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LOCATION: THE SCARRED LAND
CITY: ALLOVIA, FAR NORTH OF GRIMWATCH
DATE: DECEMBER 5, 2025 | TIME: 9:15 AM
The Embermaw turned in their direction and let out a roar that shook the trees behind them. A wave of heat surged outward with the sound, washing over the party. They braced themselves.
Before they could even form up properly, the beast plunged one hand into the lava and yanked free a massive rock—at least two feet across—then hurled it in their direction. It crashed into the hillside, scattering debris. They all dodged with ease, but the message was clear. The Embermaw was strong. And it wasn’t fucking around.
Vanessa drew Wraithwood and summoned Nyssara’s Waltz. The ghost shimmered into place beside her, flickering in spectral silver.
Nyssara’s eyes swept the battlefield. Her voice was velvet and violence. “Get into position. I’m here for you. Be safe, darling.”
Vanessa nodded and vanished into the tree line, circling thirty feet to the flank. From cover, she readied her bow, waiting for the opening volley.
Mallory charged down the hillside, casting Brand the Corrupt as she ran. The sigil ignited across Embermaw’s chest, searing into his hide. The creature howled and hurled another stone her way.
Darian followed close behind. Already, the air bent around him—time subtly warping under his control. As Embermaw hefted a second boulder, Darian hurled one of his rings to test its defenses. Parallax spun through the air and grazed the side of the creature’s neck—only to vanish harmlessly on impact. It reformed instantly in his palm.
“Guess that answers that,” he muttered. “Hide’s too thick from range.”
He adjusted his strategy, moving into melee to support Mallory.
As they split left and right, Embermaw stepped back into the lava and—without warning—splashed a wave of molten rock toward them. Mallory dove aside, but some of it struck her right leg. Her metal armor began to hiss and smoke, bubbling where the magma clung.
Elise, stationed behind them on the slope, cast a heal over time spell called Pulsing Heart on both Mallory and Darian.
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Harmonic Polarity: Sanctum Alignment - Tier I.
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Seeing the spreading burn, Elise pushed more energy into her staff and cast Lifeline, a stronger direct heal. It wasn't enough to fully restore Mallory’s health, but it stopped the burn damage from worsening. She quickly reapplied Pulsing Heart to Darian and waited.
Her Harmonic Warden class didn’t show clear health bars over everyone’s heads—this wasn’t a video game. Instead, she saw a faint shimmer around each of her allies: green when healthy, fading toward red as they weakened. She had grown used to reading those auras in battle, a subtle but reliable barometer. It also worked offensively—helping her know just how close an enemy was to death.
She steadied her breathing and focused on drawing in more polarity energy from the air around her, topping off her staff again.
Meanwhile, Vanessa had found an ideal vantage point, half-shielded by a thick tree. With Nyssara present, her true location was effectively masked. One by one, she summoned spectral arrows and aimed for vital areas on the beast.
She landed one inside Embermaw’s mouth during a roar. Another pierced its left knee just as it splashed lava. Then, finally, she sunk a shot directly into one glowing eye.
The beast reeled and turned toward the hillside looking for the source of the arrows, locking onto Nyssara. She stood still, swaying like a dancer, arms loose at her sides.
That alone seemed to enrage Embermaw. He roared again and hurled a smaller rock straight at her with uncanny precision.
The boulder passed through her illusion—Nyssara flickering out like mist—and shattered against a tree behind. Vanessa, watching from the shadows, narrowed her eyes. Time to get serious.
While the Embermaw was distracted, Mallory moved in low with her spear. She had been aiming for the center of its back, but Darian shouted, “Left knee!”
He’d seen Vanessa hit it, and wanted to capitalize on the existing injury.
Mallory adjusted mid-stride and drove the spear forward with all her weight. The tip struck true. Embermaw’s left knee buckled, and the creature crashed to one side.
Darian leapt forward to follow up, but Embermaw opened its massive mouth and screamed. A wave of heat and sound slammed into them like a wall, forcing them backward. Even Vanessa and Elise felt the impact.
Elise was the first to recover. She recast the healing aura instantly.
