T. A. Star
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51 - Nuclear Vessels
🕑 Added 2024-05-07 00:00:00 +0000 UTC
“I don’t like this idea,” Dazien said to Phoenix telepathically over his communication ability as she and Everin had finally reached the massive ship. They had discovered it was actually hovering slightly above the ground, though just barely as whatever magical engine was being used groaned at the challenge the area presented.
Phoenix rolled her eyes again, “Director Trayvious already gave us the green light on this mission.”
“What green light? She didn't give me any light,” Everin interjected as he adjusted his grip on her.
They were currently flying through the air after the Wayfarer had a complete geek-out over the foxy helicopter and asked if he could also boost their movement speed, the answer causing her to geek out even more when he confirmed that, in fact, he could.
Phoenix palmed her face and groaned, “Just an expression, green means go in this context. We need to figure out where they’re getting more monsters from. Our side has killed more than would fit in this thing over the last three days. We need to stop the flow if we’re going to have a chance at lasting till Paul gets over here.”
“I know,” their leader mentally sighed, “I just wish there was a better way. We don’t even know if your portal can survive the blast.”
“Then Tails here will just have to shove one of the last mana potions in me and get me to conjure another one or, better yet, fly me out himself if we can.”
“And if the vessel collapses on top of you?”
“Hopefully, there won’t be a ship left,” Rayna mumbled over the mental network. Phoenix doubted any of her abilities were strong enough to take out the entire Emerald Caste vessel but, aside from the Caster driving the thing, only Crystal monsters and Reapers could be sensed within it which gave them a chance to at least stop whatever was generating the creatures.
“We’ve been over this, again and again, Daze. We were given this mission because of how far they’ve already managed to push back our line. They’ll reach Tulimeir in another three days tops. We’re going to see this through,” Phoenix said resolutely, as they approached one of the hangar doors they had noticed the Caged monsters exiting from.
“I know. I know,” the Defender finally conceded from his scouting location atop a hill near where the Adventurers had set up a secondary staging point out of the travel trajectory of the enemy ship.
“Alright, get in quickly and quietly. Find what’s making them. Conjure the portal. Light it up. Then go through the portal to get back here while Cleric Starlark flies back,” the gemite recited one last time before getting her confirmation.
The black hangar door quickly opened once more, practically spitting out a trio of Tundra Yetis, springy vines wrapped around them to safely deliver them to the ground far below. Before the plant-based bungee cords could return empty, Everin flew through the opening and Phoenix found herself being set down on hard metal flooring instead of soft moss like she half-expected given the weird walls that separated the room they were currently in.
“Now stay close behind me, little rebel,” the Emerald Caster said with a grin, “We don’t want you dying too early now.”
“We don’t want me dying at all, remember?” she pointed out wryly as she activated her [Embrace of Shadows] Aura, turning her hair and eyes pitch black in the dim light made darker around her by the shadowy effect that further obscured her from view, and followed the slightly shaded voxen through the next set of doors into a leafy hallway.
Despite being a Healer not well suited for fighting on the frontlines, Everin was an overwhelming force against the trail of Crystal Caste monsters they followed through the ship and took out any Soul Reaper that dared enter his path with only his Boons and voxen claws. Which was surprisingly few. It seemed that this ship had taken a different approach than some of the others that had been reported, simply spewing out monsters without a Caster to command them.
She couldn’t argue with the results, though, as they had seemed to have been given the very simple order of “Kill any Caster” as they flooded the battlefield. It almost reminded Phoenix of the tactics she had seen with the Chaos Summoners, using quantity over quality to simply overpower everything that couldn’t stand against the tide.
They eventually found themselves in a large room, after Everin dispatched a group of actual Casters, which contained something that was both familiar and extremely concerning to Phoenix. It was a gigantic version of the seed-like thing she had come across in Tulisuda that had been part of a huge network of magical enchantments that had been slowly absorbing the ambient magic of the pseudo-reality.
This one didn’t seem to be active at all, however, with no ritual diagram or black goo secreting from it. She conjured her book this time and willed it to identify the object within her aura.
Item: Corrupted Reality Seed
A divine seed of reality that has been Corrupted.
Caste: Obsidian.
Availability: Legendary.
Type: Tool, ingredient.
Requirements: Unknown.
Effects: Unknown.
