Ends of Magic

The next day started early, as the Heirs were headed out for a patrol. As on their Blooding Patrol they got up before dawn, ate a quick but filling breakfast and reached the gate by dawn.

Their assigned patrol area was far out along the Northern transit road, covering the very outermost edge of the ancient ruined city. They crossed the killing field outside Gemore to reach the start of the magical road.

As they crossed the bridge over the river, Nathan once again marveled at the wondrous magic of Old Gemore. These roads compressed space on them - or something similar - and allowed people to travel many times faster than they would without such capabilities. And without all of the problems that such a construct should have!

And somehow - Nathan’s antimagic didn’t conflict with the space-bending effects of the roads. That was convenient in the present, but Nathan worried about what it would mean in the future. It definitely showed a way that he wasn’t immune to all magic somehow. And while this magic wasn’t harmful, it meant he had a weakness.

Granted, a weakness to an ancient work of magic that spanned an entire city. But if Nathan’s guesses were right, whatever caused the Endings spanned all of Davrar, and potentially worked on a level beyond space. Fate, or prophecy maybe. So, he’d need to work on that.

Hopefully I can get [Sprinting] and [Airwalking] to the point where it’s not a problem that I can’t use the transit roads.

Stella interrupted Nathan’s idle thoughts as they kept walking. “It seems we need to revisit the idea where I throw you at enemies with a stone platform. If you can control your fall better and even guide the exact landing point like in practice yesterday, then it’ll be even more useful.”

Nathan nodded. He’d thought of that too. “It will be a good way to rank up the Talent, too. We should keep working on it. Do you think you could do it in combat if we found a good situation for it?”

The mage tilted her head from side to side, considering. “I did it with Khachi in the Mage-lord’s tomb, didn’t I? But it’s harder with you, and we’re talking about throwing you even farther. Higher. And while I won’t need to be accurate, I can’t throw you way off course.”

She bit her knuckle. “I think we should practice more first.”

Nathan nodded. That was a pretty reasonable answer. “I’m looking forward to seeing how you and Sarah do if we run into anything today. I want to see your new tools in action.”

Aarl looked back, looking peeved. “What about these slices of brightness?” He brandished the sabers that appeared in his hands. “Did you forget?”

Nathan shook his head. “No. But I don’t know if I expect anything to make it close enough for either of us to be relevant. After all, Stella can throw lightning bolts now, and you’ve seen what the guns can do.”

The swordsman lowered his blades. “True.” He sulked a moment before the weapons disappeared into his storage spaces. “I do hope they don’t end up leaving us behind in Davrar’s eyes because they kill everything before we can engage.”

Nathan tapped a finger to his head. “Ah, but if that’s the case, we aren’t fighting challenging enough enemies. To defeat the true threats, we’ll need to use every tool we have. My antimagic, your swords, Khachi’s faith. Even if everything about him is so shiny it’s impossible to deceive anybody about his presence.”

Khachi grumbled without turning around. His inability to not dramatically reflect the sunlight was something the Heirs teased him about often.

Sarah had a good rejoinder. “We just need to put him where we want the enemy focused. The rest of us can be stealing the secrets of Kalis while the guardians all chase Khachi and his shiny metal… tail.”

The big wolfman harrumphed. “Maybe I should consider another mobility skill.”

Nathan raised an eyebrow. “Is that something Deiman can provide?”

Khachi sighed. “I do not know. I believe I am likely to delve further into the possibilities of Faith than my mother has on her path, though it will take time. And levels. I do not know what a divine movement spell would look like, merely that it would be very different from a spell cast by Stella.”

Nathan nodded. That was for sure. He sure didn’t know what was going on with Divine mana. It was self-motivated, almost intelligent. You gave it power and a purpose and it went out into the world to accomplish its mission. Khachi’s ability to direct and empower the divine magic in his spells still lagged behind his mother’s, but Kia seemed more focused on the martial aspects than Khachi was. If Kia was a paladin, then Khachi was training as a cleric.

Nathan had been confused by the divine mana before, but now he had more hints than he’d had before. One of the Endings in the Tale of Endings was Gods. And another was Deicide. The obvious implication was that Gods had been born into the world of Davrar and broken it. Then they’d existed for thousands upon thousands of years, through four other Endings.

