ULTRAMagic Eon 2 - Chapter 31
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To see every member of the guild fighting side by side against the forces of evil was truly a sight to behold, and would go down in the history books as one of the greatest battles The Iron City had ever witnessed. The magic on display was second to none in its fervor and might. From Cronus’ great storm magic to Tiberius’ well renowned spells to Aureolus' resourceful hexes to Valerie’s spectacular dessert-based magic, nothing could stop the guild at this point. Tusk slammed the ground with his fists, causing lava to explode outwards beneath the constructs that Weaver ran through to charge himself up. He used this collected power to dive into a group of constructs and exploded, allowing some of the others to push forward. Razor and Mizuki were having a ball, with Mizuki slashing up countless constructs with a dance of fury from Grasscutter, followed up by Razor pummeling any stragglers.
Quasar was going all out unleashing jets of plasma until a shadow golem snuck up on him. Thankfully Dragoslava came in for the save with a leaping overhead smash from her fully metalized body. Barry then zapped over to electrify her metal body to give it a boost. Following that, he flew over to Yoshihiro to give his aura tornado technique a touch of lightning to make it ever more powerful. Of course Barry was being clumsy and was nearly jumped by a juggernaut-class construct, but Vapor 6 showed up in the nick of time to fry it with a great stake of lightning, with Gummi and Mal accompanying the two going forward. Nearby Serjiel had used his magic to create a wall of barriers for him, Alexia, Brenna, Jonathan, David, Shaye, and Tomek to shoot their weapons safely. Wynnstan did not need any safety, and fired his howitzers with reckless abandon at the enemy. Taking advantage of the chaos, Weaver ran in to take out some more constructs and team up with Faolán. He would cover him while Gabriella fired her rifle from above.
As the battle stretched on, Vexation, Drusa, and Deimos led Audawakrs, Cornelius, Calvin, and Gebhard over to Valerie, who was trying to make her way through the shadow constructs to Tiberius, Dragoslava, Odo, and Desislav. The latter four were trying to get Blood-Wraith to help him out themselves, but the battle between Blood-Wraith and Karnage was incredibly difficult to approach. Karnage was pulling out all the dirty tricks he had against Blood-Wraith, Wulfric, The Hunger, and Morrigan. Fortunately The Madman, Ozymandias, and Tereza were there for them, but even then they had many close calls. Even the shadow titans were trying to sneak in dirty attacks, but were stopped by Dreadnaught and the giants. Karnage was also trying to make more constructs and titans, but he was truly straining himself between that and his current battle, causing a deluge of malformed constructs and titans to swarm the battlefield.
Cyrillus and Orrgun had to do something as they saw a group of more malformed titans shamble towards the battle, so they began to focus their attacks. Cyrillus shot at the titans while Orrgun tried to fire at Karnage to distract him. Dreadnaught saw this and called for the Colossus and his brothers to follow suit. This put Karnage on the ropes for a moment, but on the other hand it may have also emboldened him to get even more desperate. Several of his attacks were directed at The Iron City, with Leonard, The Shadow God, and The God of Abyss scrambling to stop them. After a particularly nasty barrage that nearly blew a hole in the city’s walls, Losian, Benedictus, and Nacht entered the fray to give any support they could. The Vermilion King was certainly a bit nervous, but he had to concede there was not much he could do with Benedictus’ army following after him to join their glorious leader in one last battle, one that would hopefully win the war.
“Well I didn’t expect us to have to get our hands dirty,” Losian remarked to Nacht as he slammed his staff on the ground several times, summoning a giant eye of golden fire in the sky. It rained down fireballs of pure chaos that gave groups of the ULTRAMagic Guild time to recover. “Can’t recall you having ever taken up the blade on the field of battle, youngster…”
Nacht felt that jab towards his honor and groaned as he summoned a horrific force of dark entities that barreled at any shadow construct in sight and unleashed their fury. “Elder, now is not the time for such observations…”
“On the contrary, the fact that you and Paradoxos spend all day studying the Deep Realm of Chaos means you have neglected your combat prowess in favor of wit and intellect!” Losian then had the giant eye shoot a beam of energy at a titan that was about to perform an overhead slam on The Taffy of Old.
