ULTRAMagic Interlude BC - Chapter 34
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Vexation woke up the next day a tad groggy, but no worse than he usually was. “Source, since when did Mal become such an adventurer?” Heading down stairs, the house seemed to be empty at first. Vexation glanced around until he noticed a note on the coffee table. “Oh, okay then… Blood? You around?”
“Over here, Vex!”
He entered the dining room to see Blood-Wraith standing next to a plate of breakfast. “There you are. What’s all this?”
“I made you some breakfast since you were so tired yesterday.”
“Aw, thank you, Blood,” he replied as they sat down. “Did you get anything done yesterday?”
Blood-Wraith had a slightly guilty look on his face. “Um, I watched some educational videos…”
Vexation laughed and ruffled his hair. “Don’t worry about it then. Sometimes it’s better to wait for an epiphany with this stuff.”
“So what were you up to yesterday?”
“Mal just showed up out of the blue at the construction site for the guild hall, so Tiberius called on me and Eustorgio for a little reunion.”
“Really? How’d it go?”
“Mal took us on a little adventure through the Deep Unight…”
Blood-Wraith shifted in his chair as if he sensed something. “Interesting. So is Mal going to stick around?”
“Definitely. She just wants to stay with Tiberius for a bit until she’s ready to return to the tower.”
Things were fairly mundane until around eleven. The doorbell had rung, being a bit unexpected. It could have been Rose or Radovan, since it was possible that there was official business. On the other hand, it could have been Dragoslava or Kresimira. Opening the door, Blood-Wraith was greeted by a strange woman with metallic purple skin. She had long, dark purple hair and wore a ragged, blue shirt (or rather, the remains of one). This individual also gave off a strange aura, which felt like one was looking at an aspect of death itself. It was safe to say that Blood-Wraith was weirded out, his fight or flight response starting to creep in.
“Um, hello. Can I help you?” He asked.
“Yes you can, Sir Blood-Wraith. I’m looking for a man named Ermenrich Denzell. Of course, he may be going by a different name at the moment…”
“One second… Vex? There’s a strange woman here looking for you. She’s using your original name.”
Vexation laughed aloud. “Blood, that is one of the strangest things you’ve ever said to me” he remarked as he walked up to the entrance. “Who in the Cosmos would be looking for…” Vexation froze, his blood having run cold. “Drusa?”
“There you are, Rich! It certainly took me long enough to find you…”
“Drusa!” The two hugged each other and kissed multiple times.
Blood-Wraith quietly shut the door. “So what’s going on here?”
“Blood, remember what I’ve been saying about my wife?” Vexation asked. “This is her! Drusa, this young boy is Blood-Wraith Raynot. He’s my student and nephew, you could say. The latter is thanks to Eustorgio.”
Drusa picked up Blood-Wraith and hugged him. “Pleasure to meet you, kiddo. Goodness, you smell like death…”
Blood-Wraith chuckled. “Well I’ve certainly had a few close calls and it hasn’t even been a year yet.”
Vexation gave Drusa a rundown of everything that had happened in The Unlight while Blood-Wraith went and prepared some tea. Upon his return, Drusa hugged him again. She was amazed by what he had gone through and what had happened altogether, remarking that it made her issues look petty in comparison. The two disagreed, asking to know what she had been through. Once Blood-Wraith retrieved some cranberry scones for them to snack on, Drusa took a breath to steady her nerves and began to explain.
“When I reincarnated, I was born a girl in the great kingdom of Atlantis. The too-long-didn’t-read of its creation is that two angels, Satan and Lucifer got together to spite Adonai by making two humans super smart. The end result was Atlantis, a super advanced civilization eons ahead of its time. Side note, that was the original Satan, not the vile nutcase that’s running around right now.”
“Where was this Atlantis?” Blood-Wraith inquired.
“Earth…”
“Yup, there you go…” Vexation commented.
“To be specific, the Earth of what you would call Universe-23,” Drusa clarified.
“Earth… Like where Vlastimir is from?” Blood-Wraith asked further.
“I’d say yes,” Vexation confirmed.
