The Power of Ten, Book Five: Versatile Wizardry

I wasn’t in a hurry, although I asked King Cloud Moon to see if his Wind Magic could fan the mistfire, drive it to and fro, or if it would just put it out. He happily got to work seeing how he could affect it with Wind.

I could have told him it didn’t respond like fire, which was fanned with more oxygen and grew rapidly when so supplied. Vivus took a different kind of fuel, and his Winds could actually blow it right out easily.

If you wanted to feed it, you had to blow it into a source of fuel. If it was thick enough, vivus would climb right through the air feeding on it, which could get quite exciting as it fwooshed into great clouds of mist that tumbled towards the land below, and rapidly began igniting more fires all over the place.

Soon enough he had the trick of it, guiding the vivus to grow in intensity, and then fanning the mists from it over the landscape, where they promptly ignited more stuff and began to grow happily.

After about twenty minutes, I let up my barrage to watch him work, as he was completely eclipsing my contributions with the Winds he now had blowing gently through the valley. Stacked and piled carcasses became great unwhite bonfires pouring more glittering mist down them, which quickly spread across the valley floor and the contamination there.

I restricted myself to shooting things on higher points, where the mists could flow down and ignite the stuff below them. Hooting happily, King Cloud Moon flitted from place to place, prodding the vivic fires into motion.

After a period of hesitation, other Beasts joined in, smelling the freshness in the air and sensing the Dark Elements here vanishing. They were mostly other species of brightly-feathered Birds, all of them Warrior-class and higher, pretty much all of them taller than I was, and they followed his lead in helping everything spread. Sometimes they revealed Shades in hiding, and with great glee blew them straight into some vivic infernos, watching as they mist-roasted to death with wild flailings, unable to escape.

Those were the only Soul Crystals to be found, so I made sure to grab all of them with Minor TK. Otherwise, even the toughest and most resistant of dead corpses were degrading rapidly, their toughness only meaning they were more intense fuel to the vivus.

With a roaring of great winds and a clap of thunder, it began raining carcasses from the sky.

Hundreds, then thousands of bodies of Tainted Creatures of all sizes plummeted from the sky, escorted by massive flocks of Commander-class Birds both dropping them and directing actual tornadoes in the dumping of them. Included among them were some dangerously powerful yet still quite-dead Shades of various kinds and species which hadn’t dissolved quickly enough, clearly made of tougher stuff than their subordinates.

The vivus took them all, and only blazed the brighter for them coming down. I noted the vestigial Shade corpses also still had lingering spirits attached in some cases, which meant Soul Eggs, or even Gems or Jewels, for me. A couple were even Noble-class, giants of their kind, and they burned most heartily...

The domineering Aura didn’t so much come upon us as it was abruptly there, shifting across many miles and abruptly right on top of a neighboring ridge, the ideal vantage point for surveying the miles of valley below and studying what was happening.

“The Emperor knows Void Magic?” I asked the Owl King calmly. Cloud Moon was sitting on a large boulder, looking at the burning valley with satisfaction, and enjoying the fresh breezes of purified air billowing up from it.

“Yes. The Nine-Tailed Silver Foxes are masters of Wind, Psychic, and Void Magic. They are considered one of the most dangerous lineages of the Great Beasts,” King Cloud Moon replied to me in reverence.

“Then He should be aware of how vivus has strengthened the dimensional firmament here,” I said calmly. “For instance, He would find it excessively difficult to ‘port into the middle of the valley right now.”

“Ohhhhh...” the great Owl trilled. “The dimensional reinforcement you spoke of, which would push the boundaries of the Breach backwards...”

“That’s the one.” I looked out on it all burning with the same satisfaction I remembered Aelryinth had when watching Dead Marches all aflame and getting Fed to the Land. “Just remember that this is a stopgap, a temporary thing. More power coming in will eventually overwhelm it; it’s not absolute, nor final. Vivus needs to press forwards, to feed and keep feeding, or it simply goes out. It needs fuel, like any other source of fire.”

“I will go instruct the others to keep fanning it into the stronger sources of Dark Magic. This vivus will not be allowed to die.” King Cloud Moon lifted off in a completely silent flurry of feathers, and zipped off with frankly shocking agility for his huge size in the direction of the other Air Magic wielders.

It was Good work, I could feel it in my bones and from the nameless chanting behind my ear. I stood there, my arms crossed, regarding the unwhite misty flames working away so happily, converting alien energies into the proper foundational powers of this place, patting myself on the back for correctly interpreting at least one of the reasons I’d been brought here.

“I believe it is your presence here which is responsible for this display?”

I blinked, and looked off to my left.

I had been left floating on a Disk at fifty feet high, basically the height of King Cloud Moon’s head. An expanse of silver fur, as smoothly and richly flowing as if spun from quicksilver, greeted my eyes, literally an arm’s-length away.

It was a knee.

I tilted my head up, and up, and blinked at the massive profile of the majestic, slightly unreal, too-slender head of the silver-furred Fox looming way above me. He had somehow inserted himself right next to me so subtly I hadn’t even felt it, which was pretty impressive for something that had to mass more than a blue whale.

