Going through the mental filing cabinet of information stuck somewhere in his brain, Luke blanked.

Not a scrap of anything about this on the Spectral Wing guidebooks or journals I found in either the Defier's or Hunter's branch libraries. Am I the first? Or anyone else who did this chose not to reveal it?

Its purpose fulfilled, the red moon turned the sky itself from its gray to a netherly purple. Thin lightning streaks ripped across the red clouds. A low hum overtook the soundscape, signaling the celestial body returning to its previous position before the event. Sparing the swamp turned necropolis of any further mutations.

The earthquakes settled. Dust particles rushed skyward, veered away by small air currents. Ghostly wails reached Luke's senses. Teal light lit up at four spots in the necropolis. A stone screeching pop flung off casket seals in different corners.

Despite the dust, swirling lights, and death energy thickening the humid dust below, the elemental made out figures rising from their eternal rests. Gray mists and teal energy clung to armor, bodies, and weaponry, or lack thereof, in the case of one of the four creatures Luke pinpointed. An elf woman with lifeless pale skin, acted first out of the four, stepping onto a sigil down below. The symbol transformed into a glowing black-gray as blue mist pervaded from her armor. She grasped a bow strung by teal moonlight and negative energy. Her eyes finally lifted, yellow iris and black sclera, dipped in death's cold embrace. The elf brought her black wood, and moonbeam strung bow to her front at a slant, drawn with a teal energy arrow.

"Right, so, not friends. Expected as much, a wonderful gift today!" Xera said, wand tip pulsing with black essence, and spewing ice mists.

Pacing around the edges of the floating golden island, Luke noted the addition of four sigil marks. Siblings to the one he saw underneath the undead elf woman. The barrier around Authoria's grounds stayed stubbornly solid. Testing something, Luke condensed frost on his fingers and touched the barrier. He felt a staunch resistance. Clearly, unless he tried intensely, this barrier would keep him inside.

No need to worry about falling off, he mused.

Shimmering frosted air bubbled up from Whispering Tome's pages as Luke used it for a frost conduit. Any frost infused target tended to passively produce frost anyway, himself included. Unless he intentionally stopped the effect. Therefore, Authoria's radiant lands slowly turned into a frosted patch, complete with weak arctic winds. It would no doubt transform further once the Reaver started to actually use Elementalization actively, powered by essence. The other three undead rose out of their resting spots, black rain slicked their skins.

The next to move toward their sigil caught the Reaver's attention. A broad-shouldered human man with black hair, wreathed with incorporeal ghost plate. He swung a two-handed morningstar weapon, the type that forgoes a chain. Teal-red liquid dripped from the weapon head, desecrating the already unholy ground. Part of the man's face was hidden by fragmented light, but the unveiled eye followed the same design as the elf's. He put the morningstar down into the soil near the etched-in sigil, resting both hands on the butt of the weapon—waiting. A mournful gaze joined the elf's cold one, tracing Luke's movements.

He tried to use the Interface to inspect them. Due to a combination of distance and other factors, he got rejected. Shrugging off the unexpected hitch, he saved it for when the four undead came up to the golden island.

The last two moved at almost the same time. Luke inspected them. A gray-skinned monic with mist robes glided to its preordained unholy sigil, holding a mage's orb of solid death mana and dread mist. Cracks spider-webbed all over it's exposed epidermis, interrupted by gaping holes exposing bone and teal spectral flesh. Deep azure shifting air formed a weak spherical effect around the undead; it too kept the same eyes.

A silver-striped tora with bone white claws clutched a mist-bound shield, and a purple-black immaterial axe. Dying starlight lit the inner shield and tipped the axe. A transparent field moved with the tora, brushing aside the billowing dust. The undead tora put a foot onto the sigil. Black-gray signatures linked to one another, teleporting the four to the opposite side of the golden island.

Each drew their weapons. The elf readied her bow with a quiver full of teal energy arrows. Dreadmist orbs followed the commands of the monic undead mage. The human dread paladin tested his morningstar with a swing, causing a soul screech to pitch in the Reaver's ears. The tora took position in front of the archer and mage, shield close, axe to the side. Their combined forms of misting rot plagued Authoria's radiance and challenged Luke's Elemental Plane.

[Necrotic mists from the Four Betrayers coalesce, causing a mist synergy, staking a territory of their own]

Their auras darkened the island, lowering visibility. Thanks to Luke's ascended senses, Twilight Vanguard, and frost essence permanently woven into his eyes, he hardly noticed.

[Direct healing spells will blight their target. The rot aura native to the Spectral Wing intensifies greatly, empowering those in undeath]

Black and brown twisted energy spilled out from the four beings. Sooty dropped into the gravestones' shadow in preparation. Disembodied, deathly eyes with black sclera formed above the four higher undead. Charging essence into Xera, Luke stabilized the pushed-back frost and mist.

