Forbidden Arcana: Valaria

by Tamryn Tamer

“I’m about to take out a Primordial,” Jericho said cockily. “Do you think I’m scared of a god?”

  “You have to take out the Primordial first,” Eberis said. “Better get on that.”

  Jericho had to find a reaper first. Raven said the reapers already killed ten percent of the continent. He envisioned the continent and pictured the coastal stronghold where Owl summoned death. If the reapers were moving out from there and over ten percent of the way through, he had a good idea of some places they might be. He envisioned a large hillside right outside of a small city and the next moment he was there.

  Chapter 13

  The Death March

  “Damn,” Jericho said to himself as he watched the massive army of reapers marching toward him like a swarm of locusts. “You’re shitting me.”

  Every one of the reapers was an exact recreation of Morgana. He wasn’t sure what he expected them to look like, but he certainly wasn’t expecting that. They were all even dressed identically in black bodysuits, black cloaks, and scythes.

  He stared at the scythes. They were long black poles and on the ends were glowing white blades. He watched as the frontline robotically butchered the various wildlife and monsters they passed. The white blades didn’t even cut the animals. They just hooked into the souls and tore them out at the roots leaving the animals lifeless. Then the white blade burned and the soul evaporated as if it never existed.

  “Well,” Jericho cracked his knuckles. “Here it goes.”

  He pulled himself from the natural flow of time and adjusted his own until the wave of reapers slowed to a crawl. He rushed toward the horde of nearly stationary reapers while imagining how much nicer it’d be if they were all like Morgana.

  “Shit,” Jericho said as he tumbled forward at a hundred miles per hour. His body smashed and rolled against the ground until finally he came to a halt. “Ouch.”

  He felt the ground trembling beneath him and glanced to the left to see the army of reapers marching toward him at their normal speed. Several locked their eyes on him as he slowly climbed to his feet. He tried to teleport away but it wasn’t working.

  “Fuck,” Jericho grumbled as he tested his light and dark magic and realized none of them were working. He turned to sprint away from the thousands of reapers marching toward the city and as soon as he got about a hundred yards away he felt his magic returning to normal. He stared at the reapers wondering what the hell was creating the barrier and a small glint of jewelry caught his attention.

  He shifted his eyes to those of a griffin and focused on their necklaces. At the center of their necklaces were glowing gemstones made up of time, space, light, and dark.

  “Death, Death, Death,” Jericho shook his head as he realized that the Primordial was taking measures against problematic magic users. That posed an even bigger problem. Somewhere in the back of his mind Jericho was thinking of Death like a force of nature. It hadn’t occurred to him that the Primordial wasn’t just a force of nature, but was intelligent.

  Jericho lifted his hand raising a giant piece of earth and launched it toward the reapers. Immediately the reapers moved out of the way of the flying stone leaving it to crash in an empty area then quickly returned to their formation.

  They weren’t interested in chasing him or battling him. They were only interested in marching forward to cleanse the world of life. They really were a swarm. But he still needed those weapons.

  “I guess we’re doing this the hard way,” Jericho said shifting his body to enhance his speed and agility to their maximum capabilities. He accessed his inventory and pulled out a legendary dagger. “Not enough.”

  Jericho focused on his stats while adjusting his body composition until his agility matched that of the fastest assassins in the game. He drank an agility potion further increasing his speed and activated a combination of assassin, thief, and ranger abilities he’d acquired. His agility was easily triple that of the fastest assassin in the game and he hoped that was enough.

  Blink. The ability single-handedly made thieves and assassins the most popular classes in the game. In the right hands, it was one of the most powerful abilities in the game. To most players, it appeared like a teleport but in fact it was just a high-speed movement.

  When Jericho used the ability for the first time his low base agility resulted in a relatively lackluster blink. That’s when he realized the higher your agility, the faster the blink.

  He pulled out his dagger and selected one of the thousands of reapers to target and focused on her. He stared at her hand gripping the scythe while adjusting the dagger in his hand. He was only going to have a second.