Not even a whiff of air displacement! The amount of control needed to do that was pretty substantial...

I turned around and looked at His nine billowing Tails, longer than the body of the Fox here himself as they played around slowly, the Mana in the air dancing to every twitch of fur and interplay of the Tails as they wove about themselves.

He had also explicitly taken control of my Disk, and it was rising up the side of Him, instead of automatically falling to the ground after King Cloud Moon flitted off.

He had wonderfully blue eyes, extremely hypnotic just to look at, and I clamped my eyes shut instantly before looking away.

Well, deferral and not meeting the eyes of an Emperor were very wise things at this point.

“Your Imperial Majesty, this one’s name is Fae.” I bowed to Him formally, having at least the etiquette to do a Human form of the thing, which I was sure He would recognize and at least not hold against me if it was improper. “To answer His Imperial Majesty’s order, yes, this one is the source of the vivic fire which is currently cleansing the valley below us of all the Dark Magic that has corrupted it and the corpses within it. King Cloud Moon did convey this one here after recognizing the potential of such power and believed that such power would be of great interest to His Imperial Majesty.”

The Nine-Tailed Silver Fox continued to regard the valley below, doubtless on multiple levels. “A Human, here, in the Beast World they are forbidden to enter. This misting fire, which devours the Darkness infesting our Plane. Tell me more, Human Fae, of what goes on here.”

There was, of course, absolutely no way I’d not obey His wishes, even though He wasn’t weighing His Aura down on top of me. “As His Imperial Majesty commands! This one was literally dropped out of the sky onto the Beast World approximately three days ago. This one’s entry here was naturally not accomplished by any power of her own, and this one is certain His Imperial Majesty can discern that she has no ability to circumvent whatever restrictions exist here under this one’s own power.

“It is this one’s belief that I was brought here to provide the vivic fire to the Beastlands and so turn the tide of the breach from the Dark Realms which are assailing this Plane and the denizens thereof.

“The vivic fire is the unnatural energy of the mortal realms. It exists to consume energies that are not of the realm of its origin and feed them to the Land it is born of. Thus, here, they will consume the Dark Magicks of all kinds, and feed them into the essence of this Plane, in effect turning the invasive powers into a great libation and massive feast for the very foundation of the Beast Realm.

“As side effects of their subsummation of the dead, the vivic flames will consume the spirits of the invading creatures, denying them rebirth and forever removing them from the numbers of those commanded by the invaders. As they transfer power to the Land, they also reinforce its dimensional integrity, making it more difficult for the Darkness to spread its gnawing at the Rules of this reality, while also clearing away all of the dead and cleansing the landscape of Dark influence.

“The vivic flame has no power to harm the living or any natives of what are effectively mortal worlds. His Imperial Majesty can no doubt see members of His people enjoying the atmosphere of the vivic flames, having tested it out to see that they take no harm from them.

“In summation, it is this one’s belief that she was brought here to deliver the vivic flame to the Emperors of the Beast World, who would use it to reverse the gains the invaders of the Dark Realms have made, and slowly and surely Seal the landscape and the world away against their unwanted aggression and intrusion.”

I bowed lower, not rising or seeking to meet that pale blue eye again.

I stayed bowed for over two minutes, patient and calm as Flowing Silver Emperor considered my words and matched them up against what He was seeing below. I didn’t know if it was a test or if He simply needed to think about such things, but I wasn’t about to challenge His authority. This was a post-Legendary being, something on par with a demigod, and I wasn’t about to challenge Him.

“I am not unfamiliar with advances in the world of mortals, or the inventiveness of Humans,” He finally said, and I felt that pale blue eye turn upon me. “I have not heard of this vivic fire before.”

I didn’t look up, properly obeisant. “To His Imperial Majesty, if it had been widely known on the mortal world, this one would most likely now be dead,” I replied. “It should not surprise His Majesty that the existence of vivic fire would be a great threat to many forces wielding Dark Magic, who would take any measures they could to make sure that it did not spread. I am aware of such things, and so not making public such a discovery would be a prudent move, as His Majesty will no doubt agree, given this one’s inferior level of ability.”

I could feel His gaze rake across my mind and soul, and had no doubt He agreed. I was very capable in some ways, but the fact was I was still a Novice under the standard accepted Human advancement of power, or basically equal to a Servant-class Beast, the lowest order of creatures in this world of Magical Beasts. The fact I was Human and so much, much more intelligent than many such Beasts was irrelevant. It simply meant my brains were also at the disposal of those far more powerful than I was.

Which they undoubtedly were. I was literally here to help them, and had no regrets about the matter.

“Your own power is curious enough,” he deigned to mention to me. “I sense Fire and Ice upon you, and then... your Aura is remarkably ambiguous.”

I lifted an eyebrow as I stayed bowed, my Disk having long been lifted up to His eye level, and the great orb literally only a few steps away at this point. I had definitely piqued His interest. “To His Imperial Majesty, this one has a Bloodline of Fire and Cold, but my magic is of the Arcane.”

“The Arcane?” he repeated, prompting me with what seemed to be amusement.