Azarinth Healer

Ilea looked at the storm before her, wings charged as she waited for the next flash of lightning. She could feel the dense mana in the air, could feel the cool air, the astral energies.

Lightning struck, revealing the two shadowy figures beyond. Ilea aimed and shot towards them, her Reconstruction flaring to life as she felt the power of their magic. Instantly she could feel the cold, as if an aura that permeated all of her being. The second thing she felt, was gravity. Pressure pushing her down even with her charged wings, her mana recharging as it was getting damaged. Through sand and wind, she flew on, before the storms were gone, kept at bay by the magic of two creatures, as if she had found a clearing within a dense forest.

Icy stood on frozen ground, antlers reaching up toward the skies, her massive form amidst wracked ground and broken crystals. Bits and pieces of ice floated everywhere, shining with blueish light within a dome like shape kilometers wide, devoid of wind and sand.

The pale white ice of the Elemental’s crystal like body still moved in the same patterns. Icy formed a set of floating shields made of ice, each as high and thick as the walls of Virilya.

Ilea didn’t miss the deep and webbing cracks running along the entirety of her form.

And she saw the creature that the Elemental faced.

Kilometers away, the spirit hovered, its central body circular, similar in shape to a spinning top. Sixteen glowing white eyes were set into the broadest section, sixteen massive arms of smooth blue skin extended outwards, almost like the rays of a sun. Behind, three floating feathered tails moved in serene motions. The creature was large, larger than most everything Ilea had seen before, but Icy was close.

She saw four of the white eyes glowing brighter, several hundred projectiles glowing with astral light spreading out from the circular body, flying in wide arcs before they crashed into the shields of ice. Ilea closed the distance as the explosions resounded, ice cracking and shock waves extending out.

She teleported and appeared above the Elemental, unlocking her harmony before she pushed. Ash appeared behind the shields of ice, filling in the cracks already formed and strengthening its structure. She added more as the blasts resounded, the first layer of ice broken through before the astral energies reached her ash. The Fires of Creation lit up, absorbing what they could from the powerful energies emanated from the massive spirit.

Ilea saw a few dozen astral projectiles coming in with a wide arc. She summoned a gate as large as she could, the second one placed near the ground, sending through the entire salvo that exploded into the frozen sands. She let go of her ash and watched the slightly spinning spirit, its large tentacle like arms moving as its glowing eyes dimmed slightly.

“Thought you could use a hand,” she sent to the Elemental, deactivating her Fourth Tier Reconstruction to heal its health.

A thought reached Ilea’s mind, amused. A welcome back, as lances of ice formed nearby, shooting out towards the spirit a moment later.

“You seem pretty fucked up,” Ilea sent, though she had a hard time grasping the nature and physiology of the Elemental through her healing. She saw four different eyes of the spirit glowing now as the gravitational pressure increased, the flying lances shaking and stopped in mid air before they were pushed down towards the ground.

Almost like the Meadow, just with gravity.

“Care to take this one down together?” Ilea asked.

Icy growled, moving her massive head in a slight gesture. She glanced at Ilea with one of her crystal like blueish white eyes.

Suppose that’s a yes, Ilea thought and smiled, landing on the Elemental’s head before she sat down.

“Maybe I can take a more active role this time around,” she sent and held on with her ashen limbs. Ilea used the third tier of her Azarinth Barrier to create a dome of golden light large enough to cover the Elemental. She couldn’t move with it active, but her excess mana channeled in to the Azarinth Star would heal Icy in addition to her Reconstruction.

She saw two more eyes lighting up on the spirit, bright beams of astral light shooting out near instantly, crashing into ice and burning ash. Another salvo followed, hundreds of explosive astral projectiles spreading out in wide arcs almost like artillery, coupled with the beams, they shot towards the shields. A moment later, they sped up, and impacted instantly, ripping through the ice and ash with reverberating explosions.

Time magic, Ilea realized. She had seen similar usage in the past few days, the magic focusing on projectiles or specific movements to speed them up or slow them down. She interrupted her healing and instead used her Fourth Tiers in conjunction, summoning more ash to block the astral magic. She formed her gates again, and aimed the beam back at the creature. A split second and the astral light left a glowing trail on the monster’s flying form, its spells interrupted for a moment as Ilea once more switched to healing.

Icy moved her head slightly, as if to look at her.

Ilea absorbed mana from the astral energies, the ice, the gravity, and straight from the surroundings. The drain from the massive spirit felt more like a trickle in comparison.

“Charge when you feel ready,” she sent to Icy.

The Elemental didn’t wait. She looked up and howled, the very air freezing ahead of them, newly summoned astral projectiles stopping in mid air, the trapped energies exploding in dull shattering sounds as Icy moved her massive form, stepping on platforms made of summoned ice. A thousand splinters came into existence and shot out towards the spirit.

