Jasper walked out of the home and was met with the expected cityguard. However, what he had not expected was the pompous-looking mage.
The man had a thin and slender frame, though clearly human. His narrow face was accented by a pair of spindly glasses that sat on top of a surprisingly pig-like nose. He was dressed in bright ropes with every colour incorporated, seemingly just to claim that it was every colour. It was someone had laid out a colour wheel, and simply lifted it up into a bright wizard robe. There was no rhyme or reason, but it was large, poofy and absolutely pompous.
Behind the man were six other mages, all well-dressed but nowhere near as extravagant as the leader of the group. They seemed to hold themselves to a single colour each, and Jasper remembered seeing at least one of their faces before.
His heightened intelligence was more than happy to provide him with the necessary information. These were the department heads and the vice-principals of the magical academy.
On either side of them stood two twelve-man squads of pikemen. The pikemen wore black and white, with a sword at their sides. Each of them also had a wide-brimmed hat with a large white feather. Apparently, the wizards had managed to get the royal guard, known as the White Feathers, involved in whatever was going on.
Two squads of cityguards were also present, but next to the elite guards, the townsfolk looked more like rioting peasants than an actual fighting force.
Behind the entire procession was three large carriages. They were covered in dirt and dust, as were the White Feathers, indicating hard travel.
The god looked at the man in front. "And what can I do for you then? I don't think that we have had the pleasure of actually talking."
The pompous vice-principal gave a harrumph and pulled out a long scroll that unfolded with a flourish. The scroll was long. Long enough that when it hit the ground, it bounced a couple of times and rolled out even further.
"Magnus of A'kastin." The wizard spoke in a haughty tone of voice. "You have been charged with numerous crimes against the Empire and its institutions. The crimes levelled against you include, but are not limited to, the following:
Extortion of a public figure.
Entering the capital by illegal means.
Casting unauthorised spells.
Gathering people under false pretences.
Forming illegal institutions.
Forcing a Soul Oath.
Providing illegal and dangerous knowledge.
Threatening a clergyman dur-"
Jasper cut him off with a cough.
"Is it safe to say that you are unsatisfied with how I have intervened in mortal affairs?" He asked, but the pompous man quickly returned to the speech, though he gave Jasper a look of annoyance and repeating the last crime much louder.
"THREATENING A CLERGYMAN DURING A SERMON!
Consorting with demons.
Planning to overthrow the Emperor.
Providing false information based on a legally binding agreement.
Burning down an orphanage."
Jasper cut off the man again. "That one is not something I would have ever done."
The vice principal smirked. "AHA! You admit to all other wrongdoing! All other crimes have been confessed to!" He said as if he were having some great intellectual debate.
Jasper rubbed the bridge of his nose again, lifting up his glasses slightly.
"Great? And what is the punishment for this crime?" He asked, feeling like he was being dragged into something that he wasn't really interested in participating in.
Behind Jasper, Donagus gasped. "Really? You did all those things?"
The god shook his head. "They are exaggerating. I am assuming that they have trouble actually figuring out the riddle that I gave them. And judging by the timing, you must have followed me as soon as I left the city. You didn't even wait to hear from the guards in this town before you hunted me down."
The leader of the small army made an offended noise. "We are the finest minds in Kalish. If we cannot figure out what the riddle means, then you have not provided the information at all! And to answer your question, if you are not able to provide us with recompense, then we will be forced to take you in and extract this data from you by force. Of course, we have been tracking a known criminal since. Guards!"
The man lifted a thin hand, and the pikemen got ready, pointing their sharp sticks at Jasper.
The god was done finding peaceful solutions. He had spent all his game time mailing between people, offering literally divine power to mortals who did nothing but squabble over political issues. Jasper was done. He looked at one of the squads of White Feathers, and he felt how they acted as a single foe. That would have to do.
With a thought, the Father of Dragons activated the power "A Series of Unfortunate Events".
A Series of Unfortunate Events Power Description [https://i.postimg.cc/RhpFZYp9/image.png]
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> A series of Unfortunate Events.
> Type: Activated ability.
> Energy usage: Until next loading screen.
