Escalation

by Matthew Peed

  “How does it feel?” I asked Ezal after a moment.

  She stared at it for a moment, then tried to lift it. It responded almost too fast and, in a flash, moved to where she wanted it. She made a fist and released it several times, going through a few other motions as she got a feel for it. I watched, pleased that it was working so well.

  “I like it. I feel a . . . power coming from it, though?” she inquired.

  “I made it so that you would be able to channel your mana through it. The materials I used are good for fire mana, and there is a special liquid inside the bones that actually generates a trace amount of fire mana. The gems will absorb that passive amount, and you will be able to use it in emergencies.”

  “It . . . it won’t affect the baby, will it?” Ezal asked, concerned.

  “Don’t worry. I’m not into child experiments. Make sure to expel a bit of fire mana every other day, about the amount you would for cultivating mana, and there won’t be any problem. If you forget, you might only influence the mana type of the baby, nothing more,” I explained. I had built in as many safety features as I could for the baby. I didn’t want to be a monster, after all.

  “Good,” Ezal said with a warm smile.

  “M-m-m-m-m-master! D-d-d-d-do you think I could get one of those?!” Julie asked with delirious eyes.

  “You think I would give you something so powerful?” I scoffed at her.

  “W-w-w-what do I have to do?!” she asked with a desperate face.

  I tapped my chin as I thought it over. “Let me think on it for a bit,” I said after a moment.

  “Regan! You can’t be seriously thinking about giving this . . . this . . . this lunatic something that would be considered a national artifact,” Izora said, shocked.

  I raised an eyebrow. “Really? A national artifact?” I asked

  “Of course! Magic like this hasn’t been used in a thousand if not two thousand years. Even during the Golden Age, this thing would be locked in some king’s vault.”

  “He really made something so powerful?” Louella asked.

  “Yes! Tsuzuki, back me up!” Izora said to her advisor.

  I looked at him but was surprised to see him staring at the arm with a considerable amount of drool leaking from the side of his mouth. It took a moment, but Izora finally roused him from his trance.

  “Huh?! Ah, yes. This artificial limb would have been considered one of a kind in the ancient times,” he said as he wiped the drool from his mouth. “Not many people made these, as holy and light magic can replace a limb if the mage or priest is at tier three. The first one that I know about was made for a king who lost a limb in battle. No matter who tried to heal him, he swore it never worked the same as before, so he had the best artificers make him one.”

  “Hmm, so I should keep it on the down-low, or I might gain some more ‘admirers.’ Is that what you’re saying?” I said.

  “Not that you don’t already have a bunch,” Louella tacked on.

  “HAHA, that’s certainly true,” I said, then looked back to Ezal. “Time for the leg.”

  I repeated the process with the leg. It took a bit more material of course, but it wasn’t too hard. After about an hour, I finished crafting the leg and attached it. Since walking was more of a subconscious activity, I made sure to dial it back to match her normal leg. After she was all set, I stepped back to give her some room to move.

  She stood up from the bed and took some short steps to get the hang of the response time. I had dulled it just a bit so that it didn’t overreact to her thoughts, but it was still a bit faster than a normal human’s would be. I had done the same with the designs so that it looked quite pleasant to the eye.

  “I just noticed but it’s even easier to breathe,” Ezal said with a hand on her breast.

  “I fixed your lung while I worked on your arm. Would you like to try some magic?” I asked. I wanted to make sure everything worked correctly.

  “I could use the stress relief from being stuck in that ward all this time,” Ezal said as she flexed her new limbs.

  Nodding, I moved us to the dungeon’s eleventh floor and sent a command to one of the nearby wolf packs. They moved quickly and arrived in only a few moments. I tilted my head as I looked them over. I swore they were bigger than when I’d made them and shook my head. I would have to ask Ignea and Jarvis about it later. If I wasn’t actively paying attention, I tended to ignore parts of the dungeon that didn’t interest me. That habit only worsened the larger the dungeon grew.

