On a weird planet of technology and entertainment, Magic has become a thing of fantasy, a mythical legacy of history. Except for a select few who still tinker in the Arcanum that live in remote planes near enough to travel to the leisure of modern day Earth. That is except for the one poor bastard of the last Mage Family of Ineriah in the Appalachia’s of America. Seth Von Ineriah a robust man of 2 meters tall with long cherry blonde hair, and well-toned arms go against the typical image of a scrawny white bearded 100-year-old Mage. Especially if you think of Merlin The Wise, who set the general trend for Mage. Seth had been a normal man of modest means, he worked as an Engineer till when he turned 50 and reached the point of “Requiem” for his mind, body, and soul to be at the equivalent of a Teenager for Mages. After that happened it was hard to go back to a normal job. “I mean, who the hell wants to work in a cubicle when you can work on summoning monsters to do your bidding for you?” is what Seth thought. That is when the start of a long and pain in Merlin’s Beard journey started.
Seth had been walking home from the bar in town when he felt like a hammer decided to take up residence in his head. The night had been spent drinking to celebrate his first half of a century of as an Ineriah Mage! Unlike most Magi who used a broad spectrum of Magic, his familial magic was one of the rare specialized kinds amongst Magi. The Ineriah family’s magic was focused in three Major Magical Domains Sound, Illusion, and Summoning, each of who has a soul imprint given upon birth with the familial inheritance. The last week or so he had been preparing for one of the most important trials as an upcoming Mage. During which he was so excited preparing the materials for the last week, that he nearly forgot to do the most important thing…. PARTY LIKE MERLIN!!!
Staggering down the street he finally saw that sweet golden light of a cab and got a ride home.
As they pulled up the drive he mumbled “Thank you” to the cabbie. Then walked up towards the front steps of his cabin and promptly fell face first into his pillow. As he drunkenly passed out he felt something odd within his brain. He startled awake as a flood of information started to pour in from his soul as his “Second Requiem” activated. As he came to his senses, Seth started to understand that this was the final portion of his legacy for a long time to come. The information that he was given in his first requiem was that Demonic Familiars were greatly important to him and that his power increased exponentially with one, but it also lacked said info on summoning one beyond the materials needed as well as a warning to wait for his second Requiem unless urgently required. This one allowed him to Disguise his Familiar’s in modern day and the safeguards he should put in place within his “Contract”.
Seth shook his head and started towards the second bedroom in his Cabin that he had setup as a Summoning Room. He started to lay down the wards and drew the Pentagon of Summoning by scattering the dust of hardened mana crystals down to power the wards to contain the demon during “Contraction”. He then drew Glyphs in the Air with his Illusion Magic to help him create a focus for the Magic in the area to help power the Summoning, because depending on the creature that comes it could take a while to Contract it. After that he double checked the warding and prepared to start the summoning by intoning the concepts he wished to draw from the void of the Demonic Plane. His inheritance had taught him one thing for sure, Words have power, and amongst Summoning Magi even more so because if done wrong all hell could break loose.
With the power of the Ancestor of Ineriah, I Seth Von Ineriah, call upon the Void, to send my Summons forth! Demon of power hear my call! Demon of Space heed my beckoning! Lord of Demon’s come forth! Seth shouted into the open air of his Pentagram.
At first nothing happened, and Seth thought he had wasted the energy within his precious Mana Crystal Dust, but then the wards flared to life with a roar of power as a being far beyond his expectations started to form within the Voided Darkness of Space inside his Pentagram.
WHO DARES TO SUMMON THE PLANE LORD OF DARIAIA!!!!!!!! The monstrosity from beyond the Void yelled at Seth.
Seth paled as he panickily started to try to reinforce the wards with his own Mana. The wards started to creak, and groan before they finally failed as the Demon slammed his red, and black scaled wings against the wards in its entirety. Seth finally could make out more of the demon’s features as he faced the backlash of the Wards. Standing 3 meters tall and broad shoulder with red/black scaled wings it looked like a combination of man, dragon, and what ever the hell comes out of your closet of horrors to keep you awake at night. The demon threw his wings back to prepare to charge towards Seth.
