Arthur Harrington
HP: 2640/2640 MP: 1890/1890
The priest looked him up and down while contemplating Arthur's words. The robed man seemed skeptical, but ultimately trusting as he set down the mantle he was now holding. The paladin couldn't help but feel like he was intruding on the whole ordeal of him preparing the next session. If anything, Arthur just wanted to get up and leave this uncomfortable awkward mess of a social interaction. But from what he could gather from looking at the priest's face, the man of cloth had something to say. "So you're a holy spell sword, I've seen a few of your kind, they're normally pretty virtuous in most regards. Though, it's always a refreshing sight to see religious mages, because they're all assumed to be new-age hippies but don't believe in anything but the sight of a thick paycheck. Here's what I can do for you. I've been holding onto a request giving to me by an oracle, and not some beggar on the street claiming to read fortunes. I know this oracle and trust their readings and guidance. Right now, my guidance was to open my home to the dawnbringer and show him to hope's final resting place." Now, to be honest, I am not so sure about this whole resting place of hope, but I think I have an idea. It's pretty clear though that you're the dawnbringer or light bringer, because if my sight does not deceive me, you seem to be a slayer of some kind." Nodding at the priests words, Arthur was getting the feeling that he was about to be sent on some type of long mission that would involve copious amounts of travelling and battle, not that he minded either of those things of course. Any extension to his travels was a welcomed sight, and if he got to also extend his vacation in turn, that would be even better. Sizing up what the man told him, Arthur still felt as if he was losing out on something the man was implying or otherwise attempting to communicate. Arthur couldn't help but ask himself in his mind whether or not there were more parts to this request than the mage was being told. It's not like he worried about his safety, but he still greatly liked to know what kind of things that the paladin was getting himself into. Thousands of scenarios played out in his head, neither of them very good. Going off by himself was generally a bad idea, but the man added something onto the request to make it seem a little more beneficial of an undertaking. Apparently Arthur would be permitted to retain whatever it was that he earned from the journey alongside a fair compensation. Arthur had originally declined the jewel reward since it was a church, but he'd probably get back around to it at a much later date than now. "What is it, exactly, that I'll be getting from doing this job aside from the standard fares associated with it?" The priest frowned at the he considered a thoughtful answer. Taking a deep breath, the religious figure slowly and calmly responded to the man. "And what ever happened to the paladins of virtue and chivalry who would do anything for anybody in need? Especially a frail old man like me who needs all the help he can get." Arthur grimaced at the priest before sighing and agreeing. Goddamn that priest was milking it for his moneys worth, but he couldn't blame the dude. Arthur seemed like a capable mage from how he presented himself, so of course his holy magic would be necessary for a priest. It wasn't anything too out of the ordinary really, standard fair to be honest. And maybe liberating some type of religious relic for the guy would make Helios happy, but Arthur would have done it for the priest anyway, he was just curious what kind of artifact he was being allowed to keep. Arthur had though, to be honest, gotten wrapped up in making jewels now that he was moving up in his guild. This priest had reminded him of that fact, but it's not as if that would change the paladins' behavior from one simple interaction. "Ah, let me tell you the stories of Aurelia and Avacyn, two angels who served their god dutifully." Arthur smiled, and went to go sit back down on a nearby chair.
Aurelia was the type of girl that from a young age, her talents in combat were already clear. Born from two strong mages- a fire mage mother and divine mage father, Aurelia was born with a surprising lack of magic. It wasn't unusual for someone to be born without magic, the norm actually, but in Aurelia's case it was extraordinarily rare considering the magical potency of her parents. It wasn't even a thing she considered as a young girl until the children of her parents' guildmates began teasing her for not having any magical potential. After smacking all of them, however, they never teased her about it again to her face. Due to her lack of magic capability, the now young woman began her martial training with a sword. With no magic to study and no education, the warrior quickly ascended the ranks of her dojo as it was the only place for her to practice the one thing she was good at so far- her sword. Not that she was against such things, as she wanted to be talented in these regards, but she wasn't the type to spend a lot of time on her appearance with dainty clothes or makeup or anything of the sort. Aurelia wished that she could be that type of girl, though, the type to put on makeup and wear nice clothes and go out on dates with the other teenage children in her parents' guild. This wasn't the case, however, as none of them wanted anything to do with them given her lack of magic. It was like she was a social outcast just from her lack of magical potential.
After a while of being isolated from her peers to such a degree, the now-adult Aurelia departed from the mages guild and set out to join the Rune Knights. The skilled swordswoman easily climbed their ranks, quickly ascended to a position of leadership where she served as commander to an elite battalion of skilled fighters. These fighters, known as the infernal five, were the martial order enforcers that were sent out specifically to track down bounties and serve as the strong-arm for the Rune Knights. With Aurelia at their command, her team of five other knights quickly grew famous across Fiore for their righteous enforcement of justice to the criminals plaguing Fiore over four hundred years ago. Her strength and presence throughout the land granted her and her command of even more troops that she would train personally as a skilled combatant. Aurelia never reconnected with her parents, as they had pretty much neglected her through most of her childhood. If they cared, they wouldn't had let her peers ostracize her when it was within their power to do so. Aurelia was tasked to vanquish an ancient fire dragon when she and her crew died. It was a tough fight, one that was close on both sides. The creature's fire magic was far too strong for her to compete with, and her warding armor could only do so much against such a rendering flame. The dragon was mortally wounded when it landed the final blow on her. All of her crewmates had died around her, so it was her last revenge on the rampaging dragon. Annointed as a warrior of Helios, Aurelia ascended from the afterlife into his plane where she now serves as a key military strategist for the god. Additionally, she trains the newer seraphim and warriors in the art of combat and war strategy. In terms of personality, Aurelia is a serious woman who has little time for games. She is not the type of woman to joke around or hang loose, and everything is a matter that deserves the utmost respect in her opinion. Practically mortal enemies- but more like rivals- with Avacyn, Aurelia has no liking for people who are aloof in general or who do not take or value their life seriously. While in the mortal plane, she is very fond of reading or sparring with her fellow seraphim, Arthur, or any of Arthur's friends. She has a strong ego and a sense of pride, willing to find an excuse for any defeat. When in combat with her allies, she tends to be very protective, willing to fight on the frontlines with her current commander, Arthur. They fight well together, serving both to reinforce each other in the strengths and support each other in their weaknesses. Now able to walk among the living once more, she is eager to hunt dragons as she still feels her vendetta against them as a race has not been settled. When she was anointed under Helios' command, her soul's affinity for flames was augmented and she was gifted its power as an intense form of pyromancy. Aurelia is physically a young woman in her mid-twenties, with long royal red hair extended halfway down to her hips. Rarely wearing it up, it usually flows freely behind her in battle. Her skin is pale and littered with scars and bruises depending on the last thing she battled. Aurelia wears a standard heavy plate armor with golden filigree, not unlike many of Helios' other seraphim. She standardly wears an open-faced helmet when summoned for combat, but can be seen without it if summoned for other purposes. Additionally, when not in her armor, she wears a red-styled toga with brown leather pants. Aurelia fights with two swords, one waved in smithing while the other a standard claymore.
