50 The Beginning of the Crisis

Continuing to pour more mana into the relic, Kasdeya watched the crystal disc closely for any sign of change, after all, she could feel the relic absorbing the mana so now she was just waiting for it to do something.

After a few minutes had passed, a slight glow began to emit from the very centre rune and Kasdeya suddenly felt a connection of sorts with the object.

Continuing to channel mana, she noted that the glow started to gradually grow at a very slow rate and, when trying to manipulate the mana within the crystal, she succeeded in reversing the flow and drawing out the mana in a purer and more refined form. As the mana was being withdrawn, the runes began to lose their lustre, proportionate to the amount of mana being lost.

'Hmm. This disc seems to be some sort of mana purifier and battery, which will be handy if I'm ever attempting to perform a task outside of my limits.'

Now that the relic was dealt with, Kasdeya decided to leave it in her lap and carve some more runes. Her stockpile was beginning to run low and, with her attention split trying to carve runes and channel mana into the relic at the same time, she could improve her mana control as well.

She was specifically planning on creating some more 'bone bombs' as well as engraving strengthening and fire runes onto the swords, however, she ran into the problem of a fire rune only engulfing the nearby area in fire and not the entire blade of the sword.

At first she had the idea of carving a fire attraction rune into the tip of the sword to draw the fire towards it, thus covering the entire blade, but, after performing some experimentation and wasting a few swords, she discovered that she could extend certain parts of the rune to create 'channels', extending its effect over a larger area. Although, it was noted that the effect grew weaker the bigger the area covered which had to be compensated for with more mana.

Just like this, Kasdeya occupied a relatively long period of time, before finishing and continuing her way up the 'giant broken stairs'.

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John was carrying a box of newly grown and harvested crops, keeping busy and fully utilising his stat bonuses to make up for the shortcoming of missing an arm, when he casually glanced towards the direction of the crater and saw an enormous wall of fog. It filled the crater and seemed to have a vaguely dome-like shape, that being said, where the top curved was almost impossible to make out.

John stopped for a minute, blinking a few times and hearing the sudden noises of shock and confusion when others started to notice its sudden appearance as well. Though, it didn't take long for the surprise to turn fearful when everyone noticed it rapidly expanding, enveloping more ground faster than anyone could run.

John could hear the leader shouting orders to pack up everything and evacuate this location but he wasn't listening to him. He headed straight for his own dwelling and, soon accompanied by Michael, Joey and Tycheros, started grabbing everything they could, throwing it into bags.

Finishing up quickly, they abandoned all the more cumbersome possessions, though they didn't take much on this trip anyway, and ran out of the abode just in time for the fog to sweep over the camp.

All sounds were instantly muffled and the fog made it impossible to make out anything more than a few metres in front of them. Thankfully, it was less dense than when they entered it in the crater so they still had some visibility.

Muffled cries could be heard around them but, whether they were from pain or surprise, was indecipherable. John quickly moved in the direction of their vehicle, his group staying close and managing to stay together despite the circumstances but, very soon, another problem arose.

A stinging pain appeared over the surface of his skin, a burning feeling in his eyes and fire filling his lungs, accompanied by a constant weakening with every breath, as if, for each breath he took, the fog sapped away some of his strength.

He glimpsed the shadowy figures moving, disappearing and reappearing amongst the swirling fog, sometimes also catching sight of people running around in a panic, though, most got pounced on by one of the creatures before being enveloped by the fog and disappearing.

"They're hunting us... and we're powerless to stop them…" John heard Joey murmur as they kept progressing forward, taking detours in order to follow the distinguishable landmarks such as housing and storage tents.

John kept moving, when suddenly a shadowy figure with glowing purple eyes leapt out of the fog in front of him, clearing the distance effortlessly and swinging its hand. Whatever toxic qualities the fog held was nothing compared to what was being exuded by this creature. The weakening effect seemed to quadruple as his entire body felt like it was on fire, delaying his reaction while the fingers swept towards his face, and sailed past it, narrowly missing him as he felt a hand on his side, pulling him away.

Taking a second to truly observe the creature's appearance, John gasped in shock when he saw a humanoid wearing the protective suit issued to protect them from external energies. The suit's visor was shattered and a relatively humanoid face could be seen, but it had turned a blackish colour and was exuding a shadowy substance. It's eyes were entirely purple and glowing and it had purplish, pulsating veins running over it, contorting it's features into a bizarre abomination of a human face.

The creature, once again, went to swing a hand at John but a horrible, screeching roar abruptly resounded over everything, sounding identical to the pitch and tone John heard in his hallucinations. Along with the roar, the creature stopped before appearing directly in front of John and gripping his neck.

A horrible pain, the likes of which he had never felt before, ran through his body and he could feel his strength dropping very rapidly. He glimpsed two of his comrades run up behind the creature, their weapons made of mystic ore drawn, but, as they hit the creature, the weapons simply shattered into pieces.

The creature stared at John but, due to the lack of pupils, he didn't know where exactly it was looking, plus, he was more concerned about not passing out right now, yet, not even 5 seconds later, the creature dropped him and vanished.

John accepted the hand from Joey, who assisted him up, and the three quickly looked around themselves but, despite being vigilant, they couldn't stay here and the group hurried to their car, managing to drive away from the base.

After five minutes, the four of them breached the fog, seeing a few other vehicles ahead of them, hurrying away at an equal pace, and turning around, they saw an insurmountable wall of grey behind them.

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"I FINALLY FOUND IT!"