Beyond?

“You never know what's inside if you don't smash the shell.”

-A mother's wisdom

***Free City States of Nict, Tri***

***Azir***

I raise my foot and stomp onto the black magician's throat without holding back. They were indeed the commanding elements of this army. My spear of condensed mana stabs downwards, right through the magician's heart and into his spinal cord.

Attacking their command centre threw the enemy army into confusion and stopped them from reacting properly to an attack right in their midst. On the other hand I have to give them the benefit of the doubt. Who would expect to be attacked while being safely surrounded by your subordinates.

But those guys are tough. Every single one of them has the disfigurements of being exposed to high amounts of mana and at least some of them are soul mages.

The corpse's hands move suddenly and grab my spear. I try to pull it away, but the controlled puppet doesn't let go.

“Now I have you!” One of the remaining eight magicians screams and charges at me, swinging a sword in his left hand. His right hand is pointed at the corpse to my feet, controlling it with a spell.

His grin turns vicious as I watch his approach, shocked. How can someone misjudge my spear so horribly? Didn't he watch when I created it out of mana? I release my control over the solidified shape of my mana weapon and it turns transparent. The corpse's hands lose their grip on the weapon and reach through empty air.

Pointing the spear at the charging magician, I solidify the ethereal weapon just in time to impale him. But he doesn't give up that easily and throws his sword at me in a last act of defiance. The blade doesn't even reach my armour and is reflected by the condensed mana all around me without leaving a scratch.

That means there are seven dark magicians remaining. The others hurl spells of different kinds at me and I evade by teleporting directly in front of another opponent. His eyes widen and I poke my fingers right into them, only to end his howl by placing my armoured boot between his legs.

Before he can fall to the ground I dispel my spear and grab his upper arm and his trousers. Having direct contact with his body I carefully reshape the mana inside him into a curse.

It's the same trick which my mother used so many times on me. Once your perception of mana is fine enough you are able to sneak through your opponent's magical defences by manipulating the mana which isn't under his direct control.

He screams as the sept curse ignites his flesh, turning him into a living flame. I waste no time and hurl his body into the next best group of opponents which gathered around one of the black magicians. The screaming and twitching body impacts on one of the soldiers and the curse spreads. Within moments the burning members of the group disperse in all directions.

It's fascinating how long a living being can survive despite having big parts of its skin burned. The only one who could protect himself from the curse was the black magician, which shows at least some skill from his side.

Another spell is aimed at me, it's a small violet orb of energy, but I don't even try to decipher the complex patterns inside it. The fine threads of mana which originate from the caster tell me enough of it's nature.

It's a guided spell, so instead of trying to evade I tug at one of the strings and redirect the orb to the opponent who resisted my curse. An unbelievable explosion takes me off my feet and I cast gravity magic by instinct to right myself.

A huge conical crater remains of my seventh opponent. Most of the spell's destructive power was aimed forward in its flight direction.

Gathering power in the palm of my hand I aim it at the opponent who fired the spell. First I have to shape the mana into a rune for temperature manipulation and channel as much mana as possible through it. The rest of the mana has to be used as a containment field.

Another rune manipulates the movement vectors of the forces within the field. A mad laugh escapes my lips as the spell starts to work and a thin ray of superheated plasma shoots out from my palm. The target is sliced cleanly in half.

The ray of energy is about two hundred metres long. Beyond that it turns ineffective. Being the only one on this battlefield comes in handy and I turn the full three hundred sixty degrees with my spell, cleaning out the area of everyone who is too slow to jump, or throw himself to the ground.

Having done so my spell starts stuttering and finally turns off. I realize that this was a very wasteful way of using mana, but it cleared my surroundings.

Only two of the black magicians survived my attack, one by lifting off into the air, the other by throwing himself to the ground.

I use the offered chance and cast earth spike on the lying opponent's position. A spike of solidified earth raises from the ground and pierces his belly, lifting him three metres up into the air.

The flying magician casts a web of mana and throws it like a fisherman, spreading it above me. The  web ignores my defensive bubble and lays itself directly onto my armour. The liquid metal starts sizzling and a little smoke is rising from my armour.

The corpses around me are diced into sizeable pieces by the web and I hurry to rip it apart and untangle myself.

The magician casts another spell, but this time I am not distracted by other opponents. Before he can finish I imagine the protective layer of mana around me striking at him and a thin tentacle forms and wriggles around his leg. He screams as the tentacle pulls him out of the air and smashes him into the ground, accompanied by the sickening noise of breaking bones.

The army around me is in complete disarray by now. Most of the soldiers lost their interest in fighting because their commanders are gone. Some woke up from the mind control, but others who were influenced stronger keep attacking the city, just to get slaughtered. I notice that in some spots the corpses are piled almost high enough to reach the upper end of the wall.

Several explosions draw my attention and I realize that they came from the city. Nine big fireballs are rising from my hometown. They managed to smuggle a few explosives past our defences! Did they take out the Gate?

