Bouncing to his feet, Fernando twirled his bats, giving each a kiss for good luck. Not even looking over his shoulder to see the two lovebirds sprinting away like the devil was on their tail, he knew that they were just outclassed, a trio of weasels squeaking at a lion. Buying them time would be worth it if they could just get home, anybody would balk at entering the wreck that was Phoenix. It was supposed to be easy, scout the area, get whatever uber powerful magical artifact that made every wizard’s hair stand on end, smash anything in the way and head home. Cracking his neck, Fernando fed power into his bats. The punk wizard wouldn’t have believed that anyone could have taken the three of them on, especially after all the sand dragons they’ve killed in the past six months, but then again, anything was better than that demon horde that ravaged the city. Putting down that summoner/necromancer would give him nightmares for the rest of life. The last words of that dying fuck right before Fernando’s bat caved in his skull, he was shrieking like a banshee, “You’re not ready! We’re all not ready! He comes! From the desert he comes! Wearing black bearing the Cruel One’s spear! All shall kneel! No mercy! Death, so much death, sweet beautiful implacable death! Angels and demons weep for our souls! His dragon shall devour us all! Beware!”
Fernando shook his head, clearing the memory of the bloody shower from the skull spraying its contents across his face, the evil man’s clawed hands pointing west before going limp. And here he was, right now, facing Death himself. Funny, he figured Death would be taller. Dressed in black armor with silver runes cutting an intimidating figure, the man spoke so softly that Fernando couldn’t make it out, something about praying? A menacing spear that cut down the dinos without even moving exuded a pressure all its own that was so great that Fernando was forced to take one step back after another. In the other man’s hand was a futuristic gun that he held effortlessly with one hand and what made Fernando almost wet his pants were the shield gauntlets. They didn’t even have eyes but he knew, Fernando knew, that without a shadow of a doubt those things wanted every bit of his flesh, every bit of his soul.
He thought he knew what power was. The last months of near constant combat had shown him the depths of depravity that humanity was capable of. Phoenix was a city of over a million people and now there were less than a thousand. Between the invasion of insectoid people with magic weapons pouring through random portals and power-mad humans flinging fire and summoning demons and the dead, the city was a gutted wreck. Only his trusted bats had seen him through, that and maybe a bit of help from his friends. Damn, if only he could stop his hands from shaking.
Another memory hit Fernando in a flash, putting down cannibals after the city had run out food. No matter how many times he crushed their skulls they just kept regenerating and getting back up like freaking trolls. Fire was the answer to that issue but the man behind them was also an evil psychopath in black, someone who liked to scream to the sky about world domination and the power that magic brought as anything that was dead came back to life at his command. That fight had killed more people than the bugs and demons combined, skeletons and zombies and nightmares from your blackest dreams coming to his beck and call.
Nates perspective
Why blow his head off? I mean I could, I probably should, but today was supposed to be a nice, easy day of experimentation and I just couldn’t let that go. I had plenty of things to do today but I got attacked by fucking zombies and BY GOD I wanted to know why. So fuck it. My gaze seemed to freeze him in place, his entire body had a quick shiver as if he finally figured out who’s day he royally screwed up. His face was a deer seeing a wolf for the first time, not knowing what it was but knowing in his heart of hearts that this strange new creature was bad for his long-term health. I made a helmet a long time ago that I imprinted with a gem and inscribed with runes of mental strength and defense well before I had consciousness sorcery. Now, I figured out that I could use it for offense. Concentrating everything through my focusing gem, I lanced my mind straight at the kid, using our gaze as the pathway to burrow into his vulnerable consciousness.
His life in snapshots fluttered through my brain, letting me see more than I actually wanted to know. Fernando was his name, a typical college nerd in Phoenix who loved DnD and partying on the weekend. The nightclubs were awesome and plenty of people were out drinking and still drunk in the morning when the First Ripple hit. He was at a 24 hour batting cage drinking with Jeremy, or Remy to his friends, and Nicole when reality took a nosedive. Always wanting to be a wizard as he was an avid devourer of the Harry Potter and Harry Dresden books, he thought being a punk wizard with magic bats would rock, finally allowing him to hit the baseballs that always seemed to dodge when he went up to bat. Skipping a month of time or so, images of insane night violence filled with fire and death flashed through my brain as the taste of blood and scenes of red skinned terrors peeling the flesh off of their prey touched my mind. The horrors winged their way through the city, snatching up anyone not fast enough to get away.
