Chương 228: Electrical Terror

Kyrtian blinked, and his vision was overcome with brightness as the creature he had trapped inside this alternate space suddenly burst with lightning–Arcs of lightning formed, carving shallow gashes in the surrounding stone. The hair on his head and body rose. He could feel it clearly, the electricity hanging in the air.

"What is this…?" The necromancer could hardly believe it. One of the most well-known aspects of lightning is its ability to be conducted through things like steel or water. This particular trait was often copied by lightning mages to create spells that could jump from one thing to another–Usually enemies, by altering the way the lightning of a particular spell functioned. He had heard that lightning was actually quite flexible in this regard…

He had never heard of a mage capable of doing what was currently happening. Weak charges of lightning were hitting him constantly at the moment. His proximity to the monster was causing his shield-platform to become charged with electricity. The very energies hanging in the air carried some as well, and it seemed like all of this lightning sought nothing more than to course through something else. Any form of contact would cause it to jump to whatever it was that they made contact with.

Using his own mana to push the ambient energy away was a no-go, however. He and his mana weren't being actively charged like the rest, but it seemed like similar things could exchange lightning far more efficiently–He felt it when he tried to shield himself from particles of ambient energy, the lightning contained within them didn't just flow into his own mana, it seemed to grow in quantity and power. He got a nasty shock for this stunt…

"I need to get the hell away from here" His zombies weren't faring very well, it was stupid to think about, but since he hadn't given any of them shoes, they were being shocked constantly by the ground, and it seemed the longer contact was maintained with a surface channeling lightning, the stronger the current became as they were beginning to emit smoke–Until one's head even popped like a rotten melon. Kyrtian did not like this situation one bit.

Mainly because the electricity at hand wasn't made from any energy, it was akin to naturally formed lightning, and he had no idea how to properly deal with this. He couldn't dismantle it like he would be able to if it were a spell, or even raw lightning mana. He didn't fully understand what was going on, and it frightened him. He needed to retreat and observe the situation from a safer distance.

"W H E R E, A R E Y O U G O I N G?" Kyrtian froze for a moment, extending the range of his mana senses earned him a mind-numbing amount of shocks, but it was worth it. With a burst of mana, he controlled his floating platform to move out of the way as a hand large enough to grab him like a toy came slamming toward him. It ended its course into a pillar behind where he had stood, leaving the imprint of its hand as the pillar cracked. This thing wasn't going to remain standing for long after this.

His eyes followed the motions of the hand as it retracted back to where it had come from. The brightness subsided, and the monstrosity lurking within was revealed–The necromancer found himself regretful of his actions. The creature was big, but its form was messy. Most of its body was nothing more than an uncountable amount of differently-coloured wires tangled together, forming a sort of blob without any coherence to its appearance. There were only three things about it that diverged from this mesh of wires…

Firstly, its hands. It had bronze-coloured hands made out of large chunks of steel. They were oversized automaton hands, but instead of every piece being linked together like normal, every individual portion of steel making up the hands was connected via intertwined wires. Secondly, it had a beartrap-like maw, exactly like that the creature had already possessed previously, but just like the hands, it was now bronze in colour… The upper and lower portions were also not linked together.

Both were held up by wires that wrapped between the teeth. Lastly… The eyes. Two purple dots that were also connected to wires through the back, the eyes could move around because of this. Far from being locked into place as they previously were, they could move and contort like snakes. Kyrtian breathed heavily, his muscles tense as he watched for the abomination every movement–Its body would emit loud sparks of electricity at random intervals…

But the necromancer was more focused on the fact that he had lost air superiority. Indeed, the monster was currently suspended between two pillars, using wires to wrap around them and hoist itself up.

"M A K E I T E A S Y F O R M E""G I V E U P A N D D I E" Kyrtian wanted to retort with an insult, but the words got stuck in his throat. The way this thing was electrifying its surroundings and affecting even mana… It did not bode well for his chances. His spells would just fall victim to this effect if he tried casting any. His undeads were useless against such a powerful being as well… A wry smile crept upon his face as he slightly raised both of his hands, showing his palms.

"Hey… Water under the bridge, right? I'll let you out of here. Let's just… Agree to both walk away and never interact with one another again, alright? I don't care anymore if you consumed the Blood-Cursed Tree or whatever. It looks like you needed it far more than I did!" The story has been illicitly taken; should you find it on Amazon, report the infringement.

"Y O U A R E S M A R T E R T H A N Y O U L O O K. S P I N E L E S S W R E T C H" The thing's voice was brutally loud and ear-grating, but Kyrtian kept his cool.

"Is it a deal?"

"N O""W-What do you mean, no? Listen, this space can only be excited by having the right magical item. I consumed one to get us in, and I'll need to consume another to get us out. I have the keys, and I'll destroy them if you try to kill me! Do you really want to be stuck here forever?!" The creature grunted, and for some reason, its two eyes moved, staring in different directions, moving as though it were reading something that did not exist.

