Fathers of Power Chapter 3 Part II: Son of Aredes
“I already gave you children ample
chance to escape. Now it’s too late for all of you,” Viknor said. “Embrace the
afterlife!” Viknor slammed his hands together, his fingers cradled down into
one another. “Poison Art! Miasmic Flare!” With that, there was a rush of light
purple mana that spread from Viknor’s aura, covering miles in a moment. Viknor
crouched, panting. He felt his mana regenerate almost instantly. He rested his
palms on the ground. “Aredic Art! Mana blitz!” A black wave of what resembled
seventh grade mana pulsed out from Viknor swiftly. Hilda held up a strong
shield, but it was not struck by the black mist.
“What is this?” Hilda wondered
aloud, looking about her. Floating even within the red shield was the strange
mists of purple and black.
“So he can use even these
techniques now,” the three heard Catherina mutter. She had an even more
worrisome look on her face. “I wanted to die by Viknor’s hand in payment for my
sin, but I can no longer afford to quench my own guilt… These techniques…”
“What are they?!” Hilda asked,
beginning to feel a little pale.
“The purple mist is a poison
brought forth by his sixth grade mana that spans miles probably. It is a
corruption of raw mana. As we inhale it, it destroys our own mana by the
second, and can eventually kill us.” Catherina saw the look of panic on her
siblings’ faces. Even Hilda was quite worried. “The trouble is in the second
technique he used. Years ago I encountered it while going through some of
Aredes’ secret scrolls. This black mist prevents all sorcerers trapped in its
range who are below sixth grade magic from spaceshifting… It only disappears
when the caster dies or shifts away.” Hilda’s face grew even dimmer.
“Then we have to kill Viknor... And
fast,” Hilda said. Even still, Hilda held on to the hope of somehow ending the
conflict without bloodshed. She lowered the shield, remembering that mana
conservation had become even more critical.
“I’m sorry, Viknor, but I cannot
allow my siblings and my dear Hilda to pay for my sin. I will kill you… and
marry you in hell.”
With her new resolve, she shot off
toward her enemy, a thick red aura of great power about her. Red swords of mana
in her hands, she reached up to Viknor in a jiffy. Her three companions were
moving forward behind her, spreading out. “Die, traitors of the holy council!”
Viknor raged, “Mana Cloak!” With that, a thick body of purple surrounded the
man, giving him, though at a high cost of mana, speed and strength that were
far superior to his enemies’. In a flash, he rushed up to Catherina. *SLAM!*
There was no time for her to react, and shifting was impossible. A pulse of
power flew off Viknor’s fist as he blasted her mightily.
What?!
Hilda glanced back at Catherina, whose body rocketed into the ground heavily,
breaking solid earth easily. She heard the woman cry out. *WHAM!* Hilda paid
expensively for losing focus. Viknor, with his new strength and speed, sent her
hurling off. She landed and rolled in the mists made by her enemy, but
recovered to her feet quickly, bright red mana quickly healing her wounds.
“Abingush!” *BLAST!* There was a massive red
explosion as Lydia sent a flood of mana at Viknor, a man she had never dreamed
she would have to fight. No effect?!
Viknor glanced over to the young witch. The look in his eyes seemed to paralyze
her. Sister…
The man ignored the frightened
Lydia and glanced over to where Catherina was lying, looking to be at a state
nearing death. Hilda stood quickly and ran to stand before the fallen
Catherina, facing Viknor. “Woman, get up already!” She blasted, sounding
annoyed. Catherina struggled to her feet, her mana healing her.
“Summoning! Snake Nest!” Viknor
commanded. A circle of darkness spanning a few meters in circumference appeared
about him on the ground quickly. The witches’ eyes bulged as they saw massive
black snakes rise from the shadowy circle about Viknor and speed malignantly
toward them. Hilda tried to fix them a shield, but her head ached as she felt
her mana hitting rock bottom.
Already?!
Dammit!
“Fire Sphere!” they heard a voice
command. Suddenly, as the snakes were coming to devour them, a hot sphere of
flames encircled them. The snakes dived down into their fiery doom to be
consumed by a magical fire that could not be made by rubbing stones together.
As the red mana cleared, a friend was revealed.
“Why are you just now showing up?!”
Hilda complained.
“Thimius, you came!” Catherina
said.
