by Andur
The spirit raises both hands in an attempt to contain the spell, but the action only adds fuel to the process. Then, at last, the reaction bounces out of its boundaries, the vortex expands and converts to pure energy.
A flash of light almost blinds me, but I raise a hand to protect my eyes. A visible shockwave travels outwards. The explosion blows apart the remaining part of the spirit's upper body and bits and pieces of the monster are flung outwards. Luckily most of it away from the city.
The shockwave flattens the closest cornfields and some of the debris impacts the shield, but nothing which our combined force could not handle.
When the dust cloud settles, all that remains are the two trunks of the spirit's legs. They are still standing, a pitiful reminder of the enormous creature. The rest was obliterated and a stunned silence envelops the scene.
I take Elona's hand in mine and cheers erupt all around us. “Is that what you wished for, Dear.”
Her cute mouth works in a conflicted expression of anger and happiness. It's only then that I realize that the cheering is accompanied by dirty whistling and shouts to go for it. Finally Elona regains her voice.
“How long do you intend to grope and rub my ass in front of the entire clan?”
I freeze up, realizing that I never took my hand away from her butt. “You... can grope me too... if you want to?” I squeeze one more time, just to savour the moment. It will be gone soon enough.
Her expression turns into a cruel grin. “Oh, no. I have a much better idea.”
She reaches up and cups my cheeks in her hands, and then her lips are on mine. Her tongue pushes past my lips and I respond her demands. That's not the reaction I expected! I thought she would hit me for smudging her honour.
Our tongues fight a fierce battle and I feel the sudden need to rip off her clothes and take her in every way I can imagine.
But suddenly the world starts swaying and I feel my energies being sucked out of me. I try to cling to my powers, but they are rapidly drained away.
My vision tunnels and my head lolls to the side as my body slumps. Just barely, I manage to stay conscious. Strangely enough I don't fall, though I don't even have enough energy to power the levitation spell.
Elona is holding me up in front of her, tightly gripping my clothes at my chest.
“That was delicious. Doreen, Tisha, if you'll excuse me and my husband. I am still hungry and I think he owes me a dessert.”
She flaps her wings and takes me with her down to the palace. I want to speak, but I don't even have enough power to do that! And she wants to suck out even more!?
HEEELP!
“Ahahaha, don't worry. I will help you. My mother told me that it is even more intoxicating if you get to do it sixty-nine. There are a few ways for a succubus to bind a man to her. I'll work you through all the important positions I want to do. And when we are done, you will burn with lust and beg me for more. But unless you behave, I wont quench that fire inside you. Mwahahaha.”
39. ~Mountain trail.~
“In Greek mythology, Chaos (Greek: Χάος), according to Hesiod, Chaos ("Chasm") was the first thing to exist: "at first Chaos came to be" (or was) "but next" (possibly out of Chaos) came Gaia, Tartarus, and Eros. Unambiguously born "from Chaos" were Erebus (Darkness) and Nyx (Night).
The Greek word "chaos" (χάος), a neuter noun, means "yawning" or "gap", but what, if anything, was located on either side of this chasm is unclear. For Hesiod, Chaos, like Tartarus, though personified enough to have born children, was also a place, far away, underground and "gloomy", beyond which lived the Titans. And, like the earth, the ocean, and the upper air, It was also capable of being affected by Zeus' thunderbolts.”
The Journey to the Afterlife
Dedessia, the Sea of Souls, Mana Storms
Elona
“He is walking so strange. What did you do to him last night?” Manti speaks up for the first time during this mission. Her eyes are on Shade who is leading us up the narrow trail to the peak of the mountain. Aswang is right behind him and talking in an exasperated manner. Men! They always have to go first.
Manti and Aswang are guiding us to an area with mana storms. It is located far away in the south of our city, even behind the lands of Draconis. Reaching it solely on foot would have taken us years. So we can say that we are currently moving through enemy territory. But this is just a reconnaissance mission and our opponents shouldn't even know that we are here.
I smirk. “Do you have memories of being reincarnated as a man?”
Manti cringes her eyebrows. “Some.”
“Did you ever do it more than twice in one night?” I ask with a mischievous grin on my face.
Mantis eyebrows rise. “You mean the normal way? Um... I remember one particularly hot night where I did it three times. I don't want to repeat that. How many rounds did you get out of him?” Manti cocks her head towards Shade.
“Seven times! He will never forget yesterday night,” I answer with pride.
Manti coughs sympathetically and rubs the back of her neck. “Ow, man. His balls must hurt like hell.”
“You can bet they do,” I answer and lengthen my steps, following the men.
After we dealt with the stone giant and I had my little revenge, we went right to sleep. The next morning we had to endure a lengthy interrogation by Doreen and Tisha. It turns out that Shade's little spell of mass destruction looks almost like a miniature mana storm.
Ishaan already knew about this, but he kept his mouth shut. Apparently he didn't see it as important knowledge while he and Shade were living alone in the tundra.
Shade was very interested in this little piece of information and wanted to see the mana storms even more. That's why we had to set out right away to take a look at them.
