Ends of Magic

Nathan and Stella joined up with the rest of the Heirs a few streets away from the Nhir estate. They had decided to stay out of sight, because the notes from Camran indicated that anybody in line of sight to the reinforced villa got fired upon by trigger-happy mages.

“This seems a trivial task.” Sarah said as she arrived. “Nathan goes in, strips the magic from the mages, then leaves.”

Nathan shrugged, glancing around the corner to study the fortress of a house. “That would probably work. But when I go in the front they might flee from the back. I also can’t break through that metal door very quickly. All of you have better solutions for that sort of problem. And you need the levels more than I do. How about this, I go first and draw their fire, then take to the air and watch for runners. Sarah stays on high overwatch in case of anything unexpected. The rest of you go in the front and secure the mages.”

Aarl looked hesitant. “This is a poor attempt. Why don’t you come with us? I have a weapon that won't kill my targets, but it can’t penetrate mage armor.” He showed off a small dagger that gleamed with a filmy iridescence, as if it was covered with an oil slick.

Nathan tilted his head from side to side as he thought. “I’ll be able to keep an eye on you and the mages inside with my magic senses. When you reach the mages I’ll disable their magics so you can capture them. Doing it that way might actually be easier than if I had to also dodge the traps and soldiers they have in there.”

“Traps?” Stella said questioningly.

“Traps.” Nathan replied with enthusiasm. “Do you think somebody would build their house like that and not put traps in? Just don’t let Khachi die, and he can bring you back!” He’d meant the comment as a joke, but all of the Heirs nodded along thoughtfully.

We really are all kind of insane.

The wolfman rumbled, hefting his hammer. “These foes will not be my end.” He sounded utterly certain about that. He pointed ahead with his shield. “Take the lead.”

With a shrug Nathan walked around the corner, yawning as he casually walked across the spell-pocked street towards the mansion. A single firebolt whipped out from a viewing port hidden behind an illusion. Nathan could see through the spell, and he met the eyes of the scared-looking teenager holding a wand as the firebolt dissipated feet away from his skin.

The boy’s eyes opened wide, and he yelled something to the side that Nathan couldn’t hear as he cast firebolt repeatedly. The boy’s aim grew worse with each cast, and Nathan continued his stroll as the bolts flew around him. He’d just about reached the front door when an older man wearing an eyepatch and a black robe came into view behind a disguised window on the second floor.

Oh, a Nail? Interesting.

Nathan gave the man a jaunty wave and then hopped straight up three stories to land on the roof with an audible thump. He spread his senses out to find the magic in the house, raising his eyebrows at the sheer density of security and privacy enchantments woven into the stone. But it was all mana-based, and nothing compared to what he’d found in the Academy. He sat down cross-legged and concentrated on his perception of the house below, picking out the signatures of a half-dozen mages underneath him.

A moment later he detected the Heirs impact the front door. Stella shone like a welding torch to his inner eye, while Khachi radiated a profound glow. Aarl barely showed up to Nathan’s senses, mostly just the enchantments on his gear allowing Nathan to track the fighter.

Some kind of trap went off as Khachi hammered his way through the front door, but the torrent of magical flame washed over a glowing shield without leaving a mark. The Heirs progressed quickly through the rest of the house, chasing the Nail who appeared to be staying just ahead as he led them to a specific room with bursts of force-driven speed.

What’s in there? Oh, it’s a [Disintegration] trap. Nasty.

Nathan disabled the enchantment from a distance, breaking the triggering mechanism with a tendril of his aura. Then he watched as the Heirs entered the room. The Nail spoke to them through some kind of shielding enchantment, then panicked when the trap didn’t activate. He tried to go invisible and flee the Heirs again, but Nathan decided that the chase was up. He ensnared the man with an tendril of his antimagic for the Heirs to capture, then kept watch as his friends progressed through the rest of the mansion. Once they were done, Nathan opened his eyes and stood up.

Darn. I was hoping for a development of Aura Manipulation. Or at least Wizard’s Meditation.

He popped his neck and hopped off the roof to join his friends as they hauled the captured mages out of the building. Nathan raised an eyebrow as Sarah landed nearby. “No slaves?”

Aarl shook his head. “No slaves. Not even bodies.”

“He is too paranoid.” Khachi said, prodding the unconscious man gently. “In his mind, trust can only be given to blood.”

With that somewhat disturbing observation into the mind of the Nail complete, Nathan stepped forward to grasp the man’s head. “I’m cutting him off from magic, right? What about the rest?”

Khachi pointed to the older woman slumped next to the man. She also wore the black robe that marked her as a Nail. “She is his partner.” Then he indicated the next two men, who looked to be in their mid-twenties. They both wore green robes. “They bear the mark of enslavers, so them as well.” Finally his attention turned to the two younger boys, both teenagers. Both were dressed in the gray robes of low-tier students. “They have not chosen a path. We will send them to follow the course of Harthi dha Jaltre. They can avoid the fate of their parents.”

