The Pillar of Enera

[Book II Chapter 94] ROSE: A Grim Discovery

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He’s dead. Rose stared at Zentrias in shock. I knew it could happen, but…

“Rose and Noor, you deal with the pillars.” Cindy shouted. “Everyone else back up Dawn and Carol.”

Grimacing, Rose focused and roasted the nearest piles of bones, which thrashed around madly. Dodging the wild attacks, she keep an eye on the battle. After blocking Dawn’s ice lances with barriers of bones, the lich was retreating up a wall, and Smiley was crawling after it with Carol his back. So it can manipulate its own gravity towards the surface it’s standing on.

The lich raised its left hand, the only portion of its body not clad in bone armor. The cyan crystal on its black glove lit up ominously, and gravity was restored to normal. She found herself pulled towards the floor but was ready this time.

Landing gracefully, she noticed Zentrias remains fall besides her, and a though crossed her mind. Maybe I could do for him what Wise did for me. The knights were gifted with creation magic. Maybe they could put him back together?

Having made her decision, she hopped over and frowned at what she saw. The pieces of Zentrias were intertwined with bandages, which were tightly binding his injuries and preventing blood loss. Shaking off her confusion, she reached out and was surprised to discover the soul firmly there. Something is anchoring it?

Observing the bandages, she realized they were moving, slowly reuniting the severed body parts. Where are they coming from? She located the source of the undulating strands of fabric. From within Zentrias’s new gauntlets, they were traveling up the arms and spreading over to the rest of him. As she watched, a new batch shot out, adding another layer to the reconnected areas. Resurrecting their wielder… These gauntlets are truly Sola’s work.

Zentrias sat up, eyes in a daze. He held his head then winced in pain. Drawing his hand away, he stared bewildered at what it had become. Oh my god… The metal fingers emerging from the gauntlets had narrowed and transformed into claw-like blades. Can he take them off with them like that?

“Rose, what are you doing?” Cindy cried out. “We need your help over here.”

Right, the lich! She turned to leave, but Zentrias shot past her. Leaping high, he fell on the lich. Dismayed by this attack from a defeated foe, the undead prepared its cleavers. This time, however, spidery fingers grabbed the weapons, and they were promptly shattered by destructive magic.

The lich drew back, but not fast enough. Finger blades pierced its pauldrons, digging into its shoulders. When they withdrew, the undead’s arms were explosively ejected from its body. Zentrias continued with a flurry of strikes, penetrating deep into his off-balance opponent. A second later, the puncture wounds glowed a malevolent violet and blasted the undead apart.

Everyone stood still, stunned silent. Cindy reacted first. “Not sure how you’re alive, Zentrias, but I’m leaving the rest here to you. My lightning should be effective against that grimsteel lich.” With that she went to assists the knights.

“Me too.” Dawn declared. “Don’t let this one reassemble.”

Rose noticed the scattered pieces of rotted flesh pilling together. I think not. She unleashed torrents of flames to roast them and blow them apart. Undead who possessed corpses in general took longer to revive. It was fairly simple to prevent them from doing so once they were pulverized to this extend. Amid the fire, she spotted the lich’s black glove and snatched it up. Maybe it won’t vanish with him.

“I thought you died… How?” Carol approached Zentrias with trepidation, as if afraid to believe he was unharmed. It must be a shock, even if a good one.

“It’s these things.” Zentrias raised his hands. “They brought me back.”

Carol touched the gauntlets and winced. “So they were cursed. Sorry, I didn’t detect it earlier. Then again, without them you’d be dead…”

Shortly after the bone lich disintegrated, Valrie and her knights returned, accompanied by Dawn and Cindy. “Congratulations!” She said. “I’m impressed you defeated yours before us.”

“About that…” Rose explained what had happened, including where they’d discovered the gauntlets. The knights were quiet as she finished.

“What do you think?” Valrie asked Ezekiel.

“The same thing as you.” Ezekiel answered. “It’s unmistakable.”

Valrie sighed. “The good news is those gauntlets were one of the highest priority items to recover from this dungeon. Now they won’t fall into Stannis’s hands.”

“And the bad news?” Zentrias asked.

“What you’re wearing is definitely an artifact belonging to the last avatar of fear. They were called Nuzou’s talons.”

Rose eyes went wide. He’s the one who tortured Roxanne! She remembered the prison and the wretches with bladed hands. They must’ve been Nuzou’s victims. As for the boss at the end, maybe that was the man himself?

“We didn’t recognize them before, but those bandages are infamous.” Valrie continued. “Not only did they make him nearly unkillable, Nuzou could consciously control them. They were how he wrapped up and kidnapped so many off the battlefield.”

She inspected Zentrias. “Are you feeling anything unusual?”

“I am.” He answered. “They’re making me more irritated and aggressive. I attacked the lich as soon as I laid eyes on it, without a second though.”

“Is that corruption from being revived?” Dawn asked. “Like how a necromancer soul works?”

“No, it’s more dire than that.” Valrie revealed. “Those gauntlets aren’t just some weapon Sola gave Nuzou, they’re the instrument she used to drive him mad. Before she gifted them to him, he was only a paranoid recluse, not a monster.”

She pointed to Zentrias’s hands. “Now that they’ve awakened, they’ll eat away at your sanity.”

“Can you take them off?” Carol asked.

Zentrias shook his head. “It’s like my fingers are welded inside.”

“Hate to suggest this…” Noor said quietly. “But should we cut them off?”

Carol quickly interposed herself. “You can’t. They might be the only thing holding him together.”

“I concur.” Cindy added. “The lich removed his arms and that didn’t work. I fear we’d only create injuries which would accelerate his mental decline.”

“Agreed.” Valrie said. “The best approach is to have him exit the dungeon. The adventurer’s guild will figure out a solution.”

“In that case, I propose we shelve this discussion for now.” Ezekiel declared. “We can’t send him back to the last sacred ground by himself, so there’s no choice but to bring him with us to the next one. We can take stalk of the situation once there.”

There were no objections. As they left, Rose glanced at the black glove in her hand. I should check with the others to make sure they aren’t cursed.