on all sides by balls of water, then a rope made of water rose and attempted to sweep him off his feet. He felt lucky; while his armor didn’t do much to protect against the impact of the water, it also wasn’t particularly damaged by it, and the hardening he’d given his scales was far more effective against water than he'd expected.

Serenity felt his feet slip and triggered his boots again. The Far Step didn’t have to be far, so he made himself appear on the other side of the high priest and regained his balance. The priest didn’t know he was there, which gave him the chance for a clean shot at the undead creature’s head.

The naginata sheared through the neck and the high priest fell.

Serenity turned in the now thigh-deep water covering the floor and looked for Raz and Katya. The other undead seemed to be fully dead, but he saw a magical bolt flying his way from where they stood. He tried to drop into the water to avoid it, but it turned. Serenity raised his naginata to block, hoping that the Void he’d infused into it would allow it to block the magic.

It did.

Raz was shouting something. Something about eyes?

Serenity suddenly realized he still had Vital Sight running, and Katya had spent a lot of time on Tzintrka. She probably had the same reaction Sillon did. He hurriedly turned off the Sight ability and withdrew the Void infusion from his weapon. He’d keep the Hardened Scales for a little longer, just in case.

Serenity waded over to the others. As he approached, he could hear Raz explaining to Katya that Serenity’s eyes glowed different colors sometimes. Serenity started to be angry about Katya’s attack, but he just couldn’t hold it. All he could think of was Sillon throwing breakfast rolls at him whenever he forgot and allowed his eyes to glow. By the time he reached a reasonable speaking distance, he was smiling.

Serenity put his naginata away and tried to apologize for scaring Katya. “I forgot you didn’t know. I should have warned you. It lets me see creatures instead of just shapes. I need it sometimes.”

Katya wasn’t going to calm down that easily. “Is this funny to you! I almost killed you!”

“I have a friend who throws things at me when I forget. This was a bit more serious maybe, but-” Serenity’s smile faded as he shrugged. “The first time I surprised him with it, it was almost a knife, at pretty close range. I wouldn’t have been able to dodge, so it would have hurt.” He sighed. “You’d think I’d learn. I seem to have a hard time remembering what it looks like from the outside.”

Katya stared at him, so Serenity tried to continue. “I should tell you that I have some other sight-based abilities that affect my eyes. I know you saw the one when we were outside the dungeon, and - Raz, did my eyes change when we were looking for traps on the first level?”

Raz nodded. “They glowed, but not like this - sort of a silvery white radiance instead of the pale blue fire they just were.”

“I think that’s it, but I can’t see it, so I don’t know if any of the others change my eyes.” Serenity stopped there. Hopefully that was what he should have told Katya to begin with.

“Just how many sight-based abilities do you have?” Katya snarled.

“Uh.” Serenity had to stop and count. Eyeless Sight, Vital Sight, Time’s Eye, and Essence Sight definitely qualified. Sense Raw Mana apparently affected his eyes even though it wasn’t exactly sight-based, so he should probably count it. Linked Sight wasn’t really a Sight ability, since it didn’t let him see things directly. “Five or so? It depends on which ones qualify. Plus Identify and Analyze, I didn’t count those. They don’t make my eyes glow - I only have four that do that. I think. Maybe it’s just three? I haven’t tried one of them where anyone could tell me.”

“Arrg!” Katya threw up her arms. “Why the hells would you take so many Paths with sight abilities! Even for utilities, they’re not very useful once you have a couple!”

Serenity’s smile was back. “Normal vision is a heck of a sight ability. Since I don’t have that, I have to work around it. The rest, well, so far they’re all useful. I still need to pick up a proper mana sight, too.”

“You’re a hybrid, not a fighter. Because of course you are. No one else would bother with that many vision utilities.” Katya ranted at Serenity, then threw her arms up above her head. “Hybrids! Think you have to do everything on your own…” Katya was still muttering as she turned away from him and headed to where the High Priest fell. Floating in the water, she found a medallion on a chain. The rest of the body was gone.

Water Lord’s Protection

This amulet once belonged to a priest of the Deity of Water on Tzintkra. Though his priesthood is long gone and the deity has faded, some power remains in the amulet.

The amulet allows the wearer to breathe underwater and move freely in water. It also protects from environmental effects such as heat, cold, and noxious chemicals when they are carried by water.

Katya read the description. “We’ll be selling this one, I think. Very useful to the right person, but not really to me. That noxious chemicals bit is unusual and may make it extremely valuable to an alchemist.”

Serenity nodded to himself. He felt the same way about the amulet.

By the time they reached the far end of the room, the water was only ankle-deep, and none of it followed them into the small room on the other side of the door. Once again, all it held was a pedestal with the level crystal and the door to continue onwards.

“I assume you want the level crystal again?” Katya asked Serenity. Her voice didn’t have the sharp edge it had earlier; instead, it seemed tired.

“Yes, please.”

When Raz didn’t object, Serenity reached out to touch the crystal, feeling for the mana around him. It didn’t disappoint him; as soon as his hand touched the crystal, the mana flooded through him.

Nice. New.

“It’s nice to meet you too,” Serenity replied.

Memories.

“What does that mean?” Serenity was puzzled. The word didn’t tell him anything.

Tired. Later.

The curious mana dissipated even though Serenity hadn’t moved the crystal. He went ahead and pulled it off the pedestal.

[Ancient Temple Level 2 Complete]

[500 XP Awarded]

[1650 Ev Awarded]

Rax was still watching him when Serenity turned back to the others. “What did it say?”

Once Serenity filled him in, Raz had to admit that he didn’t know what “memories” meant, either.

This level of the temple hadn’t taken very long, so they decided to take a “long lunch break”, have a nap, and continue onwards.

Serenity was just as happy to keep moving. The Heart’s death-attunement continued to spread, and he wanted to get back outside, where he’d have more control over how fast it moved. He needed it to spread, but not being able to slow it down made him nervous.