As the story continued on, Arthur couldn't help but admire the detail that the priest had put into the tale. Now that the man was taking a break from his narration in order to catch a breath, it was the paladins turn to ask a question. "She seems like a very dutiful angel, I can't imagine what it would be like to lose your entire troop like that. It's like you were reading from a book for that last part." The priest nodded and smiled at the compliment. "Actually, that's exactly what I was doing. I've read that story so many times, I've got it memorized and I can recite it at a moment's noticed. My favorite part is the second though, when the book describes Aurelia's rival angel. While they consider themselves enemies, they're practically sisters in most regards."
When Avacyn was born, the village people in her small rural village had said she was born under a blessed sign. And they were right, for she was born with magic that allowed her to manipulate and cast light in spells. And she was a healer too, specialized in the art of resorting souls, not unlike Arthur himself. While normally the village people were wary of outsiders, in her case, they were completely fine with the fact that she had magic given that she was healing them and helping their ailments. A lot of her time was spent working in the local clinic, but at least she was actually compensated for it. And when she wasn't working in the clinic, the young priestess would fend off the undead that often raided the village at night. Their town had been settled near a swamp, and up until that point a few years ago, there hadn't been any of the undead raids. It started, though, when one of the village elders warned of a dark omen being cast over the city by a vengeful god that had somehow been disrespected by somebody a part of their community. Unsure what god the elder had been talking about, the young Avacyn politely asked the man what god they had angered and for what reason. From what the elder explained to her, they had managed to anger the god of death and the undead, Erebos. Avacyn's eyes shot up in horror when she heard this, thinking of who could have offended the god. It certainly hadn't been her, since she wasn't a necromancer nor did she go around destroying his temples or anything like that.
Through further deliberations, the town became aware that one of its former members was now a lich practicing necromancy in a tower not too far from town. As an affront to the god of death himself, the necromancer had subjugated his village in its entirety to a curse. The god of death didn't particularly care who actually suffered because of the necromancer's deeds. In all reality, Erebos had just been given a heads up about a location in the mortal realm that could use his presence either for good, or his presence to let him do something very bad to the necromancer. Appearing before the evil mage, the god was treated like any of the other zombies the clueless mage could summon and so for this the god would get his revenge, somehow. From here on out, then, zombies raided the town in search of the man who had seemingly disappeared. Rallying to her peers and fellow villagers, Avacyn slayed the night with the used of her magic spear. A bright light was cast upon the town as her magic called the light of Helios down upon the field to cleanse it from the darkness. Summoned from Erebos himself, the two elemental magics conflicted with each other as the gods waged war by proxy with her village at frankly both of their destructive mercy. Avacyn could see the two gods fighting on the horizon, sending lights of darkness spray out and ricochet randomly to destroy lumps of terrain. Their fight ended quickly as the undead were finally killed by the god, leaving Avacyn alone in front of her town. Seeing to what amount her holy magic was capable of, the elders requested if not demanded that she kill the lich that was causing the displeasure of this god. The elders did not want to have to build fortifications for when zombies marched into town at night. Avacyn was fine with this, it was what she wanted after all- to fight. As there was nobody willing to accompany her on her journey against the lich, Avacyn had to take on both the tower and the lich himself by herself as a rather weak mage. Needless to say, when she fought the lich who had stolen some of Erebos' darkness, she perished before accomplishing much other than pissing the undead abomination off. Helios saw this though as she passed through the gates of the divine, commending her bravery and vigilance to face off against the undead even in face of fear and death.
Helios didn't expect the angel to be disobedient upon her dubbing. After death, Avacyn was almost delinquint in the way she carried and presented herself. She had no intention of fighting, nor did she have any intention of following the orders of Helios. Though, the god wasn't surprised, for it was that defying of reason and logic that he had appointed her in the first place. He couldn't just let her get off scott free, however, and so he gave her the ability to control and create the darkness that had been used to kill her. Avacyn is the type of woman who would probably have a messy apartment and only order takeout food. Some would describe her as lazy, others would describe her as aloof. They'd both be right, in all honesty, but she's not a coward that comes up with excuses for why she lost fights. The bringer of hope would do her job when it was necessary, she'd always protect those in need, she just refused to run errands for the god- understandable given her dislike of the man. If the god hadn't squabbled with his brother over something petty, she'd probably still be here today. He was the one responsible for his death. And while she was indeed resting in heaven for most of her time off, being able to enjoy oneself in endless luxury got old very fast. The only thing she enjoyed doing in heaven was pissing off Aurelia or sparring with her, and she hated that woman. They were like complete opposites. Aurelia was collected, ordered, but ultimately uncaring. Avacyn was disorganized, chaotic, but empathetic to a fault. Because of the way she died, Avacyn is extremely eager to work with Arthur whenever she can in the human world- and not to just eat their food- but instead, to help vanquish the undead and dark creatures that had caused her so much strife and conflict during her mortal life. Her favorite human food would probably be vanilla milkshakes or ice cream, she didn't know why but it was something she enjoyed immensely. That kind of desert food wasn't around back in her day, and she relishes the opportunity to try every new thing that humanity has created over the years.
