Jake returned to the portal. Nothing had changed in the chamber during his absence. There were no enemies lurking in the room, and the portal remained just as dormant as before. He stepped closer to the arch and looked at the fragments of the key, which were still inserted in the indentation at one of the two bases.
Jake set the ethereal battleaxe down on the cobbled floor and walked to the other side of the arch, once again examining the three symbols engraved into its surface. They looked strikingly similar to the rune stones he clutched in one hand. With each passing moment, he became more and more convinced that the rune stones and the symbols on the arch were linked in some way.
As he took another step toward the base of the arch, vibrations pulsing from one of the rune stones caught his attention. He opened his hand to examine the three rune stones resting in his palm. The glow from the plague rune stone intensified noticeably, and he felt it tremble slightly—a distinct shift from its earlier calm behavior.
Jake took the plague rune stone with his other hand and held it out toward the bottom symbol, which matched the one etched into the stone. The glow intensified a fraction more, and the stone trembled more vigorously. Now, Jake could even hear a faint humming sound emanating from the rune stone.
With each step closer to the base of the arch, the glow, hum, and tremble of the plague rune stone intensified. When he was only a few yards from the dormant portal, something else happened—the plague rune stone in his hand grew warm, the heat seemingly emanating from within, pulsing from its very core. Jake continued to approach the base of the portal, eyeing the three engraved symbols, unsure about what might happen when he got close enough.
As he took another step toward the arch, the plague stone trembled so vigorously that Jake had to tighten his grip to prevent it from slipping from his hand. He wrapped his fingers firmly around the stone, and from between them, a bright greenish light burst forth between his fingers, growing stronger with every step he took closer to the portal.
The stone heated up to the brink of being uncomfortable to hold, the warmth seeping deep into Jake’s palm and fingers. As he clutched it tighter, he could feel the energy radiating from it, pulsing rhythmically like a heartbeat. The humming kept increasing, growing so loud that it drowned out the murmurs of the dormant magical portal itself. Then, as he stepped even closer to the arch, closing the distance to just two yards, something unexpected occurred.
The rune stone trembled violently in Jake’s grasp, compelling him to grip it even tighter. Suddenly, he noticed a wave of energy spilling from between his fingers, gliding through the air toward the bottom symbol engraved on the arch, drawn to it like iron to a magnet. Jake wasn’t sure if the energy was willingly flowing from the rune stone or if the symbol was actively siphoning it away. In the end, it didn’t really matter—only the result did.
For several seconds, Jake watched the energy flow from the plague rune stone toward the symbol. As the energy transferred, the rune’s glow faded while the symbol began to glow with the same greenish hue, growing brighter and brighter. Then, just as quickly, it was suddenly all over.
The plague rune stone no longer glowed. It emitted no humming sounds or radiated warmth. It lost its heat just as quickly as it stopped glowing. Now that it no longer trembled, Jake loosened his grip on the stone. He opened his hand to glance at it. The stone was lifeless and inactive, just like the other two resting in his other palm.
The plague symbol engraved on the arch’s surface was the exact opposite now, brightly pulsing with an eerie greenish light. Suddenly, a transition of the magical energy began. Various motifs and wavy lines stretching from the glowing plague symbol started to kind of fill with illumination. The glow flowed along those lines, first moving upward, then following the gentle curve at the top of the arch. Jake could see that those engraved lines ran along the curve of the arch’s top, down the opposite side, and eventually reached the indentation where the four fragments of the key were inserted.
Then the process suddenly stopped right at the curved top of the arch before the greenish glow could have reached the key. Jake turned his attention back to the plague symbol and noticed that while it was still glowing, its light was much fainter now, barely illuminating its surroundings. This suggested that the magical energy drawn from the plague rune stone wasn’t sufficient to carry the magical energy along the engraved motifs and lines all the way to the key.
Jake noticed that only some of the engraved motifs and lines were illuminated by the energy of the plague symbol—those that started from the other two symbols remained dark. This suggested that the remaining motifs required power from the other two symbols to activate. The symbols themselves could draw energy from the rune stones, as Jake had just learned. So he only needed to charge them with energy, but how could he accomplish that?
Jake pondered the issue for a moment, and soon an idea struck him. He recalled the black obelisks he had seen on various occasions. His thoughts drifted back to the very first one he had encountered. Before he destroyed it, he had witnessed it do something interesting.
It had used its energy to repeatedly revive the undead he had defeated. However, at some point, it did something different—it not only revived one of the skeletons but also infused it with magical energy, granting it the ability to wield fire magic and transforming the skeleton into a much more powerful version of itself.
He had also witnessed the black obelisk imbuing the undead with other types of magical energy—namely frost and plague ones—granting them the ability to wield elemental magic. So his idea was that perhaps he could use a black obelisk to charge his rune stones with magical energy. He wasn’t certain if it would work, but it was worth a shot, especially since he didn’t have any other options at the moment.
He had a feeling his idea might actually work. The good thing was that he hadn’t destroyed all the black obelisks yet. He consulted his mental map for the location of the nearest one and set off.