  Jericho launched himself toward the targeted reaper at breakneck speed and landed an inch from her. Before she could react, he quickly sliced his dagger upward chopping off her hand and grabbed the scythe. He watched as several scythes from the neighboring reapers redirected toward him and came crashing down. Jericho twisted his body and launched himself away as fast as he appeared.

  “Shit,” Jericho panted while glancing back at the army of women. He didn’t like cutting off the reaper’s hand since she looked exactly like Morgana but he didn’t have time for diplomacy. He admired the scythe while resisting the urge to touch the glowing blade. “Guess this will have to do.”

  He wanted to collect at least a few scythes but didn’t want to press his luck. He didn’t even know if a single scythe was going to work so risking his life collecting multiple would be pretty stupid.

  “Alright,” Jericho took a deep breath and concentrated on the stronghold where Owl summoned death. “It’s go time.”

  Jericho appeared on the wall of the citadel and immediately felt the immense pressure of a powerful spirit. He turned toward the source of the spiritual aura and saw the shadowy Primordial creating dozens of reapers at a time like it was nothing.

  Death turned toward Jericho. He wasn’t surprised. If he could detect Death it was only natural Death could detect him. He still would have liked a minute to scope out the area first. Death vanished and Jericho felt his presence behind him.

  “Disgusting,” Death’s voice was practically paralyzing. Jericho senses the Primordial’s hand reaching out for him and tried to teleport away but his magic didn’t work. He used blink and narrowly avoided being killed.

  Death appeared behind him again and once again he blinked away. The Primordial wasn’t giving him an opportunity to think as he continually teleported.

  “How can you fucking teleport?” Jericho yelled furiously as he dodged another strike. “This is such bullshit!”

  “Disgusting creature,” Death snarled while finally giving Jericho some breathing room. Or so he thought as the Primordial directed his newly created reapers to attack him. “Die.”

  “Are you fucking serious right now?” Jericho whined as the reapers rushed toward him wildly swinging their soul reaping scythes. Death appeared above him this time and floated there waiting for Jericho to dodge upward. “Fuck you.”

  Jericho stomped his foot sending a massive tremor through the ground causing the reapers to fall as he dashed through them. Death appeared in front of him with his arm up and Jericho quickly summoned a stone pillar launching him upward mid-blink.

  “Bullshit,” Jericho growled as Death appeared above him. “How can you fucking teleport?”

  Jericho shapeshifted a set of Seraph wings and summoned a whirlwind to redirect him away from his path. Once again, Death was there waiting for him as Jericho rapidly snapped his fingers creating a series of large explosions between them.

  “Fuck you,” Jericho said as Death teleported away from the blast as Jericho dove to avoid it. Jericho wondered what the hell was going on. There was definitely a cosmic barrier in place so Death shouldn’t have been able to use cosmic magic. “How are you doing that?”

  “Die, foul creature,” four different Death’s surrounding him said. Jericho readied himself to fly upward but another Death was waiting there.

  “Illusions,” Jericho grow
led. They were good ones too. Much like his own illusions they even had spirits that matched the Primordial perfectly. Jericho summoned a thick mist to identify the illusions and dashed through them while summoning a dozen duplicates of himself for the Primordial to chase. “They’re nothing special.”

  “You can’t fool death,” Death’s voice echoed as he appeared in front of Jericho again. He pivoted to dash away while dodging a series of scythe strikes from the reapers. “I will purify this world of its infestation.”

  “Mother fucker,” Jericho growled as a series of dark spikes appeared in front of him. “God fucking dammit!”

  Jericho knew he wasn’t going to last very long if Death was going to start pulling out the stops. All he really needed to do was whip out time magic and Jericho would be toast.

  “Interesting,” Jericho said while dodging the dark spears. Jericho should have been dead already. If Death could use cosmic magic despite the barriers his reapers were carrying then he should be dead. Nothing was stopping him from creating an orb of darkness around them both and shrinking it while protecting himself with a light barrier. Nothing was stopping him from stopping time and slitting Jericho’s throat while he couldn’t do anything about it. Then Jericho wondered. “Okay, let’s put it to the test.”

