Once, a powerful Magus of the then newly minted Imperium devised a plan to ascend to godhood, he would tap into the Sphere of Mana that lies at the center of this universe we live in and open his path to apotheosis via sheer brute force. For his Hubris he was killed and his soul transformed into pure mana, for his miracles he was awarded immortality as his spells were reverse-engineered and allowed All-Father Faal to forge new paths to conquer faraway realities.
On the wonders and horrors of Magic, the abridged Volume 3.
Arch-Mage Sophia couldn't believe her eyes as the woman she had trained for months deserted her to fend off her son, his whore of a lover, and...shite, that was Vivienne wasn't it? Sophia was hoping never to meet the girl again, after all, she had fucked all up, and let Galius get away with it while turning a blind eye and lying to her son about it...this was not good, not at all.
"She won't give the spell Willingint Kaine, No Mercy" Vivienne spoke in a hushed whisper, the girl's entire body was covered in some moving plate armor, it was almost mesmerizing watching crystal and steel warp like that...Sophia barely dodged the energy blast from the sword when she came to, Vivienne having done a short teleport and planting a double-legged kick right in her ribcage.
Kaine did not wait for his friend to finish and nailed Sophia with chains made out of solid white jade, Kaede leaped upwards, and with a scream that betrayed quite a pair of lungs, her hands up high as a sphere of blue light was made manifest and Sophia felt cold sweat on her back, by all the hells and devils both was she trying to level the entire city!?!? Sophia flexed her hands and stretched.
A terrible, inhuman noise was heard all around them as the Annihilation of Met was dispelled by a wave of mana so strong, that it swept over Kaede and made the young kitsune fall back to their floating platform, she had a wolfish grin on her face "Gotcha" she said as her body went up in smoke and Sophia heard a grinding noise come from her belly, Kaede slamming another Annihilation of Met straight into Sophia.
Cracks in the fabric of space and time formed as Sophia's body was unmade and then made again, Kaine laughed as the Goddess who was nested on his back opened her eyes and pointed her finger towards Sophia "Not yours to use" with a snap of her fingers Sophia felt all her knowledge of Chronomancy being locked away deep within her mind and soul, never to be used again.
"Kill me your whore and disgrace of a son, and Malphas will mount your heads on a pike and throw them at Lucrezia's feet!" Sophia spoke in rage as she began lobbing spells with velocity no living mage could pull it off, the trio immediately split off to the sides, with Vivienne grabbing the hit of her sword with both hands and summoning a pitch black bolt of energy, Sophia snarled and with lighting quick gestures nearly dispelled the attack from the vile weapon, it wasn't enough given her attention was being pushed to the max in other fronts, Kaede slamming her barriers with battering rams made out of solid rock and Kaine throwing some sort of demented chronomanict spell that slowed the space around her.
"Give me the spell scroll, and I won't hurt you" Kaine spoke and his mother scoffed "Hurt ME?!?" Sophia spat in his direction with force likely propelled by magic or sheer hate "Welp you couldn't hurt me if you had a dozen gods backing you!" with a force of raw magic hitherto seen she leaped into the air and with gestures akin to a fighter slashing the air in front of them, summoned great arms out of ectoplasm.
As if a giant had descended from the heavens itself, the arms began raining down blows upon all of them, Kaede having the worst of the attack as more arms were summoned and started hammering her defenses before she could even get a counterspell off, planting her staff on the platform she focused entirely on defense as a mighty tower made out of arcane energy and divine power was erected around the young kitsune, a bulwark against the unending attacks.
"Vivienne, are you sure this is mind magic at work? I can not detect anything" Kaine sent a short message to his friend and the woman replied in the back of his mind "Yes, it is deep within her soul in a way that can thwart even specialized scans, we will need to restrain her to remove it" Vivienne spoke with conviction that made him wary, how did she find out?
A question for another time, Kaine felt his soul nearly rupture from the amount of divine power he was summoning, as the girls bought him time he saw his mother hurl magic and insults both with speed and precision that truly made him stand in awe of her might, his father was right after all, in a straight fight there would be no way he could defeat his mother.
I can only hope her behavior improves somewhat if I can clear this mysterious spell the queen placed on her, calling Kaede a slut is getting on my nerves already he thought to himself as she saw Vivienne cut off all the arms and his mother float back down to the platform, conjuring a ball of white flame as Kaine's eyes widened in horror, a comet swarm! Gods be good the woman was mad!