  The wolves came up to me like loyal dogs and rubbed their heads against me as if they wanted some attention. It was making it hard for me to use them for the test. I had a soft spot for animals that actually listened to me. Sighing, I surrendered to the urge to stroke the wolves that had gathered around me. With a look into the distance, I created a few new ones that would be more blank slates.

  “Alright, go try it out on those over there,” I said and noticed that the girls were petting the wolves as well.

  “Regan! Can . . . can . . . can I get one of these as a pet?!” Louella asked with longing in her eyes. She reminded me of a person who would spend more time with their friends’ pets than their friends when visiting their homes.

  “I didn’t take you for a dog person,” I said, thrown off a bit.

  After an hour of the girls messing with the dogs, we finally got to the test. Ezal didn’t have her staff, but she would be able to work her magic without it, as it was more of a focusing tool in the middle of battle. She strode forward and stopped a bit away from the blank wolves. Pointing her hand into the forest randomly, she channeled some mana, and a ball of fire formed above her palm. She hurled it forward, and it collided with a tree. A minor explosion took place, decimating a good four or five meters.

  “That’s some real firepower,” I said as I watched her.

  She channeled some more mana, then unleashed a volley of fireballs into the area. I looked back to Ezal and saw that a red transparent gear had formed around the gems in her arm. I used my dungeon sense to look closer and saw that her mana was being augmented a bit more than I had anticipated it would. I couldn’t change it without cutting her arm off again, so I decided to leave it.

  Ezal turned back to the wolves, pointing toward them. The wolves responded by growling at her and spreading out a bit. Ezal channeled mana through her arm, and the engravings I had done started to shine, the floating gears getting larger by the moment. She released a small flame from her finger, which took me by surprise since it contained the amount of mana that her previous volley of fireballs contained and much more.

  I studied the flame as it drifted over toward the wolves, and my eyes widened in surprise. I quickly reacted and erected a barrier around the spot that was about to be hit, then double layered it. The flame reached about halfway through the group and then sparks started to form around the flame. Everything went quiet for a moment, then an explosion that shook the entire floor rang out. I had to quickly layer another barrier over the other two when they started to crack. Gears made of flame formed inside the explosion as if to represent the spell at work.

  A jet of flame broke through and snaked toward Ezal as if seeking her out. She raised her hands, and the flame flowed into her body. I wasn’t sure if she was, but it felt like she was in a trance. I watched as the fire mana infused with her body. I was worried about the baby, but some type of barrier protected the fetus from the mana. It seemed . . . otherworldly.

  Ezal started to float above the ground as her body took in as much fire mana as it could. The crack in the barrier enlarged, and the explosion began to spread. It was using the hydrogen as fuel to burn, and I had to cut the flow of air to that section of the dungeon, or it might have ripped the floor apart.

  The explosion finally died, and I released the barriers. A cloud of ash spread out from the site. I looked closer and saw that a crater had form that extended almost to the next floor. This could have been a disaster. I looked over to Ezal, who had la
nded back on the ground. Studying her body, I saw that she had finally broken into tier two and somehow blasted through to midlevel. The most noticeable thing was her hair, which was currently actual flames.

  “Ezal! Are you ok?!” Louella shouted as she rushed toward her.

  Chapter 5

  Ezal

  I walked forward on the new leg that Regan had given me. I was still amazed I was able to walk again, but when I thought that these limbs were equal to a national treasure, my stomach did a little flip. I would have to take the knowledge of how they were made to my grave. Even if it really did mean my life.

  I had practiced the method that Regan had shown me when using my magic a few times, but it was hard to nail down. Frankly, I didn’t have the sensitivity for it. I hoped that with these new limbs I might gain a new understanding of fire mana. Just walking, I could feel the trickle of heat from them.