  Jericho blinked through an incoming dark spear while holding out his hand and nothing happened. The spear was an illusion which meant that Death couldn’t use cosmic magic either while inside of the barrier. If he couldn’t use magic inside of the barrier, he wasn’t teleporting, he was blinking. He was just blinking so fast that the straight line didn’t matter. He could blink around his target so fast it felt like he was teleporting.

  “You’re not a mage,” Jericho smiled. “You’re an assassin.”

  “Die you repulsive disease,” Death said while creating a series of explosions around Jericho. Jericho responded by protecting himself with a barrier of ice and launching ice spikes back at the Primordial. “Disgusting plague.”

  “I know just how to deal with assassins,” Jericho said while enhancing his spiritual sense. The wider it was spread, the harder it was to detect movements. He just wasn’t up to Jinx’s level, and probably never would be. But when he compressed his spirit, he had a good ten-foot radius where he was practically clairvoyant. “Let’s play.”

  Jericho shifted his body enhancing his strength and agility while finally drawing the scythe. He felt death entering his range and twisted his body slicing at him as the Primordial vanished. He sensed it that time, Death moved to the left. It happened impossibly fast but it definitely happened.

  “Sneaky bastard,” Jericho smirked. Death used strategies. That was good. If he didn’t use strategies Jericho would be concerned. If Death had strategies it meant that he could be hurt. If he could be hurt, then Jericho had a chance. Jericho blinked after the Primordial while swinging the scythe but didn’t find him. “Dammit.”

  Shrinking his aura created an entirely different issue. He could sense things when they entered his range but his ability to track the Primordial when he exited his ten-foot radius wasn’t possible. The fog he’d created didn’t help but it was necessary since identifying illusions would be even harder without his aura.

  Death appeared behind him again and Jericho was ready this time and sent a dozen spikes of ice backward into him before the Primordial could escape. Jericho twisted his body to see the Primordial completely unfazed as the ice punctured his dark cloak. As it melted a bright light burned Jericho’s eyes blinding him.

  “Fuck,” Jericho yelled while blinking away. His eyes ached like he just stared into a solar eclipse. He sensed Death behind him again, this time moving to strike him quicker. Jericho barely managed to escape but Death refused to let up. He knew Jericho was injured and wasn’t going to let him just fly away to recover. “Shit, shit, shit.”

  Jericho released small explosives everywhere he went hoping for Death to trigger them but the Primordial just blinked around them. He just needed to buy enough time for his sight to return, or did he? Most of the battlefield was mist anyway and it’s not like he was relying on his vision before. He grinned malevolently. Death was trying to finish the job. Why not give him an opportunity?

  “Die,” Death said as Jericho purposefully paused allowing the Primordial to catch up. Jericho twisted and caught Death with the scythe.

  “You first,” Jericho said as he tried to drag the scythe through Death only to see it get absorbed into the Primordial’s body. “Huh. I guess that answers that question.”

  Death touched his forehead and everything went black.

  Chapter 14

  United

  “Selfish idiot motherfucker!” Jinx roared as she came crashing down knocking him away from Death. “Stupid cheating bastard fuckfaced moron! Cunt! Fucker!”

  “Huh?” Jericho said somewhat groggy. He glanced over to see his petite familiar carrying him in her arms as if she was saving a princess. “Well, this is embarrassing.”

  “Embarrassing? You stupid traitorous cuntlicker! Asshole! Bastard!” Jinx snapped while landing in the center of a group of reapers and nimbly dodging their strikes.

  “Cuntlicker isn’t an insult,” Jericho teased as he stroked her flaming blue hair. “It’s a job description.”

  “Shut up! I’m going to kill you! I’m going to kill you a hundred times! Shithead! Rake!” Jinx snarled while twisting her body to avoid another scythe strike and delivering a spinning kick to a reaper breaking her head. “You tricked me! You tricked me and ran off! Traitor! Liar!”

  “How did you escape?” Jericho chuckled as they arrived on the stronghold wall above the reapers. Jinx dropped him harshly on the stones and gave him a powerful kick in the ribs. “Ouch.”

