Beyond?

by Andur

I raise my hand and pour a part of my mana into a new magic formation. The dew point is the temperature at which the water in the air condenses. It's influenced by the concentration of water in the air, temperature, pressure and the cohesive force of water molecules, which are dipoles and essentially little magnets... if you want to put it in a very simplified manner.

  There are about twenty to thirty grams of water in a cubic metre of air. Given that it's a normal day in a wet and hot region. If I play with those variables just a little it is possible to dry the air and force the water to condense suddenly.

  Today is a hot day at thirty degrees and this grassy landscape doesn't exactly lack water. So I am safe to assume that the water content in the air has to be high.

  I pull the mana and energy out of the chief's surroundings by using my clan's ability. The temperature drops rapidly to under five degrees, which in itself is enough to force a large amount of the water into its liquid form. But I use the won mana to influence the other parameters further. A slight increase in pressure. Adding a little more cohesive force to the water molecules.

  The environment isn't changed in a way which would be lethal to a living being. The temperature is still bearable, if only a little cold. The pressure isn't a concern either, nor causes the slight increase in the cohesive force any immediate problems.

  Yet most of the water within the air around the chief condenses from one moment to the next. Water droplets start forming on the grass and rocks on the ground. The chief's clothing turns moist within a moment and a heavy, dense mist forms in the area around Narcus.

  A thin film of water lays itself over the inside of his lungs, which hinders his breathing and causes an unpleasant feeling. He starts coughing audibly from within the dense, opaque cloud, inhaling more of the water droplets and increasing his problems.

  I pour a great deal of my power into the following attack and hurl an orb of condensed mana into the cloud. The resulting explosion is ear deafening and I have to shield myself from the debris which is hurled away.

  Suddenly a black shadow emerges from the explosion and a moment later the chief is freed from the shadows which were covering him. He looks burned and worn down with countless wounds on his upper body. One of his eyes is closed and bleeds heavily.

  A pained scream escapes his lips and he draws his dagger, his remaining eye searching for me.

  Then he is... gone?

  Suddenly something impacts the shield of mana which is surrounding me. Sparks of energy fly left and right while the attack wanders over my chest and scrapes at the shield. Originally aimed at the centre of my body, the invisible object penetrates my shield a little further to the right.

  Something stings between my ribs and a burning feeling spreads from the right side of my chest. I look down at myself and frown as I notice red blood spreading on my robe.

  Then the chief materializes in front of me. “Got you!”

  He twists the dagger and I flinch.

  “You cheated!” Coughing up blood I grin. “But you still failed to deal the finishing blow. One hundred.” I flip the coin and open my hand, expecting to catch it.

  Narcus snatches the coin casually and pulls the dagger out of my chest. I put on a shocked expression and stumble backwards while I cast a healing spell and pour magic into the wound at my side.

  He grins. “I guess that's it for your wonderful spell! Didn't get to the last throw after all. Though I wonder what would have happened?”

  “Bwahaha-” My laughing fit is ended by coughed up blood and I press a hand onto the wound in my side. “I didn't think that you are this stupid, so I already thought about what I could try next to get through your defence.

  I already expected something annoying from the description I got about the dagger. So I prepared several ideas to fight someone who could slip away from attacks at will. But you fell for the most obvious one first! It's not even funny to call yourself a great wizard after such a performance.”

  His expression turned dark during my laughing fit, but then frightened when the coin started to glow in a blue light. He tried to throw the coin away as his hand lost its colour, but the coin simply stuck to his skin, which started breaking up. “What's this! You said that you have to make a hundred flips! Why is the spell activated?!” The light in his hand grows stronger and the rapid decay of his body speeds up.

  I smirk and try to stand a little straighter, which isn't easy with the wound in my side. “Isn't it obvious? I lied! The hex curse on the coin was ready when I told you the conditions for the spell. All I needed you to do was to touch the coin, hence the lie. If I had thrown the coin at you, you could have used your ability or evaded it somehow else.”

  Narcus's eyes widen and his face turns grey. The hex curse is forcibly breaking up molecular bonds within his body as long as there is a supply of mana available. He could stop the curse by forcibly emptying his mana pool, but that's what the coin is there for; as a mana supply.

  It's obvious that he is fighting the curse which is invading his body. The task would be simple if the curse had been applied without the coin as a recasting source. I watch the mana centre in his heart being taken over and increase my distance to him. His body is crumbling away at a rapid pace until his left leg gives way and he falls.

  The scream on his lips is silenced when he impacts the ground and a cloud of white ash bursts away from him. I watch the mana in his body disperse until I am sure that he is dead and the curse no longer active.

  Then I bend down to collect the dagger, its sheath and the coin. Chuck would be angry if I left his gift behind.

  Somehow I feel dizzy and the wound in my side hurts despite the healing spell. A whistle calls ghost closer and I mount the warcat. The nomads are already retreating to their army, which looks like it is about to start a mad charge at us. I guess the negotiations failed?

  Quinn's transporter is also rapidly retreating. The vehicle has a few ugly dents and the colour is completely scraped off in some places. I guess they received a few random spells.