"Kaede, more protection, every ounce of mana on it!" He barked the order and his beloved nodded, grabbing her staff with both hands and kneeling in front of it as the tower became a mighty castle, as soon as the spell snapped into place he screamed for Vivienne to retreat and behold the true power of his mother.
Comets the size of walls slammed into their fortress, each boom knocking them around as Kaede held on for dear life, but Sophia did not stop, with chanting, actual honest-to-goodness ritualistic chanting she bombarded the spell construct with tornadoes, lighting storms, huge ice spikes akin to tree roots and even torrents of pure light, a magician version of a pillar of holy fire.
Now Kaine heard the soft voice of his Goddess and raised his staff, around the city numerous mages and faithful of Gwennarius channeled their faith towards him as sigils of power, Magi-Tech radio towers and even Spirits Lucrezia managed to convince to help aid Kaine in casting this mad spell, with a grunt of power he focused on the image of his mother who was ready to slam another round of city busters on them and pointed his staff.
A torrent of power, unseen in the mortal coil but felt by anyone with good enough senses slammed into Sophia as her body, mind, and soul were ravaged by powerful chronomancy, an array of effects that ranged from slowing her perception of time, to forwarding it, wrecking her body mass, muscles and nerves then healing it, and even messing with the soul which left both Kaine and Gwennarius in a precarious position due to how much-unsanctioned necromancy they could employ before the Undying got angry, luckily for both Kaine had already hashed out a deal with Castra-Cam, but still...
He felt iron in his mouth, of course he wasn't too keen on hurting his godsdamned mother but if what Vivienne had spoken was true, then this was the only way...at least that was what Kaine spoke to himself to stop the little voice inside his head comparing him to Lucrezia again, this time in the Kin killing front, who would be next the little voice posed a query, dad? sister?
"Snap out of it Kaine!" Kaede screamed from his side and he was back in the real world, gods above and below he loved that woman, with a nod towards her the 3 of them rushed to a stunned Sophia. whose massive spells had safely stopped and left the woman kneeling on the platform's grounds. Kaine raised his staff once again and prepared to cast a Mind spell that he often used with his dear friend Arthur. This convoluted Mind-Soul bridge would form an illusory realm inside the mind of the one being cast, and hopefully find the source of compulsion that the queen had implanted on his mother.
Joining hands, Kaine snapped the spellwork into going live and felt his entire being getting sucked into the weave, a nasty side effect that he was already used to but he felt the two girls would cringe at the experience, given it was their first time doing it.
The world went dark, and then there was light, pale blue as waves of mana radiated from Sophia's soul, Kaine landed on his feet as both Kaede and Vivienne staggered and fell, he helped the girls up and looked around "I can sense the spell we are after, its behind something...powerful, rotten luck whatever spell the queen latched on mother's soul and mind is flexible enough to guard it?"
Kaine shook his head, he knew his parents and Arthur's parents had accomplished adventures before rising to the leadership positions they were in, it would stand to reason Queen Malphas had picked up a few tricks when it came to Mind Magic and Necromancy...
Kaine felt a surge of power, of a unique variety flash from Vivienne, his nose twitched at the distinct smell of the Divine energy that surged from her and the word Draconic came to his mind like a light spell in the darkness.
Two shades parted from her body, one he was very familiar with as her metallic arm held a mighty dragonbone ax, hair tied into a ponytail, and azure eyes scanning the empty halls of the landing pad for the spell.
"Lucrezia? No... it's a construct of some sort, a defense mechanism of the soul born out of the, ah I see..." Kaede spoke in a whisper as Kaine saw Vivienne nod without looking at them, yet the second shade was the one that spooked him something strong, part of his mind screamed at him saying that it was something alien, from beyond the cosmos even which was strange.
Then it spoke.
"...Powerful foe, the specter of evil..." Kaine knew it was some alien language, but given he was indirectly tapping into Vivienne's soul he could understand the shade, he looked barely 16 years of age, with dark hair, and median stature, in his hands a plain steel sword and no armor, he didn't need to guess the role of this shade given what he had heard and seen from Lucrezia's in the real world, this was how she had helped Vivienne in her greatest time of need.
Vivienne smiled at the boy "We have backup this time" and he nodded, his head snapping to Kaede and Kaine, he locked eyes with Kaine and twisted his head to the side, within those dark eyes of his Kaine saw a semblance of someone...someone he knew but couldn't name it, it was if he already knew the shade.
