Black Onyx - Phoenix Resurrection

An army was gathered beneath a floating mountain, the Murtsac Metnalov itself visibly shifting through the light spectrum as various enchantments and barriers powered up.

The High Priest Antasaghar stood in the core room with a crown on his head and many holographic displays in his vision. He watched from the safety of the stone fortress as his army boarded the flying vessel, small groups getting transported up by the floating platform. In his mind’s eye, he could see around the Murtsac Metnalov like the stone mountain wasn’t even there, allowing for no obstruction or blind spots whatsoever.

Taking the time the army needed to get aboard, Antasaghar checked the state of the flying fortress.

“Island Structural integrity at… 31%. Useless Whiterobes, can’t do even one thing right.” He murmured as he found the number he was looking for. Moving on to the next one, he saw the reason this entire operation was possible.

“Barrier at 78% charge and climbing, good.”

Shifting his gaze to a different screen, one with the diagram of the entire flying mountain, he nodded to himself. “Cannons ready. Voidcore: Fully charged and holding. Excellent. The energy generation is higher than idle consumption.”

Lastly, he looked at the screen straight ahead in his field of vision, a map of the landscape as vast as the world, with two dots far apart. One of them was stationary, the Murtsac Metnalov, while the other one also stood still, but was blinking on and off every few seconds. His target.

High Priest Antasaghar leaned forward on the altar, shifting his attention to the outside world where he saw the final group of soldiers under his command coming on board.

He allowed himself a small smile as the anchors tore themselves out of the ground, dragging rocks and earth with them and sending them cascading over the edge as they lifted into the air.

The entire structure hummed with motion as the giant fortress finally began to move at his command. A mental thought was all that was needed to get the ancient relic to do his bidding.

His expression hardened as he felt the pull of motion pushing him back. There was no going back. He had made his decision and he would get through with it. He hardened his heart and his brows furrowed “It’s time I get back what is mine.”

Flying through the sky with Onyx by my side, I considered the events of the last few days. Olivia’s mind was fixed. As much as it could be anyway. I did the best I could, and all that was left of it was for her to slowly reintegrate herself into the world.

Having left her to recover in good hands, I also gave her the dose of a proper Drow bloodline, stabilizing her enhanced body.

Okay, at the time I didn’t actually know if it would do the trick, with my knowledge being purely theoretical and all, but the changes in her body slowed down to a crawl, enough to be undetectable. If she was still degrading, the damage would show itself over the course of many centuries, not much different from normal degradation.

“Master?” Onyx suddenly asked out of the blue.

[Hmm?]

“What is Latin?”

[Ah.] I chuckled, remembering I didn’t explain anything to Onyx while fishing for information from Olivia. He must have felt left out, so I quickly elaborated. [Latin is an old, dead language from my world. Thousands of years old.]

I sighed. [That’s what I thought about it at least. However, considering Demons and the Drow are apparently using it for their magic, I’m starting to suspect it’s much older than that.]

“Huh. And is there a particular reason you are interested in it?”

I shrugged my shoulders, though in flight the action wasn’t all that noticeable. [Not really. It’s merely a curiosity. Not to mention that scanning Olivia’s mind didn’t reveal any deeper secrets.]

The fact that the Drow were using reversed Latin for their curses was nothing too unusual. Many Cultivators relied on verbal components for a spell as a sort of Focus for their magic.

You could be speaking gibberish for all the spells were concerned. All that mattered was your state of mind when casting a spell.

That was especially important for the curses. They relied much more on the vague Concepts and Intent than on the concrete rules of Elemental magic. That made them extremely unpredictable and dangerous in a fight. The fact that they sometimes didn’t interact with commonly conjured barriers was also a slight problem.

Then again, I suspected that had more to do with the skill of the caster than the curse itself.

[We should be reaching Emberfall soon.] I said, casually trying to make conversation.

“Flying is so convenient, master.” Onyx mentioned as the ground blurred past. “It's amazing how a journey that took us days on foot can be shortened to mere minutes.”

[You didn’t fly before?]

“Not before you freed me from my prison, Master. Or, if I did, I do not remember it. My memory wipe was much more thorough than what the Drow did to your friend, Master. Also, my perception was very limited before, so I wouldn’t have known even if it happened.” He paused for a while and then continued. “I think I like flying.”

