CHAPTER 33

I take the blow right in the solar plexus, I don't know how far I am shot, but for the pain I must have opened at least a few cracks in the stone wall, something warm comes to my mouth, blood, the blow was strong, enough to draw blood despite all my magical protection, it was to be expected, it must have come from something immune to magic.

 Crossing half the mountain was easy, the stone is pushed aside and compressed, giving solidity to the walls, some of the rock is returned to its place, so returning that way is easy, my field tells me where to go, it was to bring my beloved to these parts to meet the best wizard of the high elves was my original mission, judging by the pictures he looked a bit older than the rest, judging by the fact that the youngest was two hundred years old I would not be surprised if he reached the millennium of life, The preparations were done, but the night before I left I saw them embedding more things, one of them left her unconscious, so I had to transport her in a coffin, I think they thought I was an idiot, but years ago I had learned to read advanced elf, the runes had destructive purposes, they protected and released what my beloved held inside her, she had died, but arriving on the continent something would awaken.

 My duty was to protect him, I had to transport him to the shelter, but when I saw this, I used my trip to carve runes of my own invention, the base was elven, but where the energy was stored was human, this writing is gibberish for everyone, but for me it works, just on arrival they were activated, The entity is powerful, so I kept the magical field constantly recharging it, taking advantage of the fact that I was traveling alone, I hoped to ask the high magician to help me stop this madness, being a wise man he should know the risks of invoking something as dangerous as what was traveling in the coffin.

 Arriving at the cave that is supposed to house the magical equipment of the being I seek, everything begins to go wrong, first the air, it smells of poison, it is a terrible aroma, like sweet with rotten fish, I immediately begin to filter the air as when I was on Earth, it is an aura widely used by those of my race, humans learned it when pollution threatened their health by burning coal in their cities, Ionized charges inside my field attract in and repel out, so the oxygen is still present while the field leaves a path of all the toxins contained, there are many, I have to increase the intensity of the effect until finally at the ends of the field begins to drain a green phosphorescent matter, this is worrying, whatever this environment has is more toxic than anything produced by an active city and with very bad contingency plans.

When I go inside I have to turn on a lux, that is a column of light that shines outwards, making it difficult to aim in case someone wants to attack me, but the fog is very intense, I can not see a radius of one or two meters of stone floor, something cracked by the passage of time, it is necessary to clean the whole place, at least twenty meters in diameter, I can not work in this environment and I will not see any threat at this pace, I begin to expand my field, one meter, two, four, the place presents a greater resistance than expected, I begin to expand my field, one meter, two, four, the place meets with more resistance than I expected, almost as if it was laughing at my attempts, but I continue, although I am forced to stop at ten meters, the amount of liquid leaking from the purification of the air tells me that this area is deadly to the level of no one alive to explain what happened here, with my expanded field I can see several shelves full of rotten magical copies, this is not good, the copies of magical literature are preserved by quite respectable spells, it is easier to tear apart a suit of armor than to remove a book of high rank, something quite twisted happened here.

 I continue for an hour or two. I know there are places left and right to go, but I am more concerned with finding the wizard... did something happen to him? Did the powers he was working with go crazy? Since there was a possibility, I better draw my weapon, the carved metal blade glistening from an enchantment that keeps it sharp, though I make sure every night to prevent its edge from dulling, in the hilt the battery gem, so called because of its ability to hold the magic and release it at the will of its user, only I never release it, this gem is always charged to the maximum, to charge the runes the sword carries on its flat side, runes of primary power, I chose them to avoid the cumbersome laws of magic, they are powers that will not create bridges, portals, prisons or anything like that, they are the five known magical elements, recorded with my magic, not easy considering the effort, but seeing the results I can only feel happy.

 When I arrive at kilometer five of the route I find a group of eggs, they must be the male offspring of the civilization created by the elves, these nagas need males to be able to diversify their species or they will replicate each other without changing knowledge or experience, is it a late experiment to achieve immortality in the elves? I don't think so, most would not agree that someone, absolutely anyone would change their perfect genes, I prepare to pick them up, but a sound makes me turn around without hesitation, the swing of the sword is added to the wind rune, my weapon is a blur when it reaches the point of impact and becomes slow, heavy as if it were nothing but metal, at the same time a green block comes out of the mist at a healthy fraction of the speed of a meteorite, the impact throws me, neither my field nor my magic warned me that it was there What the hell?

I concentrate and cast a fairly harmless magic that gives me an idea of what I am facing, the ray is a disk of coherent light, they say it is laser, but the truth I doubt it has that destructive potential, as it is only a tiny amount, it burns a little what it touches and gives me locations as a crude radar while warning that I am not at the mercy of any damn that sees in me an easy prey, but I only detect bookcases and in some places nothing, only corridors ... wait! Damn, another blow, this time from behind, but I'm already prepared, I prepare a buffer on the sword, which will reflect the damage and add movement reduction by freezing, but I take the blow fully, I barely manage to turn backwards and turn my fall into a displacement of almost ten meters, Whatever is hitting me is very strong and seems to be disabling all my magic, at the moment I can't count on anything I have to attack them other than my physical strength and my weapon, which is forged in mithril, it would have to be hit by a meteorite to damage it, but with less I will be disarmed, I need to see my attackers!

 The amount of energy I need to heal myself isn't much, suddenly I feel my stomach close and stop bleeding, the same with my ruptured spleen, I have no damage to bones or nerves thanks to my armor, but the impact was deep, I breathe and notice with disgust that my field filters everything it can, but it still doesn't stop smelling of death, Not wanting to remain exhausted, I decide to create two fields, one will expel everything and continue filtering but it will be limited to my body, the other will expel only the very heavy toxins that prevent me from seeing, this way I will be able to see my enemies, my visibility is reduced as soon as I contract the first field, but it doesn't matter, Now I know that I can't rely on magic, but I can rely on my training, this body that has been beaten by all the soldiers, warriors and even heroes of the island knows how to sense a threat, it was just that I relied too much on magic, it won't happen again, I push the visibility beyond the first twenty, thirty, fifty meters, when I reach one hundred my heart shrinks, At the bottom, without the need for vision enhancements, I see the sage, still holding a black book, his face has had the same expression for years, in the center hundreds of dwarf bones and running towards me, at least six golems two meters high, made with the stone of my sword, invulnerable to magic, spell breaking and determined to kill me.