Nathan eyed his teammate for a moment, wondering if he should point out the logistical difficulties for their allies to transport two teenage boys to Gemore, especially if those boys could cast magic.

But the alternative is permanently crippling them and probably seeding a deep hatred in their formative years. I’m not sure he’s wrong, just.. Inefficient.

Nonetheless, Nathan agreed. He quickly closed his antimagic around each of the unconscious mages, severing them from magic before handing the whole group off to the soldiers who’d been waiting to take possession.

Void of Magic has leveled to 632! You and your team have bloodlessly captured two dangerous and paranoid Nails of Giantsrest, along with their family!

A lot fewer levels for not killing people. And zero Assassin levels. I guess the Heirs did most of the work.

He knew that not every scene across the city was so bloodless. The freed elites and Halsmet Adventurers were storming other holdfasts, slaying the mages that fought back while Nathan fought his battles cleanly. But he had only so much time, and cracking the toughest nuts without difficulty would help intimidate the rest into surrender.

Besides, his schedule was busy enough. It was time to go break the mental magic enslaving a few thousand more people.

“Lot left to do,” Nathan said to the other Heirs as he stood. “Let’s be about it.”

–

The rest of the day saw Nathan charging across the city, breaking mind magic and occasionally putting out other fires.

Void of Magic has leveled to 636! You have captured a war mage of Giantsrest inside his fortified home!

Not every task was so clean, and Nathan was called in to take care of one mage who had decided to use his own slaves as leverage.

Spellslayer level 471 achieved! You have killed Lar dho Ansci from surprise inside his own home!

Void of Magic has leveled to 640! You have killed an enslavement mage of Giantsrest as he held his slaves hostage!

Nathan stumped into the temporary house after dark, feeling exhausted. He’d had a full day of running around the city, dealing with holdouts and freeing people. At least Myrla had extended her control across most of the city at this point. It was patchy, but she and her team of scribes possessed a supernatural ability to coordinate their forces to take control of a chaotic city. Camran had never once been unsure where Nathan was supposed to go next, and every time he ran through his objectives he found a messenger waiting with new instructions.

Support creative writers by reading their stories on Royal Road, not stolen versions.

I mean, I presume they literally have skills and Talents helping them with coordination. I’ve never been so impressed by somebody’s ability to do paperwork.

There was something delicious cooking, and a plate landed in front of Nathan before he even finished sitting down. He clasped his hands together and looked up at Sarah with wide eyes. “Please take my unending gratitude, because I’ve got nothing else to give.”

She simply snorted, eying him sleepily. “I’m still a bit hungry.” She went back to a plate of her own. “Everybody else is asleep already. Hear me, liberating a city is tiring.”

“I’m not that late, right?” Nathan said. The sun had only set a couple of hours before, and usually the Heirs sat around chatting for a while before bed. He'd been expecting to have some time to catch up before they went to sleep.

Sarah waved a hand dismissively and started wolfing down her food, pausing to look at him seriously. “No, you are fine. We are glad you have rejoined us. These few days have shown us more levels than months in the wilds.”

Nathan nodded back, digging into his own plate. “Killing a lot of people will do that. Even the golems are counting - something about the dungeon and them each being the tomb of a giant.”

Sarah yawned hugely. “Yeah. dad’s told us stories of a few dungeons like that.”

“Any that gave a notification like what we got on destroying the last of the awakened golems?” Nathan asked.

“No.” Sarah said, polishing off her plate. “None of the Guardians have ever cleared a dungeon like that.” She stared off into space and then sighed. “Not even the one that killed mom.” Her head drooped and settled onto the table before him before she started snoring slightly.

Nathan snorted, continuing to eat. The Heirs did appear tired, which was funny. But that made sense. They had been busy all day, and if the tiredness was catching up with Nathan, it definitely made sense it was catching up with his friends.

He frowned as a couple of his skills twigged. This was weird. All of his friends going to bed so early was weird. Sarah falling asleep at the dining table was weird. Now there was a force pushing him to brush it off, to take her to bed and go to bed himself. Didn’t he feel tired?

Mental Vault 4 achieved!

There’d been something in the food, and Nathan could feel his body breaking it down as the soporific tried to invade his bloodstream through his stomach. He started getting to his feet only to hear the faintest scrape as the door to the pantry opened. He spun towards the kitchen to see a figure standing in the door.

It was a short, wiry man dressed in stained brown cloth. He looked like an average slave except for the cloth covering his nose and mouth that left only his eyes exposed. The way he was standing suggested he held a weapon out in front of him, but his hands were clearly empty. Except there was the faintest twist of wizardry around one of his hands, and with a blink and a moment of concentration Nathan saw a knife.

Is it Faline? No. This isn’t her style. She would impersonate somebody I know, most likely.

