757. Magic Devastation

757. Magic Devastation

“Open,” Dallion whispered once he cast a new flight spell.

The metal sphere opened up, returning the armadil shield to its normal state. Given the multitude of vortex minions that had formed in the sea, one could expect a greater variety of far stronger creatures here. That turned out to be true. Yet, none of them seemed particularly interested in Dallion. Rather, they were roaming the air, focusing on an entirely different type of prey—chainlings.

Not this

, Dallion thought.

Rising twenty feet in the air, he split into half a dozen instances. As expected, the smooth purple surface that was the endless “floor” erupted in a series of spikes. Several of them almost managed to reach the feet of his instances. Seeing that their prey was out of reach, they quickly drew back, vanishing within the surface. At least this was one less concern Dallion would have.

Unfortunately, there was no time to relax. The other side of the sea proved to be a battleground. Towering blobs of black void floated like caterpillars—teeth and tendrils floating all over their surface. The lack of emotions emanating from them was so absolute that one could almost say that they were draining that of the onlookers.

Back at the Academy, Dallion had been told that one of the mage’s duties was to protect the world from unseen creatures trying to enter the world. So far, he had assumed that meant beings such as shardflies, platypains, maybe the occasional cloud creature or two. Never had he expected that this was the method through which void beings entered the world as well.

Aether spiders the size of trucks flew everywhere. Mercilessly, they plunged their sharp legs of pure magic into the black blobs, simultaneously bombarding them with as many spells as they could master. Individually, Dallion could probably win in a fight against them. If only a dozen grouped up on him, it was all but certain that they’d be victorious.

If Nil were here, he’d probably get into a long and boring explanation, presenting the event from a purely theoretical angle and conveniently forgetting the practical aspects. Thankfully, after half a year, Dallion had gotten to know a thing or two about life and awakening. The only thing that the current scene reminded him of was a realm invasion.

In a way, this presented a huge opportunity. The vortex minions were preoccupied with the chainlings, so he could take them out one at a time without fear of them focusing on him. From a logical perspective, he’d never get a better chance. Would that be worth risking chainlings entering Nerosal again?

Was that how cracklings appeared in the world? Mages focusing on their own advancement while leaving others to take care of their mess?

A chainling exploded, as the cluster of aether spiders covering it managed to drill through. Lesser blobs of void floated about, quickly melted down by spells of flames and energy.

Dallion gritted his teeth. There was no way he’d let the chainlings get anywhere close to the real world.

Ranged markers appeared on one of the less mobile specimens. The size of his native village, the creature floated in the air, keeping the vortex minions at bay. Not being overly aggressive worked in its favor—only a dozen or so aether spiders were engaged with it, most of the rest focusing on more immediate threats.

“Ruby, slice anything that gets near,” Dallion said, as he infused his harpsisword with spark. “Chainling or minion.” He let out a point attack, targeting the center of the chainling’s body.

CRITICAL STRIKE

Damage dealt has been increased by 200%

The wave of energy hit the creature dead center, puncturing a small hole. The wound was quickly filled up. Even with spark, Dallion’s present attacks weren’t as efficient as he’d hoped. Similar strikes had destroyed entire crackling villages in the realms, they had even wounded chainlings. This wasn’t either. It shared chainling properties, but it was a lot more primal, larger, and less intuitive.

Halving the distance, Dallion did a line attack. This proved a lot more efficient, creating a giant cut across the chainling’s side and killing off a few minions in the process. One more strike and the being was split in two halves. That wasn’t the end of it, though. Just as Dallion shifted hands, ready to continue with his attacks, tendrils shot out from both halves of the creature in an attempt to merge them together again.

“Not yet,” Dallion whispered. In the past, he would have cut the tendrils with his next strike. Instead, his strike split each of the halves in two.

Unsummoning his weapons and gear, Dallion then quickly cast a series of aether shield spells. Purple rectangles appeared in force all above the creature, then thrust it towards the floor.

There was a loud, thundering splash. Thousands of inhuman screams filled the air as aetherspikes pierced through the surface of the blob.

VORTEX BREACH

Overall stability 94%

The black matter squirmed as it bubbled away. The scars it dealt to the floor were massive, but Dallion didn’t have neither the will nor the desire to keep observing. Instead, he flew towards the next closest chainling.

Before he could get close, a series of wind slashes shot out from his shoulder. A cluster of purple rectangles popped up next to Dallion, as an aether spider attempted to get close for an attack. Apparently, his last attack had elevated him to the degree of vortex threat as well.

“Thanks, Ruby.” Dallion cast a multitude of aether spheres around the attacker, quickly summoning his weapon.

One strike was all it took for the spider to break through its encasement. Two of its legs darted in Dallion’s direction, while the rest drew magic symbols in the air, casting a series of spells.

“Don’t!” Dallion said, although he still did a line slash to disrupt the spells. One of the minion’s front legs hit him in the shoulder, though thanks to his layer of protective magic threads, no red rectangle emerged. “The chainlings are a greater threat!”

If the minion was able to understand him, it didn’t act it. Even worse, several more creatures broke off from their usual targets, flying in Dallion’s direction.

