ULTRAMagic Eon 2 - Chapter 12
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“I don’t like waking up to those activist nutcases causing trouble,” Blood-Wraith said with a yawn as he entered the main hall. “Jeez, first my printer quits on me, then my trading card order gets lost… How in the blue blazes did those nimrod activists even get to the Northern Living Ocean in the first place? It took Drago and I ages in Unlight time to get there with Leif the first time around.”
“We’re not sure,” Tiberius answered as he studied a magical map of the area at one of the tables. There was a red, blinking dot that indicated the intruders at the shores of the ocean.
“Well I’d dare say we’re about to find out,” Desislav commented as he tapped the shoreline on the map. “Weaver, you want to come with us this time?”
“Sure, as it’d give me a chance to stretch my legs a bit,” he said as finished his toast, then got up to stretch. “Besides, Proteus told me about some rare ores he stumbled upon that he wants me to check out for him.”
“Blood, Ludwig, are you two ready to go?” Dragoslava asked as she finished packing her bag.
“As ready as we’ll ever be,” Blood-Wraith answered.
“Bereit,” Ludwig answered. “Although I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t concerned about this being some form of distraction…”
Blood-Wraith paused, groaned, and crossed his arms to think. “Tiberius, can you have Tusk, Razor, and Mizuki keep an eye on the forest while we take care of this?”
“An excellent idea, Blood, I’ll contact them right now.”
“Alright then, let’s get moving…”
Assuming the form of Golden Dragon, Blood-Wraith took off with Dragoslava and Desislav on his back to the far north, with Weaver and Ludwig close behind. Normally this would have been a fun trip down memory lane that Blood-Wraith would have loved to share with his friends, but now it was being tainted by the acrid sting of Gore’s petulance. Furthermore, people like Proteus were being dragged into his mess. Blood-Wraith always viewed Proteus as one of the lucky ones, ones who theoretically never had to fight for the sake of the Cosmos. Proteus was a living ocean, so who would even think of attacking him? Blood-Wraith was about to get his answer, whether he wanted to or not.
This time it was Rick’s band yelling at Proteus at the shore. The poor, youthful ruler of the waves looked at a loss for words as he was berated with some mindless drivel about being a tyrant somehow. Blood-Wraith let out a burst of flame as he landed to scare the activists, then went right up to Rick and kicked him in the shin while he was speaking. This was then followed up by a kick to the plums, causing Rick to fall to the ground. The activists were stunned and not sure what to do. Proteus was also taken off guard, as it was surprising to see such a good natured ar’ton resort to violence like that. He had heard the rumblings of what the guild had been going through, but he had no idea it had pushed Blood-Wraith to his limits that badly.
“WHAT THE HELL WAS THAT?!” Rick shouted as he got up.
“GET OUT OF HERE, RICK!” Blood-Wraith barked back. “You’re not welcome here and never will be!” His guildmates gathered around him, readying their magic.
“Alright, I get it now…” he realized in a sinister tone of voice. “That’s why Gore sent us here…” Rick remarked as the left side of his body began to violently bubble.
Blood-Wraith knew exactly what was about to happen thanks to Lia’s research from the Homunculus Project. “Well it looks like the gloves are finally off, Rick…” he said as he took on the form of Verdant Might. The sun was gleaming off the light green armor plates and Blood-Wraith looked ready to fight.
With a roar and a burst of steam, half of Rick’s body turned into that of a juggernaut-class shadow construct. This startled the other activists. “Impressed, little man?” he taunted as he walked up to Blood-Wraith. Notably he was starting to sound like he was forcing air through his lungs and vocal chords.
Blood-Wraith’s response was simple and elegant-a swift punch to the chest that sent Rick flying back into a series of boulders. “I’d be impressed if you went home and never showed your face outside the Uncity ever again.”
“Don’t just stand there, you idiots!” Rick growled. “GET THEM!”
“FINALLY!” Ludwig celebrated as he assumed a ready stance and let off a crack of thunder.
“Alright, chaps, plenty of violence, but no killing,” Blood-Wraith cautioned, albeit with a subtle, cathartic glee in his voice.
Truthfully the activists completely lost their nerves for once. Rick never told them about the modifications he had done to himself and Blood-Wraith’s group seemed unstoppable. Dragoslava’s metal skin looked impregnable, Desislav’s obsidian covered arms were humming with electricity, Ludwig was just as fierce as he was in previous encounters, and Weaver had become a giant, wolf-like creature made of lava. The disparate group was at a disadvantage and there was no getting around it this time. And what were they supposed to do? With Blood-Wraith giving Rick a good thump to the head that sent him reeling, they fled into the red portal from whence they came, getting rightfully mocked as they did.
