Druzlanders’ ability to control artificial and man-made materials seems like it might stem from an ideal not unlike Shinia’s. Where Shinia likely focussed on the tools and weapons; on the outcome of the materials; Druzlanders likely focussed on the wonders of the materials themselves. It seems that, for Druzlanders, the sword was simply one form of steel and it didn’t matter what that form was. Whether the steel was forged into a spear, a sword, or an axe, it was the steel that gave Druzlanders the ability to survive, not the weapons and tools that were formed of the steel. Of course, this is just a limited example, and any processed or manmade materials come under the jurisdiction of Druzlander magic.
Excerpt: A History of Magic – Galen Cletus
Sammath’s feet pounded on the soil as he ran down the slope. Dirt and leaves rolled beneath Sammath’s shoes, and it wasn’t just because he was running. The world swirled around Sammath and his stomach clenched. Sammath nearly threw up, but he didn’t stop running, instead retching to the side as his throat and stomach clenched up. Stumbling on, Sammath wasn’t able to use his Concept because he would almost certainly incapacitate himself, at least while he threw up. Instead, he ran on like a normal person. Deadfall crackled and snapped beneath Sammath’s feet as he just focussed on running. Foot after foot. Step after step. Sammath kept his eyes on the ground and made sure every footstep landed. He wouldn’t, no, he couldn’t let anything slow him down.
Sammath only looked up when the sky opened up above him and the wall of the camp encroached on his vision. Not able to stop himself in time, with how far he was looking down, Sammath only managed to turn his body and he hit the wall with his shoulder, bouncing off and stumbling but not falling over. Sammath wasn’t going to fall over. Not yet. Immediately, Sammath began to stagger around the camp, in a teetering mix of stumbling, walking, and running that he wasn’t sure if he could imitate while feeling well.
Eventually, Sammath came to the gates of the camp and tried to force them open but wasn’t able to do anything because they were barred from the other side. It was a little counter-intuitive to their aim of trying to keep people in, but Sammath supposed it was because the builders of the fort weren’t told they were building a place to keep slaves locked inside. To compensate, the bar was guarded constantly and any slaves that even came near were rudely, and sometimes physically, forced to move on.
Shit, Sammath groaned mentally, I’m going to have to use my Concept. In his state, he wasn’t really able to concentrate enough to figure out a different way into the compound. Sammath closed his eyes, leaning against the gate, and tapping into his Concept. Sammath felt like he was spinning, even as he leant against the gate without moving. Grabbing onto the Motion of the bar, Sammath pulled it to the side, out of the holds and grinned to himself for a moment, in spite of his discomfort. The novelty of actually being able to manipulate Motion, rather than just push and pull at it, still hadn’t worn off yet.
Sammath, not trusting himself to be strong enough to pull the gates open, pulled at their Motion to open them and was suddenly jolted out of his manipulations when the doors pushed outwards. Leaning against the moving doors, Sammath was flung away and rolled along the ground. Pushing himself to his knees, Sammath threw up on the ground, his stomach clenching tightly as his entire body heaved. Having thrown up everything that was in his stomach, Sammath clambered to his feet and staggered towards the open gates.
Passing through the wooden walls, Sammath looked around and saw dozens of dead guards to his right. Bodies were strewn about, heads and pieces of organ and bone visible in the scattered corpses and Sammath knew that Erin had been through. Erin could, at least from what he knew of her skills from sparring, definitely cause that much havoc even without her powers. Sammath moved over to the bodies and heard a loud, snapping sound in the distance. Instantly, he changed directions to follow the sounds and stumbled towards the source of the sound. A number of other loud cracking sounds echoed and Sammath continued to try following them to the source until they suddenly stopped. Passing around a hut, Sammath locked his eyes onto Erin and Ashe as Erin pulled a manacled, unconscious body up from the ground, a whip in one of her hands.
Erin turned to Ashe, probably saying something, and Sammath saw Ashe’s mouth move as he replied. Suddenly, Ashe trailed off and frowned in confusion, which was when Sammath knew that Ashe had seen him, “Ashe! Erin!” Sammath shouted to get their attention and Erin whirled around, her face deepening from stony apathy to a wrinkled frown.
