Note: Opps. I just realized that the ring of purity was originally supposed to channel the deity of purity's power. I reread the chapter, "The Ring of Purity" by iWTBAT and I think the original idea was that the ring was too small to channel the deity's power at the time. And I kinda turned the ring into a vessel for the deity of purity to posses. Sorry about that iWTBAT. I admit I made a mistake. But I guess that's the price of an evolving story were more then one writer is involved. The original intention may have changed but it's too late to rewrite the last few chapters now. I guess the only thing I can do now is just roll with it and keep moving forward. I hope the next couple of chapters works with the lore iWTBAT has written.
With that said, this chapter takes content from the chapters, "The Mysterious Professor", "Deeper into the Cave" and "Even Deeper, Even Darker" by iWTBAT. The content taken from those chapters are used as plot points and is credited to iWTBAT. In addition, a certain section of this chapter is inspired by the chapter,"Sphere of Mystics" by Dragonman.
I hope you enjoy the chapter.
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Hope opened her eyes, Today is a new day.
As she sat up from her bed, she looked around to see the status of her room. Her room was by no means baren when she first moved here but now if feels like Hope has a house all to herself. Over the two years she lived here, she found herself enjoying living in the cavern more then her old house. Oh sure, playing in the snow was fun, but everyday, there is always something new happening!
She looked around the room. It was dimly lit by floating mechanical orbs. Her father has salvaged some mechanical robes from the the artifacts his co-workers has found and repurpose them into lights for Hope's room. She no longer needs torches to light the room. All she needs to do is clap her hands and think about how bright they should be and they would follow her orders.
She remembered how her father, Crawnav has told her to touch a bunch of soul cores before he installed them into the metal orb. The cores all looked like white pebbles.
He told her that touching them will establish a link between her soul and the floating mechanical orbs. But at the end of the day, she doesn't really care nor completely understood what he meant. She just know that these knows that these orbs are somehow moving without the help of magic and and she can control their movement, position and how bright they are at will.
In fact, her room has gotten a lot more homely ever since she moved here. For what started as a large room with some basic furniture turned into a real playground for Hope.
Whenever Crawnav finds a harmless artifact, he would repurpose it for Hope's needs. He managed to refined a old rusted frying pan into a brand new one. Perfect for Hope to cook her dad some breakfast. He also found a old spinning top, and recreated it into a self moving one.
But Crawnav's most greatest gift to Hope was his first one ever since they moved in with Grevialus. And that was her pet.
"Pi pi pi!" A mechanical orb spoke.
Hope got out of her large and fluffy bed to greet a particular floating mechanical orb. This specific mechanical orb was painted blue, and it's moving without Hope's commands.
"Pi pi pi!" The mechanical orb blinked happily. The blue orb is special. Crawnav has given this one sentience. It was the first mechanical orb he has given Hope. And It was only a month after they first moved. She named it Pipi due to the funny sound it makes.
"Good morning Pipi! Or is it good night?" It's hard to tell night and day when living in a cavern for two years. Luckily, the king sends Grevialus's men a consistent supply of food every month so Hope never needed to go shopping for food.
But everything does feel claustrophobic and cut off from the outside world sometimes. It doesn't help that Hope's room is both sound proof and magic proof. And apparently, soul proof, but Hope never understood why Grevialus would say that. He probably just meant sound proof but that slip up in words has always stuck out to Hope. Even though Grevialus only said that once.
Hope peeked outside her room to see if it's night time or day time. Luckily, it's easy to tell the difference between night and day outside her room. If there are researchers walking about, it's day time. If there is almost no one around, then it's night time. It looks like it's night time.
Feeling wide awake, Hope decides to walk around. Sometimes, she leaves the cavern to watch the night sky.
As she walked around, she noticed Grevialus's door was wide open. And Grevialus was no were in sight.
Hope let out a playful grin. Sometimes, whenever a researcher is not around, she would go into their rooms and plant a prank item in their room. Be it a slug on their pillow or to switch research notes with another room. Sometimes, her pranks would lead to disasters and explosions, which in turn leads to Hope getting lectured by her father, but everything goes back to normal the next day. The researchers really does a good job in repairing the place with their magic.
It's not every day she gets to go into Grevialus's room. So she snuck in and closed and locked the door.
So what should she rearrange today?
