“In three days.”
“Very well. After you return to this world in three days, I will find you. Just remember, our alliance is a fleeting one, and I may turn against you if I find you obstruct the balance.”
“I assure you, that is not what I plan.”
Seemingly satisfied by my answer, Kor ended the call, leaving me alone in this quiet cavern to prepare the next part of my plans. Well, I call it a plan, but really it is just me trying to learn more about Dominion in the time I have left. To do so, there are a number of tests that I need to perform.
The first, and arguably most important aspect I needed to uncover was whether or not I was able to use chants with the Dominion spells. This is extremely important in regards to tier 5 magic, as they can’t be performed without chants. The big question though, is that if I can do a chant for those spells, how do I learn that chant?
If it were any other player, it may not be possible. Even for most natives it would be no easy task. But thanks to my ridiculously high Intelligence, and the modifications that the ‘god’ of this world made to me, I was able to recall spell incantations even before I looked at them the first time simply from knowing the spell. Knowing that, it may be possible to reverse the process, and create the incantation to match a spell as I create it.
Opening up my skills window, I browsed through the list of abilities to see if there was anything that would help me. Since I still had all of my skills from before I fused Dominion, my skills list was quite cluttered. However, there were two skills in my Magical Knowledge, and one from Magical Talent that should be able to work.
From Magical Knowledge, I had Spell Knowledge and a sub-skill that had formed when I reached the master level, Reverse Engineer. Reverse Engineer let me approach the spell creation process in reverse, and create a spell whose chant I have learned. Likewise, Spell Knowledge made it much easier for me to envision spells I wanted to create.
In Magical Talent, my master level skill was something else entirely. Ad Lib, a skill that gave me a certain amount of leeway when it came to chants for my spells. With this, even if I had a slight error in my predicted chant, as long as it wasn’t too bad the spell should still work. Of course, the more it differs from the proper chant, the more power the spell loses.
By combining these skills, I can Ad Lib a chant, and use my Spell Knowledge and Reverse Engineer to create the spell to fit it. I just need to get it close enough that I can make the necessary changes before the spell fires. For that, I planned to spend the next three days practicing in this cavern until I could get it right.
If not for Dominion, I wouldn’t even need a skill like Ad Lib, thanks to my recently acquired ability to instinctively know spell incantations. But for most people, this skill would probably be a godsend, letting them perform their spells without as much risk of failure. Still, at least I was able to find a use for it.
My first experiment was to try to create an anti-gravity spell. I needed something I was somewhat familiar with, but didn’t already have a spell to cover it. Naturally, I couldn’t skip straight to testing out tier 5 magic. If I did, it would either succeed, and destroy the cave, or misfire, and still potentially destroy the cave. Let’s not destroy the cave!
Okay.. clear my mind… now.. “Chains that bind creation, unfasten your hold and turn towards the skies.” Given that the first part of the spell was the same with both of the gravity spells I knew, I decided to incorporate it into this. However, what I did not expect was to find my body pulled in two different directions at the same time. Never in my life had I come so close to performing the splits, or reached quite so high a pitch in my voice.
“Okay… That didn’t quite work so well.” I took a few minutes to recover from that rather… embarrassing spectacle, thankful that nobody else was around to watch. Then, I analyzed what happened to determine where I went wrong. Apparently, the gravity spell I conjured that time had focused on my body, but attempted to pull me both left and right at the same time.
Next… “Chains that bind creation, fly unto the sky as the stars above.” Now, first I would like to point out that the spell worked. However… my concept of the spell was a bit misguided. I asked for an anti-gravity spell, and sure enough I received an anti-gravity spell. However, in hindsight I realize that I wanted a zero gravity spell, not anti-gravity. I learned this lesson as I began falling towards the stalactites above at a pace that I was not at all comfortable with.
Thankfully, I had enough time to call up a barrier spell, and fully charge it to prevent myself from acquiring a few more holes. Afterwards, I took my time flying back down to the ground before cancelling the spell. “Note to self… be clear on spells… they are literal.”
Well, on the bright side, my experiment was a success. When I carefully attempted to replicate the effect I had just achieved, my fall upwards was much slower, leading me to believe that the chant had worked. Now I just needed practice, and so practice I shall!
...At least until a squealing demon queen tackled me from behind. That tends to interrupt plans in a hurry.
I could feel her greatest weapons pressing into my back as she spoke, making it very hard to focus on my magic training. “Levy told me about your new ability! I’m so proud of you! I knew you could do it, you really are just like him.”
Shaking my head, I chuckled softly to myself. “Okay, so what all did she tell you?” I could guess why Lilith was so excited, since I kept gaining more and more powers similar to the first Archmage, and sure enough she confirmed it.
“She said you figured out how to merge magic systems, and created the ability of the Rune Lords. She was right, wasn’t she?” Lilith finally released me so that she could jump around and look me in the face with a bright smile.
