Amara dropped the invisibility spell once she’d cleared the main hall the others were fighting in. Several times she felt massive aura blasts and wondered if she’d made the wrong choice in pushing ahead at Akamori’s order. Until she’d rounded the final corner and found herself face to face with the most complex ritual she’d discovered to date. “by the gods…” she whispered softly.

“There are no gods to save you here, little priestess. Only the intelligence and wit with which you supply.” ArchPriest Erlaut’s voice said from within bands and bands of drawn runes. Amara strained to find his aura from within the tangle of spells overlapping spells. It was like someone had taken a tangled ball of yarn and then tangled that up with three other tangled balls of yarn.

Bands of runes slowly spun in orbiting rings as Erlaut continued to weave and sketch. Mana crystals sat in small arcane circles, helping to fuel the raw magic for his ritual. With her Maetrayops spell active, she could see it all working in real time. The trouble was there was so much excess to see. She had trouble understanding what everything did. She suspected this would not be as easy as Hidros was.

Her training under Erlaut had given her a much wider grasp of magical theory than she had gone into the college. Erlaut knew that she’d been the key to unraveling Ominek’s ritual on Hidros, so it was a good bet that this ritual was designed to counter her as it was to do whatever Erlaut was building it to.

“You wouldn’t be willing to tell me what you’re weaving, would you?”

“Sadly not. Consider this your final lesson, little priestess. My shackling prevents me from giving you the keys to beat me. You’ll have to rely on yourself to glean the secrets.”

Amara folded her arms and studied the bands of runes in greater detail. Light magic was fueling the ritual, strong and raw. There was a large amount of void and earth. She also caught hints of mind and Air in the mix. There was a lot going on. She took a moment to think about the combinations and what she knew was capable of them. She pursed her lips and ran through the most logical conclusions as viewed from a dread lord.

Her studies in the weaver college taught her that Earth and the Void were aspects of the path of Summoning. Mind and Air were aspects of less rigid magic that made it more flexible. They could be substitution magics, or potential traps. Without knowing how the ritual was built it was difficult to tell for sure. She continued to circle the ritual, which was wrapped within bands of wards and thickly woven sub spells within the ritual.

She caught a plague spell and separate elements that when combined appeared to look as though they were mana bombs. She was iffy on specifics, but at a guess that’s how it looked. Erlaut was weaving and feeding growing amounts of aether into a pool that would fuel a detonation that would release a deadly poison. If this went out off now, there was a chance it would rain debris down on the entire city and spread the poison to the survivors of the blast. Horror bloomed in her expression and Erlaut acknowledged she’d deciphered the spell.

“Good, you’ve determined what I’m about. Now. How will you stop me? Because you must. If not, then all of Eryn will die. Scoured away and leaving only desolate rock.”

Panic and worry set in as she shook her head. “I don’t know.”

“You must. Or we all die.”

She knew she couldn’t stop the bomb. It was in a loop of buildup that would reach a breaking point. She glanced at the poison spell. While large, it lacked for complexity. But Erlaut would quickly stop any changes she made.

She looked at her hands, wondering what to do. She couldn’t weave anything complicated enough to breach the wards. If she were Akamori she’d probably just punch them. She could punch them. She slapped her forehead with her palms.

“Stuff it Amara, you can be so dense.”

She turned back to the wards and channeled her aether through her hands. Now that she could see, she could easily feed her magic more efficiently through her body, see where the exit points on her aetherical flow system lay. With enough magic channeled, she could effectively make aether blades coating her hands. Blades strong enough to rupture barriers.

She’d grown so used to being a back line soldier she’d forgotten her martial training and skills. She swore to never let those go rusty ever again. She slid her feet into a stance that had her feet shoulder width apart and a low center of gravity. She placed her palm to the wards, feeling their resistance. She smiled, seeing how strong they were with her visual magic and then tuned the output of aether… hands? Gods, she needed a better name for this spell. Technique? Whatever it was.

She drew in a slow, steady breath, then drew her hand back and punched forward, giving a small shout as she did. The force of the strike shattered several defensive wards, keeping her out, breaching the ritual. She took a deep breath and stepped in. Aether currents whooshed by her as she entered the bubble of the ritual. She could see the flow of mana from the crystals fueling the explosion charge spell.

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A void bolt spell from Erlaut forced her to react by blocking it with her bare hand. This drew a curious look from Erlaut. “It would seem your time away was quite instructive for you. I always felt you had immense potential. But sadly, I can’t spare the time to properly duel you.”

Headmaster Avreone stepped out from around Erlaut. Spell blade drawn. Amara knew Avreone was basically filling the same role Akamori had with Lucinda. Delay and distract. Unfortunately for Avreone, Amara was pretty quick on her feet, and she already had a plan.

