ULTRAMagic Babel - Chapter 8

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    “Rats… MORE RATS!?” Lia yelled, her impatience flaring up now that she was properly rested. Valdemaras had sent some of his brood towards the Coagulatio Library, with a group of librarians stopping them from entering with magic-powered, flintlock rifles. “STUPID RATS!!” Lia screamed as barbs extended from both of her gloves. She slashed and pierced the rats efficiently, fueled by anger drenched in exasperation. Her fury was appreciated by both the group and the librarians, albeit both were slightly concerned for Lia’s emotional well being. “I’ll give Glacierhaven some credit-at least the biting cold kept these pests away!”

    “Your help is greatly appreciated, Ms. Achser,” one of the librarians said as he slung his rifle around his back. “We were about to…”

    “Hey, guys!” Cornelius interrupted as he emerged from the entrance. “Long time no see.”

    Adriana chuckled. “Cornelius, you saw us yesterday. I trust everything’s alright aside from the attempted rat incursion?”

    “Well firstly, sometimes a day feels like an eternity in this tower. Secondly, hopefully, haha. Everyone should be ready for the next beacon activation.”

    Lia nodded, then looked down at the filthy barbs of her gloves. “Oh shoot… Buster, could you be a dear again and help me clean up?”

    “Sure, Lia,” Buster replied as he retrieved her rag from her pocket, followed by wiping off her right glove.

    “Thank you, sweetie,” she said as she took the rag back and cleaned off her other glove. “Using both gloves at the same time can be such a bother…”

    The sleek shine of the gloves caught Cornelius’ eye. “Hey, what are these made of?”

    Thinking he heard more skittering, Serjiel interjected. “Let's continue this discussion inside just in case anyone else shows up…”

    “Of course! Right this way everyone…”

    The Coagulatio Library retained the timeless nature of the halls that preceded it, but the library itself also felt strangely modern. One could easily compare its structure and architecture to late 20th century Earth in a way that reflected its ageless nature. The artificial sun shining through the windows also gave all of it a warm, cozy feel that was like a nostalgic afternoon. Coagulatio itself was notable for focusing on history, politics, and the arts. It was relatively normal in comparison to the other libraries.

    “While we wait for the chief librarian; Lia, those gloves are fascinating,” Cornelius pointed out.

    “As much as I’d like to take credit for creating them, they were appropriated by The Eternal Church from Happa-Patea,” Lia admitted as she rolled up her sleeve. The glove was shiny and skin tight, making it look like Lia’s arm was made of metal.

    “Hold up, is this polymateria?” Cornelius wondered as he inspected the glove.

    Lia nodded, then took her arm back. “Milosh was desperate to get his hands on this stuff, which is one of the reasons he wanted to recruit The Lich of Old.”

    “Ha, if that wasn’t a massive pipe dream or what,” Tusk recalled with a smile on his face. “It makes sense why Baxter-the living planet Deimos’ old Prima Materia Sword became-hid out in the Outer Void. Dangerous, but I think any risks the Outer Void poses was better than getting bled dry by Milosh.”

    Lia shuddered at such a notion. “As for when these were made, I always assumed the Epoch…”

    “When there was plenty of the stuff,” Cornelius finished. “Do you know how badly I want to rebuild my body with polymateria?”

    “Why exactly?” Serjiel could not help but wonder. “I may be a demon and lack the understanding of the subtle nuances of human biology, but your body looks fine to me…”

    “Well truthfully I’ve been wanting a shiny, stretchy body for some time now and the human body is going to give out eventually, let’s be real for a second. The stuff I could do with a body like, let me tell you-OW!”

    Cornelius had been lightly hit upside the head with a book. “You are not going to replace the body God sought fit to bestow you with, young man…”

    “Mom! Think of the magic possibilities!”

    “Out of the question.” Cornelius’ mother was older with light brown hair and faded green eyes. The family resemblance was clear as day between the two, and it was easy to tell just from that exchange that she cared deeply for her son. “Perhaps you should get working on the Philosopher’s Stone doohickey you were so adamant about back home then.”

    “This is my mother, everyone…”

    “Lena Andriessen-it’s a pleasure to meet all of you.”

    Following a round of greetings, Cornelius turned to his mother with a mildly annoyed look. “I’m still joining the ULTRAMagic Guild…”

    “That I’m okay with, given your refusal to socialize back home.”

    “Mom…” Cornelius groaned in embarrassment, rubbing his arm.

    “Oh?” Serjiel noted. “May we know more?”

    Lena chuckled with a subtle, nostalgic smile on her face. “While our old community was not the most conducive for mages and alchemists, this little rascal never went out and made friends. And then he just ran away, causing me, his father, and sister to worry sick about him.”