  I stopped and turned toward the forest a few dozen meters from me. I channeled a simple fireball like I’d done thousands of times in the past. Then I felt intense energy from the arm flow back into my body after my mana had entered it. I focused on that and thought I understood what Regan had talked about a while ago regarding the tiny mana in the air.

  I channeled another spell and sent a volley of fireballs into the patch I’d already hit as I concentrated on each spell to see how the mana burned while it passed through the air. I could feel which parts of the tiny mana burned faster than the other types in the air. Nodding to myself, I moved toward the wolves. I thought about how the spell should work and gathered the mana into my palm. Condensing the mana until it was barely larger than a fingertip, I sent the spell out.

  As the flame entered the center of the pack of wolves, I saw a barrier form around it. Before I could look back to Regan to see what was going on, an explosion blasted out from the flame, as I had intended. My mana drained as the explosion built. It grew more, and the barrier cracked. As a tendril of flame flowed to me, I felt my body burn as I broke through to the next tier.

  I’d heard stories about people breaking through, but this was more intense than I’d expected. As nature kept filling my mana pool, the spell then drained it. It felt like there was a war happening in my body. I started to panic, worrying about my child, but I vaguely sensed that it would be alright. The knowledge seemed to come from deep inside me.

  I couldn’t even scream as the fire flowed through me. Finally, I sensed Regan do something, and the spell ran out of the tiny mana to fuel it. I realized that I had started to float in the air only as I slowly settled back on the ground. The area around me had been burned to black ash.

  “Ezal! Are you ok?!” I heard Louella shout from nearby.

  I looked over to her and then fell back onto my butt. I could still feel an intense amount of energy flowing through me. As I breathed, small flames leaked from my nostrils and mouth. I was more amazed that I was, in fact, alright. I didn’t think mortal bodies were meant to experience such a flow of power.

  I sent a small smile toward Louella. “That . . . was intense.”

  “You don’t say,” Regan said as he walked up to me. “In the future, if you’re about to break through, make sure to do it where I can help. I think I might have influenced your perception of fire a bit too much.”

  I laughed and said, “At least we know the arm and leg work.”

  “Yeah, looks like I might have created a monster of a Fire mage—try not to burn any cities down,” Regan said as he did his usual chin tap.

  I cast out the mental image of me floating over a city while it burned and asked, “Putting that aside, will this go away?” I gestured to my flaming hair and smoldering nostrils.

  “I don’t honestly know. First time I’ve seen a breakthrough as intense as yours, and quite a few people have broken through since I started watching the town,” Regan said with a shrug.

  I tested my body and stood up gently. I felt much better than I had in a long time, especially since I had been cursed. I thought about that and looked over to where Julie was standing. I had never really gotten my payback for her sneak attack on me. I formed a mini fireball in my new hand and threw it at her while she was gazing at Regan. Her barrier formed a moment before it collided with her, and the fireball exploded and blasted her nearly thirty meters away. She impacted the ground and slid another couple of meters with a few rolls mixed in.

  She clawed her way up and turned toward me. “WHAT THE FUCK was that for?!”

  I was a bit disappointed that she appeared alright. “For the alley, you bitch!” I shouted back at her. Flames leaped from my body at various places.

  “Julie, I think you earned that one,” Regan called over to her, a sinister grin on his face. “Don’t make this into a thing, or I’ll hold you out over the tower ledge.”

  “Y . . . yes, Master,” Julie said, defeated.

  I stretched and tried to adjust to my changed body. Luckily, I hadn’t grown any, as was usually common when breaking through, but my muscles were definitely denser. Looking deeper, I could feel that my mana pool was much larger. So large, it felt like an ocean. In my mental image, flames seemed to jump from it.

  I looked over to Regan. “Does my mana pool look different from a normal Fire mage’s?”

  His eyes seemed to take on an ethereal light as he studied me for a good five minutes. It started to get uncomfortable, but I was the one who’d asked, so I held it in.

