ULTRAMagic Prelude - Chapter 20
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“Hmm…”
“Hmm?” Aureolus asked.
“Hmm indeed…” Blood-Wraith answered as he fiddled with the rubedo stone. “What should I craft with this thing?” He turned to his Alchemy book and began flipping through the pages.
“What about that one?”
Blood-Wraith stopped on a page detailing a complex procedure that would create a special glass that could see 5 seconds into the past or 5 seconds into the future. “Nah, too complicated for right now.” He then closed the book. “Let’s go outside for a bit.”
Aureolus seemed surprised by this. “Can I go outside?”
“Yes? I take it you couldn’t before?”
“Unfortunately.”
Blood-Wraith took Aureolus by the hand and led him out the door. It was another nice day in the Iron City. The breeze was gentle, the sky was starry and sunny, and thunder could occasionally be heard from the clouds around the Singing Storm Tower. It was perfect for a walk and finding inspiration. Aureolus had to pause to take it all in for a moment. It was quite the experience, leaving the house for the first time. Interestingly this even had an effect on his body.
“Hey, I can see you now… sort of” Blood-Wraith pointed out.
Taking off his glove revealed that Aureolus now created a distortion effect when he was looked through. “Wow, you’re right. I guess I definitely exist now.”
The two began their walk with both of them taking note of their surroundings. Surely something had to be interesting enough to give them an idea. They visited the train station, of which they found fairly interesting. Its architecture was symmetrical and pleasing to the eye, having a classical, art-deco feel to it. Wandering through the emptiness was a little unsettling, but this was to be expected. There was an eerie tranquility because of this. Stopping at the out of date train schedule, both boys took a moment to study it. A glimpse into the past like this was very intriguing.
“Shadowland, The Uncity, and the Market District” Blood-Wraith read aloud. “I’ve been to the last one with my sister.”
“I remember Milosh mentioning Shadowland on multiple occasions.”
“Interesting…” Blood-Wraith then went over to the tracks and hopped down. “Wood and Iron here. What a fascinating design… uh-oh…”
“What’s the matter?”
Blood-Wraith pointed to a spot in the tracks where the metal was cracked. “It’s broken.”
“Can you fix it? Would it cause any issues if you didn’t?”
“Probably. It looks like the crack just needs to be mended. I’m not sure if it would cause an issue though… Then again, trains are pretty heavy.”
“How heavy?”
“Heavy. We are talking impossible to lift heavy.”
“I see. How do you plan to fix this?”
Blood-Wraith looked around until he found a rock the size of his hand embedded in the ground. “With this. There should be enough material here.” He got to work setting the rock in place and focused. Sparks of energy erupted from his hand, causing a flash of light. “There we go!”
Aureolus studied the rail. It was a little messy, but looked like it would hold. “Very good, Blood. Was it as simple as it looked?”
“Yes… and no. The transmutation was simple, but you need to know what you’re doing.”
“Should we go around and look for more broken stuff?”
Blood-Wraith pondered this idea. It certainly would not hurt to do so. “Good thinking, Aureolus. Let’s go grab some supplies first though.”
Doing repairs around the city would be a good use for the rubedo stone. Blood-Wraith would do the fixing while Aureolus kept a record of the repairs. The two went all over the place with this task. Many leaky roofs, rusty hinges, aging machines, and broken windows were tended to. Of course the rubedo stone had to recharge from time to time, but held up fantastically. Around lunchtime they had roughly 6 pages of documented repairs. None of these were supposed to be permanent. They just needed to last long enough for everyone to get back.
“Alright, that’s another chimney down and…” It was at that point when Blood-Wraith had a realization hit him like a bag of bricks.
“What’s the matter, Blood?”
He looked out at the expansive city. “Aureolus? There’s no way we can do this…”
“What do you mean?”
“Look. That’s the entire city. We’ve only done my neighborhood and it took us hours.”
Aureolus processed this. “Oh… aw, that’s a bummer…”
“UGH!” Blood-Wraith sat down. “Rats! Now what do we do?”
“Um, lunch? I am getting pretty hungry.”
Lunch was a great idea as Blood-Wraith was also starving. At first they started for the house, but then went to the tower instead. Desislav’s cooking was way more appealing. He was more than happy to prepare lunch for the hungry repairmen. Desislav also took the chance to look through their records as they ate their tomato soup and sandwiches. He was thoroughly impressed with what they had done. Once they were full, the two boys thanked Desislav for the meal and left. Upon returning to Blood-Wraith’s house, they noticed Dragoslava beckoning them over.
