ImmovableMage
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218 Setbacks
🕑 Added 2024-12-07 00:00:08 +0000 UTC– Era of the Wastes, Cycle 219, Season of the Setting Sun, Day 9 –
Terry was sitting alone in his room in the Lands’ Crafting Tower. He was channeling all his mana into the bottle artifact while stretching his mana perception to follow how the bottle achieved the condensation of mana into liquid form.
“Nothing…” grumbled Terry and took a deep breath.
He had tried relying on his mana control to achieve the same effect.
Failure.
“No surprise,” sighed Terry. He had passed the idea by his uncle Samuel and received a lot of skepticism as a reply.
Samuel wasn’t able to do it. Given that Samuel had been chosen as the teacher for mana foundation for a reason, none of the other teachers at Arcana Academy would be able to do it either.
According to his family, the Council members were not too far beyond the Academy’s instructors, which was actually a testament to their prowess. While the instructors followed a specialization, the Council members were less specialized and their magic focus was less narrow. Still, that implied that a generalist Council member wouldn’t stand far above an Academy instructor in the instructor’s chosen field of focus.
That left the magic sovereigns, who might be able to achieve a feat like liquifying mana, but also had no likely interest in achieving it. They were mages proper. Whatever benefit there might be in liquid mana flowing through their mana channels, masterful spellwork could replicate it with better mana efficiency.
Most of the benefits were to the physical body, which was the tool of mana cultivators, not of mages.
Terry exhaled sharply and scribbled in his notebook. He had one more idea to try.
Even if it worked, this would be beyond infeasible.
“Shut it.” Terry hissed at himself. “Establishing facts comes first.”
Soon after, Terry focused on setting up as dense a sequence of focus refractors around himself as possible…
If my control isn’t good enough to compress it directly, then…
He dumped his mana and rotated it into the focus refractors. Terry held the disruption domain close to his body and successively pumped it up with more and more mana.
He could feel the spell slicers increasing in intensity…
Maybe…
Crap.
Soon, Terry was running into complications. The intense spell slicers had ripped through some of his focus refractors. If he wanted to follow this path, he would first need to learn to compress or get a better hold on the refractors.
So even if it’s possible, the external compression would just be a multiplier for my compression of the refractors. Would that be enough?
Terry recorded his thoughts on the idea in his notebook.
Assuming I can figure it out, what do I do with it? As the dungeon defender, I had the liquid mana flowing through my mana channels. But if I shape it outside, then how do I get it where it’s needed? The liquefaction makes it physical, but I can’t just gulp it down and expect it to remain liquid until it enters my mana channels.
Terry flipped through the notebook and earmarked another page.
Perhaps Tiana has the right idea. Perhaps there is more to this.
Terry read over the page that contained his notes on his internal disruption discharge. On the one hand, the internal discharge had allowed him to shake off a powerful active spell targeting him.
Useful.
Relying solely on internal mana control.
On the other hand, the technique had practically emptied his mana pool and the intense spell slicers had torn through his mana channels, which had left him crippled afterwards.
Since it relied only on internal mana control, it’s understandable that Tiana, with her external mana control impairment, got interested.
But after I outlined the toll it took on me, the only reason she still seriously considers it is that she’s possessed by elementals, even if the possession is technically inverted.
‘The elementals have their own ways to protect the mana vessels from becoming too damaged.’
“I don’t have any elementals in my mind though, and I would very much like to keep it that way.” Terry tapped his pen on the notebook. “Perhaps I can train my mana channels up for it? Slowly increase the intensity with bursts before adding the focus refractors?”
Terry involuntarily looked around and flinched. He had gotten used to being told off by his healers whenever he got ideas like these. Fortunately for him, his healers were still in the other half of the Union.
“Hmm…” Terry made another note for the technique to underline its possible relevance to the liquefaction idea.
Feels like another long-term project.
“Not the time,” said Terry. His mana touch told him that the time for the next duel had come. However, before he could collect his things to move towards the arena, another appearance caught his attention. People were rushing through their dimensional gate.
Something is going on in the Freedom Cooperative.
Terry roughly pulled at his mana to collect it in an instant and force all excess mana into the bottle artifact while returning all his notebooks and tools into his storage items. He hurriedly checked all of his new equipment pieces before turning towards the door.