From the details of the story, Arthur could make out why the priest was telling him this. It probably had something to do with the item that he was being requested to retrieve, from a dangerous place, and if Arthur had to guess, it was the lich's tower. Arthur had never fought a lich before though, and he would have to do a little bit of research before he ever felt comfortable doing anything of that nature. From what little he knew, those things could practically never die unless their magical item was damaged. That, in nature, would be particularly annoying for Arthur since he had very little stealth to sneak around looking for some type of jewel or stereotypical soul-storing object. And there had to be more to it than that, so the paladin knew a lot better than to just turn around and head out the door in search of the thing. He probably would have done that for a simple zombie hoard of demon attack, but not for something of this nature. Lich's were very dangerous with all of the afflictions they could cast and all of the dangerous side effects of their magic. If not for his cleansing and purifying magic, Arthur would have been extremely wary of even thinking about taking this request. "I have to admit, I think I like Avacyn more. I can relate to a lot of the things in her story, especially the part about getting out into the world and exploring all that it had to offer her. I actually serve Helios as my patron believe it or not, I have a strong connection with him and have encountered him a few times here and then." He also related to the fact that the woman was extremely courageous to take on a lich like that alone, especially at her apparent low power-level as a mage. Arthur wondered why he was being told this information, what relevance it held for him as he continued listening to the man speak. "I need you to go to the tower that Avacyn was killed in and deliver her artifact from the lich possessing it. I know who you are, Arthur, word travels around fast. You wouldn't think a priest would know when one of the top holy mages was in town? Thought so. The tower is located just outside of town beyond the darkened forest, you should head out at morning to avoid travelling through the forest at night. Weird things lurk within the forest, that I can be sure of, you wouldn't want to get caught up in any of that, something I can promise to you." Arthur held back a sigh as he was once again being sent on a mission. This was supposed to be his vacation, but he always found a way for himself to do work and get himself into danger, it wasn't tiring more so annoying. Arthur had the energy for it sure, having been antsy for a fight and to get his muscles sore for about a weak now. Excercising and jogging only really helped with one of those things, as he doubted that anybody here in the city would have wanted to spar with him after hearing about his reputation as a mage. Arthur was new to the whole fame thing. It's not as if he was some type of superstar, but a lot of the people around town generally knew who he was and what he does, evident from how they come up to him and ask to be healed and that general sort of thing. But Arthur didn't really mind though, he didn't because that's why he had his power, he had the power to heal so that he could heal, and that didn't only apply to healing in combat. Arthur did plenty a magic outside of jobs and such, helping out in emergency care clinics, trauma centers, all of the above really in terms of job breadth. One time, a family had come up to him asking if he could heal their newborn daughter and help her make it through the night. Obviously, Arthur couldn't have denied the mother and so he helped cast a healing field around its bed while it slept. And the baby did make it through the night. Arthur knew a little bit about human biology, the bare minimum for someone of his training, but next to nothing about biological practice of medicine instead of the magical healing he already knew so much about and used almost every day in his daily life. One of the good aspects of healing was that you could prevent your muscles from getting sore by actively repairing their micro-tears and things of that nature. This job would be good for him though, Arthur thought as he readied himself for whatever other instruction the priest would give him. "So what now? Are you going to tell me to go on ahead or do you have any more recon for me on this creature? For as experienced of a mage as I am, I've never actually fought a lich before and I hear that they're quite formidable of monsters with their phylactery and other magical resistance effects." The priest nodded and motioned for the paladin to follow him further into the church.
Walking beyond a set of confessionals and candle stands, they rounded a corner as Arthur's boots clacked and echoed up into the vaulted ceilings. Candles flickered overhead as the light from stained glass continued to rain down on them through dusty air. Once they passed another wooden door, they found themselves in a more modern-looking hallway. Red carpeting was blush under his metal boots as he took in the peach tan color of the wall. The ceiling had office tiles and so this part of the church was not particularly pretty. A church was a church was a church though, and sot he paladin made no comments on the cheap and tacky nature of the church's defenses and inside landscaping. It wasn't even as weird as the only vampiric decorations he had seen growing up, nor was it like the leagues of paintings stolen by the undead and displayed for all of erebos to see with his amasses of material wealth. And even though this part of the church was not as well-decorated or annointed in holy imagery and iconography, Arthur could still feel his bond with Helios thrumming with pleasure and satisfaction with his current request. It seemed as if the god would be really happy if he vanquished the lich from the world of the living and sent him back to Erebos where he belonged. That was the one thing about Erebos. Many people fastly believed that the god of the undead was evil. He was anymore evil than brothers fighting or anything like that. From his studies in the magical academy, he had learned about how various religions depict their gods of dead. Rarely, the gods of the underworld and death are not particularly evil, sure they're meanspirited and torture the living on a daily basis, but they do not generally do anything to non-sinner humans. What the paladin did know, however, was that his magical scrying power let him get into contact with the spirits that he sent off into the astral plane. it was felt satisfying to knowt hat he could help spirits cross over and get back their lives in the best of ways. Soon, the two of them turned into what looked like a library that was absolutely packed. While there were few people actually in the library doing work or whatever it was priests and their clergy did in downtime, there were more than a thousands books per reader and then some if people finished all of their books or were particularly influenced by strong trends, there was little the paladin could do to actually stop it. Now that they were in a library, the priest was whispering to him "So let me grab you the book on the liches, okay? The information within them is what we used to determine what kind of mage we'd need to go up to and fight the creature alright? Hold on, give me a second. I'll be right back." With that being said, the paladin nodded and made his way towards a table. The desk was mahogany with a glossy waxy type of coating on top to prevent splinters and scuffing. Splaying his arms out onto the table, he tapped his gloved fingers