Rick was starting to repeatedly sucker punch Blood-Wraith, so Dragoslava metalized her body and went to back her brother up. Blood-Wraith was relieved and grateful when she came in with a roundhouse kick to Rick’s legs, then his torso. This was followed up with an overhead swing from Blood-Wraith. Normally any typical human would have been completely unable to withstand Blood-Wraith and Dragoslava’s teamwork, but the level of endurance Rick was displaying indicated to the two that he was mostly a shadow construct at that point. Wanting to end the bout, Blood-Wraith grabbed Rick from behind and held him in place so Dragoslava could lay into him. Once Blood-Wraith was sure Rick had had enough, he tossed him aside. Killing him was not the goal, as they wanted to send a message to Karnage.
“ARGH,” Rick growled as he struggled to pick himself up. “WHERE IS EVERYONE? Miserable cowards!” At this point he was mostly a shadow construct, so it was probably a good idea that the activists had fled. “Damn it, I need more power! I’ll be back!!” he swore as he limped into the red portal.
Blood-Wraith gave a sigh of relief once he was sure the intruders were all gone, reverted back to normal, and went to give Proteus a hug. “I’m sorry you had to deal with all of that, Uncle Proteus.”
“It’s alright, Blood,” he said with a sigh. “I’m not upset, just confused. Normally people come to me to get away from the stuff they were accusing me of. And I was more than willing to show them around my kingdom…”
“Well you know the saying, Uncle-don’t teach those who plug their ears when you speak.”
“Very true, Blood. Also Drago, Desislav, good to see you again!”
“Good to see you too, Proteus,” Desislav said as he shook his hand.
“Has everything around here been good?” Dragoslava inquired as they also shook hands.
“Aside from that little incident just now, things have been quiet,” he answered.
“Feiglinge, nichts als feiglinge,” Ludwig chided. “Still hoping all of that wasn’t a diversion of some kind.”
“A diversion?” Proteus questioned with worry in his voice.
Blood-Wraith nodded. “Yeah, I had a bad feeling Gore would try to pull something in the forest, so I had Tiberius send word to Tusk, Razor, and Mizuki to keep an eye on things there.”
Proteus recalled Blood-Wraith mentioning Karnage earlier and grew even more concerned when he realized something crucial in relation to the forest. “Blood, I think Karnage may be interested in the Lich’s old dagger…”
“Come again? What makes you say that?” he questioned with grave concern in his voice. The dread that had been gnawing at him was becoming more pronounced.
“I’m not exactly sure, but what if Vlad’s failed plans are useful to Karnage somehow?”
Blood-Wraith took a worried breath. “That’s not good, definitely not good at all…” he muttered as he stepped aside to think.
Proteus felt bad for Blood-Wraith, but that was all the insight he could provide at the moment. “Oh, Weaver, thank the Source you came, as I’ve prepared some ingots of that metal I was telling you about…”
Weaver rubbed his hands together as a special, metal chest emerged from the silvery water. “Alright, Proteus, show me what you got…”
He opened the chest to reveal a batch of what looked like iron bars tinted light blue with a faint azure glow. “This metal was found at the bedrock of my realm, where it touches The Unlight.”
Weaver picked up one and felt a strange energy surge through him. “Water Iron? Wait, no, this is something else…”
“Precisely, Weaver. It’s iron with the properties of metallic ice. Given how strange it is, I figured you could make heads or tails of it with the resources you have access to.”
“Yeah, I could take a swing at them,” he said as he placed the ingot back and shut the chest. “Hey, Blood, could you send this back to the guild?”
“Oh, sure-Flzo Aru,” he said with a snap of his fingers, causing the chest to vanish. He then returned to pacing.
“Wow, metallic ice?” Dragoslava questioned. “I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again, The Unlight never ceases to amaze.”
“What’s metallic ice?” Desislav asked. “I’m a bit lost. How can ice be metallic?”
“Metallic ice occurs when water gets super compressed. It starts acting incredibly weird and takes on properties it doesn’t usually have. I read about it one time when I used to visit Earth-23.” Dragoslava then noticed her phone going off and answered it. “What’s up… oh shoot… Blood, trouble in the forest!”
“DAMN IT, I knew there’d be a problem!” he panicked. “Sorry, Proteus, but we have got to go! Zlib Flzo Aru!” he called out, summoning a void door.
