Frontier
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The pronged lance, “Icarus” snapped under the force of Vidar’s clenched fist. Considering the callous smirk plastered on his face, it was done out of a pure desire for spite and nothing more.
“God damn it, now my plans have pretty much been ruined. I honestly wasn't expecting to be put in this exact same situation again, but oh well...” Vidar declared absentmindedly, not seeming to mind our presence very much.
If he could still remain so calm even under these circumstances then something was clearly wrong with the man. Either he had no sense of fear or danger, or he could somehow suppress his negative emotions at any given time.
Whatever the reasons were, it wasn’t normal.
Adjusting my posture, I decided to confront him from a different angle this time— with a question.
“Vidar, was it? Tell me something, what exactly did you do to Owen, the knight that was stationed in the small town of Zale a few days to the east of here. What kind of ideas did you put in his head?”
Tilting his neck a little, he paused to stare at me with a blank expression.
“Owen....Oh you mean that guy! The one that could clone himself, yeah, I remember him.” He replied enthusiastically, clapping his hands together in a fit of elation. “He was always getting into arguments with the other riff-raff—something about him being a weakling or whatever. What makes you think I did anything to him?” He probed, crafting a preset smile.
“The ideals you and your cult put in his head ended up skewering his personality. In the end he was almost a completely different person, the only thing he had any interest in was the rune you sent him to look for.”
"I do remember ordering him to retrieve something like that, but it's been over a year now, so I’d nearly lost interest. Honestly, I wasn’t expecting much from him in the first place, but well, at least he tried. He apparently wanted to prove himself to me and the others. Unfortunately, they're all dead now."
Hearing him speak so casually about sending countless people to their doom did nothing to quell my anger.
Now that I was speaking to him face to face, I could tell—this man wasn't remorseful for what he had done. Nothing about his behavior suggested any regret. His eyes never wavered, his breathing remained steady, and, more importantly, his tone grew increasingly indifferent with every mention of the people who had carelessly thrown their lives away to further his cause.
“Is that how you treat the people who end up joining your cult? Like tools meant to be used and discarded on a whim?”
That question preceded me against my better judgement. I wanted to restrain those thoughts but deep down a part of me was yearning for an answer that could somehow justify all these needless sacrifices.
“Everyone has a purpose in this world, in the same way that some people are meant to be used by others. Even if their lives amount to little in the grand scheme of things there is still meaning to it. All I did was add a little bit of flair to the lives of a few hopeless souls, that’s really all it was. Had Owen succeeded in his efforts, he would have been the one in that circle right now.” Vidar casually admitted, pointing to the half sunken corpse behind him.
It took my mind a bit longer than usual to process his useless string of words but once I soaked it all in everything became clear.
“Flynn, Allen, are you two still good to go?” I probed vigilantly.
“Count me in. This just got personal.”
“Of course, we’ll back you up.”
Though the situation was dire, their respective replies sparked a sliver of new hope inside me.
“Follow my lead, I’m about to go all in on this. We can’t let him finish casting that spell.”
Sparing us a glance, Vidar shrugged off my declaration as if he was somehow amused by it. Then he turned to his large companion in a somewhat relaxed manner before beginning -
“You’ve done enough Broin, get ready to pull back, we’re getting out of here.”
Wordlessly, the large fellow nodded in acknowledgement before moving over to the wyvern batting its wings a slight distance above ground.
Vidar cast a glance behind him to check on the progress of his spell, then gave a curt nod as if he was satisfied with something.
It was my first time seeing anything like it—hell, I didn’t even know that such spells existed in the first place. Aryan’s lifeless body appeared to be sinking into the pool of black smudge broiling up from the magic circle’s core. It bubbled, sizzled and popped as if he was being swallowed up by a sweltering dark lake.
The black goo acted as if it were alive and attempting to consume the corpse. It wouldn’t be wrong to assume that either because there were actual tendrils of dark sludge clinging to the corpse and filtering itself through its numerous orifices.
