Many Craghammers knew who to keep in the dark when it came to government officials, law enforcement, and investigative journalists. They had a tight-woven circle of friends in high places to do their bidding, but this information couldn’t leak to those they knew would not turn a blind eye to it. Any potential danger to their shady work would be eliminated by either getting the person fired, transferred, kidnapped, or even killed.
So, after I Scanned a few dozen people to get a grasp of who held what position, I decided to take a page from Firemoon’s book and kidnap law enforcement, journalists, and random government officials. I took business owners, random citizens, and kept going. With my mana power as strong as it was, I could easily transport over two hundred dwarves at one time. And if I used fifty clones, that number would jump to over ten thousand people.
The king, and many other people in the royal court were part of it as well. Many civil engineers and other people who bought products from and made contracts with the Craghammers were included. I wanted a diverse group of people and that’s exactly whom I kidnapped. It wasn’t an ethical thing to do, but it was very efficient. I Voidported all my victims to a savannah, but not before I brought them into my own void plane.
There was a mix of fear and anger about them. Some were docile as if they expected to be kidnapped at some point. Others were shocked and terrified at the strange magics that took them. I casted Vivify to calm everyone. Talking would be quite pointless, even with a calm crowd, so I opted to let my clones use partial transformation to sprout the tentacles that I acquired after merging Madam Jelly’s cells. That way, I was able to simply transfer the knowledge I had to them.
A lot of them were shocked. Some began raging again because they noticed people they knew from those memories. Over ten thousand people knew the truth now. But I wasn’t about to just use some magic alone. I would take them to see the real thing. My clones and I Voidported to Factory, so that everyone could see with their own eyes.
Afterward, I continued showing tens of thousands of people the truth, then simply put them back where I found them. In under ten minutes, they knew of the organised criminal syndicate, Firemoon’s, and of the most prestigious inventor-family, the Craghammers. The Craghammers’ dealings, Factory’s slaves and ‘generator’, and Burra’s Seal were all revealed. They knew the Craghammers sealed the entire dwarf populace’s magic, while the inner circle of Craghammers were able to freely use their magic – out of everyone’s sight at least.
The next day, I went over to Ylda’s hideout and brought her along with August and the Bronzels.
We all hovered in the air with void manipulation and had a bird’s eye view of the scores of protestors outside the Craghammer headquarters. This also happened at the other branches, but the biggest scene played off at headquarters. Law enforcement got them.
Well, with so many people in the know, absolutely no one could bury their head in the sand. The authorities were forced to do the right thing and comply with law. The corrupt bastards who were on the Craghammers’ payroll also got caught.
My clones helped with Vivify and proper food so those were who forced to work would quickly recuperate. The king, a rather scary dark-skinned, black-maned dwarf stood and looked at Burra’s Seal. A few of his advisors conversed about what to do with it. My clone relayed this to me, so I went there. “Let me get some advice first,” I said to them.
Arcana appeared and examined the artefact. “Yes, well, it does use seals, and seals are arcane. I can disable this artefact, but eh, it won’t go well for your people.”
Hmm, that’s true. I remembered Sally, the sassy dragonkin. She had some seals placed on her, and removing them had some side effects. Those seals were child’s play compared to the artefact. It sealed an entire race, and not just part of their magic, but the whole shebang. “It has to be done gradually, slowly,” Arcana advised. She brought some wisps from the spirit world with her to do the job. “It should be safely deactivated in a month.” She then looked at me, “And Eric, you brought these all these people here, you better protect them.”
I was perplexed, “Wha–”
Before I could ask what the hell she meant, something nearly decollated me. I immediately cast Apotheosis to summon Apothea, who healed me back in just a couple seconds. If I stayed like that, I might’ve fainted, then die from blood loss. My throat was sliced clear open and my head was basically hanging on by the spine and some tissue from the nape of my neck. My throat was a bloody mess, literally. Thank Apothea’s holy ass. Her healing was bounds and leaps stronger than mine; even Convalesce stood no chance against her abilities. Once I could breathe again, I cast Timedial until time crawled 75% slower.
