NOVEL NEXT Life 35 - Chapter 23 - Wrong of the Void
Barbara and her friends entered the secluded square with wonder in their eyes. The teens took a long time staring at the drooping boughs of the rusty fig, peeking past the curtain of hanging roots and trying to see what lies beyond. The smell of wildflowers from the planters and the gurgling sound of the stream brought peace to their minds and drew a smile across their faces.
The green canopy that took their entire vision became a rusty yellow on the inside, contrasting with the spots of blue sky visible between the leaves. Strands of ashen brown separated the inside of the tree canopy from the outside, hinting at some privacy and shelter.
Eleanora darted between two bundles of roots, bracing herself on the wrought iron fence surrounding the tree, reaching out to touch the buttressed trunk. The three looked old but it was weeks old, grown from a summoned seed with Plant magic, designed to look exactly like that.
"I could rest here forever," she dreamily said, breaking the silence.
"Reading a book under this tree would be delightful," Elizabeth remarked.
Isaac dropped next to the channel and cupped some water in his hand, tasting it. "Like spring water," he judged.
"I wanted a patch of grass next to the tree," Barbara said, "so I could lay on it and take a nap."
"Oh, that!" Eleanora agreed, then yawned. "Now I'm sleepy!"
Eleanora bounded to the left, or "east", in the direction of the town hall. The others followed, Barbara carrying me in the usual spot.
"Do you intend to invite more people to use the facilities here?" Isaac asked.
He nodded, a spark of Faith in his eyes, "I am enlightened."
"Can we sleep here?" Eleanora asked and was immediately rebuked by Elizabeth.
"No. Everyone thinks we are in Isaac's room. What will they believe if three females spend the night or even days without coming out? We are not using this building. If you need to take a nap, go back to your room and make sure someone sees you."
Eleanora became irritated. "We could move the door to my room then," she said poking her tongue at her friend. "Then Isaac would not be invited, it would be girls-only."
"Again, no. Isaac can hide this door from casual visitors as they wouldn't wander into his servant's quarters. We don't have such luxuries."
"Spoilsport," she pouted.
The building still had a few offices left as such, and a medium-sized library along with two meeting rooms. It was below the standards of nobility but it was functional. For a small group of apprentices, it would work well.
After inspecting the hall, we went to the church. More like a chapel nowadays, given the church's proclivity to build big gaudy temples. A central corridor, a vaulted ceiling supported by Grecian pillars, and a row of pews on each side facing an altar. No surprises there. The back of the chapel had cramped living quarters for up to three priests.
The group returned to the fig's shade and went "south" to see the proper training facility. The path cut between two flat hexagons. The barrier was deactivated but the half-exposed charging Cores at each corner of the hexagon hummed as they gathered power onto themselves.
"Big Cores," Isaac remarked.
"I was worried how we were going to power the training enchantments," Elizabeth confessed. "But how often can they be used?"
"Can't they be charged with external resources?" Eleanora asked.
Eleanora sputtered and glanced at the halfling with pity in her eyes. Barbara gulped and grimaced but gave me a nod at the end. But the looks in Isaac and Elizabeth's face told me they had indeed read the report.
Isaac nodded like the good fanatic he'd become but Elizabeth was skeptical.
"I don't intend to disrespect you, Nethe. But fact is you are months old. Even if you learned a lot from your mother, are you sure you can tutor us?"
She narrowed her eyes but nodded solemnly, accepting my challenge. Elizabeth was competitive and I knew that if I convinced her, the other two would follow her lead. After we registered our resonance signatures on the enchantment and the multicolored iridescent bubble sprung around us, we walked to our designated places.
Yes, walked. Standing on the other side of the arena on two legs made of woven ribbons and stubby arms coming out of my top edge along with the two eyestalks, I started.
She did, and my buffs activated on her. Elizabeth checked them on her Status sheet. Then I activated the ring and started overloading her MP pool with my own. She gasped.
