Ends of Magic

Nathan furrowed his brows, looking across at the three students as they tried to explain how to cast [Force Block] to him. It had been an hour since they’d snuck out of class, and they weren’t getting anywhere.

His suitemates assumed he had force mana, as it was a requirement to enroll in the Ascendant Academy. To their knowledge he had some kind of powerful Insight that let him cast [Dispel] but made it harder to cast anything else. So they were just hoping that if he fully understood the spell, he’d be able to cast it.

[Thief of Sorcery] could do it. But then I would be helpless against wizardry.

Nathan raised a hand, cutting off Roni’s impassioned explanation on how he should think of the force mana like crystallized sugar. “I think the mana won’t flow clean because of my [Dispel] Insight, not because I lack understanding. I’ll keep trying, but this accomplishes nothing. Let’s talk about your [Mage Armor] first, and return to my [Force Block] afterwards.”

Yelun frowned at him but nodded, turning to the two boys. “If you can both cast faultless [Mage Armor] it might appease Bran.”

Then she launched into another explanation of [Mage Armor], straight out of the textbook. “Build the flows of force above your skin, starting with the eleven primary panes. Head, chest, back, upper arms, forearms, calves, shins. Then use those as anchors to build attachments, linking each of them to the other with Sussu’s Insight of flexible force.” She nodded, repeating the memorized words that had worked for her. “Once all of the force panes are joined together, use Badud’s Insight of sympathy to link it to your body. Then the force will move with you, and protect you from all attacks.”

Both Roni and Hibor listened with tired acceptance and tried to cast the spells. They failed, but they kept trying.

Nathan frowned at their attempts. He’d broken a lot of [Mage Armor] spells, which gave him a practical grasp of how the spell worked. It wasn’t enough for full understanding, but when paired with theoretical explanations and broken-down demonstrations, he had a pretty good grasp on how the magic worked. It involved the Insights Yelun had just mentioned, as well as a fundamentally different understanding of force mana from what any of the mages in Gemore used.

With his practical experience dismantling the spell, Nathan was pretty sure he knew what the two boys were doing wrong. They were following the instructions, but they hadn’t quite internalized the proper structure that the force mana needed to take. It was a subtle difference, but it was enough to prevent proper melding of the separate panes of force. Even if they somehow forced themselved past that step, the magic wouldn’t have enough flexibility to mirror their movements.

He leaned forward, waiting for a break in the conversation. ”Let’s try something else. Can each of you cast two simple [Force Block] spells instead of a whole set of armor? Then try to link them together with Amoh’s Insight and see how strong they are.”

All three paused, then shrugged and went ahead with his suggestion. Yelun was able to meld her two panes of force together in a smooth arc that maintained the overall strength of the spell. Both Hibor and Roni’s final pieces of magic had a sharper, brittle junction that shattered under moderate pressure.

Nathan nodded. “The spells join together, so it’s not the Insight you’re having problems with. It’s the [Force Block] itself. Go back to the basic force weave and try to get it to stay strong when you meld two of them together.”

Yelun was surprised by the outcome, but she was appreciative of his comment. Together she and Nathan walked Hibor and Roni through rebuilding their force spells from the ground up, pausing only to let the two boys regenerate mana. It took a few hours, but with Nathan's senses and Yelun's recitation of the necessary Insights they made rapid progress.

After the two boys could successfully meld their force spells together, they went back to [Mage Armor], pausing only to break for dinner. The three of them ate quickly and returned to keep practicing. A couple of hours later, both boys were standing proud in their very own [Mage Armor] spells.

Tutoring 3 achieved!

Then they seemed to remember that Nathan had yet to even cast [Force Block]. Yelun blew out a long breath, looking at him and scratching her nose. “You know the magic. Your Insight makes force magic impossible, verified truth?”

He nodded sadly in response. “I think I need a Development to break that limit. It’ll happen, but not by class tomorrow.”

Mid-tier Disguise 8 achieved!

Roni tossed a half-eaten fruit across the living room in frustration. “Then we’re a splintered spell. Today was a prophecy of doom.”

“No path for us to stay together.” Hibor agreed, flopping onto a couch in frustration. He glowered across at Nathan, then caught himself. “At least it’s not a failure of knowledge. Should we skip class and hope he forgets? Switch to a different class?”

I think I’d prefer to stick to my murder plan. I think I can come up with something to make it less obviously point to me.

Nathan cut across their pity party. “Raise your hands and see your strength. You both learned to cast [Mage Armor] in a day. It’s an impressive deed. You have nothing to be ashamed of.” He turned to Yelun. “He’s shown you favor, and if you claim credit for this teaching, then he will see the light in your eyes. If he moves anybody, it will be me. But if we do demonstrate our learnings, maybe then he will listen to reason. But for that, we’ll need to do the homework.”