"A territory of your own? Before me?"

An interchange of effects washed over one another. Ruinous Echo seeped into the four targets while brands of their own tried to worm onto Luke's vessel. Through a multitude of armor effects, techniques, and elemental output, the Essence Reaver rejected the brands. The Spectral Heart beat harshly, rebuffing the lingering negative ailments.

[Lyre's Curse, Malani's Mark, and Kelesnar's Brand fail to overcome your resistances and higher life rating. Authoria's Mark, Twin Soul, and the Spectral Heart reject any persistent effect]

The floating golden island felt cramped with black rain pelting above. Three different forces laid claim to the same land. Authoria needlessly hid behind Luke, no longer trusting her gravestone to be safe. Out of a hint of caution, the ice elemental inspected the four undead a few dozen yards away. They shared a health pool.

[Kelesnar Beastheart - Betrayer of Radiance]

[Malani Twainbloom - Betrayer of Radiance]

[Lyre the Hollow - Betrayer of Radiance]

[Deren Direlight - Betrayer of Radiance]

Tier: 2

Level: 75

HP: 160,000/160,000 (shared)

Once loyal to Sylen's First Lady in life, a past event twisted them to be the greatest betrayers in death. Killers of the one they were meant to serve.

Witnessing the whole challenge, Luke laughed. "Really, all that for this?" The Reaver settled down, slowly shifting Xera out, forming a twin Essence Lance. "Well then, let's get to it. Authoria needs rest, and I need a nice lunch after losing my appetite for this farce."

Call it hubris, but after the mountains of tribulations Nemenoth and Calista proved to be, these four higher undead were laughable to the Reaver—literally. The radiating death mists? They empowered him too.

After overcoming multiple challenges, the Reaver surpassed almost anything of the same tier as him. A teal arrow shot at him with blistering speed, turning into a legion of strikes mid-air. Painfully slow compared to Calista's comets. The dread mist orbs barraged Luke simultaneously, while Deren Direlight, the two-handed morningstar wielder, sent a shock wave in his direction. Kelesnar, the shield-using, axe-wielding tora, kept his position. His undead senses strained on every twitch the ice elemental made.

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A gold-tinted tsunami of frost came out of Xera, canceling out the hostile projectiles. The two opposing forces vanished. Minor amounts of stolen attributes blessed Luke. He froze as each threshold enacted its demands, rebuilding him. The display caused all attention to fixate on Luke, exactly as desired.

How so many beings always managed to forget the Reaver had a companion—he'd never know. Sooty appeared in Lyre's shadow, the mist-wielding monic mage, and tore into him with her rotation of abilities. Spectral Sense nullified any unholy negation. She started with a Talon Strike into his back, and a secondary talon gash ripped into the affected area. Seamlessly going from one ability to another, Reaver Beak hit the same critical point, lowering armor and resistances once more. Vorpal Touch gifted its rot, degenerating the already deteriorating ghostly flesh. Shadow tendrils stilled the usual regeneration tier 2 creatures passively enjoyed.

Rumbling a deathly groan, Kelesnar hurriedly moved to get Sooty away from the more vulnerable Lyre. Another misjudgment, a frosted Essence Bond clung to the tora Deathknight. Siphon's mark attached to a moment later, causing a frost fever; the ambient frost production skyrocketed. The dreadmist, once a representation of the undead's 'territory', cracked with ice and slicked with frost. Sooty Essence Screeched, spreading the various essence effects, severely lowering the overall cohesion and normative power any of the four undead utilized. She dipped back into the shadows, faithful to her hit-and-run style. Deren rushed at Luke with surprising speed, but none too fast weapon strikes. Already, the vitality of an evolved human paid dividends. The man recovered enough from the thresholds to defend himself. Far-and-away faster than the last time he dealt with them.

Dodging, Arcane Surge rushed throughout Luke's body, boosting attack speed and magic power. His frost elemental power benefited as well. The longer Deren stayed near Luke, the further frost stacked, layering so thickly, the mist coming off the higher undead froze completely. Flecks of greed hungrily sucked away at the undead within the ice. Support came in at the right time for Deren, teal energy arrows rotated, homing in on the Reaver.

"Range for range, I have arrows of my own." Luke let loose the two rotating Essence Lances behind him, one of which exploded into Deren, blasting the light-marred creature into the path of an arrow volley. The second rocketed at the archer, four consumed shards granting it a speed beyond normal perception. At the point of impact, a frosted blast site appeared. The necrotic mists desperately tried to reverse the increasing frost, but flecks of gold persistently ate away at them.