Elizabeth started drawing a big diagram in front of her. Her realization speed was good for a student her year and she traced several dozen lines and glyphs in the blink of an eye. I noticed she was rather stiff in the thickness and rigidity of her diagram drawing, making all the lines and glyphs the same thickness to save mental strength. She was hurrying and that was not good.
"{Magic Missile Vol—"
<{Counterspell}! STOP!>
"What?"
Elizabeth shuddered as her gut reaction was to rebel but she consigned herself to our agreement. She would allow me to lead her. "Please, go on. Forgive my surprise."
"Oh, I know that one! It's control!" Eleanora offered from the single row of bleachers surrounding the hexagonal arena.
She nodded. "Tell me what I should do.>
"You'll cast the same spell, but I want you to move at one-hundredth of the speed you are used to. I want you to consider the optimal thickness for each line and glyph. Some of them need to be precisely drawn, with the curves and sharp turns well-defined. I want you to seize control of your entire diagram but weave it like a fairy drawing with colored dew on a canvas of spider silk under a soft breeze.>
"What? That makes no sen—"
> The Leader Activated.
> Cosmos Within Activated.
"I can see it!" She chirped, her voice sliding an octave above out of sheer excitement.
One by one, the glyphs and lines of the offensive spell came into being. Elizabeth's spirit was filled with a sense of wonder as she surrendered herself entirely to the allegory I invoked. What a work of art it was. The calligraphy of the glyphs was beyond perfect. The thickness of the lines and circles, the spacing, everything was where and how it should be. I kept telling her what the fairy was doing, evoking the most mysterious descriptions for colors I could imagine. None of them was real to us, but in Elizabeth mind's eye, the real world we were in was the illusion.
The former Elizabeth would've sent me two dozen spells in the time she took to form the perfect diagram. Entranced by the imagery in her mind, she didn't shout the spell name. It wasn't necessary, just a formality. The dozens of magic missiles shone brightly as they streaked from her circle and struck me. The arena enchantment didn't do anything as the spell did zero damage. The base damage of a single missile was not enough to overcome my hard Damage Reduction.
I turned off {Cosmos Within}. I spent two minutes on her. No, not spent. Splurged. But it was well worth it.
Elizabeth bit her sucked-in lips. She stared at me, half-amazed by the result of this brief exercise.
"I got three Proficiency points without fast-growth!" She squealed.
Eleanora screeched and invaded the training arena, breaking the bubble only to hug her friend. The usually composed Elizabeth dropped the act and hugged back.
Isaac approached me. "Can you repeat the feat?"
"Back off, milord Hamilton!" Eleanora barked as she saw Isaac talking to me. "I'm next!"
We reset the enchantment and took our spots. Eleanora looked giddy and excited.
She started to cast, and her spell diagram felt odd. Sloppy. Droopy. The cohesion of the circles, lines, and glyphs felt like it would slip away and dissipate anytime. I didn't interfere because I was half-certain it would so I was waiting for it. But she finished casting anyway.
"{Grim Fog}!"
Dark balls of smoking... something rolled out of her spell circle and made their way across the arena. They trailed a dark, foreboding, and heavy smoke that splashed against the ground and covered the enchanted stone in a thin blanket. They kept coming out of the circle in twos and threes, a seemingless endless stream of fog balls that instilled a sense of dread and hopelessness.
Outside the arena, Barbara was covering her gaping mouth with a hand, her eyes shot out with worry.
I let the first ones strike me. Darkness, Necromancy, Water, and Air, just as I expected from the diagram. I knew she hadn't an Affinity for the former two, only the latter pair. As the balls of fog struck me, they broke and the smoke billowed all over me, attempting to cloud my vision, block my breathing, and sap my vitality.
It was an insidious spell. The fog on the ground left by the balls passage spread out between us but I could still feel the spells' influence in it. Should any attacker attempt to close in melee range with Eleanora, they would be exposed to the fog even if they weren't hit by the balls. To test that, I summoned a few origami [Ghost Wargs] and sent them.
The fog grasped at the wargs paper legs and slowed them down as it climbed up. The lead wolves suffered the most as the fog cover was spent to cling to them. Under my command, the wolves behind leaped on the leading pack's back and bounded over the diagram to pounce on the girl.