“Hey, guys! Come here! I got something cool to show you.” She led them to the back yard where Valentina and another angel with long, blonde hair and ice blue eyes were.
“Hello again, Blood” Valentina greeted.
“Hey, Val! I take it my sister’s weapon is done this time?”
Valentina nodded. “Yes indeed. Blood, I’d like you to meet my friend. This is Achasiah, the one who made our weapons.”
“A pleasure to finally meet you and your sister…” He began chuckling.
Blood-Wraith immediately realized who he was talking to. “Oracle! Is that you?”
“Haha! I knew he’d recognize me!” Achasiah turned into the oracle, gave a bow, and turned back. “I found Fire World and Earth World a while back and couldn’t resist. They were all just so charming and endearing.”
“See, I knew something was off given that you kept popping up. And then Desislav pointed out your slip up…”
“Ha, yeah. That was a legitimate slip of the tongue.”
“Oh! Guys! This is my new friend, Aureolus” Blood-Wraith said as he brought him over to his side.
“Hello!” Aureolus was a little nervous.
Valentina was surprised by what she was looking at. “My my, aren’t you quite the interesting little one. It’s nice to meet you.”
Achasiah thought for a second. “Hey Val, I think this is the one Amon was telling me about. Ahem, welcome to the Cosmos, Aureolus. Hopefully that Milosh bloke didn’t cause you too much strife?”
“Um, kind of. I’m doing a lot better now that he’s gone.”
Achasiah then got down and gave him a hug. “Well no worries, kiddo. Also God is definitely looking forward to seeing you in the Ennead eventually.” He stood back up and faced the group. “Now that we are finished with introductions, Dragoslava! Your weapon is ready to go. Sorry it took so long…”
Dragoslava’s eyes lit up as she was presented with a rifle that was metallic and crystalline. “Ooh! What pretty shiny thing do we have here?!”
“That is the R1 Voidcannon, or the Raynot 1 Voidcannon, if you will.”
“Very nice, very nice… what’s it based on?” Dragoslava asked as she inspected the firing mechanism.
“A weapon from our Earth: The M1 Garand. It is quite the rifle, so I used it as a basis for this weapon. I was waiting until I met you in person because I wanted to make sure I made the right weapon for you… I’m aware things went a little south because of that” Achasiah replied.
Valentina shook her head. “A little you say?”
“Don’t worry, all is forgiven…” Dragoslava then triggered a very satisfying ping. “Ooh, that’s nice.”
“I made sure it had the exact firing mechanism of the M1 Garand” Acahsiah said with pride. “Speaking of these weapons, Blood, how did Voidborne hold up on its first outing?”
“Fantastically. Give me a second…” Blood-Wraith whistled with his fingers. Voidborne flew over to him and landed in his hand. He then summoned the blade in a flash of light.
Achasiah gestured for him to hand it to him for a moment. “Good, looks like it’s doing well,” he noted as he waved it around a little. “Sounds like you had quite the throw down with it. I was a bit worried about the crystals I used for the blade going right into battle.” He then handed it back to Blood-Wraith.
“Yeah, same. Fortunately it was able to handle my uncle.”
“Hey, can I get some target practice over here?!” Dragoslava exclaimed. Everyone laughed.
Achasiah snapped his fingers, causing multiple floating targets to appear. With everyone behind her, Dragoslava took aim. Each shot rocketed through the air with what sounded like vocalization. Firing rapid shots gave the sensation of hearing a choir. To Dragoslava, it was like she was holding and firing a work of art. Voidcannon worked amazingly, with the trigger being responsive and reloading being buttery smooth. Suffice it to say that Dragoslava was falling in love with the weapon.
“So what do you think?” Valentina asked.
“Beautiful. Utterly Beautiful…” Dragoslava complimented as she kissed the barrel.
“Fantastic. I’m…” Achasiah stopped as he heard something only he and Valentina could hear. “Damn it, the horns…”
Valentina nodded and put her helmet on. “Right. Kids, we have to go. Heaven’s under attack!”
Achasiah handed Dragoslava a booklet. “Don’t worry, this will tell you all you need to know.” The two angels got a running start and took off. “Farewell for now!” He called out as they flew into a portal.