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Harmonic Polarity: Sanctum Alignment - Tier II.
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Embermaw rose unsteadily, still limping, and stepped backward into the lava. It lowered both arms into the molten flow, holding them there. The liquid began to boil violently.
Vanessa loosed arrow after arrow—but none reached him. The lava rose like a shield, catching each spectral projectile and turning it to steam.
Then, with a bellow, the Embermaw surged forward, launching itself twenty feet through the air and landing between Mallory and Darian with a seismic thud.
Now its entire hide was glowing. Its limbs pulsed with molten light. And in the center of its chest—visible now for the first time—something burned a deeper red.
The Forgeheart Gem.
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It appeared Phase II of the boss fight had begun.
After landing in front of them, the Embermaw swung its left arm outward, claws flashing. The blow caught Darian square in the chest and hurled him backward ten feet. He crashed to the ground in a heap.
“Ugh—fuck, that hurt…” he groaned, dragging himself upright. His health had dropped by a quarter in a single hit.
From her position on the slope, Elise raised her staff and immediately cast Lifeline, pouring raw healing into him. Her power, now bolstered by her Tier II Sanctum alignment, surged into Darian like a warm shockwave. She followed up with Pulsing Heart, layering the slow, rhythmic regeneration over both Darian and Mallory.
But the instant the healing pulse hit Darian’s body, Embermaw’s glowing eyes flicked toward her.
It raised its right arm, splaying three long, molten fingers. Then it pointed—straight at Elise.
She gasped as a wave of internal heat ignited in her chest. Not around her—inside her. Her lungs seized. Her vision blurred. It felt like she was being burned alive from the inside out.
A scream caught in her throat as panic took hold.
This is it, she thought. This is how I die—reduced to cinders before I can even help them.
She stumbled, fell to one knee, and managed to gasp out the incantation.
“Purge the Wicked!”
Her staff surged with reactive energy, but the three-second cast felt like an eternity. Her vision darkened at the edges. The heat was crawling through her veins now, racing toward her heart.
Mallory saw her fall and didn’t hesitate. She casted her protection spell Protect the Innocent, thrusting her spear into the ground. A golden shield shimmered around Elise just as her purge finished casting.
A burst of light exploded from Elise’s core as the purification spell took hold, extinguishing the internal fire. She collapsed forward, bracing herself with one hand on the earth, sweat streaming down her face.
---
Harmonic Polarity: Sanctum Alignment – Tier III.
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Elise cast another Pulsing Heart on both Darian and Mallory, before using one on herself.
Meanwhile, Darian had recovered—and he’d seen Embermaw’s moment of distraction.
It was focusing on Elise, leaving its already-injured leg exposed. He activated Primal Moment, time snapping into crystalline clarity, and lunged.
He aimed for the left knee, twin Parallax rings humming in his hands.
He struck fast—one ring slicing through cracked hide, the other following with surgical precision. The joint gave way with a hideous crunch, and Embermaw’s leg detached entirely, thudding to the scorched ground.
Yellow magma-blood sprayed outward in violent arcs, a few droplets searing Darian’s cheek. He cried out, stumbling back, the pain blinding for a moment.
But Embermaw wasn’t finished.
It threw back its head and unleashed a final, furious scream. The ground shook as a ring of heat and flame blasted outward like a shockwave, hurling Mallory and Darian back, and knocking Elise to the ground again. Even Vanessa, hidden above, felt the surge roll over her like a furnace wind.
Elise coughed and rolled over, her staff still clutched in both hands.
She cast Pulsing Heart again, reapplying the healing rhythm to both frontliners, then to herself.
She was rewarded with a new resonance surging through her bones.
---
Harmonic Polarity: Sanctum Alignment – Tier IV.
---
High on the ridge, Vanessa saw her moment.
Nyssara was gone, her illusion shattered by Embermaw’s earlier attack. But Vanessa had lined up her next shots. Her breath slowed. Her eyes narrowed.
Six arrows in five seconds.
Three struck Embermaw's chest, each being absorbed by the molten hide. But the next three—fired in rapid succession—pierced its eyes just as it turned to strike again.
