“So, uh,” August reeled backwards a bit whilst I poured more and more mana into levitating the heart down into the dark waters of mother’s nest, “anyone wanna tell me why that thing is the size of a house?”
Leo shrugged, as did I. “It must’ve been the shadow corruption mother spoke of,” Leo commented. “Mayhap this is its true size.”
“Damn, she’s a big one!” I joked, which wasn’t taken kindly. Once the heart was finally submerged into the water, the shadow beasts in the nest darted outside in a frenzy. I saw that as our cue to get the hell out as well, so I grabbed August and Leo into the void with me and flew in a straight line until we reached outside.
The sun was out in all its glory that day, perfect weather for releasing an unknown being into the world. The nest was breaking apart and something was growing bigger inside the nest. Leo’s eyes held no distraction and his focus was scarily deep. A dark amethystine ball of liquid-like energy was bulging through the orifices of the nest until it eventually broke the surface of the earth.
I flinched. It, didn’t feel good. The more this mass of energy grew, the more I shivered at its presence. Any fool with shittiest sense of instinct could tell this was not the way mother was meant to be. Animals and shadow beasts fled in all directions to get away. I knew it was the shadow magic, because the feeling of absolute chilling dread that overcame me when I saw Emily’s demonic apparition had once again clung to my heart.
Calm down! I recited those words in my mind over and over, until I remembered light magic had a calming effect. So, I began using it on all of us, and that’s when I remembered that light magic was the bane of shadow magic. “Guys, I’m not sure what’s going to happen here, but I feel like I’ll have to expend every last drop of mana I can conjure.” I created a clone, “Go to Methelia for now, I doubt I’ll have the leisure to attend to anyone else if you stay.”
August scoffed at me, “Is shadow magic, magic?”
“What?” I asked. His question halted my concentration. “Y-yeah, why?”
“Dude, we’re more likely to live than you are. Go do what you have to do,” he flicked his fingers as if shooing me away.
“Oh, right.” I’d forgotten about their magic resistance.
Suddenly, the mass of energy burst apart, as if it was a fragile bubble. A strange flat surface floated upward. Mother finally showed her true self. Turned out, she was just a big jellyfish, an absolutely monolithic one. Her frilly tendrils looked weightless, but still held their own against the winds. Inside her translucent body, her corrupted heart could be seen and the shadow magic was clearly spreading throughout her entire body, just as I’d imagine.
Hey, Dawn, Donna! I’m ‘bout to do something pretty stupid! Tell my family I love them, eh?
“Wh-why can’t we teleport to you?!” Dawn and Donna tried multiple times to summon themselves, but I blocked that. In fact, I didn’t bother saying anything else to them. I needed to focus.
Here goes… I created a pill and potion for both strength and mana, had August beef them up with some enchantments and downed them afterward. By the time I flew across, the potions began kicking in and my mana pool began expanding.
I let a clone touch the top of Madam Jelly – mother’s new awesome nickname coined by yours truly – to ensure it was safe. I landed afterward, took a seat and stopped for five minutes to think properly on what the hell I was going to do.
Hmm, pill and potion, right? Despite sitting down to calculate these things, there was absolutely no way I properly accommodated those calculations for other effects like magic potency and regeneration that alchemy gave, plus August had enchanted those pills and potions. I grunted in frustration, knowing it was somewhat pointless when I actually considered all those variables. Maybe Steyza and Dawn could formulate just how much magic I could’ve exerted, but they weren’t here.
Alright, whatever happens, happens. After all that time I spent thinking about things, the pills and potion already took full effect. I took a deep breath, and began stacking Purist over and over. My limit was 23 stacks but I forced a couple more to make it 25. I knew that my magic was boosted way more. In theory, I should’ve been able to stack many more Purist spells, but frankly, my heart and brain would stop if I continued. 25 was my absolute limit, and I couldn’t maintain that without healing myself periodically.
My base mana power was 1000%, and with the additive stacks of Purist, my mana power was now 3500%, or simply 35x the original mana power one is born with. The pills and potions certainly increased my mana power even more, but I was not sure how much considering that August enchanted them and I’d never experimented with enchanted consumables.
I brought out all the clones I could, feeling that my limit was 40. Guess I’m 40 times stronger then… I quickly healed myself when I realised my body was shutting down. Seeing my mistake with overshooting for 25 stacks of Purist, I dismissed all the clones except one and sent him to get a health pill and potion enchanted by August. He brought it back for me, and I washed the pill down with the bitter potion. I then dismissed him, and re-summoned all my clones so they would all have the health enhancement as well, all so we could maintain the 25 stacks of Purist. It was a spell I began having more respect for.
After a few minutes, we could hear the cries of Madam Jelly, a hollow and sorrowful bellow. She was dying, and I could wait no longer. With my 40 clones, we cast Convalesce – my strongest light spell – in quick succession on mother. It only proved to stop the spread of the shadow magic, not cleanse her of it, and hell, it wasn’t like it stopped forever. If we let up even a little, the shadow would continue creeping until it devoured her entire body.