Eleanora changed the last few balls' target to the wargs as she screamed and dropped concentration on the spell, making the diagram dissipate. No more balls would come out of it. Something was wrong. Her reaction to the wargs was too exaggerated.
<{Dispel}!> I ended the exercise. Fog, wargs, everything vanished in a puff of white sparkles.
Sitting on her butt, Eleanora heaved as she looked for more wolves. Elizabeth entered the arena and knelt next to her friend to hug her.
"She was mauled by wargs when she was young," Elizabeth explained.
"It's fine!" Eleanora tittered, conveying the idea it wasn't fine. She was trying, anyhow.
That gave me an idea.
"She woul—" Elizabeth was cut off.
"Yes!" She exclaimed with moist eyes and a shivering body.
The young girl rubbed her hands together. Her robes were wet up to the waist. The damn damp fog sapped most of the heat from the arena. "Tell me what I should do!" She demanded. Her voice was still cracking and fluctuating from her previous scare.
She grimaced and shrugged. Gathering her wits, Eleanora raised her right arm and flexed it. "I would still be a cripple if it weren't for you," she admitted, her voice softening as she went. "you're the goddess' daughter. I trust you, Nethe."
Eleanora cooed, then skipped in place. "I'm ready!" She shouted, back to her spritzy self.
I used one of the stubby arms to throw open my cover. An ominous diagram on some page glowed with purple light, and the thickest dark fog billowed out, making Eleanora's look like a junior science fair experiment.
The fog dashed over the ground, clung to the arena bubble, and secluded Eleanora and me from the spectators.
*
*
*
*
She was suddenly alone, without any sensory input save for balance and touch. No sound, no light, no smells. Eleanora couldn't help but admire the fog Netherbane created. It gave her inspiration and a deeper understanding of combining Fog magic with other schools.
Soon, she started hearing crickets in the distance. An owl hooted. Dry wood creaked. Far away steps echoing. Then wind blew on her face, carrying a moist swampy and moldy smell that was borderline sickening. Twigs cracked behind her, she spun. Leaves rustled above her, a crescendo that upended her hairs on their ends. She felt her heart speed up along with the wind, which was now chilly. It somehow entered her robes and sapped the warmth of her skin. The wet fabric over her butt chilled and it prickled her tender skin like a hundred icicles.
She shivered. It was pitch black. She only had her ears, nose, and skin to guide her.
Twigs snapped. She felt a drizzle, then larger droplets of rain that probably gathered on the leaves above her. The wind picked up even more speed, rustling the leaves and drowning the sound of her heart and breathing like hundreds of chimes.
Then she heard the growls. Rumbling, they shook the earth and her very core. She opened her mouth, breathing heavily as if she would need the extra air anytime soon.
Twigs snapped, many of them. Ahead, to the left, right, behind her. Far away or up close, she couldn't say. Hails struck the branches above her as the rain became storm.
Suddenly, THUNDER struck. The lightning flash happened at the same time and she was tossed to the side by the shockwave. To her right, a tree caught on fire despite the rain, illuminating her surroundings.
Eleanora was in a forest of gnarled, thorny trees. She fell on some branches and cut her hand. The rain quickly drenched the flames of the lightning-split tree but before that she saw it.
The yellow eyes full of hatred. Framed by a fuzzy gray fur, supported by a wicked muzzle full of yellowed teeth and drool. The triangular ears atop the eyes flicked in her direction.
Then darkness took over as it should.
The teenage woman screamed.
Twigs snapped. Weren't they supposed to be wet?
Growls. More of them. She was surrounded. Her breaths were short, shallow, fast. The cold water stung her eyes, her damp hair clung to her face and tickled her cheeks. She brushed the curtain of her long bangs away from her eyes, though she couldn't see a thing.
An owl angrily hooted her doom. It warned her to run away.
Then another flash of lightning. She saw faces in the tree trunks, stuck in a rictus of anger and pain and anguish. Souls of those that found themselves in her very predicament before her. A promise of what was to come. Thunder shook her and she felt warmth wash between her legs.
