Mat made sure to look around the armoury in case there were any more undeads. Fortunately, he found none, and took a moment to step off the edge. Pouring more mana into his palms, he created two more balls of light on top of the one he already had.
Maybe he should have already done this, but better late than never. It made the world brighter and worked as a control exercise for him. So far, he didn't notice any sort of drain on his consciousness when using magic. Although he doubted he would have an infinite amount of it, what he could reasonably conclude for now was that whatever he had was more than enough to let him keep these bulbs of light glowing for possibly hours, if not days.
He had tried using the [Status]—spell? command? he wasn't certain—on objects before, but none had actually been very descriptive, they said little to nothing beyond a rusting steel sword being a rusting steel sword. He was hoping that maybe in the armoury, he may find something more descriptive, hence, more useful.
He didn't know how exactly mages performed magic in this world, was it through their bodies, or did they use special devices like magic staffs, or sceptors like the ones he'd seen in video games? Yes, he was utilising magic quite well so far, and it had been the sole reason why he was even still alive.. but was his way the standard way? He didn't know, but he was curious.
Walking along the aisles of the armoury, mat saw a lot of same rusting swords, although some even larger, and some smaller daggers.. indeed, there was not much of use here. There were some lances and spears grouped in cylindrical containers in some places, but even they didn't show much when he invoked [Status] on them. In the end, he chose to take nothing, no point in carrying useless dead weight when he could defend himself better with magic.
"This is getting boring." Mat had been somewhat hopeful in the beginning that maybe he would find something more of use here, but.. as it as, there was nothing here. Nothing at all.
Deciding that there was no point in wasting time anymore in that useless room, Mat walked out to see the crimson moon again. It was just as striking it had been. It was a weird sight, to see all the nightly flora covered in a red light, instead of the white that he was familiar with on the Earth. Maybe that is probably what made the grass and the fruits appear even more purple, more deathly.
Mat walked back to the tower's base, where his original destination had been. He saw something of particular interest when he had looked down from the tower before, he wanted to make sure if it was worth checking or just another red herring like the armoury.
The air filled with an aura of mystery the closer Mat got to the base. It felt heavy, as if something was weighing over all around him. The closer he got to the base, the taller the grass around the area grew, till it reached his waist when he was finally made it there. What greeted him when he reached the base was a 4 feet tall door made like one use in cages, blocking his way into whatever was inside.
He took a closer look at the door, and found it standing strong, unharmed from any affects of the nature. There was no rust, no dust, it was as pristine as freshly forged carbon steel could be.
"It has to be some sort of magic. Every single piece of metal I've come across so far is decaying." Mat internalised at a glance, and took a few steps back. He looked at the crimson moon above in the sky and wondered what way he could get in there, because unlike before, there was no lock or a keyhole in this case. It was simply a fence of iron placed between two stone walls of a tower.
There had to be someway. Maybe he could try blasting it off? He wasn't physically strong enough to do anything to that door, that much was certain to him. 'Maybe magic..' he thought in this mind, walking to the door again.
He put his hand on it, and channelled a bit of mana into it. A sort of resistance met him, and he found his mana dissipating out in the air. Mat channelled even more energy at such peculiar behaviour of what he was now certain was a magic infused gate, but it all dissipated the same as before.
"How intriguing." Mat vocalised as he looked at the steel grills of the door. He focused on every single column and row segment going through one another, and it looked like it was a simple array of just normal steel. It was anything but just that.
'Can I melt it?', he wondered. Yes, the steel was dissipating all the mana around it, but what if.. what if he could increase the surrounding temperature to the point it completely renders whatever defences the gate had useless.
He was hopeful, hopeful that it might just work. And if it doesn't, he also had the last resort of adding Noxfire to the flames, although that did leave him a bit drained, he wasn't too against it if he had to explore this area. The fear of missing out would bother him if he just left it and never got to know some essential information that may just come of use to him in this world.
Mat took a step back, and willed the mana to flow through him, and imagined flames pouring out of his palms like two flame throwers. As he focused on the view in his mind, two streams of cyan-blue flames erupted from his hands, landing straight on the door.
The rock wall around the gate immediately heated up to start glowing red, and the grass around it burnt away to give way. Mat imagined the flame throwers being two blow torches, and tried focusing the outflow to smaller and smaller points until he was only targeting two segments where the columns and the rows met.
When he changed the points of focus, Mat was certain there wasn't even a nick on that god damn metal. Feeling frustrated, he willed something in his soul, something primal, and familiar, yet unfamiliar. It rose, it flowed, and it rushed to him, and the streams of flames that were already dark blue turned grey black immediately and suddenly the door blasted off with a bang. He immediately shut off any and all mana flow.