  I reach the rest of my group who retreated from the fight, but there is no time to celebrate as a mad army of nomads is on our heels. So I try my best to cling to Ghost's fur until we finally ride through the gate of our fortress.

  When my mount stops Stella is immediately at my side and pulls me rather unceremoniously from Ghost's back. “What did you think you were doing!? We have to check the wound for the nomads' poison!”

  Xander joins her in her efforts and places his hand on my side. Soon after, a warm feeling spreads from it. “There is manatite in the wound, but he received it not too long ago. We should be able to scrape most of it out before it enters his blood.”

  “Scrape out?” I look at Xander, but my sight is blurry and tends to tilt sideways. All I can focus on is the trowel-like spoon with sharp edges in his hands. He got it from a pouch with different surgical tools. “No. You won't...” That's barbaric!

  “Don't worry. I am an Eddin, flesh wounds are nothing to me. I can overpower the remaining poison once most of it is gone. Hold him still.” Xander gestures for some of the soldiers, who aren't quite sure of what to do. Then he sighs. “He has no magic right now, so he can't do anything.”

  “No! Stop that! No! I am not some kind of cattle. Isn't there a nicer method? The dagger wasn't pleasant, don't come close to me with that spoon!” My struggle is to no avail as five guards are holding me down. One for each limb and one for the body.

  Eastern Plains

  Stella

  I have Azir in a wheel chair at my side and we are all back on one of the towers to watch the nomads. His expression is gloomy and his chest is bandaged. Luckily we got most of the manatite before it could dissolve and enter his blood stream. Normally the poisonous crystals are crushed into a powder and applied onto a weapon. Once inside the wound they dissolve and spread through the body. The victim loses his ability to use mana and in cases of strong exposure you are paralysed or might even die.

  He wheels
closer to the parapet and tries to look down by pushing himself up out of the chair. I push him back down. The nomads are swarming around our fortress like angry ants. Azir turns his attention to Xander. “How long did you say?”

  Xander shrugs his shoulders. “Between one and two months until you can cast spells again. The poison remains for a long time inside the body. That's why the nomads like it so much.”

  Azir's eyes wander gloomily to the dagger in my mother's hands. She stores it away in her pocket. “I'll protect it until we are back home. As you are now even a child could take it away from you.”

  He stares at the constant magical attacks which are impacting the barrier of our fortress. “Bugs...” Azir reaches into his pocket and pulls out a flat, hand-sized card.

  The Great Shaman bends forward. “What's that?”

  Azir grumbles and puts the card onto his lap then he presses its centre and a screen of light appears in front of him. “A miniature light sculpture. Originally I created it for normal citizens, so that they can access the net wherever they want.”

  Helen nods. “Ah, right, the mana net. Actually I want to talk with you about that when you have time. Though it isn't urgent under the current circumstances.”

  He nods and continues to manipulate the light sculpture on his lap. “Once I am done with the infestation.” Suddenly the floor under our feet rocks and tilts.

  “Azir?” I grab his wheelchair, so that he can't roll away. “What are you doing?”

  “What we should have done in the beginning!”

  The fortress rocks another time and I find the landscape around us moving! A look over the parapet confirms that the whole fortress lifted off the earth and is now slowly rising from the ground.

  Helen holds onto the parapet with both hands. “Azir? I thought we agreed on not testing your changes to the fortress until our troops are all gone and just a skeleton crew remains!”

  Azir pulls at his lower lip. “Actually I think the wording was as follows. Don't test the changes unless there are grave circumstances.”

  “Which there aren't!” Helen hisses.

  Azir shakes his head. “But there are! The nomads lost their respect for us! What about all those poor villages at the border. That chief said himself that it doesn't matter what we do once we turn into foes without honour.” His expression changes into a grin. “A flying fortress! What's better to restore their respect for us? And then we wipe out their army with a single strike! Call me names if they come anywhere close to our border within the next hundred years. Lights on!” He spreads his hands and the sky darkens.

  At first nothing else happens, but then I notice that the spells which are impacting on our shield are lessening. It seems like the sun dimmed and the world is plunged into at strange twilight.

  A strange silence surrounds us until the screams start. I try to take a look over the parapet, but the ground is bathed in a blinding light. It's so bright that I have to avert my eyes.

  The screams seem to originate from the thousands of warriors under and around our fortress. They increase into a horrible crescendo until they finally die out.

  The sun returns to its former brightness and I take a look over the parapet to find a scorched, burning landscape under us. A perfect circle of two kilometres around the fortress is black ash. There are a few nomad troops at the fringes of the devastated area, but the main body of their horde is gone.

  Azir is trying to take a look over the parapet at my side. “Are they well done or scorched?”

  I grab his ear and pull. “Those were sentient beings!”

  “Ow, Ow... don't rip it off! They started it!” Azir grabs my hand to stop me from pulling. “And don't forget that their culture seems to respect only strength! Should we have targeted one of their villages? Burning those who are attacking us seems perfectly fine to me!”

  I let go of his ear. He is right, but the way he did it was wrong! I turn my attention to the sun. “Azir, what happened to the sun?”