The stone disc that almost killed me was lodged in the wall. Its edge was sharp and serrated. An assassin I’d imagine, very versed in space magic used ten stone discs simultaneously. Hydrotendrils subdued him and his flying discs were destroyed by slightly explosive fire magic. I scanned the area for any more people like him, but that was it.
I rubbed my neck. If that thing was aimed just a bit better…
The second I took Timedial off, I heard some noise from outside and looked up to see August beelining towards me. He looked at me, then at the bound assailant, “Oh, so nothing happened.”
~
The coming days, no, the coming weeks would be filled with changes for Vaingot. There I went again, changing a society for better or worse – I knew not which. Dillon from Pargat warned me about that. I bet he’d scold me to the ends of the earth.
The same day that we made the bust, we returned with the Bronzels to their workshop. Varna had a look of amazement about her, still unable to believe what she just saw. Her sister Miriam couldn’t help but smile like a big kid. She bust her cupboard open and got some mugs. She was about to open a keg of mead, but I stopped her. “I’ll handle the beverages. You keep that for when you welcome your family back.”
Thak’s eyes opened wide. A clone of mine brought Anjali and Melissa over to join. Donna couldn’t resist so she succumbed to the allure of the lager. Dawn felt alone so she joined. Then Qora did, and boasted about how she knew dwarves really did have magic.
August stood up and got everyone’s attention. “I’d like to make a toast to less crime, reunited families, prosperity, and of course, deactivated butt plugs!”
Everyone’s faces were aghast, but I bust out an obnoxious cackle. “You’re right! You’re fuckin’ right, man! It really does look like a butt plug!” Ever since I first saw the memories, I thought that there was something weird about Burra’s Seal. But who would’ve thought?
Over the next few months, the king and his people focused on getting the captured men and women to integrate into society once more. A lot of them found their way back because they were eager to see their family. Some were too broken to be reintroduced so quickly; they would be kept in a sanctuary that helped them heal the mental damage and find meaning in life again. Things were quite slow to start over.
As expected, the economy took a big hit because there was a massive loss in jobs. The smaller businesses needed time, resources, and personnel to fill the shoes of the Craghammers. My clones were directed by government officials on what they should help out with. Slowly, but surely, life in Vaingot improved.
Ylda was doing a lot better. She had to wait three months until her father was able to come back to her. Unfortunately, her mother didn’t make it out alive. It was a bittersweet reunion. And not just for her, but a lot of different people who found their missing family members.
Although the Craghammers left a huge hole in the economy, the existence of magic propelled Vaingot into riches again. As time went by, things were even better than they were before the Craghammers. They used space magic to warp and bend metal, fire to mould, and water to finish forging. They had the perfect mana pathways for furthering what they were already good at into excellence.
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~
“You got stronger, didn’t you?” August asked as we chilled in his house.
“Yeah. You can tell?” I questioned.
He nodded, “I can feel it.”
“Well, what about you? You asked Madam Jelly something right? Did everything work out with that?”
“Yeah, it did,” he replied.
I eyed him, spurring him to continue into the details.
“Well,” he placed a hand on his chin and pondered, “it’s somethin’ like quint storage. I gather quint in my body and store it there, and this means I can enhance it. It’s 750% now, and on top of that, it’s enhanced quint. Good stuff, good stuff.”
“Sounds brutal,” I stretched my arms out and yawned. “Usually I’d want to test it in a duel but I’ll pass this time.”
He chuckled at me. His eyes were focused on the amber shard longsword he got from Leo and Madam Jelly. He was clearly absentminded.
A gentle wind brushed against us. “You,” Drak’ka’s voice wiggled into our ears, “weren’t you supposed to merge with me?”
Oh yeah, I totally forgot about that. “Good lookin’ out,” I brought her down into my study; it was much more comfortable than sitting on the rooftop of the house.
Our clones that left to raid Earth-Sky Tower kept coming back with diminishing returns for rewards, so we stopped them after a while. We figured it would be better to simply focus on training and not adventuring for now. Even if one could come across a legendary butt plug that was capable of sealing magic, it would be in poor taste to neglect training in favour of adventures at the moment. We had about a year and a half until Apollyon.