One against three. Even with combat splitting, Dallion didn’t like such odds. Bursting into enough instances as he could muster, he flew away as fast as possible while simultaneously attempting a host of spells and attacks. For the most part, his efforts were adequate. In over eighty instances, he had managed to kill off one of the aether spiders. In one case, he even managed to destroy two, but the outcome wasn’t particularly in his favor. The last remaining vortex minion had successfully copied his method of attack, sending him to the floor, where the spikes instantly depleted his health.

“Sorry, Harp.” Dallion changed the way he was holding the harpsisword. “I’m out of options.”

Focusing all his concentration in one thought, Dallion combined music skills with magic. Threads of magic spilled into the weapon, flowing through the strings. Then, when he played a chord, they flew beyond. Like thousands of minuscule streamers, they filled the air, attaching to anything that was capable of hearing them.

Dallion had taken the pains to match the music to the aether minions, focusing on their magic frequency. To his surprise, the music “threads” also stuck to the void blobs. For a fraction of a second, everything froze. It reminded Dallion of the first time he had used music on objects. Back then, the targets were of such a low level that they got paralyzed by the contact. Since then, Dallion had faced many stronger opponents, but never had he reinforced his music with pure magic… and, to be honest, it was no accident. The sensation was painful, making him feel as if all his internal organs were stretched to infinity.

A second wave of magic spread along the connections of sound, this one coming not from Dallion but the harpsisword itself.

Finish the spell,

Harp said.

Dallion didn’t need telling twice, playing a series of chords. Each cluster of sounds was the equivalent of magic symbols linked together in a spell formation. The closest thing one could compare it to was an “air potion.”

Thirteen chords played. Thirteen symbols combined. Thousands of creatures burst open like corn kernels, filling the space with black and glowing dust, along with a seemingly endless number of purple rectangles.

MUSIC DEVASTATION

(+2 Reaction, +2 Body)

You should have died combining these skills. Good thing you have someone looking out for you. Next time, you might not be as lucky.

A single blue rectangle appeared among the purple.

Lux

, Harp said.

Grab him.

As far as anyone could remember, this was the first time the guardian had ordered a minion. Even so, there wasn’t a moment’s hesitation. The firebird emerged from Dallion’s realm, wrapping him in blue flames.

“Thanks,” Dallion whispered. The single spell he had cast had put an end to every other active spell he had, making his entire body feel as cold as ice. Only the flames’ warmth kept him from trembling uncontrollably.

You overextended yourself again

, Harp criticized.

On a real battlefield, that would have been your end.

Dallion didn’t reply. There was a time when she had said the same about line attacks. He had to admit, though, that music spells were tremendously more taxing. And just as before, if it hadn’t been for her help, he would have failed at it.

Holding his breath, Dallion attempted to split into instances. No matter how hard he tried, he found that he was incapable. The lack of red rectangles was encouraging. At least he hadn’t suffered a self-inflicted status effect.

“Lux, Ruby, is there anything left?” he asked.

Nothing, boss,

the firebird quickly replied.

Unlike him, the shardfly made the effort to flutter about before giving a negative answer.

“Nox, do you feel anything?”

I’m not setting foot in a vortex.

The crackling puma hissed from his realm.

And no.

That was a relief. At least Dallion could take a few moments to regain some strength. On the negative side, he still had the vortex guardian to face.

“I’ll be fine,” he said, aimed at Harp. “If this hadn’t worked, I’d have resorted to the Moonstone.”

That isn’t the point

, she replied with the calm and warmth of a mother.

You’re not facing guardians anymore.

As seconds passed, Dallion started feeling warmth return to his body. Slowly at first, it allowed him to move his fingers, then hands, then everything else. After close to a minute, he felt as if he’d been hit by a moderately large truck. One minute more and it was closer to being hit by a bicycle. In all that time, there was no sign of the vortex guardian.

“It’s not your job to attack me, it’s my job to defeat you,” Dallion said, moving his arms around. Same as before, he made an attempt to split and this time he succeeded.

Dallion’s first thought was to try to use a music spell again and find where the guardian was hiding. His second was to find an alternative approach.

“Not making this easy for me, are you?”

Casting a spell to enhance his perception further, Dallion looked around. With the fight over, the entire realm had been reduced to an infinity of purple and black. From what was written in the Academy tomes, vortex guardians had to be linked to the vortex they belonged to. One exceedingly terrifying possibility was for the guardian to be somewhere in the sea.

After thinking about it for a few moments, Dallion dismissed the idea. Following the presented logic, the vortex was at its weakest at the bottom, consistently getting more and more challenging further on. If that held true, the current space represented the “shell” that kept the chainlings from infiltrating the world. That would mean that the strongest element—the guardian and heart of the vortex—should be higher still.

Where are you hiding?

Dallion wondered.

Splitting into forty instances, he flew in all directions. Magic nature was based on math. If he found the center of the room, he’d have a starting point to go by.

“Ruby, let me know if you feel any illusions. It might—”

Dallion stopped mid-sentence. One of his instances had found what he had been searching for: a barely visible thread of magic that rose up from the floor, continuing up into the darkness.

If this were a common guardian, Dallion might have made a sarcastic remark. Since it wasn’t, he infused his harpsisword with spark and did an arc attack aiming to sever the thread.

The blade of the harpsisword struck the thread… but moved no further.

Purple light bled from above, shattering the darkness.

COMBAT INITIATED

A note from Lise Eclaire

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