When Terry darted out of his room in the Crafting Tower, he halted because the local elementalists were staring at him with horrified expressions. He looked back to check if there was anything behind him.
“What was going on in there?” asked one of the disturbed crafters.
“Uhh…” Terry blinked before smiling sheepishly. “The intense rotating mana? Yeah, that was me. My apologies if it distracted you.”
“What?”
“No, not that!”
“I felt my mana being sucked away from me for a moment.”
“As if something was grabbing onto my mana pool.”
“Uhh…” Terry blinked and gulped. “Did I do that?” He had more forcibly pulled at his mana to collect it speedily, but…
Since when did he have a pull on mana already naturalized by others?
Terry suppressed the urge to reopen his notebooks. He had experience with harvesting and reclaiming mana from a distance. Combining that with his mana touch pervading everything, it just might explain…
“Not the time.” Terry hissed at himself and immediately realized he had voiced his self-reprimand out loud.
Weirdo.
Terry ignored the bewildered looks and darted towards his aunt’s original estate in the Lands. His inner Academy student would have to wait. First, he had to figure out what was going on in the besieged city state.
***
When Terry arrived at the dimensional gate hidden in Brynn’s original estate, two people were already there: Samuel and Matteo. Others were already on their way.
Terry couldn’t help but raise an eyebrow. “You were quick.”
Samuel chuckled. “Your mana sense is matching mine and with your mana touch, you are set up to surpass me, Whaka Terry, but you’ll have to surpass me by far, if you want to stay ahead.”
Meaning you either had specialized spellwork to enhance your senses or a localized detection spell or relied on a magic way to traverse the distance while I was busy running.
Fair enough.
Terry moved his eyes to Matteo.
I never fully understood how his elemental senses work, but he doesn’t have a transfer spell, does he?
“Remember this?” Matteo raised a hand with a golden ring on it. “I had one of the hired servants keep the paired trainee version so that I could quickly come over if necessary.”
Huh. Good idea.
Terry remembered the paired training rings. When the Divine Division had attacked Syn City, his aunt had handed the rings out so that both she and Matteo could switch places with Terry if they deemed it necessary to keep him safe.
Back to the important topics…
“What’s going on?” asked Terry and looked at the city guards from the Freedom Cooperative that were acting as messengers.
“The city was attacked,” explained Samuel. “Many of Brynn’s constructs were damaged or destroyed. It seems the Spirited Duchess has a way to use the souls of the departed and let them invade the bodies of the living to temporarily take control.”
Terry frowned and remembered the thralls deployed by the vampires during the ambush during the masquerade ball.
“My sister attacked?” Siling had arrived with others in tow.
“Possession?” Tiana’s expression darkened. She glanced at Matteo and clenched her fists. “That’s too cruel.”
“Effective though…” mumbled Terry pensively. Once again, he had to commend the strategy of the Lich Kingdoms even if the means were utterly abhorrent. Using disposable undead for the initial assault. Using thralls and similar magic to have their victims fight themselves in a lose-lose situation.
“Fortunately, the possession appears transient,” said Samuel. “Unfortunately, it gets worse. Going by the reports, there is a second phase of the ability where she then burns the original soul to empower the controlled creature.” He rubbed his eyes. “They’re calling these soulflame-empowered creatures husks.”
“That’s horrible!” exclaimed Jorg.
“We must stop her,” growled Tiana.
“Sister…” muttered Siling gravely.
“Any husks created from folks?” asked Matteo with narrowed eyes.
“That would have been my next question, too.” Samuel looked at the messenger for clarification.
“No,” the city guard shook her head. “Non-magic beasts and mana-corrupted creatures.”
Terry saw Siling heave a sigh of relief while several others also lost some of their tension. He clicked his tongue. “How extensive was the damage?”
“Significant, but far from catastrophic,” said Samuel. “With the help of the Crafting Tower, we can supply reinforcements, but it will take time to make up the difference.”
“Meaning, the city won’t be able to suffer many such attacks,” interjected Tiana. “We’ll have to think of something.”
Terry recalled the day the Hound had captured him, as well as the many battles he had fought for the Freedom Cooperative.