“What in the abyss does that mean?” the Wayfarer said in annoyance as she stared at the unknown effects. She had never seen that happen before. Unknown rewards on a quest, sure, but her [Guide Book] had never failed to identify an item like this before. The fact that it was Obsidian and alien probably had something to do with the lack of information and she quickly retreated from it, not wanting to accidentally activate it by poking the wrong thing.
As she informed the Cleric about the lack of knowledge, Everin resumed his disapproving look at the item that must have been three stories tall at least as he asked, “Will your [Supernova] even do anything to an Obsidian Caste plant? What if it causes it to explode like we believed the ones in Tulisuda would do?”
“Holy crap, are these nuclear vessels?” the Wayfarer asked with wide eyes at the thought of these things getting launched somehow at the capital to simply explode like a nuke on impact.
“I’m not sure what ‘nuclear’ means,” the voxen replied with a raised brow.
“It doesn’t matter right now,” Phoenix said with a shake of her head. That was just another thing she didn’t fully understand nor felt comfortable introducing to a world that already had walking magical bombs in the form of Casters.
Instead, she redirected, “Our mission is to destroy the source of the monsters, not this thing, so as much as I hate to say this, we need to ignore it for now. We can deal with it once we win this assault. We’ll need to get back to let the Director know either way.”
The Cleric gave her another grimace before straightening his shoulders and nodding resolutely, “You’re right. Let's go finish this.”
It wasn’t long after that when they came across the room they had been searching for, deep in the lower bowels of the vessel and what they found was both impressive and terrifying. It must have been the largest ritual room either of them had ever seen as glowing runes hovered in the air, slowly orbiting the ritual circle that currently had five people at equidistant points around the circumference on the ground.
Then Phoenix realized they weren’t people, they were golems. Constructs like the BELs that didn’t have actual natural souls but the seeds of ones, similar to a monster yet slightly different.
The fact that they were performing the ongoing ritual was impressive on its own, as the beings must have taken an insanely skilled Crafter Caster to make in order to have both the knowledge and the ability to channel mana like that for an extended period of time. At least that was what she assumed based on the endless stream of monsters they had been fighting.
Currently in the center of the ongoing ritual were five glowing white monster seeds in the process of spawning and she whispered to Everin, “They’re forcing monster spawns to generate. I didn’t know that was possible.”
“I didn't think it was,” the Cleric replied, equally wide-eyed. Then he gave a malicious grin, “Ready to blow it up and hopefully get some decent progress on that annoying ability of yours?”
“Annoying? It’s like my strongest power!” she protested.
“Yes, and remind me again what the cooldown time on it is?”
“Six hours…” she mumbled, then added defensively, “But I seem to make more progress on it per use compared to my faster ones.”
“And remind me again how often you’ve been allowed to use it since arriving here on the battlefield?”
“This is the first,” she answered forlornly.
“Right, because it has that nasty side effect of destroying the terrain around it which might get an unaware ally killed from the poorly timed distraction and also takes you completely out of the fight.”
“Only for a few minutes!”
“That’s why I said ‘annoying’ and not ‘completely useless’,” the voxen finished, “Now, put your portal behind us and I’ll toss you through if it survives. Otherwise, we have to take the dangerous way back.”
“Should I use my last [Magi Fortune Booster] for this?” She asked after conjuring the pretty silver frame holding a picture of a star-filled night sky, having decided to try this way since her [Supernova] would silence her and make her unable to conjure it immediately afterward.
“Nah. I think your creepy shape-shifting thing plus my own Boons will be plenty for this,” he replied, easily scooping her up into his arms again.
“Creepy? I turn into a dragon!” she found herself protesting once again, wondering if the Cleric actually liked any of her abilities.
“Is that what it’s supposed to be?” He asked with wide eyes, “I thought it was some kind of hairless Felion missing its tail. You know dragons have tails too right? And scales and wings–”
“I breathe fire!”
“Technically, you breathe Light and Dark magic which is also rather odd looking. I mean, black flames shouldn't produce any light, you know. Plus, you're little fluffy chicken Familiar breathes weird fire too so that’s not really proof of dragonhood.”
“Tala is not a chicken!”
“Are you going to keep talking all day or are we destroying this thing?”
“You are not allowed around Dazien anymore,” she grumbled, “Between the two of you, I’m going to get in trouble for actually stabbing someone.”