    “Well I did have a friend you wouldn’t let me hang out with…” Cornelius rebuked.

    Lena gave him a stern look that said ‘we are not having this conversation again.’ “Zenta Kyler was a hooligan. She was more likely to win a drinking contest than she would a beauty pageant…”

    “Mom, she only drank whiskey on special occasions…”

    The group was trying really hard not to laugh as the two had a bit of a back and forth. It was incredibly endearing. Serjiel chuckled to himself, as he could certainly relate to Cornelius, recalling the rebellious phase of his youth. “Well it certainly sounds like Zenta has a bit of potential and the guild could definitely straighten her out. And as for you son ending up here, Lena, this isn’t the worst place to run away to, especially since it appears all of you went looking for Cornelius and stayed here?”

    “That they did,” a golden, somewhat deep voice answered. The man it came from was around seven feet tall, and had natural white hair with brown eyes. “Not too long after Conerlius arrived, Lena, Fanni, and Radboud came looking for him. Lena and Fanni took a liking to this library, while Radboud’s interests were in the Sublimatio Library. Now then, everyone, I am Donatas Wolfgang Raynot, the chief librarian. The beacon chamber is ready to go and you are more than welcome to come watch.”

    “One second, with all due respect, sir,” Adriana interjected, having realized something interesting about Donatas. “You wouldn’t happen to be related to Duke Radovan Archimedes Raynot, would you?”

    “Yeah, I was just thinking about that too,” Tusk added.

    Donatas smiled and laughed. “I’ve been wanting to visit my younger brother for some time now, ever since The Descendants returned home. Hopefully I can do that with this move to relocate and settle the tower. It was possible to leave the tower beforehand, at the risk of it ending up somewhere you had no idea where. Now follow me, the chamber is this way.”

    After a quirky tale of how Donatas once helped Radovan with some sound advice on how his younger brother could win the heart of a fair maiden (who would later become Duchess Rose Raynot), the group entered the earth beacon chamber. The beacon in question was a Rube Goldberg-esque machine consisting of gears, cogs, wheels, plates, and levers. Explaining it did not do it justice, so Donatas proudly went to the top platform and placed a metal ball onto a track. From there it traveled to a mechanism that caused a plate with a rock on it to go down, releasing more balls to repeat the process, further leading to the machine to whir and light up. It was an incredibly satisfying sight to witness… but then something went wrong at the fourth and final rock plate.

    Something was off as the rock itself was all wrong. It was too big and oddly shaped. Some of the librarians went to go and inspect it, but Lia cautioned them to stay back. There was a whiff of a rancid odor she knew all too well. She readied her gloves and Adriana followed behind with a combat knife ready just in case the worst case scenario happened. As if sensing it had been caught, a giant rat infested with pustules and sores leaped from the plate with a horrid screech towards Lia. The group’s blood ran ice cold as they froze in shocked horror, but Lia went straight into fight mode.

    The chamber then plunged into utter chaos as Lia held the biting monster at arm’s length, her taloned fingers digging into it like that of a bird of prey. She screamed in primal rage at the rat, utterly fed up with constantly being ambushed by the disgusting and festering bottom feeders. Instructing Lia to turn towards her, Adriana then ran up and repeatedly rammed her knife into the rat’s back. Once they were sure it was almost dead, Lia threw the rat to the floor. Using her gloves as a catalyst for her magic, she snapped her fingers and cast a spell that lit it on fire, finishing it off. Lia looked quite satisfied as she heard the grating death rattle of the malignant creature, that could only be charitably described as a rat, with the others covering their ears.

    While all of that was happening, another rat had tried to leap at Donatas, but he had grabbed it by the neck with an inescapable vice grip and looked it dead in the eye. The rat rapidly turned to stone, with Donatas slamming it as hard as he could on the ground. It shattered so violently that the other librarians had to dodge out of the way lest they get hit with the shrapnel. “VILE VERMIN! Donatas shouted. “How did they even get in!? Is everyone alright?!”

    Yoshihiro used his magic to search the chamber for traces of Valdemaras’ essence and quickly narrowed in on the problem spot. “Donatas, over there!” he called out as he pointed to a crudely covered spot in the wall that was just inconspicuous enough to ignore as mere clutter.

    “Misrable cretins… Lena, call Radboud and tell him to put the Sublimatio Library on high alert! Cornelius, get a hold of Ozymandias!”

    “Yes sir!” they both said as they rushed out of the chamber.

    “Lia, are you okay?”

    “Yes, I am…” she responded (albeit a little shook up) as Adriana assisted her in cleaning off her gloves. “Buster, are you okay?”

    “Yeah, I’m fine, Lia,” he replied as Tusk and Odo relaxed.

