“By the gods it’s good to be back in a warm climate.” I said as we exited the portal from the wolves’ den. Oh we had been plenty warm in the cave, and Arctos actually got a bit of the bacon from the boar, but I was over the cold.

“Oh it wasn’t that bad.” Elendria chided me, looking around at the jungle surrounding us. “How close are we?”

“I have no idea. I moved our portal south until it started receiving a bit of interference, then I backed it off a good bit. If I had to guess, maybe a hundred miles? I didn’t want to get too close to the city.”

She looked at me and gave me a grin, saying, “Well, let’s take a look, shall we?” Sprouting her wings, she shot straight up, with me close on her heels. We easily cleared the treetops, much to the annoyance of a boa lounging in the sun, and took a look around. We were in a sea of green, but could see the glint of something metallic to the southeast. I squinted, then remembered I could use the farsight spell and activated it. Immediately I could see much better, and the sight was breathtaking.

Starting around 20 miles away, it looked like someone had made a circle with a massive compass. Inside the line, the land was nearly barren. Sickly black shrubs dotted the landscape, but that was the only sign of life. A gentle breeze stirred up the occasional swirl of blackened dust, but that was the only feature of the land. Roaming around in seeming random patterns were what I assumed were ghouls. They looked like a cross between a gorilla and a hound, but I couldn’t get a good guess on their size. They roamed around in packs of up to fifteen in a loping sort of movement. Their front arms? Legs? Limbs? Were longer and much more heavily muscled than their rear ones, and their black skin helped blend in with the sands around them. Red eyes and four massive fangs at the front end of their snout made it look like they were built to bite and hold on, letting their poison or friends finish the kill.

Beyond the roving packs was a massive stone wall, one that looked rather imposing. Crenellations and towers adorned it, though it was an odd shape. Instead of a circular or square type structure, the walls had odd angles that made it look like a sunburst. At each joint was a tower, and I could see the glowing enchantments from here. This city was going to be a nightmare for any assaulting army, especially since I could see a very faint shimmer to the air between those towers on the inner vertices of the starburst. Each point sticking out was a massive platform for siege equipment, and that shimmer probably prevented attackers from simply lobbing things over the wall. No matter where you attacked from, you were going to be taking siege weapon fire from two directions, as well as arrow and magical fire from at least 3 of the outer towers.

Inside the city was beautiful. Most buildings were capped with round domes, and there were thousands of small minarets. Dominating the center of the city was a magnificent white ziggurat. It had three different major tiers. The lower and middle tiers each had eight pillars, one at each corner and one at each halfway point. Like the levels themselves, the pillars were at different heights. The central top portion had four curved arches that tapered to a point that attached to a central ring, inside of which was a jet black crystal.

“That is incredibly odd.” I shuddered, looking over to see Elendria switching between awe and horror. “You feel it too?”

“Yeah. The place is beautiful, but that crystal. Just looking at it makes me feel nauseous. I can’t imagine getting close to it.” She said with a shudder.

“I agree. Let’s get a bit closer to the edge of the forest, staying low. See if we can’t lure one of those roving packs a bit closer and slaughter them.” Elendria nodded, diving down toward the canopy and gliding most of the way. Mindful of what could be lurking in the jungle, we stayed at least fifteen feet above the trees, just in case. It took us nearly a half hour before we started getting close to the edge of the forest, and we dropped back down into the trees.

“Blasted, fucking, thorny vines!” Elendria snarled after another ten minutes of hiking through the dense jungle, sending out a blast of icy air that immediately withered the vines. “Flying is so much faster and easier.”

“And here I thought all you elves were supposed to love nature.” I joked, turning the laugh into a quick cough when she sent a glare my way.

“Remember, I know where you lay your head at night.” She warned, sending shivers down my spine. Not the good shivers, either.

“Right. What say you to letting me lead for a bit? That way you won’t have to deal with any more tangle vines.” I offered, stepping forward and using magic tendrils to move the more prickly plants out of the way. I made sure to leave a tunnel behind me so they didn’t flop back into Elendria’s face, as she would probably shank me with the mood she was in. With me in the lead, our pace sped up a bit and soon we reached the edge of the forest when I felt a soft hand on my shoulder.