“Best of luck, you two! And thanks for the weapons!” Dragoslava called back.
Aureolus nodded as the glowing portal closed in a rain of sparkles. “I like them. They seem really nice.”
“Achasiah has a shop in the Market District,” Blood-Wraith pointed out again. “I’ve been to it too”
“Cool. Can you take me there?”
“Sure,” Dragoslava replied. “...just not right this second, obviously. So, shall we go show the others this masterpiece? I know I’m certainly itching to.”
Kresimira naturally had a slight conniption over the fact that her little sister had been given such a dangerous weapon. A sword staff was fine, but a gun was something else. She did relax after hearing the melodic sounds of the rifle, however. It was clear that Achasiah put a lot of care and effort into it and Corentin was enthralled by the craftsmanship. He and his father could only dream of creating such a firearm. Desislav had to take a pause as he realized it could have saved him a lot of trauma while Tusk was amazed at the radiance emanating from it.
Later that night at Blood-Wraith’s house, Aureolus had a thought while the two were eating dinner. “Hey, Blood? Can I tell you something?”
“Sure, what is it?”
“It’s about Milosh…”
Blood-Wraith was all ears. “Do tell…”
“I think he may have been trying to split something. Argh, my memory is fuzzy though.”
“Well, do your best. We can piece together the rest from the basement stuff.”
“I think… I think he wanted to split a person. Someone hired him… to split them.”
“Interesting. Who… did you hear who it was?”
Aureolus thought hard. “Sorry, I only ever heard voices. No names.”
“Don’t worry about it. I’m sure Corentin has already found something in the documents.”
Blood-Wraith immediately thought of the Lich, based on the evidence discovered. It seemed very plausible. The question now was why. Thinking back to the metal oasis, the Lich did sound desperate. Maybe an aspect of him was clouding his mind? Hence the split? Then what happened to the missing piece? Dragoslava’s goo ball was an indication that these splits could survive on their own. At first Blood-Wraith considered Aureolus, but he ruled that out immediately as it was way too obvious. It was quite the conundrum that had no obvious answers… at the moment.
Next: Chapter 20
ULTRAMagic Alternate © 2022 William Ford II (ChaoticTempleKnight)
Master Post - Patreon
“Hmm…”
“Hmm?” Aureolus asked.
“Hmm indeed…” Blood-Wraith answered as he fiddled with the rubedo stone. “What should I craft with this thing?” He turned to his Alchemy book and began flipping through the pages.
“What about that one?”
Blood-Wraith stopped on a page detailing a complex procedure that would create a special glass that could see 5 seconds into the past or 5 seconds into the future. “Nah, too complicated for right now.” He then closed the book. “Let’s go outside for a bit.”
Aureolus seemed surprised by this. “Can I go outside?”
“Yes? I take it you couldn’t before?”
“Unfortunately.”
Blood-Wraith took Aureolus by the hand and led him out the door. It was another nice day in the Iron City. The breeze was gentle, the sky was starry and sunny, and thunder could occasionally be heard from the clouds around the Singing Storm Tower. It was perfect for a walk and finding inspiration. Aureolus had to pause to take it all in for a moment. It was quite the experience, leaving the house for the first time. Interestingly this even had an effect on his body.
“Hey, I can see you now… sort of” Blood-Wraith pointed out.
Taking off his glove revealed that Aureolus now created a distortion effect when he was looked through. “Wow, you’re right. I guess I definitely exist now.”
The two began their walk with both of them taking note of their surroundings. Surely something had to be interesting enough to give them an idea. They visited the train station, of which they found fairly interesting. Its architecture was symmetrical and pleasing to the eye, having a classical, art-deco feel to it. Wandering through the emptiness was a little unsettling, but this was to be expected. There was an eerie tranquility because of this. Stopping at the out of date train schedule, both boys took a moment to study it. A glimpse into the past like this was very intriguing.
“Shadowland, The Uncity, and the Market District” Blood-Wraith read aloud. “I’ve been to the last one with my sister.”
“I remember Milosh mentioning Shadowland on multiple occasions.”
“Interesting…” Blood-Wraith then went over to the tracks and hopped down. “Wood and Iron here. What a fascinating design… uh-oh…”
“What’s the matter?”
Blood-Wraith pointed to a spot in the tracks where the metal was cracked. “It’s broken.”
“Can you fix it? Would it cause any issues if you didn’t?”