“Vlastimir?” Drusa picked at her mind for a moment. “Put a pin in that one, Blood. Anyways, I’ll save you my life story and just say at some point I ascended to the ruling pantheon, the Spiritus Magni.”
“Amazing,” Vexation complimented. “Well done indeed, Drusa.”
“Who are the Spiritus Magni?” Blood-Wraith wondered.
Drusa rubbed her hands together, a proud grin stretching across her face. “We were what could have been the greatest pantheon ever. There was me, Octavia, Antonia, Aphrodite, Athena, Hestia, Julia, Vita, Fausta (formerly), and… don’t tell Vita I told you this; Maxima, hehe. It was our job to guide Atlantis and give the Atlanteans something to strive for… until one of us got too big for her britches…”
“I’m going to hazard a guess and say it was Fausta,” Vexation presumed.
“Bingo.”
Blood-Wraith recalled the name of Vlastimir’s grandmother and wondered if there was a correlation. “Who is Fausta then? It doesn’t sound good.”
“Oh boy…” Drusa took a sip of her tea. “She was the goddess of pride, decadence, riches, and glory. You could say she was a real ‘that girl’ of the pantheon, if you catch my meaning. Fausta felt that she deserved it all and spent years picking on me. Note that to this day I am still eons older than her.”
“Wait, why did she pick on you?”
“Multiple reasons. Firstly, I’m the goddess of death, combat, deceit, and horror… actually, terror is probably more accurate, but you get the idea.”
“Was she jealous by any chance?” Vexation questioned.
“Well I got along better with the others, my acolytes were fiercely loyal, and becoming 5th dimensional was easy for me. Given that no one really liked Fausta and her acolytes were only there for the money, you tell me.”
Blood-Wraith refilled her tea, sighing in regards to Fausta’s predicament. “Oh, that’s unfortunate. So what happened between all of you?”
“Fausta tried to overthrow Atlantis and the Spiritus Magni,” Drusa answered as she ate a scone. “A war broke out between us with me and Octavia leading the charge against her. This conflict tore across the kingdom for years until Athena joined us at the last minute and tipped the scales in our favor.”
This made Blood-Wraith realize how similar his story was to Drusa’s. It was incredibly surreal. “What happened in the end?”
Drusa gave a mournful sigh. “Atlantis had to be taken to another world. If we left it on Earth, it would have done untold damage. I hate to admit it, but we were on borrowed time regardless if Fausta had betrayed us or not. Me, Octavia, and Athena even watched as it was whisked away…” Despite her sadness, she perked right up with something important to say. “Moral of the story? An all female pantheon is a very bad idea. Blood, don’t let anyone ever tell you that men are a waste. They are the greatest thing sliced bread” she stated as she put her arm around Vexation’s shoulders. “Rich, you would have loved Atlantis in its heyday.”
“If only Eustorgio hadn’t stabbed me in the back… so what’s going on currently?”
“Well, the Roman empire is in full swing and it is the spitting image of Atlantis, minus the advancement. Me, Octavia, Athena, Hestia, and Aphrodite stayed behind to look after it and Earth as a whole. Egypt did pretty well, but Greece and the Olympians were nothing but a mess.”
“Jeez, sounds like a hassle,” Blood-Wraith observed.
Drusa nodded. “Rome’s been advancing a little too fast as of late, so I went and set fire to the library at Alexandria…”
“Drusa!” Vexation scolded. “Don’t let Tiberius catch you doing that…”
She gave a light cackle. “Fret not, all of the necessary books survived.”
“I don't know how to feel about that…” Blood-Wraith admitted. “It’s so manipulative.”
“Well that is one of my domains, Blood, hehe.”
Vexation gave her a look of mild disapproval. “Just as long as the Romans still have a paddle to work with...”
“Of course they do, Rich. I just don’t want them going down the path of Atlantis.”
Blood-Wraith then got up and stretched his legs. “So, Drusa, do you need a place to stay?”
“Really? But we just met…”
“Well yeah, but you’re Vex’s wife. I don’t see why you can’t.”