And then they had died during another Ending. Or as the precipitating event, or something. But some measure of their power clearly lingered beyond death, allowing those who kept to the proper rituals and still had Faith to access their power thousands of years later.

The Heirs kept chatting as they used the transit road to cross endless miles of the ruined city. It was just enormous. Even with every step taking Nathan dozens of feet across the city, it was taking hours for them to reach their patrol area.

On the way, they ran into a trading caravan carrying supplies back from the northern villages. It wasn’t so much a ‘caravan’ as a couple of strong traders carrying several large bags of holding apiece. Their builds allowed them to move quickly while carrying a lot of weight, and they were escorted by a team of Adventurers. A familiar team of Adventurers.

Khachi stepped forward, and Nathan stepped to the side. Just like last time, he was more than happy to have the big wolfman handle this interaction.

“Eldred.”

The big Adventurer stood in the center of the road, his arms crossed and plate armor shining nearly as brightly as his bald head. The Vanguard, Eldred’s team, was grouped up behind him. They were looking fearfully at the Heirs, and darting worried glances at their leader.

They kind of looked like a bunch of ducklings clustered behind an angry mother duck. Nathan couldn’t help but snort at the image. Eldred saw Nathan’s derision and his frown intensified. Eyes flicked from Nathan to Khachi before he responded. “Khachi Cordavia. Out on a patrol this fine morning?”

His tone was confrontational, and Nathan noticed Sarah slip her hands into the pouches that contained her weapons. Stella stepped back a bit, and Nathan stepped forward to screen her. He had no idea how a fight on the dimensional transit road would play out. Probably not well for the Vanguard. Stella and Sarah could each probably drop the entire Vanguard in less than twenty seconds if they weren’t interrupted.

Khachi responded with an iron calm. “Mayhaps. It is a wonderful day to be leaving Gemore. What about yourself?”

Eldred snorted disdainfully. “We’re just returning. Had a pretty good few days. Adventuring.” He turned and spat on the ground. “As proper Adventurers do, without throwing what it means to be a Gemore Adventurer to the muckgrabber. Like some people here do.” He eyed Nathan spitefully.

Nathan gazed back, suppressing his anger with [Focused Mind]. It wasn’t hard - Eldred was an asshole, but Nathan knew he was trying to bait Nathan into a duel. Why, Nathan didn’t know. Nathan’s position was secure. His victorious duel against the leading young star of the traditionalist Adventurer faction had seen to that.

Honestly, it was likely for Eldred’s personal satisfaction and no other reason. He just seemed like that kind of person.

Khachi didn’t say anything, and Nathan noticed Stella open her mouth with a wry cast. He just knew she was about to say something biting. But then she closed it and just stood there silently.

Probably for the best.

After a moment more, Eldred waved dismissively at them, clearly slightly perturbed he hadn’t managed to bait a rise out of them. “We’ll be on our way as soon as you get out of it.”

Khachi gestured with his head, and the Heirs stood to the side of the transit road, not letting down their guards as the Vanguard and their escorted traders trooped past, keeping an uneasy twenty feet of separation from the Heirs on the broad boulevard. The rest of the Vanguard looked relieved, and one of them shot Nathan an apologetic look.

Man, it’s kind of sad that I don’t think we’re being unreasonable in being prepared for the Vanguard to attack us. Or at least Eldred. But it is nice to have backing they’re afraid of. I hope I get strong enough to beat Eldred in a straight-up duel soon. My weakness to straight physical fighters needs to be addressed.

After the Vanguard passed, the Heirs kept walking North. Nathan reflected that they’d run into the Vanguard an awful lot recently. Was it more than coincidence? After a moment of thinking about it, scanning over the other teams he knew and the other kinds of jobs that were available, Nathan concluded that it probably was just coincidence.

There weren’t really all that many Adventurers in Gemore. Only a few dozen teams, and they tended to specialize. Some teams primarily delved into dungeons. Some hunted monsters. The highest-tier teams tended to be held in reserve, ready to respond to disasters. Most of them were almost semi-retired, and too valuable to risk on mundane jobs.

