The rotten bird of bile released a screech so powerful, it matched the rattling of the destruction surrounding them. Trees were falling and sinking into newly opened pits all over as Sarracas cracked further open, decimating the small patch of mountain they were standing on. Sheets of snow rolled down the mountainside—small avalanches collapsing into the roiling magma below and causing bursts of steam to sizzle upward.
“Hey, witch!” yelled Carthas as he swooped down just low enough to avoid the violent eruptions. “Snap out of it! Look at the destruction you're causing! At this rate, you're going to get yourself killed with your own magic! Heloise!”
Heloise stood silently, as if in a trance, working her destructive magic. The pools of blackness in her eyes were void of any hint of awareness. Neither the fear nor temerity nor the cycle of emotions caused by the Caladrius's secretions that had previously assailed the witch could be found anymore. Only the single-minded goal of destroying her opponent. The goal hadn't mattered anymore. The power she had sought to rid herself of was now being used to destroy another potential cure. And the more she was affected by it, the more it controlled her.
The Caladrius continued screeching its death knell of pain. Its form seized and sputtered in a cacophony of different and unnatural shapes, in a pathetic attempt to keep itself stable. The fountain of lava spouting beneath it continued unabated, preventing it from escaping as it burned away at its body.
A dark wave of cosmic energy pulsed through the air, swimming directly towards the Caladrius. Moments before impact, however, a row of lava pillars shot up to intercept it. The source of the waves had been none other than Carthas.
“Damn it, witch! Cease!” Carthas landed on a relatively safe rock somewhere in the midst of the destruction. He figured if he had any chance of keeping this situation from escalating, he would need to be in top form. Red eyes turned to black as a third one opened between them. Mighty wings shone a brilliant gold while the yellow crest atop his head had taken the shape of a burning crown of radiantly gilded fire. “Sorry, witch. I'm gonna have to bend the contract a little.” An otherworldly drone accompanied his voice.
Dark energies swirled around the sorceress, emanating off her powerful, eldritch-tinged form. The destruction around her answered to her beck and call. An almost invisible flick of the wrist. Several fountains of spewing lava shot upward and were directed to splash violently onto the spot where the toxic bird had been engulfed. It flapped its inky black wings wildly, wailing in vengeful agony.
Carthas took flight, and began flapping his golden wings at an inconceivable speed. The rippling of the air around them seemed almost to phase in and out of reality. The few seconds that passed seemed almost like an eternity. The Star Baron clapped his wings together and unleashed what could be described as a tear through the fabric of the air that passed directly through the witch to strike the Caladrius in front of her. The unusual attack had blown the remaining creature clear away from the witch’s smothering of lava.
She eased the arch in her back caused by a momentary flinching as the strange feeling passed through her. The witch finally seemed to break out of her trance and turned to look at him, an unseemly scowl spread across her face. “What do you think you’re doing, Carthas?” A raw, eerie static struggled to drown out the sound of her voice as she spoke.
“Look, I'm all for a little destruction, but when I start seeing this many red flags, I have to step in. You're going to bring this whole mountain down on top of us, even at the cost of your cure. All so you can get the last laugh against this thing?” He motioned toward the charred remains of the Caladrius, groaning pathetically on the shaking ground.
Heloise stared at the dying bird before turning back to glare at Carthas. “If this is a joke, it's probably one of your worst ones yet. You think I'd let this little shit live after those insults he threw at me? At this point, its cure isn't worth it. I'll find another way.”
“This battle isn't worth it! You're doing too much damage and it's going to get you killed! Can't you get that through your blonde, bimbo-headed brain? Another cure won't matter if you die pulling stupid stunts like these!”
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A swirl of lava rose up and shot towards Carthas. An attack he managed to swiftly dodge.
“You might not care if you die to sate your pride, but what about Alma?”
“...What about her?”
“We both know you aren't searching for this cure for yourself. You relish this power. You wouldn't give it up without a good reason. Alma is your reason. You don't want to lose her by having her think you're a monster.”
