> [Twin Soul's Severance] - 7th circle spell.
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> Element: Law.
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> Type: Soul.
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> Classification: Attack. Curse. Sacrifice.
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> Target: Self.
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> Covers the caster's Soul Vessel in an impenetrable barrier while the spell is in effect. No soul matter can enter or leave the barrier. Barrier can expand to acommodate soul fragments.
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> Severs the caster's soul from any other souls cohabitating the same body and any spiritual taint. Deals half damage to the caster's body as the parts excised. Any amalgamation parts for soul fusion are severed leaving 95% of the mixed phase section to the caster's side. The excised parts are pushed out toward the barrier and are held by it.
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> For each foreign soul matter that is excised, an equal portion of the caster's soul losts cohesion and is immediately spread over the empty space left over. One quarter damage is dealt to the body parts where Soul cohesion is lost.
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"Get rid of possession and commit suicide at the same time," Was Astromelicus' impression of the spell his star pupil... pupils crafted.
During the last week after they returned from the trip to the God-Slayer's estate, he made both Aidan and Dawn work all the time they weren't either sleeping or taking care of their bodies on finishing the spell. What he was seeing in the scroll was the end product. Something most archmages would be unable to cast and would probably die. The spell cut so many corners it might as well be a perfect sphere. He questioned everyone's sanity, including his own.
He could see how it would do the job. Dawn was going to first purify herself and strengthen her own soul to the maximum by having Aidan gently exfoliate any taint out of her and then submit to the Soul Restoration ritual. That would set her back on her affinity training by a small amount, but it would guarantee she would be complete without taint when she used the spell on herself. It had the added complexity that any Soul magic used on one of them affected the other by an equal amount. It was both a blessing and a curse. The spells' effects were first reduced by their own resistance first if it was harmful. The energy that bypassed the resistance had to travel - shedding power - through their tether and balance over both souls, only then to apply the remaining effect equally. Everything happened in a fraction of a moment.
It meant that purifying Dawn would have two side effects on Lumina. She would suffer part of the damage from the exfoliation and the restoration will progress her fusion with Aidan further, leaving less of her to work with.
These technicalities were over. They descended to the basement where the Princess' body laid in stasis in a crystal coffin. Aidan and the Princess simulacrum that was Dawn sat on their spots ready to start casting. All three bodies covered with the magical diagrams etched in body painting that would connect their bodies and souls to the ritual circle painted with orichalcum ink on the ground. Twenty charged mana stones laid on their sockets ready to complement their Mana pools. The circle glowed with the already charged mana, eclipsing the torches on the four corners of the room and casting eerie shadows on the stone roof.
With a heavy heart, Astromelicus gave the signal to start. He held his breath, not remembering when in his few millennia of life he was that worried.
Dawn used Undying Resilience on herself and the spell affected both. Aidan adjusted the necklace with the active soul receptacle around his neck and activated the Soul Restoration ritual, linking first his Mana pool, draining it entirely only then to activate the charged cores with Underworld mana. The young mage's body slumped from exhaustion and Dawn initiated the second phase, the spell they created.
It took most of her mana pool to successfully cast the spell. With mastery over a spell formula, there was a great amount of optimization a mage could do with spells as most of the mana a spell uses is wasted during the spellcasting process. But that was the kind of spell you can't master. Mastery required practice and that was not a spell someone could cast repeatedly.
Aidan screamed in pain as the soul in his body was torn in twain and kneaded to return. Dawn followed in his steps, the sympathetic link between both of them caused them to share every thought, every sensation, and emotion.
The bond was unbreakable and almost impossible to detect. In his studies over Soul magic, Aidan called that an other-dimensional tether. A tether that instead of going out of the soul from its outer shell, went inward through a higher dimension and connected through that space. The only other recorded case of such tethers were seen in Princess Pearl while she was linked to the summoned heroes and fed their existence with her own lifeforce.
The archmage watched intently as the receptacle activated right after Dawn's spell ended, drawing Lumina's soul inside. The crystal glowed with golden light and Astromelicus released his breath.
