Ends of Magic

Nathan was standing in the middle of a wasteland of decimated crystal and suddenly inert magical fog. He looked down to the enormous gemstone-and-crystal book in his hands.

Is it over?

Then the book struggled mightily, attempting to wrench itself from his hands. More enchantments started attacking his flesh, simultaneously trying to disintegrate, slice and transform his hands.

I guess not.

Nathan fought back, using his experience with curse breaking to try and rip out the aggressive enchantments attacking him. The spellwork in the book shifted in a moment, flickering to a new pattern. An enormous force tried to flip the book open.

Nathan didn’t know why the book wanted to open. But he was pretty sure it would be better if it remained closed. He struggled with the book, exerting his stamina and superhuman skill-boosted strength to barely manage to keep the book closed.

Behold! A worthy nemesis for my incredible studying skills! I would switch to Rage for the strength boost, but I think [Focused mind] is more important for figuring out this spellwork.

He probed at the book with his antimagic, trying to figure out a way to disable it without shattering the whole construct. A book made of gemstones seemed valuable, after all. The magic inside engaged with him, multiple mana types making contact and rapidly dissipating. Nathan felt crystal, force, gravity and void mana rapidly shifting through complex spellforms, though crystal was still the primary type.

It reminded Nathan of the inherent self-direction of divine mana, but with significant differences. These patterns were still complex and directed, without any room for the mana to act on its own accord. But they switched from one form to another rapidly, attempting new forms of attack against Nathan and his antimagic.

Nathan pushed the book between his knees and crouched over it to get more points of leverage. In response to the new contacts the book responded with the same pattern of cutting force, disintegration and crystal transformation it had tried earlier.

Like it’s running through a preprogrammed series of counter-intrusion responses. This book is a complicated set of magical instructions. I wonder if it's Turing-complete?

Congratulations, you have developed the [Mid-tier Spellsense] utility skill into [High-tier Spellsense].

Utility skill: [High-Tier Spellsense]

This skill will help you identify mana types and the detailed construction of spells more easily.

Helps you understand the overall purpose of spells and how individual elements contribute to that purpose. Does not grant understanding of how to weave mana together for specific spells.

I think I’ll take that as a yes. I’m not surprised that understanding computational universality and extending it to magic is worth a Development. Maybe I should have saved that Insight for the unique Development. Oh well!

The book squirmed again, trying to open and failing. When that didn’t work, it resumed trying new methods to attack Nathan, running through a quick cycle of magical attacks of escalating complexity.

Nathan was burning out the channels the artifact was using to cast the spells, trying to not destroy the core mechanisms. He broke another set of multi-use conduits and the cover of the book splintered, falling to pieces around his feet. Nathan kept a tight grip on the pages underneath, seeing complicated glyphs arranged like circuitry past his bloody fingers. They dimmed where he gripped the book, the mana flowing into him.

I think the book is basically made of condensed mana and gemstones with high mana capacities. I’m not sure I’m going to be able to subdue it without breaking it. In fact, I think the only way is going to be ripping it into component pieces.

Mid-tier Identify 8 achieved!

Nathan started to try to rip the book in half, twisting the front in one direction and the back in the other. The spine resisted, but after a moment started to snap apart piece by piece as the fragments of crystal connecting the layered gemstones together splintered before his antimagic strength.

The book didn’t like that at all, withdrawing all of its mana to start channeling a new spell deep inside the core of the spine. Nathan poked at it with his new [Spellsense], leaning on it and his [Identify] to try and figure out just what was going on.

Oh, that’s definitely a self-destruct. Bad.

High-tier Spellsense 2 achieved!

Nathan finished his ripping motion, tearing dozens of translucent magical pages and a chunk of spine from the book before hucking the larger section away from him, as far as he could throw it into the river.

The book had just touched the water when it detonated. It wasn’t a simple explosion. A quick pulse of crystal tore the book apart, then it all turned to void mana and sucked in everything within a few dozen feet. Then there was a large explosion, sending a plume of water a hundred feet into the air.

