Aqua Regalia [Monster Progression LitRPG]

Pain was a sensation unfortunately familiar to Cas.

[Human Figure] had human nerves, and a human brain, and they had been subject to every manner of torturous sensation imaginable over the course of the past week's escapades. Cas had been torn in half, shredded to pulp, burnt alive, exploded multiple times, and even had her head smashed between a demon's claws.

What she learned from all this was that… she could take it. Pain only became terrible hours after the fact, when the wound grew old, and your adrenaline cooled, and your self reflective mind began running circles around the endless throbbing.

The jolt of a sudden injury, on the other hand, was fleeting, and Cas's body could repair near instantly whatever was damaged. As a result, it had no old wounds. It never ran out of adrenaline. It never lingered on painful sensations.

Unfortunately; her mind was still capable of a little self reflection, despite the fleeting nature of her injuries. Because of this, she was able to reflect that – of all pains – being stabbed in the throat was the worst!

A clinical shock skewered into the side of her neck, immediately followed by a claustrophobic, drowning sensation as warm blood flooded her lungs.

The creature pushed off her, into the air. Cas fell, landing on her front in push-up position. The monster flapped its leg-wings; an intensely strong gust fell, rustling her hair and throwing up a small cloud of dirt into the air.

Then, a horrible noise.

The monster screamed.

Cas – neck healed, no longer drowning – sprang up, landing in a low crouch, on the lookout.

She caught sight of the monster. It was still in the air, but in ribbons – cut up into bloody strands that hung in freefall, just barely keeping the original shape of what they had once been. The next moment, gravity took hold, and-

SCHRPLAT!

The mass of viscera which had once been a monster splattered into the dirt like a pile of blood-soaked streamers.

A mental phone call rang. Cas picked it up by habit.

<Are you ok, Cas?> Sara's voice announced. <I've got the scout. Keep a lookout for the others.>

<Others?>

Pfwooom!

Originating from Sara's position, the air suddenly flew out in every direction. It felt… sharp, barely dancing around the limit of Cas's form, rushing past her to slam against the plant life at the edge of the road. The shrubbery disintegrated into mulch, carried away like grass cuttings.

In the sudden clear-space left behind – Cas spotted a dozen creatures just like the first, all hanging spider-like. They came in varying sizes, and she noticed one particularly large individual, taking up an entire tree just for itself, drooping the thick branches it grasped onto.

The wind reached them, their perches fell apart, and the creatures flocked into the air all at once, beating the air with a mass of flapping, shooting forward and-

Then Sara became a blur, and piles of stringed flesh plopped like spaghetti everywhere -- letting out a chorus of wet slaps as they landed.

Scrhlop! Schlop-lop-lop-lop-lop-lop, lop, Schrlop, lop!

They landed dead, not a sound or breath coming from a single one.

One of them still had the head intact, but no working lungs with which to vocalize that agonized expression which forced its jaw open. Aura covered that pile for just a few seconds until it, too, expired.

Sara was standing near the center of the road, waves of heat rising up from her figure -- at least, Cas thought those were heat waves. It was hard to process all at once, and Cas was just catching up to current events when Sara appeared at the boy's side, gently grabbing him by the shoulders and turning him to face away from the scene. "I think I saw some more creatures over there," she warned with deadly urgency. "Be a good boy and keep a lookout, won't you?

She made the request with the most sincere worry, a note of harried exasperation inflecting the end of the statement.

Kesel reacted instantly, adopting a schooled military bearing and turning to face the empty forest with a sentry stance.

Incidentally, this just so happened to make him face away from Cas's location, which Sara converged upon instantly.

<Cas!...> Sara called out over the psychic connection, hooking a hand underneath Cas's armpit, forcing her to stand.

As she transmitted, Sara pulled out a silk kerchief and began roughly wiping away at the bloodstain at Cas's neck, looking like a worried mother hen and adopting the speech patterns of one, too, if psychic strings of chastisement could be considered speech.

<Did the boy see you getting stabbed?> She asked, not having to feign her worry for once.

<I don't know,> Cas answered automatically.

<Curses!> Her wiping got a bit rougher. <We can't have him discovering your nature, you know. Is your blood ok? It didn't soak into your clothes, did it?>

Sara was probably Conflagrating, Cas thought. She realized this because – while the woman was sending the stream of thoughts – she was at the same time maintaining a perfectly believable conversation in the verbal domain.