“I can’t marry a dead woman I
suppose,” he said, glancing at Hilda.
“We have to be quick and careful,
Thimius,” Hilda said, “this is not the Viknor we used to train and laugh with.
His power has spiked nastily. The mist about us prevents shifting and drains
our mana.”
“Don’t tell me you think Viknor is
stronger than me!”
“Are you listening to me?!” Hilda
belted annoyed. Thimius could already feel his mana leaving him, and
spaceshifting wasn’t an option.
“Fire art!” Thimius began, “Flame
Angel!” In that second, a flurry of fire, probably summoned from the pits of
hell itself, cloaked Thimius. Also, two gigantic wings of flames appeared on
his back. A sword found itself in his right hand. The blade had a whitish
colour, and was made from what would best be described as solid fire. Such a
sword would have been able to cut through close to anything. Thimius flew off
toward Viknor with a speed that effectively shook the air and stirred up a
wind.
“Adamian Defense!” Viknor summoned,
his eyes flashing black for a split second. As Thimius flew up to Viknor, the
earth quaked as something none of the sorcerers had ever seen happened. Two
gigantic hands made of hard rock emerged from the ground, up to the wrists.
There was a loud rumble as the hands quickly interlocked around Viknor, fingers
running down each other, covering the sorcerer completely. With a confident
roar, Thimius bashed through the hard entrapment with his fiery speed. *POOF!*
Viknor appeared atop the sphere of tight, giant hands, leaving Thimius alone
within it. Viknor stooped and touched the ground he stood on; he was standing
on one knuckle. As he used a healing technique that the other councillors
thought could only repair flesh and blood, the opening in the Adamian shield
was mended, leaving him well-trapped inside.
“Thimius!” Hilda cried out.
“Anam Resal!” Viknor commanded,
holding one hand out toward the group of enemies. Hilda and Catherina countered
the streak of mana with what felt like the last of their strengths.
“Anam Resal!” they commanded, and
two bright red beams of power rushed up to meet the purple streak. Lydia and
Quincy closed their eyes as the entities of magic clashed vilely. The witches
cried out as they strained to counter Viknor’s power. The two younger sorcerers
were already drained of their mana by Viknor’s earlier techniques. The air
burnt with power and the four felt the heat of death. Viknor lowered his hand
finally. The witches fell in weariness. They had countered Viknor’s attack, but
there was nothing left in them.
“Descend,” Viknor commanded.
Hilda’s heart gasped as the earth rumbled and the sphere of gripping hands sunk
back down into it, her lover trapped inside.
“No! No! Viknor, please!” Hilda
cried, finding the strength to return to her feet. By the time she could stand,
it was far too late. Whether dead or alive, the earth had swallowed up Thimius
on Viknor’s command, and the ground was level again. Hilda stared out at Viknor
with a new expression. Viknor’s face remained cold and fixated. “Thimius!”
Hilda raged, tears running down her face. The earth suffered beneath her as she
roused a new strength. Catherina and the others could only look on as a purple
aura of light surrounded Hilda, the power of sixth grade magic.
“Come!” Viknor called out to her.
*POOF!* In a jiffy, two massive swords appeared in the woman’s hands. *POOF!*
On reappearing, Hilda began swinging vilely at Viknor, who quickly materialized
swords himself to defend against her attacks. With roars of utter rage and a
heavy guilt she could not even quite understand, she struck at Viknor, but the
wizard blocked her attacks and struck back with even more menace. *POOF!* Hilda
shifted a few meters from Viknor, pointing one of her swords at him as she appeared.
She channelled a stream of mana to rush forth from the blade toward her enemy.
Without effort, as Viknor’s eyes flashed black another time, Viknor sent forth
an even more powerful beam from one of his blades. The purple beams clashed
brightly, but there was no competition as to which would prevail.
“Hilda!” Catherina bellowed as she
watched a nasty, blinding explosion occur where her friend was. Still, Hilda
rushed forth from the brightness toward Viknor. The man shifted out of the way
as she swung at him, purple mana still accompanying her. Hilda shifted back to
Catherina and her siblings.
“Dammit!” Hilda cursed.
“Hilda, this mana!” Catherina
mused.
“With this mist, it’s still
impossible for me to shift more than a few meters, so escape is still impossible.