Time was clearly against us now.
Planting my feet firm, I summoned a surge of strength from deep within my core. My vision flickered with bright blue flashes from the influx of plasma-charged flames that erupted around me; charring the ground and singing the air itself with the brunt of my rage.
Once my output reached the optimum threshold for my next attack, I angled my left arm like bowstring pulled taut, feeling the energy crackle as the fire took shape.
The blue flames slowly began condensing in my outstretched palm like a gathering storm, although it would still take a while for me to complete the spell.
That was where the other two came in.
Acknowledging my charge, Flynn ruthlessly dug his knuckles into the brittle ground, forcing the earth to quiver as if it had been struck by a sudden pulse.
His arms emerged covered in gauntlets made of bedrock and with little more than a conformational nod he and Allen both broke into a charge for the cynical cult leader.
Broin—Vidar’s ally had already mounted the idle wyvern and was airborne at this point, watching the unfolding battle with a look of detached interest. However pompous he wanted to make himself and that half dead elf look was of little concern at the moment, the irregular came first.
Vidar casually flicked his wrist, summoning a small boulder from the surrounding space. The large jagged rock was roughly half the width of a human yet he still somehow managed to launch it away with effortless precision.
The projectile soared through the air, tumbling end over end as if it weighed nothing at all, only to be met with a metallic whoosh the second it inched too close to the one-armed swordsman.
Allen hastily flicked the dust from his blade, then circled around to attack from Vidar’s right, while Flynn did the opposite and came in for a stone-clad jab on his left.
Both attacks were on target but none were successful.
Assessing the weight behind both blows, Vidar quickly dipped his head and widened his stance simultaneously.
The saber’s blade slashed at his cranium but only came away with a few whisps of muddy brown hair, its owner however was dealt a critical blow in the form of a narrow stone spike that erupted from below.
Given the timing, it seems Allen was the one who had been successfully baited.
Flynn’s churning stone fist on the other hand, connected with a dull thud upon contact with Vidar’s open palm, yet the blow itself was of little significance. The gauntlet of stone simply crumpled under the force of Vidars grip, ejecting red splatters through the gaps between its open segments.
Flynn was able to stifle his scream, thankfully. If he hadn’t done that, I may have well launched the incomplete spell out of pure frustration.
Come on, faster!
I urged myself, pushing away the weakness that threatened to surface during my monologue.
A sudden headbutt rattled Flynn’s forehead the moment Vidar decided to gain some distance on them. He buckled over and fell to the ground, mirroring the slumped position Allen opted to assume after freeing himself from the stone skewer.
Slowing his retreat, the cultic leader raised his head with a smile before extending his hand. Malice oozed from every pore as he prepared his next move—instead of using some long-winded chant to incapacitate them, he simply spoke a word:
“Perihelion.”
Then it came, a high-level gravity spell.
A blunt, oppressive force suddenly manifested in the space around my comrades, slamming their bodies into the arid ground as if a giant invisible foot was out to flatten them alive. Groans and grunts exploded from the ever-deepening dent in the ground, drowning out the odd crunching sounds that I was desperately trying to ignore.
My fingers quivered on the flowing arch of flames I had been shaping so meticulously, but just before my grip went completely loose a calm voice washed away my stupor.
“Don’t. We both know it's not ready yet.”
I already knew who it was but my eyes still reacted to that presence instinctively.
Slowly, as she came into view, I could feel her presence pulsing through the air and brimming with a sort of undeniable power.
Julia emerged from the corner of my vision with a somewhat foreign appearance.
She rarely ever took that form and whenever she did it was usually out of necessity.
A bright neon glow enveloped her body as she strode past me, rattling the earth with nothing more than a few casual steps.
Her hair had come undone as a side effect from expelling all that energy, and as it flopped down to her waist I could see the light green strands being overtaken by a pale wheat color, creeping up its span like a slow sunrise.
Then a snapping sound came, not from the environment—it stemmed from Julia herself.