"Mental note to self, try unlocking magical barriers with Noxfire first." he said to himself and walked forward, lighting up a torch of cyan flames again.
The inside of the tower's base was dark, and it had a staircase leading down. Mat carefully stepped down each step, and commanded his light bulb to float ahead of him, so he knew what might come at him with a head's up. He thought he may have to navigate through the frame of the steel door he had blasted in, but somehow, there was nothing in here. It had disappeared like it had never existed, only a few metallic fumes and ash remained of it.
It was a round, narrow stairway, leading down roughly ten feet every flight. When Mat finally reached the bottom, he was met with the grizzly sight of three skeletons resting against each other, each one of them missing some sort of limb bone. One even had half of it's hip missing. Mat grimaced and moved past them, while focusing his hearing in case he heard them rise up like the ones in the dining room before.
Mat had never been a fan of dark before. Some might even say he was afraid of it, after all, he had played Alan Wake. And now that he was in this world of magic, he knew all that nightly horror might just come true if he was unlucky enough.
This area seemed like a basement hall. It had various things littered around, some clothes, some cloaks, and even some blankets. There wasn't anything particular that would clue him about what this may have been used for, but it could have been anything. His best guess would be a grave site. That is what the ancient people did in the underground chambers, right? Make catacombs out of them.
Taking careful steps, and avoiding anything that was littered in the way, Mat walked across the hall, making sure he didn't disturb even a single mote of dust on anything. At the end, there was a door, he guessed, to some sort of inner room.
Observing it carefully, he found no physical method of unlocking it.
"Let's try this, then." he nodded to himself, and places his hand on the door. Indeed, he could feel a gentle, but audible thum of mana flowing across the door's lattice. He channelled a sliver of just Noxfire this time, and a tiny stream of white glowing wisps with black cores flowed towards the gate. It opened with a click. There was no destruction this time.
"So, if I had done the same up above, that door would have still been functional.. talk about wasting resources." Mat outwardly berated himself, although he was also secretly pleased with his newfound powers.
He pushed the gate open, and entered what seemed to be an even bigger, dimly lit hall with a 20 feet high ceiling. Indeed, the ceiling; that is what caught his eyes the moment he got inside. On the ceiling were ornate designs, made of stone, tile, marble, and magical gems. The gems glowed myriads of dim colours, giving the ceiling a soft glow, on which were inscribed hundreds of men, elves, beasts, and dwarves, all engaged in battle against each other. But that was not the end of it.
The beautiful arts in this room were not limited to just that. Five long, beautifully flowing tapestries hung down from above, each showing what he guessed were a bird's life. The bird once soaring the skies, then the bird's supposed passing, the third being the bird burning in the flames, and the last.. the bird, which he now was certain was a Phoenix, rising up in flames, lighting up the whole world. The fifth tapestry only had worlds inscribed on it, but they seemed to carry a sense of power.. a mythical sense of power.
"Immolflaevum Phoenyxys", Mat read aloud the words written in that same rune like script he had found on the keys.
He wondered what that meant. Especially the words, they were repeating often.
Leaving the door behind him open, Mat walked into the huge, beautifully decorated room that had not even a thread of spider web, or a mote of dust in it, almost as if it was magically preserved for centuries.. which it very well may have just been.
The large chamber was shaped in a circle, with two pathways leading in and off somewhere on the opposite sides. He entered from one of them, he wondered where the other one would lead him to. The centre of the chamber was raised roughly about seven 7 feet from the rest of it, and 8 staircases led up to it, from every direction. Mat walked up along with it, to finally see what was truly in there.
…
Indeed, it was a catacomb like he had guessed. But it was more of a royal grave site meant to preserve the remains of kings, or something. Along the circular platform's circumference were large coffins, all lined one by one, and if he looked along their direction at the opposing wall that faced the platform, he saw a portrait. A portrait for each coffin. Portraits of men, hanging from the wall, each looking more regal than the other. He counted, one by one, and in total, there were sixteen coffins, and each had words inscribed on top of it. Names and titles, they were, written in that familiar rune like script. Mat casually looked at each of the coffin's exterior and its corresponding portrait, until he reached the last one.. it was on the end of the circular platform, perfectly completing the circle, as if whoever made this place knew they only needed 16 coffins.
But that last one.. it was intriguing, to say the least. It was smaller than the rest, and it also had a name written on it. A familiar name.
Mordain Phoenyx Noxleigh, XVI Duke of Hollowspire.