Chapter 631: Appeasing the restless (2)

"For every wave you clear, the difficulty is increased ten times," Caius said.

"Don’t you mean for every wave we clear?" Philip asked as the undead got closer.

"Yeah, ’cause I’ll definitely be of any help in combat against those things," Caius said with a chuckle.

"You could at least make yourself useful," Philip said in an annoyed tone through gritted teeth.

"What do you think I’m doing?" Caius asked with a raised brow, "You think I’m explaining things to you because I enjoy providing commentary?"

"Hold on," Athenodora cut into the back and forth, "You said for every wave the difficulty is increased times ten."

"Yeah."

"So that means, after this ten..." Athenodora said with a deep frown. 𝑓𝑟ℯℴ𝓂

"The next wave will be a hundred of those things. The next will be a thousand. After that, ten thousand. And then, one hundred thousand, then a million, then ten million and so on until Wave Twenty," Caius said to complete the thought already forming in Athenodora and Philip’s heads.

Two of the undead got close enough to Philip and without any conscious thought, he attacked, destroying them. A third and a fourth came right after, and Philip struck out, destroying them as well.

"We’ll get overwhelmed," Athenodora said as she began to draw on her reserves.

"Probably best we don’t clear the wave so quickly so we have time to think," Caius said with a pointed look at Philip who was about to unleash a devastating attack on the six remaining undead.

Philip didn’t seem to have heard Caius though as he destroyed three more undead right after while unleashing a pulse of mana that pushed the remaining three away so he could attack them at a distance.

"Philip, shield us," Athenodora said and cut off Philip’s rhythm.

Philip didn’t argue. He reined in his attack, and harnessed his Mana to create a dome around them. A few seconds later, the three undead he pushed away charged, slamming into the wall of the Dome and striking their skeletal limbs against it in hopes of breaking through.

"That’ll hold them," Philip said.

"Yeah, until they start blowing up," Caius said.

Athenodora and Philip turned to look at him.

"What?!"

"Well, the trial won’t just let us turtle our way out of this," Caius said in a tone of someone stating the obvious. He did that to hide the fact that he knew so much from Philip but it probably wasn’t working.

"This is a trial?" Philip asked.

"Yes, I believe it is. A ’Only the worthy can claim the Blood of Strigoi’ kind of thing," Caius said and looked away, out through the translucent dome at the wider dimension beyond.

Athenodora’s eyes were shrewd but she said nothing.

"And I won’t be worthy because I choose safety?" Philip asked in an incredulous tone.

"Well, the whole point is to survive, so you can choose safety. It’s just that if you avoid fighting the undead, you’ll be stalling the challenge since the next wave can only arrive after the previous one has been cleared.

So after a while, the undead will explode and the next wave will arrive. If you still don’t clear that, it’ll explode to usher in the next and so on.

Eventually—"

"Eventually, there’ll be too many exploding undead for the shield to survive," Athenodora said.

"Unless you’re at the Eleventh Circle, of course," Caius said.

"The Eleventh Circle?" Philip repeated.

"The Circle that is only outclassed by the Twelfth. That’s why it’s good that you’re here," Caius said.

"I’m not at the Eleventh Circle though," Philip said.

"Never would have guessed you could be modest," Caius said.

"It’s not modesty. I’m simply stating a fact. I’m not at the Eleventh Circle," Philip said.

"Well, you’re the best we’ve got. With the Emissary designation you carry, the Seventh Circle should be nothing to you," Caius said.

"Should?"

"With the increasing numbers, things will get a lot less easy and you’re bound to be overwhelmed," Caius said in a musing tone.

"I could take to the sky," Philip said.

"You could," Caius agreed, now walking around the inside of the Dome and looking through it to the outside while continuing with his explanation,

"But the Trial has that figured out. Just flight won’t be enough. Those things might not look it because they haven’t used it yet, but they’re capable of ranged attacks."

