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MAZE - Chapter 1116 - Old Wounds
🕑 Added 2025-10-12 05:01:09 +0000 UTCHera wanted to just grab as much gear and items that she could and head back to the Fields of Elysium. However, the council recommended that she hold on a bit more. That was for two very specific reasons. First, Typhera had called a very good group of scouts to help learn more about the Fields of Elysium themselves. Second, they were giving the alliance a couple of days as a whole to try to find any information about what could be happening in that room.
And while they were waiting, Alex went on a spree of dungeons like a madwoman. She had learned from her Herald that it would be possible to make some sort of hallowed ground skill using her Legacy. The building blocks were there, and even the Herald agreed that it was very likely to be possible. They just had to figure out how. And Alex went around looking into a bunch of different skills that created specific fields like Hera's [Imperial Domain] and was now trying to see if any of them would stick with the Legacy.
The best way to do that would be to run dungeons that were somewhat dangerous or that had some sort of area of effect spell on the ground themselves. Which was why she was taking advantage of a specific dungeon in the area of the first plateau where the ground itself was burning, forcing anyone who entered the dungeon to be constantly flying in order to complete it. It was a perfect place for the harpy, but to anyone else, they would need some sort of spell or skill that allowed them to stay afloat.
Or, Alex could purify the ground and turn it into hallowed ground. If that worked in a semi permanent way they could at least create an outpost or just a camp in the Fields of Elysium where they wouldn't have to worry about being attacked by undead. Otherwise, things would be very bad once they actually started to explore that place in search of a way to solve the issues.
On the item side, there wasn't really anything specific against undead here in the city. They could order some potions of holy water, at least items that were called holy water, and other accessories that could weaken those types of creatures. But they would all take at least a week to arrive. And while Typhera was more than happy to make that purchase, they agreed that letting merchants use the underground tunnel wasn't really the best idea in the long run.
Either way, it was a positive thing. While Hera was back in Zaxalam talking with her dad about being an Ophidianite, she received the call from Typhera. The Harpy Queen was requesting her presence in a council meeting, one that did not require Hera to go to the Aerie, as they were not going to be using that extremely secure line that they were 100% sure no one would be able to listen in.
After all, information about the devil wasn't classified, not between large groups. Even in times of war in the past, when a devil appeared, all people who could do something to help with that would stop their conflict in order to solve that issue. That's what had happened to Undine so many years ago.
The moment Hera arrived in the meeting room together with Rutigan, as the Dwarven King had come to Zaxalam in order to check on his people. They had already greeted each other, and Hera gave the rundown of the situation to the king.
"That is troubling indeed," he nodded, although Hera wasn't so sure the dwarf understood the complete ramifications of what was going on. After all, his people had only recently joined the MAZE as a whole. Certain curiosities about how the MAZE worked would still fly over his head.
Either way, she managed to explain things properly before the meeting began with all the rest of the council members appearing in their holographic forms thanks to the setup of the meeting room. After some small pleasantries where they greeted each other, Elara took the floor.
"I want to preface this by saying that most of the information we acquired was incomplete. That's why some of us are more aware of the situation than others," she glanced at Chieftain Wilmanue, the beastmen chieftain, who gave a nodding response.
"I'm going to add," King Thrain started to speak, "that some of the information was not shared right away because we needed to confirm things."
The more Hera was listening, the more she started to think that they were talking about some grand secret that was not supposed to be revealed.
"We do have an idea of what could be happening. And Hera is correct on her assumption. We believe this is related to Xu Jiayi, the necromancer emperor," Thrain explained.
Hera gave them a look, but they continued speaking before she could say anything else.
"The reason why we didn't say anything before was because this event, if you want to call it that, was something that we three had agreed to never speak of again, or at least our predecessors had," Elara quickly continued.
"What was this event?" Nereus asked, his voice strangely hostile, no longer acting casual, but now it was clear he was upset, which considering they were talking about a devil like being made a lot of sense.
"You see, a few hundred years ago, a team that we made to explore the MAZE came into contact with a strange horde of undead. They were not amalgamations like the one you spoke of, Hera," Chieftain Wilmanue started to speak. "They were more sinister. And as if that wasn't bad enough, some also seemed to maintain some of their original abilities, the abilities of their bodies, I mean."