The Vanguard seemed to be an opportunistic team that acted as a sort of jack-of-all trades but master of none. Their bread and butter was acting as protection for a convoy, as they had for the villagers of Pilriden after Nathan and the Giantraiders had saved them from the slavers. But he was pretty sure they also took on investigation and monster-hunting missions.

They also were opportunists - they’d tried to pick off the Tomb of the Mage-lord before the Solstice. The Guild likely wouldn’t stick its nose in as long as they weren’t stirring up extra trouble, and were still accomplishing some number of Guild-issued missions.

But the consequences for awakening something nasty when you’re not on a Guild-approved mission are steep. Dismissal, exile or worse, depending on the damage.

Anyways, they had a patrol to do. The Heirs reached the designated point on the outer wall and started by clearing out the remains of the northern gatehouse. The gate itself had collapsed long ago and the rubble had been cleared off the road, but the remaining ruins had enough space to barrack hundreds of troops. Or hide just as many monsters waiting to ambush Adventurers and traders traveling the road that led to Gemore.

They were walking through an upper level of the second of the two gatehouses when Nathan’s [Notice] screamed at him. He stopped short and held up a hand signal for the other Heirs to stop and prepare for combat. After a second, the detail that had pinged Nathan's attention surfaced into conscious awareness. There were a half-dozen thin gray tendrils hanging down into the doorway, and Nathan convulsively swallowed as his [Enhanced Memory] let him recall the bestiary entry for Soul-eaters in perfect detail.

They’re camouflaged pretty well on this stone. Those flexible tendrils will stick to anything they want to, then the soul eater will reel itself in and do... whatever it does to take a person over. Nobody is sure if they kill their hosts or just exert control over them. But they’re smart enough that each one will assign itself to a different member of the party if we all go through that door. They’ll mimic our normal actions pretty closely for a few days, before gestating a new generation, which they’ll use our bodies to sneak into people’s homes and deposit under beds and such.

Mid-tier Notice 8 achieved!

Nathan swallowed again to clear his suddenly dry throat. This was why the Guards were so careful about checking the auras of people who came into the city. “Soul Eaters. Stella, I think this is up to you.” There were faint intakes of breath, and then Stella moved up next to Nathan. He pointed out the tendrils before stepping to the side of the corridor as she started casting a spell of air, fire and force.

It looked like she’d decided that a simple fireball wasn’t enough. She was casting her [Flame Lance]. After a moment the stabilized ball of fire hovered in front of her and spewed out a stream of roiling flame.

Nathan had seen her cast this spell before, and it could make a thin spear of flame capable of melting through stone like an arc welder. But that wasn’t what was happening here. The torrent of unfocused fire blasted into the next room and splashed on the far wall, continuing to burn as it spread and consumed everything in the room. Stella panned the flame around, covering the entire room in roiling flames.

The heat should have been awful, but because it was a magical fire Nathan was protected from it. He felt the magical heat, but it was absorbed as fuel for his stamina. Stella had conjured a shield of force that was preventing the heat from reflecting back onto the rest of the Heirs.

You have leveled up to level 54! Congratulations, your party has killed a nest of Soul Eaters!

Stella didn’t let up, keeping the flame going for another twenty seconds before a gesture sent the stabilized ball of flame into the next room, where it detonated. It wasn’t a thunderous detonation, just another wave of fire and air hot enough to broil unprotected flesh.

Nathan gazed through the doorway. The far wall where the flame lance had impacted was glowing slightly with the heat. The threads weren’t there anymore, and Nathan extended his spear and waved it through the doorway. There was no response, and so he stepped into the room and kept his eyes peeled for the gray slug-like Soul Eaters. There wasn’t a trace of them that Nathan could see, except for some dark smudges on the wall above the door.

He kept looking around, eventually finding a closet on the side of the room. There had been a ratty wooden door that had mostly burned away, and behind that door Nathan found what remained of the nest. Most of the Soul Eaters had turned into charcoal briquettes, but a few of the ones farther to the back looked like cooked crabs.

Goddamn carcinization.

He called back his findings, and Stella came forward, flinching back from the heat. She directed a smaller stream of fire into the closet before they beat a hasty retreat from the now oven-like set of rooms.