Ilea added hundreds of ashen spears she set alight. Our turn,

she thought with a grin and added her burning projectiles to the maelstrom of ice.

Gravity thrummed to life as everything was stopped, but both Ilea and Icy didn’t relent, their charge ongoing as they added more ash and ice, each projectile getting a little closer to the creature. It responded with more astral beams and projectiles, the very air laden with magic as the colossal beings fought with their boundless power.

“I’ll get close. Signal me if you need healing,” Ilea sent and stood up, her wings charging before she shot off towards the monster.

Ahead of Icy, she soon came into the field of splintering ice and explosions, absorbing what she could, teleporting to avoid major clusters of spells. She saw the two glowing eyes responsible for astral beams aim her way. Quite an honor, she thought, and stopped, forming two gates to send the beams right back at their creator. Ilea didn’t linger, teleporting closer and flying fast before she felt the gravity around her multiply. Her own ashen spears were floating nearby, same as the ice still slowly pushing closer to the creature.

Its massive form was near now, only a few dozen meters away and expanding in each direction.

[Daughter of Sephilon – lvl ????] - [Hunger]

Perhaps the most powerful of the creatures she had seen so far, but she was not deterred. Slowed and stopped by the gravity, she instead unlocked her harmony. Burning ash spread out to consume the very magic that held everything in place, blocking and siphoning mana from the astral projectiles aimed at her. She used Monster Hunter, charged, and aimed towards the spirit. Focus on me, you big fucking monster.

Ilea laughed when the large creature focused all its spells on her, she laughed when the astral powers burned away her ash and scattered her flames. Just before she activated her Primordial Shift, she saw six broad lances made of ice fly through the field of gravity, impacting the circular body of the astral spirit.

She saw her flickering flames, the flesh, and space, all protecting her against the unlimited power of the god like creature before her. Its magical prowess was meaningless against her shift in the fabric. She deactivated her Fourth Tiers and healed, regenerating as much mana as she could whilst sacrificing health and spreading her flames far and wide, to both destroy the field of gravity, and to absorb the heavy mana present all around.

When she came out of the shift, she saw the monster had turned yet again, focused back on the Ice Elemental running through the air a few hundred meters away. She used the moment of distraction to teleport closer, right onto the creature and next to one of the massive ice lances still digging deeper into its blue flesh. Her ash spread out, and her fires followed. She clung to the monster with her limbs but found her unlocked harmony coupled with her flames far more impacting than her close range attacks. Still, she sent in waves of intrusion, Arcane Circulation returning even more mana as she waited for her Fourth Tier Reconstruction to return.

More impacts shook the large creature, and Ilea stuck to it. She teleported to spread her flames further and further, soon reaching one of the eyes where she tried the same thing as with the serpent. This eye however, didn’t burst on her fist strike. She punched again and felt a surge of magic far more dense and powerful than everything in their battle so far.

Ilea turned to see the sixteen limbs closing down form all around. She saw a single spark of astral light at the center of them all and opened up a gate. Flying through, she appeared outside the closing arms and saw the spirit’s limbs closing down further. A cocoon of sorts that reminded of a flower not yet bloomed. She teleported towards Icy, and flew the rest of the distance, landing on her head before she once again formed walls of ash to add to the layers made of ice.

Seems like we both know what’s coming, Ilea thought and smiled, seeing the arms spread out once more, the spark of astral light a blinding sphere now, shining like a star brought to life by magic. She could feel her ash burn away, her fires filling up her mana before they too were overwhelmed. The ice splintered and cracked, her golden barriers gone near as quickly as she had summoned them. Everything was cast in astral light.

“Don’t die on me, alright?” she sent to Icy and changed into her Shift.

Here too, she found her magic affected, her fires slowly waning as the insane amounts of astral power burned away the very fabric in its path. She used her Fourth Tier Reconstruction, and her Meditation to lower the exponentially rising cost of her shift. For ten seconds, she felt the power of the astral star, and then it waned, slowly, until the energy was gone.

Ilea came out of her shift and saw the very storms pushed away even further, everything glowing with the pale near rainbow light of astral magic. The ice on the desert ground below had melted, kilometers in each direction cleared out and slightly glowing. Above, the sands and clouds had been burnt away, the pale light of the eclipse visible among the stars. She found Icy, covered in lingering astral energies, the wolf growling at the floating spirit. Some of the webbing cracks on her had reformed and deepened.

She was about to charge the spirit, whose arms had fully unfolded, white flame and ice still clinging to its massive form, when she felt something through her telepathy.

A warning, to make some distance.

It was Icy’s turn.

