Ten Years after the Ocalan Aberrant Purge
My breath pulsed with the power of the earth. The energy of the world set each muscle fiber, ligament, bone, and organ alight, playing an orchestra that ebbed and flowed with my inhale and exhale. After only a handful of breaths, every iota of free mana that had accumulated in my tower was exhausted and the orchestra became a discordant note of chaos and reverb. I pushed through three more cycles, feeling the music warble and the floor beneath me quiver under the force of the Arcane Sink my soul powered. Then I released my hold on the world.
Apotheosis:
Tectonic Lithocorpus (84%) > (84 [1]%)
Mana cascaded to fill the void I'd created, but it wasn't anywhere close to the right density to match my body. It would be weeks before I could harness a few more breaths.
Impatient, Amelia whispered in my ear.
Laggard! Fievil grumbled.
"Pop!" Blobby added cheerfully.
"Yes, thank you peanut gallery. I could have assessed my own performance myself, thank you," I said, waving my hand in the air to dismiss the two Totems that hovered over my head. Blobby didn't move from his corner were he was munching on an ant thorax as big around as my whole body was tall. The slime had even gone so far as to make giant molars of stone to ground down the chitin before starting to dissolve the delicious gooey center inside. Well, delicious for Blobby. I've still not developed a taste for insect meat after I got away from it in the Bunker.
Without the extraordinary amounts of mana I'd been artificially containing in my tower, the vibrations of the world reached me clear as day. I didn't even need to open my eyes to see each of the people fifty floors below me, working on dozens of different tasks at the behest of one of Alan's or my own apprentices. Just the single floor of frenetic activity initiated a headache until I placed the appropriate mental spell chains on Harmonic Sinews.
Even bound, I could still sense when a peculiar variety of individuals got within a hundred feet of my penthouse digs. With a casual wave of my hand, the highest floor peeled back like a flower. Each petal formed balconies that grew more and more detailed with each moment of thought I gave to the stone structure. Just for the fun of it, I plucked some of the glyphs from
"Someone made some progress," a brunette shouted.
The living comet crashed onto one of the petals with all the subtlety of a thunderstorm. Microfractures rippled through the structure. Fievil grumbled, before taking it upon himself to reestablish the structural integrity of our tower. Daniela's hungry grin glowed as her inner fire flared with even the slightest touch of oxygen she inhaled. Her tanktop and cargo shorts had taken five iterations from me and Alan working together just to withstand the sheer thermodynamic nonsense she used to fly. Not that she ever told anyone, because why would she brag about the craftmanship of her childhood friend when she could instead complain about all the weapons I made for her breaking.
"I'm always making progress," I said, not rising to her bait.
"Oh, come off it Ron. You've been filling and emptying this tower for years. We could just pop over a few states and get you a big chunk of progress!" the battle maniac suggested.
Instead of answering, I just rubbed my temples. It was an old argument. She'd yet to win it, thankfully, but it did take monumental patience to endure it without knocking her off my tower. Thankfully, two other fliers touched down on their own stone petals. Their landings were a sigh of relief when compared to Danny's. William was as free in the sky as he was on the ground, the only note of his passing a slight whine from where his legs spun like turbines. As for Jolene, the beautiful merwoman had taken her old habit of riding Billy's cloud stream into a full on ability; on cloud nine took a whole different meaning with her, as she swam through the sky on the subtlest pressure systems and ambient humidity. Considering we lived in Florida, she could practically swim any time of day.
In appreciation of the work they weren't giving him, Fievil padded over to Billy to fist bump the elf. He got a soft smile and a good ethereal fur ruffle from Jolene before resuming his repairs.
"Not this again," Jolene sighed, rolling her eyes when she saw Daniela still glaring in my direction. She walked over to my side, jumping up to deliver me a small peck before grabbing my hand in hers. No less of a goober, I grinned at the gorgeous merwoman's affection. "We finally mapped the state, Daniela, and you want to stir the pot?"
"She'll probably argue that all we did was make things lame," Billy provided. The Partial elf bowed in my direction before plopping onto Blobby with not a care in the world. The rapid fire pops coming from the slime as Billy used his Djinn legs to jiggle Blobby were the equivalent of a dog kicking its leg from getting the good scratches. Even to this day, the ever reliable slime refused to let me tickle it even after my control over Air mana had advanced significantly. I just assumed he liked it when Billy did it. Since it made both of them happy, who was I to judge?
"You'll be happy with the news I've got then," Sam called over the comm-plant.