"So this was the Emperor?" Hera asked.
"We believe so, yes. While you did not state that you found undead who could use skills, the amalgamations were part of what was discovered when they were deeper into the territory. But it eventually became clear that the undead horde was too much for us. Every time we sent a group to attack it, they would be killed and in turn become part of the army. I think you can understand how this quickly becomes a problem if more and more people start to get killed by the undead."
The Empress couldn't help but nod. This was already, generally speaking, something that was a problem when dealing with necromancers in general. The more people they killed or monsters they defeated, the stronger they would get since they would have access to more bodies. But in the Emperor's case, they were not just adding one extra skeleton to fight.
"This was the main issue with that attempt," King Thrain continued. "Every extra person that was lost was not just one less warrior but also one more enemy for them to face, an enemy that was on the same level as them. This created a rather big problem. On one hand, sending stronger people to fight could solve that problem. The more strong people there were, the less we would need to worry about. But on the other hand, large groups of powerful people could become large groups of powerful enemies. It was a somewhat impossible situation. As a result, it was decided that after three teams of people failed to even find the location of King Gwendolyn, it was safer for all parties involved if we collapsed the area around all doorways that connected to the room. That way, we could trap the undead in the same place."
Hera rubbed her eyes. "Hang on, are you saying that instead of solving the problem, you decided to, what, ignore it? Despite knowing that if you block all doorways to a room the MAZE will create another one?"
"The situation was more nuanced than that, but yes, I think that's a fair approximation," Elara nodded.
"And were you already aware of what the Legacy could do? About the fact that it could spread to other rooms or that the undead that came from it could go through doorways? Or, more importantly, the fact that it was growing?" Hera pressed.
Elara nodded, "According to the reports, yes, part of what you said was known. We had no idea the undead could cross doorways, but the effects seemed to be spreading, and we had reports of undead in nearby rooms that vanished after the doorway was deactivated. But at the time, we never connected the dots on the matter."
Hearing that, Hera couldn't help but scoff. "Are you kidding right now? You couldn't connect the dots? The most basic dots to connect that ever existed, and you couldn't connect it? Oh, there's a bunch of ghosts here. Could it have anything to do with the undead Legacy that we are dealing with. Probably not, right? What a response from people who are saying they are the leaders of the alliance. I understand that this was not you, or at least I really hope it wasn't. But fuck me that was stupid."
Hera glanced at Elara, who was the eldest member of the council and the only one who might be alive back then, and the elf nodded. "I was not a part of this decision, no. And I understand your frustration."
"Okay, and now are we going to do something about this, or are you going to tell me to collapse the doorway again? Which, for the record, I don't even know how we're going to do that because it's on a bridge very high in the sky. If you're talking about burying that thing, we're going to need to pretty much create an entire mountain. Because as far as I know, just not being on the ground is not grounds for a doorway to stop functioning."
"That last comment is true. We do have a few doorways that connect directly to the sky. They are generally just the ones that are already in this sky, so people don't have to worry too much about going from a doorway on the ground and suddenly being in the sky," Typera said.
"It's the same way with underwater things," Nereus added.
Hera already knew all that, but she just nodded in agreement, not trying to be that much confrontational, especially since she was already angry about one specific subject.
"No, I have no intention of letting this happen again. While my predecessor was short-sighted, I see the danger that this poses to not just the alliance but everybody who lives in the MAZE. This is probably already much bigger than it should have been, and if we ignore it now, maybe it will reach the breaking point where it's impossible to handle it. That being said, we are considering our options right now, which is why this meeting was called. We can't just ask Insomniac to go there and kill everybody because…
"if we are unlucky and he ends up being killed, then the strongest person in the MAZE will be part of that horde," Hera nodded.
"And considering how his Legacy works, the more tired he is, the stronger he gets. I believe that if he turned into an undead, it will pretty much make him invincible." Elara sighed.
"Do we know if the undead keep their Legacies?" Hera asked.
"Not entirely," Thrain replied. "The reports do say that they fought people who had powers similar to that of Legacies, but it also states that they were able to kill the people who had those Legacies and didn't get anything in return. Our assumption is that the undead version of a person still retains some aspects of the Legacy or maybe the entire Legacy is absorbed by the undead Legacy, but it is absorbed by the individual and not the entire army. If that was not the case, we probably would not be able to stop it even if we tried."
