Transcendence?

by Andur

  “Are you sure that you don't want an armour Celestial? You could take one of the light versions?” I inquire once more, but I already know the answer.

  “Only if you can make one which doesn't yield faster than my bare skin.” She attaches the short swords to her belt.

  I purse my lips and fish an amulet with an mana crystal from my pocket. “Then take this at least. Having a mana boost is never bad.”

  She smiles and I put it around her neck. Then she grabs my cheeks and pulls at both of them until I can imagine my face looking like a frog's. “I assume that this one is also bugged?”

  “Oof … c... couursee!”

  69 - Force.

  Island Nation of Mist

  Ascathon

  “Are you sure that your plan isn't a little bit risky?” Celestial looks down at the enemy ships around Fingulf's little personal island.

  “It's perfectly fine. There is a risk involved in everything we do. Without taking risks, we would have to stop moving and never make any progress.”

  “Oh, I just thought about jumping without parachute might be a little risky for the attack team?” Celestial looks at the people around us. There are about fifty warriors gathered on deck. Den is leading them while Celestial and I are just tagging along.

  “The suits have levitation magic. The only one who will create a crater upon arrival is you.” I smile at Celestial. “Are you sure that you don't want to try a cannonball onto one of their ships.”

  She tilts her head and smiles. “Aren't you a nice husband! I will do it if you do a belly whack first.”

  “Ähm... The operation is ready to start.” Den interrupts us and points at the commander in the bridge, who is waving behind a window.

  “Then don't let them wait!” I jump over the railing and start to fall. “JAHOOOOOO!” This is thrilling!

  The air is chilly and stings my face, so I put the mask on and close the seals.

  Then I take a look at the planes all around us, as they start to dive down at the enemies too. They were launched earlier and we have ninety of them in the air. Their purpose is to distract the ships around the island while our fleet descends to bomb them to hell. Our small task force will descend directly to the island and abduct Fingulf.

  And maybe his relatives too, though he never mentioned family to me.

  I turn my attention back to the ground and witness the first explosions around the enemy ships. There is no holding back this time. Our ships will shoot until they are out of ammunition.

  The already well known fireballs start to rise from the enemy fleet, but there are some new tricks as well. There are yellow glowing orbs of light too. They move faster and in straight lines. Obviously the enemy used his brain after the first battle.

  They must have concluded that the slow moving fireballs are ineffective against flying air ships.

  Then one of the yellow orbs changes its direction and heads directly for me. I whistle while I congratulate the inventor of this new spell. The pointy ears are able to progress on their own after all. And creating energy based attack magic which aims on its own is a great feat.

  I wait for the last second before pushing myself aside with telekinesis. The yellow orb misses by a mere metre and heads for Celestial!

  But my wife simply strikes out at the thing and diverts its path. A tight series of manoeuvres follows as I evade a few more orbs as I act only on instinct.

  As soon as I leave the shower of incoming fire, I hit a hidden button on my left arm and my descend starts to slow until I touch the ground with elegant ease. Touchdown!

  I nod to myself, everything is working as intended!

  I landed on a glade in the thick forest of this island. As I look up, I find others descending to my location. And there is Celestial … falling like a stone.

  *BAM!*

  A dust cloud erupts a few dozen metres to my right in the underwood. I knew it! She just relied on her barrier! Other members of my small force descend all around me while I check a small display on my right arm. Somehow we lost four people, but the rest seems to be okay.

  Den lands right next to me and I nod. “Seems like we got down. Did you see what happened to our losses?”

  Den nods. “Direct hits by those yellow orbs. The suits can't withstand that. It's their own fault for being too slow to evade.” He grimaces and starts to stomp off into the direction of the mansion.

  The rest of the group starts to fan out in a loose formation with at least ten metres between everyone. They are well trained.

  I follow Den in a few metres' distance as he creates a path through the undergrowth of the island. Our progress is aggravated by thick vegetation and forest.

  After a few metres Celestial emerges from a bush and joins us. She is dusty and her clothes are partly torn. Twigs are all over her and I grin. “So the suit wasn't necessary. I see.”

  “It wasn't.” Celestial's answer is short and fast.

  I resume to following Den and look up at our flying ships. They are fully committed now and I hear the thunder of distant explosions. “So how do you intend to get up again?”

  “Jumping!” Celestial is busy with picking leaves and twigs out of her hair.

  I sigh. “Of course. How else would someone get back to the ship.”

  We follow the soldiers in silence and concentrate on our surroundings. Fingulf's mansion is just three kilometres away. It's possible that there are enemy troops stationed here.

  Our squad purposely didn't jump directly onto the enemy. Den deemed it to be a recipe for chaos, increasing the probability of needlessly losing people to the enemy or falling into a trap.

  But nobody disturbs our advance until we reach the open clearing around Fingulf's mansion. Our people are using the trees as cover while Den observes the situation with an orb. “Barricades all around the house. And quite a few soldiers and people who look like magicians.”

  He freezes for a moment and continues. “And there are three freaky guys with masks! They are looking right at us.”

  I smile. “No wonder, they saw us jump and also where we landed. It's not hard to guess from which direction we are coming.”

