A New Beginning

REGIS ASCALON

The first time Alicia found her in the backstreets, I only remembered her as a small girl. Vacant and lifeless.

She did not remember her home or parents but did not seem to be bothered by it at the same time, which was unusual. Even though this little girl was emotionless at the start, with Alicia I was able to see her seamlessly childish nature grow.

And yet somehow everyone around me denied her to be a being capable of living.

In spite of their intellectual claims, I still believed she was alive as much as I was.

At present, I do not have the means to defeat that hellish creation created by the crazy Doctor.

And now something that this Doctor did, made Eabhloid even more powerful and still growing. Just looking at it gives me the creeps.

In this fight I watched her struggle, feeling bitterly cold, confused, in agony, and crying. But not for once, she smiled like when she was with us.

‘That’s why… I am going to do whatever it takes to help her.’

But if Alicia says this is the only way, then I guess I have no choice but to do it.

⸺But…but…

‘Why do all magic researchers have to be so weird and crazy for their ideas?‘

‘Regis are you complaining.’ A familiar voice rang inside my head.

‘Wait! Did I speak that out loud? I was not complaining… it’s just the Doctor is quite annoying.’

‘I said it before. We are connected telepathically with our magic senses.’

‘Yes, I remember. And I also remember you saying that you can defeat this thing in one blow. But is that really possible!?’ With a glint of understanding eyes, I looked at Alicia.

Despite me being aware of Alicia’s exceptional magical powers this seemed to be a much insane magic and to go unscathed while playing with the laws of nature could have been forbidden among elves.

“Till you discover the Soul Augmentron device at the bottom of this base and destroy it I won’t be able to invoke the magic I need.”

‘But how do I reach there or know exactly where it is.’ With a doubtful expression, I beckoned to Alicia while still keeping our interaction minimum to not give the Doctor a hint of our plans.

“Just keep on doing what you are good at. Destroy every obstacle in your path till you find a way.” Alicia said it directly in my mind, but I could see her smiling straight face.

“That only makes me sound like a spoiled mean kid even when I am the one helping you… But I will do it.’ I sighed.

Despite knowing that many things could go wrong if I messed up, I accepted my friend’s request.

Alicia's lips curves up and with a hopeful smile, she wished me the best of luck. Under that mask, I knew she was worried too. For my sake, for the dying homunculi girl and for that important person she is still searching for and her adventures. They are still waiting for her.

“Now go, while I keep this big monster busy,” Alicia asks me to leave without giving me much time to figure out where exactly to start.

Alicia then with the movement of her hands raised a wall of black flames to distort the view on both sides. In an instant when the flames touched the body of Eabhloid the giant flares flickered and got extinguished.

But that much time was more than enough for me to pull out from there. I found a good spot where I could entrust myself to my power. I had already learned to condense my magic into the form of an arrow. But keeping it stable was the biggest challenge. The more magical energy I tried pouring in, the more unbalanced it became to hold it all in.

But by constantly putting magic to use I was slowly understanding its nature. Without hesitating, I launched my magic arrow bonded deeply with the destructive power of my magic I left a small punched hole in the wall big enough to jump to the other side.

Waving Alicia off, I leaped through the hole onto the other side of the wall with excitement to discover what lay beyond.

…. SHHHHH….

“Huh…”

“Noooo…. I don’t want to die…. Like thissss….” I screamed and my voice vanished almost immediately before it could be properly heard.

Everything around me was white and I was continuously falling into a chasm with no bottom to be seen. It was a cylindrical gap and a huge white shaft was fixed to the central zone. I could sense a great magnitude of magic gushing through it.

The amount was so extraordinary, that even someone so bad at sensing magic could be terrified by the intensity of this emission. I was still falling endlessly and trying my best to contain my body and look for some kind of space to attach myself to before I get crushed to the ground.

Whether it was a matter of a few seconds or minutes, everything rested on what I do at that precise moment.

Just when things couldn’t get difficult enough I hear an announcement.

[Defensive Mechanism Activated. Status : Infiltrated. Imperial Ordinance System. Soul Augmentron Ray Shaft Breached. Organizing Countermeasures. Annihilate Foreign Substance]

In no way that could have been a welcome message.

Hundreds of big white canons now protruded out of the white shaft and were aiming at my body.

Red lights accumulated all over my body from the shooting point as the heat encroached to melt my skin.

“Annihilation…. That’s not how you treat a princess from a foreign land.”

Gritting my teeth, I resisted the temptation to just let go and leave my fate to do the rest of the job.