Nathan lifted both hands towards the ceiling. “I am not ashamed of my Talent, for it will lead me to greatness. We are mages of Giantsrest who have learned new magic, and we will use it to raise Giantsrest higher.”

His suitemates looked around with new resolve. Hibor cheered. “Yeah! Let’s feed mana to it, and get these assignments done perfectly!”

Inspiration 2 achieved!

Nathan rolled his eyes at the notification.

—

Some time later Nathan went to bed, shaking his head at the last few hours of work. He was somewhat impressed with how his suitemates had thrown themselves into their work, first learning [Mage Armor] and then powering through their homework. It was night and day to how seriously they usually approached their schooling.

Yeah, but contrast them with my antimage students. These kids are soft, spoiled brats. They’ve never had a truly serious challenge in their lives. The privilege of magic makes them deadly threats, but they haven’t had to really work for it yet. Any of the new antimages would eat all three of these kids for breakfast.

He took off his robe, placing it in the empty bin. Then he looked at the clean pile. Every robe in it was pressed and folded. That included the clothing he’d worn last night, which had been torn by splinters when he’d fought the golem in the dining hall. He’d tucked the garment in question at the very bottom of the pile, underneath all of his clean robes. He pulled out the garment in question and examined it.

All of the splinters stuck in the garment had been removed, and the damage sewn shut with an expert hand. He wouldn’t have been able to see the traces of damage if he weren’t looking for them. Nathan shot a troubled look in the direction of the central living area, and the space beyond where the domestic slave slept.

She has to know, or at least suspect, that I’m an assassin. But this took dedicated time to repair. Time she could have spent reporting me. Either she doesn’t have enough agency to do anything, or I have an ally. Should I free her?

Nathan exhaled a sigh. He could break the enslaving magic on the woman, but it would introduce a whole raft of complications. The Academy tracked her every moment, and it was likely that freeing her would trigger some kind of alert. He could try to blind the Academy inside the suite, but then it wouldn’t be able to open doors for anybody.

I don’t think it’s tenable right now. Things are stable, I haven’t been discovered. I’ll try to free her before I go full murderhobo.

He slipped out a few hours later, leaving the low-tier student housing behind. His first destination was the room labeled with Bran dho Jast’s name. He’d assumed it was an office, but it could be the man’s sleeping quarters. Or he could be working late. Either way, Nathan would jump at the chance to kill the lecturer now instead of having to find an excuse to slip out tomorrow morning.

He was considering the least suspicious way he could get away from his suitemates when he heard the first patrol around a corner up ahead. He reached out with his magical senses and could feel the mana pools of both mages and construct.

Dodging the patrols delayed Nathan’s progress through the Academy. He never saw them, but his magical and normal senses made it clear each patrol had three or four mages and two golems. The two golems alone would be a challenge, and he definitely wouldn’t be able to take out the mages before they fled. There were more patrols than there’d ever been before, and Nathan had to stay on his toes to avoid getting within line of sight of any of them.

Alertness 7 achieved!

Eventually he approached the door marked ‘Bran dho Jast’ and set about manipulating the wizardry of the lock. It was more complicated than the one on the dining hall, but not by much. After a few minutes the wall slid smoothly aside to reveal a dark and empty space beyond.

Nathan stepped into the room and used his antimagic to activate a light crystal on the wall. There was a large desk that dominated the space, next to some kind of spell circle and a finely furnished sitting area complete with a well-stocked drink cabinet. He focused on the desk, finding what looked like a draft of next week’s homework. To the side was a stack of graded homework that was due to be returned to them the next day.

So he will be coming back before class tomorrow. I just need to catch him then.

He examined the spell circle next. It appeared to be some kind of limited [Teleport] anchor ingrained into the stone of the Academy. The enchantment meshed with the wizardry beneath, and seemed to be able to cast the spell itself, targeting a hardwired destination inside the building. Nathan considered sabotaging it, but anything he broke was far more likely to just make the spell not work instead of causing Bran to teleport in pieces. He just didn’t understand the wizardry well enough to disable the fail-safes while leaving the rest of the enchantment functional.

He turned to leave the office, gauging the distance from the desk to the door. If he was quick, he’d be able to get to Bran in just a few seconds. Hopefully that would prevent him from casting any spells. He turned off the light again, then turned to leave.

Stolen novel; please report.

The portal to the office closed behind him, and Nathan looked around the corridor. It seemed like there were several other lecturer offices nearby, and he’d have to watch out for anybody in the area the next morning.