“Yeah.. I got pretty lucky with that. Wasn’t sure I’d be able to combine them at all.” Well, I did know that I’d be able to combine my magic systems because of the quest appearing, but I hadn’t known that they would become what I wanted.
“Still, this is good, right? It means you’ll be able to become an Archmage much sooner than you had expected!”
“Yeah, now I’ve just got to finish mastering Dominion. With any luck, I might be able to get it finished before the battle.”
She seemed to think over my words for a few moments, before nodding her head. “Well, take your time. This is a pretty dangerous power to have, you know? He was always complaining that his magic would work without him telling it to if he didn’t keep a tight hold on it.”
I gulped at that. You mean that if I’m not careful, Dominion will just make random spells based on my thoughts? “Thanks for the warning. Is everything ready for the battle?”
“It will be…” Lilith’s gaze sank to the floor for a while, “I had to rush the training schedules, and we’ve not even had a full week since your warning came. The last of the imps just got their first evolution today before the ambushes started. None of them have had the chance to get the next one, however… I wish we didn’t need to take them with us.”
“I understand, and if I could say that I’d watch out for them, I would. But since we called Kor to the battle, I can’t help the demons any more than I can let the others help the angels.” I shrugged my shoulders helplessly, knowing that there wasn’t anything I could do here.
“That’s fine. I know how strong Kor can be. Honestly, I’m not even confident that I’d win in a fight against him with his Oblivion magic. Having him on your side will make it much easier to battle.”
“Agreed. I saw the kind of destruction he can cause, but I’d rather have him working with us than against us.” At that moment, a thought had occurred to me. “You’ll have to hide my group from detection before the battle starts. Otherwise they might focus on us first to let their allies come in.”
Lilith let out a wicked grin at that, “Let them. I dare any of them to take their eyes off of me in a fight. This is going to be the second great war between Heaven and Hell, they won’t have any room to
worry about anyone else.”
“I take it you’ll be deploying all of the generals this time?”
She shook her head, still smiling, “No. Manias and Nolk aren’t the type that find strength in battle. The other eight will be making an appearance, though.”
I blinked, hearing names I wasn’t familiar with. “So… who all exactly are the generals?”
Lilith tilted her head to the side, and then nodded with a hint of a smirk. “You’ve met Krath the Cunning. He was the strategist in the first great war. Also Belial the Fierce, one of our most ruthless fighters. The other one you know is Dremor the Wise, our most proficient spellcaster. I wouldn’t be surprised if he had a spell to counter any occasion.
“Next would be Golgath the Loyal, who would go so far as to use himself as a living shield to defend his comrades. You also saw Halor the Strong, I think, during the fight with the dragon. Out of all of the demons, he has the greatest physical strength. Those two are also among our largest demons, as well.
“After that… Kumat, the Indomitable. He may be small, but his defense is almost unbreakable. He and Halor tend to have sparring matches, but all that really happens is they wait to see who tires out first. Nix the Swift, our fastest demon. When he moves, it seems more like teleporting.
“The last three are Andrigor the Storm, Manias the Shadow, and Nolk the patient. Andrigor specializes in explosive attacks that can devastate an entire area. Manias is the real mastermind behind our spy network, though he works regularly with Dremor. Finally, Nolk is sort of a prophet. She has a unique ability to absorb information and determine what will likely happen in the future. Krath often consults with her when planning his strategies.”
I patiently waited for her to finish explaining the ten generals, remembering that the first Archmage, Azamoth, would have been counted among them if he were still alive. “Sounds like the angels will really have their hands full.”
At that, Lilith nodded, though with a grim expression on her face. “They’ll be bringing out the Archangels for this battle. During the first war, they only had five, including the King of Heaven. But, if they’ve kept up their training this entire time, they could have hundreds.” She must have seen the question on my face, because she explained.
“An Archangel is the epitome of their power. If Kor hadn’t fallen, he would be considered one. And each of them are as strong as one of my generals. If they had had more Archangels in the first war, I doubt they would have chosen to accept the treaty when we went out in force. That’s also why they are so bold this time, because they are sure of their victory.”
I grinned to her, patting her head like I had earlier in the throne room. “Well then, you just need to hope that Dremor has a spell in his collection to handle pesky Archangels.”
I could see her shoulders relax visibly as I comforted her, before she nodded her head. “Yeah… Everything’s going to change after this battle. For better or worse.”
“Hey, if this works then you won’t have to hide anymore. Demons will have just as much right to the surface as angels, though the natives might have an issue. Nothing to stop you from making your own city on the surface, so that you guys can go out and see the sun now and then.”
Slowly, I saw the smile returning to her lips as she considered that idea. “Yeah.. we’ll finally be free. For thousands of years, Hell has been little more than a prison to us, while those angels kept working with the surface races to ensure our downfall.”