I glanced over my shoulder where I'd sensed my blonde friend's latest druidic contraption. While I'd 'seen' it with vibrosense, I did a double take when I spotted a dandelion seed the size of a house making its way towards us. Each of the frilly hairs atop the seed shifted with and against the wind to guide the strange aircraft through the air at the whims of its operator. When my tower got within two hundred feet of the construct, a pair of vines coated in sticky fungus anchored the dandelion seed before it started to reel itself forward. When it opened, three figures stepped out of a bulb of leaves that had been hanging from the base of the dandelion. Of the three, the blonde haired demoness that rushed forward with an abundance of energy arrived first.
"Uncle Ron!" In a world bending twist, Life and Death mana fought for dominance as Agatha Fallon-Bradford transformed into a spirit for a split second just to reach me faster. Her golden eyes glowed with inner light as she clung to my arm, still in partial shade form, as if she were a flag on a pole. That she flapped and phased right through Jolene only brought a smile to the merwoman's face. It wasn't the first time.
"It's good to see you, Aggy," I chuckled. "I see you've been practicing those mana shaping tips I gave you."
The girl's disembodied giggles sent an involuntary shiver down my spine as her voice carried from the
"Honey, why don't you go play with Blobby. We've got some important things to discuss," Samuel said, wagging a finger at his upside down daughter.
"Okey dokie!" Agatha turned with uncanny flexibility to stare at Blobby through the gap between Jolene's legs. "Trampoline! Trampoline! Come on Bobby-blob!"
With a brief burst of the mana she'd regenerated, the demoness disentangled herself from my fiancé to drift over to the slime already changing shape to accommodate the little girl. Fievil, thinking himself sneaky, jumped onto the slime to join the girl. Not to mention the Blobite that formed, sized to be just a bit bigger than Agatha, just to jump on itself with the demoness. Sighing deeply, I turned to the other Totem living in my Primal Hexachain. Amelia bopped me on the head gently before happily taking on the mother hen role for the gaggle of supernatural tikes.
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"Her defiance of death's call despite her taunting always brings joy to my heart," April said, smiling wistfully at Agatha.
"Always good to see you, April," I said, doing my best to hide my goosebumps under my robe. Jolene noticed, of course, but all she did was pinch me. A decade of knowing the detective demoness made her no less unnerving. That her daughter seemed to be the polar opposite of her and Samuel still befuddled me.
"No need to despair, Shaman. You shall see us plenty for the next few weeks."
"Yup," Sam added, forming an exquisitely comfortable circular couch with a casual twirl of his hands. The cloak of living vines he always wore stretched to fit each of us, even going so far as to color code our spots. Mainly so Daniela didn't try to steal someone else's spot just because she was fast and avoid the one our resident carpenter made especially fire resistant for her. "Let's break it down, yeah?"
Both Billy and Daniela hopped over the lip of the couch to land on their respective spots. Jolene and April glided with preternatural grace into their seats. Sam had just reclined, letting his living chair catch him and move him around into position. With a shake of my head, I stepped over the couch with a stretch of my long legs. As soon as I was over, the seat stretched forward into more of a recliner so that I could stay roughly at eye level with everyone. Some of the old farts from the old world would have had a heart attack at the sight of our honestly slothful-- sans our merwoman and demoness-- presentation. A meeting of six of the most powerful Fallen in North America should be dignified! They would have yelled. It's a good thing we are just a group of friends with more sense than power instead of the inverse.
"You've got the news," I said, motioning to the Druid.
"Two Aberrants managed to get their guardians to the Corpus stage," Sam presented, a map of the old southeastern US forming out of vines, grass and flowers in the middle of our space.
"That's hardly abnormal," Daniela scoffed. "I thought you had something exciting."
"Then one sacrificed itself to the other," Sam finished. Daniela instantly leaned forward with a serious expression. I couldn't hold the frown off my face.
"Show me," I said. Grass rippled on the map as two areas near the old panhandle of Florida lit up red with miniature flower blossoms. My frown deepened. "Have you heard from my dad?"
"No. Last we heard he was still locked in seclusion trying to tame his own Corpus abomination after we freed him," April added.
"Ripples?" I asked.
"Confirmed Water with a touch of Life. We've already put in the request for the appropriate Infusions to be pulled from the vault," Sam said evenly.
"They just can't make things simple, can they?" I rubbed my brow, feeling a headache forming.
"You helped stabilize the state. Without them burning resources just to keep their territory, what did you think was going to happen?" Daniela said, huffing.
"All I did was create the Academy. I don't even deal with its day to day operation anymore," I said, groaning. "Plus, you all have your own apprentices."
At the mention of that, Daniela looked away. She coughed into her hand as she failed to produce a response. "Wait. Not again!"
"He couldn't handle the heat!" Daniela argued. "He shouldn't have been in the kitchen."
"He was a Fire Elemental," Jolene pointed out. "Your argument falls apart a bit there."