The ice expanded, gorging on the consumption of this similar energy source. Energy arrows chased after Luke as he and Deren clashed. The boss creature slammed the morningstar down, creating a shock wave, moving fast enough to surpass Luke's usual avoidance. Ice chipped away from his legs. It caused a slight stagger, creating an opening for the arrows and the newly regenerated mist orb barrage.

A Shadowed Shade blocked the way, denying the arrow and mist barrage. Sooty's Shadow Wing brushed off the negative energy attacks, swapping places with Sooty afterward. The Shade cycled its abilities on the ranged damage dealers, renewing maladaptive effects, and compounding Vorpal Touch. Black liquid dripped from Deren's morningstar, freezing midair. Luke commanded the nearby elemental product to swarm over the undead, ripping off a leg.

Annoyingly, the necrotic mists replaced the crippled limb instantly. A condensed death energy touched Deren's weapon. He swung it. A wail fractured the air, frazzling Luke's senses for a fraction of a second. His stacking defensive frost cracked apart, before reforging itself. Deadened light tried to cut apart the links connecting the frost to its master's skin, to no effect. Concentrating on the Mist Shroud under his control in the moment of weakness, Luke parried the swing. The wail slammed into his elemental body—frozen on contact.

Veins of Corruption spread to all four enemies, boosting Luke's health regeneration and adding in arcane damage. His Elementalization spread the item effect almost passively. Withering Echo lowered the Betrayers already insufficient offense. Repositioning further back, Lyre rose a hand to the sky. An eclipse covered the moon. The necrotic mists, previously losing inches by the second, rebuffed Luke's freezing frost.

[The realm of undeath overtakes the closest quarter mile near Lyre. Resetting the field to his desire, and upgrading the Four Betrayer's strength]

Shadow Wing expired. Sooty ripped into Lyre's back, replanting Vorpal Touch, and interrupting the channeling of the ability. The rising aura of the four stagnated, the ability hadn't the time to fully manifest. It likely was the best card the four could play, cleansing the radiant island of the elemental frost dominating it, while renewing the necrotic mists. The negative essence debuff medley the Reaver and corvid pair worked to apply, reversed.

Eyes moving, Luke tracked over fifty projectiles coming his way. Sooty occupied Lyre, freeing him of the usual complimentary dread mists barrage. Kelesnar charged toward Luke with a speed beyond what his large size would imply. A morningstar and ghastly axe screamed down toward the Reaver's head. Arrows surrounded every angle.

Lightning arced across his body, and he reappeared next to Melani. A frost creation covered Luke's free arm. He smashed the elf undead archer into the ground, and stabbed Xera into the exposed neck. Frost layered continually. Tired of playing to their pace, Luke used Essence Fissure. The frost pressure slammed into the two melee-focused ghosts, preventing them from assisting their troubled ranged member. The minority of teal death energy arrows not caught in the initial pressure emanated by Essence Fissure veered back toward the ice elemental. Frost already caked onto them.

"You four probably see the shared health pool as a strength." Commanding the frost to implode, Luke forced the arrows to dissipate. "It is not. You've given yourselves a critical weakness."

This elf archer took extensive damage, draining the shared health pool at an ratcheting speed. She skillfully backflipped, dark mists furthering her glide, opening up distance. Luke ceased that nonsense. Frostfall Reave fell upon the radiant island. The mists froze in place, golden grass turned into frosted statues. Even Authoria, huddling far away as she could, experienced a frosting by proxy. Thankfully, Luke controlled it enough to keep it to a light shivering for her.

Interrupted by the ability, Malani dropped to the ground, like a dead branch when exiled from a living tree trunk. Using the vastly increased quantity of ice, Luke jettisoned pressurized frosted mist from his feet. He appeared over Malani. Muscles expanding, the Reaver arced down Xera, gold flecked ice tore into the archer's neck. Their particular link allowed Malani to regenerate her neck time and again at the cost of the shared health pool draining at a rate visible to the naked eye.

Aware of the steps closing in on him, Luke commanded the frost near the two melee assailants to condense, then force the two into the sky. Visually, he saw everything about their position through Mist Shroud. Responding to the instruction sent through Reaver's Link, Sooty met the two toyed-with undead in the sky, fighting them.

This finally freed up Lyre, who the elemental considered to be particularly threatening. His intuition was proven right. Three ghostly pillars formed from a ritual Lyre started chanting. The necromist roiled, expanding. Luke applied the Greed Concept to his frosted mists and arctic winds, halting the expansion.

Aiming to make the most of their close position, Luke rushed to Lyre using Triple Step, punching the undead monic. The mage suffered backlash from the ritual failure and smashed into Malani. Shattering ice underneath, the frost elemental moved with him, using Xera to skewer both undead. Before the mist could do its job to separate the pair, Luke brought out the limits of his speed. Whipping out a leg covered in gold-tinted ice, he careened the skewered couple into the sky, close enough to the other two undead busy fighting Sooty.