Nacht grinned as he had something to show to the Forlorn God. “Yes, but that knowledge seeking has led to this!” Nacht stuck his armored hand up in the air and the strange, stone orb he held opened its mouth and let out the most ungodly roaring imaginable, causing even the shadow constructs to tremble in fear. A cloud of unrelenting darkness appeared in the sky and in its center was a haunting pair of red eyes and mouth that screeched like a malformed dragon. “Behold, the Discordant Champion of Terror!”
Emerging like an inky, ghastly cloud of infinitely dark smoke that rumbled and quivered was what could be generously described as a dragon. It was serpentine in the draconic sense with plumes of smoke emerging from its back that were possibly wings, but that was where any comparisons stopped. Everything it flew by visually warped around it, like it was never supposed to exist in the Cosmos in the first place. The allied armies were scared and the ULTRAMagic guild certainly were not reassured by its presence. Still, the strange fireballs of black flames it shot at the malformed titans were welcome as they were quite effective. Benedictus had run across the dusty battlefield with his colossal rocket launcher in hand, mouth agape as he had been taken completely off guard. He had never seen such an entity before.
“THAT’S YOUR CHAMPION!?” Benedictus exclaimed. “WHAT IN THE ABYSS IS THAT?”
Nacht gave a triumphant laugh in sympathy of the ignorance. “He has no name, but mortals in this era call it ‘The Ghost Dragon.’ Many believe he is a remnant of the Epoch, but no, he’s vastly more ancient than that…”
“The Lost Era?” Losian questioned.
“Indeed, elder.”
Benedictus continued to be floored as he watched The Ghost Dragon greatly aid the effort to take out Karnage’s increasingly disjointed army. “Just when you think you’ve seen it all…”
“I will admit that I did not actively seek him out, rather he came to me because of my forbidden research,” Nacht pointed out. “He was lost and confused, but aren’t we all in this chaotic time?”
Benedictus wanted to praise Nacht for his tenacity and dedication to his pursuit of knowledge, but he was preempted by Wulfric being flung right before his feet. “On your feet, Soldier!”
Wulfric needed a second to collect his bearings, but that voice frustrated him regardless. “Benedictus!? What are you doing here?!”
“You’re welcome, kid,” he retorted as he helped him up. Benedictus then aimed his weapon approximately where one Karnage’s emanations were and fired. The rocket shot out with a loud explosion and plunged right into its target, going off in a great maelstrom of fire and smoke. “Don’t slip up, Wulfric. Not now…”
“I’m not, you hear!?” he shot back as he picked up his sword. “Karnage is proving to be more of a handful than I thought…”
Benedictus sighed as he watched Blood-Wraith launch a meteor storm of fireballs in his dragon form. The flames razed the ground where Karnage stood, requiring the four to shield their eyes for a second. “I suppose I can’t be too harsh on you, kid. We are dealing with a twelfth dimensional rogue god after all… slippery bastard can’t stay down, can he?”
“No, especially given how much trouble he caused during the Epoch,” Losian put in. “And the damage he’s done in this era puts what he did in that era to shame. Come, let’s see if we can’t help Blood-Wraith and the others out.”
Karnage had scored a cheap shot on The Madman, temporarily blinding him for a moment. Blood-Wraith and Mal went to protect him while he recovered, so Ozymandias and Tereza took charge of the battle. Tereza took a breath with her blade of anti-ice ready. Everything slowed to crawl around her as she aligned her senses with the light of the Cosmos. The ensuing storm of blade slashes was so fast that it looked like she was going slow in comparison and Karnage took the brunt of it given that his faculties were slowly dying. Ozymandias took his turn after Tereza was finished, slamming Karnage around like he was going to kill him. There was no letting up towards his enemy and he was going to make sure Karnage never got up again. The assault was effective with swift strikes and hard-hitting punches, but Karnage managed to slip away, going to attack The Hunger of Old (who was assisting Blood-Wraith).
“Oh no you don’t!” Mind-Wraith called out as he flew over, swinging Voidborne with blades of heated air surrounding it to try and push Karnage back. “Aava, a little fire on the rocks, if it’s not too much of a hassle?”
Aava was a little uneasy as she ran over, knowing what he was asking for, but desperate times called for desperate measures. “With haste, Mind-Wraith…” Aava’s form then stretched into a giant statue of slate rock with an unnerving mouth full of long teeth, and reality itself seemed to glitch out as she moved. One moment it looked like she was not moving, half stuck in the ground even; but then everything caught up and made her move in jerky movements that could be barely followed with the naked eye. Not even her attack on Karnage could be discerned, but the result seemed to be the monster being set on fire with flames made of stone that acted like plasma.