"Listen--"
"Anyways~" Sam said, interrupting the building argument. "The local garrisons sent a formal request for intervention. They are worried that if two Aberrants are working together, more of the local clusters could take the opening to... harvest."
"Bah, they are just wanting to pawn this off on us," Daniela jumped in, eager to move the discussion away from her lacking teacher skills.
"Which is what we do," I reminded her.
I ran my hand through my beard in consideration, braiding and unbraiding the hair as I ran the permutations that eliminating two, or more, Aberrants at Category 3 would cause. It would mean a lot of field time as the biome and manasphere balanced. Maybe less if I can convince a few Shard Wielders to come along and help balance the manasphere. However, those were semantics. My brain had already made its decision; it was in damage control mode.
"Contact the District Heads in Gainesville, Valdosta, and Tallahassee. I want them to be informed if we are about to blow up their spot."
"I'll have runners out," Daniela said, serious now that we were into planning.
"Send Devon to Tallahassee. He might need to do some high altitude just so we don't tip the Aberrants that we are on our way."
"I'll talk to Alan," I said, already running the numbers of what projects I could afford to divert my time to pay for the Mad Purger's services. They were always enjoyable tangents, but by the end I felt like I was coming off a bender and not an arcane research project.
"I'll get a few more of these running," Sam said, gesturing towards the unorthodox blimp. "If I can get them linked right, I should be able to transport everyone with a little help from Amelia."
At the mention of her name, the Totem perked up. I glanced over my shoulder, flapping an arm. "You'll get to be a flock leader, it sounds like."
The avian Totem screeched with joy, likely confusing everyone in the city below thanks to the lack of thunderclouds overhead. Her volume echoed quite a ways.
"Sounds like a plan," Billy said, levitating. "I'll rally the Bolt Company. They've been itching to cut their teeth on bigger obstacles."
"Put them on monster patrol, squirt. Your Elemental misfits aren't quite in the big leagues,” Daniela countered.
"Master Terrigan," William instantly said, turning into a bow with a pleading look in his eyes.
"Patrol," I said, agreeing with Daniela. Her self satisfied smirk almost made me want to rescind the order, but thankfully I was more experienced than that. "However, they will be our fast response team if another Aberrant gets cheeky. We are going to be paying the bulk of the cost for this fight, so we are going to rely on them a fair bit."
Billy bowed lower, eyes planted on the ground. "We won't disappoint, sir."
"Gah," I said, fainting a strike to the heart. "I'm barely in my 30s. I'm not that old!"
"Master, I wouldn't-- The insinuation-- Wha--"
"He's joking, Billy," Jolene said, swatting my arm. "He told you he wasn't going to let it go so long as you keep being this formal with him."
"But the other apprentices--"
"Haven't pulled our collective asses from the proverbial fire as much as you," I said, wagging a finger. "You are all family. Well, Daniela is on a good day."
I dodged a fireball with ease, my smile widening. The situation to the northwest wasn't great, but I had learned that proper preparation was just as important as a quick response. I had no doubt that even as we sat at our round couch, my friends were firing off dozens of comm-plant messages to relevant parties. Out of the bunch I was an exception, since the only messages I responded to were from them and my apprentices, and even then it was... hit or miss. A clearing throat pulled me from my own thoughts. It wouldn't be a meeting with me if I didn't end up following a train of thought into yonderland.
"Billy? Anything else you'd like to add?"
"I will try... R-Ronan," the elf Partial muttered. A deep ha left my lips even as the pale no-longer-quite-so-young boy shone through the battlefield veteran William.
"Why not Ron?" Daniela teased, grinning. Billy shuddered as if the chill of death had crept up on him. "True, true. Rock brain fits him much better."
I rolled my eyes at the brunette's oldest nickname for me. Considering some of the things I could do with my Traits... it wasn't necessarily false. With a final shake of my head, I clapped my hands loudly to draw everyone's drifting attention. "Very well. It sounds like the plan's in motion. Why don't we go right some wrongs, stomp some evildoers and look sick as hell while we do it?"
"No sick. I'm on healer duty," Sam interjected. "But I can work with rad."
Our whole group laughed, even April cracked a smile. Just as we were getting a handle on our laughter, a ghostly head popped up right through the middle of the map. "Can I come?"
A chorus of 'No's' strong enough to cause ripples in the ambient mana that passed through Agatha with nary an effect. Despite our clear refusal, I could see the cogs turning in the little girl's head and the mischievous grin crawling across her face.
Oh Entities help me. She's going to be trouble. Uncle, I apologize for all the heartburn I probably gave you. I didn't know dealing with children would be more challenging than facing colossal amalgamations of magic. The surface really is a strange place.
END OF BOOK 6
END OF THE METIER APOCALYPSE