The students of the magical academy went about their days like any other. Some moving to classes, others laughing with friends or brewed dangerous potions for assignments. Similarly, the professors followed their own routine. Some would spend hours droning on about the correct pronunciation of spell, while others would demonstrate the proper symbols for carving runes, even others liked to spend the time to enjoy a good sandwich. None were the wiser about the battle of control going on under their very academy.
That was, of course, excluding Phonta. The moment the energies clashed, her attention had not wavered for even a second. Even for someone as attuned to the world as she, it is rare to see two dungeon cores do battle.
The first core she had been watching for some time now. Its presence was faint. For anyone else, if they had even sensed it, they would have assumed it was some random mana stone or, for the exceptionally dim-witted, they would say its a dragon vein. But she had correctly identified it from the start as a brand new dungeon. That was two years ago, and since then it had kept growing deep underground. Every day, in her office, she would direct her perception under the school to find her little treasure.
It was always there, biding its time, expanding, evolving. She could only guess at its type as it had yet to even summon a monster, but its mana capacity had doubled almost every three months like clockwork. In a decade she might be able to send an expedition for the first time. Her academy would then be able to boast of a young dungeon as training grounds for new students!
That was her thought until today. Today everything changed. During a meeting with the school’s landscaper, her little pet dungeon suddenly began to emit massive waves of mana. Not strong enough that others would easily since them, but strong nonetheless. Something was going wrong with her little pet.
Her first thought was it was evolving or going mad, but in all her research that was nothing like this. She strained her perception, directing her entire being from to focus on the object below the academy. It was then when she felt a tiny, almost imperceptible pulse right next to the core.
“A magic stone?....No, not at all the right signature…”
“Uh… Headmaster?”, The older man in overalls tilted his head. “I d-don't know much about those fancy magical rocks, but if you want-”
Phonta changed her gaze to the window, staring intently at the grass outside, like somehow, the world would speak to her and tell her what is befalling her precious child. “An animal maybe?”, she mumbled to herself. She wondered if some sort of beast invaded the dungeon from the caves?
The man looked to the window, trying to follow his boss’s gaze. “That grey squirrel you mean? What about it?”
After a silent moment of concentration, realization suddenly washed over Phonta. The peculiar energy she felt the other day near the forest. The powerful magic stone she watched move deep underground. The slight pulse coming from near the young core! “It's an attack!”, she practically yelled it as she realized what she had to do.
Now, Carl was a simple man. He liked bushes and trees. Not the manliest things or the most lucrative hobbies, but no one could deny what he could do with an afternoon and a pair of trimmers. However, even with all his years of experience, no one called him exceptionally bright. Hardworking? Certainly. Honest? To a fault. But gullible as well. So when his headmaster stormed out the room, upset, and anxious, he wanted to do his best to rectify the problem.
“I knew it! They called me crazy, but it's those darn squirrels! They are planning to invade the school!”, Carl had a new job to do!
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THUD!
Wave after wave of energy crashed on my ever-thinning protective shell of mana. Half of my reserves were gone and the other half was not faring well.
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THUD!
The moment the dungeon had noticed me it lashed out with all its strength, and it had considerable. My core seemed much more resilient than it was when I was transported here, but this was not a fight I could win with my own strength!
THUD!
Frantic in both body and mind I rummaged through my satchel for anything that might prepare me for this event. I know master thought of much, but I am unsure if he gave me materials to deal with a hostile dungeon core. Not the most common situation to run into.
THUD!
Letters? I don't think we prepared any that dungeon cores could read. Flash stones? Worth a shot! I ripped a few small red rocks out of their pouch and quickly cast the arming incantation, then, with as much power as I could muster, my telekinesis fired them into the hole in the stone. “2…. 3…” I counted to myself, then
BOOM!