He had often felt that a defense was at a severe disadvantage because their enemies could focus on them and gather information. The defense was either preparing or reacting, but it was the invaders that chose the timing and means of attack. The longer they had to gather information, the more devastating their means could be employed.
Terry looked at Samuel. “We have to push back.” Their undead and husks are mindless forces to throw at their targets. They’re hardly suited to properly defend their captured territory. If we can push them in other locations, then they have to split the forces that matter. The folks and deathlife.
“That’s also what Chadwick said, Sir Guardian, and Isille agreed with him.” The messenger looked at Terry with slight surprise. “That we can’t resign ourselves to being on the defensive.”
Samuel frowned. “If you came here with that, then there has to be a complication.”
“Edmund disagrees with splitting the defense forces,” said the messenger. “Akemi disagrees with sending people to attack settlements, even if they were captured by the Lich Kingdoms. The hunters are split across varying opinions. The Whisperer and Intira agree in principle, but the Whisperer refuses to commit hunters and would rather send undead of their own, which Akemi, Isille, and others objected to.”
Of course they object. Sending mindless undead that don’t distinguish between hostage citizens and Lich Kingdom invaders would just be another attack. That would create even more victims and potentially flatten the settlements that survived the initial invasion.
Terry subconsciously emitted a growl. He was once again reminded that even though they were fighting on the same side, he did not see eye to eye with all of his allies. He had inevitably clashed with Thiago and Edmund during peacetime. He shouldn’t be surprised that he ended up disagreeing with them during the war.
“Perhaps I should go,” said Matteo. “With the elementals under my control, I would be sufficient to cover one—”
“What are you on about?” interjected Emaldine, who had arrived by now. “You have a duel later today!”
“A duel I’m going to lose anyway,” retorted Matteo. “The terms of the duel are designed for ritualists and spellwork prepared long in advance. If I was allowed to summon elementals, then maybe, but—”
“Are you sure you’re not just running away?” interrupted Emaldine. “I know about the people visiting you earlier.”
“What happened?” asked Terry with a frown.
“A long line of people telling me to go die.” Matteo sighed. “A daughter telling me I killed her parents, a father telling me I killed his wife and children, another one whose siblings all died when I—”
“When the demon rampaged,” corrected Emaldine and she glared at Matteo. “Terry was right. You have to learn to stand up for yourself.”
“But their suffering was caused by…” Matteo shook his head. “If not by me, then at least I was the means for it. I can’t just tell them to shut up and piss off.”
“Yes, you can,” barked Terry. “Everyone has their reasons.” Maybe it doesn’t fucking matter? “You don’t—”
“Of course you would say that.” Maximilian stepped through the gate into the basement, together with his group. “No care whatsoever for those harmed by your actions.”
“Maximilian, hold your damned tongue,” growled Lori. “I told you if you can’t get along with my brother, you can fuck off to the Libra Outpost.”
“I owe you a life debt. I go where you go,” insisted Maximilian. He harrumphed and looked at Terry. “But you…” He narrowed his eyes. “Lori stayed to defend the Libra Outpost against the wrath unleashed by her own country. You, however, conspired to attack the outpost and murdered Harrison, an innocent man that called you a friend. You even insisted that you’re not sorry for your actions. It’s no wonder you cannot sympathize with victims.”
Terry felt his own temper flare up, and he focused on his breathing.
Maximilian felt emboldened by Terry’s silence: “You’re not worthy of calling Lori your sister, you—” A gut-punch from his side forced the air out of his lungs.
“I swear, I’m going to collect that life debt if you don’t shut the fuck up,” growled Lori. “Terry is my brother and I don’t give a shit what you think about that.”
Miguel whistled and grimaced in mock pain. “Mate, you had that one coming.”
“Speaking of the Libra Outpost, the person Harrison defended by defending Willow was exactly the person behind all the victims here: Anand.” Terry spat the name in Maximilian’s face. “The mentor that caused Matteo to be possessed by elementals. The monster that conspired with Willow to kill my aunt.”
Terry held the furious glare from Maximilian and leaned closer to the hunched over mage. “The difference between you and me isn’t that only you can sympathize with victims. It’s that, in contrast to you, I can see that it’s possible for there to be more than one victim at the same time. I sympathize with the pain of the people that suffered under the demon’s attack, but my sympathy ends when they start harassing Whaka Matteo, who is as much a victim of that day as they are, if not more so.”