"Cas! Are you ok!" her voice said with a practiced worry. "I thought I saw that thing attack you, but it must've missed. Thank goodness! You know how Aura can…"

Sara's eyes looked over Cas with intensity, and she seemed able – despite the near complete darkness – to notice every detail of Cas's neckline as she wiped around it. In fact, Sara's eyes were glowing; bright points delineated her pupils like she'd been caught staring into a camera flash.

Cas, still reeling from recent events, had yet to even process the throat stab. She hadn't even thought to start Conflagrating.

Eventually, she did manage to activate the Aura boost, and, when she did… she was still confused as heck, but managed to correctly deduce the look in Sara's glowing eyes which said: "Ask questions later. Convince the boy, now!"

So Cas did her best. Speaking out loud for Kesel's benefit: "Yeah… it just barely missed me, thank goodness. I think it just looked like that because our Auras overlapped…"

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Cas wasn't the best liar; but, with Sara's acting skills bolstering the effect, she managed well enough. At least, she thought she did. Kestel certainly seemed convinced and didn't ask a single question as they continued their journey.

Cas had worried, for a moment, that the ambush might have frightened the boy, but he was more talkative than ever on this second leg of their journey.

She'd assumed, at first, that this was some sort of shock reaction, and had even tried to broach the subject in her best therapy voice, but he quickly disabused her of that notion, saying, in quite casual terms: "It was only a monster attack," with a shrug of his shoulders.

'Only a monster attack,' as if there could be nothing less threatening.

Granted, the monsters hadn't been a threat.

Sara had killed all twelve in less time than it took Cas to do one burpee.

That only confused Cas all the more; she became tempted to Conflagrate in search of an answer.

Because, well, it just didn't make any sense did it? When Cas had first met her, Sara was a literal damsel in distress, tripping over her own feet and unable to run straight. She had nearly died to this world's equivalent of coyotes, and now she was revealing herself to be a time manipulating predator with night vision.

Night vision was supposed to be her thing, Cas thought with not a little sourness. She gave up color-vision to see in the dark and Sara could do it on a whim? What the heck?

Kesel yawned, the first obvious sign of his exhaustion. It was well timed, yawn, too, coming just as they entered into a spacious clearing: the perfect campsite.

Kesel set up his tent in short order. Cas would have created a pop-up slime clone to do the same, but, naturally, discretion took precedence over convenience, so Sara and she decided to do without.

Within the hour, Kesel was fast asleep in his tent. His snores reverberated through the night air, mixing with the crackling fire Sara had set up.

Sara had also cast a 'magical tent': a small bubble of warm air which engulfed them like a tropical beach.

Cas lounged on the far side of this little corner of the Bahamas.

Opposite her, Sara sat back against a five-foot tree-trunk she'd cut down, reading through a small scroll that levitated before her attentive eyes, running like a tape-reel to bring fresh paragraphs into view.

Reluctantly, Cas dismissed her Conflagration. Disappointingly, the accelerated mind resolved very few of her more recent questions -- in light of this, Cas decided to try a new tactic, and ask the source of her confusion directly.

"So…" Cas said, pulling Sara's attention from the floating scroll.

"Yes?"

"Are you planning to explain this any time soon?" Cas gestured vaguely with an open hand, gesturing to the scroll.

"Explain what?"

Cas specified: "uh… everything? I mean, how exactly you did what you did back there. Why didn't you do that back when I first found you? Why can't you just…"

Sara lifted a finger and the scroll snapped into a tight roll, dancing in the air for a bit before flying straight into her satchel.

"And that, too! What is that!" Cas said, pointing at the animated, flying parchment.

"It's a scroll," Sara explained coyly, seeming to enjoy this.

Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

"You know that's not what I meant."

Looking a bit disappointed at Cas's lack of gamesmanship, Sara acquiesced. "If you must know, it was a levitation spell."

"Oh, yeah?" Cas said, wanting to sound skeptical. "Well… then…"

Cas was, as attested to earlier, incredibly confused.

The scatterbrained efficiency of a Conflagrated mind had – over the past four days – accustomed her to ignoring the organization of her thoughts. She was paying for that laziness, now.

Thankfully, Sara took mercy and stepped in.

"I think, Cas: what you're trying to ask is: 'how does magic work?' If so, I'd be happy to tell you. In fact, you're very lucky. There aren't many people as talented in the mystical arts as I, and even fewer that are even half as beautiful." Sara tossed her hair back, looking up to the stars with a pose befitting a perfume commercial.

