Chapter 167: Chapter 166 ~ The Weight of Magic

White fire rains over my army, spreading about and consuming everything it touches. Even the slightest glancing blow is enough to spread the parasitic flames, some try to put out the fires with their hands, trying in a panic to suffocate it like an ordinary fire, but it just spreads faster for their desperate efforts.

The potions to kill the fire are used liberally, subduing the worst of the flames infecting my people, but sometimes it comes too slow. Sometimes, it’s not enough.

If this goes on, we’ll run out of the potions to treat it, and all we’ll have left is the option of amputation.

The flaming ammunition is too often left lying in the middle of formations that are still struggling to fight off beasts. They trip on the fires while they fight, some falling to the beasts while trying to treat the fires.

Blood mages struggle to contain it all before it can spread too far for us to recover, but there’s only so much that they can do.

My people are dying, and I can do nothing but watch. If I release my magic now, I could save them, but it would leave us all vulnerable to Loekan. Red was very clear to me that he’d strike the moment I show weakness, but I’ve yet to see any sign of him.

Self-doubt battles away in my chest as I try to contain my raging fear.

Lakesh isn’t so restricted as I am. He rushes this way and that, while undoubtedly giving orders via his support device. His mages, archers, and riflemen retreat to the second line of defence, before shooting down the gremlins spreading white fire.

Without the guns to suppress them, the beasts that broke through the blood wall fight with increased spirit. The gremlin armies, as if waiting for this very moment, come charging in after.

Abandoning the bloody walls completely, the rest of Lakesh’s warriors retreat back outside the range of the white fire rain. The beasts and gremlins are quickly catching up, seeing this as their chance.

Some of my warriors drag or carry wounded along with them, slowed by their burdens, they lag behind. Others stay to guard them, but the more beasts and gremlins reach them the harder it is to retreat.

I watch helplessly as a massive beast tears it’s way over the cobblestone, catching one of the guards defending the retreating wounded, and crushing him in a closed fist before he can even scream.

Lakesh hisses at the sight, but turns his nervous gaze to the reinforced walls made from stolen wood and stone stuck together with hardened blood. Atop the walls our ranged fighters let loose with their everything, but it’s a particular pair of vampire lizards that ready a new weapon, catching Lakesh’s attention.

With practiced movements the pair set the weapon up on the wall and start firing.

The hulking beast that’s just finished killing another of my people is the first of their targets. Enchanted projectiles fly in the dozens, scattering all over the massive beast. Magic blasts out from each impact, dicing skin with annihilation, blasting it with fire, and freezing it away with ice.

In a matter of seconds, the hulking beast is reduced to nothing, the countless magical effects tearing it apart, and shattering the pieces. Others follow as more machineguns are positioned and start firing over the heads of the last retreating soldiers.

I know for a fact that the guns don’t have charge or ammo enough to last, but our enemies aren’t so well informed.

The gremlin army that had been charging a moment before, comes to a gradual halt after the first few waves join with the dead beasts that precede them. That’s still not enough for Lakesh, as he gazes out through the mass of gremlins looking for their leader.

With an unspoken command, the guns fire through the massive army, scattered effects breaking up the dense mass of gremlins. A few talented riflemen, mages, and archers fire at specific targets that seem a little more level-headed than the rest of the retreating army.

Lakesh grumbles the same as I do when he sees the enemy army reforming again, but I don’t have the time to despair with him.

Through Vii’s eyes I see signs of powerful magic raging through the thick city streets, I turn my own gaze the same direction and I can barely make out a massive round figure flinging around some sort of staff moments before another powerful burst of flames fills the street.

Finding the nearest eyes, I peek through the gaze of Shen and her pet snake, seeing nothing but consuming red flames that burst to life around them. The dancing flames are a deep unforgiving red that natural fires could never possibly achieve.

More of my soldiers are consumed by those flames before my borrowed eyes, they don’t die instantly, screaming in pain as their bodies are charred deep black, fingers falling away as ash. They’re still screaming, still suffering, but they’re already dead, and there’s nothing I can do to save them.

If I’d had some talent at healing rather than annihilation, then I’d be able to reach out even from up here, saving their lives.

I’m not so good a person to be gifted such a wonderous trait.

Instead, my heart pounds heavier with the increasing weight of promised destruction swirling within.