[Yeah. It is pretty awes-] The last word remained unsaid. On the horizon, approximately where the Emberfall outpost should be, a dark cloud covered the sky. Seconds later, I saw fire and heard thunder.

“Uh-oh. Looks like in our absence things changed.”

[Yeah. Looks like the outpost is, once again, under attack. Let’s hurry.]

We accelerated, easily breaking the sound barrier, the turbulence unable to shake us. With our destination coming closer, I noticed the gray cloud was actually dense smoke, and below it, hundreds of flying figures blasting the ground with magic.

The main outpost was somehow still covered with a barrier, resisting the bombardment, but the land around it was pockmarked with craters and melted slag. There, on the outside flew some human Cultivators battling against a swarm of Drow.

[Hey!] I pulled one of them to the side, killing the offending attacker with a look, and then pointed at the devastation. [What’s going on? What happened here?]

“Oh, man!” The guy nearly freaked out before noticing I was one of them. “These… things! They attacked us out of nowhere with this massive flying mountain! The Grand Elders barely had the time to activate the barrier before the Grayskins turned this place into a wasteland. We are barely holding on and-”

[Hold on.] I stopped him, putting a palm in his face. I looked past his shoulder and blasted a few enemies with Arcane Blaze. The man twitched but didn’t otherwise react.

With the immediate danger gone, I turned my attention back to him. [Did you say a flying mountain?]

Instead of answering, the man pointed toward the sky, to the churning black clouds and flashing thunder.

[Oh, shit.]

There, hidden deep behind layers of clouds, was the shape of a sphere. A barrier. As we were flying parallel to the ground, the structure inside was invisible. The Murtsac Metnalov, the flying island of the Drow.

Beams of invisible energy blasted the smoke apart every few seconds beneath it, striking the outpost’s barrier with sonic booms and heavy hammer strikes. No effects were visible other than the clear path of pure energy.

“Seems to me they are here for revenge.” Onyx said.

[You think?] I sent back. I was being sarcastic. Obviously, they came for revenge. With the damage we did, I would have been more surprised if they left us alone. It’s just that they came much earlier than I expected. Especially since the Murtsac Metnalov was supposed to be under repair for months to come.

[Well, if they went a fight, then we’ll give them a fight.] I grinned confidently. There were some gifts I left back in the stone fortress. With a thought, I triggered the activation sequence.

…

Nothing happened.

Not a single spark of flame or Qi disruption. Not even a slight tremor.

[Hmm.] I watched the floating mass of stone as it continued blasting the ground beneath it, the shield of the Emberfall outpost quickly losing energy. It would not take long to break through.

“Should we join the battle, Master?”

[Mhm.] I slowly nodded while considering what could have gone wrong. Maybe my inscriptions were discovered or disabled. Unlikely, but it could have happened. Of course, the barrier could be blocking the ignition signal. I didn’t exactly know what kind of thing could go through it. That was most likely, but if it was so, I would have to first pierce the barrier before lighting the fireworks.

[Here.] I summoned the Soul Breaker blade and tossed it to Onyx. The golem caught it expertly in his hands and swished it around a few times. [Go nuts. Kill as many Drow as you can and consume them all. It’s not often that we get such a large buffet for free. I’ll take care of the barrier… somehow.]

“Yes, Master!” Onyx answered with way too much enthusiasm. “Wooooh!” And with a final shout through the link, he was off, flying to face the Drow that battled in the sky around the fortress with the remnants of human Cultivators. I smiled at the excitement and took to the skies as well.

Arcane Blaze split the darkness, the blazing light of my beams easily visible from the sky, and soon I was swarmed by the enemy attackers, their magic brutal and efficient. Also nowhere near strong enough to hurt me.

My simple clothes were replaced by reptilian scales, my hair with horns, and teeth with fangs. Blazing wings grew from my back as I soared, my form growing ever larger. A deep roar came from my chest, the very air vibrating through its power. Still, the insects were relentless, attacking me like mosquitoes, and dying just the same.

Through the clouds of smoke, I flew, until I reached the hard outer shell of the flying fortress. The island itself must have been a kilometer across, with the barrier twice that, completely encasing it inside the safety bubble.

Compared to it, you could consider me small. Not even a tenth of its height, yet the power that burned inside me, the enemy Souls powering my ascent, roared with unstoppable might.