Into the Ethereal

Having eaten and drunk his fill and completely recovered, Cassius returned once more to the heavy stone gate. Rather than pushing it open immediately, he began going through his motions: *Bear's Endurance* *Cat's Grace* *Owl's Wisdom* Bear's Endurance fortified his constitution, Cat's Grace heightened his agility, and Owl's Wisdom sharpened his senses, granting the red dragon an all-around enhancement. Even after buffing himself with the suite of spells affectionately dubbed the "Zoo Series," Cassius remained uneasy. After all, this was the legacy of a legendary druid—there was no telling what contingencies had been left behind. *Gilded Carapace* The gold elements accumulated within his body gathered across his scales, turning them a gleaming, metallic golden-yellow. To an inattentive eye, he might have passed for a gold dragon. *Protection from Lightning* With a low whistle from Cassius, an invisible forcefield formed around his body, shielding him against lightning attacks. "A caster is a caster, after all." "What kind of caster skips the pre-buff circus?" Having gone through the whole stationary routine, Cassius looked down at the magical auras shimmering across his frame. Only then did he feel far more grounded, finally armed with a measure of confidence. The red dragon fixed his gaze on the stone gate before him, drew a deep breath, and took a resolute step forward. *Knock* His talons glowing with magical light, he pressed them against the stone gate. *Rumble...* With a resounding knock, the heavy stone gate let out a deep, muffled boom and slowly began to lift. The space opened wide before him. And the sight struck even the red dragon with awe. It was a vast, open expanse, colossal enough to hold an entire mountain peak. Yet directly ahead lay only a narrow suspended stone bridge, while the rest of the ground had sunken dozens of meters into the depths. The chasm walls were smooth and sheer, as though sliced cleanly from top to bottom by a razor-sharp blade. Peering down from the stone bridge under the glow of eternal, ghostly-blue flame lanterns, he could see the chasm floor piled high with all manner of relics: shattered colossal statues, crumbling ruins of grand edifices, weathered and illegible inscriptions, ancient and broken weapons of every kind, and the towering skeletons of giants... Looking up toward the distant, vaulted dome, it was covered in murals—crude and unrefined, yet overflowing with primeval power. He could see the ancient wars between giants and dragons; the once-glorious domains of the giant empire; the majestic forms of the giant gods; and the tragic devastation when the empire fell... These were hardly mere murals; they were a history book etched in stone. "So this is the heritage of the giant empire he gathered." Cassius murmured in awe as he advanced cautiously along the stone bridge. His wings flared slightly and his footsteps stayed light, watching his surroundings at every moment to brace for whatever danger might arise. The red dragon looked toward the far end of the stone bridge. There sat a throne. Likewise carved of stone, it towered over twenty meters high. It bore little ornate decoration, engraved only with archaic, enigmatic runes. And the lifeless body of a storm giant sat upright upon it. His purplish-gray skin was coated in a thick layer of dust, as if he had slumbered here for thousands of years, watching in absolute silence as visitors approached. Yet for reasons unknown, he had not rotted away into bone. "The last storm giant prophet..." "Is this Landeta?" The red dragon felt intense curiosity toward this storm giant. He could not fathom how a single being had crafted such a magnificent tomb, but this spectacle alone was proof enough of the staggering might he had wielded in life. Cassius continued along the stone bridge, coming within several dozen meters of the corpse. Yet in that very instant, a sudden upheaval erupted. One of the giant's eyes snapped open! A tempest raged within that single eye, glaring with furious wrath at the insolent intruder! All around, unknown crystals flashed incessantly, brimming with wild, overflowing elemental energy. And those violent elements were rapidly coalescing. "Not good!" Cassius sensed a horrifying wave of magical fluctuations violently blast outward. "This power..." The red dragon tilted his head up slightly. A roiling, churning bank of black storm clouds surged outward from the giant's remains with terrifying frenzy, swelling like a man-eating monstrosity poised to swallow everything in the cavern. Within it roared shrieking gales and flashing thunderbolts. "*Storm of Vengeance*!" Thunder boomed! It was a savage roar echoing from primeval times. *Boom!* Just the shockwaves from the thunderclaps shattered stones across the cavern ceiling, sending them crashing down in an avalanche. *Bzzzt—* The deafening roar set off a ceaseless ringing in Cassius's ears, as though he had been struck by a massive warhammer, rendering him instantly deaf. The dark clouds expanded furiously, on the verge of swallowing him whole. Seeing disaster imminent, the red dragon disregarded the splitting headache and ringing ears, gritting his teeth through the thunder damage to unleash his spell. "*Quickened Blink*!" Channeling the spell through sheer force of will, Cassius prayed in his heart that it would succeed. The "ruin" left by this druid far exceeded his wildest imagination. After all, Blink offered only a fifty-fifty chance of prying open the barrier of the Material Plane to slip into the Ethereal Plane. If the coin landed on the other half, he would have no choice but to endure this raging storm with his bare flesh. "It worked!" Elation surged through the red dragon as he suddenly felt his body breach the boundary between reality and nothingness. [You cast Blink.] [Gained special state: "Into the Ethereal"] The Ethereal Plane served as a conduit linking the Material Plane to the Inner Planes. Everywhere on the Material Plane was brushed by the ethereal vapors of this realm; the two lay like parallel planes in continuous contact without overlapping, allowing travelers to view the neighboring plane. And right now, he stood at the plane's threshold. In an instant, everything before Cassius turned black and white, dissolving into tangled skeins of chaotic lines. His body was incapacitated, unable to move freely, left only to drift quietly within this void. In the next moment, he watched the spot where he had just stood become swallowed by the tempestuous dark clouds. First poured a torrential rain of acid from the clouds, pitting the stone bridge with countless sizzling craters. Then hailstones plummeted from the swirling masses, battering the stone in a deafening clatter. Bolts of terrifying lightning crashed down from above, blasting craters several meters deep into the stone and coalescing into a ferocious lightning storm that swept over the red dragon's former position in an instant. For a moment, lightning danced in thick webs, blinding brilliance filling the entire cavern. Crisscrossing thunderbolts formed a horrific cage of lightning, incinerating everything trapped within to ash. *Boom!* *Boom! Boom!* Several bolts struck together, cleanly blasting the stone bridge apart and sending massive boulders crashing into the chasm below. Had such lightning struck the red dragon, he likely would not have survived. Endless gales and freezing rain battered the expanse beneath the storm, reducing it to utter ruin. Yet in Cassius's eyes, what had once been a magnificent tomb had transformed into a monochrome graveyard of all living things. Having used Blink to ride out this terrifying tempest within the Ethereal Plane, Cassius felt a lingering chill of dread. Had he stayed in place, even with Protection from Energy, he never could have withstood that raging lightning and relentless freezing rain. "This is..." Cassius felt a powerful gravitational pull dragging him back toward the Material Plane, mending the tear in the planar barrier. Though he struggled desperately against it, his efforts were futile. Cassius was far too weak to defy planar laws in the slightest, leaving him no choice but to let it take its course. [Lost special state: "Into the Ethereal"] The red dragon reappeared in his original position, utterly dumbfounded. "What the f—" Instantly, the elements flared into violent agitation once more. Relentless gales and freezing rain lashed his body, while arcs of electricity dancing on the ground converged immediately, surging into his limbs. And in the roiling black clouds above, terrifying thunder gathered anew, rumbling like a low, long-suppressed roar. The most devastating wave of the spell had passed, yet even these were its lingering aftershocks.