As she looked through Grevialus's stuff, she came across a long sheet of parchment in between one of the books. Hope looked through the paper, but she got bored of it pretty quickly.
---
But Isaac was very interested, however. Through Hope's eyes, he read the note completely. It helps that Hope took her time to look at all the words.
The note reads:
“This cavern is such a wondrous sight. Other than being a perfect place to retrieve some materials that can only be found underground, it’s also the perfect place to test out dangerous spells and rituals. I’ve been risking getting apprehended by the citadel guards just to test out for my studies… apparently, they think that it’s endangering the other citizens."
"And yes, they were right. That’s why I needed to search for a new place. I’ve searched for a nice, secluded area to do my experiments, but I couldn’t find a place that would fit the king’s decreed order. He wanted me to be a hundred feet away from any residence or citadel within his kingdom, but with the sudden rise in population, it was impossible to find a suitable place. The king supported my studies, but he didn’t want to have concerned citizens coming up to his throne to have me exiled."
"All wasn’t well until I found these caverns. They had been previously inhabited by another culture, as I couldn’t understand the inscriptions on the walls. I had someone from the citadel inspect it, but as I ventured downward, I came across this beautiful, vast space for me to work on new magic spells and rituals. The room was vast, around fifty by fifty. The ceiling was probably thirty or so feet high, around six times my height. The strange fungi lit up the room as I also saw a small pool of water at one side of the room."
"After telling the king I’ve found my new laboratory of sorts, he sent his men to bring all my materials there. It took some time to bring everything here, but it was worth it. All I have to do is send the king new discoveries until I either get dismissed or the king dies."
“I’ve also started taking in my fellow students who wanted to have their own experiments. Crawnav was a splendid student of mine… back when I traveled to that mountainous city, I admired his studious attitude. He had so many ideas, but the laws on using magic kept Crawnav’s innovation from bursting forth. When he joined me with my other students, he was always industrious in enchanting items. I even feared he would take things too far and die from exhaustion.”
The parchment ended there as nothing else was tucked in between the other book.
Isaac found that note to be very interesting. It seems to be written after Grevialus discovered the cavern. I seems perfect, and what Isaac could tell, has a lot of spacious caves in the area to act as rooms for his colleges. But it still doesn't explain what kind of experiments Grevialus is working on.
---
Hope found another note in one of the draws. It seems Grevialus seriously needs a journal. It seems to Isaac that he just writes his thoughts out on lose sheets of paper. This papers seems more recent then the last one.
It reads:
Crawnav's work is just astounding! He's just a miracle man when it comes to items. No matter what kind of artifact my assistantt would uncover from below the temple, he would always figure out how to use it and how to repurpose them to suit our needs. Just the other day, we discovered some weird metal orbs that doesn't have a ounce of magic in them. Yet he figured out how they work and repurposed them for his daughters use.
He's might just be the best student I have. He can even refine and enhance items to be stronger and to have different uses. He even used methods I don't remember teaching him. When I asked him, he told me he has been studying all kind of forms of item enhancements. From smithing, mechanics and a strange lost art known as Alcamy. His knowledge on handling items is astounding. It doesn't mater if the item is magical, possessed of mechanical, Crawnav can figure it out in record speed. Thanks to him, our studies in a large mater of experiment has sped up at a tremendous rate. I'm glad I invited him!
For example. One particular method he used stucked out me. Apparently, a researcher from a long lost civilization has figured out how to transfer souls into rocks and use them as cores for his machines. More specifically, his mechanical orbs. According to the inscriptions we uncovered, his faithful dog has died and he wanted to bring it back to life. He spent years of researching way to bring him back to life until he made a startling discovery! Apparently, spirits and gods can poses ordinary rocks and turn them into a comply different type of mineral that reflect the poseser. For example, if a evil spirt possess a ordinary pebble, there's a good chance that it turn into a valuable onyx. I a god possesses a work, it might turn into a gem like a diamond. Crawnav referred to these possessed rock as soul gems. He also said they can apparently be used as a power source. Apparently, the researcher who discovered the phenomenon of soul gems has successfully transferred his dog's soul into a pebble. The pebble became a soul gem represented as a white pebble. But his dog needed a body, so he created a mechanical floating orb to hold his dog's sprit. Crawnav was able to savage the reserver's dog and the researcher's prototype orbs and repurpose them to his daughters use. If I recall correctly, Hope named the dog, Pipi due to the sounds it makes."