“What are you doing, Sammath!” Erin yelled back to him, “You should be staying still. We were just about to come and get you.”
Sammath ignored her, stumbling slightly as he began running towards the pair, “Someone’s coming! He’s going to kill us all if we don’t leave!”
Erin’s eyes widened, “You looked into-”
“Yes. Now come on, we’ve got to go!”
Ashe looked from Erin to Sammath, not understanding what was happening. A peal of thunder boomed through the air and Sammath glanced up to the cerulean blue sky. Fluffy clouds drifted on the wind, but a small, grey cloud flashed with lightning and Sammath’s eyes bulged, “Now!” Sammath turned around, stumbling nauseously as fast as he could run, “Run!”
Sammath’s footsteps clomped on the ground, but he wasn’t fast enough. There was no way that he could have been fast enough. Like Sammath’s vision, a man landed on the ground with a simple sword, but this time it was far more detailed and, with Sammath’s knowledge of what was going to happen, far more terrifying. Flashing down from the sky, the man landed with a massive, muted thumping sound. His feet buried beneath the ground, a small impact crater had formed with the force of his landing. Dark brown hair and slightly darker skin than the average Arikaran, the man vaguely resembled a Shinian, which Sammath supposed made sense given how close to the border of the powers they were. A simple, curved, single-edged sword hung loosely in his grip, and he glared across the ground at Ashe, Erin, and now Sammath with his dark brown eyes.
Beast hide armour covered his body and moved easily as he took a step forward, out of the impact crater. Cloud began to billow out of his body, the suppression Runes clearly not working on Akantha, and Sammath, seeing that he wouldn’t be able to run away in time, stopped and turned to face the Duke Stage opponent. Erin and Ashe joined him, Erin calling out to the man in the hopes that she could convince him not to attack, “Lord Akantha!” Erin yelled out and the man turned his glare on Erin specifically, “Your operation here has already been exposed. If you come with us willingly to face punishment, I am sure we can reduce the repercussions you stand to face.”
Akantha, because Sammath didn’t want to refer to anyone as ‘Lord’ and nor did he know the man’s first name, started laughing. It wasn’t the laugh of a grounded man, and Sammath nearly shivered, “It’s already over for me, Duchess,” Akantha addressed Erin leeringly, “both of us know that already. The queen won’t stand me remaining alive. Not with her new policies of equality in punishment between us and the fucking peasants. It’s time for me to see just how much damage I can do on my way out. Taking out the daughter of the Sun Tamer himself, the girl who ruined my work, is just a bonus.”
In the distance, beyond the man and at the baths, the other slaves milled about and watched the man uncertainly. Akantha completely ignored them and cloud continued to billow out of his body, beginning to swirl around faster and faster. Clouds churned and roiled under Akantha’s control and lightning began to flicker as the clouds darkened. Boosted forward by his clouds, Akantha shot forward and Sammath grimaced. Cloud wreathed the aristocrat’s entire body and only his face, glaring directly at the three members of Misfortune, was visible as the cloud billowed like a large cloak around the man.
With each step, lightning flashed inside the cloak and thunder boomed. In terror, the slaves ran as far away from him as they could, pressing themselves against the wall. Erin dropped the man from her shoulders, pulled a sword and shield from her hair and Sammath, still dizzy and nauseous, was handed his staff by Erin, who’d stashed the weapon in her spatial storage. Ashe, clearly tired, readied his finger to draw a Rune. Erin clashed with the man first, moving her blade into position as he swung towards her. Erin brought her forearm up to support the blade of her sword, placing it on the spine of the single-edged blade, to compensate for Akantha’s advantage in power.
