Chapter 5: Magical Powers R Us - 02

Saturday, July 4th, 2020

Location: Earth, United States of America, Southlake Texas.

"Oh, hi Richard," I said numbly as my mind spun with sudden panic at the idea of confronting him here and now. Furthermore, my gut was warning me of something bad as I caught sight of the platinum blond woman on his arm. Her appearance strikingly similar to Lesia's.

Deliberately turning away from him I looked to my mom and said, "I haven't seen Dougie. Is he here yet?"

"Nope," said dad.

"He said he was going to a party and hang out with some friends of his," said mom. While I took a bite of food to mull that over and the lack of response to my messages from Amber. Simon spoke up.

"Richard, introduce us to this lovely young lady."

"Ouch!!" said Simon as he rubbed his arm and glared at his wife.

"I was only being polite honey bun."

"Uh hum,” said Jenna with a smile.

"It's also better to stop it before it gets started."

A polite cough came from Richard before he said, "Mom, Dad, this is Alesha. Alesha, these are my parents Simone and Jenna Hainsworth.”

"A pleasure," said the woman though I found it odd that she kept glancing over at me.

"And you are?" She asked while looking at my parents.

“Markus and Megan Swalwell,” I said.

“My dad’s one of the best attorney’s in town.”

“In Contract Law perhaps,” said Simon with a smile.

“I would like to think of myself as the best in criminal law.”

“Indeed, he is,” said my father with a wink and a laugh from Simon.

"Your majesty it's a pleasure to finally meet you," said Alesha to everyone's confusion. Especially Richard's.

After a moment of awkward silence my dad asked, " pumpkin.

“What's she talking about?"

"I don't know," I said hurriedly.

"Ignore her," said Lesia as she appeared out of the crowd like magic.

"My little sister likes to spout out nonsense in order to get a reaction out of people."

"Mom, dad, Jenna, Simon, this is Lesia. A friend of mine."

"Oh sister, it is so nice of you to grace us with your presence," said Alesha in a biting tone.

"True," said Lesia. Obvious to the eye rolls and shaking of heads around the table.

"So, now that you have reunited with his majesty, is he going to participate in the war effort?"

My mouth hung open as I stared at the new angel in confusion.

"Your kind fucked in the head Alesha," said Richard.

“That bitch is a girl. Your using the wrong pronouns."

"Language!" snapped Richard's mom.

"Besides you don’t need to make fun of the girl just because English isn't her first language."

"Or even fifth," said Lesia with a nod.

"Ooh, what languages do you speak?" Said Jenna, eyes hopeful in the way I had seen my mothers when my brother brought home his first girlfriend.

"Is no one going to ask why she thinks my daughter is some sort of royalty?" said Dad.

"That's what I want to know," said Simon as he stared at me.

In response I held my hands up and shrugged helplessly.

"Me too," said Richard as he sent Alesha a glare that bounced harmlessly off the woman's ice queen exterior.

"Because that woman sitting there is his majesty, the Emperor." Alesha's utter confidence and boldness in that claim. Along with a perfectly straight face led to only one conclusion.

"It was nice meeting your friend dear but your father and I need to get moving," said Jenna.

"Likewise," said mom as she pulled on dad's arm.

Leaving room for Lesia to slide in next to me. An un noticed half eaten plate set before her.

"Well," said Alesha tartly.

"Are you going to are not?"

"No!" I snap. Pointing my fork at the woman.

"I don't know what you’re selling and I've no interest in buying."

Turning back to my food I ignore how the ice queen's expression gets even colder.

"Wait," said Richard before Pointing between the two platinum blond women. His finger moving back and forth in rapid succession before turning to Alesha with a wide-eyed look of horror on his face.

"Did you give her the same deal you gave me?"

"No."

The single word from Alesha 's lips causing a visible wave of relief to was over the 17-year-old young man. Though I could see the smile on Lesia’s lips.

"I did," said Lesia before tearing a strip of meat off a rib with her teeth.

"The FUCK!" Richard's shout causing heads to tun but he ignored them.

"And you turned it down," he said as realization crossed his face. Letting the silence linger as Lesia and I ate. His gaze fixed on me. All the while Alesha sidled up next to him. Pressing into the large teenager she whispered something into his ear. Whatever it was it gave Richard a nasty grin before he and Alesia departed.

“What was that about?” I said, finishing up my plate.

“Trouble,” said Lesia as she did the same.

“It’s time!” said Uncle Joe. The greying older man who I looked upon as a kindly Uncle was busy waving everyone over. The spot was where a bunch of reclining lawn chairs were already set up to let us lean back and watch the display. I would really need to go over, say hi, and give the old man a hug after the display.

A case of theft: this story is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.