It was a mesmerizing sight, watching the polished, elk-like antlers grow and span a small arc as they emerged from either side of her hair.
She held a firm stance at the vanguard and extended both hands as if to gauge her target.
“I’ll slow him down, just focus on finishing that spell.” She said, whipping around with a thin smile.
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“That form...how long can your body keep that up?” I asked, my voice tinged with both awe and concern.
“Long enough.” She replied, and as if responding to her will, the strange mark plastered on her forehead sudden shifted its form and expanded into a more intricate pattern.
“Just a bit longer and I’ll be done.”
With a nod, she signaled her approval and took a few steps forward.
“Well, this just got tricky. Demir will probably get upset about me killing his wo-”
BANG!
The earth crackled at his feet, forcing Vidar to haphazardly dodge the unseen blow. He skittered back a few paces before tumbling over, yet as soon as the man regained his bearing, he was left gasping from the surreal shock of the overwhelming presence meeting his gaze.
Julia slowly recalled the living weapon that had just been used to tear away at his flesh, it rescinded back into the ground like a serpent retreating into its lair, its twisted form disappearing into the earth as if it had never existed.
“Plant...magic?” Muttered the stunned cultic
The instant he’d spoken aloud the earth itself seemed to answer his question.
The space below Julia was torn apart by the blunt force of numerous barbed vines and thick, sinewy roots emerging from the depths. They twisted, coiled, and overlapped, as the destructive will of nature itself seemed to be hunting the mad cultist's blood.
Since his focus was disrupted, the gravity spell had understandably been dispelled, giving Flynn and Allen the sweet release from their crushing demise. Going off what I could sense from the depression in the ground, it didn’t look like either of them were going to be of any more help.
Suddenly, Vidar rushed in for a counter, he stomped on the ground to send a wave of destructive debris hurling at us, however his opening move found no purchase. The vines around Julia effortlessly fanned out to guard against the oncoming wave of destruction, snapping and lashing out to deflect the clumps of rubble.
Still, he had yet to show his hand completely.
Appearing from above, the man willed the surrounding earth to coalesce into a dense large sphere above his open palm.
The ground trembled ominously as fragments of rock and dust responded to his call, hurtling toward him with ruthless speed, before converging into a single jagged structure under the pull of unseen gravitational forces.
The tip of the large rock protruded to give the overall shape a slightly truncated apex and with a roar, the giant basal boulder was hurled at us with a murderous intent. Gravity magic had been applied to the massive ball of stone in order to boost its destructive potential, allowing to plummet towards us at a devastating speed.
In the midst of its descent however, the attack was halted by the sudden emergence of gnarled branches and ancient roots coming together to form a protective barrier of sorts that extended outwards like a giant net, wrapping and coiling around the rock formation mid-flight.
Then with just a simple clench from her fist, she tightened her sinewy grip on the chunk of stone, forcing it to crumble under the power of her grasp.
The shards of debris fell to the ground like splinters of defeated resistance, flooding the space before us with a wave of dusty smoke.
That was certainly quite the display of power my wife had just put on but I could see her shoulders start to tremble slightly, the strain of her effort was beginning to show. Her breathing quickened, and though her overall posture still seemed determined, I could tell the act had taken more out of her than she let on.
“Well, I wasn’t expecting this at all. To think you could best that attack woman, I must say I’m a little surprised, but I think it's time we end this.” Vidar admitted from beyond the veil of settling dust.
The second he came into view I felt another eerie pang of dread wash over me.
He had reclaimed his position next to the dark circle and seemed ready to engage in the final chants necessary for the spell's completion.
The black goo broiling up from the circle had completely enveloped Aryan’s corpse at this point, to the extent where it was even overflowing from the black pits in his glassy eyes.
In only a few short moments, that corpse was going to be ready.
I didn’t plan on letting that happen.