We teleported southwards as close as possible to the nearest mana storm and appeared in a small valley with a lot of thorny bushes. From there we are hiking our way up a mountain. According to Manti and Aswang, we can observe a storm as soon as we get a look over the edge. Our reason for walking is that magic acts strangely around storms. It's best not to use it at all in close proximity to such an anomaly.
My eyes constantly search the rocky mountain for dangers. So far I've found nothing which warrants my attention. Just rocks and rocks and rocks again. Did I already mention the rocks? My mind switches off and I start walking on autopilot.
That's until one of the rocks moves under my foot and barely avoids being crushed. It turns out that the rock was a small, grey bird. Its wings flutter and it lands just a step away. I make my next step, aiming for the bird. Once again the animal avoids me by just one step.
Looks like every movement counts in this environment.
The bird chirps angrily at my repeated attempts at crushing it. This time I raise my hand and channel mana into my fingers. A flick is enough to aim a burst of compressed air at the bird. Its last chirp is accompanied by a blast of grey feathers. I hum, satisfied, and pick up the sorry remains. Real meat! Fresh kills are the best.
I channel my mana through the creature and within seconds I have a fist sized morsel in my hand. A hearty bite makes me smile for the first time on this trip.
“What did that poor, little creature do to you!?” Manti calls out from next to me. She gapes at me in horror.
I continue chewing and offer her a bite. “Want some? It's just right. The bones are just at the point of being crunchy.”
She doesn't answer and I decide to break the silence. “Oh, come on. I am pregnant and hungry. Who knew that we would be hiking up a mountain for hours.”
“We told you to stay at home,” she mumbles.
I take another bite and start paying more attention to the stones. There might be another snack. “Well, turns out I am here. And I solved the hunger problem.”
I will be happy once we get back. Five hours of walking are boring. At least we didn't encounter any spirits.
“How come you and Aswang know about the storms? I thought that
you were caged as slaves for your entire lives,” I ask Manti.
She shakes her head. “Not exactly caged. When Tisha freed us, we joined her resistance organisation. When we learned that we are actually higher immortals, we started our training to drive away the slavers.
“It's not exactly easy to hide inside the city if you have the aura of a higher immortal. We had to protect ourselves with wards and barriers all day long.
Training inside the city is even more dangerous. So we went on regular trips far away from the city.”
“Then why didn't you venture north to look for Shade and Legna?” I ask, astonished.
A deep sigh escapes Manti. “Didn't you hear about the bad rumours regarding Ishaan. So far, he killed everyone who entered the tundra without his permission. We didn't want to risk it. And besides, by the time we started our adventures, we couldn't have done much for Shade and Legna. It was years later and they either had found shelter somewhere, or died long ago. It's not exactly like we could walk up to another clan and ask for them. Be honest, would your clan take in two random strangers who appear out of nowhere and tell strange stories about being slaves of Inanimatum?”
I nod slowly. “You are right. Having even one traitor among your midst can mean the end of a clan.” My thoughts return to how my clan was almost wiped out. All it took was one low life bastard who drew portal charms all over the place. “How does it look regarding our traitor? You are working with Doreen and Tisha on that front, are you not?”
Manti snorts. “We have all our suspects under close observation. To be honest, I don't have much hope to uncover their game in any meaningful way. The traitor is surely just a sleeper agent. I fear that our only chance is to catch him in the act. Because of that I voted to have all of the suspects interrogated with magic.”
My expression turns sour. Magical and telepathic interrogation methods are even worse than rape. Having your innermost thoughts ripped out of your mind is something very undesirable. And if the victim tries to resist, it is entirely possible to leave not much more than an empty shell behind. “But Doreen and Tisha were against it?”
Manti nods. “Yes. But not because of the moral aspect, but because of the tactical one. It's true that we have suspects, but all we have is suspicions. We suspect the people with contacts to Draconis and former clan members of Draconis who returned to your clan. But since Draconis is a split off group from Carissimi we shouldn't forget that Moonray may still have friends among your peers.
“That's a huge circle of people. We may narrow it down, but we are still groping in the dark. Right now we have the advantage that Moonray doesn't know about our suspiscions. That may be the only reason why he is still bothering to play his dirty little games. If we start random interrogations and we don't catch the traitor right away-”
“-we may alert Moonray. Then he knows that we know. If we use such means, then it has to be on someone whom we have a solid lead on,” I finish the sentence for her. “And none of the suspects acted strange? What about the two incidents with the spirits. Did they run or prepare to flee?”
She smiles. “I thought about the same thing. But nobody acted out of the ordinary. One might think that someone who calls an asenee to his own town might try to avoid being caught in the crossfire. But nothing.
So far our biggest suspect was Miraven. But she didn't do so much as twitch during the attack. She was right among the people who partied on the plaza.
“The only one who acted out of the ordinary was Grixen. He left his workshop on exactly that day to buy new materials on the other side of the town. Normally he doesn't leave his smithery and his wife. But they relocated to the city just recently, so I am not sure if it wasn't out of circumstance. They moved from Yggdrasil to the town. It's not surprising that not every action is normal when you are in the process of moving.”