The feeling when shutting my eye so hard that it seemed like different vanishing lights were oozing around or the sensation that no matter how hard my eyes squinted, my eyes couldn’t adjust and the vision blurred. It was normal.

But that wasn’t what I was experiencing. Everything was slowly getting clearer, the pressure on my mind that the plan rested on my shoulders was keeping me head straight and able to think.

In a split second, I augmented my body with my wind magic and redirected that destructive magic power to my bow. A thin red wavy light transforms along my aim view.

Facing upwards and letting my body fall freely, horizontally, I took aim and released the magic arrow.

Without making any sound the arrow followed along one of the enemy sensory lights and at the moment of impact, it lit into a wide explosion enough to send repeated announcement warnings.

And then next was a continuous exchange between my arrows and their frying red beams.

Though I had burnt my hair and clothes with some holes, nothing severe happened to slow me down from taking all of them out.

In between my head did feel like spinning, round and round but the fear of approaching something forbidden made me feel more anxious.

And when I knew exactly what it was, I felt goosebumps on my skin.

Turning my head down, my eyes bulged seeing a piece of giant machinery with a complex structure and the revolving parts inside it produced a glow that was slowly melting the earth, excavating something from deep inside it.

Not wanting to waste a single second, with a moment’s glance and I readied my magic arrow this time with much more magical energy, letting it all loose in the heat of battle.

SWOOOSHHHH….

…BOOM. BOOM. BOOM.

A single collision and the device was set in a continuous chain of explosions. Fortunately, the explosion traveled upwards in the shaft and took care of all the shooters for me.

Lastly, to stabilize myself, I picked up a physical arrow from my dimensional ring and enveloping its pointy edge with my magic I struck it hard inside the wall.

Crrr…rrrrrrr….

With a screeching clawing sound and a bit of forceful dragging, I was finally able to hang on to my arrow penetrating the wall. I was waiting for all the explosions to quiet down.

“Alicia should be thankful to me and now we can finally go back.” I happily muttered to myself.

And then a curious thought passed my mind ⸺Just how many floors am I below the ground? The top over me was gone and I was not sure where the hole was from where I entered.

The timing of the fall was something I did not take into account. Except for the size of the big machine parts. I am barely able to make out the surface of the ground… is there really one.

And then another fleeting thought passed my mind… a much more dangerous and devastating truth.

To confirm my suspicions I looked below, even when it is advised not to look down from heights. A despairing expression crept on my face.

A sea of magic boiling from the lower stratum was climbing upwards and gaining momentum.

“Alicia don’t tell me you made me destroy a Codra Vein, but shouldn’t reaching the depths of one should have been impossible in the first place.”

I screamed and these were the moments when I really wanted to learn the ability to fly like Alicia.

“I will never follow blind-eyed into any of her crazy ideas ever again,” I swear.

My death was fast approaching I looked for anything helpful but all around me, there was this plain useless white wall from which I was hanging.

“It’s alright Regis. You did very well and I know exactly where you are now and I will not let anything harm you. I am going to end this now.” My savior’s voice echoing in my mind belonged to none other than Alicia.

Not sure I should be thanking her for persuading me to make me do this.

A transparent blue field appeared around me on which I could apparently stand. When the lava of exploding hot magic reached up it enwrapped around me into a bubble and nothing happened even on contact.

Alicia’s barrier was simply impenetrable and it carried me along with the force of the waves.

All the while I was hoping to see Alicia victorious on the top…

***

ALICIA ASCALON ASHBORN

The creature, Eabhloid, had already locked onto me because it wanted to absorb my skills and magic power.

But this also meant that I could use that greedy instinct against it. Regis will be free from its mind and can act independently on her own. All I needed to do was set the right stage and get rid of the spatial barrier around here to deploy my large-scale magic.

Giving Regis a small opportunity to move undercover I angered Eabhloid and found its attention again.

Even though my flames did nothing the heat was more than enough to make it suffer in immense pain until its skill activate.

Resetting the causality for itself was like reading a story that always ends in its favor alone.

At first glance, the fight would seem almost hopeless, but I needed to buy time for Regis to achieve her goal.

Eabhloid with several of its tentacles lashing out from its back, jumped high in the sky breaking the ground.

Forming a hammer by joining its arms it tried to strike me with full force from above.

With my quick movements and experience, I was able to dodge each of its attacks or whip away the tentacles with my fusion balls.

The continuous force of blows kept on destroying the place and I ran evading each of its blows. In between creating spells of black flare walls to keep him at a distance.