You shall die puny mortal! The Plane Lord roared. The Plane Lord reached Seth, just as he was recovering from the backlash, and then the plane lord stabbed right through his shirt with his claws hitting his heart. The smirking and haunting laugh of the Plane Lord resounded throughout the room as Seth started to die from blood loss, as well as the enormous amount of backlash from the wards failing in his summoning room, and his house as all his mana left him bleeding out on the floor. Seth watched momentarily detached as the Plane Lord laughed and started back towards the Void Tear that brought him. Then monumental Rage overcame him, and Seth reached for whatever dregs lifeforce, soul power or mental power he had to bring that bastard down with him.
Seth looked at the demon and shouted with as much venom in his voice as possible “You have not won yet you scaled fucking monkey with wings!!” Seth threw all his summoned energy into his Soul to forcefully open his Soul Realm. As he did so he finally saw his Family imprint and his own Master of Magic mark hazily being formed of a Giant riding a Dragon over a Mountain.
Funny how life is, I mean I get the symbol of becoming an official magus right as I am dying. Dammit I hate that Demon. Seth seethed with anger as this occurred to him.
Finally, his Soul Realm stabilized enough so he could use his connection with it to throw it at the Plane Lords Soul. Seth formed a spear of power that he threw at the Void as the Demon stepped into the Void Tear.
The Plane Lord felt a beam of power coming towards him and turned just in time to shout in a panic as Seth’s energy hit the Void Tear. “No!! Your puny Mortal dares to try to harm the great Araziaoki!!” he screamed just as the portal started vibrating. Seth watched as the Araziaoki tried to calm the portal with its powers. As time passed the Demon’s cries became louder to the point the whole house shook with each time the portal cut the Demon.
Finally, with a loud boom the Portal and Void Tear started to collapse killing the Demon Lord as it started to give in. Seth watched detachedly as he started to pass out. Right before he went under though, he felt a searing pain in his Host Soul, as the remains of the Plane Lord with nowhere to go, tried to finish the Ritual Summoning.
His Soul flared to life and tried to fight back, momentarily until it failed, and the Plane Lords Soul started to merge with it. The pain subsided as the portal was closing, and less energy was left within Seth to do anything of note.
Right before the portal completely closed, Seth’s Earthly body finally gave in, and died from wounds suffered at the hands of that bastard Araziaoki. As his Soul left his body, he floated momentarily up above looking down upon himself before looking at the collapsed Void Tear.
“Well, Shit couldn’t possibly any worse on the other side, could it?” Seth thought momentarily. As the Portal gave its last breath Seth rushed forth into the Void Tear and felt a crushing weight of Darkness upon his Soul.
He floated in the Dark Void suppressed by its power for what seemed like Ages before he felt a pull towards a certain direction. He struggled with all that was left of him nearly fading into the Void himself! Momentarily he received a brief respite as he finally came to a stop in the Void, over a Planet 10x the size of Earth with multiple mass continents strewn all over the place. After a while he saw the land change below him as a Volcano exploded tearing what was once a Great Plain dotted with Mountains into a gigantic Mountain Range extending half the continent. He felt time start to pass as he tried to keep watching the beautiful Planet as long as possible, before the pressure of the Void started to come back, with an unminding vengeance.
As the Void closed in upon him, He took one last forlorn look at the great behemoth of a Planet, before dejectedly starting to follow the odd pull he felt again. He blinked momentarily as he started to fall towards the surface in an Arced path towards one of the great Mountain Ranges that he spotted earlier. As he finally got near the surface he saw a giant Caravan defended by a cross of an ancient Vampire and a Giant Scaled Lizardman being attacked by Centaurs who were carrying some odd fur faced creatures upon their backs.
“Defend the Mistress! The Lord sacrificed himself to protect us from the Great Calamity that drove us out of our homes! We must protect the Lady as she births our new Lord!” a giant standing near 3 meters tall with white skin erratically covered in black scales and giant wings reaching 5 meters in length shouted to the defending men.
“I don’t really understand what the hell is happening at the moment, but why the hell do I feel like this place is just a Dream right before sudden Death?” Seth lamented tiredly to himself as he watched the fight below.
Seth looked around a bit, before he felt himself being forcefully pulled towards the center of the Caravan. He noticed belatedly that was where all the magic in the Area was being drawn towards even amongst the fighting. Seth arrived above the centermost wagon that was adorned with a family crest supporting one of the defending creatures wielding a hammer at a forge. He looked around as he floated outside of it and noticed that most of the wagons in the Caravan had something similar with varying Colors.
“ARGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHHHHHH” Seth could finally hear the woman’s wails as he neared over the clamor of battle.
“My lady hold on your almost there!!!” came from within the wagon.
Seth then felt the pull go from insistent tug to a full-on drop kick as the world blurred around him. As he appeared above a stunningly beautiful creature of fantastical myth. Unlike the defenders of the Caravan, she had golden scales covering every part of her expect for her chest where sky blue veins and white skin formed an odd glyph that was starting to shine bright. She had 2 sets of wings one which looked to be the size of the entire wagon and the other looked like they were partially shaped as arms. Her face was framed by a long snout filled with pointed teeth, as well as a long-forked tongue, and giant black corneas with a mix of blue/gold iris’s. The creature would have been terrifying as it was beautiful if it wasn’t in the throws of labor laying on the floor of the Wagon. Kneeling beside her was a being he could only describe as an Elf with long platinum hair and slender body looking straight out of a novel. She stood at 2.5 meters tall and with an angular face with fangs coming out between her lips with long ears adorning the side of her head. Between her legs, Seth could make out another woman that looked Human by her normal appearance and blonde hair. She appeared to be acting as the mid-wife for the woman giving birth.
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“Lady Draowa just hold on a moment longer and you will have your son!” The Elf said to the woman giving Birth. She started to sweat as she took a moment off her friend to notice the amount of Magic being summoned into the Wagon. The Magic started to come alive and started vibrating the very air as it started to condense into being around the three women.
“Woah what in the hell” Seth thought blurrily as he felt like a hammer just slammed into him as the magic started to affect him. As the moments seemed to drag on into infinity he felt himself slowly being renewed and reborn.
He floated momentarily above the woman and felt drawn to what he assumed was the body of the unborn child. As he tried to understand what was required of him a ripping sensation at the center of his Soul occurred, and before he could do anything about it the choice of being reborn was lost as he was sucked into the body of the child.
“Ughahhhhh” the Lady Draowa shouted as she passed out as the baby came.
The noise of the wagon as well as the clamor of the fighting outside sundered into impeccable silence. As the Magic started throbbing with violent intensity inside the Wagon. As it reached a crescendo it poured forth into the child that had yet to come alive to the world.
Seth felt his mind start to shatter as he lost himself within the power of being reborn and the World around him started to blur as he felt where his Soul was ripped in multiple places. First from the Plane Lord, second from the fight and travel throughout the Void to here, and finally again as his Soul was shoved into this new frail body. The magic poured into the Rips and tears as he felt himself finally give in and close his eyes as his Soul finally started to heal from the damage. After a while he sensed a majority of his Soul was healed, but three parts seemed to struggle to merge.
Seth tried instinctively to look within himself to see what the issue was, before arriving at a portion of his soul that was aggravated and was aimlessly under attack by black/red threads. The more he looked on he understood what they were. He tried to move his senses closer and felt the same power that landed him in this mess.
“Looks like that last attack at that bastard proved fruitful if this is here.” Seth thought aloud. “Hm, I wonder if I can make use of the left-over parts of Araziaoki’s soul to heal myself. Last thing I need is for my Soul to stay damaged.”
“Eh, Fuck it! I’ll give it a go.” Seth mumbled.
He decided he might as well make the best of the situation and started to push a portion of the magic he felt being forced into his soul towards forcing the threads of Araziaoki’s Soul to submerge throughout his soul. As the process started he felt a mild tingling that turned into a raging burn throughout his Soul as he watched the red and black threads clash against his own Blue and Gold. He watched as they both started to weaken, and he started to panic.
Seth concluded that this wouldn’t work right about the time the raging burn felt as if a massive wave of pressure was about to turn his Soul into a Volcano. He started at it for a moment before inspiration from some ingenious God blessed him with the thought to take the threads of Araziaoki’s soul and turn them into Glyphs upon his Soul. Usually his Soul looked something akin to a Palace inside a torrent of Elements, but after the tribulations so far it had shrunk to near nothing but a small dot inside a wavering vortex. He stood above it for a moment as he saw his Master of Magic Mark blinking in and out above the vortex. The Giant riding a Dragon over a Mountain seemed to feel it’s master’s presence and tried to stay lit for longer as it was gazed upon. Seth panicked when he saw this and decided to intervene by drawing the Summoning Glyphs around his Master of Magic mark to hopefully save it from dissipating. If he lost his master’s mark, then he would lose the knowledge of all his Magic.