Nathan was blown backwards into the forest, pelted for a second time with magical crystal shrapnel. He impacted a tree and things broke with a cracking sound. Mostly the tree.

Nathan landed on his side, slightly dazed but already healing once more. He looked up just in time to roll away from a large branch falling to the ground. Foliage and entire trees crashed down all around Nathan, and he curled up into a ball as leaves and sticks rained down. The crystal shrapnel had broken bones and bruised him all over. A few of the larger spikes had impaled him, but they were already dissolving and leaving gaping wounds behind. Was that going to be a problem? Nathan checked his stamina.

Stamina: 680/680

Nope! Turns out I’m great at fighting magical duels.

You have leveled up to level 59! Congratulations, you have destroyed a spell-propagation engine from the unmaterial sect of the Kalis Conclave!

Nice. No idea what the hell any of that means. But I’ll remember to mention it to people back at Gemore.

Nathan took a moment to appreciate the level-up, waiting for the branches to finish crashing to the ground around him. Once satisfied the forest was done falling over, Nathan slowly got to his feet and winced around a particularly nasty wound where a spike had been driven into his kidney. The mana-crystal spike was completely dissolved and the wound was busy being sealed over, but it was a bit uncomfortable.

High-Tier Regeneration 9 Achieved!

I think I healed from at least three lethal wounds in the last thirty seconds? And none of them really slowed me down. Fascinating experience to fight through a sliced carotid.

He was standing a short way into the forest. The riverbank was now marked with a huge crater, and water was pouring into the depression. No trace of the crystal ritual formation was left, and all of the crystals had become high-velocity tree-shredding shrapnel which had scythed through the forest all around Nathan. More trees behind Nathan groaned and collapsed, weakened by pieces of crystal grapeshot.

Nathan realized he was gripping something, and let go of the pages he’d torn from the book. They were flickering where he’d been grasping them, but the glow on most of them smoothed out and equilibrated as they splayed across the forest floor.

“Nathan?” Aarl’s yell split the sudden silence of the scene, and Nathan looked around. The Heirs were on the outer edge of the devastated portion of the forest. Nathan couldn’t see Sarah or Khachi, but Aarl and Stella were looking towards him apprehensively. “Is it safe?”

Nathan nodded, and went to speak but had to swallow down bloody spit from the healed cuts to his face and throat. His voice was ragged. “I think it’s fine. Not much left to be a danger.”

He looked down, seeing that he was, once again, mostly naked. At least this time he was mostly hidden from the chest down by the fallen branches and their leaves. “Can I get some clothes?”

Stella reached into one of her pouches and drew out a pack of clothes for Nathan. At this point all of the Heirs carried a few sets for him, since it was so common for him to come through a fight with shredded apparel. And anything he carried around tended to have a similarly short lifespan - he’d stopped even carrying a belt knife after he’d broken the second one getting thrown by the sarcophagus-snake of the Sklian Mage-Lord.

A quick wind spell sent the package of clothes across the distance separating Nathan from Stella, and he quickly untied the twine and started pulling on the new clothes.

Stella and Sarah were still working their way across the forest, having to make their way over fallen branches and shattered trunks. Aarl quickly got annoyed and pulled out the force-saber, slicing his way through the hindering foliage as if with an oversized machete.

They approached just as Nathan pulled the new shirt over his head, gathering the rags of his old clothes into a bloodstained bundle. Stella looked past him at the crater. “I guess we won’t be getting anything out of the book.”

Nathan pointed at the bundle of pages he’d ripped from the book. “I grabbed those. No idea what’s up, but they were in the book. There might be some more crystals from the front cover scattered around here too, it shattered as I was wrestling with the book.”

Stella’s eyes literally lit up with a cyan glow at her excitement, and she hastily gathered the pages and stuck them into an isolated pocket. “These look enormously magical.” She walked forwards and used a blade of conjured force to cut open a tree, exposing a shattered magical crystal inside. She reached a hand out to the shards, but they were evaporating in front of their eyes.