Over in the Tree Person village, Tusk was about to head to the guild hall and was quite startled when Blood-Wraith and his group showed up out of the blue. “Ah, Blood! Goodness, you caught me off guard…”
“Tusk, what happened?!”
He sighed. “Follow me…” Upon getting close to the site of the incident, Tusk began to explain what had happened. “...so you know that hidden shrine we stored the Lich’s Metal Oasis dagger in? Someone broke in and stole it! In broad daylight too.”
“By the Source…” Blood-Wraith remarked as they approached the ransacked shrine. Razor and Mizuki were helping the guards clean things up while David and Serjiel spoke to Sigmund and Thora.
Sigmund tapped his staff on the ground when he noticed Blood-Wraith and the others approaching. “I wish I had some good news for you, Blood, but our thieves were quite insistent on pilfering the dagger,” he said as he stroked his beard.
“Damn it!’ Blood-Wraith said as he stepped inside the ruined shrine. “I don’t even want to know what that bastard has in mind for the dagger…”
“Are we sure it was Karnage?” Weaver questioned as he stuck his head in. “Not saying it would be any better if it was someone else…”
“Positive,” Serjiel answered. “We’re not sure who specifically, but Razor and Mizuki are confident it was Volf who snuck into the forest.”
“Just like how we’re not playing around anymore, it would appear that Karnage is returning the favor in kind,” David assessed. “With how dire things are becoming, we will need help from the Arbiters of Droom, ideally. Sigmund, is the Realm of Chaos still inaccessible to us?”
“Aye, unfortunately,” he answered. “Not even the chaos gates are working, sending us back here whenever we try to use them.”
“Is Wynnstan still here?” Blood-Wraith inquired as he stepped out of the shrine. He was scrambling for ideas, but he could at least try something.
“Yes, but, um…” Thora started to answer, clearly uneasy. “Well, the poor dear’s anxiety has reached a breaking point and he’s starting to become incoherent…”
Blood-Wraith thought about it for a second as he looked around for answers he would not find in the forest at that moment. “Let’s bring him back to the guild and see if he can provide us any insight. If not, we can at least get him back on his feet and bolster our numbers should a worst case scenario happen.”
Next: Chapter 13
ULTRAMagic Alternate © 2022 William Ford II (ChaoticTempleKnight)
Master Post - Patreon
“I don’t like waking up to those activist nutcases causing trouble,” Blood-Wraith said with a yawn as he entered the main hall. “Jeez, first my printer quits on me, then my trading card order gets lost… How in the blue blazes did those nimrod activists even get to the Northern Living Ocean in the first place? It took Drago and I ages in Unlight time to get there with Leif the first time around.”
“We’re not sure,” Tiberius answered as he studied a magical map of the area at one of the tables. There was a red, blinking dot that indicated the intruders at the shores of the ocean.
“Well I’d dare say we’re about to find out,” Desislav commented as he tapped the shoreline on the map. “Weaver, you want to come with us this time?”
“Sure, as it’d give me a chance to stretch my legs a bit,” he said as finished his toast, then got up to stretch. “Besides, Proteus told me about some rare ores he stumbled upon that he wants me to check out for him.”
“Blood, Ludwig, are you two ready to go?” Dragoslava asked as she finished packing her bag.
“As ready as we’ll ever be,” Blood-Wraith answered.
“Bereit,” Ludwig answered. “Although I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t concerned about this being some form of distraction…”
Blood-Wraith paused, groaned, and crossed his arms to think. “Tiberius, can you have Tusk, Razor, and Mizuki keep an eye on the forest while we take care of this?”
“An excellent idea, Blood, I’ll contact them right now.”
“Alright then, let’s get moving…”
Assuming the form of Golden Dragon, Blood-Wraith took off with Dragoslava and Desislav on his back to the far north, with Weaver and Ludwig close behind. Normally this would have been a fun trip down memory lane that Blood-Wraith would have loved to share with his friends, but now it was being tainted by the acrid sting of Gore’s petulance. Furthermore, people like Proteus were being dragged into his mess. Blood-Wraith always viewed Proteus as one of the lucky ones, ones who theoretically never had to fight for the sake of the Cosmos. Proteus was a living ocean, so who would even think of attacking him? Blood-Wraith was about to get his answer, whether he wanted to or not.