"Why is that?" Hera asked.
"Because among the group that failed to return were a couple of Legacy holders. One focused on body reinforcement spells to make you stronger and more powerful, and another who was a wind-based archer whose arrows would change into various birds and other types of flying creatures in order to attack. And subsequent reports mentioned those two specific undead but also made it clear that they were the only ones who had those powers. It wasn't as if the entire army gained the ability of shooting powerful wind arrows just because that one person had that ability."
"So right now we need to come up with a team that is both powerful but not so powerful that if they get killed, they would be a problem for the rest of us?" Hera asked.
"Yes. We also believe that anyone whose power would take a lot of mental effort to use should be on the top of this list. In addition," Chieftain Wilmanue started speaking, "I do believe that Hera is a good prospect to join this party. Her Legacy is about weapons. And since those are inanimate objects by essence, I believe that if she were to be killed, we wouldn't have to worry so much about her weapons becoming undead because they are not alive to start with. Also," the Chieftain turned to Hera, "and I apologize for the way I'm phrasing this, but thanks to your Legacy, we would have some cannon fodder to toss into the horde. After all, if your blades were to be killed by the undead, they could be brought back without us having to worry about more of them joining their side."
Hera really didn't like how they were talking about her Court, but she couldn't argue with what was being said.
"If that's the case, maybe golems and other magical constructs could be helpful," Hera started to think about the rest of the people she knew that could be of help.
Alex was a likely candidate since the Purification Legacy should be enough to stop her from becoming undead or to just cleanse herself right away. Not to mention, she was already working on the hallowed ground skill to create an area where they could rest properly even inside that domain.
The other obvious choice was Bonnie. For one, taking a slime to a place like this shouldn't be that much of an issue. Hera could not imagine how a slime undead would even work. And she was confident enough that they could keep Ruby alive, especially considering all the buffs that Bonnie could give her. And the astral witch's legacy was very complicated too. Even on the surface level, when Bonnie explained to her how things worked, it felt like a lot. And Hera was almost sure that the researcher was dumbing things down for her just so she wouldn't have to get into the actual intricacies of the Legacy.
Then came Shane, who should also be a good enough prospect for the team. After all, her Legacy was all about telling something to do something else, and that felt like something that would take some mental effort. From what was said by the council, the undead didn't really have any mages, which might mean Helena could be a good fit as well. And in a sense, so would be Vash, but Hera wasn't entirely sure she was in the position of requesting someone specifically. But the circus Legacy could be too much for the undead to use.
One way or another, she had her thoughts about the team that she was going to propose, and she was sure that the alliance had some other thoughts as well. Which was proved the second Typhera started talking.
"Now, I understand we're going to take a few days to gather all these people, but I already have a few in mind who could be joining this expedition. As a matter of fact, a couple of them are part of the scout team that I intend to send towards the Fields of Elysium. And I will say," she turned to Hera, "these scouts' job will be to bring back as much information as they can, even at the detriment of the rest of the expedition team. I will be making it clear to them that information gathering is their utmost priority. We might be able to set up a network link so that they can use the internet from the inside, which will lessen the issues, but it's not something we should be counting on."
Hera nodded. "I get it. We need to be able to tell other people what's happening so we can have more backup."
Elara pulled a list of people, "We are also requesting a few mages to join this. That seems to be the most optimal solution to this problem. So, Hera, I ask you to hold off from going on your own, as much as I know you want to, until we have a proper initial team. The last thing we need is for anyone to go there and end up getting killed only to join the undead horde. But trust me when I say if you're able to be part of the group who solves this problem, who can find King Gwendolyn and finally put him to rest, no one will argue against you receiving the title of Hero, not just Aspirant Hero"
Hera rolled her eyes. "That's a great way of making me want to give up doing this altogether."
The council continued to discuss the people they could send to form this team. The main issue was they couldn't simply create an army and send it towards the undead horde. After all, the more people they sent, the more bodies they were potentially adding to the undead, which meant that they had to find a fine balance between numbers and power.
And thanks to Hera's Legacy, she was almost guaranteed a spot on the expedition. And that was very much something that she wanted to happen.