> Full effect: You smite a chosen foe within sight with bad luck, inflicting a 1d20 damage die per Rank. This takes the shape of various accidents with lethal intent which instantly affects the target. As a Smite power, A series of Unfortunate Events cannot be used two rounds in a row.
A sharp gust of wind suddenly picked up, which was unlikely but not impossible. It was even more unlikely for the wind to pick up a shard from one of the pots Jasper had broken the night before. The shard from the pot hitting every single one of the guards in the squad that Jasper had designated had a statistically insignificant chance of happening... but it wasn't impossible.
When the same gust of wind also loosened several roof tiles on the manor, sending sheets of clay hammering down on the group of soldiers, Jasper almost felt bad for them.
The noise startled some of Donagus' horses, making them sprint from their pens and trample over the knocked-down and unconscious royal guard, which was... well, that was just plain bad luck.
The other squad of guards looked at Jasper and then at the vice principal.
For a moment, everyone was frozen, as a squad of elite soldiers had been eradicated by seemingly nothing but bad luck.
"Anyway... What were you saying? That you would take me in? Do you truly think of me as nothing but another mortal? Did you not see the tapestry I created? Your institution is bound to that Soul Oath, whether you like it or not." Jasper said.
The god's contempt was seeping through his voice at this point. He was hamming it up a bit, too, but grandstanding was fun if you could back up your words.
Another pause. The city guards seemed ready to run while the White Feathers were ready to charge. On the other hand, the group of wizards leaned in against each other and whispered about something.
The leader of the little Wizard group turned his attention back to the god and then smiled. "Well, if you claim to have divine powers, then I challenge you to a Wizard match." The voice was dripping with venom, and Jasper sighed.
He activated "A Truth That Burns" and looked into the vice principal's eyes.
A truth that Burns Description [https://i.postimg.cc/PqZnL7Jh/image.png]
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> A Truth that Burns
> Type: Activated ability.
> Energy usage: Until next loading screen.
> Full effect: Choose a visible target. Learn the knowledge of them or their plans that they least want you to know. Worthy foes get a Spirit saving throw to resist this subtle inquisition.
The god saw the trap. The trap that had been so cleverly devised by seven wizards. A trap that would doom anyone. They intended to fight him at the same time. Seven of them against him.
The father of dragons smiled as a visible shiver ran down the pompous wizard's back.
Then he nodded. "Please. I would love to contend with you. However, I believe I get to set the terms... If you lose, you will not be allowed to cast magic." He said firmly. Jasper would not have these fools come for him again.
"If you lose, you will tell how to interpret the riddle you gave the headmaster." The vice principal said.
Jasper nodded and made his way out to an empty field. As he moved outside the manor, he crossed one of the invisible loading screens, and thanks to his powers only taking up Energy temporarily, Jasper was fully recharged. He would have to start relying on these kinds of powers instead of just burning through his Energy.
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As the god found himself standing on a field, which was lying fallow, he looked at the seven other wizards. As the vice principal moved forward with a creepy smile, he spoke loudly: "No Magical school is forbidden. The battle goes on until we are either incapacitated or yield. Do you still wish to participate in the match?"
Jasper noted that the man was clearly trying to hide that the entire faculty would gang up on him.
The god shook his head in disbelief but still spoke. "Sure. Let us get this over with."
And with that, the vice principal grinned. "Great. In that case, let me be the first to announce the first Wizard match in living memory. Magnus of A'kastin versus The University Departments." The sadistic joy could be heard in his voice, and Jasper was honestly impressed. That was more malice in one sentence than most people produced in their lives.
The god tried to pretend to be surprised, and since his Luck Domain didn't give him a failure, it must have succeeded.
"YES! You see! Your intellect does not match those of the Empire's finest. Plead for your life, and it might yet be spared. Simply provide the necessary information, and your execution shall be quick." The vice principal said.
It struck Jasper that he hadn't bothered looking into the man's name, but it didn't matter.
The god rolled his shoulders and prepared for combat. "That is fine." He said softly, though thanks to a small appliance of elementalism, he knew his voice would carry on the wind. "I will be taking all of your magic now."
