ULTRAMagic Prelude

Chapter 19

Blood-Wraith woke up that morning feeling pretty good. It was an excellent day in The Iron City and he wanted to do some organizing around the house. The Lich appeared to go quiet, with Leif assuming that his brother was recovering from the previous battle. This was fine for the group since it gave them time to prepare. As Blood-Wraith wandered around the house and cleaned up, he eventually found the basement. The door was old and worn, looking like it had not been used in some time. It naturally fell over with a loud thud due to decay and rust despite it being locked.

Once the dust settled, Blood-Wraith entered the basement. It was large, dirty, and incredibly musty. Crates and shelves were smothered in layers of dust and cobwebs were everywhere. There were many vials, instruments, boxes, and papers that had long since been abandoned. Looking through the moldy documents, Blood-Wraith deduced that Milosh was performing experiments of some kind. What these were was unclear. Deterioration made a lot of the notes unreadable. Something did make his blood run cold, however. Mentions of Dunja and the Lich were everywhere.

After a deep breath, Blood-Wraith sifted through a folder for a clean enough paper. "Okay, no big deal. I'll just take this to Kresimira..."

As he returned to the stairs, something caught his eye. A door covered in glowing runes was at the far end of the basement. The strange letters were piercing red, albeit dulled by layers of dust. He wanted to check it out, but not before placing the papers he found in the living room. Returning to the door, Blood-Wraith studied it. The writing was actually angel language and detailed how to open it. Given that Milosh was an unsavory individual, it was likely that he acquired the door rather than having built it. The idea that such a door would respond to a person like that was baffling though.

"Let's see... turn this left, right, left, right... up? No, down... there we go!"

The heavy door creaked loudly as it slowly opened. He cautiously walked in, careful not to bump into something. The light coming off of Blood-Wraith's body revealed what looked like skeletons and failed experiments. Before he could analyze these properly, something large and flat quickly enveloped him. Blood-Wraith felt himself get wrapped up before falling to the floor. Given that he was all bundled up, he tried to call out for help. The object then covered his mouth and shushed him.

"Hmph!? Mmcuse me!"

"Shhh! Follow me..." The object got up and tried to get him to hop over to the doorway, but he refused.

"Mrrr..." Blood-Wraith growled

The object quickly unwrapped him. "Okay, easy! I was just trying to protect you. No need to get violent..."

"Protect me from what?"

The object took the shape of a hooded cloak, draped over a person... yet there was nothing inside. "This room. There's boobytraps in here."

Blood-Wraith looked around. "There is? I mean, so far you're the only thing that's tried to trap me."

The entity looked at themselves. "Oh...sorry about that... but really, there is a dangerous trap in here."

"What is it? Do you know?"

"There's something over there that will turn you to stone. I don't know if it still works though given how long that bad man has been away..."

Blood-Wraith looked on the ground. Right before a desk at the back of the room was a paper with a seal and spell on it. "Oh I see..." Tapping it quickly turned him to stone, but it did not last long. "How lazy! It only works if you stand on it!"

"What do you mean?"

"It appears to be a low quality spell that just barely works. Here, I'll stand on it and trigger it. Wait about a minute and then pull me off it." Blood-Wraith stood directly on the paper and turned to stone once more. Just as they were told, the entity lifted him up. "See? That's lazy spell crafting. It relies on the target interacting with it when you should be actively casting the spell. If no one triggers it, it's completely useless."