Drusa got up, shook his hand, and hugged him once more. “Aw, thank you so much, Blood. I swear on my honor as a Spiritus Magni that I won’t be a burden!”
The three then made their way upstairs to figure out where Drusa was going to sleep. Vexation was insistent she move in with him, but she was concerned about his personal space. Drusa was promptly flabbergasted to see his room mostly empty. The majority of his belongings were in The Singing Storm Tower after all. Since the offer was still open, Drusa snapped her fingers, magically filling the room with her possessions. There was a bookshelf packed with tomes, a case full of scrolls with glass doors, a small alchemical lab, a miniature shrine dedicated to her from Atlantis, two chests with various items, and a painting of her that she treasured. Despite all of the changes, there was still plenty of room to walk around.
“Well you’ve certainly been a busy bee, dear,” Vexation remarked. He went to the scroll case and pulled one out. It detailed a simple, yet well thought out alchemical recipe. “Hey, not bad for a Cosmos Proper civilization. Reminds me of Tiberius’ early work.”
Blood-Wraith also took a look at it. “Huh, it needs more iron powder…”
“You think so?” Drusa asked.
“Yeah. Val has a similar recipe in the book she made for me. You need a lot of iron powder to stabilize the reaction.”
“Intriguing. Can I see this book?”
“Uh, sure. One second…” Blood-Wraith went over to his lab and returned with the book in question.
Drusa marveled at the beautiful, purple and gold cover. “Let’s see what we have here…” After about a minute of reading, she stopped on the page that detailed Blood-Wraith’s correction. “Rich, this is Zozena’s work, isn’t it?” He nodded.
“Zozena?” Blood-Wraith questioned.
“It’s Val’s true name,” Vexation clarified.
“She’s the daughter of Belymoht, an ophanim who occasionally made himself known to Atlantis,” Drusa added as she closed the book and handed it back to Blood-Wraith. “My stuff may not be as good as Zozena’s, but you’re more than welcome to look through my tomes and scrolls, Blood.”
“Thank you, Drusa. I’ll be sure to do that.” After putting his book away, he remembered what Drusa had said earlier. “Hey, what was that thing about Vlastimir you mentioned?”
“Blood, let me see your hand for a second…” Drusa looked into his eyes, causing the both of them to glow for a moment.
“Whoa, what was that?”
Drusa stepped back and took a breath to calm herself. She seemed at ease. “Time reading. I used your experiences as a bridge to Fausta’s. I’m still sore over what happened in Atlantis, but I’m glad she was able to turn her life around and start a family. Honestly I think that’s what she needed all along.”
“Wow. Hey, does this mean Vlastimir is a Spiritus Magni?”
Vexation shrugged. “I’d imagine? Drusa?”
She pondered what she had seen for another moment. “Well, he’s definitely Atlantean, no two ways about it…” Drusa then burst out laughing. “Oh wow, Vita’s going to have a conniption once she realizes Fausta gave birth to a vampire who fathered a dragon, HA!”
Vexation shook his head. “I assume this is an admission that you’re still going behind people’s backs?”
She chuckled. “Guilty as charged. Just wait until she meets Spiritus Magni Brutus, an orphan I rescued from the Roman streets.”
Blood-Wraith laughed and looked at the clock. “Oh hey, lunch time. Let’s go eat” he pointed out as he led the two out of the room.
“Fine with me. Getting here left me hungrier than Carthage after Rome was done with it, haha.”
Vexation also laughed. “I know how you feel. Mal dragged me and the others all over the Deep Unlight yesterday.”
Drusa gasped. “Mal’s still around? Goodness, yes! Where is that little sweetheart?”
“She’s with Tiberius at the future site of The ULTRAMagic Guild. Want to go see her some time soon?”
“Really? You’re going to ask her Auntie Drusa that question?”
“Can I come too?” Blood-Wraith asked.
“Of course, Blood,” Vexation replied. “Tiberius did insist I bring you along for a visit sooner than later. Honestly I think you’re going to like the progress of the guild thus far.”