    Donatas sighed as he walked down the metal stairs. “How do they keep finding you? Surely the tower has been making it difficult for Valdemaras and his abhorrent spawn…”

    “They no doubt have Lia and Buster’s scents memorized by now,” Odo stated. “And Valdemaras has a one-sided vendetta against me, so there you go.”

    “You have my condolences, Sir Odo,” Donatas said as he went to the lever on the far wall. With a sigh he pulled it, causing the giant crystal above the machine to pulse with light. “I wanted to use the machine, but I see that The Sepulcher God hates fun.”

    “And this probably means Valdemaras is getting desperate. Great…”

    “Then perhaps a way forward that’s off the beaten path is in order?” Serjiel proposed, with Buster nodding. “Does such a path exist, Donatas?”

    “Follow me,” he said with a nod. Leading the group to his quarters (which was a miniature library in its own right), Donatas went to a book shelf at the far end of the room and pulled on a loose book. The shelf rattled out of the way, revealing a long corridor that let out a rush of cold air. “This will take you directly to the Sublimatio Library. I wish you all could stay a little longer, but we have an emergency on our hands.”

    “Thanks for your help regardless, Donatas,” Adriana said with a salute.

    Cornelius then entered the quarters, rushing over to the group. “Guys, Ozymandias said Waramunt is doing fine and on his way to Sublimatio.”

    “Well shoot, let’s go moving then,” said Tusk.

    “Oh, real quickly,” Yoshihiro interrupted as the others began to step into the stone tunnel. “Donatas, the next library has void grimoires, right? For Odo’s spell…”

    “I don’t see why it wouldn’t,” he answered. “And if not for whatever reason, you’ll find something just as good, Odo.”

    “Excellent,” he said with a thumbs up, a moment of optimism Buster appreciated.

    Donatas then thought for a second, wondering if there was any more help he could provide. “Cronelius, go with them just in case something happens.”

    “Of course, sir,” he agreed as he took the lead. “You guys would probably get lost without me. There’s a lot of twists and turns the maps don’t tell you about.”

    Making their way down the chilly, silent corridor, Odo had an unsettling thought. “Serjiel, I don’t think Valdemaras and Gudrun are really after us anymore…”

    “What makes you say that, if I may?”

    “We all know Valdemaras is nothing more than a dumb rat, and he’s probably lost track of his mission already. Why else would someone like Gudrun be here? She could easily capture Buster and Lia right now…”

    Tusk groaned, not liking the implications. “Any thoughts on The Agony Codex, Cornelius? We heard Gudrun rambling about it after a close call on the way to the Coagulatio Library.”

    “Not good,” he replied as he pulled a lever that opened up another part of the passage. “Lord only knows what she wants in the godforsaken realm that the book leads to. Thankfully the codex is well hidden in the tower…”

    “Unfortunately Gudrun is quite persistent,” Lia pointed out. “Trust me, I know her all too well in that regard.”

    Adriana shook her head and groaned. “We should have gone for back up…”

    “Yeah, but what if Valdemaras and Gudrun followed us back to the Central Unlight?” Tusk rebuked. “We’d just be bringing the problem with us and Odo still wouldn’t have his spell. Honestly I think the best course of action is to call on The Vermillion King and have him sort this all out. Plus if things don’t work out for Odo in the library I’m certain his majesty can help out.”

    Adriana stopped for another groan, pausing the group’s progress. “We should have brought some knights and more guild members, no two ways about it!” she said with a frustrated slap of her thighs. “And you have a point, Tusk…”

    “Well I helped save the Cosmos before, so I like to think I have some expertise on these matters,” he said with a slight smugness.

    “Such obstacles and complications are unavoidable, and will arise at any time, Adriana,” Serjiel reasoned.

    “I know, I know. I’ve read so many books on warfare and combat discipline that I should’ve seen at least part of this coming-but if we knew all that were going to happen there’d be no conflict in the first place…” She sighed, then resumed walking, indicating for the group to continue their journey. “The Undead Plague is something I can grasp. The Unlight? That’s a completely different can of worms…”

    “Keep rolling with the punches, Captain,” Tusk reassured her. “Just like Blood, Drago, Desislav, Vlastimir, and I did so long ago. This mess we’re in is no worse than what we went through with Leif.”

    “I suppose you’re right. Thank you, Tusk. A good leader knows how to adapt to the tide of battle and it’s about high time I quit complaining and actually act like the captain I am.”

    “Just make sure you bring more people next time,” Cornelius snuck in with a chuckle, causing the others to laugh.


Next: Chapter 9

ULTRAMagic Alternate © 2022 William Ford II (ChaoticTempleKnight)

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