"Ok?" Cas acknowledged. "What does being beautiful have to do with it?"

"Oh, nothing," Sara beamed, "but it's true. Glad to see you agree, though!"

Cas sent a flat look back. "...so, about magic."

"Right," Sara continued smoothly. "I suppose I should start with the basics. Tell me: what do you know about Aura?"

---------------------------------------------------------------------------

Even after reincarnating into a new world filled with mystical wonder, Cas was still skeptical about this so-called 'Magic'.

Some people might call this level of skepticism unreasonable, considering just how many fireballs Cas had been introduced to lately.

Those people obviously hadn't met Cas.

Because Cas was a rationalist, and she was about as insane as a rationalist could get while keeping the membership card.

An illustrative story from her childhood might explain better than words, however:

—

—

Kait always had a vast imagination.

Granted, this didn't show in her stage name: 'Kait the Clown'.

A descriptive name was good for marketing, her agent had said.

Well, "agent" in air quotes. Her "agent" was, in reality, a twenty-something stoner with more skateboard scrapes than accolades, but he was a good friend, and he ended up being right, in any case; for, ever since she'd changed her name, the offers had come rolling in.

Kids' Birthday parties, Adult birthday parties, bachelorette nights, and even one funeral.

Yes. Things were finally looking up for Kait the Clown!

At least, until she ran into Cas.

Cas was the latest birthday girl in a long list of what Kait referred to as: 'trouble makers'. Cas wasn't the worst example of the bunch. She was willful, sure, but never demanded too much, and – unlike most kids – wasn't afraid of clowns.

She was, however, very assertive, and constantly interrupted the magic show.

"That's not how fire works!" Cas raised her hand in the middle of another set. "You probably burnt it with something."

Kait, ever the consummate clown, easily managed to work the disruption into the show. "Oh, young Cas, but don't you seeeee~" she waved her hands while doing a spooky voice. "It's maaagical fire," she waved her hands and the rose disappeared in a puff of fire, replaced with a magic wand which Kait waved proudly in the air before stuffing into her rainbow wig.

The children all screamed, clapping at such an amazing display.

All of them except Cas, who simply looked down and quietly muttered to herself. 'Magic isn't real. I'll prove it isn't."

…

Long story short, Cas did manage – after finding Kait's 'magical' stash of flash paper and weed – to prove her point. Magic wasn't real. It was just a really flammable prop. Case closed.

And Cas proved this in spectacular fashion, managing to burn down a shed in the middle of her own party, get the fire department called, and light enough of Kait's weed that the clown had to lay low for a couple of weeks once the neighbors caught wind of the suspicious smell.

—

—

Needless to say, Cas could be an intensely suspicious person, especially when terms like "magic" were being thrown around.

She wasn't denying the evidence.

Obviously, the fireballs were real, and very, very hot, as she'd found out to her own cost. Rather, it was the word that bothered her. "Magic," by definition meant something which couldn't be understood. And Cas didn't believe there was anything which 'couldn't be understood' while remaining useful.

Still, her presumptions about this were immediately weakened when Sara asked the fatal question:

"What do you know about Aura?"

And Cas answered without hesitation: "Well, I know Aura is infinite, and that- Wait…" Cas paused, making a face. "How do I know that?"

Cas had answered with perfect confidence. In fact she knew the answer with perfect confidence, but how?

"We'll come to that," Sara said. "I was going to say you're almost half right. Aura is 'infinite' yes, though I prefer the term 'without bounds'. It is also undetectable, and unaffectable."

"Unaffectable?" Cas repeated. "Is that a word, now?"

"Unaffectable as in: 'unable to be affected'."

"And that means…?"

Sara grasped for a better explanation. "I mean it can't be affected, as in influenced. For example, I can affect this stone here by pushing it --" Sara did just that, dragging the stone across the dirt with her foot "-- and I can do the same with the wind, or the light, or fire." Sara's Aura flared and -- in time with her words -- the wind picked up, the firelight dimmed, and the flames roared. "I can do this because these things are affectable – they can be affected. Aura, on the other hand, can not."

"Ok, so you're saying Aura is infinite, undetectable and unaffectable?"

"Precisely," Sara said simply.

"But…" Cas retorted. "I can see it?" she gestured to the glow which hugged the contours of her body. "And, it seems pretty affectable," she waved her arms to demonstrate, showing how the blue glow followed her movements.