Next: Chapter 35
ULTRAMagic Alternate © 2022 William Ford II (ChaoticTempleKnight)
Master Post - Patreon
Vexation woke up the next day a tad groggy, but no worse than he usually was. “Source, since when did Mal become such an adventurer?” Heading down stairs, the house seemed to be empty at first. Vexation glanced around until he noticed a note on the coffee table. “Oh, okay then… Blood? You around?”
“Over here, Vex!”
He entered the dining room to see Blood-Wraith standing next to a plate of breakfast. “There you are. What’s all this?”
“I made you some breakfast since you were so tired yesterday.”
“Aw, thank you, Blood,” he replied as they sat down. “Did you get anything done yesterday?”
Blood-Wraith had a slightly guilty look on his face. “Um, I watched some educational videos…”
Vexation laughed and ruffled his hair. “Don’t worry about it then. Sometimes it’s better to wait for an epiphany with this stuff.”
“So what were you up to yesterday?”
“Mal just showed up out of the blue at the construction site for the guild hall, so Tiberius called on me and Eustorgio for a little reunion.”
“Really? How’d it go?”
“Mal took us on a little adventure through the Deep Unight…”
Blood-Wraith shifted in his chair as if he sensed something. “Interesting. So is Mal going to stick around?”
“Definitely. She just wants to stay with Tiberius for a bit until she’s ready to return to the tower.”
Things were fairly mundane until around eleven. The doorbell had rung, being a bit unexpected. It could have been Rose or Radovan, since it was possible that there was official business. On the other hand, it could have been Dragoslava or Kresimira. Opening the door, Blood-Wraith was greeted by a strange woman with metallic purple skin. She had long, dark purple hair and wore a ragged, blue shirt (or rather, the remains of one). This individual also gave off a strange aura, which felt like one was looking at an aspect of death itself. It was safe to say that Blood-Wraith was weirded out, his fight or flight response starting to creep in.
“Um, hello. Can I help you?” He asked.
“Yes you can, Sir Blood-Wraith. I’m looking for a man named Ermenrich Denzell. Of course, he may be going by a different name at the moment…”
“One second… Vex? There’s a strange woman here looking for you. She’s using your original name.”
Vexation laughed aloud. “Blood, that is one of the strangest things you’ve ever said to me” he remarked as he walked up to the entrance. “Who in the Cosmos would be looking for…” Vexation froze, his blood having run cold. “Drusa?”
“There you are, Rich! It certainly took me long enough to find you…”
“Drusa!” The two hugged each other and kissed multiple times.
Blood-Wraith quietly shut the door. “So what’s going on here?”
“Blood, remember what I’ve been saying about my wife?” Vexation asked. “This is her! Drusa, this young boy is Blood-Wraith Raynot. He’s my student and nephew, you could say. The latter is thanks to Eustorgio.”
Drusa picked up Blood-Wraith and hugged him. “Pleasure to meet you, kiddo. Goodness, you smell like death…”
Blood-Wraith chuckled. “Well I’ve certainly had a few close calls and it hasn’t even been a year yet.”
Vexation gave Drusa a rundown of everything that had happened in The Unlight while Blood-Wraith went and prepared some tea. Upon his return, Drusa hugged him again. She was amazed by what he had gone through and what had happened altogether, remarking that it made her issues look petty in comparison. The two disagreed, asking to know what she had been through. Once Blood-Wraith retrieved some cranberry scones for them to snack on, Drusa took a breath to steady her nerves and began to explain.
“When I reincarnated, I was born a girl in the great kingdom of Atlantis. The too-long-didn’t-read of its creation is that two angels, Satan and Lucifer got together to spite Adonai by making two humans super smart. The end result was Atlantis, a super advanced civilization eons ahead of its time. Side note, that was the original Satan, not the vile nutcase that’s running around right now.”
“Where was this Atlantis?” Blood-Wraith inquired.
“Earth…”
“Yup, there you go…” Vexation commented.
“To be specific, the Earth of what you would call Universe-23,” Drusa clarified.
“Earth… Like where Vlastimir is from?” Blood-Wraith asked further.
“I’d say yes,” Vexation confirmed.