Hope stopped reading for a moment as she looked back at Pipi who was floating next to her. So Pipi is the ghost of a dog? That's so sad!
Hope passanatly hugged the metal orb. "So you have been alone for years? That must be so lonely! I promise that I will never leave your side Pipi!" Hope passionately said.
After wiping away her tears, she continued scaring through the note:
"But not every artifact we found had a heart warming story like that. Another artifact we found was a golden jewry box with greek engravings on it. Inside it was a simple golden ring. Only one of my assistants could read grease and he wasn't perfect on reading it. According to what he could read, the inscriptions on the side of the box speaks of a multi-headed monster and how important it is to not to wear the ring. When we found the ring, it seems someone isles before us has already opened it. So to not to risk any of us getting cursed, we closed the box and put it in storage. In case Hope finds it and tries to open it, we put powerful magic wards on it to prevent anyone from opening the jewry box. Even Crawnav agrees that we should leave the silver ring alone for now."
Hope stopped reading the note. Noe she is curious. She's got to see what box the old man it talking about! To the storage room!... but.... she can read a little more. This not she found was starting to get interesting.
She continued reading: Another artifact we had found was a strange sphere relic completely made out of reflective glass. We found it in a strong cave that looks to be completely covered in mirrors. The sphere relic itself looks like a spherical mirror. I remember when Crawnav figured out to activate the sphere like it was yesterday. Tehran has a gift with figuring our relics. All he did was place his hand on the mirror sphere and consinstrated.
Suddenly, everyone in the room was surrounded by a dark void. It was as if the sphere was speaking to our minds! Then a figure appeared of a wizard, a young man wearing goofy blue wizards cloths with yellow stars stitched on them."To whom ever sees this message, you have chosen the sphere of mystics, a metaphorical tome of sorts. As you see, this relic is specking into your mind. My name is Calmach, and I'm the soon-to-be father of magic. I was recently gifted the knowledge of magic by miracle ore. Recorded in this sphere made of miracle ore is a copy of all my knolede of magic. This relic is created for others to learn the wonders of magic when I am dead. May the legacy of magic on the material plane continue. End recording." The vision of the wizard managed, and in it's place was the image of a thirty year old warlock. It looks like he was in bad shape. He was covered up in scratches and his cloths was ripped up. He was missing a arm and he was covered in blood. In fact, he was laughing up blood as he speak, "Cough, cough. This is a update to my tome of knowledge. I have learned a lot in my short life and not all of it was as wonderful as I'd hoped. I have learned a valuable lesson. And that lesson is that desire has consequensences. As desire with selfish intentions will always have ill effects on someone." Calmach paused as he was hacking up a storm. When he got his bearings, he continued. "I have just recently fought my best friend to the death. And now I have nothing. My friend is dead and this mining facility is collapsing as I speak. After this recoding, I will transfer my soul into this sphere of mystics. Perhaps it's best if I bestow the knowledge of magic personally. But you must prove to me that you are worthy of my knowledge." His straight gave out and he collapsed. "End recording." The warlock vanished, and so did the void in a blinding flash.
"We were back in the lab, and the image of that same thirty year old man was projected from the sphere of mystics for all to see. He looked to be in a lot better shape then when we last saw him. He even has his arm back. He was yawning as if he just woken from a long nap. When he was done yawning, he looked around the room as saw us. "Hmm. So these are the people who wants the infinent knowledge of magic bestowed upon me... but are you worthy?" Calmach questioned us."