Maximilian scoffed but didn’t speak up anymore.
Terry straightened himself with a scowl still on his face. He looked at Matteo. “You deal with your duel. Even if there is no way you can win, you should still try.”
Matteo frowned.
“If they don’t accept you, they will just try and figure out another technicality to renege on the challenge rules,” said Terry. “Winning or losing, what matters is that they learn to respect you. Show them what you can do, even if it’s not sufficient to win according to the rules that disadvantage you.”
Matteo sharply exhaled some air. “Fair point.”
“Told you that your mind is clouded by your desire to get away from this place,” said Emaldine and slapped Matteo on the back. “Even our little cousin can see it straight.” She glanced at Terry. “I don’t remember you being this outspoken or… I don’t know, I remember you being more quiet and… innocent?”
“Naive, you mean,” said Terry. At least, that was what he thought of his past self in retrospect. “Anyway, I’ll go. You take care of your duel.”
“Fuck that,” exclaimed Jorg. “We’ll go.”
“Yeah!” agreed Siling. “I won’t have my little sister rampage under my watch.”
“Little? Aren’t you twins?” asked Terry.
“And isn’t your ‘little’ sister a mighty Duchess in the Lich Kingdoms,” added Miguel. “Did you forget that a count whooped Terry’s butt?”
“That’s just because the mighty Guardian is secretly a big softie,” retorted Siling.
Terry rolled his eyes. He felt tempted to revive the Impenetrable Woman nickname again, but decided against it.
“I refuse to believe my sister is that much stronger than I,” grumbled Siling.
“Growing up in the Lich Kingdoms can’t have been easy.” Emaldine pointed out. “I’m sure that strength comes with a lot of painful memories.”
“Let’s go,” said Terry. He said goodbye to Samuel and his cousins and then turned towards the dimensional gate.
“Are you sure?” Vess asked Tiana while they were following Terry. “What about your… situation?”
“I’m doing okay,” insisted Tiana. “Matteo says my progress is impressive. I still have the magic necklace he gave me for shielding my mind and my brother will also be around to help with the lightning, if necessary.”
While Terry’s group left for the city state, Emaldine looked at Matteo. “So, what are you going to do?”
“Fight,” said Matteo flatly. Before he could leave the basement, his elementals told him that Terry’s heat signature was returning. He turned to the gate with a raised eyebrow.
Terry smiled sheepishly. “Actually, would you mind lending me…?”
***
“Well, damn,” exclaimed Emaldine and puffed her cheeks. “Hard to argue with the numbers when their ritual just completely blows up the arena until no speck of the measuring dummies is left.” It was an impressive act considering the ranged elementalism duel was held in the largest arena in the Lands.
“See now what I meant?” Matteo clicked his tongue. “She had days to prepare the ritual to fuel, amplify and contain her spellwork.” He held his hand against his neck. “And she had hours to prepare her chained spellwork before the official measuring started.”
His purple eyes followed the metallic-haired woman out of the arena, where the elementalists were already cleaning up for him to take the stage. “Even if my natural mana throughput is much higher than hers, I’m competing with more than the officially allotted time since advance preparations are allowed. Unfortunately, I’m neither a ritualist nor very learned in proper spellwork.”
Emaldine watched the arena preparations quietly before stating firmly: “Just let loose and make sure they remember what you’re about to show them.”
***
Matteo walked into the center of the large arena and briefly rested his hand on his heartseeker dagger to calm himself. When he pulled away his hand again, the fog in his eyes vanished, together with the quieting effect that only allowed heartbeats to enter his ears.
Matteo took a deep breath and waited for the first targets to appear. When the targets manifested, he punched out a fist of fire. He opened his palm and slapped at the air while the flames followed his command to incinerate the targets.
Lightning cracked, and he darted forward to reach one side of the next targets. He hurled lightning backwards while spitting fire forward. He stomped on the ground and rock projectiles whirled around him, aided by furious winds.
The number of targets continuously replenished, and an increasing number of new targets manifested.
Eventually, Matteo jumped and kicked while a gigantic wall of ice followed his movements. He began sliding on the ice, propelled by intense tailwinds and blasts of fire.