Stella frowned. “Crystallized mana from the ritual circle. Impressively potent, but it’s not stable after that.” She waved a hand at the explosion. She frowned, looking around. “Nathan, do you know where those shards of the book went?”

He looked around for a moment. The crystals had fallen at his feet, when he’d been standing in the center of the circle. Then they’d been blown… probably somewhere around here? Maybe a bit lower? Nathan shrugged and walked over to stand next to the rough edge of the crater. “They might have been blown into the edge of the crater?"

The red-haired mage walked up next to Nathan, looking around at the torn up dirt and the foaming water. “Hard to know if they’re worth looking for. What did they look like?”

Nathan remembered back, trying to describe the material of the cover of the book. “It was like a layer of faceted gemstones. They glowed blue, and were much stronger than normal crystallized mana. Had a ton of mana channels in them.”

Stella nodded along, shoulders slumping a bit. “Probably worth looking for. You go sit down Nathan, see if Khachi needs help. Sarah was hit by a wood splinter, but said it would be fine. I don’t want you interfering with the search or breaking things any more. Aarl? Can you help out?”

Aarl walked up, the dark-haired man sighing as he sheathed his weapons and knelt down to examine the dirt. “This might take a little while.”

Nathan walked over to where Khachi was just standing up. Sarah was lying against a tree stump, scowling and rubbing at her chest. There was a good-sized tear in her shirt, and a bloody wooden splinter nearby suggested what had happened.

“All good?”

Sarah looked up with a glum expression. “Sometimes I regret having perception skills. Like when it means I’m the only one exposed when you trigger a ghoul-cursed explosion. Yell some warning next time?”

Nathan was bemused. “I was a little busy. And a lot closer to the center of the explosion.”

Sarah waved a copper-skinned hand at Nathan. “You’re fine. You could be chewed up by a Castlebear and be fine.”

Khachi chuckled. “I’d prefer not to test that. Nathan would manage to anger the Castlebear and then we’d have to deal with it.” He looked past Nathan, to where Stella was starting to manipulate the ground with earth mana. “What has occupied Stella?”

“She’s looking for parts of the book that I tore off before the explosion. Might take a bit.”

Sarah slumped down and closed her eyes. “I’m glad to stay here. A girl can get life-threatening wounds only so many times in a day before she decides to stay put.”

Nathan flopped down beside her. “I know what that feels like. I swear if I dealt half as many lethal blows as I received I would win fights a lot more quickly.”

Khachi looked down, amused. Then he sat cross-legged in front of them, his armor scraping.

Sarah cracked an eye open. “Somebody’s paying attention, right? It would be right stupid to get jumped on by a pack of Striped Wolves.”

Nathan groaned and sat up. “That probably means me.” He sat on a fallen tree and glanced around.

They continued to banter for a while, waiting for Stella and Aarl to search for things. Nathan continued to keep watch, and after a few minutes Khachi went off to help search for the magical fragments. It looked like Stella was using Earth mana to turn over the earth and pull things out. Aarl and Khachi were being extra pairs of eyes and helping sort through the objects Stella uncovered. They seemed to mostly be more chunks of condensed mana.

There were a few minutes of silence, then Sarah spoke up again. Her eyes were still closed. “I didn’t like it much. Seeing you vanish into that mist. Not knowing what was happening, and not being able to support you from a distance. I should be getting a class skill at 81 that will help me see through fog, smoke and darkness. And upgrade another to see farther when I’m aiming a ranged weapon. It’s a priority now that my range is no longer dictated by the strength of my arm.”

She opened her eyes and sat up a little straighter, looking over the devastated forest and crater carved out of the riverbank. “This is something I would expect to see after the Guardians took on a threat. I know the details of how you survived, but to see this…” she gestured at the devastation. “It offers hope, to see such feats performed by a teammate under level 81. If this is what you’re capable of now, what will be true with three more class skills and some more Talent Developments?”