It reared back, blinded, limbs flailing wildly.
Mallory seized the opportunity, charging forward.
With a feral scream, she plunged her spear forward—low and fast—and drove it directly into the beast’s skull through its exposed ear canal. The tip erupted out the other side with a hiss of steam.
The Embermaw lurched once. Then again.
Its chest heaved in one final, halting breath.
Then it collapsed.
Dead.
Silence reclaimed the Scarred Land.
---
System Message
You have slain Embermaw, Level 20.
500 experience points have been awarded.
---
They all stood still for a long moment, chests heaving, sweat mingling with ash. Embermaw’s body steamed on the ground, and the area around it trembled subtly, like the land was beginning to exhale.
Vanessa was the first to move. She descended the slope, rolled the body onto its back, and knelt beside the chest.
“I’ve got it,” she said softly.
Carefully, she drew her dagger and made a deliberate incision, tracing along the outline of the pulsing glow at the center. The magma-blood hissed and spat, but the blade moved cleanly.
A few tense seconds later, she withdrew her hands—cupped around a crystal the size of a heart.
It shimmered red-gold, glowing from within, but its surface was perfectly cool to the touch.
She blinked. “It’s… cold?”
She held it up.
Darian stepped closer and took it from her, lifting the Forgeheart Gem into the light. Lava reflected off its smooth facets—but then, something else happened.
The scar in the land began to close.
The molten trench at the center of the valley slowly contracted, as if being drawn back into the earth. The ambient temperature plummeted. Wind picked up across the ridge, swirling cinders into fading eddies.
In the space of a minute, the entire valley began to cool.
Where there had been magma, now there were gleaming obsidian shards scattered across cracked stone.
Mallory bent down and picked up one of the black shards. It sparkled with residual heat—warm, but no longer dangerous. She gathered several more—the final item on their list—and tucked them into her satchel.
Elise rejoined the group, her face pale but her eyes sharp with lingering adrenaline.
Darian hugged each of them in turn, the others following suit in a tangle of exhausted relief.
“Great job, everyone,” he said. “Elise, we wouldn’t have survived that without you.”
She managed a shaky laugh. “I almost didn’t survive it myself.” Her voice dropped slightly. “When he hit me with… whatever that was, I could feel it moving through me. I knew if it reached my heart—” She trailed off, exhaling slowly. “Mallory, your protection spell gave me just enough time to finish the purge.”
Mallory rested a hand on her shoulder as they began moving back toward the treeline.
“We all pulled our weight today. And it looks like I just hit Level 9 with all the XP we’ve been racking up. I wonder what happens at Level 10...”
They kept talking quietly as they walked, deciding against camping for the night. No one wanted to delay. They’d return to Grimwatch before sunset, if possible.
Because now that they understood the forge quest here was linked to the activation of their 3D Forges back in the real world, completing it had become top priority. Just returning with the gem and shards wouldn’t be the end of it—Torvyn would still need time to rebuild the forge itself. And time… was not something they had in abundance.
In recent weeks, all of them had started to feel it. A subtle pressure. A sense that some sort of countdown had begun.
They couldn’t name it. Couldn’t prove it.
But deep in their bones, they knew:
Something was coming.
And whatever it was…
They had to be ready.
As they walked, Mallory opened her interface and applied her remaining stat points. A soft flicker of light pulsed behind her eyes as the System acknowledged the update.
---
System Interface
Character Status
Name: Mallory McInnis
Age: 36 years
Level: 9
Race: Homo Sapiens—Augmented
Class: Spearmaiden (Rare)
Profession: N/A
Titles:
The Steward
Core Attributes (Stats):
Strength 57
Dexterity 44
Endurance 56
Vitality 56
Intelligence 42
Wisdom 33
Charisma 63
Perception 44
Health: 840 / 840
Stamina: 560 / 560
Mana: 396 / 396
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Mallory noticed that her Strength, Endurance and Vitality were all over fifty now. Wondering what impact that would bring, she continued walking along with the others, thoughts of the future on her mind all the while.