He hurriedly dragged the threads of Araziaoki’s soul and formed a spider web of Glyphs for Summoning, Containment, and Binding around his master’s Mark. When he finished he forced the glyphs to fall upon the Mountain of his master’s Mark. He watched in amazement as the Mark seemed to suck in the remaining Magic from his Soul and when that was not enough it began draining everything surrounding him within the Wagon. The Giant came alive as it Roared a battle cry to the heaven’s and pushed its Dragon companion to fly faster around the Mountain. They sped up until the Vortex that was his Soul started to fully heal and enlarge itself. As he watched he noticed that the fused Soul looked completely different from before as the shape of his Master Mark became the shape of his entire being. After a while he finally felt a sense of connection to it and with that his Soul Realm finally came into being again.
“Finally! I am healed! Wait, If I am healed why do I feel so weak?” Seth confusedly thought.
Moments later his state of mind once again faded away until all he knew and was gave way to a new being. Belatedly he realized what had happened, in his absence of mind, and relying on instinct he had lost his Core self so with the re-forging of his Soul, he as he was no longer existed. For with a re-forged Soul he could no longer be as he once was.
“Dammit! Well it was a good run, hope the new guy like’s living as a lizard!!!” Seth thought grudgingly as he faded away.
While all of this was happening for Seth, moments had passed inside the Wagon where the unconscious Lady Draowa was being tended to by the Elf, and the newborn Seth was being handled by the Midwife who was worrying about the lack of cries from him. She remembered how Lady Draowa reacted when something got near her horns on her Nose, so she flicked the little one’s tiny horn.
The formerly thrumming with the Power of Magic Wagon started to come alive as the child in the arms of the Human Midwife opened its eyes and roared its cries of protest towards its snout being grabbed. It finally got fed up and snapped its mouth at the beast that tried to hurt it.
“Lady Selene! The little Lord is as feisty as can be! Congratulations on becoming a Godmother!” The Human praised.
“You have our Thanks, Alma for delivering him into this World. Hand him over to me and wake his mother while there is still so much magic in the Air. We should get a Naming done while we have this much Mana to cast it!”
The Human gently tried to hand the young Odivarl off to his God-mother, but as she got near the little thing nipped her and tried to jump towards Selene. Alma paled as she panicked and tried to catch him before he could come to any harm. Luckily the Elves are quick on their feet or she would most likely have been killed when Lady Draowa woke. Last thing she needed was a pissed off hormonal Odivarl who was not in her right state of mind now to come awake to her son being harmed.
“Il walk around a bit with the little guy to calm him down while you wake Lady Draowa.” Said Lady Selene.
Alma moved towards Lady Draowa and slipped some salt and pepper from the small kitchen supply in corner of the wagon under her nose. With an Odivarl’s powerful senses it did not take much before she sneezed her self-awake. Bleary eyed and frail she came alive with fury as she did not see her child.
“Where is my firstborn!!!!!” Lady Draowa shouted in a way that only something 4 meters tall can.
“Calm Down! He is right behind you my Lady! He just wont stay still so Lady Selene is pacing with him.” Alma told Lady Draowa.
Lady Draowa’s head spun like an owl and started to calm down as Selene came closer with her firstborn Son.
As she received him from Selene, she told how much magic was in the air, and warned her that now was the best time to Sing his Naming to the Elements and the Gods above as well as below. For one of her lineage must be announced upon the World!!
She called all the residual magic in the air and started to sing:
Oh, mighty mountains shall ye break
Oh, lovely women shall ye take
Love, Plunder and Treasures forevermore
Shall be yours blessed of the Odivarl’s
Come with me on the Journey of Life
Full of Love, Lust and Strife
Be strong as the Mountain that Broke
Forevermore my love does the Heavens Bore
Fires of life shout to say born of the Clan Drak
Ye shall pay the price of blood and sweat
Forevermore shall you not lay a peaceful day
For those of the Mighty Drak are those that keep
Their emotions buried Deep and always fight to last rest
Now as I finish the song of our Ancestors
I plead with them A mighty Song to name
My firstborn inheritor of our name
Silence Reigned in the room as the Song of Naming passed through the air. Then motes of magical Light came forth as the Elemental Fae themselves came bringing the Word of the Ancestors from the Afterlife.
