To Rebuild a Mageocracy

Fourteen

^^ Aron's Vampiric Sword ^^

— Arcata, Muradin's Tower, Anitra —

The Boss Room of the Dungeon was built to look like a graveyard, irritatingly enough, so as soon as we stepped inside, my feet sunk into loose dirt up to the knees, and I had to levitate with my boots to get out of it, while the other two simply walked over the soft surface, completely unaffected. "Damn loose dirt... do you have a Skill for this or something?" I grumbled at Aron as I stomped forward, activating my Aura of Purity to kill off any weak undead in the graves as we passed them. Unfortunately, the Aura was mostly useful at detecting undead, being not powerful enough to actually kill them, so instead I just woke them all up and had them crawling through the loose dirt towards us. "Oh fuck!"

"Should I help out, boss?" Aron's Mother frowned, halfway drawing a sword off her hip and eying the surrounding creatures.

"No, I've got it. Both of you should jump really high, though. " I chuckled, then simply slammed my mace down, activating Wave of Force, -the Fusion spell of Quake and Shatter,- with about half of my mana reserve behind it all at once. The resulting shockwave resulted in all of the loose dirt being flung away in a two hundred meter circle around me, throwing the headstones as well to turn into impromptu shrapnel for me as they slammed into and in some cases through the Ghouls. The move costed 60 points of Charge, plus 300 Points of my Mana, so I couldn't cast it twice in a row, but damn if it wasn't good to be able to walk on now-packed dirt and stone, instead of wasting my attention levitating.

Aron and his Mother landed behind me after the shockwave passed, readying themselves for what was left of the Ghouls. Aron's Mother looked at what was left of them, numbering perhaps fifty, and frowned. "Can you do that again, or was that your Big Skill?"

"Big Skill." I muttered begrudgingly, then raised my mace, rushing forward with an attempt at a warcry. It may or may not have been a scream of annoyance, followed by more foul language, devolving into sarcastic muttering as the fight dragged on. "Stupid undead, don't know when to do as they're told and die again peacefully..." eventually, my patience flagged even more, as I was up to my knees in ghoul corpses, and so I finally raised a hand and cast one of the Cleric Spells I'd been given by Muradin as a Cleric. "Area Purify!"

A burst of silver mana exploded out of my body, emanating from my armor until every Ghoul within twenty meters of me, which was all of them currently, was glowing Silver. Then, in a cold, ruthless Snap, their bones fell apart, and the zombie-like creatures fell to the ground, the magical light leaving their eyes instantly. "Shit, boss, why didn't you do that sooner?"

I glared at the woman blade dancer, leaning against a broken tombstone to rest a moment. "Because it took 200 Mana to Cast."

"Why's that matter? Don't you have Infinite Mana?"

"Not in a Dungeon! My Infinite Mana Trick comes from my connection to the Cathedral and the Mythallar. Inside a Dungeon, I'm just a normal Tier One Cleric!" I shook my head at her, then looked around. "Now where's the Incubus?" A coffin some forty meters away began trembling, at my words, so I cast Mana Grip to hold the lid closed, then lifted the whole thing and placed it in front of me. "Ah, found him! Now for the mean part."

"How do you mean... mean?" Aron stepped back slowly, drawing his daggers for the second time in this dungeon.

"I mean I'm going to see if Enslaving him will mean Beating him." I grinned and cast Magic Circle around the coffin, then Calm Emotions, causing the rattling to stop. Next was Planar Binding, which didn't take nearly as much Mana as I thought it would, and Geas, which took almost nothing, because it wasn't activated yet. "Alright. I'm going to open the Coffin now, are you willing to talk?"