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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Lazybones" data-source="post: 3690460" data-attributes="member: 143">Chapter 228THE MYSTERIES OF THE ARCANEHonoratius felt the cold touch of the wraiths stealing the life energy of his borrowed body.  He loved his niece, and a tide of emotion threatened his equilibrium, but the aged wizard was a creature of intellect, and that maintained a rigid control over his thoughts as the wraiths harried him.  Looking past the dark shadows, he saw the four other wraiths pass through the wall of fire, and his mouth twisted into a slight smile. Opening his mind, Honoratius let the potency of his magic course through him. Fire exploded through the room.  Funneled by the wall of force behind him, the flames splashed out in a wave, until they joined with the continuing inferno of Alderis’s wall of fire. The companions saw the flames rushing toward them; there was nothing they could do to avoid them.  But as the delayed blast fireball swept past them, the flames parted, forming hollows within which the fire did not touch.  Every living being in the area was spared. The same could not be said of the wraiths.  The two directly in front of Honoratius dissolved as the fire cut through their insubstantial bodies like a knife.  One of the four reinforcements were likewise overcome, but the other three weathered the blast well, their incorporeal natures protecting them from the violence of the spell.  They surged forward to attack. But the companions were ready for them. An arrow passed through the head of one wraith, punching a hole through its substance that trailed long fibrils of black energy in its wake.  The injured wraith screamed and rushed at Selanthas, but was intercepted by Mehlaraine.  This time, the elvish woman’s magical blade bit through it, and as she swept the blade through its “neck”, the creature came apart.  Two others came forward, but they were greeted by another wave of positive energy from Allera.  One collapsed, and the other found itself faced by Talen.  The wraith scored a hit on the knight and managed to draw some of his life energy from him, but in turn was bisected by Beatus Incendia, and was ended. Dar felt the rush of heat from Honoratius’s fireball, although he could still not see clearly through the mass of the wraith.  The creature took some damage from the blast, but it had been partially protected by its proximity to Dar, and it continued to press its attack.  Dar felt a tug on his life force as its claws struck, and he knew that if he faltered, he was dead.  The fighter screamed as he fought back against that tug with everything he had, although his body shook with the effort of remaining conscious.  He felt cold, and could no longer feel his arms or his legs.  He only knew that he had to keep on attacking. Then the wraith shrieked and twisted.  Dar could just see the outline of Nelan, but the bright glow of blue light around his hands was clearly visible even through the creature’s body.  It turned on the cleric—why wouldn’t it, given that Dar had not been able to harm it at all?  It struck him, but the cleric resisted the life-drain, and the wraith hissed in frustration. Being ignored as a non-threat pissed off Dar even more than being dragged to the brink of death by what amounted to a floating cloud of black gunk.  The fighter roared and brought Valor up through its body in a glittering arc.  This time, finally, the axiomatic blade bit into semisolid substance, and the dread wraith finally collapsed in upon itself, dissolving into wisps that were gone within a second. His swing overbalanced him, and Dar fell back against the pillar.  For some reason it wasn’t enough to keep him balanced, and he slid off it, slumping to the floor, consciousness slipping away like a leaf on the breeze.</blockquote>

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