“Vlastimir?” Drusa picked at her mind for a moment. “Put a pin in that one, Blood. Anyways, I’ll save you my life story and just say at some point I ascended to the ruling pantheon, the Spiritus Magni.”
“Amazing,” Vexation complimented. “Well done indeed, Drusa.”
“Who are the Spiritus Magni?” Blood-Wraith wondered.
Drusa rubbed her hands together, a proud grin stretching across her face. “We were what could have been the greatest pantheon ever. There was me, Octavia, Antonia, Aphrodite, Athena, Hestia, Julia, Vita, Fausta (formerly), and… don’t tell Vita I told you this; Maxima, hehe. It was our job to guide Atlantis and give the Atlanteans something to strive for… until one of us got too big for her britches…”
“I’m going to hazard a guess and say it was Fausta,” Vexation presumed.
“Bingo.”
Blood-Wraith recalled the name of Vlastimir’s grandmother and wondered if there was a correlation. “Who is Fausta then? It doesn’t sound good.”
“Oh boy…” Drusa took a sip of her tea. “She was the goddess of pride, decadence, riches, and glory. You could say she was a real ‘that girl’ of the pantheon, if you catch my meaning. Fausta felt that she deserved it all and spent years picking on me. Note that to this day I am still eons older than her.”
“Wait, why did she pick on you?”
“Multiple reasons. Firstly, I’m the goddess of death, combat, deceit, and horror… actually, terror is probably more accurate, but you get the idea.”
“Was she jealous by any chance?” Vexation questioned.
“Well I got along better with the others, my acolytes were fiercely loyal, and becoming 5th dimensional was easy for me. Given that no one really liked Fausta and her acolytes were only there for the money, you tell me.”
Blood-Wraith refilled her tea, sighing in regards to Fausta’s predicament. “Oh, that’s unfortunate. So what happened between all of you?”
“Fausta tried to overthrow Atlantis and the Spiritus Magni,” Drusa answered as she ate a scone. “A war broke out between us with me and Octavia leading the charge against her. This conflict tore across the kingdom for years until Athena joined us at the last minute and tipped the scales in our favor.”
This made Blood-Wraith realize how similar his story was to Drusa’s. It was incredibly surreal. “What happened in the end?”
Drusa gave a mournful sigh. “Atlantis had to be taken to another world. If we left it on Earth, it would have done untold damage. I hate to admit it, but we were on borrowed time regardless if Fausta had betrayed us or not. Me, Octavia, and Athena even watched as it was whisked away…” Despite her sadness, she perked right up with something important to say. “Moral of the story? An all female pantheon is a very bad idea. Blood, don’t let anyone ever tell you that men are a waste. They are the greatest thing sliced bread” she stated as she put her arm around Vexation’s shoulders. “Rich, you would have loved Atlantis in its heyday.”
“If only Eustorgio hadn’t stabbed me in the back… so what’s going on currently?”
“Well, the Roman empire is in full swing and it is the spitting image of Atlantis, minus the advancement. Me, Octavia, Athena, Hestia, and Aphrodite stayed behind to look after it and Earth as a whole. Egypt did pretty well, but Greece and the Olympians were nothing but a mess.”
“Jeez, sounds like a hassle,” Blood-Wraith observed.
Drusa nodded. “Rome’s been advancing a little too fast as of late, so I went and set fire to the library at Alexandria…”
“Drusa!” Vexation scolded. “Don’t let Tiberius catch you doing that…”
She gave a light cackle. “Fret not, all of the necessary books survived.”
“I don't know how to feel about that…” Blood-Wraith admitted. “It’s so manipulative.”
“Well that is one of my domains, Blood, hehe.”
Vexation gave her a look of mild disapproval. “Just as long as the Romans still have a paddle to work with...”
“Of course they do, Rich. I just don’t want them going down the path of Atlantis.”
Blood-Wraith then got up and stretched his legs. “So, Drusa, do you need a place to stay?”
“Really? But we just met…”
“Well yeah, but you’re Vex’s wife. I don’t see why you can’t.”