against its surface. It was interesting to know that this place had so many books, he'd have to come back one time and actually get to know everything and all of the categories of books they had. Arthur had a feeling this place had a magical tome section dedicated to holy magic at least, where he could definitely pick up a neat trick or two and apply it to his current usage of mana. When the priest came back, he was holding an old dusty tome. The black leather front binding the pages together was crusty and it was rough against his fingers. Arthur opened the book and laid it out on its spine in front of him. A rich-smelling odor of paper and wood wafted off its pages, and Arthur's slayer senses caused his mind to hyper-perceive the scent and kick his head back. It was definitely potent, that was for sure. Arthur thanked the priest before he responded. "I'd look at the table of contents because I'm sure there is some combat section you can read so you don't have to go through the long drawn out history of these creatures and their biology. It will save us a bit of time and give me the piece of mind that this task will get done before I keel over and die, thank you." Nodding at the instructions, the paladin opened the book and began flipping through the pages before coming to open the table of contents. It wasn't too long, with varying indexes varying from history, origins, mythos, and battle tactics. Knowing that the last section was the one that he so desperately needed to read according to the priest, Arthur skipped over to the page mentioned by the index and readjusted his eyes to better enter into a reading position. Unfortunately, the knight wasn't in possession of any sort of speed reading magical devices, because that would have made all of this so much damned easier, easier than having to sift through twenty pages of densely compacted old-Fiorean styled writing. The more he read though, the more troubled Arthur became. It seemed as if in order to fight one of these things, a mage would have to be prepared in many regards. Not only would they need some way to combat the multiple status effects a lich could induce on an attacker, including but not limited to: poison, paralysis, curses, aging, but they were virtually immortal so long that their phylactery remained in good physical form within the mortal plane. That was Arthur's key then, he needed to find the Lich's phylactery. From what the book was telling him, the older a lich became the closer to a 'pure' lich, as in animal, that they became. And the closer they were to the non-human mix of a lich, the easier they were to understand and predict given their general loss of humanity. And since they weren't human anymore and practically completely rabid in search of a new human body to inhabit (event though they couldn't leave their current shell), their magic and attacks would have increased potency at the fault of being completely physically vulnerable in many degrees. From how the book described actual combat with the lich, it was advised to bring some form of holy magic as not only would it deal more damage to the creature, but those that practiced holy magic were more attuned to a soul's resonance, and thus more attuned to the locations of souls around him. According to this book, if one actually practiced holy magic, and were competent enough of a mage, they should have no issue sensing and destroying their phylactery. A final warning was written at the bottom of the page though, for people taking on liches that were completely rabid. If the phylactery of a greater lich is destroyed, they will transform into an entirely new terror that no mage has ever seen and lived to document. Apparently, most liches never made it even past their infancy due to their ease of disposal with the advent of mages and their increasing rate in the population. The reason why mages would do such a thing as to twist and pervert their own body and soul at the slim choice of success was completely beyond him in every regard. Not even because of the fact that it just rarely worked, but it came at such a great cost. Becoming a lich meant complete social isolation, as nobody wanted to speak with a obviously undead creature. Becoming a lich meant not being able to see sunlight anymore, since becoming an undead meant ones skin would burn rather violently in the sun. The third reason becoming a lich was such a dreadfully dreadfully stupid idea to every degree was because most liches were sought out and hunted for their predation on human souls to increase their strength and magical potency. While liches really didn't need to eat human food, they consumed human souls to reinforce the energy contained within their phylactery.
Closing the book, Arthur told the priest that he was satisfied with the information he had read over the half hour of study and would be promptly departing to face the necromantic wretch. It was funny, to know that he'd be doing all of this all over again on what was supposed to be a holiday for him. This was a vacation for god's sake and he was here risking his life to help some priest who had practically just given him an item fetch quest and a boss battle quest. Regardless, the thought of facing off against some unknown long-dead creature made Arthur heart twinge with excitement, excitement at the fact that he was going to be ridding the land of something foul and evil, using his powers for good and making an impact on the world like he had so desperately wanted to do when he first became a mage. That would come easy to him now, for defeating evil was like second nature with his experience wielding of magic. Arthur double checked to make sure he had everything he needed on him before gathering his adventuring kit and saluting off to the priest while they both met at the church's gates. "Where exactly am I going again?" Arthur fought of a twinge of annoyance when the priest laughed at his ignorance, but thought nothing of it when he was told that the creature would be found in the dark forest not too far off the main road leading up into the northern entrance into cedar. And since it was in fact a quite giant tower, the paladin wasn't exactly too worried about not being able to find the giant landmark of a thing. From this distance though, he probably wouldn't be able to see it for quite some time. Arthur gave one last goodbye as he departed back onto the gothic cobbled streets. The people of the town were starting to recognize him as a legal mage, and it made his heart twinge with something he couldn't quite put his finger on, but he smothered the thought and made his way to where he had hitched his horse. The air was cold today, he didn't really feel like flying through the frigid gusts without casting magic. Besides, flying around and being all fancy with heating auras was probably not the best thing to do in a heavily populated city Centre. Not the best thing to do at all in any manner or sort of method. Approaching his horse, Arthur patted its brown fur before combing his hands through its mane. He'd have to take him to a stable to get properly cleaned, but for now he would do. Rex's eyes blinked lazily as he grazed on some grass growing wildly against a fence post. Arthur wondered if eating grass in such an urban area was good for his horse, but he paid it no mind as he quickly jumped onto Rex's saddle and grabbed the reigns. Wearing his parka on top of his horse was definitely an interesting experience, proving that it wasn't as easy as he had thought it was before. The heavy parka constricted his range of motion in a way that made steering his horse tedious, and dangerous too for all of the people he had almost