Benedictus’ mouth dropped again as his group made it over to Blood-Wraith and The Madman. “What-WHAT? She’s a Lost Era entity too?!”
“The Lost Slate God, or rather its reincarnation,” The Madman answered as he finally cleared his eyes. “As an aside, Mal was a close friend of hers in her past life…”
“Wait, hold up a second… Don’t tell me, Mal is a Lost Era entity too?”
“Correct, Benedictus,” The Hunger answered as he readied his sword and hammer. “We’re not sure who, but she was a Lost Era primordial that failed to reincarnate properly. It’d be nice if we could access more of her power like Aava’s, but that’s playing Russian Roulette…”
Benedictus looked down at Mal, who looked a little embarrassed. “You know what? I give up. How many more twists and turns are there going to be, anyone?!”
Wulfric laughed, but it was unclear if it was directed at Benedictus’ exasperation or Karnage getting knocked around by Aava. He then noticed that The Lost Slate God was beginning to fade and raced in to rescue her. With hurricane-force winds of unbelievable, magic proportions, he knocked Karnage back long enough to return Aava to the group. “There you go, Ms. Janzen…”
“Th-thank you, honorable Wulfric…” she shakily replied as she stumbled into Mind-Wraith’s arms.
“Easy there, I got you,” he said as he propped her arm around his shoulders. “Well I’m out of ideas…”
“MIND,” Blood-Wraith interjected. “You’ve got this though! Your thermomancy and Void magic are amazing!”
Mind-Wraith smiled and chuckled. “Thank you, Blood, but we can only do so much…”
Karnage was not going to let them have a moment’s rest and flew directly at the group in blind fury. “DIIIIIEEEEE!!!” he screeched at the top of his lungs as he readied what could only be described as an atomic explosion compressed to the size of a ball in his hand.
Everyone started to panic, but Nacht summoned a black and indigo great hammer with the head the size of a colossal tree trunk and held it before him like he was about to charge with it. “I’ll take care of this one!” Nacht hit Karnage head on, causing the attack that was prepared to backfire in the rogue god’s face. Each swing of the hammer was devastating, but Nacht could not do it alone and would eventually require help.
“Jeez, did Nacht go up to 11D or something when I wasn’t looking?” Blood-Wraith inquired.
“Aye, lad,” Losian answered. “To everyone’s surprise, but we’re not sure how or when he did it…”
Mal was studying the battle closely and had an idea as to how they could get the upper hand. “Blood, I don’t think we’re going to get anywhere if we keep fighting like this. He’s abusing your old magic to no end. Do you… can you, um, steal it back, perhaps?”
Blood-Wraith had the most clever grin stretched across his face as he glanced up a little to think real quickly, stroking his chin at the appeal of the idea he had. “Yeah, yes I can… Mind, hand me Voidborne for a second!”
“Sure, but what do you have in mind?” he asked as he tossed him the weapon.
“Oh nothing special, just going to take back what’s mine…” he coyly answered as Voidborne hummed with excitement.
Blood-Wraith felt himself become weightless as he flew in with a charge towards Karnage as Nacht knocked their foe into the air with a swing from the ground up. A series of wide slashes was unleashed from the swordstaff to disorient Karnage and it worked. Karnage was losing his grasp on the battle, and the continued assault from Nacht’s hammer made sure it stayed that way. Summoning the clawed hand of his dragon form, Blood-Wraith waited for just the right moment to strike. Karnage would eventually falter, even if it was just him losing focus from his degrading mental state. After a few more missteps from Karnage, Blood-Wraith saw his opening and went for it. Karnage’s animalistic fury gave him great strength, but rendered him no more than a stupid beast. With a deft thrust of his mighty hand, Blood-Wraith reached through his opponent’s chest and grabbed exactly what he was looking for. Karnage was jolted out of his berserk fury as he realized the worst had just happened…
“I’ll be taking this back…” Blood-Wraith declared as he leapt back with Nacht, holding a red crystal with six orbs in the other colors of the rainbow orbiting it.
“You-you… I-I have… I have… not lost…” Karnage struggled to choke out as he looked down at the gaping hole in his chest.