“Are you despairing already? Repeating the same attack yet expecting different results. I didn’t think you would be the illogical type.” The Doctor commented. After releasing Eabhloid from his bounds he didn’t seem to be himself.

After all, he was the only one who truly understood that the effects of Eabhloid power being continuously used in reality will surely lead to the collapse of the present civilization.

“If something like that gets outside….. I finally realize I have been thinking a lot about this… but I have finally found my answer.” I did not answer his question directly.

Eabhloid did not seem to be much bothered by our conversation, except its appetite for power was growing.

“Eabhloid does not need to fight for survival. They have all components necessary to survive within them, lacking the need to eat for sustenance.“

“And yet all of your creation looks so hungry…”

“Of course, they would be seeing someone who could rival their power, it will devour your soul realm and your entire existence.” The Doctor was not a careful person and by every means, he assessed Alicia to be a super strong being and considered her the biggest obstacle to his dream.

And so he had made it his current objective to remove her from his path.

“Tell me do you know what a soul realm is? If your fears can take shape and manifests in your body then couldn’t your wishes also take shape and become reality too? I know this is possible with Eabhloid’s power.”

“If that is what you think wishes are, then you don’t fully comprehend what a soul realm is.”

At my inadvertent denial, Eabhloid howled in rage and charged forward. The spiral on his face twisted with similar behavior of glaring at me. The blow from its punch passes above my head and slams into the wall directly next to me.

“You are a naive little girl. Then how about a little demonstration before you live out your final moments and I prove you wrong.” The Doctor signaled Eabhloid with more magic leaking from the place and getting absorbed into its body.

Making it much larger and grotesque in form.

Its color slowly turns black as well. Most probably it has gained resistance to my black flames and the previous punch was exactly where he wanted it to land.

The monster while pretending to be attacking mindlessly had cornered me with walls at my back and for me nowhere to run as the tentacles cut off the sides.

Eabhloid with its twisting spiral face, blood started dripping from it.

“LoSu ImenDi IsoNd…” Eabhloid spoke to me without a mouth. Not like I really understood it.

But noticing the environment around me changes both in structure and magic composition. From the Doctor’s talk, Eabhloid was trying to manifest its soul and form a domain in this place.

The situation hasn’t improved and it had already taken a turn for even worse. There was still no clue that Regis had achieved her objective, and until then I cannot play my big move.

“You should be able to understand. My decision has already surpassed human ideals and is the only way to maintain the future. You know nothing about special beings and creatures that lurk in the outside world ready to do anything without guilt or remorse. We are not talking about personal emotion; you should give up. It is not a possibility for her to be saved or not saved because she is already dead…”An unintentional hesitation filled the Doctor’s neck from further speaking.

“The future hasn’t been decided yet.” I was trying to figure out what kind of other ability Eabhloid could use in his domain while expanding his soul.

“What do you mean by that…?” The doctor suddenly looked annoyed by my simple statement.

“The future is never set in stone, and also that you do not fully understand the nature of soul realm. It is not something constant that you can study. It is unique to every person and when I look at her, she is so much similar to me and yet a separate individual. An ordinary girl whom I would like to become friends with.” I felt I needed to say this, but Eabhloid had already succeeded in the process of completing its soul domain.

An energy blast and several shockwaves damaged the floor, the whole place was now enveloped in a purple deformed sky. And then protrusions started appearing everywhere in the purple. From these eye-like protrusions, they finally opened to reveal the same spiral face that Eabhloid possessed.

This field contained such a negative aura that my heart started to feel heavy and I could feel some of my power being drained away as well to maintain consciousness.

From the spiral eyes in the sky, blood fell like a waterfall crashing on the ground and finally molded into a shape similar to that of Eabhloid and its dead-looking spiral face.

“Are these magical clones?” I wondered.

“These are all the souls of the experiment subjects that have merged together to form Eabhloid and have manifested themselves in this soul realm.”

One was tough enough to handle, but now there were so many and the number continuously kept on growing.

“EmpLe HluOs…” The copies of Eabhloid all muttered the same thing together. Their voices were suppressed and so were their existences. Eabhloid was not only able to control these suffering souls but also absorb energy from each of their soul realms resulting in the formation of this messed-up world.

Eabhloid at the hem of this force now again targeted me. Their tentacles protruding from the back raced towards me.

But I was not ready to take a beating this time. This environment though curbed my own magic I had survived against the monsters of the labyrinth which were more unpredictable and powerful than this.

Accumulating my magic I tried to form several fusion balls and black flare storms to take care of them. Seemingly they worked on the copies.