“I’m sorry. Taking my grumpiness out on you isn’t going to solve anything, and it isn’t fair either.”

“It’s ok, I forgive you.” I said, kissing her hand but keeping an eye on our surroundings just in case. I was nervous since the jungle had been oddly silent for the last few minutes. “I’m sure the pain from the thorns wasn’t helping the issue. No harm, no foul.”

“Thanks.” She said, giving my shoulder a squeeze before scanning across the horizon. “I can’t sense any souls, be they living or undead. What about you?”

“Nothing. Shall we head in a little ways?”

“Sure.” I nodded, walking forward. “Keep to the ground for now?”

“Yeah. We would draw too much attention being the only things in the air.” She agreed. We walked, keeping to between the gently rolling hills. While I had originally thought the area was flat, the hills and occasional ravine meant there were plenty of areas to hide. After another half hour, Elendria slid an arm in front of me.

“I sense a pack of souls approaching, but something is off about them. I’ve never seen undead souls before, but these don’t seem right.”

“Ok. Think we can take ‘em?”

“Yeah, there’s only eight. Come on, to the top of that hill there. I’ll make a rampart and summon the otters.”

“Sounds good. Let’s keep one alive if we can, I want to see what magics work best on them.”

“Done. Come forth my furry friends, for battle looms on the horizon and I need your strength.” Her summoning was slightly different, and with a wave of her arm there were ten otters arrayed before us. Six were decked out as warriors while four were mages. “Hello again friends! Sorry I had to summon you so swiftly, but we have ghouls incoming. Work in pairs to protect each other, and remember they have a paralyzing poison. Icy Rampart!” Orders given, Elendria created her most powerful defensive spell, and we settled in and watched the pack of monsters closing in.

“Let’s see how they deal with just a bullet.” I muttered, firing off a spell. The bullet impacted the dense muscle of the arm of the leader, sending a small spray of ichor and that was all. The beast didn’t even slow down or snarl at the wound.

“Did’ya really expect that to work lad?” One of the otters asked me.

“Nope, but you never know.” I said, slightly offended. “Let’s see him shrug off this.” I muttered, concentrating and sending an explosive bullet into the opposite shoulder.

“YIPE!” The ghoul whimpered as the elbow joint disintegrated under the attack, my aim having been thrown off by their odd gait.

“That got ‘im!” The otter cheered. “Hey, Bennie! They in range yet?”

“Close enough Karl!” A mage shouted back. “Freezing ray!” A blue beam of energy shot from his hands, splashing against a different ghoul. It kept charging, but was rapidly slowing down as the ice started to affect it. By the time it realized it was in trouble it was too late to escape, and our 8 enemies were suddenly down to six.

“Nice to see ice works, if eventually.” I nodded to the mage. “Let’s see how well the opposite does. Burn.” I sent out a ray of heat magic, and a different ghoul burst into flames. It immediately took action, starting to zig zag while occasionally rolling on the sand. Instead of the sand putting out the flames, it tore open the thin skin of the creature and allowed black ichor to flow out and smother the flames.

“Underwhelming.” Karl said.

“Agreed. I was told it, but had to check.” By this time the ghouls had gotten close enough that they would be within bow range, and did something unexpected.

“INCOMING LEFT!” one of the otters shouted, barely in time for me to throw up a mana shield and block the incoming rock the ghoul had hurled.

“Right, that’s close enough! Three walls formation! Elendria, we’re trusting you with protecting the rear. These bastards are gonna circle.” Karl ordered, and they flowed into action. The mages to the center of the platform we were on, and two warriors to each side of a box around them. Elendria did her part and created a curved ice shield behind us, wrapping it around a bit to help with protecting the sides.

“Mages, fire at will. Freezing ray.”

“Frostfire.”

“Frozen world.” The last two worked in tandem, managing to encompass three ghouls within a large circle. Inside, the ground immediately froze and anything touching it started freezing as well. Before the ghouls could take more than the three strides required to escape, their limbs had frozen to the ground. The one hit by frostfire attempted to put it out like regular fire, only to find the ichor freezing to its body before the frostfire got it cold enough to sublimate. I felt bad for a fraction of a second as the creature wailed in agony while the spell slowly consumed it. The ghoul targeted by the freezing ray immediately started trying to evade the spell, having learned from the first time.