  “You . . . your pool seems to lack any impurities that would normally be present. Your mana is very . . . pure, which would be the best way to put it,” he said and then shook his head. “I think this has really created a monster of a Fire mage. With that type of mana, your Fire spells will be even more powerful.”

  I nodded and flexed my new hand. Gritting my teeth, I asked, “Sir Regan, I know this is completely out of line, and you have already done so much for me, but I have one more favor to ask.”

  Regan just smiled and said, “Go ahead.”

  “I would like a weapon that can truly exhibit the power of fire. I will even be willing to wear one of those cuffs so that you can watch me,” I said. I knew that anything below tier two would likely melt away in my hands if I tried to channel this mana through it. I could certainly just free cast like I had been, but having a magnifying force would serve to heighten my control of the magic.

  “You use a . . . staff if I remember correctly,” Regan said, and I nodded.

  He reached forward and tapped my head. I felt him trying to draw some of my mana, so I let it flow to him. It turned into a mana stone as I watched, which changed and grew a few centimeters, then turned a crimson color. The stone appeared to melt as Regan molded it like clay. He stretched it to about two meters long. One end widened and became the head of the staff. It reminded me of a sunburst, with rays coming off the circle in the center. Flame flowed down the pole and ended at the bottom with a crescent.

  A burst of steam blew from it suddenly, and Regan spun it a few times as if to test the balance. He paused midspin and then smirked. He turned back to me and handed me the weapon. I felt something enter my mind as I grabbed hold of the staff.

  A voice sounded in my head. Mother?

  I jerked and looked at Regan in surprise. His smirk grew more extensive, and he said, “Well, it’s not wrong. It did come from your mana.”

  “Um, yes,” I said out loud.

  “ . . . ” I felt, rather than heard, in my head.

  “Ah, it seems it fell asleep,” Regan said. “You should name it.”

  I examined the staff but couldn’t really think of a name, so I turned to Regan, “Do you know another word for ‘fire’?” I asked.

  Regan tapped his chin in thought. “How about . . . Feuer?” he said eventually.

  “Feuer, that sounds good.”

  I leaned the staff against me to adjust my grip, and it suddenly lifted into the air and floated around me. I freaked out and quickly grabbed it. When it didn’t try to leave or anything, I let go of it, and it returned
to floating in the air.

  Feuer, I mentally sent.

  The staff bobbed once in the air and moved back to my hand. I smiled at the warmth that seemed to flow into my hand from him. I looked at the rest of the group and noticed that Izora was kneeling on the ground and Tsuzuki had completely passed out. Even Julie had a completely open mouth off to the side. Only Louella seemed to be normal, but she had interacted with Regan more than anyone there.

  “Well, I’m glad you like him, given your mana bond. He will channel your power much better than any other weapon I could make for you, and should grow with you. I just recommend that you treat him well—I wouldn’t want him to become a cursed weapon in the future.”

  Father . . . I heard the voice in my head. I looked up to Regan with a small smirk on my face.

  “Well?” I asked.

  “Well, I mean technically, but I treat everything I create as my children so . . .” Regan said and waved it off.

  “Ezal, you man-killer,” Louella said and whistled.

  “Stop that!” I said back to her.

  It had been nearly two hours since I had broken through, but my hair and breathing were still releasing flames. I just sighed and figured I would have to live with it. I was glad that most of my clothes and other things were already flame-resistant. When I was a child, I tended to burn my pillow every few weeks.

  “Hey, wake up! Stop drooling in my dungeon,” Regan said as he kicked Tsuzuki lightly.

  He groaned and sat up slowly. “I feel like I just witnessed something history-making,” Tsuzuki mumbled.

  “You would be right, Teacher,” Princess Izora said.

  Regan handed me a golden band similar to the one Louella wore. Taking it, I put it on my left hand. As part of my actual body, I felt attaching the band there would mean more in this situation. Regan smiled and nodded in approval.