There is still a few hours of light left, may as well do it now and get it over with. Instead of opening a gate straight to the island I open one on a nearby island. Less chance of the maker being able to take control of my gate this way.

Once the gate is closed I take flight using my new wings and head towards the island. Now that I have a bit more chance to fly in my normal form I find it quite enjoyable. My maneuverability is a bit lower than the eagle form, but my speed is a bit faster.

As I fly over the island I am surprised that I can't see any undead, the island looks normal. Maybe they are all still beneath the volcano and haven't managed to climb out? If so, maybe I can get the diamonds and get out without the maker ever being aware of me.

Finding the lava tube from the air proves to be rather difficult, forcing me to go lower. Once I am at treetop height I am able to get my bearings and find the lava tube. However, as soon as I land an undead comes out of the foliage to attack me.

If it was just a normal skeleton or zombie it would be fine, but it is a zombie stegosaurus. Before it can reach me I shapeshift into the elven warrior form and pull the warhammer out of the pouch. Luckily, the zombie is slow and all I have to really watch out for is the tail.

However, even after hitting the thing with the warhammer three times it still keeps coming. After dodging the tail again I keep hitting the zombie, it takes another six hits. Nine hits in total, this isn't anything like the ancient zombies from before.

3 Origin Energy gained!

Three energy from one zombie, no wonder it took so many hits to kill the thing. It looks like the maker has been busy while I have been gone, I wonder what other surprises she has for me. I would prefer not to find out, but I doubt I am going to be that lucky.

A dinosaur zombie that has as much energy as a death knight, that is worrisome. The stegosaurus wasn't too bad to fight, but I don't want to see an undead T-rex or a bunch of raptors. Maybe the bigger something is the more energy it takes to reanimate it?

Whatever the case may be I quickly move into the lava tube before anything else shows up. Since I took the energy from the stegosaurus the maker might already know I am here. So I move down the lava tube at full speed until I reach the part where the diamonds are.

As soon as I reach them I drop shapeshift and start using my claws to pry them from the wall. However, being quick makes it a very noisy process and soon I hear movement from deeper in the lava tube. Shortly after, zombies and skeletons come out of the darkness and attack me.

Shifting back to the elven warrior I immediately start beating them down with the warhammer. However, even though I am beating them down, more just keep coming. With sheer numbers they start pushing me back away from the diamonds.

Then again, since I am getting Origin Energy I can just use it to make diamonds. Though, I guess this means the maker knows where I am so I shouldn't stick around for long. I start getting nervous when I pass fifty Origin Energy since this is where it started hurting before.

However, even when I pass sixty energy it doesn't hurt at all, something has changed. It is most likely due to my soul being repaired since nothing else has really changed. Since it means that I can gather more energy, it is definitely a good thing.

No matter how many I kill, the undead keep coming and they keep pushing me back. I don't think the maker is stupid, she must have some kind of plan in mind. It makes me start to worry about what is waiting for me at the exit of the lava tube.

Thanks to all the practice I have gotten in the hall I am now very good at using mana to sense things. So, I send some mana behind me to try and see what trap the maker has set up. As I thought, there is an undead T-rex waiting right outside the lava tube exit.

It would probably have already come in to trap me if it could fit inside. It looks like I have pissed the maker off quite a bit, this is a lot of effort just to kill me. The problem is, I am not exactly sure how I can get myself out of this mess.

Going forward is impossible, there are just too many undead, but the T-rex is even worse. While I still have some room to maneuver, it is shrinking fairly quickly. My best bet is probably to just gate out of here, but that might be what the maker wants me to do.

This could very well all be a trap to force me to use a gate so that she can take control of it. After all, probably her greatest desire right now is to get off of this island. An undead army is pretty useless unless you have somewhere to conquer.

While it is just a guess, it means I absolutely cannot use a gate on this island. It is bad enough that I freed them from the seal, but if I free them from the island it will be even worse. To make matters even more complicated, I have collected over a hundred energy now and it is starting to hurt.

With a thought I use my mana to raise a wall of rock between me and the undead. With them cut off I manage to buy myself a little time and quickly enter meditation. This isn't really the time, but I had a thought about a new way to use the Origin Energy.

First I look inside my body and find the lifeforce that is keeping me alive. Then I try adding the Origin Energy to it, it works but something goes slightly wrong. All of the Origin Energy I currently have converts into lifeforce, but then most of it bleeds away.

The frustrating thing is that I can't tell where the rest of the lifeforce disappeared to. On the other hand, I have a lot more lifeforce inside me than I did before. Since that was the point I can't call this a complete failure, but it still annoys me.

Krenocia says "Ash, did you just do something?"

"Um, maybe! Why?"

Krenocia says "Well, since I just received a random influx of power I immediately thought of you! So, what did you do?"

"I was experimenting with converting Origin Energy into lifeforce."

Krenocia says "Oh, that isn't anything major. Why are you so nervous? Wait! Just where did you get Origin Energy to experiment with? Ash, did you go back to the island?!"

"Well, yes, but it's not what you think! I didn't come here to get Origin Energy! I came to get some diamonds to use on the ship!"

Krenocia says "Diamonds? Why didn't you just go somewhere else to get them? You know the maker is dangerous!"

"Uh, because I didn't think of it?"

Krenocia says "Meaning you didn't think at all!"