  There is no point in hiding any more, so I walk forward. “Let's test how these suits perform in man to man combat! I will be the spearhead.”

  I walk towards the enemy barricades with my hands folded behind my back and the enemy soldiers start to call commands when they see me. The rest of my comrades follows at a respectful distance.

  There are indeed three masked figures with them. They have powerful auras, despite looking elderly. Their masks seem to symbolize the old trinity of creation, preservation and destruction. The first one seems to be a woman. Her mask is made of wood. It's laughing and there are different patterns taken from nature on it.

  The second person's mask is made out of steel or iron. It shows no distinct expression and there are no patterns at all. He seems to be a guy.

  The third person is also male and his mask seems to be crying. The whole thing is stitched together out of a multitude of materials and looks worn and old.

  The enemy soldiers seem a little dumbfounded and unsure of what to do. I guess they didn't expect the enemy simply walking up to them. Not a word is spoken and there is a heavy silence all around the area.

  I am only twenty metres away, when one of the soldiers deems that I got close enough. An arrow is let loose and impacts my chest plate. The arrow splits and falls useless to the ground. The automatic defensive barrier didn't deem the arrow as a danger.

  Consequently it didn't activate. I halt and inspect the scratch in the beautiful black and golden ornament on my chest plate. It took me a day to achieve an acceptable result.

  The colour was scratched...

  I look up and point my index finger at the individual responsible. A small disk of light forms at my fingertip and shoots out faster than the eye can follow.

  The archer's head disintegrates into a cloud of blood and brain matter. One of the maske
d guys is quick to react and the earth starts to move under my feet. My body moves on its own as I recognize the spell.

  A stone spike stabs the space where my head had been a second before.

  “Attack!”

  I hear Den's voice bellow from behind and Celestial rushes past me. There is no point in thinking of special tactics right now. We have to keep a tight schedule to meet up with the fleet again. They are currently fighting an outnumbered battle to give us the needed time.

  Guns are shot from behind me and the enemy guards start to fall. They strike back and a fireball rushes past my head. I hear an explosion and screams.

  While I run, I conjure a blue sphere of mana and split it into several smaller spheres which start to orbit me. Manipulating mana became much easier since I have the new mana crystal.

  Celestial throws herself between the enemies and moments later our two forces collide in a blind attempt to attain victory by pure force.

  70 - Fight and run.

  Island Nation of Mist

  Ascathon

  Both opposing parties start a combination of hand to hand fights and ranged attacks. I follow Celestial and barely evade a yellow glowing orb. The one who fired it was the guy with the iron mask.

  “Den. Go and get our targets. I will play with the masked leaders.” Another glowing orb is shot at me and this time I counter it by shooting a small blue orb of mana at it. The magical force disperses without further harm.

  Den rushes past me and bulldozes over an enemy soldier who tried to block his path. The huge and bulky Den tackles him like playing a football game and the enemy is thrown aside like a doll.

  “You don't have time to watch others!” The iron mask pulls a sword and charges at me with extraordinary speed.

  I try to evade, but I am too slow. His sword swings down at me and the enemy's blade is about to slice into my mask when a sharp metallic sound is heard and the blade is deflected.

  One of the blue orbs, which I summoned earlier, activated. The spell offers nice protection against physical attacks. Mana orbs are normally only used to counter projectile spells, or as magical attacks.

  Though in my case I combined them with a barrier spell and gave them a small set of rules. They activate when something enters the protected space around me and intercept the attack on their own.

  My masked opponent is a little baffled, but strikes at me again without reservation. Another mana orb changes it's course and intercepts the sword. This time I use the chance and step forward to give my enemy a punch straight to the face.

  His head is thrown backwards and he retreats to gain some distance. He raises one hand and a storm of ice shards is let loose. I raise both of my hands and a stone wall rises to separate us.

  Cracks appear in the rock in front of me, which proves that the ice shards have power. But I don't marvel at the enemy's strength and summon a phantom of myself. The spell Mirage is commonly used by many mind magicians to distract the enemy. Since the line of sight is blocked by the wall, it's the perfect time to use it.

  The phantom of myself runs to the left and I wait a second to conjure a small fireball. Then I step around the wall, just as my phantom is pierced by a glowing lance of light. I throw the fireball immediately at the masked guy, who is concentrating on my phantom. The Fireball impacts his shoulder and sets his clothes aflame.

  My grin is wiped out of my face as the enemy disappears and reappears right next to me in a striking position. The sword strikes down and I block it with my guarded arm. The blade sinks into my armour and cuts me. But the wound isn't deep.

  I grab the blade with my other hand and send mana through my body to enhance my strength. The blade snaps with a metallic sound. Still holding onto the blade, I turn the tip back towards its owner and ram it through the chin of my enemy, directly into his brain.

  But my victory is short lived. Something impacts hard into my side. I am catapulted away and fall hard. Luckily I had enhanced my strength, so I didn't suffer any injuries.

  As I try to get up, I realize that the one who tackled me was Celestial. “What are you doing?”

