Transcendence, page 30
part #6 of The Beginning After The End Series
I cursed once more, but regretted it immediately when an airy laugh sounded beside me.
“Is the impregnable mental fortress of Olfred Warend slowly crumbling?” Aya whispered—behind me this time.
I saw a group of soldiers in a defensive position, firing out spells, and watched as they began dropping to the ground, clutching their necks.
I won’t be able to protect anyone at this rate, I thought, just before a stampede of horned wyrms suddenly appeared around me.
I ignored the illusions. Instead, I willed three of the rifts on the ground to erupt. Three blasts of molten lava coalesced in a fiery collision where I had sensed Aya’s mana fluctuation.
My spell hit.
“As expected. Can’t let my guard down against you,” Aya whispered, shimmering into view. She was clutching her burned arm.
Meanwhile, screams of horror and shock echoed through the room, from the soldiers who weren’t able to distinguish between reality and her illusions.
“Your illusions are as sadistic as always, Aya,” I spat in disgust. “Your sick habit of torturing your victims is why you are always ostracized—even amongst your own people.”
“I saw that lovely statue you made up there,” Aya replied, fading from view. “If you ask me, I’d much rather have my breath sucked out of my lungs than be slowly burned to death in a molten tomb.”
“That filth deserved it.” I erected another magma knight in the location of her voice. “I gave him the same fate as those he chose to enslave for monetary gain.”
“Is that the same logic that led you to betray Dicathen?” Her tone was sharp, which was rare for Aya.
“You elves have never understood the hardships our people go through. Even after your war with the humans, dwarves are still treated as lower class. Just because our people would rather hone our magical abilities to create rather than destroy, we are belittled and taken advantage of. I trust Lord Rahdeas’s decision to join arms with the Vritra and the Alacryan army.”
“Do you think the Vritra would care for Rahdeas and your people? The Vritra and all the other asuras call us lessers because we’re nothing to them!” she hissed, displaying more emotion than I’d ever seen from her. “You’ve read the report we were given, haven’t you? How the Vritra experimented with the Alacryans in order to enhance their army to fight against the other asura clans. They want to do the same here, to your—to our people. Dwarves, humans, and elves alike!”
Now!
I siphoned as much mana as I could afford, creating a devastating blast of fire and stone around me.
The illusory mist dissipated, revealing the elven Lance.
She tilted her head. “Did you give up on protecting the Alacryans?”
“The ones left are dead. The others have escaped through the tunnels I created while you were busy lecturing me,” I answered.
Aya still wore her mask of apathy, but I could tell by the slight twitch of her brow that she had miscalculated.
Without hesitation, I rushed toward her. Aya retaliated, dashing back while hurling crescents of compressed air at me. However, I no longer had to worry about protecting others, which freed me to fully utilize my power.
Slabs of lava from the ground and walls began gravitating around me, enveloping me to form a protective suit of molten armor. The compressed blades of air chipped away at my magical armor, but new slabs of molten rock filled in the gaps.
The magma knights I had summoned all lunged toward the elven Lance, their weapons ablaze, but Aya was too fast. Even without the mist shrouding her movements, she was easily able to outmaneuver the golems and reduce them to pebbles with her counterattack.
Time seemed to slow as we fought. I couldn’t match her speed, but she couldn’t overcome my defenses.
“It seems we’re at a stalemate,” I said as I regenerated my armor to repair another crack.
There were patches of raw skin on Aya’s limbs where my magma had managed to burn through her defensive aura, but she was still relatively unharmed.
“Well, if this duel goes on for another hour or so, you might actually have the upper hand,” she said with a cheery smile that didn’t quite reach her eyes.
“As I said before, another Vritra is coming soon. It’s not too late for you to run away.”
She replied by hurling a barrage of air blades from all directions.
Ignoring the damage to my armor—which was already repairing itself—I shaped the magma in my left arm into a jagged lance.
I struck at Aya, simultaneously conjuring spikes of lava from the ground beneath her and the wall behind her.