So, not knowing what else to do, I continued relentlessly, breaking into the fifth hour of constant healing from Convalesce. Things weren’t looking up, so I, along with half of my clones, resorted to light manipulation instead. I was desperate, and thought that it was worth the risk to forego a proven spell for the randomness of manipulation.
However, it seemed to be working. Two hours after, we’d made a little progress. After about eight hours, I had to take pills and potions again, so I had to dismiss, do alchemy, get stuff enchanted, and conjure all those clones once again, which basically allowed the shadow to spread whilst we waited for the stuff to kick in. We were basically back to square one after a full day’s work.
I groaned in annoyance, and decided to ditch Convalesce completely and had all the clones focus on light manipulation instead. We poured so much mana into manipulation that we basically had to stop at around 5% mana to ensure we didn’t pass out. And considering the consumables, as well as August’s enchanted items made our mana regenerate fully in no more than three seconds, we were playing quite the dangerous game having manipulation consume mana that rapidly. It was like spell conditioning all over again, and at the pace we were releasing mana, I wasn’t at all surprised when wraiths began spawning all over the damn place.
Thankfully, August, Leo, and Skyer protected my clones and I. The shadow was clearing up, and we had contained the poisonous magic to the place of origin, her heart. One by one, we began concentrating all our manipulation there. Perhaps in our concentration, we had not realised that we were funnelling so much mana that we were balancing at just 2%. The wraiths began materialising even faster, but I could feel that we’d be finished in just about thirty minutes if we kept at this ridiculous pace.
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But you know how life is, guys. A large wave of light magic exploded and all my clones were forcefully dismissed. Fuck! Fuck! That’s not good! What in Hydra’s holy a–
Something made me stop in my tracks. It was so jarring that I simply stared at the moonlight over the seas in stupor. I then looked down at my hands. I, did it… my entire body was covered in a translucent light. In fact, the light formed the image of a woman draped in a simple dress, and she enveloped my entire body. It felt like I was walking around in someone else’s body.
It felt weird, almost as if we were linked together, yet I could somehow understand that she was her own person. “Uh, this is Apotheosis, right?”
She nodded at me, which proved there was some level of sentience.
“Can you remove the shadow magic from Madam Jelly?”
She removed herself from me effortlessly and sprouted angelic wings, floating downward into mother. With a wave of her hand, the shadow was immediately and totally whisked away.
C’mon, I’ve been trying so damn hard and she did that so easily? Not fair…
She returned to me once again and locked her figure to mine, so any movement I made would also be hers.
“So, can you talk?”
She shook her head, able to understand but not conjure words. Well, she was basically a mass of floating light magic after all.
“Do you have a name?”
Again, she shook her head.
“How does,” I paused in thought, “Apothea sound?”
She nodded, but I honestly didn’t think she gave a damn what I called her. I released the spell and she disappeared. Leo landed atop Madam Jelly with Skyer, his eyes flushed in tears.
August immediately flew down as well, “Why didn’t you do that all the damn time you piece of shit mage?! We’re here for hours fighting your weird ass magical creatures!”
“You’re welcome! Anytime, bro! Anytime!” I said sarcastically.
He rolled his eyes and dismissed his longsword, “Just get me home to my family.”
So, I did as he asked, and we went home after Leo gave us his thanks.
~
The minute my feet touched inside the living room, an arrow flew right past my face from behind me and hit the stairs, rattling until it eventually fell still. A huge commotion was taking place outside. I scanned my house with Life Perception and found that my family and friends were huddled into the basement. The mob outside the house varied from simple farmers with pitchforks, to mercenary types, to battlemages out of uniform, and even other mages. Quite an interesting predicament.
Now I know the people in my house can defend themselves, so how did things come to this? I wondered. There had to be some reason they wouldn’t fight back. With void manipulation, I removed the arrows inside the house and those stuck to the walls outside. Levitate slowly glided me out to meet with the angered mob. Looks like I came home just before they were able to enter the house.
“I’ve been away for some time now,” I said, dropping the arrows right next to their feet. “Would one of you please explain to me what’s going on?”
“Don’t play dumb, you traitor!” one guy yelled out, earning backup from the rest of the crowd with yells of anger fuelled towards me.
Before I could even mouth anything, I felt an amassing of mana from a few of them. Methelia certainly was the magic capital of this world; most of the folk, even common townsfolk, knew some sort of offensive spells. Fire spells of all kinds, even Fireballs converged on me. Avatar of Fire granted me immunity to burns, but not so much for my clothing. So, I manipulated a dense wall of water in front of me to block their attack then eventually turned it into Hydrotendrils and bound the hundred or so people in front of me. Despite a group so large, their attacks were painfully simplistic with no follow-up.
Now why would that be? I questioned, taking a squatting position to ponder on it. A distraction? I looked around and found that my family and friends’ life essences were still there, still intact. Hey, Dawn, you know what’s going on here?