To my astonishment, Crawnav was the first to speak. He said, "My name is Crawnav. I pursue to test the limits of magic. I'm already an expert in figuring out how an artifact works. I'm the one who awakened you.We are a team of researchers who conduct magic experiments and salvage ancient artifacts. We had no idea what this relic was until we seen your messages. It's a honor to meet you father of all magic. To think I would be meeting the legendary Calmach. I'm not sure I'm worthy of your knowledge, but my reasons for pursuing knowledge is out of curiosity. Is that ill will desire to you?" That incident may have been months ago but I still remember Crawnav's words to this day. But I also remember Calmach's response: "Curiosity? I suppose that is not as power corrupt as greed. But be aware Crawnav. Curiosity is still a dangerous desire. But I may be swayed to disclose some of my knowledge. What is it that you are curious about?" What Crawnav said next, sparked our next big project: "I want to know if it's possible to travel to other worlds. According to your recorded theories, you said that magic is the product of another world's laws of nature. If we can borrow the laws of physics from another world through magic, then is it possible to use magic as a catalyst for inter-world travel?" I remember Calmach rating a eyebrow to that. He responded with, "Perhaps. But it is a unexplored concept. Why do you desire such a thing?" Calmach questioned. And Crawnav respond with, "For years, I have been studying what other civilization left behind. I also been studying how other civilizations work and how they are different from ours. But I want to go beyond traveling the world. I want to know the different cultures from other world. I want to know how different laws of nature effects different cultures and races. Is the pursuit of that kind of knowledge harmful?" I recalled cal mach bowing his head in thought. He responded with, "Yes Crawnav. Even the pursuit of knowledge can be corrupted into something much more sinister. But you have me swayed. I myself, has wondered were the power of magic came from. But be prepared for the consequences. If my desire for magic could change the lives of many people, then your desire to travel to other worlds may do the same. But the effects of inter world travel might have an negative effect on the future. Are you sure you are willing to shoulder the lives of many?" The great Calmach has questioned. And my dear assistant, Crawnav has responded with a simple, "Yes."
And thus we have been working on inter world travel ever since. There were many set backs, but with the help of Calmach, we were able to make steady progress. It seems this "miracle ore" can channel the power of other worlds into this one. That was how Calmach got his vast knowledge of magic in the first place. So it stands to reason that miracle ore, or rather oracle ore has the potential to allow inter world transport. But the only pure piece of oracle ore we found was the sphere of mystics. It's as if someone else has already salvaged the rest of the remaining oracle ore for themselves. Either way, it was a miracle that we found Calmach's spirit when we did. Who knows what kind of havoc would be caused if the wrong hands got their hands on Calmach fist. But luckily, he is in good hands now.
But something has been bothering me. Ever since Crawnav started working with Calmach, he has started getting... more intense. He keeps pouring himself into his work more often. He seems more dedicated to the transportation project then any of our other projects. And he and Calmach works well together. They are like old friends. But I wonder just how long has Crawnav been keeping his dream of inter-world travel a secret? I hope his dedication doesn't effect his health. He hasn't been sleeping very well lately...
Either way, I have been working on transportation spells that can help with trade for years. If I can combine my research with Crawnav and Calmach's project for inter-world travel, then I'm sure we can come up with a break through! Perhaps we can help each other. Though even I'm starting to worry about the implications of inter-dimensional travel. I hope the boy knows what he is doing..."
The note ends there. It appears Grevialus has ran out of space to write on the paper...
But Hope was ecsited now. She no longer wants to prank Grevialus anymore. She wants to find the next note! All this this talk about inter-world transport sounds so cool! She wondered what a fire planet is like. Or a water planed. Does the people who live there has to live differently if there is only water or fire? Where is that next note?!
Pipi beeped in surprise as hope started searching the room on any more information on this "Transportation Project".
---
Isaac mentally slapped himself. He started his journey searching for Calmach's tome and to think it was under his nose this whole time! And to make matters worse, he actually laid eyes on the Sphere of Mystics in the same room he found the ring of purity. But he didn't paid much attention to it because he was too focused on the ring at the time. But Isaac has since changed his goals. He no longer just wants to find Calmach's tome. The real priority is to find the source of corruption and end it for good. But the more Isaac learns about the nature of corruption, the more questionable that goal seems to be. What did they mean by mirror ore having the ability to transfer energy from other worlds? And how did mirror ore teach Calmach about magic? From what Isaac has seen so far, the bigger picture seems to focus on mirror ore. What exactly IS mirror ore? Isaac always pictured the source of corruption to be one big boss monster. He can sense the corruption coming from everywhere in Calmach's Crypt. But what if the source of corruption is not one single thing? What if it's the mirror ore? Were did the mirror ore came from? Why is it only found in Calmach's crypt? When Isaac returns to the material plane, his first priority is to go back and find the Sphere of Mystics again. He need to talk to the spirit of Calmach and learn just what mirror ore really is! But first, he needs to wake up from this dream. It appears Hope's memory is still going...