“Oops, did I pick a bad time, Karnage?” Blood-Wraith cheekily replied with a finger on his cheek like he had just got caught with his hand in the cookie jar. Of course he was a little blinded by his victory to notice the unholy transformation Karnage was going through behind him as he went to return to the group. A red sphere of chaotic, evil energy flew off into nowhere and a bellowing roar shattered any hope that the war was over. “There’s something really bad behind me, isn’t there…” Blood-Wraith said to the others as they nervously nodded their heads.
The beast that appeared in Karnage’s place was a writhing abomination of fangs, tentacles, and teeth, with it resembling an ungodly amalgamation of an octopus and a lion. “BLAST IT ALL,” The Madman roared as he threw a glowing, black sphere of dust at The Behemoth God. “Karnage never was one to just give up, and never will be!” he pointed out as the sphere slowly sucked the god in. “COME ON, WE’VE GOT A HUNT TO FINISH!” Himself, Blood-Wraith, Wulfric, The Hunger, Ozymandias, Tereza, and The Vermilion King (from The Iron City Wall) entered a portal to The Dark Grand Desert and everyone else was teleported back to the safety of The Iron City’s outskirts.
Once the last of the shadow constructs were well and truly dealt with, the ULTRAMagic Guild gathered in the square of Blood-Wraith’s home so they could assess any damage they suffered and be checked on by the royal doctors. Morrigan finally realized Blood-Wraith was missing after all that excitement and went straight to The Golem of Old. “Golem, where’s Blood?”
The Golem stepped away from speaking to Barna and David to address her. He was not sure how to go about it as he knew Morrigan was going to try to be impulsive. “He’s with The Madman’s team, taking care of Karnage once and for all in The Dark Grand Desert…”
“Alright, send me there, I’m ready to go!” She said as she tried to heft the sword up onto her shoulder. The Golem could see her struggling, with the sheathing of the blade confirming she was in no condition to keep fighting. “No, Morrigan, your duty is done.”
“Golem, I’m going…”
“With all due respect, Morrigan, this fight is out of our hands,” Waramunt added as he stepped over with Lia. “I know how you feel, more than you realize, but at some point we need to take a step back and let the others take care of the battle.”
“But-but…” Morrigan stammered.
“The Vermilion King was insistent on the squad he desired to finish off Karnage,” The Golem stated with some ambient anxiety in his voice. “Wulfric wasn’t supposed to go, but otherwise the team is set. I don’t mean to be rude, but you would most likely just get in the way…” There was disappointment in his voice, as the Golem would have been in full support of Morrigan fighting bravely alongside her friend.
“You fought enough already, dear,” Lia reassured. “If there was any doubt of your priorities and honor, let the effort you put into helping us defend The Iron City speak for itself. You’re as much of a hero as Blood-Wraith is and then some, and will be remembered as one forever.”
It was subtle, but it looked as if Morrigan was about to cry. Regardless, she held it in and started to walk off. “That’s… that’s fine with me. Blood knows what he’s doing…”
“Morrigan, where are you going?” The Golem inquired. “Don’t you want to speak to the others and the royal court?”
“Haha, I’m just going to go for a quick walk to clear my head. I’ll be back in a few…”
But Morrigan would not return. In fact she would not be seen in The Unlight again for a very long time. She did not have the heart to face the guild after what she had done and needed to leave. It was for the best in her eyes… After writing a letter to Blood-Wraith to let him know what she was doing, she left the city and began to walk aimlessly. Ending up in The Roaring Mountains along the main road, Morrigan eventually ran into Tressacht and Siegeberht. The two knew well of her plight and offered to send her back home with the memories suppressed for the time being so she could heal. On one hand, she did not want to just run away… but the pain of unintentionally leading Blood-Wraith to his death was too heavy on her heart. Morrigan would accept the help and just like that, she woke up back home in Inferno, an intense dream she could not remember slowly fading away as she prepared herself for a new day…
Next: Chapter 32
ULTRAMagic Alternate © 2022 William Ford II (ChaoticTempleKnight)
Master Post - Patreon
To see every member of the guild fighting side by side against the forces of evil was truly a sight to behold, and would go down in the history books as one of the greatest battles The Iron City had ever witnessed. The magic on display was second to none in its fervor and might. From Cronus’ great storm magic to Tiberius’ well renowned spells to Aureolus' resourceful hexes to Valerie’s spectacular dessert-based magic, nothing could stop the guild at this point. Tusk slammed the ground with his fists, causing lava to explode outwards beneath the constructs that Weaver ran through to charge himself up. He used this collected power to dive into a group of constructs and exploded, allowing some of the others to push forward. Razor and Mizuki were having a ball, with Mizuki slashing up countless constructs with a dance of fury from Grasscutter, followed up by Razor pummeling any stragglers.