“Lightning bolt.” I calmly said, targeting the final ghoul. The spell struck so swiftly that it had no chance to escape, it’s body locking up as electricity coursed through it. Unable to move properly, its momentum caused a sickening crunch as its front limbs landed improperly, sending the creature into a tumble. Even after it came to a full stop, it’s muscles twitched under the aftereffects of the spell.

“Seems like lightning might –“

CLANG!

“WHOOOEEEE! THAT PUPPY’S GOT A THROWING ARM!” I turned to see Karl recovering from taking a stone the size of my head to his shield, the mages having caught him.

“Incoming!” The other otters shouted, stepping forward to create a shield wall to cover the gap Karl left. They were just in time, as a muscled arm came over the top of the rampart. Despite the five spears impaling it, the creature’s mass won out and it overpowered the otters. The second arm battered aside a shield as it’s maw clamped down on a shoulder before falling backwards to retreat.

“AAAIIIEEEEEE!!!!” The otter wailed as I caught both with a gravity well.

“STAND CLEAR!” I ordered, blasting the neck with an explosive bullet. The blast wasn’t quite enough to decapitate the creature, but Karl smoothly stepped back in and slashed with his spear blade, severing the last bit. I let the body fall and gently lowered the paralyzed otter to the ground. Karl used his spear to pry open the jaws, gently removing it from the otter. I felt bad for the guy, as his eyes were wide with panic and darting around.

“Shhhh, it’s ok. It’s just a paralytic poison.” Elendria said gently, dropping down beside him and smoothing his hair. “This potion should help.” She said, dumping a portion of it over the wound and gently massaging the rest of it down his throat. Over the course of a minute the potion took effect, and the injured otter gradually calmed down.

“Thanks. By the frigid wasteland, that bite hurts!” The otter swore, rubbing over the padding that the mages had applied.

“We’ll take care of him. You guys go make sure all those abominations are dead.” Bennie said, nodding to a mage to go with us. We started out with the three that were trapped in ice, frozen completely solid.

“I got this.” I said, creating a vacuum bubble the size of a basketball and sending it between the three creatures before releasing it. The shockwave was enough to rattle our chests, but the ghouls shattered into several large pieces.

“Frozen all the way through. They’re dead.” The mage declared, and we headed off to the others. The frostfire had reduced one to a pile of blue ash, which we left to eventually blow away in the winds. The creature felled by the first freeze ray was solid ice as well, leaving my two ghouls alive and snarling.

“You guys mind if I test out a few spells on him?” I asked, getting shakes of the head in return. We were staring at the first ghoul I had felled, destroying its shoulder with an explosive bullet. It was still alive, trying to get back up but the oversized muscles were throwing off it’s balance.

“Right. Let’s see what happens with a holy spell.” I muttered, focusing a ray of holy light on the shoulder. Instead of it blasting it away, the spell seemed to spread over the skin before it changed nature and seeped into the muscles, repairing them.

“Uh, that seems to be helping it a bit more than hindering it there boss.” Karl mentioned.

“Yeah. That’s what worries me. This is supposed to be an undead, a cursed existence. Holy magic should be devastating to it. Maybe because the gods cursed it?”

“That could be. If holy magic is the source of the curse, it makes sense that it would absorb any holy magic to fuel itself.” The mage nodded. “Got any curses in your repertoire?”

“Not really.” I said with a shrug before freezing. “Though. I do have this.” I said, pulling the scale of Apophis out of my inventory. The otter contingent immediately hissed and stepped backward, leveling spears at me.

“Easy fellas. This is the spoils of war. And we are going to be using it for good.” I said, combining a bit of flame magic with the power radiating from the scale. The results were immediate. The ghoul keened in agony as the flames withered the flesh and burned through the shoulder before the curse magic was expended. I put the scale back into my inventory, wanting to keep it a secret for when it became necessary.

“And that worked rather well.” Karl nodded. “Look, it isn’t even regenerating the area.”

“Yeah. Thanks for that guys. Let’s put this one down and take out the last one.” I said. Without missing a beat, Karl lunged forward, skewering the creature through the eye and out the base of the skull. “Nice shot.” I nodded as we walked to the next creature.