“Julia, you’ve done enough. Take the others with you and head back across the bridge.” I sent calmly, tightening my grip on the silver flames burning so hot they were even starting to affect me.
After catching another deep breath, she responded, this time sounding a lot more like her usual self.
“....Not before I do this...” she said, clasping another fist, but this time the effects of that gesture were a lot more subtle.
“I’ve already figured out the range of your attacks, you can’t hit me from the-” A pained grunt cut his words short, because that one motion from Julia had forced a series of thorny vines to surface below him.
The writhing pit of live thorns coiled around his body like predatory snakes, lodging themselves in his flesh and tearing at his skin despite his attempts to retreat.
It’s not that he couldn’t escape if he wanted to, but doing so right now of all times wasn’t a smart move seeing as his spell was almost complete. Thus, he was forced to simply bear the pain and finish his chants on the spot.
On top of that, earth magic and its gravity aberrant were powerful elements, but grossly unsuited to dealing with something as flexible as plant magic.
No matter how many stone platforms he conjured, they could only do so much to help him withstand the coiling thorns.
She must have been preparing this from the very beginning.
“Thank you...” I worded tersely
Giving a satisfied nod, Julia motioned for some vines to retrieve Flynn and Allen’s bodies, tucking them under her arms as she got ready to depart.
“Oliver, be careful.” She said, her expression downcast.
“Don’t worry. I’m going to stop this thing here.” I shot back cheekily, turning my head to give her a smile.
After expressing her acceptance of my decision, she moved towards the bridge just like all the other surviving raiders before breaking into a bold sprint that made use of her heightened physicality.
Now it was just me and the thorn-trapped villain.
Channeling more of my mana into the assembling spell, the shining silver bow begun gleaming even brighter from the influx of power.
Overall, this spell was far from being complete—which is why it even took so long to prepare—but now that its preparations were almost finished, I felt nothing but an overwhelming confidence in its destructive power.
Just as I had thought that —
A guttural, primeval roar echoed directly across from me—seeming to span the entire city, it rustled the air itself with a dark sense of dread and fear.
Its origin was a murky silhouette emerging from the ground, propping itself up as if it had just been forced back to life. Even without looking directly I could tell the creature was brimming with raw power.
A pair of purple eyes glowered faintly in the distance, reflecting eons of pent-up fury.
It was here, the monster that had caused so much misery.
“Let’s end this.”
Pulling back the white bowstring, I willed away the dreadful sensation of my own flames threatening to scorch my hands.
Time seemed to slow as I extended the sweltering bowstring to its limit, barely managing to keep the pointed tip steady.
Vidar had a face full of panic as he watched me prepare to unleash a literal inferno upon him, even more so because he wasn’t completely free yet.
Seconds before I loosened my grip, I saw him barking out orders and demanding protection.
Was he speaking to the irregular or someone else? I wasn’t sure and it didn’t matter. It was only logical to assume that such a thing couldn’t be controlled, but if he did somehow have the means to control it then this would all make a lot more sense.
However, I didn’t have the strength nor the will to ponder the thought...
“White Shadow”
My grip loosened as the space around me trembled from the force of the unleashed ivory spear. Fired from a flame forged bow, the attack whistled through the space separating us in the blink of an eye, scorching the upturned rocks and leaving a trail of molten dismay in its wake.
It connected with a loud BANG, one powerful enough to rattle our surroundings and send plumes of smoke and ash into the air amidst the blinding explosion of white light.
A sizzling sound erupted from the point of impact as the newly forged depression crackled and crunched from the absurd force. It’s intense heat threatening to melt away the very foundation we were standing on.
Splatters erupted from within the scalding cavity, likely the result of molten stones being ejected by the intense pressure—soon to come raining down in a storm of bright blue fragments on the desolate city.
They crashed down like meteors, bursting into small blue infernos on contact as if they had been programmed to do so. Clearly, my spell still needed a lot of work before I could even think of ever calling it ‘complete.’
