-Ester Von Holtzem-
Standing back, I watched as my nephew, Ras and Terrin, cooperated with the sweet tooth, Ms. Popper, and her boyfriend, Mr. Chaput. The four of them were working in tandem to fend off a trio of Soldiers of Clay operatives we intercepted going only what I can assume was a secret cache of theirs, making use of the system slot’s connections and attunements they have been acquiring since gaining access to Witch Synthia even though it was a gruelly affair that would end in failure unless I stepped in. But for now I wanted to observe them until I intervened: take note of their own specialties and proficiencies while they experienced failure in a chaperoned encounter.
My nephews were both delving deeper into the nuances of system slot magic. Ras made use of Historie Pastoria Sweets to mutate three system slots into a stratum 2 multi-slot, using one of its three connections to empower his spirit rain flowers’ floating ballista to make it stronger and another one to power-link Synthesis: Editon’s Bow of Glyiria to the empowerment. The fact he was soldiering through the fact he now had a cursed system slot in the form of Dulled Senses Affliction was commendable: it was only inevitable that he would gain one, if not now then at tier 7.0 like everyone else. Hopefully his research into cursed magic would yield results to further both his style of spellcraft and bowmanship. Terrin on the other hand followed Mr. Fayn’s path and acquired two multi-system slots to use as power-links while empowering his lilacs’ spirit ring to make it stronger and usable without a simulated body. The pair of power-links for his Flasaporium Hut system slot connected to his ice sprite-spirit, Isabella, and the Lion of Von Leoia herit crest he now possessed allowed him to be a proficient spirit mage even here. His preparations for acquisition were meticulous, allowing him to avoid a cursed system slot at the point in time unlike his half-brother and Mr. Fayn.
As for Ms. Popper and Mr. Chaput, their own decisions and styles of spellcraft were interesting to see: a real insight on the variety of spellcrafts found on the Earths. Ms. Popper use of an attunement to grant free and improved access to her crystal begonias’ spectacles and a multi-system slot that empowered it with connection to grant a tie dyed begonia’s grimoire and power-linked to her Low-Attribute Bolt with the other. Her use of her high low-attribute colour attunement allowed her to easily pass herself as a native mage. Mr. Chaput on the other hand, his attunement improved his blue violets’ floating violet by infusing it with wellspring perception and the Game System of Grand Fantasia Gates while his two new sub-feature gave him a handgun and unlimited ammo tied to the Hybrid System of Flowers. His physique-base spellcraft was straightforward but fully demonstrated his earnesty, diligence, and adaptability. The two were handling the requirements for attunements revolving around the six primary special locales was quite resourceful.
“There are so many of them,” commented my nephew loudly from his sprite-spirit’s fog bank as his marble-esque lion companion tore through another golem, showing it was not another contracted spirit or familiar but a powerful magical beast of its own right and a patron. As the soldier-molded golem fell, another took its place as one of the soldiers’ many outcroppings of claydal blooms, thick flowers with squat grayish green petals, on their body glowed with magics and mana.
“Didn’t your uncle say he would help us if things got too dangerous?” replied Mr. Popper as she sent out a volley of translucent magic missiles to destroy another golem. As it stands her weakness still very much attrition: it didn’t matter how high her low-attribute colour attunement was, she was still bound by the same limitation of drawing in mana as everyone else and had nothing to mitigate the fact. And for the Soldiers of Clay this was a poor matchup.
“Yeah, cause this is starting to feel a bit dangerous,” followed up Mr. Chaput, firing off the rest of his handgun’s magazine of system-infused bullets into a golem and shield bashing it away.
“It will be fine, trust Uncle Ester,” chided my other nephew as he fired arrow after arrow with the ballista-support from Editon.
To think that the Soldiers of Clay aren’t just a series of hypocritical splinter cells toting their own self-serving version of meritocracy but an armed militia supported by the high mage lord of the Geomancers’ Armed Confederacy… I mused to myself, frustrated with the report I was reading. A high mage lord, a ruler of Witch Synthia, was leading these forces; even with all the blessings of the saintesses I wouldn’t be able to defeat him.
Seeing there was no reason to keep the exercise going on and risk one of the four of them, I activated my latest attunement: Bouquet of Eyes, one of the few mandalas that made use of my extra class specialty in Divination Glyphs. As the blooming of eye-patterned flowers appeared in my hands, I conjured my third set of Lumiera De Sola and had the two fused together to create the conjuration of Synthesis: Lumiera De Sola Flora. I will need to practice more as to remove the need for this showy display, I mentally told myself with a nod.
The first volley of lasers managed to sheer through four of the golems as I made my way down from the outcropping of counterfeit-fossil-filled stones that filled this personal hill of fantasy, New Age Fossilerium. Not a single thing of feedback or mistaken nuance, the reports were true: mandalas up to the 2nd generation of synthesis were fine without connections to the Hybrid System of Flowers while for Grand and Legendary Magus-grade mandalas they needed that connection, beyond that needed attachment from appropriate system slots. So for these operatives, they were child’s play compared to a tier 7.3 spellman like me.
“Retreat!” yelled one of the operatives, already turning tail now that he noticed how powerful I was. While the translation device I was using couldn’t catch emotional tones that well, it was all but apparent how panicked he was.