Gesturing with a hand, Luke intentionally formed a horizontal frost platform to stop their rise. Risking overexertion, lightning arced relentlessly over the elemental's living ice body. The excessive force and speed meteored him into the four undead. Luke channeled the Corrupting Aura ability from Nemenoth's Sovereign Crystal to turn all his strikes into an AOE effect, bypassing resistances.

Cleaving into the less resilient archer and mage, Luke crushed their hastily put up defenses. Veins of Corruption infected the four, applying moderate arcane damage. Sooty screeched, and thumped on the frosted soil below. Kelesnar had summoned a Deathknight aspect, relishing in temporary power beyond what Sooty could handle.

A vertical Essence Fissure ripped in the sky, sending Kelesnar and Deren in Luke's direction—aspect included. Frost caked the recently materialized Deathknight minor manifestation. The Reaver infused the Greed Concept tightly into the ambient snow, an air of hunger intermixed with the deathly atmosphere.

Clutching a hand, Luke commanded, "Come apart."

The whirling blizzard raged across the golden island, crashing into the aspect, smothering it in a mountain of ice, sleet and snow. The crushing pressure shattered the spiritual manifestation, and glaciated both Kelesnar and Deren. The backlash to losing the Deathknight aspect interfered with the dampening field Kelesnar was naturally blessed with. Making the problem of the overwhelming amount of frost even worse for them. To regenerate the two undead, copious amounts of dread mist enveloped them. Noticing this actually regenerated health, Luke put a stop to it immediately.

Lyre is more than just an amplifier for them. He's also their healer.

Two frosted eyes met Lyre's yellow irises. The Reaver stabbed Xera into Lyre's mouth, taking the mage down with him to the ground. Not one to leave himself exposed unless left with no other choice, Luke chose to use Wayfinder's Temporal North, resetting the cooldown on Essence Fissure. Malani slammed down onto the ground next to Luke. The moonlight burned around her, fighting off the pressure. Frost bored against the moonlight.

Mind heightened in the battle state, the Reaver sent orders to Sooty while forming Xera into a wand. Twin maximized Essence Lances sheared through the air, merging with Essence Fissure, making a hyper condensed ice shard rain. Warding off the other two undead, protecting Sooty, and stabbing into the mage and archer.

Ice underneath Lyre exploded apart, interrupting his spell casting. Sooty followed the intention sent to her by Luke. She melded into the shadows, recovering faster that way. Frosted cones came out with a swipe of the Reaver's frost gantlet, creating a shock wave of his own. Eyes moving about in a haze to keep up with four different moving threats, Luke abused his superior speed, dancing between attacks from all directions. He blasted out iced essence from Xera, further elevating the elemental war. Authoria's gravestone fractured from the cataclysmic amount of frost and ice eating into the undead and their mists. Demanding the arctic winds push the other two melee toward him, finally, the four ended up in the desired position while Sooty stayed safe.

Pages fluttering, Silent Domain rippled out from Whispering Tome, silencing all four undead, and putting three in horror. The mage was spared by chance. Sliding upon the ice, the Reaver reformed Xera into a blade; gold-tinted ice covered her to the hilt. He stabbed her into where Lyre's dead heart should be, ripped her out by shattering the ice on her sword body, then rotated to smoothly slice off Lyre's head once more.

The mists regenerating the four thinned to dangerously low levels, and Luke wouldn't let up. Essence Bond reappeared on Xera, then hopped onto Lyre. The unexpected weakening ruined the undead mage's movement to get away. Skating upon the ice, the elemental diced into Lyre once more. Three gray runes stamped a corner each of Authoria's golden island. This area had become Luke's Elemental Plane in its entirety.

With total terrain control, the four undead boss creatures lost any chance of retaking momentum. Sooty shot out of Lyre's shadow. She unleashed her abilities onto the mage, opening a gaping wound in the spectral flesh. She screeched, spreading the multiple negative effects once more. There would be no eclipsed moon to save them a second time. More frost generated than the ice elemental knew what to do with. The longer this went on, the further he drained attributes from the four targets, but he saw the chance to end this.

In a clean arc, frosted mist left the strike path. The mage's head twirled high into the air, the blackened eyes forever lifeless this time. The headless body fell to its knees, and countless souls wailed out the deathly vessel. A moment later, the disembodied head fell into Luke's outstretched free hand. He crushed it ruthlessly.

The four higher undead faded into nothingness, earning the final rest. Their last influence on the world came in a whisper brushing against Luke's ears.

"Thank….you…."

[You have completed Authoria's Hidden quest: Betrayers of Radiance. Beginning to upgrade Authoria's Mark into the highest mark form possible in the Edgelands, the Golden Stigmata. May you use it to leave your legacy in these desolate lands. Calculating performance for additional rewards]

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