The dusty air around the Spiritpool sparkled like a morning dew basking in the sunlight on a spider's web as the cave quieted down. Hovering over the ground, the Guardian of this Spiritpool watched in silent horror as most of the mana he worked so hard to protect disappeared. His temporary vessel sucked in the pulverised remains of the crystals growing in the cave giving him a strangely festival look which didn't match the anger growing inside him.
"At least my plan is still intact. I can send a vision to nearby furry tools to set up camp above. No one would even miss them anyway." The storm spirit quietly murmured to himself before calming his mind and stopping the growing thunder inside him as the sound of light footsteps rumbled in the quiet cave.
"... What happened to Tey?" The Outsider peeked over the side wall as she slowly shuffled toward the dress the animal had thrown recklessly to the side.
"None of us prepared for the... destructive effects your mighty reconstructive spell did." The ancient magical being who masqueraded itself as a pale human female climbed on top of the thick wall she was holding onto after putting on her long heavily enchanted garment. For a reason he couldn't comprehend the Outsider chose to hide her aura, becoming almost completely indistinguishable from a human except for the fact that her complete lack of an aura was more terrifying than the loss of centuries worth of hoarding mana.
"I tried brute forcing the healing process of my entire mana control and regulating system, from these I I wanted to start my reconstructive process but I faced significant amount of backlash due to working on multiple points at the same time causing them to be overwhelmed by mana. I then restarted the entire process from one point, recalibrating my entire system to be more efficient in less mana-dense environments while recomputing the size of my mana links to be individually thicker to sustain the new stresses my body now experiences. I still have to become more familiar with the limitations of having an anchor and play with them a little bit more but Iris doesn't like me doing it."
The girl's words rang hollow in the relatively old spirit's mind. He wouldn't describe himself as an elder spirit as there were many more spirits older than him. He was somewhere in the lower-middle rank of their hierarchy purely due to his age as he didn't manage to find a reliant source of mana to empower himself, until recently. Gaining even a few genuine favours from the undead Outsider and mixing a few half-truths to use as leverage against other high-level spirits would surely propel his power to the Legendary level.
"Recalibrating, recomputing?" The Supreme Storm Spirit asked trying to understand why a thick layer of pulverised crystal and stone covered the floor like a carpet.
"You know, two mana plus two mana is four mana, the surface area of a flat object is its width by height and the flow rate of mana inside a link is volume over time and so on. How don't you know these things, they are the very basics of spellcasting. Wait... how do you cast spells without calibrating them first?"
"I just cast them?" The Guardian responded, unsure of his answer as the Outsider grabbed her head with both hands.
"WHY IS EVERYONE CHEATING HERE EXCEPT ME!" She let out a frustrated cry before jumping down from the low wall causing a plum of sparkling dust to rise into the air and hover for a short moment.
"I'm glad to see you back in good health," The spirit tried to change the subject. "I'm also very happy to see that whatever artefact made kidnapping you from your realm possible is no longer afflicting you."
"What do you mean?" The Outsider who helped the beast woman wake up suddenly stopped to stare at the Guardian.
The spirit and the ruler of this Spiritpool took a step backwards as a cold grip of terror was rapidly applied to his mind. Previously the Outsider's eyes barely could hold focus as massive unsustainable amounts of mana of death mana spewed from her every second but now her eyes focused on him with not so subtle threat of violence.
"Wha... Kia, what happened?"
"Answer me." The Outsider named Kia demanded as she grabbed her chest with one hand while completely ignoring the low-level shaman beside her.
"After I ensured your travel will be as quick and peaceful as I could, I sent out a party to investigate how you were kidnapped from your realm and to dispose of them afterwards." The Guardian mustered up the strength to proudly explain his plan.
"WHAT!" The pale-skinned mage let out a shriek as she seemed to have trouble breathing as she stomped her way toward the Guardian. "If anything happens to I-Iris-" Nakatei quickly sprung onto her legs as the girl began to struggle to talk while she clawed at her chest from distress. "No, no, no, no, no. That's what that feeling meant." Each haggard breath she took caused the left side of her body to become even paler than before appearing almost translucent as something dark swirled beneath her skin.