  “Just fighting two strong people alone.” She gets up and points with one of her swords at the other two masked fellows. “It's unfair. They don't stay dead like they should!”

  The head of the nature woman is bent in an unhealthy way, but she is still standing. I watch in disgust as her head snaps back into position.

  “Creepy!” There is nothing else I have to say to this.

  Both of Celestial's opponents are approaching from a destroyed barricade. There is a hole with Celestial's size in the wooden construction.

  Even iron mask is moving again. One hand moves and draws the blade out of his head. Then he stands up and his wound closes.

  “That's unfair! His brain was destroyed! I can't do that!” I call out. They are cheating! That's against several laws of nature! “Are they zombies?”

  “The gods gave us their blessing to smite the ones who oppose them!” A ridiculous line comes from iron mask's lips.

  “They move faster than zombies and are tougher.” Celestial stretches and I hear her bones crunch. “I guess dismembering them is our best option. How about a little teamwork?”

  I nod and cast a regeneration spell on Celestial while the enemies become active again.

  Roots grab my feet, but I ignore them to disrupt the forming attack magic of garbage face. That's my new nickname for the guy with the crying mask. No wonder that he chose a sad expression.

  In an instant Celestial reaches nature woman and sends her flying with a straight kick. The roots loosen, but they held me long enough for iron mask to reach me. He grabs me and I suddenly feel my mana being sucked away.

  So I return the favour while stabbing my fingers into his eyes. He screams and lets go of me. The next second one of Celestial's swords stabs through his chest. She threw it at him while fighting the garbage face.

  I conjure as much power as possible and unleash a series of wind blades on iron mask. His body is torn to tiny pieces. To my horror, I witness the gore in front of me starting to reform! I decide to set the entire area aflame. Hopefully that will keep him down for a while.

  I turn towards Celestial, who is still fighting garbage mask. He is about to evade Celestial's attack when I concentrate on his foot with telekinesis and trip him.

  Celestial's sword claims his head when the nature woman finally rejoins the fight. Roots shoot up from the ground and entangle Celestial.

  I raise both hands and pour all my mana into a flame cannon spell. A howling inferno shoots out at the last enemy. Nature woman counters my spell with a barrier, but it gives Celestial time to untangle herself and she starts to hack the beheaded garbage face to pieces.

  As my mana reserves near their end, I stop my flame cannon before I become completely defenceless. Nature woman's barrier held. Celestial is still ready to fight, but she looks a little weak and starts to back off.

  “Please tell me that you have some power left.” She calls out while retreating into my direction.

  I can almost imagine a grin on nature woman's face, as she starts to walk forward with confident steps.

  Then I find Celestial's second sword on the ground and grab it. “Seems like I will need this...” I talk to myself.

  The fighting around us is dying down and my warriors start to shoot at the nature woman from all sides. Nothing helps. Her shield is indestructible. Then roots start to penetrate the earth all around her and something starts to grow.

  “Retreat!”

  I call for the easiest solution. If your enemy is a slow moving indestructible fortress, you simply have to run.

  Our soldiers pick up their wounded comrades and retreat into the direction of the coast. In the distance I see Den exiting the mansion. He has the limp Fingulf over his shoulder and a screaming boy under his arm. Four soldiers are following him, each of them is needed to carry a screaming woman at her feet and arms.

  Then my foot is ca
ught by a root, which penetrated the ground. I look back at the living, swirling mass under her, as it expands in all directions. I hack at the root, but it's persistent. Celestial grabs my free hand and starts to pull, but it's no use.

  It feels like my hand will be ripped off by Celestial and I drop the sword to raise my hand against the nature woman. Whatever she is, I will test if she survives a little soul magic. I ready myself to cast one my new experimental spells.

  *THUNDER*

  A deafening sound caused me to wince and a bluish white thunderbolt came from the sky. It struck the nature woman, turning her into a crispy piece of charcoal within an instant. Celestial and I are frozen as we watch the carpet of roots die.

  “Did you do that?” Celestial asks with suspicion.

  “No?” I quickly try to untangle the evil root from my foot. “At least I think I didn't?”

  Suddenly the ground under my feet starts to rumble and a huge cloud of dark dust starts to rise from farther inland.

  “Volcano!” Celestial grabs me, lifting me in a princess carry. The root rips while my bone breaks. I cry out and then she starts to run while I try to ignore the pain.

  For some reason I take a look back and witness a cataclysmic scene, as the island comes apart behind us.

  “Run faster!”

  "I'm trying!"

  Floating somewhere above the Sea of God

  Lidith

  “~I drew a Wrath of God. Shananana.~” I am dancing on my chair while the others look at me with sour faces. “~And you lost three heroes. Lalalala.~”

  I point at the strange scene in the globe at the middle of the table. Celestial is running for her life with Ascathon in a princess carry, while a shower of lava pieces rains down around them and a dark cloud of hot dust is following on their heels.

  “~And my Immortals will survive.~”

  “Yeah... yeah. That's enough. Sit down.” Aneth grumbles while he watches the scene. “Damn. I would never let myself get carried like that.”

  “You are right, it's pathetic.” Charon nods with enthusiasm.