For a moment, I thought my attack had landed successfully, but then her body faded into wisps of air.
Curse her illusions.
The battle continued, but it seemed Aya had no intention of beating me. Her attacks grew less confident. She seemed to be losing mana, but my instincts kept me cautious. She was planning something.
I let my guard down purposely, hoping she’d get in closer range.
She took the bait, flickering right above me with a whirlwind of air concentrated into a spear-like point around her arm. She struck the crown of my helmet, shattering it and nearly piercing my skull as well.
Reacting instantly, the suit of magma protecting me wrapped itself around Aya’s arm, holding her in place. The elf’s eyes widened in horror as I pierced her with a mana-infused hand.
Aya tried to speak, but only stuttered gasps came out as I twisted my bloodied arm inside her to ensure she wouldn’t survive. “You’re strong and resourceful, Aya, but patience was never your strong suit. If it is any consolation, I never wished for it to come to this.”
I tugged back my arm but it wouldn’t budge.
Then I saw it—the thin, hair-like strands of mana all over my armor.
I immediately tried to sever the mana strands, but my attacks went straight through them.
“You’re right,” Aya’s voice whispered beside me—and this time, it really was her. “I am rather resourceful.”
She had spoken to me once about a spell she had been developing, but to think she was able to do this—!
The strands of mana glowed and I felt the air in my lungs convulse. I was still breathing only because she willed it. I now realized that throughout our entire fight, she had been carefully biding her time, waiting for this moment.
“Surprised?” she said. “I needed the ever-vigilant Olfred to weaken his defenses, and the only way you’d do that is if you thought you had the upper hand. It also helped that your huge suit of rock kept your senses dull.”
The thin strands of mana, which were connected to the tips of her fingers, glowed once more and a sharp pain pierced my chest.
Rather than kill me, though, she kept talking, basking in her victory. “I know you’re fascinated by my magic, Olfred. You always have been. Even now, you want to know how I’ve done this, don’t you? Regardless of race, every body has a natural protection against foreign magic. It’s why water mages can’t just drain a person’s body fluids, why earth mages can’t manipulate the iron in someone’s blood.”
“Every capable mage knows that, but to establish a link to directly manipulate someone’s body using mana… how?”
“It is why air mages can’t draw the breath from your lungs,” she said, ignoring my question. “Unless…” She trailed off, letting the word hang in the air like a guillotine.
My lungs shuddered as I forced out a deep breath, sure it would be one of my last. Despite my strength, this feeling of my breathing being allowed by someone else was nothing short of terrifying.
I raised my hands in submission as I slowly turned to face Aya. Her usually gentle eyes were sharp—the way she looked at her enemies. “I know just by your gaze that my fate is sealed. It would be unreasonable for me to ask you to have mercy on Lord Rahdeas, but please spare Mica. She had no part in this. I had to drug her lest she somehow find her way here.”
Aya’s brows twitched ever so slightly in thought before she answered. “I’ll keep it in mind, but that’s not up to me to decide.”
I replied with a nod. That was the best answer I could hope to get. “Despite our disagreements, it was an honor working with you.”
I thought I saw a sliver of remorse in those cold eyes, but I knew I would never be able to confirm it. My breath left me as if it was being ripped out of my lungs, and my vision darkened as I felt the cold grasp of Mother Earth pulling me back into her embrace.
Chapter 37
Appeared
ARTHUR LEYWIN
I could see a glimpse of the dawning sun behind the Grand Mountains. It cast long shadows over the glades, a flat grassy plain scattered with large boulders and splintered logs.
This place appeared to have been part of the surrounding forest long ago, before an avalanche had struck. Snow still lingered, hiding in patches in the shadows of the debris and fallen trees.
Uto stood a dozen or so yards away, swinging his arms as if doing a morning stretch.
‘Arthur.’ Sylvie’s voice was filled with unease.
I know, I replied, taking off my woolen cloak. I can already sense the difference between him and the other retainer we fought.
