Beyond?

“Having a dream. Having a nightmare. Sleeping, being awake. Sometimes there is no difference.”

-The goddess.

***Quinn, Capital-Palace***

***Azir***

It took us some time, but the details of the contract are finally worked out and the papers are signed. Thankfully this assignment is over after we are done with the farewells.

King Novak's servants brought lots of expensive foods and drinks into the conference room to celebrate the end of the negotiations.

I am picking through the wonderful chocolate desserts at a separate table at the far end of the room. If this land wasn't so severe in handling magicians it would be my personal paradise. Their skills in making chocolate related sweets are top notch! Maybe I should abduct the cook and lock him up inside my kitchen?

“Stop eating that stuff. Didn't you have enough already?” Stella interrupts my little flight on cloud number nine with her nagging voice.

“Shush, woman! A man has to take the chance when he is offered a free treat.” I respond by filling my plate with yet another piece of chocolate. All of them are masterpieces which were foamed up and already crumble by simply touching them. The cook somehow managed to heat them on the inside, so when they break up a pool of hot chocolate flows onto the plate.

“This... can be misunderstood. Please try to avoid saying such things in the presence of our parents.” Giana turns red. She and Leon are entertaining us with nice stories about the good points regarding her home country.

Lucas, the Great Shaman and king Novak created their own personal group and are chatting silently in a corner of the room.

The shaman's advisers, Ajax and queen Frey are still sitting at the conference table and talking about various matters.

“Yes.” Stella tries to take the plate away from me, but I avoid her skilfully. “It's your fourteenth dessert! Sometimes you are behaving like a little child! You'll puke if you eat more of that stuff!”

“I never puked because of eating chocolate.” Now she is making something up.

“At least you'll get stomach-ache!” She replies.

“Seriously?” I had pretty bad problems with my stomach after giving in to my desires, but I never connected it to eating too much. I simply figured that I was unlucky and got a bad piece of chocolate. “It's not that problematic. A simple healing spell solves the problem in most cases.”

“That's not the right way to solve this issue! Not creating it in the first place is far better!” Stella reaches for the foamed up chocolate, but doesn't manage to finish the action.

Gunshots from in front of the conference room interrupt her and the door bursts open. Several soldiers in colourful uniforms enter the room while others break through the windows at the same time.

I immediately cast a simple inhibition field which should suppress any chemical combustion in the area. It is a fairly simple magic that doesn't cost much effort. Stopping the propellant inside the combustion chambers from igniting is even easier than suppressing a candle flame.

The soldiers take positions throughout the room and aim their guns at us, but none of them pulls the trigger. They seem to be trained fairly well.

“What's this supposed to mean!?” King Novak calls out with a red face. “Put down the weapons right this moment!”

“They aren't going to listen.” A priest in very luxurious robes enters the room. “They are all loyal believers in our faith, unlike you and your family. You are collaborating with the Cursed!” He walks over to the table with the documents. “And since you signed the papers we have undeniable proof of your misguided actions.” The room is now filled with ten soldiers and the newly arrived priest.

He has grey hair and his facial expression shows that he is used to authority. A long, grey beard shows that he must be past the prime of his age and there are quite a few wrinkles on his face.

“Patre Tiamat. You! Don't you realize that our country needs help if we want to survive what's coming?” Queen Frey tries to stand up, but one of the soldiers pushes her back down.

“You are simply not religious enough. I realized a while ago that the royal family isn't devoted enough.” The priest starts walking through the room. “Normally I would've never been able to return this country onto the right path.” He shakes the papers in his hand. “But with this we can show everyone that you were influenced by the cursed. It will be easy to take over from here.”

“What do you mean?” King Novak pales. He seems to be totally surprised by this situation.

“My followers already organised a revolt in front of the palace and secured a path to the main entrance.” Tiamat smirks. “We will bring you all in front of our faithful believers and after showing them the evidence” He raises the documents. “You'll be executed together with the cursed.” Spreading his hands he smiles and looks at the ceiling. “And after you are gone the rest of the palace will have no choice but to submit to us since the population will be on our side.”

That would be unpleasant. I don't want to be executed. Is this guy nuts? I plunge my spoon into the chocolate foam in an attempt to take another bite. Unfortunately it's already gone. I kept eating during the whole display, so I load my plate with another portion. It's convenient to be ignored right now.