“From this day, Jarl 1st 401406 of the Fae Calendar, let it ring forth that a new Scion of the House of Drakion has come to be. Forthwith his name shall be Arszoami Jutal Drakion! The Demon who embraces the nature of the Dragon! Relayed the Elemental Fae.
A smile came forth upon Lady Draowa’s lips as she heard her child’s name from the Ancestors. “From today onwards you are my little Arszo and all who bar your path shall die!” She mumbled quietly.
Lady Selene and Alma who heard this felt shivers crawl up their spines with how certain she sounded.
As Naming Ceremony ended the sounds of battle outside started to intrude the solitude inside the wagon, startling the young Odivarl into making tiny roars of protest, at the intervention of its solitude of silence.
Lady Draowa looked up at Selene and shared look of remorse as the moment was broken. “Go help Captain Varkel Selene, we will be alright on our own.” She commanded.
Selene nodded her head as she grabbed her gear and donned it with Alma’s help. As the cries outside of the wagon were getting to their final point she slammed the door open and shut as fast as possible, to prevent a stray arrow from going inside. She saw Captain Varkel fighting the leader of the Centaurs and Beastkin on the other side of Convoy. She roared a battle cry as she charged towards them and trying to help as many as she could along the way.
She charged towards a centaur about to stab one of the men at arms with a spear. She came up behind it, jumped with all her Elven grace, and stabbed it in its back. She pushed as hard as she could against its Human like hide and mustered enough force to swing her self off to the side to avoid falling as it reared back with an angry roar.
The Centaur reared itself on its hindlegs as it tried to dislodge her spear. The men-at-arms looked at her with a gesture of thanks before taking the opportunity to rush forth with his sword. He swung it with all his might, as he cut one of the front legs off the Centaur right before it crashed to the ground Neighing in pain and bleeding out.
“My Thanks Lady Selene!!!” the men-at-arms shouted before rushing to help another comrade.
Selene nodded as she grabbed her spear and continued her charge forward towards Captain. Just as She jumped over a fallen Wagon, she had dodge an arrow that would have gone through her head just a moment later. Sadly she was not quick enough, leaning to the side had let the arrow miss her just enough to avoid a mortal wound, but not fast enough to avoid having top tip of her Ear sliced in half. She realized that she was almost at her destination as the pain set in.
“Fucking hell that hurt!” Selene shouted amongst the cries of war. She clamped a hand over her ruined right ear as she tried to regain her Senses before reaching for her Magic to stop the bleeding. “Sah-mo Traitha Gomoa” she whispered as she fed the words of the Ancient Tree Bringers enough Mana to close the wound. She would have to have Alma or her husband the Convoys Healer to fix it later. If only the battle was not so close to the Caravan they could use their War-Magic. She stood up in time to see Captain Varkel stab the Beastkin in the throat and rushed to help finish off the Centaur.
Varkel caught sight of Selene right as she shouted, “Reapers Throw!!!!!” Varkel’s eyes came alight as he saw her jump towards him. He ran towards her and then did a 90-degree slide towards her stretching his right outer wing to the sky while bracing with his inner arm. Selene saw this and ran forward with all the strength she could muster and jumped on Varkel’s wing. She ran as fast as possible up it till the midpoint when he punched right below her feet and threw her skyward. As she went farther in the air she casted an air cantrip to control her fall. She angled herself towards the Centaur and dived spear first towards it aiming right for its head. The Centaur noticed her just as she was nearing, and braced its self by grabbing its formers partners shield.
Selene braced for impact right as the spear and shield met in an explosion of metal and sparks. She had enough time to notice the Centaurs surprised expression as she collided fist first with it. She yelped in pain as her arm broke and she flipped end over end with the Centaur. They landed with, Selene stuck underneath the Centaur panicking as she struggled to breathe in a gasp of air. Luckily, the Centaur had been knocked unconscious by the impact, or else the giant weight would crush her if it started flailing. Selene wasn’t fairing much better, the only thing she could really feel was piece of metal imbedded in her check, as the world started to blur. The last thing she saw before she went Unconscious, was Varkel running towards her with a panicked expression on his face.