Amara knew she couldn’t stop the build up spell by simple counter spells or mundane trickery like she did with Ominek’s ritual on Hidros. Erlaut was cocky, but not stupid. And if he’d specifically designed this ritual to stop her, he knew to make it assuming she’d try to address it from a different angle. Write a spell on top of it or something. He wasn’t wrong. If she had time she would have.

Once again, she drew her inspiration from Akamori. The only way to fix this problem was to break it so badly it couldn’t even work as intended. It would require a little theatrics for Avreone’s part, but she felt confident her opponent was up to the task.

Avreone advanced, her blade swishing and chopping through the aether rich ritual space. Amara allowed her body to react on instinct. Because of her visual magic, she could see Avreone’s magic flowing through her body, fueling its movement. The headmaster was only a Tier 3, but that was still enough infusions that her body was several steps above the standard mortal.

Amara noticed that Avreone’s spell uses was channeled through her body. Things like a passive healing aura, and a speed enhancing spell on top of her Tier 3 strength. She had no issues swatting the other woman’s attacks and lunges aside, using her ability to channel her magic through her hands. She suspected with was a spell warrior secret that most weavers didn’t understand. She wasn’t even sure the warriors understood it either, they just used it intuitively.

She experimented with the new skill by venting extra magic from her palm when Avreone went from a strike that looked out of form for the excessively attractive woman. Sliding under Avreone’s guard, she rammed her palm into Avreone’s stomach and watched in amazement as Avreone’s own magic fluctuated wildly. She’d just disrupted another mage’s ability to control their own aether flow. without the use of a spell to do so.

Both women understood the enormity of that discovery immediately. Avreone’s expression went sour with anger, where Amara’s went neutral with focus. Avreone grunted, a sheen of sweat on her brow. Amara’s blow lacked brute force, but the spiritual impact would have felt like she’d just rammed the woman with a starship. “You catch on fast for a weaver.”

“I’m not just a weaver. I’m a priestess from Hoshun, and you’re in my way.”

Amara advanced, delivering rapid strikes to Avreone, and as her opponent staggered, Amara used the purchased time to destroy the mana crystals. The first couple went unnoticed by Erlaut, but after a half dozen, he finally looked back with concern etched on his features.

“Do not let her break another mana battery. If she does, the explosion spell will self cascade and we’re all dead then.”

Avreone shot the Elder Weaver a glare. “Would you like to deal with her?”

“I can’t . It’s on you. Succeed or fail.”

Avreone turned back and reengaged Amara. While Amara had always focused on and preferred her weaving studies, she was a proficient martial artist, and had the anticipatory advantage here. She feigned a mistep and let Avreone pounce, eager to wrap up the fight. She punished the warrior with several debilitating strikes on her torso.

System Info: You have landed Aether Strike. You have successfully inflicted Aether Sickness on the target. You have successfully inflicted Aether Dizziness on the target. The target will suffer debilitating physical pain and be incapable of casting spells until their aether flow system returns to normal. Subsequent Aether Strikes can renew this status. Cannot be purged with Healing Potions.

Amara could see the headmaster’s aether warp and twist as it struggled to cope with the opened and closed paths she’d just administered to Avreone’s body. Like being able to change the flow of large rivers at a whim. Several large red spots bloomed in Avreone’s otherwise blue aether flow, signaling her body wasn’t in harmony. That would negate her spell casting and lock her up physically.

Avreone dropped her sword and collapsed right where Amara had planned for her, too. She turned her attention to Erlaut. She had to time the next few steps carefully. While Erlaut focused with correction of the buildup and managing the mana, she went to work covertly introducing junk elements to the poison spell, nullifying it completely and rendering it a waste of mana. That meant the land wouldn’t be blighted when the bomb went off.

Next she set to work weaving a complex air spell that siphoned off some of the mana build up to fuel itself, creating a sort of wind geyser spell designed to hurl material and forces vertically instead outward. That would also be key to helping ensure as many people survived the blast as possible. Next she daisy chained a barrier spell to the mana crystals surviving. That was as much preparation as she was comfortable handling without drawing Erlaut’s full ire.

Amara spent as much time as she was comfortable using without knowing how far in Erlaut was with his preparations. She’d set up a means of neutering the poison, redirecting the blast, and robbing the ritual of both its designed elements. She advanced on Erlaut, whose back was still to her as he continued weaving signs at a dizzying speed. She took a moment to study the complex layers of wards shielding Erlaut’s back.

She glanced down at her hands, watching the various exit points on her hands where her channeled aether was pouring out of forming the sharp gauntlet like constructs. She instinctively knew she could turn up or down the output. She looked back at the wards, gauging how much power she would need to strike through them.

In magic, standard spells took aether and reshaped it to the caster’s needs. Typically, this involved energy loss because of the conversion. What Amara was practicing was something more akin to raw energy shaping. In her efforts, there was no energy loss, because she wasn’t changing it, just channeling it.

Amara took a deep breath, drawing her hand back flat to present a knifed edge. She did a quick mental count to three, then struck out.

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