No, the Gate should withstand such attacks. It was constructed for eternity. Even if all the houses around it are levelled it should still stand. So another distraction?

I concentrate and teleport directly to the City Gate, just to find the Gate still standing. It's surrounded by our guards, but the Gate itself is off. It's just a big metallic ring with a street leading through it.

“They shut down the Gate!” Valda's voice sounds from behind me. I turn around and find her floating inside her mana sphere while controlling several tentacles at the same time. In one of them dangles a black magician like being caught in a spider's web.

Stella and Louise arrive behind her. “Azir!” Stella immediately hugs me, ignoring the armour.

“We have to get the Gate running again! How did they even deactivate it!” Louise calls out.

I part from Stella and face the Gate. “This isn't right. It's too easy!”

“What's easy!? They cut off our reinforcements! What if we can't reactivate it again?” Valda points at the Gate.

“No this doesn't make any sense. They attack the city, but don't even take their time to build proper siege weapons. They simply run against the walls like insects! They didn't even try to attack from different directions. And then they set explosives inside the city, but they don't even have the forces to take the Gate!” I chew on my lip. “This is just a huge show to distract us from the main operation. Which other huge target could there be in Tri?”

My mother's eyes widen. “The Stream!”

I teleport without even thinking of taking anyone with me. Arriving in my parent's training hall I find the secret passage forced open. Several of our family's guards are lying in their own blood throughout the room. Foreign soldiers in black armour are among them. It looks like our people taught them a good lesson before going down.

My aunt Jade is lying in front of the secret passage, her eyes staring at the ceiling. Stepping closer I already recognize that there is nothing I can do. The mana inside her body has dissipated and I can't sense her soul.

I clench my teeth and kneel down to close her eyes. She always brought me mechanical artefacts while my mother wasn't happy about me shutting myself in my room while playing with them.

A small whimpering sound comes from the passage and I hurry inside where I find Quarma lying on her back, her head pointing down the stairs. “Grandmother!”

I quickly approach her and place my hand on her, casting a healing spell I remove the faceplate from my armour.

“Leave... me. They know. Hurry... it was Daylen.” She presses through between her lips while I pull her into an upright position to lean her against the wall. There is an ugly wound in her side, probably the attacker thought her dead after receiving such a wound. Who says that being fat isn't an advantage? Then I cast another regeneration spell despite her objections, but she loses consciousness while I am casting the spell.

Having her patched up with all the first aid I can give on a short notice I reattach the faceplate on my helmet and hurry down the stairs. The stairway seems longer than ever and I propel myself forward with all my might.

Unfortunately teleportation is out of the question since the interferences of the mana stream are too strong. I could end up teleporting right into the solid rock.

The stairs fly by under my feet and I finally arrive at the cavern's entrance. It's guarded by three soldiers and I snarl as I ram the first one, my armour forming a spike on its own to impale him. Getting to my feet I realize that they aren't magicians and have no protection. I concentrate on their heads and use telekinesis to tug at something inside them. Both drop to the ground without a single sound escaping their lips.

I find about twenty warriors and four dark magicians inside the cavern. They are standing around a red portal which is redirecting the mana stream above it. In a corner of the cavern are a few civilians huddled together and around the portal are several dead bodies. Daylen is standing with them and grinning at the growing portal.

Of course my arrival wasn't unnoticed and the black armoured soldiers form a line against me. “Keep him away just a few more seconds!”

I roar and reach out for the mana stream, forcefully connecting to its power, which affects the growth of the portal. Two of the dark magicians stop bothering themselves with the portal and face me instead.

Raising both hands I cast a refined version of arcane missile and use the overwhelming power from the mana stream to accelerate myself with a support spell. My arcane missile explode between them and showers its surroundings with a rain of shrapnel.

The next moment I am right between them. Not bothering to convert power I use everything I have. While the stream is this close there is no need to hold back, so all of my armour's functions are at it's maximum performance.

The soldiers are like sheep in front of me and fall as they get into range. One of them throws a grenade at me which I catch and contain within a barrier. The muffled explosion is hardly heard as a mana tentacle forms from my protective sphere and reaches for the soldier. I throw him right into the mana stream where he is incinerated in the blink of an eye.

Suddenly Daylen is in front of me and his sword flashes down. I raise my hand and the blade bites deep into the armour. “You aren't going to stand between me and my reward!” He cries and retreats the blade with blood on it. My armour immediately closes around the wound on my arm and seals it.

“What reward could be worth your wife and family!” I raise my hand and cast an arcane missile, but he evades with lightning speed. The arcane missile hits one of the black magicians at the portal instead, sending him to the ground.

“Being a full magician of course! He promised me to give me the power.” Daylen calls out and throws a dagger encased in flames at me. I evade it casually thanks to my enhanced abilities.

The other two black magicians attack me with lightning the next moment.