crashed into on his way out of the city. The last thing he needed in cedar was some type of criminal charge or etc and then having to explain his carelessness to the guild. Arthur wondered how that ragtag bunch of wizards was making out right about now. In all honesty, it was probably time for him to start rearranging for his return to the guild premises, but that could wait until after he figured out whatever he was going to do about the situation at hand, the situation where he had been roped into fighting a dangerous creature because a nice person had asked him to and because the paladin couldn't say no to someone in need even when his life depended on it. A woman cursed as Arthur brushed past her on his horse. Apologizing to the woman, her face then blushed and grew meek when she realized who she had said that too. That part made him feel guilty though, because just because he was well known didn't meant hat he was above basic politeness and social decency. It seemed that everybody was starting to don the heavier coats, hats, and mittens as the days went on. Arthur couldn't help but notice that he was wearing the same type of coat as everyone else he passed. It made him happy to know that he had managed to pick out something that was both fashionable and practical in his limited time and expertise in the store. It's not as if the paladin really cared about fashion all that deeply, it was just a good feelig to know that he was still somewhat in touch with the normal part of the mortal plane. The clacking and clicking of his horse hooves against the cobbled roads were very relaxing as he settled into the rhythmic galloping of his horse. Ten or so minutes later, Arthur found himself nearing the city's outskirts as he passed by the suburbs and was making his way out into rural properties. Arthur wasn't going to lie about how the surroundings made him feel. THe distance clucking of chickens and groans of cows were soothing to him in a way that he could remember from his childhood. When he was a child, Arthur was usually the one out of his sibling to take care of the animals and anything else they would have needed in their lifespan. THe paladin liked to think that it was his early care for animals that allowed him to develop a strong sense of empathy that maybe played a role in how his personality and powers developed through his adolescence. Arthur had to admit that his owns elf-theory actually sounded quit interesting, but a theory that said that it was what he spent most of his time doing as a kid that actually ended up contributing to how well Arthur did with healing magic, becasue at this point the healing was easy, barely causing Arthur to break a sweat. Arthur knew though that this was the choice to be made when the guilds secretly began turning on each other.
The rich smell of the forest and the trees wafted into his nostrils as his horse pounded through the dark forest. Arthur could smell the damp dankness of the dirt beneath his horse's hooves alongside the autumnal rot that was filing the air with is miasma. It was a pretty forest, the large canopy of trees covered in orange leaves and the odd spot where sunlight managed to breach the covering of leaves. Arthur could udenrstand why the place had its name tough, becaue it was easy to imagine how dark the place would have gotten when autumn didn't cut through the canopy of leaves preventing sunlight from piercing down ontot he trail he was riding his hore through. Rex was seemingly enjoying this stretch of the journey lot more than she had when riding through the town. if Arthur had to guess, it was probably ecasue the dirt and grass were a lot softer on his hooves than the harsh stone pathways of the inner citty. it was not place for a horse, really, but Arthur really did need a good source of transportation that didn't attract as much attention as his flying, and rex did that well enough to constantly earn a steady supply of sugar cubes and carrots. The paladin was spoiling his horse, that's for sure anyway. The equine neighed as they rounded a particularly sharp corner, vaulting over a section that was overgrown with tree toots and upheaved stones. Tripping and crashing over that section probably would ahve been disastrous for his horse, if not for the fact that Arthur could easily heal and thus calm him. The fresh air was probably also really good for the horse, all things considered, the autumnal breeze hopefully bringing the animal some form of comfort. Steam rolled off the fine creature as they breeze through the morning air. There were creatures in these woods, Arthur could feel them floundering about and feeling around for the strong mage's presence. This was a new thing Arthur was struggling about, struggling to control his magical signature enough to stop himself from accidentally intimidating away patients or things oft hat anture. Even though some people held no magic within their bodies, they could still greatly feel the magic of others and were potentially even still criticized for it. Perhaps this was what a lot of early people had thought were evil witches, just people sensing innate magical signatures. Arthur had to acknowledge that witch trials that had been held in cedar four hundred years ago had mostly been a sexist way to victimize women. The paladin had taken many courses on the use of magic in the continent of fiore, and the prejudice against mages extended far beyond the great war between the gods, dragons and demons. There were conflicts from far before that put women at risk of being dubbed witches and executed by the state. All Arthur could say was that he hoped their souls found peace and that he'd certainly stop anything like that if it were to occur again. Arthur darted between the trees as he felt him and his horse starting to be watched. He couldn't ping any magical sources in his sensory range though, nor could his bond with Helios detected any undead further than his senses. it was strange, then, for him to feel like hew as being watched. His feelings were never usually wrong actually, sot hat either meant they were about to get ambushed or Arthur was riding his horse straight into a trap. And as soon as the paladin said that, the horse skidded to a stop as one of its hooves pressed down into what it thought was solid ground as it kicked itself and fell down onto its side. Having been tossed into the air, Arthur landed with a thud on the ground and carefully brought himself to his knees. Unsure if he could stand, pair radiated out from his knee as he gathered magical energy in his hand. Hovering it over his horse, the creatures injuries quickly healed as the paladin then focused on his own minor injures. Once that was taken care of, the paladin looked down at the road and what the horse had managed to trip up on. It was illusion magic, covering what would have been a pitfall in the road. Seeing through the illusion, Arthur saw a series of wooden spikes at the bottom. Definitely not the best thing to fall down. Gathering some more magical energy, Arthur shot his light down into the ground before pushing it in o its side to fill in the dig hole. The last thing he wanted was for somebody to die to this torturous device. Now that his horse was all riled up and frightened, all Arthur could do was calm it down with the help of his magic alongside cooing noises and patting to its neck. Arthur was never the best when it came to animals but he always thought he gave them his best effort and attention. He was better with certain animals than other, but he had a general affinity for all of them to be honest, aside from snakes of course, who would constantly harass him if given the chance.