“No big deal. You should try hitting something with a lunge while blizzard strength winds are blowing across the plains. This plane is almost like the kiddy level of training.”

“I’ll bet.” I agreed, looking down on the pitiful creature. While we had approached, Elendria and the others had joined us.

“And here we see the danger of high speed regeneration.” Bennie said. “Works great for small muscle tears, and you really can build up bulk muscle fast. However, get in a position that your bone is broken and can’t be set right, and you will become a cripple.” Sure enough, the shattered elbows of the creature had healed at unnatural angles, leaving it effectively helpless. It tried to snap at someone, and Karl wasted no time in skewering it through the skull again.

* * * * * * * * * * * * *

Elendria’s POV

Something had been bothering me the entire battle, nagging at the back of my mind. I had remained silent and hadn’t truly participated, trying to track down what that feeling was. Seeing Karl skewer the last ghoul finally let me see what was going on, and it horrified me. From the corpse of the ghoul, a shimmering soul arose. As soon as it had reached about a foot off the ground, I saw the black chains form, leading off into the distance, straight toward the ziggurat at the center of the city. From those chains, foulness oozed to cover the soul as it started to drag it toward the center of the city.

“YOU’LL NOT CLAIM THAT SOUL! BINDING OF THE FROZEN SOUL!” I screamed, anchoring the poor soul in place with several icy chains that only I could see. I ignored the looks from the rest of the group, striding forward and focusing my wrath on the corrupting chains pulling at the soul. I hadn’t taken but a single step before I stumbled when one of my chains broke. “Oh no you don’t!” I snarled, holding my hands just outside of the chains. “Channel the essence of Mahapadma! Freeze and shatter this abomination!”

The temperature in the immediate area plummeted so swiftly that even the otters had to take shelter behind the hastily erected shield Sean created. I didn’t, no. Couldn’t care at the moment, as all my attention was focused on this chain that was even now resisting my power. Unable to maintain both spells, I shrieked in agony from the backlash of the icy chains shattering. As the poor soul was sucked back toward the city, I could only feebly protest, watching as it leaked essence along the way from ripping out my bindings.

* * * * * * * * * * * * *

“Channel the essence of Mahapadma! Freeze and shatter this abomination!” Elendria shouted, leaping between us and the city.

“Oh shit! Icy shield!” I said, throwing up several quick barriers to give me the time to set up a proper one. While I was doing that, the otters were huddling behind me.

“By the gods! It’s colder than Hel’s tits on a winter night!” Bennie swore, getting chuckles from the rest of them.

“Elendria!” I shouted, dropping the shield as she was thrown backward from some unseen force. Even so, she was still reaching toward the city, tears mixing with the blood trailing from her nose.

“Spell backlash. Vicious one too.” Bennie nodded, taking her other side. “Sorry, but we can’t do much for her. Just make sure she doesn’t cast any spells for a while and she’ll be fine.”

“I hate to do this Elendria, but we are out of time.” Karl said, looming over us. “You need to send us back, and soon.”

“Very well.” She whispered with a groaning voice. “I consider your summoning fulfilled. Return home my friends.”

“HAAAAAAAAAAA IT BURNS!!!!!” While some of the otters had immediately departed, the one who was bitten was screaming in agony as he tore at the binding on his shoulder.

“I summon you until we find and cure the cause of your agony! AAAAH!” Elendria quickly shouted, grabbing her head in pain with the quick spell.

“What’s going on Karl?” I shouted, looking at the uncomfortable otter.

“I dunno. We are technically spirits summoned here, a physical bite shouldn’t hurt us!” He pleaded. “This is beyond me. Give me ten minutes, then create one of your portals to the center of our village. I give you permission, and we need Gekko in the flesh here.” With that, he was gone and I was left with a barely conscious Elendria and an otter wimpering in pain. The next ten minutes were some of the most stressful in my life. I was constantly checking on Elendria and the otter, as well as keeping an eye on our surroundings to make sure another ghoul pack wasn’t heading our way. Luckily for us nothing headed our way, and I made a quick portal straight to the otter village.

Korii was the first to emerge, carrying a massive battleaxe. Behind him several warriors and mages filed out, finally ending with Gekko. The warriors and mages spread out in a defensive line, while Gekko made a beeline toward me.