Ilea raised her brows and teleported twice, flying as fast as she could and away from the two massive creatures. She felt a strange sensation then, reminded of her time in the Still Valley, when she had found and talked to one of the elven Oracles.

When everything had only just burned with the heat of an astral star, it now cooled instantly.

She felt herself grow rigid, the wisps of space itself no longer moving. She saw the distant and encroaching storms all around, now frozen in place, as if she was was looking at an image. Ilea saw the spirit’s movements stop, the arms breaking off before its entire form splintered and shattered into millions of shards. She heard the distant noise, as if a glacier broke into a thousand pieces.

She tried to breathe but couldn’t, her health dropping as her resistances and healing fought against the freezing spell, damaging despite the lack of focus on her form. Ilea didn’t activate her Shift. She wanted to see everything.

Then she felt a pulse of magic emanate from the shattered form of the high level spirit.

Ilea raised her brows. Time magic. She watched on as the falling pieces moved back up, every splintered bit connecting back together until the spirit was whole yet again. Icy’s spell ended, and the Daughter moved again, though with its use of time magic, both Ilea’s fires, and some of the ice stuck inside its form returned as well.

What the fuck am I even watching, she thought with a wide smile. And I’m taking part in this insanity? She felt the ice magic wane and teleported back.

“I don’t suppose you can do that again right now?” she sent to Icy as she flew past, the elemental growling yet again, her eyes focused on the spirit.

Ilea didn’t wait for an answer, she simply closed the distance and resumed spreading her ash and fires. Giving the spirit creatures time to recharge their mana and their fourth tier spells was the worst possible outcome. Two spells down already, let’s find out if you have anything else. She didn’t have to wait long, her movements stopped as she felt a pull from both above and below. Her body stretched as her Fourth Tier Reconstruction came to life. She screamed, her runes glowing with bright light as the gravity spell of the massive spirit threatened to rip her in half. This time, she did change into her Shift. Perhaps simply deactivating her Fourth Tiers and letting the creature rip her in two was a safer option, but she didn’t know if that was the extend of its spell. An unnecessary risk, with the far safer option of just creating her own strange fabric.

When the spell ended and she came back out, she found more ice already stuck in the large creature. Her fires surged to life, her ash added in with her harmony unlocked. Perfect synergy activated once again, and she let loose with everything she had. Ilea and Icy laid into the spirit, blocking or sending back all attempts to retaliate. More and more, Ilea’s fires spread, massive waves of ash spreading over the monster, grabbing onto its limbs before she pulled and ripped them out, tendrils of ash just as large as those of the spirit dug out its eyes one by one as its form was shredded and frozen by the nearby Elemental.

This time, it did not reverse the damage, the last two eyes dug out and the last limbs ripped away. A ding resounded in Ilea’s mind as she watched the shredded chunk of blue flesh descend.

‘ding’ ‘Your group has defeated [Neru – Daughter of Sephilon – lvl 2761]’

She saw Icy turn to leave. “Keep it up. I can kill it.”

Ilea used her ash and Fabric Tear to collect the pieces of the large creature, sacrificing health now to burn it away quicker.

Icy hesitated for a moment but then joined in, her ice freezing entire sections of the large monster.

A minute later, the spirit was reduced to burning mush, spread out over the frozen ground and set alight with white flame. Ilea kept her focus on the fires as Icy killed any approaching astral and death spirits. One other Daughter showed up, but it was taken out by the Elemental with two large spells.

“I’ll burn that one after,” she sent.

It took her a long while to finish off the creature, but when she was done, another ding resounded.

‘ding’ ‘Your group has killed [Neru – Daughter of Sephilon – lvl 2761]’

“There you go,” she sent and smiled, teleporting to the other large spirit. A winged bird like creature that awakened once again. Ilea waved off the nearby Elemental and shredded through the creature with her ash. She burnt it away in less than a minute, the kill barely worth her time.

She took in a deep breath and saw the storms move in closer yet again.

A dome still remained around Icy, the Elemental moving closer now, the patterns on her body slower, the webbing cracks wide.

“Got somewhere safe to heal back up?” Ilea sent. She smiled when she realized her own shelter to recover was the orbit of Erendar.

Icy sent a thought to confirm, her eyes watching the waning white flames before she moved her head down, gesturing lightly.

Ilea flew onto her head and sat down, already healing the large creature with her Reconstruction. She held on when Icy moved into the storms, past the floating crystals as her ice magic was reduced dramatically.

Once more, she felt the sand patter against her mantle, saw the flashes of lightning, and heard the torrents of wind. She patted the top of Icy’s massive head and smiled.

Didn’t even freeze off my ass.

“I knew you were alive,” she sent, kind of feeling like having lunch or dinner, but anything she summoned would just get destroyed immediately. I hope she’s got a place.