It wasn’t enough. Akantha’s blade slammed into Erin’s and the metal of both blades rung loudly, Erin’s arm shaking with the power of the blow. Positioned at an angle, Erin’s blade deflected Akantha’s but he was too fast for Erin to do anything but block again. A second slash downward was deflected again, but Sammath heard Erin’s arm snap under the force as she reinforced the sword. To her credit, Erin only grunted lightly but being able to take the pain didn’t matter. A kick, wreathed in cloud, snapped forward to hit Erin. Erin tried to dodge it but just wasn’t physically fast enough. Akantha’s foot took Erin in the side of her ribs, and Sammath heard a number of them crack. Even from the glancing blow, Erin was sent flying in the air, spinning around and landing metres away. Erin landed on her feet, gripping her shattered chest.
Ignoring Ashe and Sammath for the time being, Akantha blurred forward, smashing into Erin with his shoulder and sending her into the air. Blurring again, the man and his cloud cloak appeared above her in the air and he casually backhanded her, sending her into the ground. Erin slammed into the dirt with a loud thump and whacked her head on the soil, knocking her out. Immediately, Akantha swivelled to Ashe who’d begun to draw a Rune. Sammath didn’t know what the Rune meant but, when Ashe completed it and spewed flames at Akantha from the Rune, Sammath assumed it was the fire Rune.
Akantha’s cloak hissed very lightly, but nothing else happened as the flames washed over him, “Too weak.” Akantha scoffed casually and he walked through the flames, backhanding Ashe and sending the young boy flying.
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Ashe flew through the air as Sammath called out his name in shock, landing on the ground and hitting his head when he impacted the soil. Sammath made to strike at the man, trying to hit him with his staff, but his hand flashed out and split the staff in half. Shocked, Sammath couldn’t focus on his opponent as he stared at the splintered remnants of his staff, “And you…” Akantha pushed Sammath over with only his wrist, “you’re so weak right now that you can barely stand.” Akantha shook his head, “Pathetic.”
Akantha turned his back on Sammath, who was still staring at the staff in his hands. It had been given to him by his parents before he’d left Volkar and was one of the few material possessions that he actually placed any value in. Sammath looked up from his staff, fire welling up in his nauseous stomach and he pushed himself to his feet, rushing towards Akantha with a guttural scream. Akantha turned his head just enough to see Sammath in his peripheral vision and grabbed onto his forehead. Sammath tried to punch Akantha, to very little effect, and the man just curled his lip. Without any effort, Akantha pushed Sammath to the ground by the head, knocking it on the dust and dirt.
Sammath’s vision went blurry as his eyes teared up. Already woozy, the blow made the world begin to spin around like Sammath was a pirouetting dancer. From what he could see, Akantha walked over to the manacled overseer and raised his sword. “You failed me,” Akantha spoke, “And the punishment for failure is death.” Akantha brought his sword down, into the overseer’s chest and twisted the blade. Wrenching it out of the corpse’s chest, he flicked the blood off his blade and then walked over to where Erin had slumped onto the ground.
Blood pooled from the overseer’s body, coating the ground in crimson paint, and Sammath dreaded seeing that from Erin’s body, “It’s a pity you weren’t at the Count Stage. You may have been able to offer some resistance if you were. As you are now, though, it doesn’t matter. You never stood a chance.”
Akantha raised his sword, readying himself to pierce through Erin’s body. “No!” Sammath called out, reaching out with his hand as though to try and stop it, when Akantha whirled around, his eyes locking onto something. Sammath followed his gaze, looking over to the crumpled body of Ashe or, at least, what had been the crumpled body of Ashe.
Ashe’s body was floating, translucent red energy swirling around him in trailing ribbons, black streaks running through the energy. Moving around the body of Ashe, the energy began to tie itself together. Akantha immediately rushed towards the body, his clouds moving faster than ever and a streak of cloud shot out from the main body of his shroud. Constantly moving and swirling, Sammath felt the hairs on his arm raise up as the cloud shot out a bolt of lightning but the red-eyed body of Ashe; the red-eyed Cab; casually raised a hand and a ribbon of energy blocked the bolt of lightning. More and more balls of clouds shot out, lightning bolts shooting out of all of them but Cab raised a hand to his mouth, yawning, and waved his free hand.