"Sylph's Hand!"
Astromelicus was not just an observer. He had an important part to play. Now that the Soul Restoration was working full-throttle to repair the self-inflicted damage on the teenagers, he had to move Lumina's receptacle over to the open coffin and trigger the sequence that would put the Princess back in her own body. He carefully released the clasp holding the crystal to the necklace and moved it across the ritual circle, depositing the precious vessel between the Princess' breasts.
He now had to hope that the receptacle would sense the resonance between the soul and its rightful body and discharge its contents back inside, attaching the soul to the physical shell and restoring the girl to life. The golden light seeped from the crystal into the body. He could sense Life flowing back into Lumina. But so could the Soul Restoration ritual. The ongoing magic tried to heal the soul before it completely transferred. The receptacle pushed but never emptied as Lumina's soul bloated inside the stone and clogged the transfer tether.
Astromelicus had two of the three Elements required for Underworld magic. The most he tried, he had close to zero affinity with either Light or Darkness. It meant that his overall affinity for the tri-Element went from the A he had in Earth and Fire down to a D in Underworld. As he hesitated, the crystal coffin shattered, sending sharp shards everywhere and at everyone.
The crystal vessel dislodged from its resting place. He forced it back with his wind magic. But Lumina's soul would not transfer. It was stuck in the vessel. He had to push it. Astromelicus picked one spare Underworld crystal and focused on the diagram of the receptacle spell. He used it as inspiration and created an improvised effect on the fly.
He failed Alina. He wouldn't fail her daughter.
The old archmage used his own mana, the crystal to create suction inside Lumina's body, to draw in more Soul matter than what was being regrown by the ritual. Without a body to guide it, the soul on the outside was growing out of control. It was like a disease otherworlders called cancer. He drained the core and it was almost enough. Almost wouldn't do it. He focused on another tri-element he could use. Blood.
Astromelicus converted his own lifeforce into Mana and finished his effect. The vessel crumbled from the strain right after the rest of the golden glow disappeared. Still unconscious, Lumina's body drew in air.
These children, his friends' children meant the world to him. The future of Yutis and the world at large were in their hands.
The archmage had lived long enough for a human. He partnered with a dozen generations of God-Slayers. He helped retake the valley for Helios' ancestors. That he could help in his last moments to perform one of the impossible feats of magic wasn't enough for him. He had no regrets.
They brought the dead back to life even though it was a borderline case.
At the cost of another life.
The story has been illicitly taken; should you find it on Amazon, report the infringement.
With the blurry vision of a dying man, he saw the image of Alina appear out of thin air before him. She was wearing a plain robe but the glow around her was angelic. She smiled at him but her countenance was bittersweet.
"Hello, my friend," He coughed blood and corrected himself, "Your Majesty."
"Astro, you fool," Alina told him with tears freely flowing from her eyes. "Why did you do that!"
He felt bad for making the Queen cry.
"I had to, Alina. Lumina would be lost otherwise. The resonance..."
"Speak no more. What is done is done," Alina hugged him. "Now rest, old man."
Astromelicus closed his eyes and died of exsanguination.
Dawn was the first to wake up. The girl opened her eyes and felt the stiff herbal extracts over her skin and the cold stone floor under her naked body. It was dark. The torches that illuminated the room long dead. She focused on herself, trying to see if there were any problems with her body, soul and magic. She had no wounds, only the flaking paint they used to attune herself with the restoration ritual. She felt the drop in her affinities but all of them were still there. Her mana pool was more than halfway full. She also felt no ongoing magical effects around her except for the containment and privacy wards on the walls and door. These were untouched.
She felt Aidan through the tether. Wounded but alive. She sighed, relieved. Now to check on Lumina.
"Light."
One of the simplest first circle spells. The room flared into existence in her sight and she saw everyone else unconscious. Aidan, Lumina and Astromelicus. There were crystal shards everywhere around her. Dawn moved carefully, her bare feet too delicate to step on these shards. She used Sylph's hand to move them out of the way.
