It felt as though he had passed through a thick, cold curtain of invisible silence. Lucian heard a muffled "thump," and then his body collided with something hard.
This was the first sound Lucian had heard since entering the demiplane, so jarringly "familiar" that it set his ears ringing.
Worried that the two ghouls might still be right behind him, Lucian didn't hesitate despite the violent dizziness. He transformed into moonlight, rolled across the ground a few times to change direction, then swung his longsword and leapt to his feet in a sudden turn.
His blade struck nothing. He found himself in a wide corridor. The walls were still grey-black, the carpet still bone-white — not a single other color to be seen — but everything felt far softer, far more vivid than before. It no longer looked like a frozen black-and-white photograph; he could even sense a faint trace of warmth.
The two ghouls had followed Lucian through the "curtain," but they seemed to struggle with the disorientation of passing through the veil, as well as with the environment's subtle suppression of undead. They had collapsed to the ground and were struggling to stand.
How could Lucian possibly let such an opportunity slip? He strode forward a few paces, and the Vigilance longsword flashed with its pale, cold gleam as he brought it slashing down toward the ghoul that had already been struck by Parmella's Ice Blade, aiming squarely at the deep wound on its neck.
The blade landed with a dull thud, as if striking wood wrapped in countless layers of animal hide. Still, the ghoul's neck had already been nearly severed by two consecutive heavy blows. Its head wobbled precariously, threatening to fall off at any moment.
Lucian raised his left hand and scattered sulfur, casting a spell without incantation. A full third of his spiritual energy was drained instantly, and a ghastly white wall of flame erupted to cut off the other ghoul.
Then, seizing the moment while the ghoul before him reeled from the heavy blows, Lucian adjusted his position with quick, shuffling steps and drove the Vigilance longsword into the neck wound again and again.
After the third strike, a sharp crack rang out. The ghoul's head finally separated from its body, splattering thick, repugnant black corpse-liquid as it hit the ground. The now headless body flailed its claws a few times before crumbling apart entirely.
This type of undead was nothing like specters or wraiths — spirits that could not be subdued by physical harm. For beings with a physical form, damage to the connection between body and head could bring them quiet for good.
Having dispatched that ghoul, Lucian suppressed his nausea and the faint tingling of numbness and sprinted down the corridor, widening the gap between himself and the ghoul behind the wall of flame. Then he began a running battle, kiting it at range.
Relying on his slightly superior speed and the support of his Arcane Magic, Lucian spent several minutes grinding it down before finally shattering its skull, sending bits of rotting brain tissue splattering across the walls on both sides.
"If it were a proper knight, I probably couldn't have killed even one. No intelligence really does mean no intelligence." Lucian had been injured by the specter of the 'Little Girl,' and he had barely healed even a fraction before battling ghouls and sprinting for what felt like an eternity. Now he was gasping for breath, seizing every second to recover. "Though Parmella's Ice Blade wouldn't have been nearly so ineffective..."
After resting for a few minutes and recovering most of his condition through the Moonlight Bloodline, Lucian walked over to the two ghoul carcasses. Holding back the revolting stench of decay, he used the Vigilance longsword to peel the skin from their palms and stow it away.
These were materials for casting the second-circle spell "Ghoul's Touch" — Lucian was hardly going to waste them. Though the spell required physical contact to take effect, that still made it extremely useful in certain situations.
The "Sulfur Fire Wall" appeared once more, incinerating both ghoul carcasses completely. Gripping his longsword tightly, Lucian advanced cautiously down the corridor.
The bone-white carpet, the grey-black walls, the seemingly endless stretch of hallway, and the faint echo of his own footsteps — all of it kept giving Lucian the illusion that he was walking through a tomb.
The sense of warmth grew stronger. Ahead, a large black door appeared, still carved with a unique, incomplete twelve-pointed star Magic Circle — one of the fundamental circles of the "Great Cross Framework."
Lucian produced another vial of mercury and focused his concentration to complete the circle.
A darkness that seemed to suck in everything materialized, and the door slowly swung open to both sides. Beyond it lay a lavishly decorated hall. In the fireplace along the wall, bone-white flames burned, radiating a hint of warmth.
Beside the hall's window sat a grey-white desk, upon which rested a black notebook. Through the window, he could see all manner of grotesque magical plants — some bearing the faces of infants, others periodically opening great bloody maws, some blazing with the brilliance of the sun...
After surveying the layout and confirming that the small black door five meters to the left of the desk led into the magical garden, Lucian made his way slowly toward the desk, devoting his full attention to searching for magical traps and other dangers along the way.
Nothing changed. Lucian reached the desk without incident, then used the Vigilance longsword to flip the black notebook open to its first page.
Written in black ancient Sylvanas Magic Empire script on pale, death-white parchment: "Moonlight Rose — Room 1, Storage Locker 25. Emerald Mold — Room 1, Storage Locker 72. Giant Thorn Tree root and sap — Room 1, Locker 99 and Room 2, Locker 3. Vampire blood — Room 3, Locker 21. Banshee teeth — Room 3, Locker 46, ......
Ghost-face Grass leaves — Room 7, Locker 17. Petrified Serpent feathers — Room 7, Locker 92. 'Shepherd's' Moonflower — Room 8, Locker 8. Stinking Merfolk lymph — Room 9, Locker 1, ........"
Page after page was filled with entries like these. Lucian had initially assumed it was a record of stored materials, but he quickly noticed that compared to the nine rooms and eight hundred and eighty-one storage lockers, only a small fraction were actually listed. And more importantly — he could use every single one of these materials!
Some were ingredients for brewing the "Silver Moon Potion." Others for the "Arcane Gate" potion. Still others for the "Weeping Soul" elixir...
"Was this written specifically for me to find?!"