Nathan was shaken, and took a few deep breaths to center himself as they were leaving the gatehouse. Aarl gently grasped his shoulder, squeezing lightly. Nathan looked back and smiled. “Thanks. Those things give me nightmares. Not sure which part is the worst.”

Aarl nodded, then squeezed again before releasing his hand. They took a short break, then continued the patrol.

It was almost comforting for Nathan to spot a group of Water Stalkers tailing them after lunch, showing that not all of the dangers they faced were quite so terrifying. Some were just six-legged reptilian creatures the size of a pony. With magical stealth and some inherent elemental magic.

With a bit of triangulation from where more Stalkers showed up to follow them, Nathan was able to figure out approximately where the nest of Stalkers lay. They started searching the area until Nathan spotted the upcoming ambush outside the Old Gemore utility building that seemed to have become the Stalker’s lair. The Heirs went into the block of apartments across the street from the utility building, working their way from building to building towards to avoid being jumped in the street.

There was a Stalker in the third building, but Aarl made short work of it in the close quarters. His [Warning] skill was well-suited to imminent threats like a Stalker jumping around the corner, and he jammed the force-charged saber into the Stalker’s mouth and activated the enchantment to nearly split it in half longways.

Then they were looking out from a doorway at the Stalker's lair. About a dozen Stalkers were hiding in doorways, behind windows and on rooftops, waiting for the Heirs to emerge. The other members of the Heirs couldn’t pinpoint the Stalkers’ exact positions behind the magical stealth, but Stella didn’t need to.

Nathan pointed out the general positions, and after a moment of squinting Stella nodded. She cocked her head and thought for a moment before snapping her fingers. “I want to try something…”

Stella and Sarah were standing a few paces back from the doorway, readying to fire through it.

Nathan and Khachi were standing to the sides, out of the line of fire but ready to block the door should it be necessary. Aarl was making sure no Stalkers snuck up behind them.

Stella took nearly fifteen seconds of careful manipulation to cast her spell, building a growing ball of silently sparking lightning in her palm. She cast it across the street into the yawning darkness of the main entrance to the utility building. As the orb left Stella’s hands it suddenly started snapping and popping like a tesla coil. Filaments of electricity latched onto the Stalkers waiting in the darkened space, outlining them in a short-lived nimbus of baleful power.

The rest of the Stalkers didn’t take kindly to the spell and leapt from their hiding places to charge the Heirs in their fortified position. Nathan tensed himself, ready to leap out and hold the door against the onslaught.

The Stalkers met a hail of bullets. Sarah emptied first one revolver and then the other, sending a dozen bullets into half as many Stalkers. None made it within fifteen feet of the door. Stella waved away the plume of foul-smelling smoke with a simple wind spell.

The Heirs examined the scene of carnage for a silent moment. The only sound was Sarah slapping fresh rounds into her guns with a pair of autoloaders. Nathan took a few strides out into the street, intent on the open door across the street. The magical stealth had faded, and Nathan could make out the slumped forms of Stalkers within, their magical third eyes burst in their heads.

Doesn’t look like there was a patriarch this time.

After a moment, the rest of the Heirs joined Nathan in the street, looking around at shattered skulls and the craters of bullet wounds as Sarah collected her spent brass.

Khachi was the first to speak. “I feel as useful as boot polish on sandals.”

You have leveled up to level 55! Congratulations, your party has killed a nest of Water Stalkers!

Status of Nathan Lark:

Permanent Talent 1: Magic Absorption 6

Permanent Talent 2: High-tier Regeneration 8

Talent 3: High-tier Slow Fall 2

Class: Spellbreaker Juggernaut level 55

Stamina: 646/650

Juggernaut's Wrath

Antimagic Momentum

Raging Thrill

Juggernaut's Inertia

Unarmored Resilience

Utility skills:

High-tier Focused Mind 8

High-tier Earnestness 1

Mid-tier Sprinting 5

Mid-tier Spellsense 9

Mid-tier Notice 8

Mid-tier Identify 6

Mid-tier Dodging Footwork 4

High-tier Enhanced Memory 1

Mid-tier Lecturing 2

Low-tier Tumbling 10