She tried to stir Aidan awake through their tether but his condition disallowed consciousness. He would need to rest. Next, she checked the Princess. It was odd, uncanny to look at her. It was the face Dawn saw in the mirror every time for the last year. How would they relate to each other now? She wouldn't discover it. Dawn was now going to exist in the shadows. She noticed Lumina had fewer wounds. She looked around and saw that it was her stasis coffin that shattered. The resonance between conflicting effects. They didn't take that into account.
"Healing Light."
"Soul Reveal."
The distorted effigy that represented Lumina's soul appeared. It was vaguely humanoid, as one tried to create a person out of bread dough. The golden color was there, and the four spheres representing her affinities were blurred but still spun around them. Dawn squinted and saw three others, red, brown, and purple. Tiny dots, not even an F-rank affinity. But better than nothing. Lumina breathed. There was still a long way in the path of her restoration. They would need to reshape the soul and morph it back into a person. But she was alive.
She next checked Aidan. She drew their own soul effigies and saw why he wouldn't wake up. She could see the amalgamation band now shaped like the area Lumina occupied. In time, it would merge back into their being. The upper body portion of his soul was also distorted like badly shaped clay but not as much as Lumina. He was alive, wounded by the shards and their affinities were there, also damaged. They would recover and maybe even grow a little. She also healed him and with a gentle kiss, laid him back on the stone. Dawn stood up and picked up the robes. After dressing everyone up, she went to wake up the Headmaster.
"Healing Light!"
There was no change in his body. The wounds didn't close. Unable to even think of what could it be, she tried to talk to him.
"Rise and shine, old man. The Princess is alive, she will recover. We did it!"
She shook Astromelicus' shoulder. It was cold. With clenched heart and throat, Dawn checked him.
"Lifesight!"
"No response. It could mean only one thing. She refused to believe.
"Soul Sight."
Nothing. She could see no spiritual force whatsoever inside the body.
"No..."
She hugged the body and cried. It felt so light. It was already stiff and cold. So cold. She couldn't think or reason. She tried to figure out what happened, but nothing came to mind. His wounds were not that large to cause death by bleeding and he had almost no blood on him or on the ground underneath. The wounds were dry. The body was dry. There were no fluids, it was if it was mummified.
"No."
She had all of Aidan's memories and most of Lumina's. Two star students of magic. She was unwilling to think of that but her analytical mind raced. Something went wrong during the ritual. Astromelicus tried to fix it but had to resort to blood magic. It was the only reason his body would be in this state. He drained all the lifeforce of his body fluids to solve the problem.
He died to fix their blunders.
"No."
Dawn could do nothing. She cried for Twelve-knew how long. She might have lost consciousness. And then she had no more tears to shed.
She had all six elements, ultimate magic and it wasn't enough. They didn't cover all bases.
"No!"
Dawn refused to believe. She felt a surge of power rush into her being. Her determination steeled. She could feel Skippy. She tried and used Mana Sight. She glanced back at Aidan and felt. They were finally one now that Lumina was not tainting their link.
She saw the lingering magic of the ritual coursing through the orichalcum ink. Too weak to do any effect, only a residue. She saw the table and the boxes of charged cores. The cosmos ones shone the brightest even though they were like the starry sky. The Underworld cores, almost all of them used in the ritual. The spare soul receptacles, dormant except for one.
Dawn picked up the receptacle. There shouldn't be a soul in any of them. She looked at the color and found a calm greenish-cyan and white with tints of blue, red and brown. Whose soul was that? It made no sense.
She used Soul Sight again. She could tell there was a resonance between the crystal receptacle and Astromelicus' body. But how did his soul went into that receptacle? He couldn't have transferred it and fixed whatever blunder happened. He used blood magic and drained his whole body!
Someone else trapped his soul in that receptacle. But who? The wards were untouched, nobody could have entered the room. Astromelicus couldn't have done that and they were unconscious. Only Dawn was awake.