  He shrugs his shoulders. “The fortress is a gigantic magical circuit to redirect light. The redirected light had to be taken from somewhere. Imagine it like standing under a gigantic lens. Don't worry it's absolutely safe.”

  I bend down to whisper into his ear. “But the diminishing sun reminded me of your story about your... old world.”

  He blinks and smiles. “Don't worry. That wasn't the reason.”

  73. ~Frustration.~

  “Many are saying that the emperor is a genetic regression to a former evolutionary state of our people. But if that's true, then why are his powers so far beyond us? Did something happen in our past, which caused our people to lose their magical abilities?

  If that's the case, then this event must've taken place thousands of years ago. Right now the population of magicians within Nict is growing, but we can't tell for certain if the emperor's arrival has anything to do with it.”

  -Old research document.

  Free City States of Nict, Capital

  Azir

  “I hate you, Azir! It's your fault.” Stella is in her bed and complaining about me. To be more accurate, she is complaining about everything recently, about me, the world, her life, even herself. Maybe her hormones are running rampant or something like that. I hand her today's breakfast, which is very substantial.

  Cooked eggs, with shells, bread, a bowl of diced vegetables and fruits, a sausage, beans with tomato sauce and a collection from yesterday's leftovers.

  “To think that there are two! I'll bloat up like a whale! You'll still love me Azir, right? Despite how I look? You know that I love you? It doesn't matter to me that you are a little strange in the head... and a mass murderer. I don't understand how anyone could place so little value on a life.”

  She continues to ramble on, stuffing herself with the food. Yesterday she mustered her courage to take a look at the babies, yes plural. Of course it's no surprise to me.

  I know of them since I could discern between the two embryos with my mana sight. I've simply no luck at all when it comes to matters like this. At least the poison doesn't seem to affect my ability to sense mana. The opposite is the case. Since the control over any mana escapes my grasp, I can fully concentrate on my senses. It's similar to secluding yourself from the world by using the mana stream. Maybe poisoning myself with small amounts of manatite is a good training exercise.

  I would do it if there wouldn't be the issue with disabling your control over mana. At least the manatite has no permanent effects. I am not happy to train myself by entering a vortex of energy and radiation.

  I return my attention to Stella, who is still drowning in self pity. She thought that there was only one child. Apparently laying two eggs is a really rare event for a woman of our species. It only happens once every three hundred pregnancies. The problem is that having two eggs in her belly is very straining on a woman's body. She has to avoid straining activities during the last two months of her pregnancy. And then there is the issue with the size and the increased appetite. “Don't worry, I love you for who you are.”

  “Really?” Her expression turns a little more relaxed, but then she focuses on the mechanical arm at her bedside. “Why are you feeding me with that? It's like you are trying to keep your distance!”

  “Dear, your had a few very unreasonable mood-swings recently. I am just taking precautions. After all I am without magic at the moment! To say that I am the weak gender was never as true as it is right now.

  Don't let it out on your helping hand. Isn't the robot arm really helpful? It helps you into your wheelchair and holds the books which you are reading.” I step a little closer and pat her head since it doesn't seem to be dangerous right now. “I'll even have a floating deckchair ready for you tomorrow.”

  What can I do besides building stuff when I have no magic. Though building machines is troublesome when you can't melt iron with a spell, or bend it into the proper shape with a thought. This poison is really annoying. I feel like being thrown back in time. At le
ast I have Ivy to help me out.

  Stella grabs my hand and rubs it against her cheek. “I wouldn't be able to take this without you! You can't imagine how horrible it is to be grounded like this. And to think that there are still almost two months left!”

  “You can still cast gravitation magic to float around. It's not like you have to lie absolutely still, so you are better off than someone from the normal townsfolk. I don't understand why you don't want to go outside. It's no shame to be pregnant, imagine yourself as a balloon and simply float where you want to go. Of course you should find proper clothing before you attempt something like that.” I try to calm her down, but somehow I achieve the opposite effect.

  “A b- b- b- balloon!? So I am fat after all!” Tears well up in her eyes and I sigh. I wasn't aware that she is that concerned about her outer appearance.

  But on the other hand... she has lived her whole life with the ability to change everything about her appearance on a whim. She likes to play with her hair and her eye colour. I never saw her choosing clothing which fits her, she simply changes her sizes according to the dress she likes! That's why she always looks perfect, even when she uses dresses which don't belong to her.

  Telling someone with such an ability to do nothing about the big, unwieldy belly is like cutting off an arm. “You will do fine. It's just a short time and then you can change your body all you want.”

  A woman's pregnancy lasts only four months in this world. After the eggs are laid, it takes them another three to five months until they hatch. The times always vary a little according to temperature and humidity.

  “What about our guests? Are they really doing nothing stupid, like trying to convert our population to their belief?” Stella asks about Leon and Giana, who were allowed to visit our capital. Strangely enough they acted very respectful towards us after I roasted the nomads.

  In the interest of good relations between our countries Helen invited them to stay in Nict, while their expedition force is returning with a stepper disc to Quinn.