“You should have retreated a long while ago, the amount of mana suppressing I was using was elementary. It seems you golem sentients don’t have much in manalogical senses,” I noted as the pink-and-green of my Lumiera De Sola Flora’s telescoping joints and gyroscopic joint shifted and repositioned its multicoloured lenses. With a contained slicing motions of lasers, I sliced the operative’s left leg off while his companions fleed. I could have killed him, but it would be a waste: if he were in a simulated body then his real body would likely be safe in a tower to escape from and if he weren’t then he could be potentially revived by his companions. Regardless, I was above wanton murder, it did not matter if they were sentient, partial-magi-sentient, or magi-sentient, they were conscious and living. “Terrin, can you inform your sister that we have another prisoner?”
“Of course Uncle Ester. Isabella, you know what to do,” replied my nephew as he sent his ice sprite-spirit flying back toward Blackentrail. Hopefully Jezebel was not too tied up with maintaining our latest round of research and deal making while dealing with the trio from the Goltinium Spellman Nine and their trio of secret housemates.
“So… not to be rude… but why couldn’t you just do that from the start?” asked Mr. Chaput as he watched the two other Soldiers of Clay running deeper into the dungeon-like distortion with their golem conjurations in tow.
“It was to test us, wasn’t it?” answered Ms. Poppers for me, tapping her spectacles lightly before dispelling her grimoire conjuration.
“Precisely, and from I could observe that you all could take on operatives of the quality you just fought in pairs. Of course location is a large factor in this.”
“You think we could fight them one on one if we fought them in the Enigma, or Robby’s Enigma?”
“That seems to be the case for my nephews. For you, yes if you keep your encounter short and strike the operative instead of their conjurations. As for your boyfriend, while he is of resounding defences for some of his tier and portfolio of mandalas, he likely would not be able to win. A tie at best.”
“Well thanks for the vote of confidence,” muttered Mr. Chaput as he watched my two nephews secure the now one-legged operative. In an attempt of futility, the Soldier of Clay tried to conjure up another golem, but my Lumiera De Sola Flora made short work of it.
“You bastards,” spat out the golem sentient, sludge-like slate-mahogany blood oozing out of his wound as Terrin sent to freezing it with a simple spell.
“I guess now we know if he is in a simulated body or not,” chimed Terrin nonchalantly, taking some bandages from his personal subdimension and using them to help close the wound.
“I am not cowardly enough to use a simulated body. Nor am I afraid of your forbidden magics.”
“You are the only one that uses forbidden magic here.”
“Don’t bother with him brother, he is another lunatic, like the last dozen of the soldiers we’ve managed to capture,” noted Ras, obviously prodding the mental state of our captive. I could see a look of fiery indignation in the golem sentient’s eyes before fading as I made the multicoloured lenses of my Lumeria De Sola Flora glow with mana. It was an interesting sight to see: legendary and higher tiered mages were exceedingly uncommon, those who were against sentients ascending more so, and senients that followed said sort of mage? The definition of impossible odds. Although I could not necessarily blame such powerful mages, the lifeforms that their higher stratum pieces of a being always produce… anachronistic lifeforms, they could be notoriously troublesome. Does this high mage lord, Terrence Flint, have such troublemakers, he would need at least one Mythic Magus-grade mandala and one stratum 5 multi-system slot to be a ruler of this artificial world cluster. It would explain his position on the matter, I postulated as the five of us waited with the subdued Soldier of Clay.
“I shall take things with the others,” commented Jezebel as she watched a Glyirian recursive mage-warden take the Soldier of Clay captive away. The second the warden drew near, the operative recoiled in obvious fear: it was only natural, the Soldiers of Clay made use of forbidden magic derived from the damned ninth will, counter, and therefore knew how dangerous they were. He probably knew more than anybody here save perhaps myself.
“Is this what Robert and other blackzones managers feel when we’re around them?” asked Francis Jacket, one of the Goltinium Spellman Nine occupying my nephew, as the warden and captive began the trek back to the engine-powered carriage. “So oppressive…”
“It is a similar feeling, they feel power from other pinnacles of mages. It is often considered unsavory when not from another blackzone manager or one of their race-hybrid that are still undoubtedly pinnacles of mages also. But for us sensing a recursive mage with our own manalogical sense, it is oppression,” I explained, drawing on my experience with the blackzone affairs department. “After all, as one of the pinnacles of mages, their magic is more potent, and when that brand of magic includes anti-magic and hexes of sentience it is a terrifying prospect. Our innate nature as magi-sentients and mages reels from such power.”
“Maybe I should try to become a recursive mage and incorporate into that next set of katanas. It would make an interesting Grand Magus-grade mandala…” idly commented another one of the Goltinium Spellman Nine, Aya Kawa-Muramasa, as she stroked the hilt of one of her mandala-wrought blades.
“That would be interesting indeed. Perhaps we can talk about it over dinner?” I suggested with a smile, taking the opportunity to know them better. While they were a part of the Goltinium Guild, they were also allies of Historie Pastoria Sweets and by extension, my nephew: that was enough for me to want to understand them in detail and perhaps even get them a guiding hand as a fellow spellman. And leaving with Jezebel and the others would give a chance for my nephews along with Minerva and Wes the chance to delve further into this hill of fantasy if it was their periogative.
After our show of force, this place would likely be clear of Soldiers of Clay for the next few days, meaning any hidden caches or bases of operation should be free to pilfer. And if those four didn’t do it, then it would simply be a matter of sending others or even myself to scour the surroundings. It should be interesting to see what a search yields, perhaps something that will allow them to improve their spellcraft, I thought to myself a quaint smile before sending off a pulse of mana using my budget Grand Ascension, Noble Mana Fission, to guarantee the fleeing of lingering Soldiers of Clay operatives.