I grumble and nod. “Not to mention that the traitor might not be informed about the spirits. I think that would put Grixen out of the equation. Add the fact that he is just a mid and has a wife. I highly doubt that he has the means to flee from a spirit attack. Why should he call his own doom upon himself?”
Now it's Manti's turn to raise her eyebrows, so I explain further. “Why should Moonray tell his agents that he is about to send a spirit into their midst? It's like telling your subordinate that you are about to lock a wolf into their room. I think the traitor doesn't even know that Moonray is connected to the spirit attacks.”
Manti says nothing for a while. Then she tilts her head and gestures with her hand. “You are right. It's despicable, but reasonable if you think about it with a certain coldness. Another troubling aspect is that Moonray doesn't seem to be concerned about sending his creatures into our midst. Especially that last one. If Shade hadn't stopped it so easily, it could have killed Moonray's agent.”
I press my lips together. “Unless he has enough people among us that he doesn't have to worry about accidentally killing one or two.”
Manti's jaw starts working and she nods. But we don't get to take the subject any further. Shade and Aswang reach the end of the narrow path. Five more steps take me to their side and I get a good look over the mountain ridge.
In front of us is a seemingly endless, flat plain. The ground is smooth stone and looks like obsidian. Red vortexes are dancing and circling on the surface, some small, some bigger. And far, far in the distance behind them is a huge cyclone of swirling, red energy.
Shade kneels down and watches the scene with scrutinising eyes. “That's the biggest formation of natural chaos magic I have ever seen.”
40. ~Return.~
“In philosophy, the natural order is the moral source from which natural law seeks to derive its authority. It encompasses the natural relations of beings to one another, in the absence of law, which natural law attempts to reinforce. This is related to Dharma.
In contrast, divine law seeks authority from God, and positive law seeks authority from government.”
The Journey to the Afterlife
Dedessia, the Sea of Souls, Mana Storms
Shade
I watch the rampant energies of chaos. They melted the rocks and earth, then scrubbed everything into a perfectly flat surface. It's a sight I have never seen before. When I started researching chaos magic, I had nightmares about creating a magical construct like this. There is no telling what the chaos magic might do. All it takes is a little mistake in the containment of the spell formation.
But in this case it looks like a natural occurrence. The magic is warping not only energy, but probably also space and time.
Now I don't have any doubts about this phenomenon being the source of the spirits. If a being that's too weak comes into contact with magic like this and survives... well... corruption is the very least of your problems in such a case. I highly doubt that it will only twist the body. The soul will also be heavily affected. That's why I got nothing from the spirits whose souls I caught. They are just sorry and shredded remains of the original.
I watch the slowly moving storm and try to figure out a pattern. Even if it is chaos magic, something has to keep it going. Otherwise the spell would annihilate itself sooner or later. If not then... hm.
“Have you seen enough?” Aswang asks with a frightful voice. “The last time I was here, the vortex was much smaller. I am afraid that the storm might be in a hot phase. We don't want to be here when it expands.”
“Sure. Just let me research this thing for a few more moments.” I reach for a nearby stone with a flat surface and focus mana in my fingertip. Then I start etching a rune circle into the stone and pour my mana into it to imprint the enchantment into the rock.
Such methods won't stick for long, but maybe they will hold long enough until the storm expands the next time. At least I hope so, the air is brimming with energy and I am not eager to wait around for too long.
“I hope you don't intend on walking into that storm. If you do, know that I'll knock you out and drag you back home.” Elona grumbles
, taking another bite from some sorry animal which she caught on the way.
I seriously doubt her judgement by now. Stopping her from accompanying me is impossible, so I didn't even try it. But doesn't she see herself that she is in no condition to go on trips like this one? Her belly is just starting to show, but she is eating like a horse. No, probably she would eat a horse, given the chance.
“Of course not. I am just leaving a little spell behind. It's an observation ward. I hope to gain some information once the storm expands.” I finish the enchantment and place the stone on the ground. “That's enough. We can return now.”
“All that for just one look?” Manti asks astonished.
I smile and urge them to walk back the way we came. “One look and setting up a little observation probe. It's enough. Once the storm expands, the probe will send detailed images to my mind. It will be as if I were here in person. I can already tell you that these storms are able to create spirits. It is possible that Moonray exposes people to the storm in order to change them.”
Aswang opens his mouth in outrage and Elona stops chewing. “That's horrible! But how does he manage to expose them to the storm and gather them afterwards?”
I shrug my shoulders. “There are ways. Casting a normal spell or teleportation is out of the question with that much interference from the surrounding mana. But as you saw with the stone, strong enchantments hold for a while. If I have to guess, then I would say that he has a mana imbued cage and places it close to the storm.
“When the storm expands, the victim is exposed to its energies. As soon as the storm shrinks again, he can come back and collect the cage with whatever the victim turned into,” I finish my explanation.
We hurry back down the mountain, this time our steps are much easier because we know that we are walking away from danger. Our excursion can be called a success. I've seen the storm and identified it as chaos magic... more or less. In addition I've found a possible explanation for the spirits.