But the real tentacles of the real Eabhloid canceled all my attacks and ran through me.

Unable to break the blue barrier around me, but on impact, I was blown away. Fortunately, I stabilized myself by cushioning my fall on a bed of webs I had conjured.

My teleportation magic still did not work because of the strong dimensional barrier which engaged this space.

All the ethereal clones of Eabhloid now together faced at the center, where the original Eabhloid stood.

All of them look at the sky where the spiral eyes moved continuously and floated.

Realizing I had seen this happen before, each spiral produced a red beam of intense energy which followed up to the sky and entered the eye spirals rapidly entering one and then again leaving to enter another until there were hundreds of these red rays zapping in the sky being controlled by Eabhloid.

“UinrEd YaniHs.” Eabhloid chanted it like a spell.

The revolving red rays clustered into a storm and overwhelmed the place destroying everything in an instant where it fell. One of these red rays fell near me ripping a hole through the wall.

I reinforced the barrier around me and watched all the Eabhloid contributing to the red inferno in the sky growing bigger and more chaotic.

“This is the last chance you have to make this less painful. Stop resisting and accept that Eabhloid possesses the greatest power among all living beings.” The Doctor screamed from behind this superficially unstoppable force.

“That’s just what you think. But from what I have experienced anything can be killed and I am strong enough to prove to you that right now.”

The moment I challenged the Doctor, the space for a moment around me cracked like a high tower of glass structure crumbling to the ground.

“What was that?” the Doctor shrieked.

“It was about time. Regis thank you. Al get ready…”

“So until now, everything was part of a distraction. The real objective was somewhere else. Where is the other girl? I see… it must be that red-haired elf girl. Even if she succeeded in destroying the Imperial Ordinance system that was just a backup engine to recharge Eabhloid’s energy and that has already been done. It changes nothing.” The Doctor was displeased to know his core reactor destroyed which he must have worked on for years to build.

“No, it changes everything for me. Everything in this world has a meaning, Let me show you a small glimpse of my soul realm.”

The instant I realized I had now full control over the situation, I made sure Regis was safe, also remembering I forgot to tell her that the device will be connected to the Codra vein flowing underneath this place. But I was sure she could handle herself well in the meantime, probably.

[SOUL REALM MANIFEST. VOID FIELD]

“I don’t care if this world is so unnatural or unbalanced. But beyond this, there will be no end.” I warned the Doctor, returning his favor.

Black webs morphed from my magic and started binding all the spiral eyes that floated in the air and hold them still.

The purple sky faded and in its place was a hollow design. The copies of Eabhloid panic while the original Eabhloid looks frustrated. Rapidly punching the ground, seeing its authority being taken away.

“KorgFu DapNa” Eabhloid screamed fiercely. Some of the Eabhloids’ disintegrate into embryonic red lights covering everything, trying to recalibrate the world back to its desired state. Unfortunately, Eabhloid could not use his skill until the stimulus directly threatened its existence.

So he was trying to regain his sustenance by consuming its own kind and using them as living batteries.

“Stop this… if you try to overwrite the domain you will be…” The Doctor held his breath realizing that the magic needed to overwrite a soul realm should have been impossible to achieve according to his calculations and yet it was happening right in front of his own eyes and so he could not deny it.

“It has already begun.” My lips curved as my domain overwrote the rules that Eabhloid laid down.

[GLUTTONY]

My black mystic webs start weaving around every Eabhloid leaving the original alone to his own devices.

Eabhloid’s clones who had been surging with fury just moments ago, ready to kill me, now turned to pillars of red light when completely enclosed in my webs. They vanished without pain or suffering of any kind. But the energy released this time was not able to reach Eabhloid.

It shrieked in fury, seeing the life resource it depended upon being drained into the void of my domain. Now the souls entrapped in its twisted forms were liberated and set free from its bonds. It was the most serene possible way to free these poor souls from their eternal pain.

“Do you really think you can endure the backlash from overwriting the soul realm? It was a big mistake because Eabhloid is not just a single entity but a cluster of thousands of souls and freeing them and absorbing them for yourself will…”

“I am already aware, but this pain is nothing if I am able to get what I want.”

The Doctor was right because the moment these souls were freed from all their sufferings and the pain they suffered in the final moments of their life was equally absorbed into my soul realm.

It was impossible to escape these hateful feelings of anger, being hurt continuously till all there was left was an empty body. Whether that would change me or not, I know I will not lose my way because this time I have got a family and people who will always care for me.

