Black Magus

I awoke from my trance at around 3 AM and opened my tent to see Skoll and Hati poised at opposite ends of our camp. A sight that forced a proud grin to stretch across my face. I pulled a few slabs of meat to reward them for being the best boy and girl in all the realms. Then released Pora Bora from my shadow to increase the company while I tore down my tent and served myself a bowl of stew.

With a quick look into my shadow, I saw that the octopus and the orcas still had yet to turn, but the ambient energy of my pocket dimension was assuredly being absorbed by their bodies; though, how they would use that energy once the transformation was complete was beyond my current knowledge. I was unsure if I could influence it in any way, but I was also sure that I didn’t want to. The mystery behind it their powers proved to be quite addictive. And, with my magical ignorance, I didn't want to muddle it by giving them something stupid. Additionally, there was the matter of the Menagerie's powers as a whole. Not their unique abilities, but the ones they shared as shadow creatures. If they could Shade Step; create darkness or scry through shadows. It was obvious they became stronger in darkness, but I was most curious about their weakness in light. More so, it was clear they sustained themselves from the umbral energies of my Shadow Pocket, but it was unclear if they could still eat and beyond that, continue to grow stronger, smarter, heal, or a number of other things. The last of them all being what they became when they died.

Those were only some of the questions that burned the brightest in my mind while my body tended to its meal in the canopy. Questions that I set out to find answers to at once.

‘The more I learn the more questions and experiments I have.' I released Roger with a heavy sigh; though, not out of despair or frustration, but from satisfaction and excitement. After all, living in a world where there was nothing to learn, wasn’t living at all.

It took just under an hour to test each member of the Menagerie, minus the new additions of course. I learned that the collective could indeed Shade Step but could not create darkness nor scry through shadows. Most interestingly of all, I learned they didn't just have an aversion to light. They abhorred it. To the point of primal violence, they hated the light with every fiber of their being, yet shied away from it all the same. To varying degrees, of course, with Skoll and Hati being the most tolerant.

Sadly though, the other questions would have to wait for a later time. So, with that done, I lit a smoke with the Flames of Moil for the sake of light discipline, only to inadvertently imbue my belated wake-and-bake with a menthol-like effect.

‘I’ll take it.’ I shrugged, then turned my sights to the gray-clad woodlands around me.

Due to us being so far from the Epethian Territories, the forest was an unnamed and lawless expanse. According to the map, however, parts of it were frequented by travelers, adventurers, and merchants due to the lack of checkpoints, laws, and fees that came with passing through subsequent territories. That said, we passed the main road leading to the southern parts of the empire around two-thousand klicks back and our destination was an equal distance ahead, placing us in the middle of a vast, peaceful, autumnal wilderness that I could gaze upon for hours.

But sadly, only one passed before I sensed something.

It came from roughly a kilometer to the northwest. Heavy footsteps, trotting through the woods at a dutiful pace. After focusing on it further, however, I picked up three distinct sets of footsteps trotting in the characteristic rhythm that all but denoted them as quadrupeds. In turn, I felt for variations in the gravitational waves cascading around me to distinguish a relatively small creature, perhaps a juvenile, from a pair of quite massive creatures escorting it directly to our camp. I was unaware of any bear-sized animal that hunted in groups. Regardless, I assumed it had to be a pack protecting their territory from intruders. Or, we were simply being hunted. Whatever it was, I wanted to find out. So I conjured my Artificial Well and fell through the air on an intercept course.

It didn’t take long to get there, giving me enough time to finish my smoke before their movements started to change. They became wearier and wearier with each step closer, eventually stopping around fifty meters away to try and hide just inside of a brush to study the assuredly strange creature floating above the forest floor, studying them just as intently.

They had red-rimmed eyes with vertical pupils filled with suspicious aggression. And they were massive. Nearly twice as large as a bear and with the same domineering posture as well; but, covered in feathers. With the face of an… owl.

“What the fuck are you?” I spat in disgust.

As one would expect of wild beasts, the two big ones commenced the battle with an ear-piercing shriek before rushing in a line. I, however, was serious about my inquiry, so I infused shadow mana into my body to activate the Wraith Form and closely studied the first one trying to barrel right through me. As much as I hated to admit it, it couldn’t have been anything other than a… bear... owl- a Browl. Or, as I liked to call it, a fucking abomination.

I was unsure how or why something like this even existed in the first place. But it made me feel… uneasy. Offended, even. Bears were mighty and even cool, but they were nowhere near as regal, elegant, and deadly enough to be blended with the divine likeness of an owl. These Browls were crude. Barbaric, even. A not-so-quite eldritch horror in desperate need of extermination, and a stain on the Menagerie should they be captured.

I refused to stand for it, owls being disgraced in such a way. Not even their corpses would live.

After the first owlbear skidded against the trees behind me and disappeared behind the brush, the second one lulled to a halt to stand on its hind legs to tower three meters above the ground and pierce the night with another ear-shattering screech before slamming 1,300 kilos of unbridled aggression onto my umbral form.

Backstepping out of its arm, I cast aside the shadow mana within me to pull mana from my Well, guide it through the temporal portion of my Space-Time Core, and pool the energy in my right hand. Then, with my intention and a name confirmed in my mind, I lunged forward to palm the abomination's feathered arm. As if the floodgates opened, the temporal mana gathered within my hand surged through its flesh, flowing through every cell before it drained back into my body to concentrate into a fine point around my core; in turn, causing the abomination's feathers to gray and its hulking frame to sag in sad fashion before my eyes.

Still, though, it retorted with a lazy back-pawed swing. A swing that inadvertently flung a multitude of harmless mottled feathers through the air as if it was a follow-up to counter my dodge.