“Probably. It looks like the crack just needs to be mended. I’m not sure if it would cause an issue though… Then again, trains are pretty heavy.”
“How heavy?”
“Heavy. We are talking impossible to lift heavy.”
“I see. How do you plan to fix this?”
Blood-Wraith looked around until he found a rock the size of his hand embedded in the ground. “With this. There should be enough material here.” He got to work setting the rock in place and focused. Sparks of energy erupted from his hand, causing a flash of light. “There we go!”
Aureolus studied the rail. It was a little messy, but looked like it would hold. “Very good, Blood. Was it as simple as it looked?”
“Yes… and no. The transmutation was simple, but you need to know what you’re doing.”
“Should we go around and look for more broken stuff?”
Blood-Wraith pondered this idea. It certainly would not hurt to do so. “Good thinking, Aureolus. Let’s go grab some supplies first though.”
Doing repairs around the city would be a good use for the rubedo stone. Blood-Wraith would do the fixing while Aureolus kept a record of the repairs. The two went all over the place with this task. Many leaky roofs, rusty hinges, aging machines, and broken windows were tended to. Of course the rubedo stone had to recharge from time to time, but held up fantastically. Around lunchtime they had roughly 6 pages of documented repairs. None of these were supposed to be permanent. They just needed to last long enough for everyone to get back.
“Alright, that’s another chimney down and…” It was at that point when Blood-Wraith had a realization hit him like a bag of bricks.
“What’s the matter, Blood?”
He looked out at the expansive city. “Aureolus? There’s no way we can do this…”
“What do you mean?”
“Look. That’s the entire city. We’ve only done my neighborhood and it took us hours.”
Aureolus processed this. “Oh… aw, that’s a bummer…”
“UGH!” Blood-Wraith sat down. “Rats! Now what do we do?”
“Um, lunch? I am getting pretty hungry.”
Lunch was a great idea as Blood-Wraith was also starving. At first they started for the house, but then went to the tower instead. Desislav’s cooking was way more appealing. He was more than happy to prepare lunch for the hungry repairmen. Desislav also took the chance to look through their records as they ate their tomato soup and sandwiches. He was thoroughly impressed with what they had done. Once they were full, the two boys thanked Desislav for the meal and left. Upon returning to Blood-Wraith’s house, they noticed Dragoslava beckoning them over.
“Hey, guys! Come here! I got something cool to show you.” She led them to the back yard where Valentina and another angel with long, blonde hair and ice blue eyes were.
“Hello again, Blood” Valentina greeted.
“Hey, Val! I take it my sister’s weapon is done this time?”
Valentina nodded. “Yes indeed. Blood, I’d like you to meet my friend. This is Achasiah, the one who made our weapons.”
“A pleasure to finally meet you and your sister…” He began chuckling.
Blood-Wraith immediately realized who he was talking to. “Oracle! Is that you?”
“Haha! I knew he’d recognize me!” Achasiah turned into the oracle, gave a bow, and turned back. “I found Fire World and Earth World a while back and couldn’t resist. They were all just so charming and endearing.”
“See, I knew something was off given that you kept popping up. And then Desislav pointed out your slip up…”
“Ha, yeah. That was a legitimate slip of the tongue.”
“Oh! Guys! This is my new friend, Aureolus” Blood-Wraith said as he brought him over to his side.
“Hello!” Aureolus was a little nervous.
Valentina was surprised by what she was looking at. “My my, aren’t you quite the interesting little one. It’s nice to meet you.”
Achasiah thought for a second. “Hey Val, I think this is the one Amon was telling me about. Ahem, welcome to the Cosmos, Aureolus. Hopefully that Milosh bloke didn’t cause you too much strife?”
“Um, kind of. I’m doing a lot better now that he’s gone.”
Achasiah then got down and gave him a hug. “Well no worries, kiddo. Also God is definitely looking forward to seeing you in the Ennead eventually.” He stood back up and faced the group. “Now that we are finished with introductions, Dragoslava! Your weapon is ready to go. Sorry it took so long…”
Dragoslava’s eyes lit up as she was presented with a rifle that was metallic and crystalline. “Ooh! What pretty shiny thing do we have here?!”
“That is the R1 Voidcannon, or the Raynot 1 Voidcannon, if you will.”
“Very nice, very nice… what’s it based on?” Dragoslava asked as she inspected the firing mechanism.