She cried. She called for help. She crawled backward on thorny branches and roots, shredding her robes. Her hands bled. She bounced her head against a tree trunk, thorns poking her scalp.
Twigs snapped.
They were coming.
A sharp howl announced her doom. Another flash of lightning and the yellow eyes were legion. Thunder split a tree in the distance, the orange light of the fire a brief beacon telling her to run away.
"No!" She howled and whimpered. "I can't! I'm not strong enough!"
Twigs broke, gurgling howls and barks approached.
"Please, stop it!"
"No! I want to live! I want to be happy!"
> Contested Ego test failed. Contested Charisma test failed.
> The Matriarch has granted you a Quest.
> Slay that which you fear and holds enmity toward you.
> Reward: Exp.
> This Quest is mandatory.
the candid voice continued. < {Surpass your limits!}>
Like a puppet whose drunk master suddenly became sober, Eleanora rose to her feet. Magic poured down her veins, so much her fingertips tingled. She was angry. Humiliated, scared, wounded. This anger channeled her magic.
"{Swampfire}!" She screeched; the flimsy spell diagram held together by her burning will alone.
The modified Light spell incorporated elements of Fire and Water. Will o' Wisps sprung to life and floated around her. The soft, warm light revealed the grim forest she was trapped in. All around her, wolves snarled.
"Begone, vile things!" She moved her hands, light seeping from her fingers as she drew another circle. The lines and glyphs reflected her angry, the turns sharp and pointy like broken glass.
"{Grim Fog}!"
Perhaps inspired by the fog Netherbane summoned, perhaps fueled by her dark thoughts and angst, perhaps fed by her mindscape, the fog orbs were denser, thicker, and felt sticky. They shot faster than before, but the fog they left behind was stringy and gooey, as if someone had vaporized molten marshmallows mixed with grave ashes.
The orbs' movement was erratic, darting to and from as they sought the wolves at random. It would be hard to dodge those, never mind avoiding the fog they left behind.
"Aaaaahhhh!" The mage screamed her desire for vengeance. Once before wolves almost killed her. Now her dark desire was to make THEM fear her. The diagram pulsed and almost escaped her control. It hungered and she fed it her outrage.
The wolves didn't stand still. Following their pack leader, they rushed forward to tear her tender flesh apart. She didn't mind. Death was equally welcome next to victory.
The grim fog orbs met the furry assailants and the wolves whimpered and yelped. Then they growled and snarled as they tried to bite the orbs. The summoned fog balls broke in the wolves' muzzle, shriveling their tongues, gums, and lips and clogging their airways. These unfortunate mutts dropped on the fog-covered forest floor and disappeared in the dark smoke.
The mage girl cackled. Spurred by their mistress' victorious vocalization, the fog orbs frantically sought their marks with renewed fervor. The pulsing diagram vomited more of them, draining the MP reserves of the caster at vertiginous speeds.
A wolf broke past two orbs, getting struck in the flanks, snapping its vicious jaw at the girl. She met the yellow eyes with a challenge of her own, "Burn!"
The swampfire orbs obeyed the command. They struck the slavering wolf's skull and pushed it aside, saving their mistress from a nasty bite. The burning wolf fell on the fog, and it reacted to the fire.
The unstable diagram broke, and the spell went out of control. Yet, the connection between caster and dweomer remained. She poured magic from her hands down into the fog like streaks of molten silver, and the fog changed according to her will.
It was sorcery. Raw, untapped sorcery.
The fog obeyed the sorceress' wish and became flammable. From the burning wolf squirming underneath, it, a halo of fire sprung and spread, taking over the entire forest. The sorceress cackled.
"BURN! BURN! BURN!" She yammered and raged.
Wolves cried. Whimpered. Yelped, and died. The smell of rotten burnt meat was unbearable but the sorceress didn't care.
> Quest Complete.
> You gained 1 level.
> Branching Path Defined.
> Your Class evolved into [Bog Sorceress] (very rare).