"How would you know?" Philip asked with a raised brow.

"I’m sure you can sense that their strength isn’t just physical, it’s magical as well. I think that suggests they can use magic to attack from a distance," Caius said and then pressed against the Dome, squinting to push the limit of his sight as much as he possibly could.

"Caius, what are you doing?" Athenodora asked.

"I think... I think it’s over there," Caius said in a low musing tone, "But I can’t be sure..."

"What?" Philip asked, "What’s over there?"

"Can this dome shield be moved," Caius asked, turning toward Philip and pressing his finger against the Dome wall to point in a direction,

"We need to get over there."

"Why?" Philip asked.

"I couldn’t explain it to you if I tried," Caius said, "Just get us over there if you can. Preferably without bringing down the Dome."

"Do it," Athenodora told Philip.

Philip grunted and formed a complicated seal that spread his Mana all over the Dome transforming it. He took a step forward and the Dome moved with him. And like that, they began to move toward the direction Caius had pointed.

The undead kept close, still striking the dome. Alas, with Philip’s mana keeping it up, and his Emissary designation empowering his Mana with an ’unbeatable’ quality, the undead, with their measly number of three couldn’t hope to break through.

"How long before they explode?" Athenodora asked.

"I don’t know," Caius said.

He wasn’t lying. The original text never actually specified how long before the trial lost patience and detonated the undead. All that was mentioned was that a particular group that ventured into the Dimension was getting overwhelmed by the increasing number of undead and sought a reprieve. While they were huddled in their protective shell, seemingly safe from the danger outside, the undead exploded, overwhelming the shell which fell apart so the group could be ripped apart by the next wave of undead that came right after.

The saga of the Blood of Strigoi saw a lot of death in the original canon. Caius, at the time Kevin, had suspected it was something Sam_Ellis had done on purpose to get rid of so many characters that were beginning to bore down the narrative; Just thrust them into a deadly dimension so their end is at least entertaining and establishes the stakes.

And the stakes were established for sure. Some of the most powerful characters in the story at the time fell to the dimension. But of course, Sam_Ellis provided an exploit to allow her main character to survive the trials.

Even if at the time, Caius hadn’t been all for the exploits, he did understand why they were necessary; What would be the point of writing such an arc if Caius was simply just strong enough to brave through it all? There had to be something only he could take advantage of even if he was weaker than everyone else who sought the Blood.

Now that he was here, Caius was especially grateful for the exploits.

"Hold on," Caius said and stopped, causing Philip and Athenodora to stop as well.

Caius crouched and looked into the river of Blood as a passage in the original canon came to his mind;

—Aurelius grabbed his arm and winced in pain. The halo atop his head was beginning to dim. The third wave had almost been his end and he could hear the pillars of Blood rising to announce the beginning of the fourth wave. If the difficulty increase was consistent, there would soon be a thousand undead of the Seventh Circle.

He drank a Mana potion and a Mending potion, shaking off all weariness to face the challenge. But then, he paused. Was it his fatigue or was there a trail of Blood at his feet of a darker hue than the river of blood around it?

Aurelius was gripped by the urgency of the oncoming thousand undead horde but was equally gripped with a curiosity at the Blood trail. The instincts that had never yet steered him wrong now urged him to follow the trail and so he did.—

Caius furrowed his brow. He hadn’t been sure from a distance but this was definitely the dark Blood trail as described in the original canon’s passage. Caius tracked where it started with his eyes and then looked on to where it led off into the distance with as much confidence as he could have in this situation.

"So?" Philip asked.

"It’s here—"

Caius started to say when he was interrupted by an explosive boom that rocked the dome they were in. The three undead had exploded into puddles of Blood and created rippling waves all over the Dome.

"Here comes the next wave," Athenodora said.

And sure enough, a hundred pillars of blood rose from the river and began to form into the next wave of undead.

"We need to hurry," Caius said,

"This way!"