As I plunged through the billowing fog, unable to see, unable to smell, unable to hear anything, I triggered a potion of Slow Fall. My descent slowed, although it was hard to tell because nothing changed around me.

It was so weird descending through the featureless fog. The lack of focal point was disoriented, worse than scuba diving through zero visibility water. I'd jumped off the side farther from the tower to descend into the middle of the second floor. From what I'd seen, the roof should be gone and the middle should hopefully be clear of debris.

Now as I dropped slowly through the thick fog, I second-guessed that plan. Maybe I should have dropped along the tower so I could use its dim shape for reference.

Finally, I noticed a soft glow directly beneath me. It intensified rapidly, resolving into a reddish haze. Was I about to land on a Zombie patrol?

I didn't want to kill a bunch of zombies before even speaking with Noctarus. Maybe I'd just flash my token and say I got turned around in the fog.

It wasn't a patrol of zombies. A couple seconds later, the glow revealed itself to be a huge energy crystal, similar to the corrupted one I got way back on day one in the wight cavern, but twice the size.

Huh. That's where Noctarus was hiding his crystal? He'd said he had one he'd been charging for weeks. I should have guessed. On a hunch, I activated Spellseer's Gaze.

Sure enough, the crystal blazed like a crimson sun, totally bursting with power. Thick ropes of mana vaguely illuminated the open-roofed second story even more. The entire expanse appeared empty of walls or furniture. Five of those ropes of mana snaked over the distant lakeside rampart and stretched to the crystal, terminating at an intricate and complex rune matrix engraved into the stone pedestal holding the crystal and extending in a circle 2 feet all around it.

With the insane fight against Alpha and then Velexis, I'd honestly forgotten about the mystery of the second floor. Mystery solved. Sort of. Noctarus was indeed pumping the crystal full of energy from his enormous rune matrices spread throughout the lake.

Barely 10 feet above the crystal, the fog thinned enough for me to see more of the upper floor and I realized with a start that I wasn't alone. Six enormous undead monstrosities crouched around the energy crystal, identical to the one I'd seen at the base of the stairs.

Huge bodies, six wolf limbs, giant snouts, all cobbled together in a freakish Frankenstein mashup. They all sat unmoving, staring out into the fog with unwavering attention, scanning for any threat to the crystal.

Except I was about to land right in the middle of the pack. I only had a couple seconds to figure out what to do. It seemed miraculous they hadn't noticed me yet, but I didn't doubt they'd sense me the second I touched down on the stones.

I could launch a surprise attack and probably destroy them all. Unfortunately, that would undoubtedly warn Noctarus and wreck any chance of peaceful negotiations. I had to assume he was connected to the beasts somehow and would know the instant anything unusual happened.

Did the monsters hunt by scent or sight or hearing or some other power? No idea, but I was out of time. Just before my feet touched down, I triggered a Create Darkness potion.

A sphere of absolute darkness swept out in every direction, instantly spanning 10 yards, which should be just enough to cover the crystal and its entire ring of guardian monsters.

As soon as I touched down, I crouched and pulled out my blades, ready to fight, my spells ready to cast. They'd be blind in the darkness, just like me, so I strained my ears for any hint of danger.

Nothing. I barely breathed, every muscle tense, every sense pushed to the limits, but no monsters attacked. The ever-present, clingy fog felt claustrophobic as it pressed in, dampening all senses.

Good. It would dampen the franken-hounds too. Either they hadn't sensed me landing, or they hunted primarily by sight. Or they were super literal in their missions to prevent anyone from approaching and totally ignored the crystal and space in the middle.

Regardless, it seemed they hadn't noticed my presence yet. I had just taken a Laundry Day potion less than an hour ago, and that helped conceal my scent. The darkness concealed me from sight, and I hadn't made a move or a sound.

Could they sense mana? No idea, but I'd need to avoid using any spells unless I absolutely had to.

With the immediate threat momentarily eased, I turned my attention to the crystal and runes surrounding it. Of course, I could no longer see the crystal bare inches from my face, but reached out a tentative hand to touch it. The smooth faceted surface felt warm right through my gloves and Identify triggered.

"Energy crystal. Epic. Charge: 98%. This enormous gemstone, cut by a master to maximize its power capacity, is brimming with the power to rend space itself."

So Noctarus hadn't been lying when he said the crystal was the key to some kind of spell to teleport his ships back home. The crystal thrummed faintly against my fingers and I sensed a vast ocean of power packed inside. Could that really be enough to cross the expanse of space?

Noctarus seemed to think so, but how was he filling the crystal with space mana? Was space mana a thing? The giant rune script built across the bottom of the lake was sucking in a lot of mana, twining it into mana ropes, then pushing it up to the crystal. That mana had felt like it was attuned to teleportation. Was that the same thing, or was the old necromancer tweaking it again?

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Crouching, I reached for the huge rune script I'd spotted before landing, but hesitated. Just grabbing a script that complex that channeled that much mana would be like grabbing a high-voltage wire back home. I wanted to understand it, but didn't want to blast myself back to Midmount Vale by being stupid.

After considering it for a moment and skimming through the huge amount of information I'd absorbed from those two runesmith tomes, I got an idea. Pushing a bunch of convergence mana into my right hand, I formed a kind of shield to seal off my body, leaving only my index and middle fingers beyond the shield. Then I pressed both fingers down at the same time and touched the runes.