"S H O W M E. T H E I T E M""Right…" The necromancer brought out a pendant. He always had these items in the form of pendants that he kept around his neck for the most part. Crafting them wasn't too complicated after creating so many, but he preferred to avoid using them, as it could get a bit costly. He had acted too rashly by trapping himself and the monster inside here. He had not expected that his opponent would be such a dire problem to deal with–He had totally underestimated this monstrosity.

The creature focused both of its eyes on the item, as though trying to confirm its authenticity, which was a bit odd to Kyrtian. He was fairly certain that this abominable being had no talent in energy manipulation or magic in general. What could it possibly decipher about just a refined item made from smithing enchanted silver?

"I S E E""So… Do you agree or-" His sentence ended with a gurgled, drowned scream as wires attacked him from behind, stabbing into his throat and wrapping around his arm, severing it clean off before he was ruthlessly shocked to near unconsciousness. The creature approached him as his platform lost his mana support and came slamming into the ground below, whilst he was kept in the air by wires. A single golden wire extended from the monster's body, getting a hold of the pendant as it neared its eyes near his.

"Y O U R S O U L. A L L U R I N G" Wires stabbed into his eyes and brain, a single pulse of lightning was all that was needed to kill him instantly before his remains were devoured, vanishing without a trace as he was torn apart by the creature's maw. The necromancer was now as close to death as he could possibly be…

What a fool. He retracted most of his mana sense to avoid getting zapped, but didn't think to use his own two eyes to look over his shoulder. I guess this is what happens when you are too used to using magic for everything… You forget basic common sense and act like you have access to your beloved magic even when you don't. I would say 'what a shame', but I don't think he deserves it. I am quite thankful for the unexpected form, though.

Not only is it a very nice gift, but it was very good to wrap things up here as well. To be frank, I had been tempted to accept his offer. I had been worried about two possibilities: That killing him would immediately boot me out and thus leave the container behind, or that killing him wouldn't boot me out at all, leaving me trapped inside.

But he stupidly revealed that the exit condition was controlled by an item identical to the one he had used to get us in, and Nara had timely informed me that it was very much something that I could use by myself without the necromancer's help. It didn't function by injecting mana into it, apparently. You just needed to press a button on it, and it would suck in ambient mana on its own to do its thing before shattering.

All of this was known because he had very proudly shown off how the item worked when dragging me here. Little idiot. This is a pretty nice place, don't you think, Nara? Now that I have his soul, I'll be able to force him to make more of these, and we can return to this place as much as we want! Isn't it neat? What would be the point of having access to this place, though? The only possible usage of this space that can not be achieved via another, simpler means is the just the same thing he tried to do.

Which is to trap an enemy We'll figure this out later, don't you worry, Sweetie. More importantly… I only took a quick glance at the description of the 'Wire Mess Form' and basically skipped over most of what was written. It seemed to be a form with quite a few abilities. Wire Mess Form - Acquired from obtaining the related upgrades The condition to get this form turned out to be rather simplistic. It was all about getting hold of a bunch of different upgrades…

Though it definitely would have been way harder if I hadn't figured out a new way to obtain upgrades. Let's go through everything carefully… Static Presence: When in this form, you constantly electrify your surroundings. Everything becomes a great conductor, and entities making contact with a conductor will suffer from increased electrical shocks over time.

Additionally, physical contact greatly enhances the conductibility of any item and allows you to send far more lightning through it Artificial Storm: Burst with excessive lightning as though you were using 'Overcharge' or 'Overvoltage'. This ability is used when transforming, but can be controlled In Progress: This form can be retroactively modified by obtaining related upgrades in the 'Base Form' Electrical Agony: The lightning is like a limb to you.

You can control its output as you see fit Interference: The lightning manifested by 'Static Presence' has the effect to mess with the function of all devices affected, be they mechanical or magical. This effect can be controlled, expanded, or focused Outage: Electricity and lightning can be absorbed through physical contact or simple closeness The size of this form can be enhanced by spending consumed steel at the moment of the transformation Six whole abilities!

Though I couldn't help but notice that 'Static Presence' and 'Interference' could have easily been a single ability, but it didn't matter much. It was a great form overall, and it had the added bonus of 'In Progress'. I am fairly certain that 'Molten Steel Form' can also be affected by upgrades, as if I replaced one of my hands with something like a buzzsaw, it would probably carry over to it as well, but it seemed like the 'Wire Mess Form' was specifically intended to receive modifications.

I do remember that there were apparently a whole bunch of wire-based upgrades that weren't required to unlock the form. So I guess they are here to further enhance it down the line. … All of these abilities look very nice, and I can even do the same thing as with my molten self and use stored steel to enhance the size of this form. This trip to the Northern Wildlands is really turning out great!