Quasar was going all out unleashing jets of plasma until a shadow golem snuck up on him. Thankfully Dragoslava came in for the save with a leaping overhead smash from her fully metalized body. Barry then zapped over to electrify her metal body to give it a boost. Following that, he flew over to Yoshihiro to give his aura tornado technique a touch of lightning to make it ever more powerful. Of course Barry was being clumsy and was nearly jumped by a juggernaut-class construct, but Vapor 6 showed up in the nick of time to fry it with a great stake of lightning, with Gummi and Mal accompanying the two going forward. Nearby Serjiel had used his magic to create a wall of barriers for him, Alexia, Brenna, Jonathan, David, Shaye, and Tomek to shoot their weapons safely. Wynnstan did not need any safety, and fired his howitzers with reckless abandon at the enemy. Taking advantage of the chaos, Weaver ran in to take out some more constructs and team up with Faolán. He would cover him while Gabriella fired her rifle from above.
As the battle stretched on, Vexation, Drusa, and Deimos led Audawakrs, Cornelius, Calvin, and Gebhard over to Valerie, who was trying to make her way through the shadow constructs to Tiberius, Dragoslava, Odo, and Desislav. The latter four were trying to get Blood-Wraith to help him out themselves, but the battle between Blood-Wraith and Karnage was incredibly difficult to approach. Karnage was pulling out all the dirty tricks he had against Blood-Wraith, Wulfric, The Hunger, and Morrigan. Fortunately The Madman, Ozymandias, and Tereza were there for them, but even then they had many close calls. Even the shadow titans were trying to sneak in dirty attacks, but were stopped by Dreadnaught and the giants. Karnage was also trying to make more constructs and titans, but he was truly straining himself between that and his current battle, causing a deluge of malformed constructs and titans to swarm the battlefield.
Cyrillus and Orrgun had to do something as they saw a group of more malformed titans shamble towards the battle, so they began to focus their attacks. Cyrillus shot at the titans while Orrgun tried to fire at Karnage to distract him. Dreadnaught saw this and called for the Colossus and his brothers to follow suit. This put Karnage on the ropes for a moment, but on the other hand it may have also emboldened him to get even more desperate. Several of his attacks were directed at The Iron City, with Leonard, The Shadow God, and The God of Abyss scrambling to stop them. After a particularly nasty barrage that nearly blew a hole in the city’s walls, Losian, Benedictus, and Nacht entered the fray to give any support they could. The Vermilion King was certainly a bit nervous, but he had to concede there was not much he could do with Benedictus’ army following after him to join their glorious leader in one last battle, one that would hopefully win the war.
“Well I didn’t expect us to have to get our hands dirty,” Losian remarked to Nacht as he slammed his staff on the ground several times, summoning a giant eye of golden fire in the sky. It rained down fireballs of pure chaos that gave groups of the ULTRAMagic Guild time to recover. “Can’t recall you having ever taken up the blade on the field of battle, youngster…”
Nacht felt that jab towards his honor and groaned as he summoned a horrific force of dark entities that barreled at any shadow construct in sight and unleashed their fury. “Elder, now is not the time for such observations…”
“On the contrary, the fact that you and Paradoxos spend all day studying the Deep Realm of Chaos means you have neglected your combat prowess in favor of wit and intellect!” Losian then had the giant eye shoot a beam of energy at a titan that was about to perform an overhead slam on The Taffy of Old.
Nacht grinned as he had something to show to the Forlorn God. “Yes, but that knowledge seeking has led to this!” Nacht stuck his armored hand up in the air and the strange, stone orb he held opened its mouth and let out the most ungodly roaring imaginable, causing even the shadow constructs to tremble in fear. A cloud of unrelenting darkness appeared in the sky and in its center was a haunting pair of red eyes and mouth that screeched like a malformed dragon. “Behold, the Discordant Champion of Terror!”