“Your majesty,” said Alesia. Her presence causing me to sigh internally.

"What!" I snap as I turn away from the promised entertainment and family time that comes only once a year. Spotting my two other younger siblings and giving them a wave back as they made their way towards a group of similar aged kids and the seats set aside for them.

"A moment of your time, sire."

"We need to discuss something away from the mundane," said Alesha as she turned and walked away towards the far side of the mansion. Meanwhile a small part of me feeling ill at ease at that last word she had said. The vitriol in how she said, "mundane," reminded me of how my mom said, "Murderers." That feeling that the people she spoke of were the worst scum imaginable.

"We better go," said Lesia as she started in that direction.

"Knowing her, she'll make it worse if we don't."

Sighing, I followed along, slowly. Determined to get this farce over with, but reluctant to go as Lesia quickly got a dozen meters, or nearly forty feet away in my hesitation.

Rather my mind was suck for I really didn’t want this. I just wanted to watch the display then go home and call it a day. But it seems like fate has conspired against me once again. So, with deliberate steps I moved towards the far side of the house so I could finish this quickly and return to my family to enjoy the remainder of the display.

A small flash of hurt ran though me that Amber couldn’t be here in spite of our plans otherwise. All the while the music for this year’s display begins. The song, “We will rock you,” by Queen played across the lake as the first fireworks shot into the sky.

“Where is she,” I murmur softly as I turn away from the crowd and start making my way towards whatever Alesia has to say. Checking my phone, I look down and see no reply to the occasional message that I had sent my friend. All the while ignoring the speculations that were running around in the back of my head.

~CRACK~

The sudden, violent, bone splitting crack as Lesia’s head suddenly and violently twisted. Her head suddenly at a WRONG angle as her body dropped lifelessly to the ground. Just as she rounded the corner of the house.

Out of sight from the crowd.

“Fuck!” said a male voice as Richard stepped around the corner. Bloody baseball bat in hand.

“Wrong one Richie!” said a voice I recognized as Will. The other boy from the video of Chris being pushed into traffic and someone who should NOT be here. Uncle Joe had a restraining order on him after a previous altercation between the two.

The manic laughter of several young men came from around the corner. Like a moth to the flame my legs were on autopilot as my mind refused to process what was happening. All the while a burning hunger that had nothing to do with food built within me. Yet still my body continued to move on its own towards the woman I was starting to think just maybe, she could be a friend.

Kneeling down, I touch her broken neck and find no pulse.

My breath catches.

I don’t know what to think. I don’t know what to do. All I do know is that hunger inside of me that was an ember before is starting to BURN.

“I think she’s dead,” said another teenager. My head turning as my mind automatically counted the seven teenage boys. Alesia in the background, the ice queen letting her mask like persona break with a manic grin plastered across her face.

“Not a problem,” said another boy, skinny, hollow eyed, and with a sickly green glow that emanated from him. Faint but identifiable. Gesturing towards Lesia’s corpse, he said with a grin, “Acid Spray.”

I moved.

A low to the ground lunge with more force and speed than I have ever done in my life. My arm coming up to knock the glowing hand to the side.

“AAAHHHH!” came one horrified shriek accompanied by the sounds of sizzling flesh.

“Da Fuck!”

“Damit Dawg, Get her!”

A step to the side and a kick to the knee of the boy on the Acid wielder’s other side.

~CRACK~

“FUUUCK!” screamed the next as his knee bent the wrong way.

My mind struggling to remain calm as a red tint edged my vision. The hunger inside of me roared for more. More violence, more suffering, more terror, more blood, and most of all, more of a challenge. It made me smile.

“USE YOUR MAGIC!” screamed Richard as he began to glow with a grey light.

A kick to the acid man’s leg unbalanced him while the last three glowed, blue, lavender, and orange respectively.

Twisting his wrist, I pulled it over my shoulder and used a judo throw to toss the skinny Acid boy into the first victim. The one who was still screaming in agony from the magic acid that was even now still eating him alive.

MOVE, screamed an internal alarm. Twisting, ducking, and rolling into a low to the ground backflip. The move letting me see a glowing grey baseball bat swish through empty air where my head was moments before.

MOVE, screamed the alarm again as my lungs started to burn for air. My intake not keeping up with demand. Yet with without a moment’s hesitation I made another low to the ground lunge towards the last trio.

A flash of blue light.

~ZZT CRACK~

The smell of ozone filling the air.

My contortions making breathing even harder in my rapid pace of movements. Turning what should have been controlled breathing into ragged, but deep breaths. All the while I didn’t stop moving.

“Summon Titanula hatchling!”

A swirling portal of lavender light appeared and out walked a spider. Or rather, spider was the closest word to fit to describe the horror what faced me. Twelve limbs, and eyes. A short-segmented body like a centipede, four short forelimbs like the claws of a praying mantis, and a scorpion’s tail.