As Isaac watched Hope's memory, she picked up a book from one of Grevialus's book shelves. On the front of it was the title, “Research Notes of the Summer of the Ninth Year under King Vernus’ Reign”. Even the length of the title bored Isaac.
In between the thick pages of the book was a terribly drawn map drawn by Grevialus himself. The crude, charcoal drawings on his notes proved he was the crappy cartographer, though at least it was understandable. It seems Grevialus and Crawnav was working on a transportation spell to hasten interregional trades, though the research notes abruptly ended right before the experimental stage. Grevialus must have stopped writing the notes recently.
“Odd…” Isaac said. The book was the latest of them all. At least according to the memory being showed to him.
The memory continued.
...
On the other side of the room was a desk with an unfinished letter sitting next to a lit lantern. A chest was placed next to the desk, and the rest of the room was filled with so many books.
Out of curiosity, Hope decided to read the letter:
“Good heavens, that boy is going to be the death of us all!
“He had gone mad, trying to tell us that there’s a much better way to do this ritual. The techniques I’ve been practicing were good enough, but while his suggestions made them much quicker, at least my ideas weren’t as dangerous and life-threatening as what he’s saying!
“We needed to find a way to make transport easier. We’ve done that with warping spells and rituals, but they would last for mere seconds. Sure, they could work for small trades, but interregional trades need much more time than that.
“Crawnav had been suggesting that we travel through an existing dimension and then to the destination. It would be much easier and quicker than to conjure up a possible route, and it would be much more stable. But my god, the only other dimension that we can travel to is an evil, corrupted world! It’s basically Hell for all I know!
“Crawnav wasn’t deterred by my words. He was so damn sure that his method would work, and while I still admire him for that, this is being too reckless! I fear that he would mess up and-”
The letter halted there. It looked liked the letter was interrupted just a few minutes ago. The pen was still there.
Hope started to feel dread build up inside of her. If Grevialus is not sleeping her then he must be somewhere near by. Perhaps her father is with him... Maybe his letter was interrupted because Crawnav tried to do the ritual and he called Grevialus for help.
Hope doesn't want to believe her wild assumption, but something in her gut is telling her that it's true.
Hope decided to run out of Grevialus's room and to go look for Grevialus and her father. Pipi chased after Hope.
...
Isaac remembered reading that letter back at Calmach's crypt. And things makes more sense now that he has more context.
Isaac now has a more complete picture of what happened. Grevialus started work on transportation magic. Crawnav finished it. What happened afterwards is what Isaac assumed to be the first time the corrupted came to his world. Isaac watched the memory with interest. He watched as hope entered a large testing room...
---
Hope's fears were confirmed. Standing before her were Crawnav and Grevialus. They were standing along side a ritual circle. One man on each side of the circle. The sphere of the Mystics was in the middle of the summoning circle. From above the glass relic, was the spirit of Calmach being projected from the sphere. All three men were chanting a very complicated enchantation.
"No! Stop! It's too dangerous! I don't want to lose you daddy!" Hope shouted. She may wants to see other worlds too, but as soon as she played eyes on the ritual, she intuition told her that something terrible is going too happen.
And she was right.
The ritual reached it's peak, and suddenly, right in front of Calmach's spirit, a hole in space and time opened up.
Hope stared in awe as she feared witness to the first portal to another plane of existence.
But some thing was wrong. Very wrong.
As soon as the portal opened, strange black sludge fiends started pouring out.
The three men imeadily broke out of their trances.
Calmach, Grevialus and were imeadily firing offensive magic at the intruders.
"I told you this ritual was too risky! You should have let me wake up my other assistants! They could have acted as reinforcements if something like this were to happen!" Grevialus shouted.
But instead of arguing, Crawnav gave a command. "Cover me! The portal is drawing energy from the mirror ore that makes up the Sphere of Mystics! I need to help Calmach to cut the connection!" Crawnav left no room for argument.
Crawnav stood behind Calmach and Calmach's sphere stood in front of the portal. They began chanting to cut the connection. The idea is to properly redo the ritual, and then to abruptly stop chanting before they complete the ritual for the second time. It's not the most proper of ways, but it is a way to break the energy connection. Another was was for Crawnav to break the Sphere of Mystics but he is not willing to kill a freaind like Calmach.