The minute I sent through that thought to her, she appeared before me and hugged the living daylights out of me. Donna appeared too but didn’t even get the chance to do anything. “Why was your mana so low for so long?! What in Hydra’s ass were you doing?!”
“I can explain that later. Can you tell me what’s with this mob of people?” I asked.
She shrugged, an answer I honestly was not expecting.
“Then why’d you guys hide? You’re some of the strongest people in Methelia.”
“I dunno,” Donna answered for her. “Ask your dad.”
One of my eyebrows shot up and I eventually just pushed all the life essences still in hiding into the void then pulled them toward me, bringing them back to the corporeal plane afterward. They all were surprised until they noticed whose magic it was.
“Flynn, wassup, dude? What’d you do?”
He looked at me weirdly, and I had a ghastly chill run down my spine. I immediately began shaking off the magic being cast upon me along with a few casts of Dispel. Divergence focused at the imposter’s feet threw him for a loop and Gravity Field brought him down pretty hard. A thick sheet of rock then bound his entire body except his head. I pulled away the rest of people and Mary had the biggest look of confusion about her.
“Where’s Flynn?!” I grunted; my patience already thin.
A wispy voice answered through my father, “The answers you seek are behind the eyes of many.” Suddenly, my father’s eyes glowed white and a strange wispy light flew out, speeding towards the skies with unparalleled speed. My father’s body went limp.
I didn’t quite understand what happened, but I knew one thing – my father was dead. It didn’t occur to anyone else until I removed the earth magic that bound his body and placed him in the pink translucency of Crystalline Slumber.
“Eric…” mom called out to me. It was a tone that told me I was in trouble, yet it trembled so much I didn’t think she’d have the heart to act the way the usually did. “Is this some joke? Because it’s not funny.”
I hardly had the heart to look her in the eyes. She was about to break down, and I could do nothing about it. After a while, she ran over to the magical coffin and poured her heart out. It really stung.
Usually, I’d be calculating and hypothesising how all of this happened, but each soft cry that mom let out wouldn’t allow me to. All I could do was put an arm around her.
Everyone else was still stunned, including the mob that were just rampaging about. They appeared to be released from mind control and clueless about anything that happened. For the time being, I chose to carry dad’s corpse inside and get my household out of the public’s eye.
My mind was so full of literally everything that I didn’t once stop to think that something similar may have happened to August’s family. That thought only occurred to me later that evening, so I quickly flew over to his house. “Are you good? Did anything happen?”
His confuddled reaction told me enough, and a sigh of relief came out.
“Was something supposed to?” he poured me some mead.
“Nah, man.”
“Who died?” he quickly surmised as he sat down with his own mug next to me, watching out at the cobblestone path and the green meadows adjacent.
“Dad,” I said.
August’s hand froze before the mug touched his lips again. He wanted to say something but the words were stuck in his throat, perhaps blocked by the resurfacing memories of his own father’s death.
“Well, don’t feel awkward,” I eased the tension. “To be frank, I don’t feel much right now. I know it’s the mana powerup that numbs me but…” I trailed off, my mind switching onto the whats, hows, and whys surrounding Flynn’s death.
“How’s your mom taking it?”
“Not good, man,” I answered. “Hey, Aug, I’m getting this funny feeling that it’s all my fault.”
He scoffed, “Well I’m getting this funny feeling that you shouldn’t jump to conclusions.” He continued drinking, “Looking back, that’s what it felt like we did when Ulanos invaded, right? We didn’t check for a better solution before we started murdering left and right. Let’s not make that mistake again. Do you have anything to go on?”
“Hmm, I guess. ‘The answers you seek are behind the eyes of many.’ That’s what dad said before he died,” I reiterated that cryptic message for August.
The blacksmith frowned, unpleased by its ambiguity. “Guess you’ve got research to do. I know you won’t need me but, before you do anything crazy, make sure I’m with you, or Donna.”
I nodded my head and floated upward, bidding farewell and going back to support my family. It was a trying time for them, so much so that it made me question my lack of reaction to it. Had I really become so accustomed to death that I wouldn’t even feel pain for my own father? Or had reality not properly hit me yet? I could tell Dawn wanted to ask me about it, but only Donna, who lived in me for ages had the guts to bring up something so seemingly insensitive. “You feel nothing…” she commented as we gazed towards the night sky whilst the rest of the household slept.
Guess not, I shrugged mentally. But I was still uneasy about it. What really made me squirm was knowing that I did not know; I lacked knowledge and couldn’t be sure that the rest of the people in my household would be safe. Before long, I asked Donna to cast a sleeping spell on me and I awoke early the next morning. I sent a few clones to scour the library at the Order of Mages so that I might hopefully find something about what dad said in its pages.
A few hours in, and one reported back to me whilst I helped Mom out with Dad’s death certificate. In the transferred memories, I saw a book labelled ‘Hivemind’.