Trying to get back onto the road and make it to the tower before nightfall, arthur guided his horse to its feet before climbing the stirrups and hopping onto his back. Arthur was sending waves of calming magic towards the horse in an attempt to bring it back down from its panic and distress. The paladin attempted to calm it down with his words, but he wasn't exactyl sure if the animal could understand him. Regardless it seemed to do the trick as they begun galloping again far into the forest. Arthur wasn't sure when he'd find the tower, but when they suddenly found himself in a deep shadow, the paladin probably knew what was actually casting the dark umbral paint on the landscape. Looking up beyond the barely-covered treeline, he oculd see the large menacing tower standing high in the distance. Misshapen in size and jutting side-towers, it looked truly chaotic as it was built from stone and mortar, lending to a sort of medieval kind of look to the thing. And it probably was a medieval building too, if its history was anything to go by. THe lich hadn't even build the tower from what other things the priest had told him in the library, and that it had simply chosen the place as its den to haunt for the rest of its life that it spent studying and researching magic. Researching magic was something that Arthur wanted to do for sure, but he wasn't so fond of the idea that he'd reject his own mortality at the cost of going feral to study it, that dedication was a bit overzealous in his own humble opinion. Instead, Arthur tried to find the time to open a few books of magic every now again, there was always room for progress in his opinion. Arthur still had a ways to go in his own opinion, there were some things he still couldn't heal, and some things he wished that he could heal. If anything, Arthur was not even halfway to the point of his own progression. While most people thought that S-Rank mages were some of the strongest, he knew from experience that such wasn't the case, not anymore anyways now that magic had advanced so much in the past one hundred years or so. Still, the tower and and of its content was somewhat intimidating to be honest, and the thought that it held something so challenging to kill was not something that excited him. Instead, he found himself regretting his decision to so freely accept the request given to him by the priest. He could have been in a bathtub right now or something similar, he didn't have to be on his way to start a fight and put his life on the line for a stupid spear. It wasn't actually stupid, but Arthur just really really didn't want to go anywhere near that tower. Steeling his resolve, Arthur guided his horse to a stop as he requipped his solar armor and jumped down from his horse and onto the forest floor. Dirt scattered as he landed with a deep thunk. Arthur gripped the handle of Dawn's Edge in anticipation of some sort of attack. But nothing came, nothing came even when he flared his magic and invited whatever it was to come down from its tower and fight. It wasn't going to do that, it seemed, the lich didn't' want to leave its castle even though the light of day was soon to fade from the sky and thus cast them into darkness for the rest of the night. The lich wasn't going to take care of itself, and he was probably the only one in Cedar right now who would be interesting in taking on the beast. Him having hesitation would do nothing for his cause. Arthur walked up to the tower, and he could feel its dark miasma radiating just off of the stones holding the tower together. It was not unlike how a doorknob was hot in a house catching fire. Arthur could feel the evil through the stones of the tower, and he really really didn't want to open that door and release the miasma upon the forest. Arthur had to do that though, otherwise thee lich would only get stronger and stronger as time passed. Bracing himself with his golden magic, Arthur opened the door and gasped as he felt the air leave his lungs. Having the wind knocked out of him by a magical signature was never actually fun. instead it was extremely distressed and almost terrifying. Steadying his breaths, Arthur gathered his strength as he filled his lungs back up once more. It was fine, him losing his breath hadn't been a purposeful intent of the miasma, only a dark clashing with his own magical radiance. Breathing the air he was probably safe, and he could just heal himself up later if anything bad came up from it. The tower and its base was actually quite large, around the size of half a sports court. The floor here was a dark oak, with planks set up half-hazardyl in order to create a somewhat rustic kind of look. Paintings of many kinds hung from the towers cobbled walls, and empty torch sconces decorated the walls. It was dark in the tower, the only light coming from Arthur's own magic. While it was indeed enough to douse the room in light as if daytime, it was still somewhat concerning that the tower seemed to be completely in the dark.
Arthur could feel the lesser undead in the tower coming to life as they stirred about in his magical presence. Shutting the door behind him, Arthur wouldn't let any of the miasma or creatures escape from the presence of his exertion. All of the undead would be vanquished from this tower, and that was that. Arthur passed a library shelf as he approached one of the lesser skeletons with his blade in hand. He wouldn't even need a spell to take out this one. The bones of the wretch creaked and squeaked as they rubbed against each other as the skeleton walked towards him in search of a new body. A simple slash across the chest was all it took for the skeleton to crumble in a somewhat cartoonish sounding noise. And then another came down the spiral staircase at the center of the tower, but it hadn't taken the stairs and so it jumped over the railing and fell with a thud in front of the paladin. Making quick work of the second skeleton, Arthur slashed at its head and watched its jaw flare out angrily as it fell to the floor. Arthur gathered a prayer in his hands as he cast the golden magic over the two fallen undead, this would let their souls find peace on their way to the afterlife, and hopefully ward them from being dragged back into the mortal realm any time soon. That was the last thing he wanted, all things considered, to save the souls only for them to be ripped back out of the afterlife and into the mortal plane, it was paramount to torture all things considered, he really was not a fan of necromancer and the torment they put on living souls. THere were ways to do it without causing that kind of harm and suffering, but he didn't particularly feel like taking the time to explain it as it would practically and ethically still be just as bad. Spirits at rest deserved rest, no iffs and or butts about it. Anybody who disturbed the sleep of restful spirits were not the type of people he could ever associate himself with, just not the right type of person with aligning morals for a friendship with him. The tower's second floor was