Inheritor Of Magic: The Magi King

At a much more measured pace, the group made their way through the empty corridors toward the location where they could sense the portal.

Though none of them had mentioned it to Wolfe, they were all working to adapt the energy of this place to their auras, or in the case of Molly, to her body, so that she could use it to channel more mana for her spells.

That was the reward prepared for this place, and the Lower Planes way of spitting in the eye of the Seraphim. The magic of the Lower Planes was incompatible with Light Magic, or the Divine Power of the Upper Planes, though it was not any weaker in practice.

Many times they had tried to corrupt Mortals, but every time they had failed. This time was a much more limited interaction, and the more powerful denizens of this place were intrigued to see if the witches would survive the change in their auras once they left.

There were covens here, vile and twisted witches, who used nothing but curses, and had lost all their ability to use Nature Magic. But if they left this place, their bodies would begin to mutate, and within weeks or months, they would die.

The residents of the Lower Planes didn't know that it was because of all the curses and the lingering corruption from casting them that lingered in the Witches' auras. It didn't corrupt them here, at least not in the same way. So when they left this place and died, it was assumed that like humans who tried to absorb too much of the forbidden power, they were too weak to serve as the vessel.

The same was true of Divine Power from the Upper Planes. If you absorbed too much into a human body, they would simply die when they got back to a mortal world. Their body would be unable to contain it, and they would burn from the inside out, leaking golden Divine Light the entire time.

But this was just a bit. The witches auras would be touched by Darkness, but not so much that they would lose the fundamentals of who they were.

The witches here shouldn't have needed to either, but there was no other power here, and without Wolfe to filter it to mana, the witches would have rapidly realized that they couldn't use healing or nature magic at all after their auras had been filled with the power of Darkness.

It was a misnomer for the power here. The nature of the Lower Planes wasn't darkness, but the Upper Planes called their Divine Power the power of Light, and this was the opposite of that. Where the upper planes fed on righteousness, virtue and assistance, the lower planes fed on schemes, corruption and suffering.

The power of the Lower Planes was still the power of the Laws of Reality, in a way. But twisted to benefit the user.

Wolfe cast his mana sense through the tunnels, looking for traps, but found nothing. Even the defences that should have been there, to assist the defenders for the trial, had been removed or deactivated. It honestly seemed that the residents of this Plane wanted them gone as fast as humanly possible.

That wouldn't be long with the enthusiasm of Molly to see her own home again, and eat at the cafeteria, and tell her friends about the adventure that she had been on with Mister Wolfe and everyone.

The girl was rambling, partly out of excitement, and partly from the adrenaline shock, now that she felt that she was somewhat safe, and the battle was over.

Unlike the others, she hadn't seen war, or really any sort of conflict. She had been learning magic so that she could make useful things to help her village, not for battle. Every beastkin child wanted to learn the magic of the humans.

When the portal finally came in sight, atop a large altar stone that was surrounded by seven platforms, each with a different set of sigils on it, Wolfe realized that the end of this adventure should have been a grand battle against the seven sins.

Each of the platforms was large enough that it should have held an elite team of enemies, and each of them represented a different vice. Sloth, gluttony, and wrath were visible from where he was standing, and Wolfe recognized them from the Demon Realms.

This place seemed to take them to whole new extremes, twisting them in strange ways where the Demons made them more of a lifestyle choice. It was as if they had taken everything to an absurd level, and destroyed their own Realm in the process.

"Is there anything that any of you need to do before we leave this place?" Wolfe asked as he finished searching the room for traps.

"Nothing at all. Let's get out of here." Cassie agreed as she tucked Molly under her arm.

Ella and Stephanie both gave Wolfe a thumbs up, and he stepped up to the portal with the group right behind him.

"Everyone, hold on to each other. It helps keep a group together when you go through a portal." He reminded them.

He held out his hands for Stephanie and Cassie to take, and everyone else linked hands with someone, while putting one hand on Wolfe, just to be certain.

Then they stepped forward through the portal together, and the world faded, before coming back into focus, with them staring down a group of armed soldiers, wearing the livery of the Fallen Army, and defending the gates to a massive stone wall that might be defending a city.

The guards seemed to have been ready for his arrival, or he had simply appeared right in front of them, as they were at the main city gates, as Wolfe was realizing from the noise that came from the other side.

"Hi, good to meet you all. My name is Wolfe, and I'm not quite certain why I am here at your city instead of my own. I believe that we had a portal malfunction." He tried.

The guards paused as they glared at him.

"Two copper coins a head to enter." One of them stated, without lowering his weapon.

Well, that was a relief. They seemed to have bought his excuse.