A massive ribbon emerged from his back and swiped through all of the orbs, destroying them in an instant. Rather than stopping, though, the ribbon continued on and began winding around Cab’s body. Cab took a step forward, his foot seeming to step on solid ground even as he floated in the air. Then, he took another. With each step, the ribbons wrapped around Cab more and more, until Sammath saw what they were forming. It was a massive, four-metre-tall body made entirely of lean muscle, or it would have been if it wasn’t formed by energy. Clawed feet moved to powerful legs, which connected to a muscular, well-defined torso. Spiky, greave-like plating formed on Cab’s shins and large, sharp overlapping scales covered the rest of his legs. Smaller scales engraved themselves onto Cab’s torso but his shoulders and forearms, like his shins, grew plate-like armour. Cab’s long arms ended in clawed fingers and one of his hands seemed to be gripping something that hadn’t quite materialised.
Atop Cab’s head grew two long horns, which curved very slightly backward, and hair that looked very reminiscent of Ashe’s. Surrounding him, his energy swirled and writhed like a conscious entity. Cab gestured and his energy surged forward, like a hound let off its leash, and grabbed Akantha. Wrapped up tight, the aristocrat struggled to escape but nothing he seemed to do had any impact on the energy ensnaring him. The cloud around Akantha dissipated and Cab stood in front of him, his arm out to the side as a large sword slowly manifested in his hand. Energy crawled down his arm, coalescing first into a simple grip, which fit snugly in Cab’s massive hands.
From the grip, two things emerged. The first was a stylised pommel. Sammath wasn’t able to tell what it was; not from his angle, nor with the world spinning around him, but it wasn’t a simple sphere. The next was the crossguard. Forged primarily from the black streaks in Cab’s energy, the crossguard was made of sharp edges and straight lines and ran across the bottom of the bottom of the blade before turning up towards the tip of the blade at an angle of about 30 degrees. Ending in a sharp tip, the crossguard looked as wicked as the blade that was beginning to form.
Dark crimson, the colour of the forming blade was completely uniform and seemed to be a blend of the black streaks and the standard red energy of Cab’s magic. Double-edged, Cab’s sword had wickedly sharp edges and Sammath thought he could spot tiny spines that ran along the edge of the blade, which would allow his blade to rip and tear at flesh and saw through bones. Down the length of the blade, Cab’s sword tapered very slightly but that was standard in swords. At the very end, Cab’s blade turned inwards to form a sharp, triangular point.
Overall, Cab’s blade looked, at the very least, mildly evil and, at worst, extremely sinister. Cab, however, didn’t seem to care how he looked at his 4-metre tall form held out the wicked sword that was forming out of strips of energy. Cab held his blade out beside him as he strode forward towards the immobile Akantha. “Do you know how the magic of celestials works?” Cab’s deep voice rumbled as he addressed the trapped aristocrat. Rather than when he’d spoken through Ashe, Cab’s voice seemed to be his own and Sammath had to admit it was quite attractive.
Cab tilted his head, bringing his sword in and running a finger down its edge. Akantha spat at Cab’s feet and Cab smiled. From his angle, all Sammath could see was one side of the smile, but it still sent chills running up and down his spine like tiny mice. Cold and merciless, Sammath imagined that Akantha was practically soiling his pants at that moment. Cab, still smiling, reached out and gripped Akantha’s chin with his forefinger and thumb, “I do believe I asked you a question, young man. Spitting at my feet is not a particularly polite answer.” Cab drew back slightly, stroking his nail down Akantha’s jawbone and, this time, Sammath saw the man physically shiver even through his dizziness, “Do you understand?”
Cab left his claw at the bottom of Akantha’s jaw, placing pressure on the bone and tilting his head slightly upwards. Very cautiously, Akantha nodded, and Cab’s grin suddenly seemed less predatory, though still seemed colder than a frozen river. “Good. So, do you know how the magic of celestials works?”
Cab turned around, dropping his hand from Akantha’s jaw and swinging his sword out to the side as if to demonstrate his magic. Akantha shook his head as Cab began to walk away from him and Cab spoke once again, “I didn’t think so. So, before I kill you, I’m going to give you a little bit of a primer on celestial magic. Celestial magic is based nearly entirely on a celestial’s perception of themself. Their perception of themselves gives their magic its colour, its qualities as an energy, and its abilities. Because celestial magic is based on self-perception, the abilities of one’s personal magic are often subject to change, which is countered by an instinctual understanding of everything an ability does and can do.”