I feel this surge of power might soon reach its limit, so I’ll have to make use
of it now or never.”
“What are you thinking?” Catherina
asked, having a pretty good idea of Hilda’s answer.
“An Ogal spell.”
“Are you mad, woman?!”
“The cost is high, but if I don’t
make use of this chance, we all die by Viknor’s hands. He has far more mana
than I, so conventional fighting cannot do. I will enter his soul and fight him
there. Even if I merely damage him, he might end up losing his magic
temporarily as a result, and then we could take it from there easily.”
“Hilda…” Catherina said. Hilda
hissed, then stepped toward Viknor.
“Oga Art!” the witch commanded, her
purple mana flaring about her. Viknor’s eyes narrowed a little, and a bit of
darkness flashed in them. I see. I’ll
meet you half way then.
“Spirit Shift!” The two commanded
at once, jetting off toward each other, Hilda’s body covered in a host of
light, Viknor’s swarmed by a dense and eerie darkness. As the two met, there
was a burst of what can only be described as black light, or maybe blindingly
bright darkness. The three onlookers covered their eyes in reflex.
Hilda and Viknor found themselves
in a strange dreamscape, a realm separated from their world by more than time
and space, somewhere in the massive gap between life and death, physicalness
and intangibility. It was a place, or maybe even a state, that language could
never fully explain. Hilda felt like she had to focus real hard to keep her
consciousness from being diffused into this realm. As she focused on the man in
the distance before her, the place seemed to materialize and her existence felt
less forced. She found herself on a floor of space. So Viknor used this technique at the same time I did… Hilda thought. It seems I am not in his soul… but neither
am I in mine… So where is this place?
“You see,” a voice came from behind
her. She turned quickly in fright. She was shocked wordless and motionless for
a moment.
“Lord Aredes…” Hilda even bowed
slightly.
“If one battles within his own
soul, he is liable to suffer great loss, even he defeats his enemy.”
“…”
“You see, two worlds coexist on
every plane, in every dimension, the world of the physical and the world of the
abstract.” He spoke as he normally did, as if this meeting was a usual one. Hilda
saw black mana thickly misted about the man who taught her everything she knew
about magic. “The fabric that holds these two worlds together is existence.
Hence, these worlds are one and the same; they mirror each other.”
“I don’t understand.”
“That’s why I’m teaching you,” the
man said. “For each element of life that exists over there, exists here a realm
that reflects it in a slightly different form. If you want to get a good image
of this side of the coin, picture time and space as one entity, say a sea.
Within the sea are an uncountable number of bubbles, each paralleled to a life,
whether of a man, a tree, a butterfly, whatever. Within each bubble is a small
world in which matter is indefinite. Based on the strength of one’s mind, one,
if they enter this side of themselves, they can see physical manifestations of
abstract things like emotions, memories, abilities. At your level, you might be
able only to see a white floor in your spirit realm, which is your knowledge of
being in existence, the most basic knowledge. I, though, see a world close to
that on the other side, trees, skies, even things you cannot imagine, and I
understand what each thing represents.
“Now, with the technique you just
now used, you attempted to extend your own consciousness to reach my bubble. In
there, you could, even accidentally, destroy important things. What I did was
to meet you in that space between both our bubbles, so we’re in an unallocated
part of this abstract realm where time does not exist.” Hilda’s brows crawled
together and her heart raced as she tried to understand.
“Where… Where is Viknor?”
“Somewhere about,” Aredes said,
flashing his hand behind him carelessly. “I am in control here.”
Hilda crouched and held her
forehead. She felt her mind spinning rapidly, and it was a strange and
terrifying feeling. “Oh don’t mind that,” she heard Aredes say, “I am just
taking us out of this middle-ground and to your own bubble.” Moments later, the
tense feeling ended and the woman could stand again. She looked around. All she
saw was a white floor. “Now I will lend you my eyes,” Aredes said, then
appeared before Hilda and touched her. Suddenly, the bare space began to
transform into a lively world. The sky was strange. Some parts were blackly
dark and some were very bright. There were many things Hilda couldn’t quite
identify, but she was sure she saw trees, and stars that looked too big and
close to be real. “Now,” Aredes said to the frightened woman, “most so-called
geniuses would fight you here and struggle to kill you. The most that would do
though is limit or probably delete your sorcery. I would have to destroy the
whole bubble to really kill you, but don’t fret, I’ll only remove your powers.”