“A weapon from our Earth: The M1 Garand. It is quite the rifle, so I used it as a basis for this weapon. I was waiting until I met you in person because I wanted to make sure I made the right weapon for you… I’m aware things went a little south because of that” Achasiah replied.
Valentina shook her head. “A little you say?”
“Don’t worry, all is forgiven…” Dragoslava then triggered a very satisfying ping. “Ooh, that’s nice.”
“I made sure it had the exact firing mechanism of the M1 Garand” Acahsiah said with pride. “Speaking of these weapons, Blood, how did Voidborne hold up on its first outing?”
“Fantastically. Give me a second…” Blood-Wraith whistled with his fingers. Voidborne flew over to him and landed in his hand. He then summoned the blade in a flash of light.
Achasiah gestured for him to hand it to him for a moment. “Good, looks like it’s doing well,” he noted as he waved it around a little. “Sounds like you had quite the throw down with it. I was a bit worried about the crystals I used for the blade going right into battle.” He then handed it back to Blood-Wraith.
“Yeah, same. Fortunately it was able to handle my uncle.”
“Hey, can I get some target practice over here?!” Dragoslava exclaimed. Everyone laughed.
Achasiah snapped his fingers, causing multiple floating targets to appear. With everyone behind her, Dragoslava took aim. Each shot rocketed through the air with what sounded like vocalization. Firing rapid shots gave the sensation of hearing a choir. To Dragoslava, it was like she was holding and firing a work of art. Voidcannon worked amazingly, with the trigger being responsive and reloading being buttery smooth. Suffice it to say that Dragoslava was falling in love with the weapon.
“So what do you think?” Valentina asked.
“Beautiful. Utterly Beautiful…” Dragoslava complimented as she kissed the barrel.
“Fantastic. I’m…” Achasiah stopped as he heard something only he and Valentina could hear. “Damn it, the horns…”
Valentina nodded and put her helmet on. “Right. Kids, we have to go. Heaven’s under attack!”
Achasiah handed Dragoslava a booklet. “Don’t worry, this will tell you all you need to know.” The two angels got a running start and took off. “Farewell for now!” He called out as they flew into a portal.
“Best of luck, you two! And thanks for the weapons!” Dragoslava called back.
Aureolus nodded as the glowing portal closed in a rain of sparkles. “I like them. They seem really nice.”
“Achasiah has a shop in the Market District,” Blood-Wraith pointed out again. “I’ve been to it too”
“Cool. Can you take me there?”
“Sure,” Dragoslava replied. “...just not right this second, obviously. So, shall we go show the others this masterpiece? I know I’m certainly itching to.”
Kresimira naturally had a slight conniption over the fact that her little sister had been given such a dangerous weapon. A sword staff was fine, but a gun was something else. She did relax after hearing the melodic sounds of the rifle, however. It was clear that Achasiah put a lot of care and effort into it and Corentin was enthralled by the craftsmanship. He and his father could only dream of creating such a firearm. Desislav had to take a pause as he realized it could have saved him a lot of trauma while Tusk was amazed at the radiance emanating from it.
Later that night at Blood-Wraith’s house, Aureolus had a thought while the two were eating dinner. “Hey, Blood? Can I tell you something?”
“Sure, what is it?”
“It’s about Milosh…”
Blood-Wraith was all ears. “Do tell…”
“I think he may have been trying to split something. Argh, my memory is fuzzy though.”
“Well, do your best. We can piece together the rest from the basement stuff.”
“I think… I think he wanted to split a person. Someone hired him… to split them.”
“Interesting. Who… did you hear who it was?”
Aureolus thought hard. “Sorry, I only ever heard voices. No names.”
“Don’t worry about it. I’m sure Corentin has already found something in the documents.”
Blood-Wraith immediately thought of the Lich, based on the evidence discovered. It seemed very plausible. The question now was why. Thinking back to the metal oasis, the Lich did sound desperate. Maybe an aspect of him was clouding his mind? Hence the split? Then what happened to the missing piece? Dragoslava’s goo ball was an indication that these splits could survive on their own. At first Blood-Wraith considered Aureolus, but he ruled that out immediately as it was way too obvious. It was quite the conundrum that had no obvious answers… at the moment.
Next: Chapter 20
ULTRAMagic Alternate © 2022 William Ford II (ChaoticTempleKnight)
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