The inspiration for the attack stemmed from a combination of Jytte and Myra’s fighting styles, which was why it was still so hard to exert full control over.
“Damn it!!”
A baleful voice echoed from within the depression of steam and ash.
How did he survive that?
The stiff growl of a monster quickly cleared the buildup of swirling ash and smoke, revealing what little remained of Vidar's shoddy attempt at guarding.
First was a series of erected molten pillars crumbling under their own weight, the second was the cover provided by the irregular's unnaturally large body and the third was a protective layer of semi-molten stone armor he had summoned to protect himself.
All three of these things were summoned to guard him from my last attack and yet he seemed to have just barely escaped the loving grip of death.
Vidar took a step, allowing the bits of rock clinging to his body to crumble. The soles of his feet sintered on the scalding ground, pulling away a small piece of his flesh with each stride, yet he didn’t seem to be very concerned with that.
Compared to the large contractural scar dreadfully etched onto the right side of his body, losing a little bit of skin here and there must have seemed trivial. His right hand—which had been charred black alongside his entire right half—fell deftly to the ground as if it didn’t even belong there in the first place.
It slowly began crumbling away from the gently breeze passing by, much to the displeasure of its previous owner.
He glared at me balefully, crunching his teeth so hard blood began spilling from his chapped lips.
“I almost died....I almost fucking died you—”
“Vidar, lets pull back.” Broin voiced from above.
His neck shot up to glare at the large man who seemed completely unaffected by his hateful gaze.
“You’ve lost.” Repeated Broin, this time allowing the cruel words to fester.
“It's amazing how you can still be so arrogant after sending all those people to their graves.” I said, taking a few steps closer. “The pain you’re feeling now is what we often call ‘retribution’, were you unaware of that, cult leader?”
His remaining hand crunched under its own brute force, inciting his expression to contort into a malignant smile. “Oh, I know it quite well. In fact, retribution is the lifeblood of this entire organization. You, these people, and this land filled with fake gods need to be purged for your blasphemy.” He retorted ominously, malice seeping from every word.
“What?”
“You’ll see. I’ll show you all what a true god looks like.” The raspy words seemed to scrape against his hoarse throat on their way out, but I could instinctually tell that he wasn’t joking. There was far too much conviction imbued in his tone for that to be the case.
Afterwards, he slowly turned to the irregular at his side with unsteady motions and muttered the words, “Kill everyone in this city” in a bid to quench his rage.
The monster had been weakened considerably after being forced to bear the brunt of my previous attack, but that didn’t change the fact that it was still standing firm. It let out another earth shatter roar, though this one was a considerable margin below the last in terms of its intensity.
The creature flickered out of my view and re-appeared before me in an instant, the only thing I felt afterwards was the crushing sensation of my bones bending from an unimaginable force.
A sickening crack echoed through my body as my knees buckled beneath me and my body was sent tumbling through the coarse ground.
Damn it that last attack used up most of my mana, my reactions are slowing down now of all times when I’m up against this thing that can use Aryan’s power.
Lurching up a batch of blood, I rose to see Vidar clinging to the ascending wyvern's talon. Flames condensed around my hand, ready to strike them down until I sensed a sudden shift in the air.
Twirling my body, I slammed my flame filled palm against the monsters unsettling form, sending it back with a blast of searing heat.
Its form shifted again, this time the structure of the black goo-like mantle had been visibly disturbed, however that minor indication of damage quickly faded from view as the unsightly creature had seemingly willed itself back to normal.
Alone with the creature, I exhaled a deep breath and tossed aside my fractured glasses. There was no going back now, I had to stop it here.
My stance widened, flames crackling below and the wind roaring above, both sources of power urging me on as I filled my body with strength.
“Come.” I said, inviting the beast’s rage.
In a gesture of acceptance, the irregular flashed across the battlefield repeatedly, each time appearing at a fixed distance before finally charging head-on. I met the monster's fervor with a roar, charging recklessly in a way no sane person would ever consider.
And so, the battle began.