"Kill the apparition, steal the spell, rush to the academy" Kaede spoke, the party nodded in agreement "Think we can win this time?" she asked Kaine who smiled "Aye we can love, this is but a fraction of Malphas's power, and we? we are mighty"
Do or die, Kaine felt his Divine Sigil blossom as a rare feeling of pride came from his patron Goddess, a smile on his lips betraying the myriad emotions he was feeling at the moment, a passing thing as the young mage prepared for the grueling fight to come, Kaede did the same as she fired a chain of enhancement spells towards the party and herself, every edge would help them close the gap, apparition or not, that was still Malphas, strongest mortal of the new world, Death Incarnate.
Lucrezia's shade together with the mysterious boy was flanking Vivienne as she powered that uncanny sword of hers, the boy bellowed out a mighty warcry and bolted as Lucrezia's shade leaped to the air and rained down Iron spears into Malpha's apparition, and the vile construct uttered nary a sound, even when steel and iron pierced its form, or spells singed its ghastly skin.
Kaede shepherded the apparition into kill zones that Kaine set up but it just took the magic spells like a mighty giant, spears of force, thunderbolts and fireballs, missiles invisible to the eye, and even the rare chronomantic spells the two of them had made for especially tough enemies, a killing combination of time dilation, haste effects and perception of how time flows, those Kaine felt had an actual effect in the apparition.
Then Vivienne got a hit with her sword and the apparition screamed. A howl that hurt Kaine's ears as he tried his best to cast the specific combination of shield and mental protection spells he knew to counter this hellish noise, seconds became minutes as he saw everyone falling to their knees until he got the somatic components right and felt sweet relief as the noise was fully blocked.
"What the fuck was that?" Vivienne asked and Kaede replied, "Some sort of wide-range necromantic spell, I can feel my soul hurting at the tip of my fingers and toes, tail and ears, Gods be good imagine if this came from the real Malphas!"
"Focus!" The mystery shade barked as Kaede's eyes locked on his form, the shade leaped through the air and spread his arms, a nasty-looking bolt of purple energy slamming into his form as Malphas's apparition stalked towards them, kicking Vivienne in the shins and knocking her down, Lucrezia's shade moved forward and slashed the apparition with fury and speed but it was for naught, for every blow was either parried, sidestepped or outright blocked.
Kaine saw Vivienne rise and give him a nod, understanding her idea the young mage floated slightly in the air and flexed, feeling a monstrous quantity of divine energy and mana muster inside his soul as he chanted, the spell form flickering into existence then solidifying around the apparition, Kaede not wasting time joined him with the chanting, bringing her well of power to the ritual.
Manipulating gravity is never fun Kaine thought to himself as he felt the strain of the spellwork crash upon him, it was indeed a branch of magic only the more robust of mages could use when you increased the scale up, but he persevered nonetheless, and with a mental click he and Kaede felt the ritual finish, great spikes of spectral force slammed themselves into the ground around the apparition, chains of pitch black iron flew out of them and bonded Malphas's apparition, one second, two seconds, and she was already breaking free.
With a grunt of rage and power, Vivienne stabbed the apparition in the chest and dragged the blade upwards, ripping into the solar plexus like an Orc Warboss, another twist of her blade and she looped around the neck, removing the entire thing off the body like it was made out of soft pastry.
"For fuck's sake, how did Lucrezia even defeat the real deal?" Kaede asked and no one replied, Kaine took a full minute to compose himself as he felt the mental plane he had created inside his mother slowly break, with a series of scanning spells and divination he confirmed whatever compulsions on his mother were gone, would the woman be kinder to the love of his life now? would she not side with Malphas again? he did not know, maybe she had agreed to this...
"The scroll" Kaine's attention focused on the boy's shade, in his hand a plain white scroll, entrusting it to Kaine the boy smiled a kind smile, as if they knew each other "Do I know you shade?" Kaine asked, letting his curiosity get the better of him, the shade's face morphed into an apologetic look "Once...Little Mage, questions plague your mind about me, those questions will be answered soon" Another smile and he was gone, Lucrezia's shade bowed towards Vivienne and also went away.
Kaine unfolded the scroll and felt its knowledge blast into his brain, with this he felt another sensation as Gwennarius's sigil pulsed, he had done it, he had avoided the horrible fate he saw, and now...
"The future is in flux once again Kaine, In saving me and now your dearest friend you have mended the river of time but now" he felt Gwennarius laugh a cruel laughter "Now we sail upon dark waters, under dark skies and you best prepare thyself for this journey"