A river of mana boiled into my middle finger, struck my convergence mana shield that blocked it from tearing up through my arm, then flowed back out my index finger into the rune matrix. Kind of like electricity, I had to give the mana an outlet to keep flowing so it didn't just build up inside my finger until it exploded.

Once the current stabilized, rushing through my fingers in a constant stream, I pushed my Mana Sense into the flow. It dragged my thoughts down into the matrix and despite the absolute darkness blocking my view, a vision of the matrix lit up in my mind.

For a long moment, all I could do was absorb the mental sight. The rune matrix was by far the most complex one I'd studied so far. Hundreds of runes wove around each other in intricate patterns.

I even recognized the simpler runes, while the more complex ones remained far out of my realm of mastery. Still, I got a basic sense of at least some of the concepts they included, and the overall purpose of the script slowly dawned in my mind, like the sun peeking over a distant mountain.

The intricate script was accepting the energy from the lake, refining it further, then pushing it into the storage crystal. There were even modifiers to bleed excess energy back into the lake, while another section extended tendrils of mana to each of the franken-monsters guarding the roof.

Another entire section, more complex than most, seemed to concentrate the power of the crystal outward, but no mana was flowing out. I studied that section carefully, tracing each rune in my mind, puzzling out possible meanings. After a long moment, I realized what it must be.

That section linked the crystal's energy to Noctarus like a nuclear battery. It wasn't flowing yet, but I bet all he needed to do was give it a command to unlock the flow and he'd suddenly receive limitless power reserves. Attacking him with that link in place would be a really easy way to die and probably get zombiefied.

Clever on so many levels. I bet it took a lot of energy to keep the monsters operating, but Noctarus didn't have to worry about that. The crystal powered them through that matrix. They weren't alive, but not conscious undead either. Some kind of golum-like creatures that Noctarus had to infuse with energy to control? Good to know.

And he had a vast backup source of power to tap into when he chose to fight us. The entire rune matrix was beautiful, a mixture of calligraphy and art. Noctarus might be a dead-eyed necromancer, but the dude had the heart of a poet and the cunning of a gangster. I tried memorizing all I could of the matrix to ponder on later.

Then I rose and placed my hand on the crystal again. This thing gave him too big of an advantage. It was also a key component to Noctarus's plans, which made it the perfect bargaining chip for the lives of Burns and his team. However, if I just stole it, I'd probably alert the monsters, despite the cloaking darkness.

That didn't mean I'd leave it undisturbed and let Noctarus retain such a game-changing advantage. So I focused on the crystal with all my boosted Intelligence, Wisdom, and Luck and willed a change.

With the barest click, the energy crystal disappeared, replaced by the much smaller one I'd gotten back in the Wight cavern. Mine was barely half as tall, but nearly as thick. Thankfully, the bottom of both crystals were similar enough that the replacement managed to still connect with the rune script.

Yes! I'd gotten better at willing things like clothing to appear from my inventory already on my body, so swapping one crystal for another in the same place wasn't super difficult. Still, I'd screwed up other changes enough times that I'd still worried.

My old crystal started to hum and I grimaced. I'd damaged it badly using it to consume the Wights and then the Spectral Maulers, plus it was only rare tier instead of epic. I'd never found a way to try charging it, and I wasn't sure it even would charge. Now it sat on a rune matrix designed to pour a lot of energy into a crystal with a much bigger capacity a whole tier higher.

I just needed it to last for a few minutes until I could confront Noctarus. So I crouched, reconnected with the rune matrix, and focused on the parts that bled excess energies back into the lake. A lot more energy was pouring through that section than before, and I breathed a sigh of relief. The pressure valve was working. Time to get going.

I rose and considered the best way to get off the roof without alerting the guardian monsters. I could jump straight up and summon Switchblade to glide down to the outer courtyard. The bike was quiet, but not silent.

Then I got an idea and triggered my new temporary spell Shadow Walk, focusing on Force Weaver and Wolf Sight. My view of the entire area suddenly rippled outward, becoming clear in a weird, mottled monochrome way.

The sphere of absolute darkness immediately around me remained totally dark, but Shadow Walk connected me with every shadow within visual distance. Standing on that open second story of the castle gave me a wide field of possible view, and with the billowing fog obscuring everything, it spread available shadows everywhere.

The spell alone gave me a sense of the area right around each shadow, and with Wolf Sight melded into the spell my view expanded farther, making the entire landscape around me clear. Towers rose around me and I could even see my platform still hovering above. The rest of the castle and surrounding area glowed faintly in dozens of shades of gray. From my vantage, I could even see across the lake to the zombie tall ships and the cluster of tents of Lake Town.

Too bad I couldn't see into the castle. I did confirm a bunch of zombies waited in formation in the courtyard between the castle and the outer wall. The portcullis was closed and they held their laser rifles at the ready.

I could also see into the big entrance hall with one franken-monster still guarding the bottom of the steps. Otherwise, the area was empty. What if I stepped through shadow to the far side of the hall? No one would know I was there. I could slip down to Noctarus's study.

Then what? Surprise an angry boss necromancer in his lair? Not a bad idea if I was planning on a surprise strike to try killing him fast. Tempting at one level, but not when I didn't know what had happened to Burns and his team. So that meant an open approach to the gate.

Hopefully I wasn't wasting a singular opportunity. I picked a shadow near the end of the floating walkway that led through the marshes. The world lurched and just like that, I stepped through shadow and stood on the solid ground of the castle's island.

Extracting a zombie lantern, I marched toward the gate, access token in hand.

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