Scenes of laughing power drunk maniacs dressed in black, wreathed in magic that melted cars and turned dead children into hungry zombies also had their turn with the city. The graveyards were no longer full of peaceful dead and Fernando with Remy and Nicole had made a final stand at the Phoenix Natural History museum after months of constant fighting. That’s where they found out that even long dead bones could be brought back to a semblance of life. Remy’s music magic with that strange medallion had kept them alive as Fernando’s incredibly versatile grasp of magic helped them maneuver through many sticky situations. Nicole’s power saved them all in the end, even allowing her to shape what she called ‘ether’ into a simulacrum of flesh, but at the cost of making her like the sickos out there. Hearing voices and sudden violent urges were now a constant companion as her power tainted her mind.
I watched a memory of the three of them arguing about finding whatever it was in the desert that drew the attention of anything magically sensitive. Anything to make her stronger is what Nicole argued, anything to make her happy said Remy, and Fernando just wanted a way to make the city better, safer, normal again. Unlucky for them, I looked enough like the necromancers from the city in my scary armor that they didn’t even hesitate to attack. Everything they’ve faced has been a threat so far so why wouldn’t I be one as well? Not to mention, there had been plenty of group kidnappings from Aelves and other magical creatures. Very few from that number had ever been seen again.
Coming back from the memory slideshow, I blinked and Fernando had keeled over, knocked unconscious from meeting my own mind, pity. The whole process must have taken longer than I thought as Nicole had run back to the dino bodies during my trance and crafted herself some bone armor for herself and Remy, pulled out a wicked looking bone scythe, and then molded an skeletal horse from the shattered dinosaurs. Slamming the scythe’s butt into the ground, her guttural chanting grew louder and more twisted, her eyes glowing purple seemingly adding to her chant with keening of their own.
Deep lavender blasts of mana from the scythe struck the humongous fallen corpses around me, their rotting pseudo-flesh sloughing off faster as bony hands and claws ripped their way free. A small army of roughly humanoid skeletons complete with augmented canines, tiger like claws, spiked skulls and spiny tails soundless screamed with rage as their glowing red eyes let me know that they weren’t friendlies about to ask for fucking directions.
To end them or not to end them? Svalinn certainly had an opinion on the matter and Kraken really just wanted me to examine the medallion, I did too. My familiar also made sure to parrot back my own thoughts to me last time I visited a group of people, that having them strategically placed can be more good than bad as it might remove attention from me. But this Nicole bitch though, something in her eyes told me that she wasn’t going to let this go, that she had power now and was going to grind me to pieces if I gave her half a chance. She used to be pretty too; I could tell from the fine cheek bones and remnants of a great figure but lack of proper food had left her lacking in the seduction department. I was also really curious about Remy, something about his innate love for magic and his application of it fascinated me.
Thinking quickly, I sent out a general semi-powerful pulse of magic blasting Nicole and her minions away giving me a few free seconds to run to Remy and wake him up. I knew now that the douchebag wasn’t actually opposed to me personally, he just thought I was another maniac wizard out in the desert. Shaking him and quickly injecting a bit of healing magic into him to kickstart his body's own healing system, I held him by the head and yelled, “If you don’t stop her then I will!” Kraken made the blade of Gungnir blaze with menacing light to add some oomph to my point.
A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.
That’s when I saw it, two lines of purple runes forming thin, tight, almost invisible rings around Fernando’s neck and temple. [That’s not normal.]
“Thanks genius,” I muttered as another wave of images crashed into my brain, Fernando waking up suddenly thinking another midnight attack was happening but it was just Nicole. Nicole? The fuck is she doing here this late at night? She and Remy are a thing, have been since grade school. Soft whispers that sounded like echoing ghosts flowed as a bit of purple smoke lashed out from her lips, binding my throat and head. Now my own actions outside of her will bring pain.