“Such violence,” he tsked at her, then gave another wicked grin, “I think you get that from your father.”
She returned his grin with a sly smile of her own, “I’ll be sure to tell him you said that. Along with making fun of my abilities,” she said and when the voxen’s smile vanished as he stared at her in surprise she pretended in an exaggerated childish tone, “Paul! Everin is bullying me!”
“You wouldn’t,” the Cleric blanched.
“I could,” she said, as though pondering the idea.
“I’m fairly certain he would actually kill me,” he pointed out, then cast his Boons, [The Power of Friendship] and [Fight for Life], on her and smiled again, “You’re turning into a wicked little rebel, aren’t you?”
Ability: The Power of Friendship
Type: Boon (magical, covenant)
Cost: Moderate mana.
Cooldown: 1 minute.
Current Caste: Emerald 1 (36%)
Crystal Effect: You link your Magic attribute to the target, increasing the target’s Magic based on a moderate percentage of your own.
Sapphire Effect: You link your Fortitude attribute to the target, increasing the target’s Fortitude based on a moderate percentage of your own. Additionally, both you and the target gain [Double the Fun].
Emerald Effect: You link your Agility attribute to the target, increasing the target’s Agility based on a moderate percentage of your own. Additionally, you and all nearby allies gain [Welcome to the Herd].
Double the Fun (boon, magical, illusion): Taking damage creates a temporary clone of yourself that replicates your movements but vanishes when hit or after a short duration.
Welcome to the Herd (boon, magical, covenant): Increases Magic attribute based on how many allies with [Welcome to the Herd] there are nearby.
Class Ability: Fight for Life
Type: Boon (magical, life)
Cost: High mana.
Cooldown: 5 minutes.
Current Caste: Emerald 1 (41%)
Crystal Effect: Can cast on an ally for a moderate duration. Damage dealt heals a portion of that damage back.
Sapphire Effect: Additionally increases Strength and Magic by a moderate amount.
Emerald Effect: Can cast on multiple allies at once. Additionally, each attack dealt increases their maximum health pool up to the next Caste’s threshold.
She laughed and activated [Avatar of Bakunawa], “I guess you’re lucky I’m supposed to be a hero instead of a villain,” she replied then began to chant, “As this star begins to dim, a final burst of light. As my life begins to wane, a final shout of triumph. In a supernova sacrifice, I offer the hope of victory.”
As the amplified mana exploded outward, the pair quickly discovered that Phoenix’s portal could, in fact, not handle the destruction wrought by the Boon-enhanced blast when they fell through the air as plants and metal disintegrated around them.
She clutched tighter to the flying fox, saving her a death from falling a good twenty meters below where the floor and portal had once been. The Wayfarer almost screamed when the voxen suddenly stopped using his tails to fly and instead wrapped them around her as he turned her away from where the ritual had been taking place.
The Astromancer couldn’t see anything beyond the white fur and heavy fabric covering Everin’s chest as he held her tight against him but she could hear the secondary chain of explosions occurring when they didn’t just fall downwards but horizontally as the shockwaves of destruction buffeted them through the air.
“Phoenix? Cleric Starlark? I can tell the portal didn’t survive but are you both going to be okay?” Dazien’s voice said in her mind, unhindered by the cacophony of the large vessel exploding around her.
She could suddenly see again as the tails moved to lift them higher into the air, now clear of the flames, and she took the opportunity to look down to where a roiling magic storm was forming in the center of the vessel that had been sundered in half from the chain of broken enchantments and ongoing ritual triggered by her ability.
Angry sparks of blue lightning crackled amongst swirling black smoke that was condensing into heavy clouds as the volatile magic collided with itself and fought for dominance of the area. Flames in various colors consumed the moss and leaves that made up the ship and vines whipped around furiously, spraying acidic blood amongst the fire and further damaging the metal supports.
“Don’t worry, King, I’ll get the Princess back in one piece,” Everin replied, grinning down at her with sparks of mischief in those icy blue eyes.
Then the voxen paled in fear at the next words that filled their minds, “Good because we are going to need to have a talk about what ‘looking after the kids’ actually entails, fox kit,” said Paul.
Comments
Custus
Thanks for the chapter!
Calvin Hughes
Poor Everin, just gets bullied by everyone. 😆