  “Oh,” Valaria patted his head. “That’s so cute! You forgot I’m a goddess!”

  “Shit,” Jericho said while looking around to see all of his familiars glaring at him. He did forget she was a goddess. Just like Eberis could change the rules of what was permitted in a city, so could she. “Wait, what about…”

  “Ebby?” Valaria shook her head. “Eberis isn’t a fighter. He’s a pervert with a gambling problem. I cornered him, took down his barrier, replaced it with mine.”

  “You should be ashamed of yourself!” Ariel kicked Jericho so gently he barely felt it. He tried not to laugh at how the furious golden fairy still couldn’t bring herself to really hurt him. “I was so worried!”

  “It was horrible of you darling,” Mirage agreed while staring at Death. The assassin tied her long blonde hair behind her head and pulled out a pair of legendary daggers. “He doesn’t look nearly as bad Dalmeth.”

  “Looks can be deceiving,” Sable said. “Nobody would expect our master to be as dangerous as he is.”

  “We should retreat,” Jericho said as he got to his feet. “He absorbed the scythe and I have no idea how to hurt him. And he’s fast and creating an army of reapers down there.”

  “So many Morgana’s,” Talia stared at the reapers waiting for them to come down. She bit her lip. “That is, wow.”

  “Stop ogling my sisters,” Morgana said judgmentally. “It’s disturbing.”

  “They’re not my sisters,” Talia said as Morgana pinched her arm. “Ouch. Fine.”

  “Why isn’t he attacking?” Luna asked while pulling out her orichalcum batons. I don’t understand.

  “I wonder that myself,” Valaria grinned mischievously while twirling her finger. Four Seraph warriors appeared out of thin air. “That man’s an ally of the Fallen. Kill him.”

  “Yes ma’am,” the Seraphim yelled as they flew toward death. The Primordial pulled out an enormous black scythe and sliced off their heads and the Seraphim crashed to the ground.

  “Aww,” Theia pouted as she watched her newly created compatriots die.

  “Disgusting plagues,” he growled at the group. “Die.”

  “Maybe try something bigger next time,” Luna said while patting Valaria’s shoulder.

&nb
sp; “Oh,” Valaria smiled. “I intended for them to die. I was just curious if he could kill them.”

  “Could?” Jericho asked curiously.

  “My creations don’t have souls,” Valaria said. “That’s why when you created my body you needed to place my soul inside. You can give them a mind and an impulse as I did with the Seraphim. But they don’t have souls for him to take.”

  “He pulled out that scythe because there wasn’t a soul to remove,” Jericho smiled. “Valaria, is he scared of you?”

  “I don’t think he’s scared,” Valaria smiled. “I think he’s cautious of anything without a soul.”

  “What do you mean without a soul?” Jericho asked.

  “I asked Ebby to hold onto mine,” Valaria beamed proudly. “Smart, huh?”

  “If you were so smart you should have suggested that for all of us,” Sable sighed and turned to Jericho. “Fortunately, it’s not too late to remedy that mistake. Isn’t that right Jericho?”

  “Idiot! I offer you my soul. Do you want it? Dimwit. Dunce.” Jinx said angrily while holding her hand out to Jericho. He looked around and the other familiars were lining up to follower her lead.

  “Wait,” Jericho stared at his eager familiars. “Are you all serious?”

  “Of course,” Theia nodded while equipping her massive demon skull shield. “As long as you have our souls you can make us new bodies like you did for Valaria.”

  “But it better be exactly the same,” Mirage said. “I’m sure you remember every inch of it, right?”

  “Give me your answer! Slowpoke! Snail!” Jinx stomped angrily.

  “I accept,” Jericho said as he kissed Jinx’s hand. His familiar’s soul floated from her body into his hand. The other familiar’s quickly followed suit as Jericho took each of their souls. “That’s all of them.”

  “Time to kill Death. Weakling. Wimp.” Jinx said while smiling maniacally.

  “We still have no idea how to rip his soul out,” Sable said while pulling out a large golden staff. “Any ideas?”