This time it was Rick’s band yelling at Proteus at the shore. The poor, youthful ruler of the waves looked at a loss for words as he was berated with some mindless drivel about being a tyrant somehow. Blood-Wraith let out a burst of flame as he landed to scare the activists, then went right up to Rick and kicked him in the shin while he was speaking. This was then followed up by a kick to the plums, causing Rick to fall to the ground. The activists were stunned and not sure what to do. Proteus was also taken off guard, as it was surprising to see such a good natured ar’ton resort to violence like that. He had heard the rumblings of what the guild had been going through, but he had no idea it had pushed Blood-Wraith to his limits that badly.
“WHAT THE HELL WAS THAT?!” Rick shouted as he got up.
“GET OUT OF HERE, RICK!” Blood-Wraith barked back. “You’re not welcome here and never will be!” His guildmates gathered around him, readying their magic.
“Alright, I get it now…” he realized in a sinister tone of voice. “That’s why Gore sent us here…” Rick remarked as the left side of his body began to violently bubble.
Blood-Wraith knew exactly what was about to happen thanks to Lia’s research from the Homunculus Project. “Well it looks like the gloves are finally off, Rick…” he said as he took on the form of Verdant Might. The sun was gleaming off the light green armor plates and Blood-Wraith looked ready to fight.
With a roar and a burst of steam, half of Rick’s body turned into that of a juggernaut-class shadow construct. This startled the other activists. “Impressed, little man?” he taunted as he walked up to Blood-Wraith. Notably he was starting to sound like he was forcing air through his lungs and vocal chords.
Blood-Wraith’s response was simple and elegant-a swift punch to the chest that sent Rick flying back into a series of boulders. “I’d be impressed if you went home and never showed your face outside the Uncity ever again.”
“Don’t just stand there, you idiots!” Rick growled. “GET THEM!”
“FINALLY!” Ludwig celebrated as he assumed a ready stance and let off a crack of thunder.
“Alright, chaps, plenty of violence, but no killing,” Blood-Wraith cautioned, albeit with a subtle, cathartic glee in his voice.
Truthfully the activists completely lost their nerves for once. Rick never told them about the modifications he had done to himself and Blood-Wraith’s group seemed unstoppable. Dragoslava’s metal skin looked impregnable, Desislav’s obsidian covered arms were humming with electricity, Ludwig was just as fierce as he was in previous encounters, and Weaver had become a giant, wolf-like creature made of lava. The disparate group was at a disadvantage and there was no getting around it this time. And what were they supposed to do? With Blood-Wraith giving Rick a good thump to the head that sent him reeling, they fled into the red portal from whence they came, getting rightfully mocked as they did.
Rick was starting to repeatedly sucker punch Blood-Wraith, so Dragoslava metalized her body and went to back her brother up. Blood-Wraith was relieved and grateful when she came in with a roundhouse kick to Rick’s legs, then his torso. This was followed up with an overhead swing from Blood-Wraith. Normally any typical human would have been completely unable to withstand Blood-Wraith and Dragoslava’s teamwork, but the level of endurance Rick was displaying indicated to the two that he was mostly a shadow construct at that point. Wanting to end the bout, Blood-Wraith grabbed Rick from behind and held him in place so Dragoslava could lay into him. Once Blood-Wraith was sure Rick had had enough, he tossed him aside. Killing him was not the goal, as they wanted to send a message to Karnage.
“ARGH,” Rick growled as he struggled to pick himself up. “WHERE IS EVERYONE? Miserable cowards!” At this point he was mostly a shadow construct, so it was probably a good idea that the activists had fled. “Damn it, I need more power! I’ll be back!!” he swore as he limped into the red portal.
Blood-Wraith gave a sigh of relief once he was sure the intruders were all gone, reverted back to normal, and went to give Proteus a hug. “I’m sorry you had to deal with all of that, Uncle Proteus.”
“It’s alright, Blood,” he said with a sigh. “I’m not upset, just confused. Normally people come to me to get away from the stuff they were accusing me of. And I was more than willing to show them around my kingdom…”
“Well you know the saying, Uncle-don’t teach those who plug their ears when you speak.”
“Very true, Blood. Also Drago, Desislav, good to see you again!”
“Good to see you too, Proteus,” Desislav said as he shook his hand.
“Has everything around here been good?” Dragoslava inquired as they also shook hands.
“Aside from that little incident just now, things have been quiet,” he answered.
“Feiglinge, nichts als feiglinge,” Ludwig chided. “Still hoping all of that wasn’t a diversion of some kind.”
“A diversion?” Proteus questioned with worry in his voice.
Blood-Wraith nodded. “Yeah, I had a bad feeling Gore would try to pull something in the forest, so I had Tiberius send word to Tusk, Razor, and Mizuki to keep an eye on things there.”