Sara sighed. "Cas, you were a scholar, right?"

"Yeah…"

"And I imagine the subject you studied had many truths which would take time for the layperson to grasp?"

"I suppose." Cas accepted, remembering the hell that was the Krebs cycle.

"Well," Sara supplied, "right now you're the layperson, and I'm trying to teach you the basics of magic in something less than six months. So, just take what I say on faith. We can argue about the details later. Right now, just take it as an axiom that Aura is unbounded, undetectable, and unaffectable"

Cas really didn't like not understanding things. Just taking things on faith grated against her intellectual standards, but, upon reflection, she realized this was a shed she could burn when she got to it and agreed.

"Thank you," Sara said. "In any case. I can confidently say that we know Aura exists because… well… ok, so you remember a moment ago, how you just 'knew' Aura was infinite?

Cas nodded.

"Well, the reason we even know Aura exists, despite it being undetectable, is because it is a special revelation." Sara leaned forward, speaking very seriously all of a sudden. "Aura was revealed to us, Cas. It was revealed by someone who cares very much about us: and its name is God."

Cas deflated a bit at that conclusion. She'd heard this spiel many times on her front porch back on Earth.

"Are you… going to ask me to join your religion?"

Sara leant back, surprised at the non sequitur. "What? No! Whatever gave you that idea?"

"Just some bad experiences. Nevermind. Go on. I'm guessing that the more your proficiency with Aura grows, the more 'knowledge' gets 'revealed' to you."

Sara nodded happily. "Yes! Now you're catching on! Anyway, as I was saying, Aura is intelligent and purposeful, and it has a very particular purpose for which reason it graces the universe."

Cas, withholding so many questions right now, simply nodded.

"Aura has a 'purpose'?" Cas repeated the claim like it wasn't rediculous.

After all, things didn't have a 'purpose'. Things just were. Even animal body -- the most 'purposeful' thing in nature -- was a mere reactions to evolutionary forces.

Sara, if she detected the hint of skepticism, didn't show it. She merely answered: "Of course it has a purpose."

"And what purpose is that?"

"That purpose is to maintain free will," Sara answered with so much confidence. "God wants us to have freedom of choice, to do bad or good things, think bad or good thoughts, so Aura comes along to shield the mind and soul."

Cas didn't even bother to contradict, letting her expression tell the whole story of her thoughts on the matter.

"Because of this," Sara continued smoothly. "The mind is perfectly protected from undue influence, and the soul is rendered inaccessible. Simply put:" Sara stated like a maxim, "it is absolutely impossible to affect a mind or touch a soul protected by an Aura."

"But…" Cas struggled and failed to withhold the natural question. "When we're on a psychic link, you can hear my thoughts, can't you?"

Sara, frustrated at the interruption, answered hurriedly. "Yes, but those are volitional thoughts, and you have to percolate your Aura for the psychic link to be established in the first place. Things like mind reading or mind control wouldn't work at all. I understand you came from a world without Aura. Was mind control an issue where you were from?" Sara asked, speaking with professional interest.

"Just advertising," Cas provided. "Anyway, say I accept everything you just told me. What does this have to do with magic?"

"I was just getting to that," Sara answered. "Aura protects the mind and soul competely, but the body only to a limited extent."

"Uh, huh," Cas resisted the urge to point out that an omnipotent 'God' could have done a better job, but held off. "How does it protect the body?"

"Well, as you've no doubt noticed, it strengthens your body."

"Yeah," Cas agreed.

"But while it offers only strength to bolster you against mundane dangers, it protects you completely from esoteric effects."

"You mean like the time bubble?" Cas remembered how she had to percolate her Aura to keep from destroying the effect.

"Yes!" Sara cheered her getting it. "Exactly like the time bubble. There you have it. Congratulations, Cas. You understand Aura." Sara said, speaking with the same, professional enthusiasm of a weekday certificate.

"Really?" Cas said, looking back down from her notes. "That's it."

Sara's smile turned sour. "Well… technically, no. There are uncountable other aspects, but these are the basics."

"Alright," Cas said. "So we're ready to learn about Magic, now, then?"

"Yes, but before that, in your own words, can you explain to me how you understand Aura?"

"Again?" Cas was getting antsy; she wanted to burn some sheds already.

"Yes, darling," Sara supplied patiently. "It's vital that you understand the basics."