Maybe other lecturers are a target instead of a danger. Killing a couple of lecturers I'm not affiliated with might muddy the waters and distract an investigation. I only need a few days.

His next goal was the staircase locks, which weren’t far away. He wanted to see if his understanding of the wizardry barriers was enough to break into the stairwells and finally be able to traverse the building.

Nathan bent himself to the same task he’d failed on the first night, using his newfound knowledge and the increased dexterity of his antimagic to interface with the wizardry. He almost missed an extra alarm formation in the fifth layer, but a rapid squeeze of antimagic cut off the connection before an alert got out. The path slid open a moment later.

Mid-tier Aura Manipulation 9 achieved!

Nathan stepped into the space beyond, musing on the different ways he interacted with wizardry. He lay a concentrated tendril of antimagic across the wall of the staircase, attempting to absorb the wizardry that suffused the rock. After thirty seconds, the faintest groove formed in the stone. It was like eroding a piece of sandstone with a hose. His understanding of the wizardry of the Academy was improving, and that was making it easier to both open doors properly and to degrade the structure of the Academy itself. It was still a lot faster to trigger the locks properly, like the difference between picking a lock and using a wimpy blowtorch to carve a hole in a vault door.

He looked up the staircase before ascending into darkness. The door closed behind him, plunging the staircase into darkness. Nathan kept going, using his magical sense of the wizardry around him to guide his steps up the spiraling staircase. It felt like he was moving into hostile territory, filled with uncertain threats.

The whole damn Academy - and city around it - is hostile territory! It’s amazing I’ve started to get comfortable here. But I know the layout and can navigate the threats, so I suppose it’s not surprising I feel safer in here. This is why I disguised myself, so I could learn about the Academy. But the upper floors are going to hold their own dangers.

He climbed past a few more levels with locks that he could have opened. The goal was to keep climbing until he reached the top or found a door he couldn’t open, then practice on that.

He kept going up the staircase that stretched past the reach of his senses. There was some kind of magic in the central column of air that would allow mages to float up and down, avoiding the need to climb. But it wouldn’t work for Nathan, and Airwalking wouldn’t be easier than the staircase. It would just cost extra Stamina.

Half an hour later Nathan puffed out a breath and glanced around the total darkness of the landing. It felt like he’d climbed every stair in the empire state building. He'd been constantly checking the wizardry around him to make sure he didn’t miss a step or stumble into a trap. But now he’d reached the top of the staircase. By his best estimate he was about two-thirds of the way up the Academy, far above where he entered.

Wizard Senses 9 achieved!

There was a proper door here, a thirty-foot-tall portal that could fit six people through at a time. It was locked with nine layers of wizardry and Nathan thought it was just barely within his capabilities. he glared at the door in the darkness, able to feel both its physical shape and the magic within it with his senses. With a shrug, he got to work, starting by fully mapping out the enchantment. Then he sunk thin tendrils of antimagic into the door and the stone around it. It stretched his antimagic to the limit, but with every move Nathan learned about the more advanced wizardry that controlled the heights of the Academy.

Wizard’s Intuition 10 achieved!

After almost an hour of painstaking work the door swung silently open, and Nathan blinked at the lights of the upper floors. He took a second to examine the halls, noting all of the details he could. These hallways were even more ornate and decorated than those below, and the glow of the lights bounced off mirror-smooth stone and gilt decorations. Beyond the immediate area, he could feel something else. The wizardry around him and in the hall beyond seemed to be aligned in a discrete direction, like there was some sort of magical focal point up and to the side. Nathan stored the direction away in his memory.

Mission accomplished for tonight. It’s getting close to morning, and I want to come back here when I’ve got more time to be careful in exploring the upper levels. If that door closes behind me then it’ll take me at least fifteen minutes to open again. That’s a lot of time exposed in unfamiliar territory. I don't know anything about the patrol paths either.

He turned and hopped over the bannister, falling straight through the air and force mana of the spell that filled the center of the stairs. He laughed as he skydived down the staircase, tapping the air to either side to keep himself centered in the shaft. He hoped that the Academy didn’t suddenly rearrange itself and terminate his fall early.

I’d probably be fine. It might be a good chance to do that [Perfected Body] Development. I’m in the middle of enemy territory, and doing something pretty dangerous. A near-fatal landing now would be a good opportunity for that Development.

Nathan considered the idea seriously. If he just slammed into the ground at full speed, his body would be pretty badly damaged, but he wouldn’t splatter. His body enhancements and skill-derived toughness would see to that. So long as he didn’t die, [Perfected Body] would fix him up as good as new. The problem was his brain. It would get pulped against the inside of his skull, killing him before his Talent could heal the damage. But that was the point of the new Insight. It would let him spend Focus to continue his consciousness even if his brain was mush, keeping him alive until it could regenerate.