Who did that?
Of the four mages, one was dead, the other two incapacitated, their souls damaged. It left only her. She knew the spell to trap souls in the receptacles, it was the same she tried when they proved she could not abandon Lumina's body.
Dawn placed Astromelicus' soul in the receptacle. She could bring him back! But something was wrong. She felt she couldn't just put the soul back in the body, it would break something. Her intuition told her that.
How could she do that if she was unconscious from the ritual? She would have to touch the vessel and press it to the body to capture the soul. But she didn't stand up from her place in the circle because the herbal paint was intact, only dried.
It was a paradox. The only possible explanation was that she moved without leaving her place. There was one more discrepancy. She had no wounds on herself and too much mana. Somehow she wasn't affected by the shards? Impossible. There were crystal shards everywhere, even around where she woke up.
She glanced at the Cosmos cores. The ultimate Element. She felt that Cosmos could do anything. Even the impossible. Even make her do something she had to be there to do while she was lying on the ritual circle, unconscious...
She felt it was time to do something. Dawn let the feeling take over her. She drained all the Underworld cores to restore her mana and carefully placed Astromelicus' receptacle in the empty box. She grabbed a handful of Cosmos mana stones, the very cores she bleached and filled and stuffed her mouth with them, swallowing them one by one. She was going to do something crazy but she knew it was the right thing to do.
Full of more energy than she could ever dream of use, Dawn focused on what she wanted. Astromelicus, alive. And for that, she had to put his soul in the receptacle. Dawn focused her magic. From Underworld, add Air and Light. Compress. Mix.
Create Time mana. She focused on her will. Solve the mystery. She was the one to put Astromelicus' soul in the receptacle. Rise to the Challenge triggered and she felt reality stretch. She could kill gods, what was just a few hours jaunt into the past. The evidence was already there. It already happened, she just had to make it real.
The cores inside her dissolved to grant her enough power. Just a single mage would never be enough for something like that, improvised to boot. She opened a rift in reality and walked through it like she belonged. Like a Princess would.
Dawn came to her senses and saw the torches burning in their sconces. She looked down and saw Astromelicus, eyes unfocused, almost dead.
"Hello, my friend," He coughed blood and corrected himself, "Your Majesty."
She had no time to waste. But she had to make a point. Dawn shed even more tears. "Astro, you fool, why did you do that!"
"I had to, Alina. Lumina would be lost otherwise. The resonance..."
Yes. It was time. She glanced at the receptacles and saw the one she moved in the present. That one.
"Speak no more. What is done is done," Dawn hugged him and reached for the receptacle with her hand out of his sight. "Now rest, old man."
Astromelicus closed his eyes and died. Dawn was quick to cast the spell.
"Trap the Soul!"
His essence flowed into the receptacle instead of into oblivion. Dawn placed the receptacle exactly where she found. She felt the strands of time tug her back but she had something else to do. She moved over her own body and touched it.
"Healing Light."
And she was back to the present, in the ritual room. Exhausted. The torches were burned out. The globe of light she summoned shone in the middle of the ceiling.
Dawn looked at the receptacle and the body. Before she restored him, Dawn took the last cosmos cores in one hand and pushed the mana out to power another effect. Creation this time. Life magic could only work with what was already there, but Creation could do more. She closed the wounds of the body and willed blood into the vessels within. It was like the Sanguine Genesis spell but inside a corpse.
Color returned to the body but it was only a slapdash patch.
She pressed the receptacle to the old body's solar plexus. The resonance between soul and body dragged the lifeforce back. Dawn guided it using her own mana pool. She was arguably the strongest Soul mage alive. She could do it.
MInutes passed.
The Archmage, teacher, friend, mentor, uncle, and Headmaster gasped for air. His eyes shot open, scared. Dawn hugged him.
"Welcome back, you old fool!"
"Alina?" Astromelicus asked, confused.
"No, silly. I'm Dawn, the adventurer." She introduced herself.
She thought for a while and added.
"Apparently, time traveler as well."