a lot similar to the first, except with more library book cases instead of paintings. Arthur wished he could take all of them, but he settled on just scouring the labels and names for anything that seemed interesting. It's not as if he was stealing, he was just looting the lair of a bad guy, which was hardly that much of a bad thing all things considered. There were a few books that caught his eye, notably books on heliomancy, medicine, and things of that nature. Taking the book series for himself, he placed it into his astral requip plane before taking a look at another section of novels. Dedicated to necromancy, Arthur wasn't sure how he felt about taking these books. On one hand, knowing more about the cursed art would grant him a benefit when facing off against it, but at the same time possessing this type of book and knowing its contents felt wrong to him, like it was against some type of ancient law. Shrugging, Arthur cast the book into his astral plane and closely monitored the feeling in his solar bond. Nothing too out of the ordinary, to be honest, and so his god was not particularly angered by his choice to take the book. If anything, Helios probably understood the benefit of knowing how his enemies used their magic in combat, and how he could better apply his heliomancy to smite those that wielded the necromantic arts. Arthur noticed a few containers strewn about the floor, and so he made quick work of looting them in order to find himself a few jewels and items. What Arthur did find, in fact, were sacks of jewels and potions and items. Taking them all for himself, he placed them into his knapsack before heading up another floor. Arthur recast the light illuminating his surroundings and came face to face with three zombies, who each died relatively easily to his blade. Nothing too difficult yet, so it would seem, as Arthur watched the two fall to the ground with one slice from Dawn's edge. Most people would probably not have had such an easy time facing off against he unholy and unliving, but his magic did so much more damage to their ilk, it was pretty satisfying to do in all honesty. Arthur sent out another prayer for the damned as he wished their souls the best trip back to the afterlife. Again, he warded their spirits to give them at least a little more time to rest in case they were somehow ripped back into the world of the living. Arthur liked to think that he was doing the spirits a kindness, but there was probably a reason their souls had been summoned, one that he didn't quite want to think about. Spirits from heaven were not usually the ones called down for necromancy, so it's not like Arthur was saving the holiest of souls, but a soul was a soul was a soul, and nobody deserved such cruelty as to be taunted with the experience of the mortal realm while one was already dead and yearning for a way out of the afterlife. Approaching the spiral staircase, Arthur could feel that the shuffling miasma one floor above him was more than just a few undead creatures. There had to be dozens of them at the very least, and while normally a hoard of undead posed no problem for him, they posed a problem when he was in confined spaces with the groups, as they could easily overwhelm him and his meager defenses. Climbing up the steps once more, Arthur readied a judgment spell before letting it fire onto the crowd above. Arthur could feel their miasma passing over through the force of his spell. The beam of light bounced around the room from target to target as he watched it take its course about the room. Smoke rose from the bodied of the corpses, and honestly at this point Arthur was used to the smell of the undead. It was a nasty thing, saccharine in its putrid sweetness, not unlike a decomposing fruit being eaten by maggots. It also depended, in general, on what type of undead he was facing. Skeletons had no scent, nor did Dragur or Mummies for that matter. Due to their preservation upon death and general context upon finding them, they rarely smelled more than just a bit musty as would be natural for anything sealed within a tomb for ages. Anything put anywhere for that long with the same air was bound to get kind of stale smelling after that long. Something was satisfying to Arthur about the fact that he was used to the smell of burning undead, something that told him he was making a mark on the world by preventing the profane from souring the experience of the still-living all around him. As the last zombie in the room twitched to death from the light, Arthur took a closer look at his surroundings. This floor of the tower appeared to be some sort of bunkhouse, if the amount of empty cots and dressers was anything to go by at the very least. Arthur quickly wondered what type of place this had been before the lich had approprite for use as its own base. Instead of bookcases, this floor held many paintings and side tabels next to each bunk. The cots were built into a cabinet per se, so that there were drawers benetht he bde and both above it as if each resident would have gotten their own cute little alcove to sleep in. Arthur took his time looting this level of the tower, knowing that personal bunks and cabinets probably had better items than a library. And he was right in that regard because he found plenty of jewel sacks alongside numerous jeweled ornaments and things of that nature. If he managed to make it out of the tower alive, he'd have much to show for it for sure. If anything, he'd have enough jewels to actually purchase the apartment permanently instead of just leasing it. If the amount of jewels he found on this floor, around one-hundred thousand was anything to go by, he'd be filthy rich by the time he cleared out every floor of the impossibly tall tower. Arthur debated laying down on one of the beds for a quick little nap after his long journey, but he did not want to think of what kind of dreams sleeping in this intense of a miasma would provide to him, didn't want to think what might happen while he was asleep. Was there some kind of effect a lich could have on sleeping people? The paladin wasn't sure actually, and he wasn't about to find out in any manner. After putting everything into either his knapsack or astral armament planet he paladin marched his way up to the fourth floor and barely dodge rolled out of the way as a flyiing wraith dove at him from the ceiling. Rolling across the floor, the paladin gripped the blade in his hand and gathered solar energy at its tip. The lighting ambiance on the room around them grew intense as he shot off a homing spell at the wraith, who unsuccessfully tried to dodge the blade projection only for it to turn around its trajectory to attack the wraith once more. The wraith cried in fury as it was smote from existence and its limp mutilated corpse fell to the wooden floor. He felt bad for the thing, and hoped it found an easy path to the after life after all of this suffering. Who knew how long these necromantic creatures had been stuck in mortal bodies within a tower that was perpetually locked.
