Carlos Varro, Academic Dean of Niria Academy of Elemental Mastery, Grand Magus over the Dominion of Effervescent Flame, and Councilor Nirlith of the Bresian Republic, grumbled under his breath as he flew over the desolate and snow-covered landscape. He had been the one nearest to the call, which was more than annoying since Dean Eva Guitierrez of Briarwin was just a step to his left, hence, farther away when the emergency call came.
An attack by the Ishodirian Guardian had not been high on the possibilities when the Council did their divinations to determine the course of the civil war and the invasion. No, the Guardian should have remained in Ishodir, and the attack was a blatant provocation.
Unless they were making a point.
Carlos frowned. He knew that the Archmagus of Ishodir was old. He was centuries older than his own three hundred. Any old Magi became subject to the madness, and he didn’t look forward to facing the same in a couple of centuries.
Ah, but his Personal Truth was stuck, and he couldn’t see any way to break past the bottleneck. He had a faint hope that the new professor, Yuriko Davar, would be able to successfully infuse her Primordial Affinity into an En Shard, but so far, no success. Not that he hadn’t expected such a result, anyway. Infusing a pure Element was notoriously difficult and for a Primordial one? Nearly impossible. Besides, while that might have been the overt reason Olivia Biera gave for hiring the woman, it was a political move more than anything else.
Just having a professor with a unique and powerful Affinity had upped the enrollment numbers, and given him the upper hand in his dealing with the Guitierrez hag, heh.
And because it turned out that the new professor was quite well versed in teaching unorthodox combat, melee of all things, she’d become one of the unique talents that the Academy harboured. Again, it was a point of pride, and because of that, the annual budget for Niria had increased by nearly five percent.
Unfortunately, Professor Davar was notoriously difficult to scry, so it was impossible to collect her war merits in real-time. The Bresian Intelligence Division had been keeping close tabs on the battlefront and had mostly pierced the Ishodirian anti-divination patterns. So it had come as a surprise that there was a surprise attack.
The wind whistled in his ears as he flew close to his top speed. He stuck with the basic flight spell that he boosted with extra circles to increase speed and stability. He could have used his Domain or his main Affinity, but he was quite the conscientious man. The explosions would have echoed for several longstrides and while he was nowhere near a city, people still lived in farmsteads and small hamlets.
Since he was coming from Bresia City, the quickest route to get to Virtalla Province was directly through the Kerromere Mountains. But even he was not foolish enough to brave the deep Elemental Confluxes hidden within the nation’s spine. So he flew towards Greyith Strip and flew east from there. He had just passed through the strip and night had already fallen. It had taken a couple of hours after all. He hoped that the Reclamation Army was still holding on. No new Sending Spell had been used, and the skies were dark with the Guardian’s Strom Dominion, though it was more truthful to say that it was the side effect of the Domain rather than a direct use.
Still, weather disruption of this scale dealt untold damage to crops and livelihood. Many cold-weather crops would die completely, or get incinerated by the lighting bolts…cattle would get spooked and escape, the frostwave could undermine structures, and the heavy snowfall could just as easily kill people even if they had warm shelter.
It was definitely a hostile act, and the Bresian Weather Control Bureau would have their hands full fixing things. Well, it was Guitierrez’s field so he’d leave it to her and her ilk.
He had just oriented himself northeast when the dark horizon was suddenly noonday bright. The harsh golden light was so sudden that he was blinded and in sudden pain.
“Argh!” He couldn’t help but yell as he quickly turned around. But the golden light was somehow still visible even through his closed eyelids and with his back turned!
He felt his robes’ defensive enchantments activate a touch too late, but it eventually stemmed the damage the light caused, but then…
Boom!
It was as if something punched him in the back, except all over. He was fling several dozen paces away, but thankfully, he was quite far from the ground and his spell kept him from falling. Not to his death, even if he had not been protected. As a Grand Magus, he was quite a bit tougher than a regular Magus, and while he wouldn’t die after falling from a height of several hundred paces, he’d still be injured. But better than turning into a pancake.
The enchantments triggered his emergency recovery procedures and a needle was stuck into his side from his belt. A recovery potion was injected intravenously, and while the contact point was far from his eyes, the potion nevertheless prioritised the heaviest injury. And this particular batch was formulated to repair senses first. If he had internal injuries, another type of potion would have been injected.
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Carlos blinked a few times as his vision returned, then he turned around. The golden light was gone, but there was also a huge circular gap in the clouds that revealed the night sky. He couldn’t determine how far away the source of the explosion was, and he immediately used his most powerful explosive flight spell to reach the area. It was close to where the emergency call beacon should have been!