Oh, and it was the size of a German shepherd.

The sight of it made my heart freeze in terror.

“Got you,” said an unfamiliar, male voice. An orange glow coming from behind.

“Explosion.”

The hand, which had landed on the small of my back and pressed my scarf into me. The accessory always out of the way until this moment.

~KABOOM~

My world suddenly switching from the adrenaline rush of combat and into one of blackness, pain and despair.

Lesia Mithrilwing sat up from her bed and winced. Looking about her wide open and luxurious bedroom and grimacing at the sight. Her billowing robes still pristine despite the slight coating of dust over everything. An indicator of just how long her mind had been away from her body.

“I should have seen that coming,” said the woman as she rubbed her head.

“Stupid, ambitious, Copperwings.”

The dark tone of her voice boding ill for the one mentioned as a cold look crossed her face.

“If Izzy dies because of Alesia’s petty games. I swear on my halo that I will crucify her.” The flat tone of that pronouncement was given in the same way someone back on earth would have said, “After work.” The tone of voice making it feel, should someone else have been in the room, that killing the other woman in an extremely painful manner was a mundane chore like taking out the trash.

In retrospect, a part of her was kind of happy that things had played out this way. The torture and execution technique as suffered by the religious leader of one of the earthy religious faiths had caught her eye for how it forced people to linger near death for days.

Always on the lookout new and interesting ways to maim those that cross her. Lesia collected them in the way some house wives collected cooking recipes. Afterall, even if you planned to never use it, the information was always handy to have if the need ever cropped up. The mere fact that she might just have a volunteer so quickly was just a happy coincidence.

Reaching out mentally, she connected to the hundreds of threads throughout the multiverse that she had set down in order to use the simulacrum spell at such a great distance. All the while she walked towards the double doors leading to her veranda.

Opening them, she looked out at the sea of molten lava across the valley. The deep scar into this planet was her home. A city, Huargazfarshogth’s Scar or just, ‘The Scar’ was a magitech metropolis with hundreds of towers floating in the air above the lava. With far more of the city embedded into the rock walls like her own abode. Its winged populace flying about and living their lives like any other race.

A smile touching her lips at the sight of millions of her kin within her slice of the sky living a good life. Most so high up that a mundane from back on earth couldn’t see them. Yet then a mundane who some how stepped into her home would have already died of mana poisoning. The mana so thick here that even a lesser member of her own kin like Alesia Copperwing would have perished long before reaching Lesia’s home. For it was beneath them all and her veranda opened out to the sea of lava without a single step down. Only the powerful enchantments keeping the occasional waves of lava from rushing into her home. And for good reason for the sea beneath the city was not uninhabited.

“Your Back,” said a thunderous voice in what he perceived as a whisper.

Far above the city shook with the power of those words.

The citizens high overhead fleeing for safety as a scaled head the size of the Cotton Bowl Stadium in Dallas Texas. A venue that could seat a hundred thousand people. Rose out of the lava. Its size making its smallest movements create waves of lava a half dozen stories tall which crashed harmlessly upon the shields of her abode.

“Did you find him?”

“Yes, old friend I did,” said Lesia. Her mithril Halo lighting up for just a moment as she dampened the effects of their conversation so that peace could be restored to the city. It also helped to ensure privacy as she did not want her conversation with the dragon lord to fall into the wrong hands.

“The emperor has been reborn as a mundane girl child on a world so far away that mana nearly doesn’t exist.”

“Interesting,” said the dragon with a rumble that made the lava vibrate across the valley.

“Are you sure that you got to him first?” asked the dragon.

“Lord Huargazfarshogth. Mana is so thin on that world that even the smallest application of it lights up like the sun. I could count every spell cast on that planet and trace every wisp of magic. There was none but my lesser kin on that planet and only one of those who learned of his majesty’s existence.”

“Good,” rumbled the dragon lord contentedly.

“Tell me of where you found him, and I will send one of my whelps to give you aid.”

“Thank you lord Huargazfarshogth,” said Lesia Mithrilwing with a smile.

“It’s the least I can do, for the first time we have made contact. We must secure him and guide him to end the war before one of the factions can take him.”

“We can’t let them have the World Breaker Throne and perpetuate this endless war,” said Lesia with a nod.

“Divine artifacts belong in the hands of gods and no one else,” said the dragon sagely as he slowly sank back into the molten rock.

“Lest it destroy the world the gods intended to save.”

“Damn know it all’s and their meddling,” muttered Lesia before going back into her home. She had things to do before she could contact the emperor again. So many things to do.

One of those was a stupid Copperwing that needed to be put in her place.

“Now where is that set of knives?”