"How long does it take to kill two pathetic creatures," The storm spirit whispered, annoyed at his incompetent vassals ruining his plan. "I'm sorry to have to do this but I will have to calm you down for long enough to destroy the artefact making you act this way- What's happening?"
While the storm spirit was distracted by something, a blast of dark energy left Kia's fingertip hitting the spirit's chest. Nakatei jumped away from Kia as blue-white lighting arced toward her, splitting the stone tiles underneath it. Small pebbles flew through the dust cloud before clattering on the stone wall behind Kia as she stood perfectly untacked after redirecting the attack to the side with her bare hands.
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Nakatei watched as the undead mage and her deity flung spells at each other, unsure of what to do. It wasn't really a question of who to support but rather how would she even get close to either of the combatants as the force rippling through the air due to the spells she couldn't even imagine previously kept her pinned to the ground.
More bolts of lighting illuminated the cave in a pale blue light splitting in all directions before swooping toward the undead mage with freighting speed. Her delicate body was suddenly encased with a blue ward spell accompanied by a clung of metal being struck as the lighting bolts got harmlessly absorbed realising a loud hiss in the process.
The girl seemed to be holding her breath as she puffed her red cheeks while under the magical bubble which flashed with blue light as the Guardian unleashed even more spells toward her. The dense mesh on the bubble surface appeared to come to life, pulsing with purple energy causing the clear membrane to become opaque, like looking through a fog hanging above a lake.
The spirit put both of his hands in front of him before a large magical circle surrounded his wrist, expanding quickly alongside a blue ball of light between his palms. The magical circle shattered as the Guardian moved to the side dodging a beam of energy which melted the wall behind him as the bubble surrounding Kia shattered.
Still standing in the same place, Kia caught the rushed spell coming from the storm spirit which rushed down her shining black dress and jumped from the dress's hem to the ground before answering with a pitch-black mana bolt which left a foggy trail behind it.
"Why can't I leave!" The monster took flight and hit its head on the ceiling causing the girl's missile to connect, full of confusion and anger he casted a protective spell around himself as he searched the ceiling for an escape.
Kia's cold teary eyes showed no mercy to the Guardian as she casted further pitch-black mana bolts, leaving a ripple on the ward's surface before piercing the supreme spirit. The mage's other hand clenched on her chest as talons began to appear from the stone clawing at the wind-type spirit wherever it went. Stopping her onslaught for a split moment, purple light leaked from between Kia's fingers in rapid pulses.
Nakatei watched as for some reason the undead girl seemed to be unable to take a breath. The Guardian levitating on the other side of the room ripped a claw from the ceiling and threw it to the side causing him to realise that the Outsider appeared defenceless. Unable to resist taking such an opportunity he began to power up a spell.
Underneath Kia's feet, a magical circle pulsed for just an instance before she was swallowed by a tornado inside which a light show of lightning strikes illuminated her silhouette against the tornado's dark swirling walls.
To the shock of both the Guardian and Nakatei, the pale mage simply walked out of the vortex with a spell already charged up. A smudge of blue and black crossed the fox's vision she ducked into cover as the spell exploded behind the spirit, turning into bone fragments sharpened to fine needle-like tips which passed through his body before shattering on the rocks below.
"I'm level 500 and you dare to ruin my plans!" The storm forming the Guardian's body turned even more violent and darker as it swooped toward Outsider, tired of his spells being easily countered by the undead's seemingly never-ending ability to defy the few rules magic possessed.
For the first time in their fight, Kia moved because of the Guardian's attack as she moved to the side. Her small and delicate body couldn't match the spirit as he closed into melee and shoved her onto the ground. The storm spirit ignored the red magical circle on the girl's palm which she pressed against his stomach unleashing a fire beam point-blank as he raised his fists into the air.
Behind the two dueling monsters a column of ghostly blue flame erupted from the Spiritpool quickly melting the retaining walls around it and turning the tiled rock into shapeless slag.