"Ok, fine. So…" Cas looked up at the notes she'd been taking, reading them aloud for Sara's benefit.

[

Siablo

Lore

Aura

Axioms

Aura is 'unbounded'

Aura is Undetectible

Aura can not be affected by anything

…

]

Here, Sara interrupted with a cringing hiss.

"Technically," she corrected, "it should be: 'Aura can't be affected.' period. You shouldn't say 'it can't be affected by anything.'"

"What's the flipping difference!" Cas almost yelled, holding back at the last second when she remembered Kestel's peaceful snores.

Sara, taken aback by the response. "You know what, never mind. It's good enough. Continue."

"Right," Cas said, returning to her notes.

[

…

Protections

Soul can't be touched.

Mind can't be influenced. [No mind Control/Reading]

Body can't be influenced by 'esoteric' things' [ie. Time Bubbles]. Can be influenced by hammers. (Physical force.)

]

"There," Cas announced, "happy?"

To tell by the look of restraint on Sara's face, she was holding back a dozen nitpicks, but she at last merely sighed. "I think that's fine."

"Great. So we can get to 'Magic' now?" Cas asked.

"We can." Sara said. "By 'shaping' the Aura," Sara brought her hands together into a delicate configuration, as if to illustrate the concept, "you can do what is called: 'Magic'." She brought her hands apart at just that moment, and the campfire suddenly froze, as if trapped inside invisible amber. A sudden spotlight of cold replaced the radiance of the flame, and Cas shivered.

Cas resisted the urge to point out how that broke the 'Aura is unaffectable' rule. 'Shaping' Aura, by definition, required affecting it, but she managed not to interrupt the lesson, making do with a note in her status sheet.

"I understand," Cas said, taking a painful breath of restraint. "I'm guessing this 'shaping' is how Aura lets you do magic?"

"Well, almost," Sara said with a grin. "What I was actually about to say is that Magic doesn't exist."

"Magic… doesn't exist." Cas said.

"Yep!" Sara smiled.

Cas suddenly recollected her embarrassing eighth birthday, and the gaslighting which followed immediately after, and thought: "I knew it!"

It was nice to be vindicated, even if only temporarily.

"That isn't to say it's all a trick." Sara juggled a sudden ball of flame in her off hand, extinguishing the effect with a fist. "Rather… 'Magic' is just what the unlearned call it. The term stuck around, I suppose. But, it's more appropriate to call it 'Aura Structuring', or 'Structuring' for short."

"Ok, fine," Cas sniped. "You can shape Aura somehow without affecting it. What can magic do?" She asked, realizing that – after all this lecturing – she still knew less about 'Magic' than she'd learned from an average Disnep movie.

"Can you wish for more wishes?" Cas asked sardonically. "Is there a no 'love spells' clause? No bringing back the dead, I assume?"

Sara, not getting the Aladdin references, took the questions seriously.

"Well," Sara paused, "to answer your second question first: you can not make someone love you. Aura prevents you from affecting their mind. Not that I think you need to do that, Cas. You're a very beautiful girl; I'm sure you'll find someone without resorting to… what did you call it… 'Advertising?'"

Cas flushed with embarrassment. "Uhm… you do realize I was joking abou-"

"As to wishing for more wishes…" Sara was stumped, tapping a finger against the left corner of her lip. "I suppose you could design a spell which itself casts another spell. Not sure why you'd want to do that, though."

"As to bringing back the dead, however..." Here, Sara's demeanor changed, for this last question was a common one in this world.

Many before Cas had asked: 'Can I bring them back to life?"

Being such a common question, it had a standard answer, repeated countless times across the academies of Aleria.

Sara quoted that answer: "Aura prevents souls from being tampered with. So you can not interfere with someone's death. However –"

A harsh, familiar voice interrupted the woman. The owner of this voice was also familiar with the saying.

"However-" the horned figure spoke from the edge of the clearing, "one should not despair: what magic cannot do, faith will, and faith is the start of the triumph over evil."

Demons were – for the most part – ignorant of human sayings, but spies like Boore-Saa were the common exception to that rule.

And, Boore-Saa, being an excellent spy, felt happy to show off her cosmopolitanism as she stepped into the fire light.

Now completely visible, she smiled a wicked smile, flaunting dentition that a shark would have envied. The large wound in her side was miraculously healed; her eyes were gleaming dots of light, staring into a camera-flash, and they were filled with wicked mischief.