Chapter 183: Sealing The Flesh Pt.1
Walking into the building Lake had more time to look around this time and noticed if he wasn't able to see through walls he would have never been able to tell what the basement held but that was probably the point. It wasn't like making a home look normal was that hard you just needed to live in it and make sure there wasn't anything weird out in the open.
The only thing that was actually impressive was the smell. No blood stench was detectable to him and his sense of smell was pretty strong these days so he guessed there was a way to make certain smells disappear without getting rid of the home's unique smell. He was pretty sure someone who knew what they were doing would notice this as well if they were here investigating because usually the small things were what people forgot to hide.
It seemed the Demon Worshipers here had been very thorough in making sure to cover all of their tracks but in the end the guild had still been able to find where they were so it showed just how valuable having your people infiltrate other groups was. It made him realize why there were so many spies in every guild he had dealt with.
It had been one of his first experiences here in this world when Nelg had tried to kidnap him for the Assassins guild and he had never really stopped thinking about the fact that almost any person he met while inside a guild could actually be working for a different guild. It was too bad he couldn't just go around asking people if they were traitors without them getting mad.
"Lake looked over to Grendia and Freed the two of his original group who were part of this mission to seal the flesh and couldn't help but think they were trustworthy but he knew it was just because he had been through combat with them and seeing them kill Demon Worshipers made you think they couldn't be one themselves.
The truth was you never knew what people were willing to do to trick you if they thought it was worth the effort and it wasn't like Demon Worshipers were particularly afraid to die from what he had seen. He was pretty sure it had something to do with their religion worshiping the god of the undead so dying was probably a good thing to them.
That meant their spies would have no problem killing their own to keep their cover so he couldn't really just judge others by their actions and would actually need to ask them. It wasn't like they would know he could sense lies so they would just play it off and think they had gotten away with it.
"The flesh was behind a barrier so if it's still up we'll be able to lay the formation before we deal with the barrier." Lake could tell by the way Freed said this that there was a good chance that the barrier would be gone by now. He could see that because apparently they had a certain amount of energy before they turned off by themselves so he was sure the Demon Worshipers hadn't made it last much longer than they had needed.
Once everyone was ready, Freed asked. "Grendia, do you want to go first this time?" Grendia gave Freed a look that said I'm not crazy and said. "Lake should go first because of that shield." Lake guessed she wanted him to do something similar to what he had last time they had gone into this room so he said. "I'm fine with going first."
After he said this he went ahead and summoned two barriers and was about to go in when Freed said. "Just call back whether it's still in the center of the room or not once you can see it." Lake nodded and said. "I should be able to tell before I even get into the room so be ready to follow me.
After he said this he took the first step into the basement and started towards the hole they had used to get into the final chamber last time. Looking into the hole Lake could see the center alter still had the flesh atop it and called to the others. "It's still there, you guys can come in now."
Lake could understand why they hadn't wanted to come into the dark basement until he saw where it was because if it was able to move it might have been able to get out of this hole and into the other parts of the basement. Once the others made it to him, Freed asked Lake. "You want to test the barrier from here before we get closer?"
Freed was pointing at his bow so Lake said. "Sure but I'm going to use a spell because it's faster." Lake cast a Earth spell real quick and when he saw the stone break before it hit the flesh he said. "The barrier is still intact, let's go." He went in first and was able to tell the others were still a bit apprehensive by how far in he got before the others started to follow.
He was sure it was because they wouldn't be able to see very well past the small amount of light that his barriers gave off. That meant they wouldn't really be able to tell if he and Grendia were telling the truth about the flesh's location. He wasn't saying they didn't trust them just that the others would be under increased stress compared to him and Grendia unless they had a high Perception.
Once they were inside Lake led them closer to the flesh than he had ever wanted to get and said. "You three are up." Lake was talking about Freed and two people he didn't know the names of because they had never bothered to do a proper introduction earlier and had just gotten straight to work making the plan.
He did know what the three were going to do though. Freed was a healer who could use life magic and that meant he was able to partially counter Unholy magic so having him here was a good thing if the flesh got out of control or if they needed to weaken it during the sealing process.
The next was someone who could use Antimagic and they would be working in tandem with Freed to do the same things and finally the one who could lay the formation. If this went well the rest of them didn't need to worry about doing anything and they would only step in to protect the formation and the one making it if the flesh got out of the barrier.
...
"Um, your name is Grendia right?" Donny needed this area flattened so he figured a dwarf would be able to help him do this. Seeing Grendia nod Donny said. "Will you flatten a few feet around the flesh?" The floor was made of rough stone so he wanted it to be nice and smooth so he could lay the formation down easier.
"No problem." Grendia was able to do what he had asked in no time and he got to work after he took a second to look at the ball of flesh moving around to get a better idea how big he should make the formation. The ball of flesh wasn't a thing he could really tell how big it actually was because of how it grew and shrank so he just went with the biggest he had seen it get and started laying the first circle of mana onto the ground.
Once it was done he drew a basic sealing formation inside it and did the same three more times so there were four in total and once that was done he closed all of that with another circle so the four sealing formations were between two circles. The final product looked like a ring around the altar that held the flesh.
After that he made a formation that would allow this formation to use the metal mana in the environment to power itself so it would be able to hold this monster until they could find someone to actually deal with it. "Alright it's as ready as it can be, time to drop the barrier." The best way for them to drop this barrier was to let the person here who could use Antimagic cast a few spells so that's what they did.
After three they could all tell the barrier was on its last legs so Donny got ready to activate his formation. When the anti mage used their next spell Donny watched as the barrier smashed and the leftover spell hit the flesh itself. Donny didn't wait to see what the flesh could do now that it was free and lifted the formation off of the floor and shrunk it around the flesh.
The formation was already starting to work but Donny could see that the flesh was able to still move and he could tell it wasn't defenseless just yet. Donny ducked under the string of flesh that had shot out of the ball towards his head and said. "Suppress it." He would probably need another minute or so to get it fully sealed and since he was controlling the formation he couldn't fight.
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