Cab turned back to face Akantha, “Do you think you know what I think of myself as?”
It was at this point that Akantha had begun shaking in terror and he could no longer mask his emotions at being trapped by a monologuing Demon King. Eyes wide and his breathing beginning to grow heavier, Akantha shook his head. Cab gestured with his blade hand, “Go on. Take a guess.”
“I- uh. I- um. M-m-maybe a uhh…” Akantha opened his mouth to try and speak, but all that came out was unintelligible stuttering.
“Come now, boy,” Cab spoke , “Take a guess. I’m not going to bite you if you get it wrong.” To punctuate his point, Cab opened his mouth and took an exaggerated bite, his pointed red teeth clicking together.
Once again, Akantha shivered but he managed to speak up that time, “M-maybe something like uhhh. Something like a killer.”
Cab smiled, his grin once again wicked as it exposed his red teeth, “Close, but not quite. Those streaks of black you see in my power, that’s the darkness I see in myself. The things that I don’t like but accept as a necessity. When you face off against a celestial, the ones you must be truly wary of are the ones without darkness in their abilities. Those celestials that see themselves as pure are truly dangerous, for they are the ones that believe themselves to be above all other beings. Beyond that, the thing that I truly see myself as is an avenger. I kill and feast on those who’ve harmed or killed children. I get vengeance for those who’ve been wronged.” Cab rested the tip of his sword on the ground, “I used to think it was justice, but now I see it for what it truly is and my energy has gone red to resemble the blood of all those I’ve killed in search of my goal.”
Cab whirled around, spreading his arms out wide and bringing his sword out to the side, suddenly smiling like a cat about to kill a mouse, “And you, young sir, most definitely fall under my idea of vengeance.” Cab snapped his sword down towards Akantha, levelling the tip of his sword at Akantha. Energy began pouring out of Cab, swirling together and forming a sphere of roiling red and black energy. The sphere was so large that it nearly touched the ground, even taking into account the height of Cab. As the roiling ball of energy touched the soil, it suddenly shrunk down until it was barely a speck at the tip of Cab’s sword.
Cab lifted his chin, looking down even more on Akantha and any trace of amusement on his face was overtaken by apathy. “For capturing and enslaving all these people, especially including any children you may have harmed in this endeavour, I sentence you to death.” Suddenly, Cab’s sphere pulsed once, expanding and contracting rapidly before a beam just seemed to appear. It was so fast that it didn’t just shoot from the sphere. It appeared. Once second there was nothing, and the next moment it just suddenly appeared and Sammath couldn’t even perceive it happening.
From the passage of the energy blast, a huge surge of wind buffeted Sammath’s prone form and he could practically feel his clothes tearing. Cab’s hair was pushed all the way back by the force of the beam and Sammath had to close his eyes tightly against the ripping force of the air. With his eyes closed, Sammath could clearly see the bright beam burned into his retina and his eyelids glowed red with the light it was emitting. Heat poured off the beam in waves and Sammath could detect a smell reminiscent of the smell left after a lightning strike.
A hole was burnt through Akantha’s chest and, when Sammath opened his eyes, he saw that trees outside the camp wall, which also had a hole bored through it, were falling down in the wake of the passing beam. Cab lowered his sword, letting it slowly fade away into oblivion and took a step forward. With the hand that didn’t carry the sword, Cab grabbed onto Akantha’s head and tilted his head back, closing his eyes, “Yes.” Cab’s voice was even deeper and more gravelly than before, as though he’d woken up with a bad case of morning voice, “Share your life with me.” Cab gave an appreciative ‘mmmm’, as though he was eating something delicious, and chuckled lightly, “Oh, so much anger.”
Cab turned around, pointing at Sammath as he did so, and smiling. So quickly that Sammath didn’t even see Cab move, he felt a tap on the side of his head, and everything went black.