The woman’s eyes widened. “I won’t fight though – it’s much simpler than that.
Come with me.” Hilda found herself in a spaceshift. She and Aredes appeared in
a field of what seemed like an infinite number of flowers. She mused at the
beauty, though it was all eerie to her. “It’s funny; the limit of what exists
here depends on whether someone here knows it exists. In that, if another
person was here with you in place of me, there would only be a blank floor made
physical, and so none of all of this would really be at risk.” The man bent
down and uprooted a small flower from the ground. “This is your sorcery, this
particular little flower.
“It would have died soon anyway,
but I got rid of it from now so you can’t even fight me in here, not that you
would be too troublesome anyway.” Hilda tried to summon up some mana, but
nothing happened. “Not to worry, you won’t remember any of this. On my way out,
I will remove your memories of our meeting. I simply miss lecturing you, you
see.” With that, Aredes vanished in a black cloud.
All that happened within the jiffy
that Viknor’s eyes flashed darkly. Catherina watched as Hilda collapsed before
Viknor. “What?! Hilda!” the woman called. Viknor bent and picked up the
flimsy-looking Hilda who didn’t look like more than a corpse. Catherina stood
up, struggling to keep her consciousness intact against the mists’ effects. Her
siblings were on the ground, even less conscious that her. Viknor tossed Hilda
aside effortlessly, flinging her body over meters. The woman made a hard hit
and rolled, lifting dust to thicken the miasmic fog.
“And finally you three. You will
die together,” Viknor declared, “And I will save you for last, Catherina.”
Viknor gathered his right fingers and a dagger appeared in the hollow if his
palm. “You killed my father with daggers, didn’t you? Now you get to watch your
brother and sister die in like manner.” Catherina shook her head quickly, tears
running down her face. She grabbed on to Quincy and Lydia tightly. They
clutched on to her with the little energy they had left. There was a sudden
crash in the skies and rain poured down on the three. Lydia clenched her feet
in the mud, grabbing on to her sister faintly. Viknor walked up toward them
slowly. He stooped down before them and grabbed Lydia roughly, forcing her up
out of Catherina’s hands by her throat. Lydia was too feeble even to support
her own weight. Catherina staggered to stand, but only to slip and fall back
down into the mud. Rain drenched her. Viknor took a few backward steps, Lydia
roughly gripped by one hand and the long dagger at her throat.
“Viknor…” Catherina’s voice was
almost completely gone. The look on her face was nothing short of pitiful. She
looked into Viknor’s eyes, and she saw that the Viknor she once knew was no
longer there.
“Si…s…ter…” Lydia groaned, looking
down at Catherina with a disturbingly fearful countenance.
“No…” Quincy muttered, looking up
at his sister, having no strength to move.
“Watch, you murderer,” Catherina
heard Viknor’s icy voice beckon. *SLUSH!* The man jammed the dagger in Lydia’s
neck. Her eyes rolled over and blood flooded down her. Catherina gasped as she
watched Viknor slowly rip through her sister’s throat with the cold blade.
Viknor tossed the woman aside, her head and body almost completely separated.
Catherina cast her eyes to follow Lydia’s body as it struck the ground. She
held tightly to Quincy, who looked dead also. Her muscles weakened and her
brother fell from her hands. The witch shook profusely, a wild look in her
eyes. Her pupils bobbed and jittered as she struggled to accept what was real. She
felt an emptiness that was next to maddening, a darkness that consumed her.
All of a
sudden, she felt a fearlessness that was strange to her, and a sudden strength.
She stood almost easily, and her tears stopped flowing. “We both die here… I
will marry you in hell…” A sudden wind brewed about her and a rich purple mana
flooded her being, two massive blades of purple power appearing in her hands,
no expression whatsoever on her face. She reached up to Viknor in a flash,
making two swings at him. *POOF!* He shifted back, narrowly keeping his head.
Catherina looked back down at Lydia, and her face lost its deadness. She
glanced back at Quincy, and over at Hilda who was also probably dead. “DIE!”
she bellowed hoarsely, rushing on to Viknor at a speed that caused cracks to
run through the earth.
Points: 529
Reviews: 14
Donate