Avankor's face turned from one of skepticism, to one of shock, then to one of understanding. He seemed to be thinking; "Of course, this is Havon after all." And even after they had trekked a good distance, the look of surprise never left his face.
By this point the decay had spread to Lucius's shoulders, however, he did not seem to decrease in speed at all. It was almost as if he felt no pain.
But that was furthest from the truth. The pain was there, gnawing at him, constantly tempting him to collapse and scream out in pain. What kept him going were the memories of his time in the mindscape. Nothing else in this world would ever be able to compare to that, not even this.
Still, his life was at risk. He could feel his body slowly turning against him, and even the system began to give warning notifications.
[Warning, corruption of core eminent!]
[Warning, corruption of core eminent!]
At this point, the clan lands were in view, and with it, the beautiful radiance of the sun. This prompted Lucius to increase his speed, pushing his body to its utmost limits.
[Warning, corruption of core in; 3!]
[2!]
[1!]
Right as he felt his core about crack, he lunged into the air, both the chief and Avankor being flung up as well. They landed a mere millimeter away from the decay, Lucius just a hair's breadth away from death.
"Are you okay?" Avankor asked, recovering rather quickly.
It wasn't looking too good. Every inch of Lucius's body was covered in black tar, and at certain spots, the decay had broken through his first layer of skin, exposing his moist plant insides.
"A m-moment," Lucius struggled to reply, before closing his eyes.
[Absorbing 1600 Helios per second.]
After some time, he felt a bit of his solar reserves return, so with each inkling he accumulated, he healed himself just as much. After an hour, and 5.76 million worth of helios later, he was finally at a state where he could now walk.
He decided to allocate all the helios he had absorbed towards his evolution. Uninterstingly, not much seemed to change after that. However, after a quick examination, he noticed his tail was slightly longer, but not to a considerable degree.
Meanwhile, the chief and Avankor stared in astonishment, as they had been witness to both the glowing of his body, and its healing. They couldn't help but stare mouths agape as Lucius casually stretched his limbs, only moments after being at death's door.
"Let's go," Lucius announced after clearing his thoughts.
It was a shame he couldn't use photosynthesis whilst moving, though he supposed there would be time to photosynthesize after finding Cregnog. His only hope of holding a discussion with the golems was his old friend. He just hoped that Cregnog was not angry at him for missing the behemoth tournament.
As they traversed through the clan lands, evidence of the necromancer's advance was evident. The squashed corpses of the necromancer's undead lay sprawled about, like piles of manure. It seemed -at least for now- that the golems were winning this war.
Still, Lucius decided to traverse using the trees, not just because it provided a better vantage point, but because it felt more natural to him.
Whilst he jumped from tree to tree, surveying the area ahead of them, the chief and Avankor were frozen in silence. They were still processing the feats that Lucius had performed. Not only had Lucius shown to them he was many times stronger than he appeared to be, but also that he was nigh unkillable. It was obvious to them, that so long as he was not killed he would survive any encounter.
Of course that fared well for their cause, however, it was still unnerving to be in the presence of such an entity.
After searching for a few more hours, they found themselves so deep within the clan lands that the terrain was starting to change. If they went any higher, they would be encroaching on the behemoth mountains, something Avankor warned against.
Apparently, the beasts that resided there were tier 8 at minimum. And although Avankor acknowledged that Lucius was in a realm of his own, he warned that it took whole teams of behemoths to take even one of those creatures down.
~No point in risking it I suppose,~ Lucius thought to himself. Though he couldn't fathom what kind of creatures would take a team of behemoths to hunt.
"Okay, then let's rest here for a while. I spotted several golems to the west and a few more to the south. Though none of them is the one I'm looking for," Lucius said as he sat down. Avankor and the chief sat down next to him, forming a sort of triangle.
"It seems we'll have to approach one of the golems to ask if they've seen him. Though I want everyone to be prepared for combat," Lucius continued. He remembered that the first time he met Cregnog, the latter had attempted to hunt him unprovoked.
"You are familiar with one of the golems?" the chief asked. Clearly impressed by Lucius's seemingly vast network of connections.
"Not familiar, but there is a level of respect we share," Lucius replied, before pulling out his crux.
"That thing gives you your power right?" the chief asked, whilst staring at the crux as if in a daze.
"Not entirely, but you can say that," Lucius replied. There was no harm in revealing this much. The orb was ethereal, and even if someone attempted to use magic to destroy it, he could always buy another.
He moved the crux around them in a circle in an attempt to stretch his 'magic muscles', before lowering its density and converting it into its eased version.
~Might as well attempt that spell I thought off yesterday,~ he thought to himself, before clearly imagining the spell, one step at a time.
First, he attempted to tap into the pulling force he felt come from the earth. This required him to completely empty his mind, something he found difficult what with the current state it was in.
He attempted this several more times, before eventually giving up.
Realizing that he was getting nowhere with this process, he decided to switch tactics. Instead of attmpting to tap into the pull-force, he placed his crux right above the ground and tried forcing solar energy into it.