His mana flared, and he pulled on the earth to soar and collapse over one quarter of the arena while he was frenziedly sliding towards the next.
The amount of targets kept increasing and with each successive wave, the targets became harder to destroy.
The magic underneath the arena ensured that no elemental change to the area would last. Matteo’s ice vanished. His flipped earth returned to its original position. He had to continuously use his mana abilities to keep up with the changes and replenished targets.
Eventually, Matteo halted at the center of the arena. He faced the taunting targets with grim determination and pulled Soul Fury from its sheath. He wasn’t allowed to summon any elementals, and that included the lightning-aspected dragon soul inside the blade, but there was no rule against using the weapon as a magical conductor. The leader of the ranged elementalists had used her own mage staff, after all.
The air soared underneath Matteo while a whirlwind lifted him up into the air. He raised the fiendish katana towards the heavens and snapped the fingers of his other hand. Purple lightning snaked around his body and then struck towards all corners of the arena, unceasingly blasting the targets into nothingness.
Matteo’s purple eyes glowed brightly while glowering down onto the arena. His hands guided a furious storm of raging lightning to do his bidding.
While the area reverberated with the deafening blasts of thunder, a heavy silence had fallen over the seats of elementalist spectators.
***
“HA!” One young elementalist exclaimed with glee. They might be members of a different school, but they were thrilled to see that the demon had been bested by the leader of the school for ranged elementalism.
“Take that demon! Go back to where you came from!”
“We don’t want you here!”
“Thinking you deserve to rule us? Don’t make me laugh.”
“In the end, you still lost!”
“Silence!” The man in sand-colored robes barked at his students from the close-combat elementalism school.
“Teacher?” One woman close to the leader looked at her mentor inquisitively. “I would figure you would be happier. It was surprisingly close, I admit, but the demon has lost.”
“Don’t call him a demon,” said the school leader. “Even when my brother gave his life to stop him, he didn’t blame the boy. That loud mouth Arcanian was right on one point. Our tower failed the kids when we allowed Anand into our ranks.”
The man tried to suppress the memories of his deceased brother. There was a reason that he had been happy to postpone the question of nominating another elemental tower master. He didn’t think anyone would be worthy of following in his older brother’s footsteps, least of all himself.
“Doesn’t change the fact that the dem— that Matteo lost,” interjected a teacher from his school. “He might have won against the summoners, but as far as ranged elementalism goes, he has been proven inferior.”
“Has he?” demanded the school leader. He subconsciously rubbed the school insignia on his sand-colored robes. He shook his head and looked at the subordinate. “Let me ask you this: How do you fight a summoner or ranged ritualist?”
“The best way to defeat a summoner is to ignore the summons and take out the summoner. Same for the ritualist or elemental mage. Get close and quickly take them out.” The teacher tilted his head and furrowed his brow, clearly suspecting a trick question. After all, they were the school of close-combat elementalism. This was literally their core mission and unique selling point over the other schools.
“Right…” The school leader moved his gaze away from the teacher and back to the arena where Matteo was about to exit. “Tell me then, how, by mana, do you quickly take out someone like that?”
The teacher cracked his mouth but did not reply. Instead, he reconsidered the performance he had seen from a new angle.
While some still protested and discussions broke out over what Matteo’s performance implied for the relevance of the different schools, the school leader ignored the ongoing debate. He simply continued looking at the exit of the arena. His eyes remained glued on the two weapons visible on Matteo’s back and hip: Soul Fury and the heartseeker dagger.
The school leader clenched his fists. He admitted that Matteo possessed power, but he still wasn’t convinced that this power was truly the boy's own. He did not blame the boy for what had happened in the past, but he refused to risk a disaster like that happening again.
He couldn’t allow it.
He wouldn’t.
***
Comments
ImmovableMage
No. Sigille's husband was a protector in the tower. This is the brother of the previous tower master. A lot of people died that day. The tower master was the one that managed to stop the demon's rampage.
Sesharan
Oh? The brother of the person who gave his life to stop Matteo? That would have been Sigille’s husband, yes? Which means that this man ought to be Emaldine and Matteo’s uncle, if he accepted the family that Sigille accepted. That’s a very interesting connection.