Then she smirked, and settled back down. “The rest of us just need to figure out how to match such feats. I don’t want to end up as a support for the great Nathan Lark. The Antimage. Puzzling.”

Nathan looked down at her for a moment, trying to assess how to answer. “Each of you have your own arena of expertise. It doesn’t seem so confusing how you would perform well if in the right situation - say when we fight a physically more powerful enemy with some distance to work with. You just need the right circumstances to shine. These were mine.”

Sarah settled back down and closed her eyes again. “Indeed so. I have solved more confusing issues. At least this one shouldn’t require a specialist healer’s intervention!” She smirked, as if remembering a joke, before her face once more became serious. “I can be patient, until the nemesis is mine to slay.”

Then Stella shouted in triumph, holding aloft a shining blue gemstone. Nathan chuckled at her excitement. “I suppose that book was made of something valuable. It’s a shame I couldn’t save more of it.”

Sarah’s only response was a gentle hmm. “Do you think I have time for a nap?”

A few minutes later, and a few more celebrations from Stella, Nathan spotted somebody peeking around a tree at them. It was from the direction of Bridgeguard. Nathan couldn't make out any details, but they definitely saw him, so he waved.

After a moment the figure popped out of the trees and began cautiously approaching through the devastated woodland. As the person came closer, Nathan saw she had dark skin and was dressed in thick cloth and leather brigandine in brown colors that blended into the forest. She was carrying a spear, had a sword on her hip and a large recurve bow sticking out of a quiver over her shoulder.

“Is it safe to approach?” her voice called out over the gurgling of the river.

Nathan cupped his hands and yelled back, “Should be fine! Just rough ground!”

The woman quickly picked her way closer, examining Nathan and the Heirs. She definitely noted the bloodstains left on Nathan’s skin, but ignored them and extended a hand. “I’m Byns Bho. Glad this pit of ghouls is dealt with. We need you back at Bridgeguard now. There’s a raiding party inbound from Agmon. A hundred Orc legionaries, looking to steal anything not nailed down.”

Nathan sighed, looking back at where Stella was continuing to excavate the ledge of the crater. He called out, waving them back from the riverbank.

Stella approached, tucking another blue-glowing gemstone into a pocket. “What? I’m starting to think the rest of it went into the river. It’ll get washed away soon if we don’t go after it now.”

Nathan gestured at Byns. “Byns just told me that there’s an Agmon raiding party headed to Bridgeguard and they need us back there immediately. We go?”

Khachi walked up behind Stella and rumbled a growl. “We go.”

Stella cast a longing look over her shoulder. “But it's all Forceborn Sapphire…” Then she slumped, looking at the ground. “To protect Gemore, we go.”

Nathan hopped off his stump and pulled Sarah to her feet. “I think you’re about to get that chance to shine.”

Skill Text comparison:

Utility skill: Mid-Tier Spellsense

This skill will help you identify mana types and spell weaves more easily. Helps you understand what individual elements of even very complex spells are accomplishing. Does not grant understanding of how to weave mana together for specific spells.

Utility skill: High-Tier Spellsense

This skill will help you identify mana types and the detailed construction of spells more easily.

Helps you understand the overall purpose of spells and how individual elements contribute to that purpose. Does not grant understanding of how to weave mana together for specific spells.

Status of Nathan Lark:

Permanent Talent 1: Magic Absorption 7

Permanent Talent 2: High-tier Regeneration 9

Talent 3: High-tier Slow Fall 3

Class: Spellbreaker Juggernaut level 59

Stamina: 645/690

Juggernaut's Wrath

Antimagic Momentum

Raging Thrill

Juggernaut's Inertia

Unarmored Resilience

Utility skills:

High-tier Focused Mind 9

High-tier Earnestness 2

Mid-tier Sprinting 5

High-tier Spellsense 2

Mid-tier Notice 8

Mid-tier Identify 7

Mid-tier Dodging Footwork 4

High-tier Enhanced Memory 2

Mid-tier Lecturing 2

Low-tier Tumbling 10