“Do you know what most motivates an enemy?” Uto asked, stretching his long, thin neck.
I didn’t answer. Instead, I took Dawn’s Ballad from my dimension ring and withdrew it from its scabbard.
“You don’t know? I’ve found that it’s the enemy seeking revenge who retaliates with the most… gusto,” he answered nonchalantly.
An ethereal glow enveloped the teal blade of my sword despite the lack of light around us. Seeing the jagged remains of the broken tip still sent an ache to my heart, but I knew that even in this condition, Dawn’s Ballad was the best weapon I could hope for right now.
I raised my gaze to match Uto’s before answering. “You think this is a battle for revenge?”
“Isn’t it?” He shrugged, taking a step closer as he tapped his chipped horn. “You were pretty riled up when you learned I was the one responsible for killing that elf.”
“I met her when she was dying,” I replied, taking a step forward as well. “So revenge wouldn’t quite be my motivation. I simply consider you someone who needs to be disposed of.”
Uto frowned. “Well, that’s disappointing. Here I was, so excited that you’d be hell-bent on using every ounce of your being to seek vengeance for your comrade, companion, or possibly even lover—scratch that; you’re a little too young for her, unless she was into that kind of…”
The lanky retainer mumbled on in his fantasy, then abruptly clapped his hands together. “Aha! Grandpa elf! His precious granddaughter is around your age, isn’t she? Considering how close you are to that family, it would make more sense for you to fancy her than the elven Lan—”
The sickle-shaped blade of frost I had launched at the lanky retainer dissipated when it hit a black spike that manifested from the ground in front of him. The ink-stained metal spikes froze at the impact, but remained whole.
“See? That’s the kind of rage and impatience I was looking forward to.” He snapped his fingers, as if in regret. “I should’ve killed the elf princess, or maybe a family member of yours, rather than waiting all the way out here for you to show up.”
“Are you done?” I asked through gritted teeth, holding my sword out in an offensive stance.
Uto merely shrugged. “You may as well have that little bond of yours come out. You’re going to need all the help you can get.”
“Come out, Sylvie,” I said aloud, keeping my gaze locked on the retainer.
She hopped out of my cloak, looking as fierce and fearless as I’d ever seen her. I could feel her determination in my mind, fortifying me against the creeping sense of impending doom clawing at my gut.
“It’s a shame that the circumstances surrounding this battle aren’t as fervent as I thought they’d be, pup. That elemental blast you shot at me when we first met—that left a significant impression, you see. It made me think I had hurt you deeply—personally.” Uto let out a deep, exaggerated breath. “No matter. Let’s see if you can humor me for at least a few minutes.”
Uto took a step forward, but unlike the casual saunter he had used before, the space around him suddenly distorted. His presence became almost palpable in the air, and each step sent ripples of vibrations into the ground.
I immediately unleashed Realmheart, and Sylvie shifted into her draconic form.
“A wyvern?” Uto asked, tilting his head.
With Sylvie’s powers sealed since birth by her mother, she appeared to be a very powerful mana beast, but no more than that. I had stayed cautious since the war had begun, but it was a relief to see that even a retainer couldn’t tell.
“Why? Does that scare you?” I pushed.
He responded with a wicked sneer, then nonchalantly flicked his right hand.
With Realmheart amplifying my affinity to the ambient mana surrounding us, I sensed the disturbance in front of me before I could actually see anything. Sylvie and I dashed in opposite directions just in time to dodge the barrage of black spikes that had instantly manifested from beneath us.
The ground we had just been standing on now looked like the back of a large and angry porcupine. Each of the seven-foot spikes gleamed with menace.
“Brandish your weapon, pup!” Uto spat, drawing a large black harpoon from the center of his palm.
I brought Dawn’s Ballad close to my side, pointing the weapon’s fractured tip at Uto. The runes glowing on my arm burned with a comforting warmth as I began coalescing the mana surrounding me.
The blade of my sword shimmered in a scintillating array of colors as I infused ice, fire, lightning, and wind. No weapon other than Dawn’s Ballad could have held strong with such an overwhelming amount of mana being loaded into it.