Pushing myself out of his memories, I pulled Gungnir out of the ground, turning it into a slender knife which I imbued with power and deftly cut Fernando twice severing the runic chains. The whole time I knelt doing that I had my rifle propped up on my knee in the general direction of the other two. Judging from what I’d gathered, if Fernando was being mentally fucked, then Remy probably had some of that kool-aid too.
“Nooooo!” Nicole’s screech almost made me gash open Fernando’s neck. Making a yanking motion, I saw several smaller purple orbs of power get ripped from the mangled leftovers of the dinosaurs and get absorbed by her scythe. She did it again and several smaller ones came out of Fernando but these ones were absorbed by the chains she was wearing. Gaining a life of their own, those chains grew in length lashing about, seeking something to strangle. One latched on to Remy and another to his chain, draining all the mana in his body. A thinner chain that I almost didn’t notice slapped the skeleton closest to me causing it to blow up. The shockwave buffeted me but didn’t hurt me. Fernando was blown twenty feet away. Lobbing a mana packet with a rune of healing at Fernando, I hoped that would keep him alive for the next couple minutes.
[I mean, we should definitely kill her now, she’s using living beings and zombies as mana batteries.]
DO NOT LET PREY ESCAPE!
SAW was in complete agreement with Svalinn. Imminent danger. Summoning ritual detected. Source . . . . scanning . . . Neophyte necromancer. Error . . . source . . . lives of reaped victims. Recommended action . . . elimination . . . timeframe . . . IMMEDIATELY!
I didn’t want to kill a big titty goth chick, there’s so few of them left. The conjured water around me formed into two swirling discs of jagged ice with a flex of will and then blasted at Nicole, one right after the other aiming for her head and waist. At the same time, Kraken fired a crap ton of rounds, blowing each skeleton monster to bits. Not leaving anything to chance, I enhanced my strength momentarily and hurled spear-form Gungnir at her heart as a follow up. Four skeletons threw themselves in the way, getting completely demolished but it did manage to stop the ice discs but not Gungnir that plowed straight into her diaphragm. Using the last bit of enhanced strength, I leaped the twenty yard distance with Svalinn extended as my bladed shields, making sure to finish the job.
Looking over at Remy, he was convulsing on the ground, the purple runes on his neck and head were still siphoning his life to keep Nicole alive. “Fuck!” I cursed, ripping Gungnir free, turning smoothly back into a knife right when I needed it allowing me to quickly cut Remy free from the enchanted mind control. Re-stabbing Nicole in the heart with Gungnir just to make sure she was down and staying down, Svalinn shook on my arms.
FEED ME! FEED ME! FEED ME!
“How you stupid shield? HOW?” The two extended blades quivered as they grew longer by another foot, serrated metal teeth extending on the underside like a jaw. “Well shit, fine, go ahead.” My hungry shield gauntlets lurched forward, the toothy blades diving right in, one to the heart and one to the brain. Nicole’s body seized like we were doing an exorcism as Svalinn poured dragonfire into the body, but the fire didn’t actually burn it. The red flames poured into the wound and then red flames heavily mixed with purple roared back out. Her body flopped bonelessly back down, not a hint of mana or magic power left.
Svalinn retracted the blades returning to normal shield gauntlets and falling silent, the hunger and mental pressure that was so great just a moment ago completely gone. Both of the young men were lying down, completely out of it. Suddenly, a big whoompf sound reverberated out of the medallion around Remy’s neck causing its own mini-Ripple in the immediate area. I instantly hopped back, bringing Svalinn in front of me and generating every shield I could think of.
“Fortune smiles her fanged mouth at you today mortal.” Peeking over Svalinn, a wispy cloud extending from the chained medallion was speaking to me. “Let your shackled dragon finish the job and I’ll be free to do your bidding, there is much I can do for my liberator.”
The blue cloud was fucking talking to me. Why the fuck is a blue cloud speaking? “Oh, you don’t like this form? Maybe something a bit more comforting . . . wait, I can’t see your thoughts at all?”
[It’s a Djinn!] Kraken freaked. [Give it nothing, ask and answer no questions! They’re worse than the Fae and so much more powerful! They can’t really do anything if you don’t engage with an enslaved one.]