It was an ordinary knife, just a few inches long. But the way the man held it indicated he was scared of it. There was more wizardry in the item than the twist that made it hard to notice.

Unfortunately, Nathan’s hesitation let the man make his own decision. His eyes flicked between Nathan and Sarah, and he moved towards Sarah quickly, holding out a hand for Nathan to stop and starting to speak. “Stay still or…”

Nathan burst into motion before the man got any farther towards his friend. He kicked the table hard enough to send it flying, sending Sarah crashing to the floor. Then he lunged forward, accelerating across the room directly at the seeming-assassin. He stretched his aura out to the knife but it resisted the magic.

I need to understand Wizardry for my antimagic to be fully effective.

The man with the invisible knife dodged around the flying furniture fluidly. He pivoted to face Nathan’s oncoming attack, interposing the knife like a charm between them. His grip on the blade had become practiced in the last moments, as if he’d gotten over any reservations about using the weapon.

Nathan dodged around the knife’s point, bouncing upwards to get over the man and come down on his head. But the arm holding the knife blurred upwards in a sudden strike, and Nathan’s dodge was followed by another blurring strike of the knife.

Oh screw it. Let’s not play tag and give this guy any chances to go after my friends. I can take a hit from a weapon.

Nathan’s lashing leg caved the assassin’s chest in even as the knife scored a shallow line across his side. No more than a scratch, really.

Darkness fell across Nathan’s vision as his brain ceased functioning. The Wizardry was swift and sudden, an imposition of death that went directly for the most critical part of Nathan’s body. It lasted only a moment before Nathan crashed to the ground next to the flailing body.

The hell was that!

He shook himself woozily, then jerked his head to the side as the knife came down right where his face had been a second before. It scored across his ear and the world flashed again, the dizzying vertigo of a missed moment of time cutting across Nathan’s perception.

Immortal Body 5 achieved!

He lurched away from the man, gaining distance and watching him wheeze and thrash on the floor. The mans’ other hand scrabbled at a pouch at his belt before pulling out a small vial.

Nathan cast around for a second before grabbing a chair and bringing it down atop his foe. The improvised weapon let him stay outside the reach of the terrifying knife, and his first blow crushed the man’s hand against his broken chest before he could drink the vial. The next one cracked one of the legs of the chair. Nathan didn’t stop until the chair was kindling, and the attacker’s head was split open in a gory mess.

Void of Magic has leveled to 643! You have defeated an assassin sent to kill you!

Spellslayer has leveled to 479! You have defended yourself from assassination, and killed your attacker with brute force.

Nathan took a deep breath and looked around, trying to calm his frantically beating heart. He’d died before and been brought back by his Talent, but never with so little warning. The Wizardry had reached out and stilled the nerve impulses in his brain. His antimagic had protected him more the second time than the first, and had prevented the wizardry from any harm that required more healing than simply restarting his brain. But it had still been a terrifying experience to have his consciousness blink on and off like a lightbulb.

He moved to check on Sarah, relieved to find her catatonic but breathing in the corner of the room. She was bleeding slightly from where her head had impacted the floor. He let out a sigh of relief and picked her up gently, concentrating on preventing his antimagic from damaging her gear - especially the dimensional pouches where she stored her rifle and ammunition.

He deposited her in a bed, then checked on the rest of the Heirs. They were all soundly asleep, each showing the signs of being drugged. Khachi had managed to get his armor off, but it looked like Stella had barely managed to reach the bed.

Nathan left them to sleep it off, returning to the round floor to sit on the floor a few feet away from the bloody mess that he’d left of the assassin.

Well. I think it might be time for us to leave.

Status of Nathan Lark:

Permanent Talent 1: Arcane Nullfield 6

Permanent Talent 2: Immortal Body 5

Permanent Talent 3: Airwalking 7

Class: Void of Magic level 643

Deepened Stamina: 18202/19590

Void of Feeling

Antimagic Momentum

Raging Thrill

Implacable Inertia

Unarmored Resilience

Magic Anathema

Airborne Agility

Hand-to-hand Expertise

Voluminous Aura

Denial of Wizardry

Mana Severance

Class: Spellslayer level 479

Regenerative Focus: 2903/4890

Catastrophic Blows

Battle Stealth

Mage Infiltration

Forgettable

Sneaky Blow

Antimagic Stealth

Magical Manipulation

Lethal Index

Wizard Resistance

Magic Jammer

Controlled Failure

Utility skills:

Wizard’s Meditation 8

Inspiration 7

Acceleration 10

Wizard’s Detection 6

Alertness 10

Wizard’s Understanding 7

Effortless Dodge 9

Mental Vault 4

Tutoring 5

Parkour 7

Visibility Control 2

High-tier Disguise 3

Mid-tier Battle Cry 10

High-tier Aura Manipulation 10