Let’s go! With Sylvie by my side, I charged.
I held my sword low as I raced toward the retainer. The ground beneath my weapon was splintered by its passing aura, but ruining nature was the least of my concerns.
With a manic grin, Uto charged as well, his harpoon arm drawn back, like a snake ready to lash out.
In an instant, my blade met his, creating a spherical wave from the sheer concussive force of our impact. The elements infused in Dawn’s Ballad surged out, but Uto held on effortlessly.
He waggled his eyebrows at me, our weapons still intertwined. “Not bad.”
‘Duck,’ Sylvie said.
I immediately obeyed, and my bond lashed out with her long tail, hitting him square in the side as soon as I dropped to the ground.
Uto flew away, slamming into a nearby boulder which shattered upon impact.
The veil of debris had yet to clear when I flourished Dawn’s Ballad. A polychromatic crescent of mana ripped from my blade, slicing the cloud of dust as it traveled.
The earth shook violently as the shockwave carved a trench into the ground before exploding through several trees, which fell in a series of splintering crashes around Uto.
‘He’s still alive,’ Sylvie informed me. She was already prepared for her next attack.
I lowered myself, weaving more mana around my body in case of a surprise strike, but rather than a retaliation, a laugh rang from within the depression in the ground. Again, I saw the flickering fluctuations of mana around me. Thin spikes were conjured from thin air while large pillars of the black metal fired out from the shadows beneath the many boulders and fallen logs.
I parried the thin spikes, each one sending a jarring amount of force up my arms. Meanwhile, Sylvie knocked aside the thick pillars that had sprouted from the darker shadows. Her thick scales managed to withstand most of the attacks, but the sheer volume and intensity of Uto’s sudden barrage left us both wounded and bleeding.
Don’t heal us, I ordered when Sylvie gathered mana into her breath. Not yet, at least.
Fortunately, the spikes weren’t laced with poison, but it was almost unfair how the retainer was able to conjure them out of thin air.
Even advanced earth mages had to shape the earth around them before firing them out. Uto seemed to be able to just manifest his attacks wherever he pleased.
“I expected more, pup,” Uto sighed theatrically as he walked out of the depression of earth that I had created with my last attack.
Cover my back, I sent Sylvie, siphoning more mana out of my mana core and into my body. I could see my long hair turning white as I fell deeper into the Realmheart Physique. The runes became more complex and I could feel the mark branded on my back as well. The mana around me seemed eager to obey my thoughts. It twirled around me, forming seamlessly into spells that would normally require immense concentration.
Dawn’s Ballad was emblazoned in a silver aura of frost, and my left fist crackled with tendrils of black lightning.
Uto’s brows were knitted, but he had no time for thought as I arrived, unleashing a torrent of attacks. My crystalline sword was no more than a blur, leaving only streaks of silver in its path. I weaved in punches, elbows, knees, and kicks as Kordri had taught me in our years of training. Every time I swung Dawn’s Ballad, he instantly countered with a black spike, which froze and shattered on impact. Meanwhile Sylvie stayed close behind, her limbs a flurry of scales and claws as she hacked and ripped away at the neverending barrage of black spikes Uto conjured. Soon, the area around us became a ruin of frozen rubble and severed spikes of black metal.
‘This isn’t good, Arthur. Uto’s attacks seem to get faster and stronger the longer we fight,’ Sylvie grunted.
My eyes remained locked on the retainer, who had yet to receive a single wound. Every time it seemed like I was about to land an attack, a black slate of metal would form around the area, protecting him.
I’ll have to kick it up a notch.
The thick tendrils of black lightning that coiled around my arm receded at my beckoning. I internalized the lightning magic, quickening my reaction time by reinforcing my very neurons with crackling energy.
The entire world seemed to slow. My senses were heightened—to an almost overwhelming degree. Colors seemed to pop, and the tiny particles of mana visible through Realmheart came alive.