"Spark?!" The beast woman shouted as she stared at a strangely familiar figure made out of blue fire held in shape by bone-white plates. Behind what must have been Spark a fan made out of nine tails spread open before the previously adorably small fire spirit dashed toward the storm spirit.
"You thief, How dare you steal everything from my pool!" The Guardian shrieked as he flew into the air dodging the ghostly fire spirit before swooping from behind.
The entire cave rumbled as the two spirits fought in melee causing the fox's legs to behave like noodles as she stumbled toward Kia. The shaman quickly grabbed the necromancer's ice-cold hand and pulled the girl up. Kia momentarily rested her head on the fox's shoulder before pushing her aside.
Kia rested her elbows on her stomach causing a black fog to rise from under her feet. The higher her hands were the darker and colder the room got, after some time she seemed to reach a certain critical point as the fog reached her knees and her arms shot upwards.
The Guardian who was wrestling with the thieving fire spirit felt his body become immobilised as an uncountable amount of claws pulled his agile body onto the ground as death mana was forced into his body. As his body weakened a crystal ball manifested itself inside the Guardian's thunderous torso. Seeing the small round crystal constantly moving inside his opponent Spark plunged his hand after the crystal. The very moment his fiery fingers clasped around the air spirit's core the Guardian flayed with true pain before disappearing completely as his core turned into dust.
"Kia!" Nakatei rushed toward the girl as she swayed weakly from side to side. "Do you need to heal again? Shit, Spark help me! The Spiritpool disappeared."
"Iris, Iris, Iris..." The panting undead clutched her chest with both hands as hard as she could while her teary eyes stared at the firespirit like a begging pup.
"All servile spirits should rush here to see what had happened." *Cough* A hoarse voice responded to the panicking girl as if the being speaking was unfamiliar with talking.
"T-th-thank you..." Nakatei's emerald eyes watched as the slightly muddied undead stopped breathing as her grip on her chest changed. Instead of clutching it with all her might, the girl now held it with the most delicate and gentle touch as her head slowly slid down the fox's shoulder.
"...fun." An unexplainable smile appeared on Kia's face as she closed her eyes and either from exhaustion or stress, allowed herself to fall asleep after feeling her magic reach something familiarly warm.
"She is crazy," The shaman slowly sat down while holding the sleeping mage in her hand before covering Kia with her tail. "You are Spark?" She asked as the blue fire spirit with bone white armour which encased a portion of its body still where it had killed the Guardian.
"Yeas." Instead of a slightly masculine voice, a distorted voice mimicking something familiar to the demi-human responded. The spirit turned, he proudly put his arms on his hips and lifted the nine burning tails above his head.
"Wait..." Nakatei stared with disbelief as she saw the spirit with a feminine figure wearing the same clothes as she did and two pairs of triangle-shaped ears adorably fidgeting on top of his head as if he didn't know how to control them. "WHY ARE YOU ME!"
"Shhhh." Spark raised her finger to her lips before reappearing in front of Nakatei. "I don't want to end up like him." She pointed to the peacefully sleeping girl with a big elven frown on her forehead.
"Why are you looking like me." The fox whispered her screaming complaint.
"Because I like you." The bone plate acting as Spark's face shifted a little, sharpening her jawline and such to better resemble the original. "I have everything to thank you for. I was only able to become this because of you... and her." The spirit extended every limb she had outwards indicating the unusual form she took was somehow related to Kia.
"What do you mean?" The shaman asked as she stared jealously at the nine tails behind Spark.
"I might have eaten a bit of the death mana floating around her before she took a swim in the Spiritpool and after I jumped in seeing my chance to shine I got offered an option to become Brimstone Lantern."
"Cool but why do you have nine tails, I have only one."
"I don't know. Maybe it's to do with my level."
"And what's thaaaaaat?" The shaman yawned feeling her eyes become heavy from all the excitement she lived through today.
"I'm a level 322 Greater Brimstone Lantern Fire Spirit."
"Wooow, you gained 320 levels just like thaat..." The jealous fox raised her hand and petted the energetic fire spirit beside her before the world in front of her went black.