I stacked Timedial and cast Clone four times. So, five time-dilated Erics copied Drak’ka’s cells. I suspected there would be nothing to achieve, because whilst my clone in T’Ghuuz was busy ruling as their demon lord tyrant, he also merged with many different types of demons. I was expecting to gain nothing, but I was surprisingly wrong. It wasn’t anything fancy like another amazing demonic transformation; but I’d say what I gained was a very close runner-up.
So, at the end of our merger, I was only able to obtain a better understanding of shadow magic, and in turn, I also learnt two light spells. My mind was baffled as it made circles around the apparently missing common sense. Why would I learn light magic after improving my shadow magic? Who knew? I shrugged it off and focused on the two light spells.
Holy Edge – a slanted wall of holy light that travels along the ground at tremendous speed. It uses a target’s life essence to follow the target wherever they go, as long as the target remains on the ground. Holy Edge never damages anything besides the life essence that it targets. As a result, it passes through walls, allies, enemies, and every other form of matter and only stops or fails when the target is hit or the spell cannot reach the life essence’s last known location. Holy Edge can be avoided by moving yourself into a void plane or using a spell that inherently blocks other magics like Reflect. Physical defence spells like Earth Wall are useless. The default height of the spell is the user’s own height.
Holy Nova – a sphere of holy light that erupts from the user’s centre of gravity, where his own life essence is. Holy Nova produces a force much like a spherically-formed Divergence, but at a fraction of the power of an actual Divergence. Holy Nova disorients enemies hit by messing with the senses: sight, hearing, balance, and touch. Holy Nova applies the effects of Renew to each ally caught in it. Its range is twice the height of the caster.
Those spells were dope, yeah, but what really made me excited was that I now finished mastery of nature manipulation. But then I lost that excitement because I didn’t gain any cool spells even after gaining mastery over it. Oh well… The understanding was enough, and despite not having amazing spells, the very basis of nature magic meant I could constantly improve myself by merging with others.
That day, I decided to just spend time with my family. Biter grew to the ridiculous size that Den Mother did and towered over everyone. Thankfully, he could make his size the normal size of a wolf. I played with Tacari, Aviana, and Celosia, got them exhausted because that was my master plan, and then turned my licentious eyes to Dawn.
It was supposed to be a one-on-one baby-making session, but it turned into group quest very quickly. I was just about to fall asleep after Sek’hana finally had enough but I felt Arcana’s magic, so I warped into the spirit world.
She hovered as a flame over her brazier, and so did Hethekk the Scryer. He transformed into his humanoid form and stood up. He strolled away and picked up a fancy green and white plant pot, with a little sprout growing out of the soil. He handed it to me and nodded, then went back to his meditative position. I understood what the plant was – a world-traversing artefact – but I didn’t exactly know where it led.
When I passed my mana through it, I fell into a great desert. Over yonder, way over yonder, there was a ginormous tree that stood out from all the others in the forested area. So, I summoned Skyer and had a relaxing flight over there. I could feel the entire place was encapsulated by the magic that the big tree gave off. Soon I was out of the desert, and into a rainforest – quite the ecological shift.
Looking at the tree up close was overwhelming. How many words were there in the dictionary to describe large? It made Hydra look small. If one was to walk around this tree’s base at a normal speed, it would take him about ten minutes. Even if the tree didn’t give off any magic, the sheer size made it obvious that it was no normal tree.
Down at the base, there was an opening where a trench was built. The trench led to the centre of the bottom of the tree. Somehow, there were no roots that blocked my way, and there was no sign of cut roots either. It almost looked like a natural formation. Going on inside with Candlelight to light my way, I found a miniature version of the tree inside. The top of it reached around chest height.
“You’ve come.”
I stepped back, “Hydra’s ass! A talking tree!”
Suddenly, the tree began to warp in weird ways until it moulded to a humanoid form. The man wore an elk’s head, a cape of stitched furs, and wooden claw weapons fastened to his hands. He was huge, rugged, bearded, and hairy. His kilt was beaten leather, and so was his tunic. By all means, this man looked primitive.