And after the shockwave, any explosive noise he made wouldn’t make much of a difference anyway. He flew for a few minutes before he felt the winds gusting back towards where the light came from. It was powerful enough that the trees below him, which had been bent away from the origin, bent towards it instead. Thankfully, the tailwinds helped him close the distance and in a matter of minutes, he was close enough to the area. He couldn’t help but freeze when he saw the crater that was nearly a longstride wide, though it was only a few dozen paces deep even at the center. Snowmelt flowed towards the centre, and the pit had already collected enough runoff to cover the bottom. Steam rose from the water, however, telling Carlos that the ground was incredibly hot.
“Close to the border…” he muttered. The Sodden Plains was just a couple of leagues away, and he could see some of the rivers that fed into the shallow lake would be diverted to the crater after the weather warmed up. “But what caused this?”
His eyes scanned the surroundings, and when he activated his detection spells he found that the area was leaking quite a bit of Chaos from somewhere under the water. The ambient Elemental energies were contaminated, but he could see a concentrated source just a few hundred paces away. And he immediately recognised the signature.
Lively red flames burst from his robes and surrounded his body. They flickered in hues between the red of his hair and the green of his eyes, and they spread several dozen paces around him. He could expand his Dominion, of course, by several hundred paces and even longstrides, but doing so only made it weaker. Thirty paces was the ideal density and toughness for his Effervescent Flames, but he could easily empower his spells to strike longstrides away.
He flew towards the Elemental signature, Storm Affinity for sure, but the Dominion was not deployed beyond immediate defence. And when Carlos came close enough, he stopped and gazed at the Guardian warily.
The Guardian was barely clad in rags that preserved his modesty, and even so, that mammoth’s trunk was swinging freely enough that it peeked out of its loincloth every time he moved. Carlos winced at the sight of the abomination. He had fought the creature, a chimeric blend of human and beast, several times in ages past, and he had nearly lost his life in the process. Even though both of them were at the same level now, the Guardian’s innate body was tougher, stronger, and faster than any, even those Magi who focused on body enhancements. Still, the man lacked endurance, and would retreat when the fight lasted too long, or there were too many opponents of equal level.
That he was alone facing off against the creature sent shivers of fear up his back, but he now had the advantage should a fight happen. In fact…he should strike now while he had the chance.
All of those thoughts flashed across his mind in less than a second, and the Burning Rain spell that was one of his innate circles had already activated. He casually waved a hand and the Effervescent Flame Dominion around him responded to his call and released fiery raindrops that flew in a single line towards the Guardian.
The beastly man met his gaze and snorted derisively as his Storm Dominion created a tornado of wind and lightning around him. The fiery raindrops slammed into the defensive bulwark and penetrated through, albeit only with a great loss of momentum. Still, the rain didn't stop with a simple shower, and more burning drops appeared around him. Carlos shifted his concentration on casting a barrier-breaking spell, as well as a Shackle spell that would conjure ropes and chains that would bind the Guardian’s limbs to the ground and burn him in the process.
Before he could finish either spell, however, the Guardian sent forked lightning that he had to dodge. Even so, one of the forks slammed into his barrier and nearly broke through. Still, he could see the defence tornado was waning, so he kept the assault going for several minutes, but Carlos knew that since he was unable to prevail after the first strike, continuing was pointless.
Sure enough, the tornado disappeared, and with it, the Guardian. He could see the residues of a spatial transfer spell, and he had little choice but to let it go. He wasn’t about to follow into an ambush.
Instead, Carlos regained clarity and flew towards the beacon, which hadn’t been that far off. Just a couple of leagues away.
When he arrived, he saw the aftermath of a battle. The Ishodirian Golem Riders had been fought into a stalemate, but he could see the Steeld Mammoths had multiple casualties too. The Bresian defensive emplacement was still intact, though it was marred by several craters. He flew towards the Bresian camp and sought Field Marshal Garcia.
“Ho!” He yelled to the Durandir man and landed a dozen paces from where he held council.
“Grand Magus,” Garcia grumbled, though he tried to keep a respectful tone. Still, he looked quite exhausted and his armour bore scorch marks and cracks.
“So, I’m here.”
“A little late, Councilor,” Garcia said peevishly, “we’ve called for an armistice and the Ishodirians are willing to talk.” Despite the slightly good news, the Durandir’s expression was anything but pleased. “They’ve sent a list of demands.”
“Kind of forward, aren’t they?” Carlos chuckled, “What is it?”
“The usual,” Garcia said, then handed over a scroll. “But there were a couple of unusual requests. And it bears the Imperial Seal.”
“Their child emperor is here?”
“Not a child any longer.” Garcia chuckled, “And still a puppet to that crazy old fool.”
“Who is still dangerous. So what did they want?”
“They’re willing to pull back to the border, our side of it, hold the forts, but no farther than that. They will not meddle any longer with our internal issues but only if we give someone over to them.”
“Who?” Carlos asked, though he was fairly certain what those bastards wanted.
“Professor Davar.”