I think it will, at least. I have a single datapoint, from that time I got clobbered in the head and managed to Focus through it. Am I doing this? It would be an ignominious way to die, but getting the Development now will be easier than trying for it when a golem steps on my head. Is this worth the risk?

His fall through the lifting spell had already replaced the Stamina he’d spent climbing the staircase, and Nathan could always break into one of the dining halls to replenish himself from the magical displays there. His Focus was also full, with everything he’d spent opening the doors already replenished by his rapid regeneration.

This is a risk, but it’s one that has a good chance of success, especially if I activate my Rage. I need every advantage I can get when I face Badud, especially on his home turf. He won’t hold back, and being able to survive even if my body is destroyed would be a gamechanger.

Davrar rewards risk.

Nathan focused, centering his mind on his own consciousness as he oriented himself to land on his back. He could tell from the enchantments whipping by that the bottom of the staircase was approaching quickly, and he mentally braced himself for the landing. In the last few seconds he started spending Focus, dedicating his attention to examining and maintaining his own consciousness as he triggered [Raging Thrill] for the toughness boost.

Then he hit the ground in an instant of blurring confusion. His entire body flashed with sensation that was blocked by [Void of Feeling], and everything went black. All sensation cut off, and his mind went numb and blank.

But his Focus was a blade, a knife that was the whole of his awareness. It rippled as if to break, but Nathan held on with every scrap of effort he could muster. It was all he could do to cling onto the sliver of thought as it cut through the tearing darkness.

The confusion cleared, and Nathan choked back nausea. He could feel bones snapping back into place as if from a great distance. He juddered in place and tried to open his eyes. It was a moment longer before they cooperated, and he looked up to see a blurry blue box hovering in front of his face.

It was a moment longer before his vision came back into focus as either his eyes or his visual cortex was repaired, but then he could read the text from Davrar.

Congratulations, you have developed the [Perfected Body] Talent into [Immortal Body]. Beware, it is harder to rank and develop non-tiered Talents.

Permanent Talent: Immortal Body

You have achieved precise control of your body at a miniscule level, and the ability to reconstitute your body from near-total obliteration with Focus. This Talent will automatically spend Stamina to efficiently and immediately heal wounds. It can also bring you back from the smallest remaining speck of living tissue if you have Focus remaining. You can spend Stamina to make innate changes which include banishing poison, countering aging and restructuring your body on a miniscule level. Larger wounds, and greater changes will cost more stamina. You can only die via total obliteration or running out of Stamina or Focus.

Nice.

Permanent Talent: Perfected body

You have achieved precise control of your body at a miniscule level. This Talent will automatically spend stamina to efficiently and immediately heal wounds. You can spend Stamina to make innate changes which include banishing poison, countering aging and restructuring your body on a miniscule level. Larger wounds, and greater changes will cost more stamina. Perfected Body will not prevent you from dying of grievous wounds.

Permanent Talent: Immortal Body

You have achieved precise control of your body at a miniscule level, and the ability to reconstitute your body from near-total obliteration with Focus. This Talent will automatically spend Stamina to efficiently and immediately heal wounds. It can also bring you back from the smallest remaining speck of living tissue if you have Focus remaining. You can spend Stamina to make innate changes which include banishing poison, countering aging and restructuring your body on a miniscule level. Larger wounds, and greater changes will cost more stamina. You can only die via total obliteration or running out of Stamina or Focus.

Status of Nathan Lark:

Permanent Talent 1: Aura of Antimagic 9

Permanent Talent 2: Immortal Body 1

Permanent Talent 3: Airwalking 5

Class: Void of Magic level325

Deepened Stamina: 8019/10050

Void of Feeling

Antimagic Momentum

Raging Thrill

Implacable Inertia

Unarmored Resilience

Magic Anathema

Airborne Agility

Hand-to-hand Expertise

Voluminous Aura

Denial of Wizardry

Mana Severance

Class: Magekiller level 170

Regenerative Focus: 993/1800

Catastrophic Blows

Battle Stealth

Mage Infiltration

Forgettable

Unsuspecting Strike

Antimagic Stealth

Spell Redirection

Lethal Index

Utility skills:

Battle Meditation 10

Inspiration 2

Acceleration 4

Wizard Senses 9

Alertness 7

Wizard’s Intuition 10

Effortless Dodge 3

Mental Fortress 9

Tutoring 3

Parkour 2

High-tier Noticeability 6

Mid-tier Disguise 8

Mid-tier Battle Cry 7

Mid-tier Aura Manipulation 9