He sat down and gestured for me to do the same, so I obliged him. He didn’t utter a word, but as I was about to, I heard footsteps. Aerellis appeared. She looked surprised that the person she saw would be me, but quickly came to acceptance. A relieved smile and exhale later and she approached.
She bowed a little and laid next to the table, “Natura, this is Eric Archibald. He is the witch’s successor, a mage from my world.” Her eyes then turned to me, “Eric, this is Natura, the Avatar of Nature. I was summoned here by Natura because he found the person capable of receiving his blessing – I didn’t think it would be you. But I guess that’s to be expected.” Aerellis nodded at Natura and he peered at me.
His blessing. I see. I realised where this was going. “I’m ready.”
Natura, the stoic master of nature magic held both his hands toward each other as if wanting to form a sphere and a small seed formed. Aerellis took it and placed it in the centre of my palm, rolled my fingers in so that I might hold it, and pushed my hand against my chest. Wood and vines spread forth from the seed and enveloped me. Something began rushing to me, and it didn’t exactly feel too magical.
It was like a burst of massive information. In nothing but a mere few seconds, I was overwhelmed. My senses were being flooded. I heard so many sounds. My skin felt so many sensations. A hodgepodge of scents bombarded my nostrils. My tongue wiggled and wrestled with the ups and downs of all sorts of tastes. And my eyes were, everywhere? I could see everything on this strange island. Everything – even myself. Without seeing a single human being, there were so many lives. Hundreds of billions of lives each with some measure of reliance on the other.
I ran a bit of light manipulation through me to calm myself. It was too much to digest in such short time. Natura stood up and walked out. Aerellis stood up, only to kneel before me, “You are now an avatar of nature. I, Aerellis, pledge my fealty to you.”
“Oh shush. I’d much rather your friendship.” I helped her up, “Come on.” I Voidported us back to Arcana and Hethekk.
She snow-haired beauty looked at me in her humanoid form. “I suppose you only have a couple more magic types to overcome now, don’t you? You’ve come far.”
“Ah,” I rubbed my hair, “you flatter me. But yes, I just have arcane and soul magic to master. And well, since I have no idea where to start with soul magic…”
“I see,” Arcana understood that I wanted her to train me. Arcane was a very strange magic type.
We went back to Methelia yet again. Arcana and I stood in an open field in the dragonkin’s land in the west of Methelia. She raised a palm toward the sky and a small fire formed, “Do this.”
“Easy,” I boasted, and manifested fire in my hand.
“You failed,” she said with a soft smile.
I was quite confused. “Huh? Bu–”
“Eric, I am arcane magic, literally. I can’t use any other magic type,” she explained.
“Fack are you on about? You just used fire!” I pointed out the obvious, then folded my arms in thought. Wait a minute, isn’t she right? I never saw a spirit or spirit lord use any other magic type, or at least I can’t recall.
She laughed and ruffled my hair like I was a child; I guess I was compared to her. “Do you know what’s special about arcane?”
“Uh, well, I can’t really define arcane in the first place.”
“Arcane is magic, Eric. And no, I’m not saying that because I’m biased. Magic, by its very definition, is something that makes the impossible, possible. This could mean totally disobeying the fabric of reality, or it could mean manipulating reality.” She raised her finger and I floated upward, “For example, I can manipulate reality like this, which means I can change the properties of something that already exists. Or,” she formed a bunch of water in another hand, “I can disobey the fabric of reality and call something into existence, or dismiss it from existence.”
“I see now!” I pointed upward in an ‘aha’ moment, “I understand absolutely nothing!”
She giggled, “Okay, let’s stick to a layman definition. Eric, arcane is all magic. Arcane can mimic all other magic types. In a way, if you gain mastery of arcane manipulation, you gain mastery of all magic types. If you become an avatar of arcane, you become an avatar of all magic types.”
“W-w-wh…” I held my temples and stumbled back, “What the fuck?!”