Proteus recalled Blood-Wraith mentioning Karnage earlier and grew even more concerned when he realized something crucial in relation to the forest. “Blood, I think Karnage may be interested in the Lich’s old dagger…”
“Come again? What makes you say that?” he questioned with grave concern in his voice. The dread that had been gnawing at him was becoming more pronounced.
“I’m not exactly sure, but what if Vlad’s failed plans are useful to Karnage somehow?”
Blood-Wraith took a worried breath. “That’s not good, definitely not good at all…” he muttered as he stepped aside to think.
Proteus felt bad for Blood-Wraith, but that was all the insight he could provide at the moment. “Oh, Weaver, thank the Source you came, as I’ve prepared some ingots of that metal I was telling you about…”
Weaver rubbed his hands together as a special, metal chest emerged from the silvery water. “Alright, Proteus, show me what you got…”
He opened the chest to reveal a batch of what looked like iron bars tinted light blue with a faint azure glow. “This metal was found at the bedrock of my realm, where it touches The Unlight.”
Weaver picked up one and felt a strange energy surge through him. “Water Iron? Wait, no, this is something else…”
“Precisely, Weaver. It’s iron with the properties of metallic ice. Given how strange it is, I figured you could make heads or tails of it with the resources you have access to.”
“Yeah, I could take a swing at them,” he said as he placed the ingot back and shut the chest. “Hey, Blood, could you send this back to the guild?”
“Oh, sure-Flzo Aru,” he said with a snap of his fingers, causing the chest to vanish. He then returned to pacing.
“Wow, metallic ice?” Dragoslava questioned. “I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again, The Unlight never ceases to amaze.”
“What’s metallic ice?” Desislav asked. “I’m a bit lost. How can ice be metallic?”
“Metallic ice occurs when water gets super compressed. It starts acting incredibly weird and takes on properties it doesn’t usually have. I read about it one time when I used to visit Earth-23.” Dragoslava then noticed her phone going off and answered it. “What’s up… oh shoot… Blood, trouble in the forest!”
“DAMN IT, I knew there’d be a problem!” he panicked. “Sorry, Proteus, but we have got to go! Zlib Flzo Aru!” he called out, summoning a void door.
Over in the Tree Person village, Tusk was about to head to the guild hall and was quite startled when Blood-Wraith and his group showed up out of the blue. “Ah, Blood! Goodness, you caught me off guard…”
“Tusk, what happened?!”
He sighed. “Follow me…” Upon getting close to the site of the incident, Tusk began to explain what had happened. “...so you know that hidden shrine we stored the Lich’s Metal Oasis dagger in? Someone broke in and stole it! In broad daylight too.”
“By the Source…” Blood-Wraith remarked as they approached the ransacked shrine. Razor and Mizuki were helping the guards clean things up while David and Serjiel spoke to Sigmund and Thora.
Sigmund tapped his staff on the ground when he noticed Blood-Wraith and the others approaching. “I wish I had some good news for you, Blood, but our thieves were quite insistent on pilfering the dagger,” he said as he stroked his beard.
“Damn it!’ Blood-Wraith said as he stepped inside the ruined shrine. “I don’t even want to know what that bastard has in mind for the dagger…”
“Are we sure it was Karnage?” Weaver questioned as he stuck his head in. “Not saying it would be any better if it was someone else…”
“Positive,” Serjiel answered. “We’re not sure who specifically, but Razor and Mizuki are confident it was Volf who snuck into the forest.”
“Just like how we’re not playing around anymore, it would appear that Karnage is returning the favor in kind,” David assessed. “With how dire things are becoming, we will need help from the Arbiters of Droom, ideally. Sigmund, is the Realm of Chaos still inaccessible to us?”
“Aye, unfortunately,” he answered. “Not even the chaos gates are working, sending us back here whenever we try to use them.”
“Is Wynnstan still here?” Blood-Wraith inquired as he stepped out of the shrine. He was scrambling for ideas, but he could at least try something.
“Yes, but, um…” Thora started to answer, clearly uneasy. “Well, the poor dear’s anxiety has reached a breaking point and he’s starting to become incoherent…”
Blood-Wraith thought about it for a second as he looked around for answers he would not find in the forest at that moment. “Let’s bring him back to the guild and see if he can provide us any insight. If not, we can at least get him back on his feet and bolster our numbers should a worst case scenario happen.”
Next: Chapter 13
ULTRAMagic Alternate © 2022 William Ford II (ChaoticTempleKnight)
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