I continued to speak, “…And that’s why I will not give you the pleasure of turning her into an animal of broken instincts.”

“Ah……,” The Doctor murmured. “Why haven’t I realized such a simple thing before? From the start, it should have been obvious to me with this terrible timing. So fate once against decides to stand in my way. So in the end he was right, the Divine System would have never let this go unseen. But doesn’t that means I was close to defying its influence. I can still do it. I have not lost, one last time…” The Doctor makes an odd remark as if he knew something I didn’t.

For the most part, all of the Eabhloid’s clones had been taken care of. The lingering feeling of their consciousness was weighing me down and making me feel dizzy. But now was the time I had to act and use this chance when Eabhloid was vulnerable.

“KuatFa GiurTa… EidLa” An insane amount of power leaked from Eabhloid expressing his anger.

The Doctor felt a chill run down his spine. He finally understood why to be a creator he needed to demolish every value he owned.

“You must be angry after all; this was the first time something was taken away from you. But don’t let go of this anger. Turn it into your power and show the world, this reality a new evolving face.”

With its domain and souls snatched, it was the first time Eabhloid had lost something instead of gaining which had made it snap. The spiral on its face is scrunched and blood drips in two streams. As if it was crying like a child. Seeing Eabhloid emulate human emotions after causing such horrible things would have made anyone feel disgusted.

But his outburst caused something unexpected to happen in my domain, and all the spiral eyes in the sky reopened again, as my webs vanished.

Eabhloid had somehow evoked the skill of his own will and not after meeting the condition.

“Now consume everything.” The Doctor commands.

Eabhloid’s spiral face emitted a dark-red light, sticky and viscous in quality at one of its eyes. The light then shot forward to another spiral eye with an increased terrifying speed and the process continues amplifying the laser.

Until a giant red laser returns back to hit Eabhloid’s body sending its thick muscular body several feet back. And when it calmed down its body was burning red with the energy it had absorbed again.

It had only a limited time before Eabhloid has to release that condensed energy before it destroys its host. I could only imagine that such force would have been enough to cause the destruction of this domain.

But I was not concerned, because this was just a rudimentary part of my plan.

The real wave was arising from below us. My domain was there to cover up for this latter part of my plan.

“I cannot forgive your intentions. And I will never forgive the existence of this being until it turns into worthless dust. This day… this moment we will allow you no time to prepare. We will eradicate you now.” My words somehow seemed off, but to exercise my will I cannot let this moment pass.

I was going to fuse this place with Islegard’s Codra veins.

From the ground beneath us came a roar like a volcano erupting, the heavy thrust from the boiling concentrated magic particles breaks through the ground as a shaft of white light aiming to reach the sky and touch the heavens.

It whipped up ferocious winds of dust and heat, but the Doctor narrowed his eyes only the minimum amount necessary; determined to see the end.

Eabhloid focusing the maximum amount of energy into the spiral it unlocked its face by twisting it beyond its intersection. The red beam was a torrent of heat sufficient to penetrate through the planet. A single touch or even coming close to this red ray would have turned everything into ash.

I hurl myself forward to avoid the flash of light that carves a whining path through the air.

But the moment I exerted the authority of my domain the magic energy leaking from the Codra vein bent to my will and transformed into a pillar of white light. Any ordinary person should have been pushed to oblivion but I decided to completely merged myself with this raw power of the planet.

At the same time, I was surprised to find how well I was able to tackle it on the first try.

This naturally existing world energy that existed to bind this planet into one now danced on my fingertips.

Usually, if part of the Codra vein were to burst out of the ground, it would diffuse into its surroundings. There was normally no way to control this sheer power, which should have caused great calamities for years and plundered this entire continent.

But now at my command, it was being concentrated and shooting into the air, from the ground to the sky. Turning the underground hall, into an outdoor space revealing the night sky which too eventually vanished from sight as my domain became larger.

I added my own magic to stabilize the exponentially rising magic eventually forming a scorching sun. bright and warm.

Until finally the red beam of Eabhloid met with the refined energy of this world.

It was like a blinding glare of reality that there was always something powerful and nothing was permanent.

Instantaneous and simple. Utter annihilation without a trace.

The light with its undying curiosity vs… the hallowed curses light.

Which would win…

In the end, it burns up all it gazes upon.

***

[ORDINANCE COMMAND. FAILURE.]

[DEVOURING IMPERIAL SYSTEM. SOUL LEAK. TAKING CONTROL. RENDERING DATA. WILL ENFORCED. TRANSFERRING WILL.]

***