ELDRITCH NIGHT (Rough Draft)

Chapter 41: Fruits of the Earth

We came crashing down towards the earth at bone splintering speeds. At the last second, merely a few meters from the ground, I noticed a force pressing upwards to slow my descent. I experienced a brief sensation of weightlessness before touching down as softly and quietly as a feather. The instant my feet became firmly planted on the ground gravity returned to normal, and for a second, I felt like I might lose my balance when my own weight caught me off guard.

I shook off a feeling of vertigo and looked around. The five of us stood atop the crumbled remains of a building that barely peaked above the earth that had risen up to consume it. In front of us stood a line of short, narrow trees being slowly strangled by thin green creepers. The vines twisted and dug into scarred trunks, drawing forth green sap that they eagerly absorbed as a leech does blood.

It was darker here, this close to the barrier of the dome, but flashes of crimson light would briefly illuminate everything around us like bright red flashes of exploding fireworks. To the north and south the growth of trees was much thicker and towered above us like looming titans. These trees cast brief and dancing shadows that swayed in time to the sporadic flickers of light.

Wind buffeted us from every direction. It twirled around us at hurricane speeds that grew stronger with each rotation until reaching such herculean strength that each gust tore against gravity, threatening to pull us into the sky. After a few moments the wind would die, before quickly picking up again from a new direction. I could hear the tiny clinks of pebbles and bits of sand as they bounced off my armor. If it wasn't for the translucent face shield I would have been unable to see through the thick cloud of bombarding sediments.

It was like setting foot on some strange and inhospitable world. My childhood dreams of alien exploration came true only miles from where I had grown up.

Looking beyond the line of sad and dying trees that lay ahead, I could see the spot I had identified as one of the places supplying power to the dome shaped formation of eldritch energy. It was no more than fifty feet, or roughly fifteen meters, away from me.

To the naked eye it looked no different than any other random spot along the twisting vortex that was slowly devouring the land beneath it. To my senses, however, it was like a tesla coil giving off long and twisting sparks of black and red lightning.

"I'm going to need you to point out the exact area," said Telvy. At that exact moment she released the chains that still bound me, and they retracted and wound back around her torso. I nearly jumped but was able to hold back my startled reaction with the exception a sharp intake of breath.

"It's right there," I said while pointing forward.

"You have the ability to manipulate mana in its raw form, correct?" Telvy asked.

"Yeah, you want me to paint the area for you? I can do that."

There was no ambient mana in the area, but the eldritch energy was thick and viscous. As I expended my own mana, drawing it out in a thin disk in front of me, the energy in the air started to flow into me as it slowly began to restore my lost mana. I couldn't see the exact mechanism the system used, but I could witness the violent energy go in and a thin trickle of pristine blue-white take its place.

I walked forward, Telvy and her guards close at my heel, before stopping halfway to the edge of the dome. That was the limit at which I could manipulate mana. My disk of mana was large enough now to completely cover the area containing the explosive and turbulent energy.

In addition to the sparks and branching bolts of lighting, thick streams of eldritch energy burst upwards from the small area. Each of these streams of energy contained thick golden symbols linking together in long, complex chains vaguely reminiscent of mathematical formulas.