The wall of stone I had broken through to connect our two dungeons was now no more. I quickly pushed my perception into the opening slightly. Is it over? I suddenly could feel the other dungeon. For a brief moment, our perceptions had overlapped and I could understand it's will. Then I felt the mana around me surge with emotion. With Rage, Vengeance, and Annoyance. PLAN B! WHAT IS PLAN B!?!?
A massive wave of energy, enabled by the now unobstructed connection between our dungeons slammed into me. My crystal seemed to vibrate with the onslaught of power.
BACK TO THE BAG! Assorted feathers? Nope? Rare ores? Probably not? Various monster cores? Bad idea. Then I found it. I had forgotten about this little gadget. Hurriedly I removed it from its casing, ripping off the attached note that listed twenty different ways this could end badly. Master Timon had lectured me for a whole day that I should only use this with no other options. The drawbacks might be… extreme. Well, the drawbacks to not using it would be the end of this mission and by proxy, the world, let's risk it.
The device in question was a fist-sized clear magical gem, something that small nations might consider their crowning jewel. However, this gem has some special additions. Master Timon had spent many nights carving runes into the surface of the gem. A normally taboo practice, as it has a habit of making the spell impossible to control. And when I mean impossible, I mean that some of the most fatal accidents in recorded artifactor history have come from overzealous inventors abusing this technique to pull more power from crystals.
THUD! Another wave crashed into me. I could feel each one was stronger than the last, or maybe my shell was weakening with each hit. It is now or never!
I said a silent prayer to anyone listening and then activated the magic gem. A beam of white light erupted from the gem. At first, it was just a strong light, and I quickly directed it in the direction of the enemy core. The light slowly got brighter. The white light morphed into pure white mana. The beam widened, growing stronger and stronger.
The onslaught of mana was abruptly pulled back. For a moment I was the one in control! The other cores mana was holding strong against my onslaught, forming a protective shell around his core like I had around my own. The gem in my hand continued to shine brighter. It had already surpassed anything that the other core had sent against me, and it kept getting stronger.
Arcs of mana started dancing around the room as the beam generated by the crystal was not enough to direct the evergrowing energy. My perception was getting fuzzy. I was able to detect the mana of the air and stone quite well before, but with the concentration of energy, there was too much noise. Everything was beginning to shine white. The walls themselves seemed to ooze with the mana in the room, feeling sticky and wet.
The crystal grew brighter.
And brighter.
And brighter.
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“At thus, this symbol can be used to link the idea from earlier to this new concept to create a third spell joining their two effects. In recent papers, it has been theoriz-”
brrrrrr
The professor went quiet. He felt magic power coming from deep underground. Strong, powerful waves and they were growing stronger.
Brrrrrrr
The room started to shake. No! It wasn't just the room, the whole academy was trembling. Even the students could feel it now, waves and waves of energy ripped across the air. Powerful, waves of pure magic and they were still growing stronger. Each one sent people ducking under their desks. The teachers were calmer, but noticeably shaking.
“Students! Calm down! We are going to evacuate the building! Leave in an orderly manner so we-”
BBBRRRRRRRRRRRRR
The shaking grew stronger, more frequent, and a buzzing noise was added to the chaos. Mana could be felt in the air, to the mages it was actually palpable. The students ran, bursting through halls and doors. Fleeing the building fearing they would collapse, but one student seemed calmer than the rest.
In fact, he was not calm, inside he was freaking out. His past two days flashed before his eyes. The letter still lay crumpled on his desk, he had not touched it since that night. He had actually gone out of his way to leave it there? But why?
He asked himself that, but he did not know. Maybe deep down he had believed that the letter was not a poor prank. Maybe he was actually destined for something greater than beginner alchemy and artifacting.
The supposed king's words flowed into him
The world as you know it is at stake
If that were, in fact, true, what could he do? He knew not why, but he was sure he had to do something! As the professors tried to cast a defensive bubble around the scared students, he ran. Ran as fast as he could, back to his dorms. Back to the letter. Maybe he could save the world!