A memory from Fernando popped to the fore as I slowly stepped back, the three of them wasted at the batting cage as Remy wished for more wishes, Fernando drunkenly wishing the two baseball bats were epic wizard tools as Nicole was behind them. He couldn’t remember what she said but her eyes had been dark purple ever since. Concentrating hard for a second, I moved all memories not my own to a separate spot in my brain and locked them there with several conditional filters. I couldn’t have distractions like this popping up at random times, especially with all the craziness going on.
“Even a fool, when he keeps his silence, is considered wise,” the Djinn said sagely, its cloud twisting as a hot desert breeze blew across the battlefield. “What tempts one such as you? Freedom, no, not for you . . . for someone else maybe?”
His words made me freeze. Freedom. I had freedom but I know someone who doesn’t. What do they say about something too good to be true? That it’s a fool's bargain. But his empty promise was enough to actually make me angry, throwing something in my face that I want, I need, the one thing that’s been burning a hole in my brain for far too fucking long.
“Ah yes, your woman. Just a bit stuck isn’t she?”
Lowering Svalinn, I pooled all of my power, every bit of it, into Gungnir’s blade, pointing it at the medallion. I wasn’t fooled, it’s real body was trapped in that damn coin and the cloud was just for show as it twisted into the shape of a svelte dancer covered in silky sheets of misty fabric. “Now now, don’t be trite. Your spirit’s mind isn’t as guarded as yours, such secrets locked away from even you? Hmmmm. I do wonder what others might like to know of your treasure?”
Not listening to the ongoing rant from Kraken inside my head, I stalked forward, solidly touching the medallion with Gungnir’s blade. Coldly channeling all of the power, all of the mana from my personal stores to Gungnir’s and including the solar panels with their batteries, I pushed the coin until the spear blade sunk in about half an inch.
“What is this? What are you doing?!” The Djinn’s scream was music to my ears as I formed runes of chains on the smooth back of the coin. My blade turned white hot as Svalinn joined in, its natural rage joining my own. No one touches what is mine, a sentiment wholeheartedly agreed upon by my shield.
[I’m not sure this is a good idea!] Kraken’s warning went unnoticed as I channelled unimaginable power for three whole seconds into the concept of absolute bondage, the idea of the chains being so permanent that the limbs being bound would grow to accept the chains of their own. My mana sorcery supplied all of the auxiliary runes to allow my will to mesh with my desire. Making the idea of enslavement its base, its natural state, this Djinn, unlike all the others, was supposed to be bound, it was only right, only natural. So pure was my rage that I twisted Gungnir just a bit more, forcing the mana of the runes to not just touch the medallion itself, but the spirit of the Djinn.
Ignoring the memory of my trapped wife telling me in the back of my mind to ‘be kind’, I set my rifle down and slashed that hand on Gungnir’s blade allowing the red fluid to drip down it into the medallion’s cut. Most of my blood sank into the medallion while a good portion traced the runes of bondage on it, leaving them a red so dark it was almost black. Yanking back on Gungnir, fell back and passed out completely. For the first time in a long time, I was out, completely out of mana. That last working had taken something from me; I’d paid a price that I didn’t know the full extent of. A concussive blast of mana exploded out of the Djinn’s prison, completely knocking me away like a paper plane in a hurricane.
The generator inside of Gungnir was still going even as I was unconscious. [Fucking stupid human doing stupid human shit!] Kraken cursed, quickly taking over the link between me and all the sources of constant mana. Splintering off one link, he pushed it into Svalinn, triggering the auto shield function making Svalinn conjure a dome of alternating stone and iron over me. In the cocoon, I slept.
Coming to after that was not a pleasant feeling. It was dark in the dome cocoon but it did little to help the nightmare headache. Compounding that pain was the body aches which felt just plain rude. My flesh sorcery had been working on my overall state for an indeterminate amount of time but my body was just run down.
[Wake up idiot! Wake up!] Forcing my eyes to open, I felt that my personal mana was a little over thirty percent full and my batteries were completely empty; Svalinn was tapped out and Gungnir was empty too.
“Did we win?” I grumbled, tapping my dregs of power to wash over me, stimulating my flesh sorcery to heal as I put in a pain block so I could function.
[Maybe, I don’t know. I’m trapped in here with you right now and the ground is shaking so maybe not dipshit. Get up! You don’t get to rest when you do dumb stuff like that!]