But Grevialus could only do so much to fend off so much sludge fiends. A sludge fiend eventually snuck up behind Crawnav's back. Be before the otherworldly monster could convert him, Pipi has knocked Crawnav out of the way. Unfortantly, Pipi's angle and momentum has knocked both, Pipi itself, Crawnav and the Sphere of the Mystics into the portal.
With out the Phere of the Mystics on this side of the portal, the portal had no power to feed on. So it disappeared out of existence, locking Crawnav, Pipi and Calmach's spirit into another world.
Hope could stared in shock. She stood stock still as she processed what she just saw. But her daddy and her pet/BFF has disappeared in front of her very eyes!
But Grevialus wasn't having any of it. As soon as he saw Hope just standing there, he suddenly knew what to do.
"Hope!!! Get back into your room and lock the door! It will be safe there! I will come for you later! I must evacuate my other assistants!" Grevialus commanded.
He snapped Hope out of her shock. She ran back to her room without looking back. As soon as she made it in, she locked the door just as she was told.
Hope tried to listen through the door but the magical sealed door was sound proof. Everything was silent. It was like nothing happened. The room was just like as she left it. Except that Pipi was no longer present...
Hope, with her mind numb, has went to bed. It took hours but the 10 year old girl finally fell into a restless sleep.
...
When she woke up, every thing was as it was.
Hoping that it was all a nightmare, she opened her door...
She wished she hasn't.
The cavern research facility was in shambles. But that's not what broke Hope's heart. What finally shattered her hopes was that no mater were she went, so couldn't find any one. Just black sludge all over the place.
After a entire day of searching, her will finally gave out. She accepted that she was alone. No one survived. She was the only one left...
"NNNNNOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!" Hope shouted at the top of her lungs.
With her energy exhausted, Hope finally gave in despair.
Hope blacked out.
...
The girl has been wondering the caves for two days. She has been walking non stop without food or sleep.
Her mind was numb of all thought.
That was until a squad of royal Knights found her.
"Ever since those strange black sludge fiends has appeared, a epidemic of corrupt creatures has been playing the kingdom. The king has ordered us to recover anyone from Grevialus's team. Are you the only survivor?" The Knight Captain asked.
The girl wasn't really paying attention. She was just staring off into space.
"Maybe she has anisia?" Another Knight offered.
"Perhaps..." The Kight Captain muttered to himself.
"Girl. I understand that what you been through has been dramatic, but we know. Is it safe to investigate Grevialus's cavern facility? Who realized the corrupt upon the world?" The Captain demanded.
The traumatized girl couldn't remember anything. But a image did appear in her mind. I was a thirty-something years old and floating in front of a portal...
The girl muttered a single names. She spoke so softly, the knight captain has lean his ear to her mouth.
The hopeless girl repeated herself.
"Calmach..." The captain could hear her mutter.
"Calmach? You mean the warlock who introduced magic. Are you saying that Calmach released the corruption onto the world?" The knight captain said out load.
There were murmurs among the knights. "Calmach? But he's long dead. Is she saying that Calmach's ghost has arisen and decided to have his revenge on us by summoning monsters after us?" A knight speculated.
The Knight Captain was getting tired of hearing these wild speculations.
"Enough. We don't know enough to jump to conclusions. Let's take her to the king. It appears that she is the only survivor of Grevialus's research team.Besides, it looks like this little girl hasn't eaten in days. Look at how thin she is!"
And so the knight squadron carried her away.
---
Isaac was brought back to the red void.
Isaac couldn't believe what he just saw. But a lot of things don't add up. If Crawnav and Calmach were transported to a different plane, then why did Isaac seen evidence that Crawnav was on the material plane after the corrupt were released? That message that was attached to the ring of purity implied that Crawnav has created it in response to the corrupt getting realized. And what about Calmach's Sphere of Mystics? It fell through the portal along with Crawnav and Pipi. Then why did Isaac could have sworn he saw it in the same room he found the ring of purity?
Did Crawnav and Calmach returned to the material plane at some point? And if so... when?
There's another puzzle piece missing...
But before Isaac could ponder any longer, he was engulfed by another memory.
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Note: I know I said I'll write alternate versions of these chapters to add on to "Spellcasting" but if you think these chapters are worthy of being added on to, then go ahead. It's not like I can stop you.