[Time Splitter. +20 Years.]

As if to ruin the glee that came from the new spell’s confirmation, the little one came out of the brush to my side with a pathetic screech to snap its beak at my knees. Sneering at the sight, I filled my finger with gravity mana and flicked a bullet at the little bastard. The beast backpedaled after my spell made contact. Transferring all the energy needed to lift it off of the ground just before its limbs unnaturally snapped into its body, forcing a pitiful cry from its lungs that competed against the sounds of wrenching bone and spurting blood.

With a final, sad screech, the relentless pull of gravity crushed the baby abomination into a dense sphere of dripping flesh. Not wasting any more time, I flicked a bit more gravity mana at the browl ball, then spun on my heels to pitch an imaginary baseball at its aged parent.

The ball rushed past my shoulder in the next second to bore through the grayed beak and continue on through its body to shred the patch of forest behind it, then blew the beast to bits through the force of its wake. Mangled flesh flew in every direction. coating the destroyed flora in a thick layer of steaming blood and viscera.

After turning about once again, I saw that the first browl had recovered and had spent the time thus far lumbering back to the battlefield at a cautious pace. With the beast's family dispatched, however, such caution was thrown to the wind. Thunderous strides brought it to full speed and kept it there as it shoulder-checked tree trunks and outcroppings alike. And with a final kick off the ground, the browl tilted its head and lunged its beaked maw at my unguarded throat. Only for its face, head, and spine to be obliterated after coming into contact with my Void Skin, leaving two steaming piles of blood, organs, and feathery limbs to tumble to a violent halt behind me.

Much to my chagrin, though, the spell also destroyed my clothes. Leaving me stark naked in the middle of a gory patch of silent woods.

I decided to test another experiment while I changed and let a few members of the Menagerie out. Namely, Jake, Gero, Roger, Stewie, and Kit, all of whom turned to devour the scattered remains the moment they stepped out. Answering one question, and yet adding another. With at least that out of the way, I then recalled the troops and took to the air to read through the contents of my new spell while I fell back to camp at a leisurely pace.

[Time Splitter - The life expectancy; or lifespan, of a creature is split or reduced by a length of time determined before casting. This split time is then stored within the caster, leaving the target with the difference. The spell can then be used in reverse to give that stolen time to another, or yourself. Extending your or their natural lifespans.]

[Split Time: 20 Years.]

As intended, it was basically my Leech Hand but with Time magic. Only, my touch had a sort of forced-aging effect rather than draining my target’s health on the spot. With it, a juvenile creature like the baby browl would have lived on for only a few more years before the complications associated with old age began to set in; inversely, that remained true for its second use. Wherein an elder human with a life expectancy of six or so decades would age backward for the number of years given. Or perhaps even regress on the spot.

With that out of the way, I closed my spellbook and sped to camp to find the others shuffling around in the dark. After noticing me, Roheisa jogged to my side to squint intently through her glasses and ask. “What were those noises?”

“Browls,” I off-handedly said. “They’re dead, so you all can go back to sleep.”

“Browls?” She recoiled in confusion. Only to shrug the matter aside a second later. “Well, dead or not, they served as a good wake-up call. I doubt any of us can go back to sleep.”

So saying, Roheisa gestured to the others, eating breakfast, conducting morning hygiene, or tearing down their tents in the pre-dawn ambiance. Judging from that alone, I assumed they'd be ready to leave in under fifteen minutes. Placing us at our destination at around nine or ten in the morning.

“Alright then. We’ll take off when everyone’s ready,” I waved over my shoulder. Then stepped through the shadows to return to my perch and lounge for the half-hour it took for the others to ascend to my altitude. “Alright.” I stepped onto my chair as if it were a boat docked at the moor and got settled, then turned to face the others. “We’ll travel on a south-southeastern heading to intercept the road connecting the hamlet with the territories further south. From there, we’ll turn on a direct heading and come to a landing a few dozen klicks away from their borders to walk the last leg.”

“Klicks.” Repeated the Princess. “You keep saying that.”

“It’s an easier way to say kilometers.” I shrugged. ‘Unless you wanna measure things in twelfths.’ So saying, I spawned my artificial well to ascend and accelerate and embark on much the same journey as the day before; only, one with a few more biomes to study from afar.

The woodlands became denser and denser the further east I looked until it turned into a chokingly thick alpine forest that stretched high than the clouds. To the south, the woods thinned out to form an expanse of rolling plains that continued on for thousands upon thousands of kilometers to the furthest reaches of civilization. Though, even with such beautiful sights, one could only gaze so long before boredom set in. With my Eternal Eye’s digital library, however, most of the transit passed seamlessly. Making the trip nostalgically reminiscent of the many plane, shuttle, and spacecraft flights I’ve been on in my past life.

Naturally, such thoughts evolved into mental images of such feats of engineering existing in this vast plane of reality. Things that I fully intended to replicate with magical materials and enchantments. If not for the sake of a contingency, then for the sake of the weaker subordinates I’ll inevitably take under my wing down the line.

After a couple of hours of creating blueprints and designs, my attention was grabbed by Toril, waving and pointing to a winding worn road parting the rolling forest below. So I sent a signal to the others behind us to begin the descent, then leaned forward in my seat to study the road ahead.

Coming from the south, the road wound and curved until it terminated near the base of a wide plateau sitting at the base of the vast mountain range. From what I could see, no other roads broke off from the main one for several thousand kilometers, where the road forked to turn south and west respectively. Luckily for us, there was limited traffic, if any at all, so we skimmed the trees for a bit and eventually came to a landing at a sharp bend in the road.