“Kanno?” said Akiro.
“Yes. Kanno. Step away, please.”
They backed off as Yohaku closed his eyes and started to chant in
a guttural language neither of them understood, though both had
been schooled as adepts. Clearly, this was an advanced spell far
beyond their level. As Yohaku chanted, the atmosphere in the
basement seemed to grow thicker and heavier. A roiling mist began
to form in the air above the old mage. They felt a cool breeze that
rapidly grew stronger as the mist formed into a small cloud that
crackled with thaumaturgic discharges. The breeze became a
howling wind and they grabbed at the railing of the stairs to steady
themselves.
The old mage stood at the center of the thaumaturgic storm, his
white robes billowing, his long white hair streaming in the wind.
Suddenly he threw his arms up and the roiling cloud above him
exploded into tiny, jagged bolts of lightning that darted around the
room as if they were alive, whizzing over their heads like angry
hornets until they came together all at once, striking the brick wall
before them, shattering upon it, and bathing it in an aura of blue
flame… and a hidden portal was revealed, framed in crackling fire.
Akiro exhaled heavily and exchanged astonished glances with
Sakahara.
“Come quickly, ” said Yohaku. “I fear that we are about to
witness a horror that will make what we have seen here pale by
comparison.”
They followed the old mage through the portal, down a flight of
stairs… and stopped, struck dumb by what they saw. An
underground mall that had been long abandoned and forgotten, a
strangely glowing, bubbling pool that cast a sickly light over their
surroundings, a blood-spattered altar made of solid gold… and a
scene of unutterable carnage. Dozens upon dozens of dismembered,
decomposing bodies, scattered all around, covered with insects and
squirming rats. The stench was indescribable.
“My God, ” whispered Sakahara.
Yohaku stood staring at the horror with a stricken expression on
his face. His shoulders slumped and he suddenly looked very, very