“Situation?”

“Your otter was bitten by a ghoul. Started screaming in agony when Elendria went to send him back. She is suffering a spell backlash, something about chains and a soul.”

“Good enough. I’ll take over from here, but you stay close. Elendria dear, can you hear me?”

“Gekko?” She asked weakly, mustering the strength to sit up.

“Good. I might need your help, but hopefully not. Bernard, get over here and let me inspect that wound.” She ordered, and the otter immediately obeyed. She eyed it for several minutes, casting a few spells and poking at it. “Odd. This is several layers of difficult. The bite transmitted a minor curse that feeds on the soul. If left untreated, it will spread and I assume bind the soul to the original spell. However, it has been corrupted with holy magic somehow, turning it into a curse. A tangled knot of a curse. I might be able to fix it, but without knowing what the original spell did, I would have at best a 40% chance of dispelling it.”

“Karma.” Elendria weakly said, shuffling over. “Those bastards!” She snarled. “I could sense it. They wanted to harvest the karma of all the elves in their city and disperse it back based on their political circle. They wanted to ensure that if they were reborn, they would always have enough karma to be reborn into the same social standing. Sean!” She turned to look at me.

“Your new evolution?” I guessed.

“Yessss!” She hissed. “I can’t let this go Sean! The gods bound them into a form of permanent undeath as punishment, but it was only supposed to be the royalty and noble tiers. At the last second, they managed to fuse the two spells! Every time a ghoul is killed, the chains bind them back to the city where they are forced to receive more bad karma from the royal tier. But the forceful transfer of bad karma like that generates more bad karma! It is an unending cycle, and will continue until we destroy those responsible.”

“We can see what we can do, but first we need to free Bernard here.” I said, minimizing the blue prompt that was wanting to pop up. “Gekko, I believe I can neutralize the curse from the gods, but I know nothing of Karma.”

“Go right ahead Sean. I’m quite positive I can handle that. Elendria, watch and warn us if things are going wrong.” Plan in place, I pulled out the scale and used it to modify a light spell so as not to hurt Bernard any more than what already happened. I could almost feel when the curse snapped, immediately shutting off the spell I was channeling as Gekko chanted in a strange language. A white mist formed around her hand before reshaping itself into a large claw that she used to scoop out a core of black gunk from the wound. From her other hand, she drizzled what looked like a pure salt onto the gunk, immediately causing it to erupt into a blueish-purple flame. When it finally fizzled out, she slumped over in exhaustion.

“It is done. How are you Bernard?”

“I’ll be fine. Shoulder is a little stiff, and my hair is standing on end from the feeling of that scale of Sean’s, but I can deal with that. Miss Elendria?”

“Your summoning is complete. Return with my apologies for your injury, and my heartfelt thanks.” She said with a tired smile. This time, Bernard was able to return without any pain.

“Elendria.” Gekko said with a sad seriousness. “Normally we would be more than happy to help you with any problem. This is different though, as our very souls are at risk.”

“I understand, Shaman Gekko. I give you my word that until I either abandon my quest or cleanse this city of filth, I will not summon you. Sean? I know you skipped it, but I need you to read the quest.”

“Sure thing. Let me create a portal for Gekko and her guards. Gekko, I thank you for your help despite the danger to yourself.” I said, giving her a bow before summoning a portal.

“You are welcome.” She said, returning the bow before giving a sharp bark. With that, everyone retreated through the portal.

“Come on hun. I’ll carry you back, and read the propt on the way.” I said, scooping Elendria up and flying low over the land until we reached the jungle. I took us a ten minute flight in before dropping to the ground and creating us an underground shelter that was magically reinforced.

A punishment gone wrong

Due to her evolution, Elendria has seen the truth behind the cursed city. The gods underestimated the desperation and ability of the elves, and have created a curse that grows upon being injured. Any soul below a second tier evolution is susceptible. The ugly truth is that the Karmic crystal in the center of the city has become a gigantic phylactery for all those affected by the curse. Should you accept the quest, the gods will give you what help they are able.

Accept the quest:

The gods will interfere as much as they are able, increasing the respawn time for the phylactery from six days to two weeks.

Decline the quest:

No penalty, though it seems Elendria will be very disappointed in you.

Rewards:

Unknown