Drusa got up, shook his hand, and hugged him once more. “Aw, thank you so much, Blood. I swear on my honor as a Spiritus Magni that I won’t be a burden!”
The three then made their way upstairs to figure out where Drusa was going to sleep. Vexation was insistent she move in with him, but she was concerned about his personal space. Drusa was promptly flabbergasted to see his room mostly empty. The majority of his belongings were in The Singing Storm Tower after all. Since the offer was still open, Drusa snapped her fingers, magically filling the room with her possessions. There was a bookshelf packed with tomes, a case full of scrolls with glass doors, a small alchemical lab, a miniature shrine dedicated to her from Atlantis, two chests with various items, and a painting of her that she treasured. Despite all of the changes, there was still plenty of room to walk around.
“Well you’ve certainly been a busy bee, dear,” Vexation remarked. He went to the scroll case and pulled one out. It detailed a simple, yet well thought out alchemical recipe. “Hey, not bad for a Cosmos Proper civilization. Reminds me of Tiberius’ early work.”
Blood-Wraith also took a look at it. “Huh, it needs more iron powder…”
“You think so?” Drusa asked.
“Yeah. Val has a similar recipe in the book she made for me. You need a lot of iron powder to stabilize the reaction.”
“Intriguing. Can I see this book?”
“Uh, sure. One second…” Blood-Wraith went over to his lab and returned with the book in question.
Drusa marveled at the beautiful, purple and gold cover. “Let’s see what we have here…” After about a minute of reading, she stopped on the page that detailed Blood-Wraith’s correction. “Rich, this is Zozena’s work, isn’t it?” He nodded.
“Zozena?” Blood-Wraith questioned.
“It’s Val’s true name,” Vexation clarified.
“She’s the daughter of Belymoht, an ophanim who occasionally made himself known to Atlantis,” Drusa added as she closed the book and handed it back to Blood-Wraith. “My stuff may not be as good as Zozena’s, but you’re more than welcome to look through my tomes and scrolls, Blood.”
“Thank you, Drusa. I’ll be sure to do that.” After putting his book away, he remembered what Drusa had said earlier. “Hey, what was that thing about Vlastimir you mentioned?”
“Blood, let me see your hand for a second…” Drusa looked into his eyes, causing the both of them to glow for a moment.
“Whoa, what was that?”
Drusa stepped back and took a breath to calm herself. She seemed at ease. “Time reading. I used your experiences as a bridge to Fausta’s. I’m still sore over what happened in Atlantis, but I’m glad she was able to turn her life around and start a family. Honestly I think that’s what she needed all along.”
“Wow. Hey, does this mean Vlastimir is a Spiritus Magni?”
Vexation shrugged. “I’d imagine? Drusa?”
She pondered what she had seen for another moment. “Well, he’s definitely Atlantean, no two ways about it…” Drusa then burst out laughing. “Oh wow, Vita’s going to have a conniption once she realizes Fausta gave birth to a vampire who fathered a dragon, HA!”
Vexation shook his head. “I assume this is an admission that you’re still going behind people’s backs?”
She chuckled. “Guilty as charged. Just wait until she meets Spiritus Magni Brutus, an orphan I rescued from the Roman streets.”
Blood-Wraith laughed and looked at the clock. “Oh hey, lunch time. Let’s go eat” he pointed out as he led the two out of the room.
“Fine with me. Getting here left me hungrier than Carthage after Rome was done with it, haha.”
Vexation also laughed. “I know how you feel. Mal dragged me and the others all over the Deep Unlight yesterday.”
Drusa gasped. “Mal’s still around? Goodness, yes! Where is that little sweetheart?”
“She’s with Tiberius at the future site of The ULTRAMagic Guild. Want to go see her some time soon?”
“Really? You’re going to ask her Auntie Drusa that question?”
“Can I come too?” Blood-Wraith asked.
“Of course, Blood,” Vexation replied. “Tiberius did insist I bring you along for a visit sooner than later. Honestly I think you’re going to like the progress of the guild thus far.”
Next: Chapter 35
ULTRAMagic Alternate © 2022 William Ford II (ChaoticTempleKnight)
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