Now that he had killed the wraith, Arthur was able to get a closer look at the floor on which he currently resided. This floor was more monestary in nature, having little to decorate it aside from strained glass windows alongside prayer carpets on the stone floor. Arthur glanced at the stained glass features and he couldn't help but appreciate their magnificence. They depicted a woman coming down from the heavens with a spear in her hands, and on the oppoiste wall, a woman coming down from the sky with two swords in their hands. Both obviously angels from the wings on their back, Arthur could make the connection between the story of the angels and their current presence in artistic form. He wished the teacher was here with him now to see all of this historic stuff. It made the paladin wonder, though, why the place had their likeness in stained glass if they had come to this tower while they were still living. Arthur paused, it was kind of odd, really odd to be honest. Arthur doubted the lich would have created a memorial to their mortal enemy, although maybe the undead creature was just lonely. It also didn't explain why the lich had pictures of aurelia in their tower, another aspect that didn't make sense. Somebody wasn't saying something to him about the actual nature of the tower itself, and it was starting to make him mad. The floor above him had the same amount of enemies as the one beneath him, he could feel all of their undead bodies stirring about with the influence of his magical energy. Arthur watched, in fact, as their wretched bodies piled down the spiral staircase as they spilled out of the floor with their hunger and desire for human flesh. Again, Arthur readied the same spell and fired it into the crowd, watching with satisfaction as it bounced between all of them and eventually cleared out the hoard in one cast of a spell. Smoke poured down from the floor above him, likely from the hoard of creatures that he had pretty much mutilated in order for him to not have that strong of a hoard to face off against in case any of them survived. The only bad thing about that though is that it left all of the ones who were strong enough to survive his attack to be fought. They were probably on some type of resistance or damage reduction to be able to survive his own attacks agianst hem. In most cases, Arthur could reliably one-shot most lesser undead creatures. Now that the floor above him had been cleared out of most of their mooks, Arthur ascended the body-strewn staircase as he made a prayer for the souls of the dead. Arthur pushed the dark door open before he came to face what looked like a bathhouse of sorts. The tiles were grungy, gross and there was water leakinng from the ceiling. Arthur gazed around through his flickering light to see that there were a few large zombies trembling and bracing themselves against the corner of the room. Upon seeing him, the zombies began shaking even harder and for a moment, Arthur felt bad about killing he zombies when he saw that they were afraid of being killed by his light. The paladin faltered, and in that moment the massive zombies took the opportunity and pounced on him, rushing into him and knocking the sword out of his hands. Feeling a harsh bite clamp down on his shoulder, Arthur panicked and detonated a large blast of solar magic from his body and completely incinerated the two creatures. Catching his breath, Arthur inspected the metal shoulder of his armor. Still intact, nothing had pierced his skin. It didn't really matter that much anyway, since he was trained in being able to cleanse those types of curses and diseases, but potentially contracting a necromantic disease was not something Arthur found himself fond of trying out. Arthur kicked himself mentally, he was weak. He shouldn't have even considered showing mercy to an undead abomination that was probably just feigning fear. They didn't feel fear, the undead only felt a desire to find and hijack another body, even though it was completely impossible for most of them to ever accomplish. This was his mistake, and he was stupid for even beginning to think than a lesser undead could do anything more than just attack on sight or try to hide or have self preservation instincts or anything really. Sighing, Arthur flooded himself with the cleansing magic just in case and then topped off his health to make sure he was ready to continue the fight. There wasn't really much to loot in this part of the tower, considering it was just a glorified bathroom. The next step up the tower was dark, even with Arthur's light, it was like it swallowed the light and prevented him from moving upward in the tower. Curious, Arthur shot a ball into the room and watched as it was completely engulfed in the shadowy darkness, nothing could seemingly pierce its veil. Considering what would happen if he entered the darkness, the paladin debated whether or not he should just blast a hole in the wall and fly out around the floor to get past it. Yeah, that was probably a better idea if he wanted to toppled the tower, but not if he wanted to get to the top and defeat the lich. Casting a ball of intense light over his head, the paladin ventured up the stairs and into the inky soup of hungry darkness. It was noticeably cooler in the room, and Arthur couldn't see more than a few feet in front of him. not wanting to explore this level, he quickly ascended the stairs as fast as he could. Feeling a cold breath on the back of his neck, the paladin fought the urge to turn around and darted up at increased speeds. Whatever it was wanted him to turn around and see it, and so that was the last thing the paladin was actually going to do because it probably had an undesirable consequence. The floor after this one couldn't come soon enough, Arthur thought as he burst into what looked like a dining room. Red patterns draped tablecloths, carpets and wall murals as he entered into the candlelight room. Expensive cultery was laid out on the table only to be covered by a heavy coating of dust. The lich didn't eat anymore, and neither did any of his workers or servants or whatever they were. Nothing in this damned tower ate human food anymore, and so this room was essentially abandoned in all of its splendor and luxury. Pastel paintings hung on the wall alongside oil paintings, depicting scenes of majesty and royalty. The lich had pretty gaudy tastes for the kind of person who would turn themselves into a lich in the first place. It was all so regal, and yet so obsolete. There was definitely some type of metaphor or meaning there in that irony, but Arthur wasn't the best at that sort of thing, deciphering irony and all that jazz. What Arthur did do though, is search through the cabinets and pocket the sacks of jewels and golden fixtures and utensils. It's not as if any of the towers inhabitants would be using it any time soon, and he needed the gold and silver for his own studies and equipment. Arthur really wanted to get into smithing to be honest, and that seemed like an almost-perfect way of doing it. There were no monsters or anything like that in this level of the tower, only candles illuminating a plush room of luxury. From how the general tower had been set up so far, he was assuming that the next floor above him would be a kitchen or pantry, something of that nature for sure. Arthur took a seat at the table, resting his hands on its wooden surface. He needed a little break from everything, just a break from the whole journey here and fight up to this point in the tower. It's not as if it had been thatt hard, but he was just running low on energy that was all. It had probably been more than a day since the last time he got a full night's sleep, and he could change this right here. Magically, Arthur sent out a snippet of light to tie around the door and solidify. It would hold for now, and it would let him rest.
| Spell Healing: (X(1.5))3.7 | Spell Damage: (X)2.7 | Spell Durability: (X)2.2 | Strength: 90HP Speed: 180m/s Spell Range: (X)1.5 | HP Regen: 20%/Post MP Regen: 15%/Post MP Regen: 10%/Post Daylight/Darkness |