I can’t save them, I can only avenge them, and try my best to prevent anymore following after them. My sour heart can find no joy in that.

Vii doesn’t ignore their desperate pleas, even though she’s weaker than most. She flutters down from the skies and swoops at the massive figure of the enemy mage, the one that I so lightly dubbed Paul.

Her wind blades sink into his mass, but it’s almost as if the thick layers of fat simply consume the magic whole. Rare’s fires do a little more damage but die sooner than with any target that’s she’s fought before.

Her whole team strikes from above, surprising the enemy mage, but the damage he receives is limited to a single bump to the head, and a little burnt hair along his shoulders.

He turns his massive head upwards towards the fliers, countless chins jostling disturbingly, covering his neck. He wears his weight with a pride that should bely any common sense.

As he chants something and lifts his staff, even I can see the magic forming in the lights that gather along the wooden staff’s length. The air itself ripples out as a wave as his spell is completed.

Vii and the others fly low and scatter, but even so they can’t avoid the pressure wave that flies through the air after them. The world falls away from them, their wings suddenly losing flight, as if torn off by the magic.

 I flinch as the cobblestone comes up to greet me through Vii’s eyes.

 

 

The world through her gaze, tumbles and spins, but she wastes not a moment to get back up to her feet. Separated from the others, she turns to face the mage that has focused his gaze on her.

“Ah, hello…?” She says, waving a hand at the rounded figure of the giant mage. He sneers at her and lifts his staff, swinging it about with another magic rising through him.

Shen charges out from her hiding spot, wrapping her serpentine body around his arm, and trying to snap it. Somehow he resists, his massive flabby arm somehow stronger even than that Giant.

Rather than trying to grapple with Shen, he continues summoning the magic, spinning the staff around with deft fingers, touching it to the snakes back.

Shen struggles to twist out of the way, as Vii starts flinging magic at them to try and distract. It’s not enough, and a massive ice crystal is summoned from the moisture in the air, stabbing right through Shen’s body as she struggles to escape.

Paul isn’t so willing to give up now that his target is in his grasp. As Shen writhes, he lifts his staff high and begins a new chant, summoning the magic with familiar actions and words to make it clearer.

Vii doesn’t hesitate, flying in between, she summons a wall of air, doubles it and redoubles it again, whilst standing on Shen’s back to protect her.

As Rare and the others strike again, the magic bursts to life. A crimson fire so bright that I lose sight of everything through Vii’s eyes.

I can still hear her screams, and I nearly cast my magic in that moment, refraining only as Adler grabs my hand and pulls me back.

Shen loses the end of her snake’s tail to the intense flames, but slithers away with only minor burns, as she pulls Vii out from the fight. Through a few glimpses of the others on her team, I can see the wounds covering my feathered lover.

Her wings are dark black and charred, ash falling away from her, as she trembles in pain, her split lips snarling as she tries to hold back her pain. A quick thinking soldier pours potion over her, the liquid hardening the skin over the burns and shedding the ashen feathers away in one swift flow of magic.

Vii opens her eyes, but it’s through Shen that I can see how badly hurt she is. Her wings have been plucked and the hair on her head is burnt away, thick scars of mottled red cover the top half of her body.

They don’t have time to sit about and recover, the mage moves dangerously quickly after them. His footsteps somehow reaching further than should be possible, pounding out a beat on the trembling cobblestone that somehow bares his weight.

“Vii, you’ll be okay. Get out of there.” I send her a message, my arm fighting against Adler’s grip as I glare down at the world below.

She can’t die.

She can’t die.

None of them should be dying, but Vii in particular… She can’t…

They run from the mage, ducking into alleys to try and avoid his direct line of sight while they race away from him, giving up the fight, and hoping just to escape. Even though they escape his sight, Paul follows confidently, some sort of tracking skill or something like it supporting his pursuit.

Vii struggles to keep running, her wounds might nominally be ‘healed’ but I can see the tightness of her skin around the joints, the bleeding cracks forming in her burned skin. The sight shocks me. I can barely accept that it’s real.

My head feels light and my gut tosses and turns.

This isn’t right.

She’s not the only one of her team struggling, either. Even Shen is considerably slower than she was, and should be.

As they turn a corner in a blind rush, buildings to the side come crashing down. Unlike when they did this to Eshya, Vii isn’t right below the trap, but that doesn’t matter right now.