On that note, Lilith jumped past me and ran out of the cavern happily, leaving me alone with my thoughts. Well, back to practice! With a grin of my own, I turned back to the cavern and began practicing a variety of spells, testing what I could accomplish with Ad Lib, and what I would need to work more on. Of course, I devoted half of my mana recovery to continue feeding my homunculus.
By the end of the day, I had only gained another two levels in Dominion, but I had worked out a spell that I once decided to neglect. Frostfire, the ability to simultaneously freeze and burn everything in its path so rapidly that it disintegrates it. The spell itself wasn’t that difficult, as the basic frostfire had two layers.
The first layer was a fire style magic, similar to a simple fireball. The second layer, however, focused on my Rewrite rune. Its instruction was to turn every Fire rune in the spell into an Ice rune, and then repeat the cycle. That spell alone took me three hours of practice to get working right, and I had to add it to my spellbook as well. When I first started it, the rotation occurred once a second, but with practice it moved faster and faster until it appeared to be a sheet of ice in the shape of a flame.
On the second day, I even dared to test a tier 5 spell, though one that I would be able to control and prevent from destroying everything. This was similar to my new Frostfire Bolt spell, except much much bigger. And shaped like a dragon, that was also important. Since the strength of frostfire is more than sufficient on its own, all I needed was a spell to shape and control it. Thus, a new tier 5 spell was born.
Frostfire Dragon has been added to your Spell List
Unfortunately, I had no intention of using this spell myself in the upcoming battle. That honor belonged to my homunculus, though I wasn’t entirely sure how well it was going to work out. First, I had to create a Mana Stone for Frostfire Dragon. The resulting stone was nearly as big as I was, and quite a curious one at that. The colors in the gem were constantly shifting from red to blue, like an eternal dance of light.
Somehow, when I told my homunculus to consume the Mana Stone, it actually managed to do so. But… I’m not sure I’ll ever be able to get that image out of my head. After flying about a foot into the air above the newly created gem, which would no doubt be proclaimed a national treasure anywhere it was seen, the book suddenly expanded. Sharp spines grew along its cover like massive fangs, a long black bookmark shooting out like a tongue to wrap around the stone. The roar the book gave sounded like some kind of crazed animal as it flew down onto the Mana Stone, devouring it in a single bite.
Immediately after putting on this unusual show, the homunculus returned to its normal size, as if the previous act had never happened. I was, understandably, reluctant to touch the book after seeing it do something like that, but nonetheless I picked it up to make sure the spell was properly recorded. Sure enough, three pages were now used to hold the spell, and it had gained a considerable amount of mana in the process. If watching it eat in that manner wasn’t so unnerving, I might consider feeding it tier 5 Mana Stones more often.
That day, I managed to get three more levels in Dominion, bringing me up to level twenty-six in that talent. I had one more day of training, but it didn’t look like I was going to be able to make my deadline. He isn’t doing this to me on purpose, to make me become an Archmage during the battle, is he?
Although I was suspicious of the A.I. controlling the game, I didn’t think he’d be impeding my progress so much. There was also the distinct possibility that I was simply leveling more slowly because it was more difficult to level a combined talent like Dominion than it was to level the individual magic systems. For instance, when creating a tier 5 spell or Mana Stone, either such event should have guaranteed me a level in their respective systems. Instead, neither spell gave such a boon.
Leveling up Dominion seemed more about understanding it, and practicing it without using spells. In that sense, it was more difficult to level it up. For most magic systems, if I created a few powerful spells and used them in battle, that alone would grant me a considerable amount of levels. However, Dominion didn’t work like that.
I decided to devote the first half of the third day to training, and then relax for the second half to prepare for the upcoming battle. Since I realized that learning and practicing actual spells weren’t as helpful for my training as creating effects purely through my aura, I chose to train with that method instead. Each time I failed to get the result I wanted, I would go back and review, clarify my mental image, and try again until I understood what
I did wrong and could fix it.
Yes, I may be stubborn, but it worked! By the time I stopped on the third day, I had gained another two levels in Dominion. There was the slim chance that I might have mastered it that day if I had continued practicing. The only reason I stopped was because I wanted to be at least somewhat rested before going into a battle where we could be outnumbered one to a thousand. And that’s on the optimistic side.
Likely, the enemies would be relying on teleport magic to join the battlefield, so there was no telling how many would appear. Such magic wasn’t easy to come by, so there probably wouldn’t be many weaklings. If my guess was correct, then the King of Heaven learned the moment Lilith said they would be fighting in three days, giving his followers time to prepare.
Thankfully, the chosen field of battle was four days away from the capital of Wynterrose, so there wasn’t the chance of people journeying on foot. Unless, of course, they broke some serious records. I also didn’t know the geography of the area, but I knew it once served as a battlefield for one of the most epic battles in history. And it would soon serve the same purpose for another one.
The Dive: Birth of a Hero Page 47