“That'll cause a war with Nict and Dwem! Don't we have enough problems by now!?” Queen Frey stammers.

The strange priest shrugs his shoulders arrogantly. “Our cities are safe from magic users. The inhibitors are running day and night, they can't touch us with their magic as long as we stay in our country. Hahahaha.”

Hm. Yes. The inhibition field. Seems like they have a big, stationary version of the magic suppressing device in every city. It's very annoying to enter this field as a magician. The mana around us vibrates and makes it almost impossible to cast spells. Only very rudimentary and small spells are possible if you don't use a lot of effort. It's a good way to keep the damage which could be done by untrained magicians to a minimum.

That is unless you find out the frequency of the scrambling device.

Once you know the right frequency of the interfering waves, which are disturbing the mana, you can create an inverted wave. Applying the inverted wave to the mana which you are using to form a spell results in the negation of both waves. Hence you can cast as much spells as you want. It's fairly easy as long as the frequency of the scrambler doesn't change too fast.

“You! You cursed monster! Don't ignore me when I am speaking.” The priest points at me, but I don't care and shove yet another spoon with chocolate into my mouth.

Stella is hiding behind me and totally forgot about complaining, so I managed to eat yet another dessert.

“Mou guys mould calm dowm.” I speak with a full mouth. There is no reason to be afraid. They are just normals and I dealt with their guns when they stormed into the room.

The priest walks over and kicks the table with the desserts over. “YOU! Kill him! There are still enough of them to execute in front of the crowd!” He orders one of his soldiers, pointing at me.

“No!” Stella hugs me from behind as the instructed soldier points his gun at my face. Nothing but a click is heard in the otherwise completely silent room.

I have to force myself in order to avert my eyes from the chocolate which is spilled on the ground. “You shouldn't have done that!”

The soldier in front of me checks his gun confusedly and I use his negligence. Enforcing my muscles I ram my spoon into his forehead and walk past him as he tilts backwards, taking the gun from his limp hands. Stella let go of me when I started moving.

The others raise their guns and the clicking of malfunctioning guns fills the room. I point the acquired gun at the soldier who is closest to me and pull the trigger.

All it takes is dispelling my suppressing spell in the area directly around me. A loud bang fills the room and the soldier's face disintegrates in a shower of blood, bone and tissue. The gun is using a big calibre and the effect is impressive!

Before the others can move I raise my free hand and wave it casually at them. Five soldiers are lifted into the air and thrown into walls and furniture. The unhealthy noises of breaking bones confirm that they are out of the game.

The remaining three rebels draw knives and throw themselves at me, but they have normal strength and normal speed while I am able to use my magic relatively unhindered.

Soldier one makes acquaintance with the gun in my hand, which I use as a club. It is a single shot model, but using it in this barbarous manner is also fine.

He is wiped away like an insect and flies out of the window. Number two actually manages to ram his knife into my chest and I apply a small layer of mana above my skin to stop it. The blade breaks with a bright cling.

While he is watching the blade of his knife bouncing away in a high arc with big, round eyes I grab his collar with the left and drop the gun to get a good grip on his belt.

The last soldier watches me with an open mouth as I raise his companion above my head and bring him down on my knee, breaking him like a stick.

Realizing that he is next in line he turns and runs towards the window. They used ropes to climb down from the upper floor. The last attacker grabs one of those ropes and starts hiking downwards as I am slowly following him.

He is already five metres further downwards when I take a look out of the window. That's when he looks up and realizes that his escape route was poorly chosen. Smiling I wave at him and grab the rope. A little jerk is enough to snap it. I don't bother to watch his fall, turning around to face the room. This is the seventh floor and the soldier's scream is cut shortly after.

On my way back to Stella I realize that I forgot the priest. What was his name? Tia... something? Whatever. He is looking like a frog as he is simply standing there with his mouth wide open.

The problem is removed easily enough by grabbing him and tossing him out of the window. He doesn't even scream on his way down, so I can peacefully choose a fairly clean plate from the ground.

Getting to my knees I search through the damaged desserts until I find one which wasn't totally destroyed. How could they do something as horrible as that. The cook must have put his soul into creating those easily crumbling pieces of fluffiness.

I get up from my knees and close my eyes as I place a piece of this dream in my mouth. A few moments later I realize that the room is too silent and open them again.

Everyone is watching me.

“Is there a problem?”

.