With the street blocked ahead of them, Paul appears from the street behind, summoning a massive fireball to smash into the buildings beside the alley that would otherwise be their escape.

“You run as well as you fight.” Paul says, smiling wide enough to show his sharp teeth, his jaw practically unhinging with the movement. “Badly.”

They’re trapped. Wounded.

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They can’t die.

Vii can’t die.

My people can’t die.

Terror burns away inside me.

I’ll lose everything, my power still not even close to enough to save anyone.

The magic in my heart feels like it’s tearing me apart. Everything that I’ve built up to hide these dark suspicions, to set them aside is falling apart. Even the cruel and evil thoughts of turning this prick into Paul crackling, isn’t enough to calm me down.

Turn him inside out, burn him over an open fire..

Vii…

The words fizzle out before they can finish, as the flames of rage die, swallowed by the dark tidal wave of fear.

“I usually fly, so of course I can’t run very good!” Vii shouts back in a good natured tone, stumbling a little on her own feet as she glares at the massively fat figure. “How the heck are you so fast? You’re like massive, just moving that much mass is like… How? Do you use magic of some sort? Is it an adaption?”

My heart freezes over, then starts beating again as I see it.

“So curious for someone about to be dead.” Paul says, chuckling to himself as he stirs flames around his staff, watching the grounded fighters closely, ready to kill them at his own leisure.

“I ask a lot of questions sometimes.” Vii says nodding. “The alchemy teacher once kicked me out of the class for a lesson because I was bothering all the other students with all my questions, but it wasn’t actually my fault. I had a family holiday at the time and I missed some stuff. How can I catch up without asking questions.”

“You really are a chatty one, but alchemy, huh?” Paul chuckles, “Without your feathers, you really are scrawny, barely even worth eating with your pitiful mana. If you bow your head and kiss the ground, I’ll spare you.”

“What are the work conditions like? Do I get holidays? What’s the pay like? I’m not getting any money at the moment, but that’s because no one around here uses money. Everyone’s a bit strange like that.”

“If you bow down you get to live.” Paul says, shaking his head. “Those allies of yours that could fly have already escaped. Now make your choice so I can hunt them down.”

“Make my choice?” Vii asks. “Can I maybe convince you to swap sides?”

Paul doesn’t say anything more, shaking his head, he starts summoning the fires again. Then comes the sounds of wood shattering. He stops his spell as he turns to look to the sky and the massive wooden structures peeling off from the stone buildings on either side of the street.

The overhanging structures fall, covering him over before he can do anything about it. He shouts in rage as he’s covered in the loose debris.

The same vines spread out from the ruins as the last time, growing through the wood and occasional chunk of stone, and pulling it all tightly together.

The rest of the team gathers back around Vii, flying back to the ground from the rooftops where they set off the trap.

“Do you think this’ll be enough?” The insect asks.

“I doubt it.” Rare replies, glaring over at the fire. The little dragon looks mean.

They exchange glances, worriedly glaring at the tightening pile of wood.

“Maybe this…?” Suggests Vii as she pulls out a small jar of white flames. “Just to be sure.”

She tosses the white fire onto the quickly growing vines. The parasite is quick to latch on, spreading out and into the mass before the vines have a chance to summon the waterspout from the ceiling.

If the mage is still alive after the trap is over, then it’s doubtful that he’ll be able to escape the parasitic fire.

Together they all race out of the streets, battling the few gremlins that they stumble across. The scars and wounds they bear only growing in number as the war goes on, filling my heart with bitter pains, while I try to rejoice their survival.

Their suffering is my fault, their survival is their own work, and all I can do is cheer them on and hope that they don’t suffer anything worse.

 

~ ~ ~ ~ ~

 

Skills & Stats

 

~Mana Form:

Current mana density: 52,798 units

~Mana distribution:

Defence: 0/100%

Offense: 0/100%

Mana sense: 0/100%

Recovery: 0/100%

Gluttony: 0/100%

Misc.: 0/100%

Efficiency: 0/100%

 

~Favourited Skills:

-Tag and Film

-Trapping

-Mana surge movement

-Annihilation defence

-Annihilation flame burst

-Annihilation net

-Eyes of an Empire

 

~ ~ ~ ~ ~

 

//Author Note

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