With that, he took off into the air. For now, he was just using elementalism to fly. He didn't want to give the mortals the impression that he might be a demon by using his wings.
He was honestly surprised when he felt a fairly strong anti-magic field spring up around him, trying to cancel the magic that was making him float.
Jasper committed an Energy to counter the anti-magic field. There was something satisfying about cancelling countermagic.
A mage in a blue rope looked confused since this was probably his spell, which Jasper had countered without uttering a word.
The god couldn't help but notice that none of the masters seemed to be casting spells using somatic or verbal components. That meant that they were either underestimating him, doing it to save face, or simply stupid.
As a lane of fire and a ball of lightning headed towards Jasper, he concluded they were holding back.
That was impressive magic without components. As he let himself drop to avoid the spells, he reasoned that he might have underestimated them slightly. He would have to make up for this and end things quickly.
Even so, he could win this. If nothing else, he would simply use his Luck Domain.
Seeing that Jasper wouldn't be defeated by a couple of offensive spells, the septet spread out. None of them seemed to have the skills required to fly, which was understandable. While they were probably considered archmages within their fields, Jasper was on another level.
He counted out the department heads. One was an elementalist, and a skilled one at that. He had been the one to throw two powerful spells in quick succession. Performing a trick required effort, even for a god of magic.
Then there was the mage that had cast the anti-magic field. Jasper surmised that it had to be the Arcanist.
That left four more department heads, not counting the vice principal.
One of them was probably a Mentalist, and judging by how the slain squad of White Feathers was stirring, one was definitely a necromancer. That left two more.
Jasper's high intelligence stat was quick to point out that one of the men was hiding some demonic features, so he must be a Demonologist.
The last opponent was an enigma, though. Or at least until the god casually threw a fireball at the group of mages after dodging more lightning balls. He didn't think the attack would eliminate any of his opponents. Still, he needed to create some space for himself, putting them on the back foot.
As the roaring ball of flames headed towards the group, the last mage threw up a shield.
Jasper paused. Was this someone who had specialized in shield magic? Did Erik know about this? Jasper let the shield catch the fireball while he took in the situation.
The squad of slain White Feathers were staggering to their feet in the most stereotypical undead Fashion Jasper had ever seen. However, they were still inside the manor courtyard while Jasper and the wizards were in one of the many fields. They wouldn't be a problem for a while.
The fireball was slowly dying out, but the shield mage looked like he had just run a marathon. Had it really been that difficult to block? Oh well, With the shield mage in place, Jasper would learn the path of shields at some point, when they wrote things down.
Jasper smiled. While these wizards were powerful, they were also mortal. So maybe he hadn't underestimated them after all. For a moment, he considered granting himself access to an Ur-spell that could take them all out in one swoop, but that was probably overkill. Instead, he started unleashing spells.
Thick bands of magical light started to glow around the floating god, and one of the glyphs glowed a bright red before vanishing. Apparently the Mentalist had tried to mess with Jasper's mind. That would have to be rectified.
After a quick wave of his hand, the god restored the ward, and with another, he pointed at the Mentalist and invoked the Arcane spell of 'Drain Mana'.
Drain Mana was one of the fundamental spells of the Arcane school of magic. An ordinary wizard would be limited to draining people they could touch, but Jasper wasn't an ordinary Wizard. Furthermore, the spell wasn't really effective since it was limited by two things.
1. How much mana the target had.
2. How much mana the caster could take in.
You could not take in more mana than your mana pool or drain more mana than your opponent's mana pool.
All in all, it made the spell seem weak as you would never use it at the beginning of a fight, but you would never use it at the end of a fight either, as it required someone to get up close.
Jasper could bypass the range restriction since he was the god of magic and could practically bend any spell to his will. The restriction of his mana pool wasn't a problem either.
Jasper's character had literally been created before magic existed in the world, and he had wondered why his spells didn't use mana.
It turns out they did. He just had a mana value of Null. It wasn't zero since zero was a number that could be used for calculations. Any calculations involving a null value would either throw an error or return null. As such, whenever Jasper used magic, he subtracted mana from his character, which was null.