Magical energies course between us, but they aren't a problem thanks to the mana stream. Both of them are consumed in a backlash of mana as I overpower them.

Daylen appears right next to me, but this time I am ready for his speed magic and catch the sword. A kick with my armoured foot takes him off his feet, breaking one of them at the knee joint.

Twisting the sword out of his hand I stomp on his good foot, breaking it too.

“Still not enough! So many souls and still not enough! Need more!” He mumbles and reaches with his hand for me, but I wipe it away. “Stay here for a while.”

I turn to face the last black magician, who is trying to flee through the portal.

***Second Continent***

***The Master, Serenzar Draco***

“Everything is going as planned.” The head priest reassures me while watching the growing portal for my waiting army. “Soon Nict will be yours again!”

I let my eyes wander over my waiting troops. Five million brainwashed soldier's. Nobody can oppose them! Once I have them safely on the main continent I'll rule the world once again. And this time there will be no worthless brother to destroy everything which our family fought for. Civilisation will rise again!

Suddenly the portal's growth stops and screams can be heard from the other side. I stand up from my throne and bark at the head priest. “What's that!?”

The head priest steps closer to the portal and suddenly another priest comes running through the slowly closing portal! Clearly there is nobody on the other side to keep the portal up. Otherwise it wouldn't be closing itself!

I point my finger at the insect who is fleeing the battle, but before I can punish him a sword comes flying through the portal and impales his back. He spreads his arms and falls flat to the floor.

The portal closes rapidly, but a moment before it's gone two hands appear and grab the red ring which is distorting reality. One foot appears and tries to force the portal back open.

“D... d... DEMON!” My head priest turns around and tries to get away, but by doing so he drew the attention of whoever is on the other side of the portal.

Tentacles made out of blue condensed mana shoot out from the portal and one of them grabs the priest. He is being pulled in like a fish on a fishing rod. A moment before he is pulled through the hands and foot lose their grip and the portal closes. The tentacle is cut and disperses.

“Zait!” I mumble while I watch the remaining distortions of reality behind the priest. The priest gets to his feet and dusts off his clothes.

Suddenly the distortions turn into a small maelstrom of energy and a charred hand appears from within it. It manages to grab my head priest at his tunic and with a sudden jerk the head priest disappears in the closing maelstrom! His legs don't make it through and are cut off. They drop to the ground, spraying blood all over the place.

I watch the slowly fading distortion of reality until I am sure that nothing is able to force its way through.

***Free City States of Nict, Tri***

***Azir***

I pull a charred corpse from the energy vortex which I used to get at least a small hint on my enemy. Unfortunately this experiment didn't go too well. All I got is a dead, burned corpse. It seems like bridging the distance between here and there via a dimensional gap isn't very healthy. That's why they use only big portals.

I inspect my hurting, charred hand. Next time I'll use someone else's hand. “This hurts!” It even peeled off my armour. My frustration reaches its limit and I kick the dead corpse. I was so close to getting information on this so called Master.

Maybe inspecting the corpse will yield some answers later on, but right now I still have someone alive within my reach!

So I walk over to Daylen and grab his clothes at his chest, pulling him up. “You want power!?” I invade his disoriented mind and try to search for the person which was my aunt's husband, but there is just an envious small thing with a dried up heart. He has several absorbed souls of even weaker magicians than him inside his body. Sadly none of them is Jade.

“You don't even have the excuse of being influenced by their mind magic!” I drag him to the part of  the cavern where the mana stream is at ground level.

“I was so close.” He sobs. “All those years of playing the footman!”

Raising him up into the air I bring him closer to the mana stream. “I'll give you all the power you want.”

“Azir!” My mother's voice reaches my ears from behind me and I turn around. In the entrance to the cavern are Mother, Stella, Louise and a group of soldiers who are fanning out to take care of the civilians.

Valda approaches me with a pale face. “Drop that!”

“He killed Aunty!” I grab his face and push him closer to the mana stream.

“Drop that immediately. He is a Zait, a member of our family! No Zait is allowed to be executed without proper judgement.” My mother's voice is as cold as ice and a shudder runs down my spine. I never heard her that angry before, so I drop Daylen and step away from him.

He smirks. “Yes, that's right. I am still a noble!”

Four thin mana tentacles shoot out from my mother's aura, one for each of his limbs. He screams up in pain as the tentacles wrap around his broken legs. “Hereby I declare you judged as a member of the Zait, by the clan head of the Zait. The judgement is the death penalty.”

The grin vanishes from his face as he is slowly lowered into the mana stream, feet first to ensure that he lives as long as possible. I wanted to push him in face first, clearly mother kept the cooler head in this situation.

“Wait! What about my daughter! Think of her!” He screams.

Valda doesn't twitch as she lowers him slowly into the stream of energy. “I'll tell my niece that you and my sister died a valiant death in defence of your daughter and Tri.”

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