The land around them stopped shaking. The eruptions slowly died down, leaving only the soot and ash rising slowly to the air. The witch remained silent for a while. “You're right. Alma wouldn't be able to stand to see me like this. She would shun me. Call me hideous. Probably even try to put me down.” Heloise snapped her head back to look at him with a malicious grin and said, “But Alma’s not here right now, is she?!”
An enormous burst of lava shot up from in front of the sorceress as she laughed maniacally. The lava dove toward the spot where the avian monster had landed, but as the molten rock splashed down, the Caladrius had already shot up into the air once again. The bird’s form returned to its original brilliant white plumage. Any sign of the tarry body it had before were completely erased as it shimmered radiantly in the sky, flapping its majestic wings.
Heloise squinted her aphotic eyes as she tried to cast her gaze upon it. The Caladrius seemed almost untouched after the constant harm befalling it just a moment ago. Her hair suddenly frizzed in anger. “What the—?! What kind of bullshit twist is this?! You’re supposed to be in charred pieces on the ground!”
The Caladrius looked at her blankly, whatever thoughts might be forming in its mind were a mystery. It bellowed out one last screech before flying off to the north.
“Hey! Where the fuck are you going?! I’m not done with you yet!” Heloise clenched her fist tight enough to break skin. “This is like, the opposite of how things are supposed to go!”
“Leave it, witch.” Carthas returned to his former appearance with a faint, momentary glow of light. “Even someone like you deserves a better fate than getting yourself killed. At this rate, you’re gonna let that power consume you.”
Heloise yowled like a banshee. “No! I need that cure!” The witch made a mad dash toward the fleeing bird.
Carthas reluctantly followed.
The girl and her familiar chased after the Caladrius for several minutes, with several missed or late spells along the way. Despite her ragged breathing through grit teeth, she wasn’t about to give up on her prize after finally coming so close. Unfortunately, after about a mile, the witch’s cursed form finally gave out.
“Shit! Where did my power go? I didn’t tell it to turn off!”
“You didn’t notice?” asked Carthas. “We passed through a strange barrier just now. It cut off the flow of your power just now.”
“Barrier?” Heloise looked around, finally noticing a strange shimmering wall stretching for several miles in both directions. “What the fuck is this doing all the way out here?”
Her slender fingers dipped through the invisible field, coating them in a lingering chill. A strange barrier of unknown origins, cast without any trace of lasting magic, seemed almost impossible. Most barriers she had seen, created, or read about were never described as being able to reach the enormity of the one present before her. And naturally, all were conjured with magic yet this one had no enchanted energy to it. It felt stale and lifeless. As if created by unnatural means opposed to magic.
As the witch contemplated the implications of the presence of such a structure, the winds violently began to pick up. Another harsh blizzard was now battering the area, almost as if warning them to leave.
“I can’t take this anymore,” said Heloise. “Let’s just go home before it gets dark. Wait—I… forgot my staff back there.”
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Alma’s eyes flung open. The memory of that day had finished playing. It was her first time experiencing someone’s memories and it wasn’t at all like she was expecting. The dialogue was mostly muffled and the scene itself was completely hazy. She was also more of an outside observer, rather than inside of someone else’s head. It felt a lot more like a dream, but also a bit more uncomfortable. At most, she had only gotten a general idea of what had happened, but she seemed overall satisfied with the result. The sniper raised her head and looked around the room, her vision still adjusting to the real world. Hwalín was also slowly regaining her awareness, while to Alma’s side was the eldritch woman, Qu’l-Nia. Alma smiled.
“Well, that certainly was an experience. I thought I was ready to get into Heli’s head, but magic will never not be weird.”
“Bloody Beryllands, Alma.” Hwalín brought a palm to her head. “We went through all that and barely gleamed a thing. I don’t know how that was supposed to help at all. Nice buzz though.”
“That is quite unfortunate,” replied Qu’l-Nia. She had been stroking the head of the gatin in her lap. “I had thought perhaps we had finally gotten our answer. It appears as if our goal is almost always out of reach.”
“What are you talking about?” asked Alma. “We got exactly what we needed.”