That did mean that when Jasper pulled on the mana inside the Mentalist, he was drained completely. Every single point of mana pouring out of him.
The man slumped to the ground like a sack of potatoes, as it was probably the first time in ages he had been truly mana starved. A quick look told Jasper that the man was passed out, not dead. That was fine, at least for now. The god was still considering taking away their magic by taking away their lives.
With the mental mage gone, what followed wasn't really a match. The wizards were skilled. There was no doubt about that, and had they ganged up on Jasper during the first iteration, the god would have been done for. But now?
He was more powerful than he could ever have imagined. His wards were strong, and anything they could not handle could be dispelled.
Jasper's own spells were almost impossible to dispel, apparently. With the first mage out of the loop, he quickly disabled each one in turn, using various methods, just so he wouldn't grow bored.
The Arcanist was the next person to get knocked out of the match. Since the Arcanist didn't really function on anything other than magic, that had been fairly easy.
Jasper hadn't even used magic to take him out. Thanks to his flight the god of magic had reached speeds that no mortal could ever match, and in the blink of an eye, he found himself in front of the Arcanist. A single punch from a god was apparently enough to knock the man's lights out.
The Elementalist was taken out by layering mental effects upon him, making him believe that he was back in his office, and had a lot of paperwork to do. The man even conjured up his own chair and started to look through documents that weren't there.
The Necromancer was a little more difficult, but only barely. With the most offensive spellcasters taken care of, Jasper had to spend a single point of Energy to dismiss the squad of White Feathers that was coming his way, though it was easily done thanks to the passive ability of his Magic Domain.
Divine Domain Unlocked: Magic [https://i.postimg.cc/7YT52Frp/image.png]
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Divine Domain Unlocked: Magic!
Players with the Magic Domain brush aside the spells of lesser mages. Simply spend one Energy to instantly negate any non-Domain magic being cast or destroy any non-divine artefact, magic construct or summoned entity.
This was quickly followed by encasing the Necromancer in stone and locking him inside. Unable to see any targets, he simply didn't have the power to break through the stone.
Jasper turned his attention towards the last two. The demonologist and the shield mage. None of them had been doing much, but the reason quickly became clear.
The Demonology wizard was casting an Ur-spell. Judging by the roiling power underneath his palms and the way flakes of skin were being torn off him, this was clearly not something he was doing willingly. Jasper took a second to analyze the spell and realized that it was Pore of the Nether
Pore of the nether [https://i.postimg.cc/pVgkvgB6/image.png]
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Pore of the Nether
Tier: 1st tier - The Deified path of the Ur-mage
Effect: Set a sigil on a flat surface. At your command the sigil start to spew out fire and molten rocks at anything within ten meters of the sigil. This can be set to activate automatically whenever someone get close. This deals 1d12 damage per Rank of the Ur-mage.
The shield mage seemed to be conjuring not only a flat surface for the sigil to be placed on but also the spell to ensure that the demonologist didn't get consumed by the power of the Ur-spell.
Jasper sighed, and with a flick of his wrist, he let a small rock fly towards the demonologist, which, with a flex of his magical will, flew through a protective barrier and hit the spell, destabilising it.
The god hadn't been aware of just how desperate the mages were, and as the Ur-spell was unleashed, its power backlashed. The intense magical power pouring from it and threatening to consume the town.
Quickly, Jasper poured two points of divine Energy into the shield that the barrier mage had put up, strengthening them to a ludicrous level, before pouring a point of Energy into ensuring that the demonologist wasn't killed by his own foolishness.
Health 47/47 Energy 3/8
The Ur-magic was contained, barely, and Jasper felt lucky that he didn't have to try and stop any higher tier of Ur-magic. It was also fortunate that the defences had already been in place since he couldn't dispel Ur-magic out-right.
The feedback of the explosion did throw the two other mages to the ground leaving behind the vice principal, leader of the administrative branch.
The arrogant man looked shocked as the god had taken out every one of his men, seemingly with little difficulty.
Jasper hovered before the man, looking down at him and nodded, "Do you yield?"
The administrator looked at the god before falling to his knees and gasping. "Yes... I yield."