Emerging like an inky, ghastly cloud of infinitely dark smoke that rumbled and quivered was what could be generously described as a dragon. It was serpentine in the draconic sense with plumes of smoke emerging from its back that were possibly wings, but that was where any comparisons stopped. Everything it flew by visually warped around it, like it was never supposed to exist in the Cosmos in the first place. The allied armies were scared and the ULTRAMagic guild certainly were not reassured by its presence. Still, the strange fireballs of black flames it shot at the malformed titans were welcome as they were quite effective. Benedictus had run across the dusty battlefield with his colossal rocket launcher in hand, mouth agape as he had been taken completely off guard. He had never seen such an entity before.
“THAT’S YOUR CHAMPION!?” Benedictus exclaimed. “WHAT IN THE ABYSS IS THAT?”
Nacht gave a triumphant laugh in sympathy of the ignorance. “He has no name, but mortals in this era call it ‘The Ghost Dragon.’ Many believe he is a remnant of the Epoch, but no, he’s vastly more ancient than that…”
“The Lost Era?” Losian questioned.
“Indeed, elder.”
Benedictus continued to be floored as he watched The Ghost Dragon greatly aid the effort to take out Karnage’s increasingly disjointed army. “Just when you think you’ve seen it all…”
“I will admit that I did not actively seek him out, rather he came to me because of my forbidden research,” Nacht pointed out. “He was lost and confused, but aren’t we all in this chaotic time?”
Benedictus wanted to praise Nacht for his tenacity and dedication to his pursuit of knowledge, but he was preempted by Wulfric being flung right before his feet. “On your feet, Soldier!”
Wulfric needed a second to collect his bearings, but that voice frustrated him regardless. “Benedictus!? What are you doing here?!”
“You’re welcome, kid,” he retorted as he helped him up. Benedictus then aimed his weapon approximately where one Karnage’s emanations were and fired. The rocket shot out with a loud explosion and plunged right into its target, going off in a great maelstrom of fire and smoke. “Don’t slip up, Wulfric. Not now…”
“I’m not, you hear!?” he shot back as he picked up his sword. “Karnage is proving to be more of a handful than I thought…”
Benedictus sighed as he watched Blood-Wraith launch a meteor storm of fireballs in his dragon form. The flames razed the ground where Karnage stood, requiring the four to shield their eyes for a second. “I suppose I can’t be too harsh on you, kid. We are dealing with a twelfth dimensional rogue god after all… slippery bastard can’t stay down, can he?”
“No, especially given how much trouble he caused during the Epoch,” Losian put in. “And the damage he’s done in this era puts what he did in that era to shame. Come, let’s see if we can’t help Blood-Wraith and the others out.”
Karnage had scored a cheap shot on The Madman, temporarily blinding him for a moment. Blood-Wraith and Mal went to protect him while he recovered, so Ozymandias and Tereza took charge of the battle. Tereza took a breath with her blade of anti-ice ready. Everything slowed to crawl around her as she aligned her senses with the light of the Cosmos. The ensuing storm of blade slashes was so fast that it looked like she was going slow in comparison and Karnage took the brunt of it given that his faculties were slowly dying. Ozymandias took his turn after Tereza was finished, slamming Karnage around like he was going to kill him. There was no letting up towards his enemy and he was going to make sure Karnage never got up again. The assault was effective with swift strikes and hard-hitting punches, but Karnage managed to slip away, going to attack The Hunger of Old (who was assisting Blood-Wraith).
“Oh no you don’t!” Mind-Wraith called out as he flew over, swinging Voidborne with blades of heated air surrounding it to try and push Karnage back. “Aava, a little fire on the rocks, if it’s not too much of a hassle?”
Aava was a little uneasy as she ran over, knowing what he was asking for, but desperate times called for desperate measures. “With haste, Mind-Wraith…” Aava’s form then stretched into a giant statue of slate rock with an unnerving mouth full of long teeth, and reality itself seemed to glitch out as she moved. One moment it looked like she was not moving, half stuck in the ground even; but then everything caught up and made her move in jerky movements that could be barely followed with the naked eye. Not even her attack on Karnage could be discerned, but the result seemed to be the monster being set on fire with flames made of stone that acted like plasma.
Benedictus’ mouth dropped again as his group made it over to Blood-Wraith and The Madman. “What-WHAT? She’s a Lost Era entity too?!”
“The Lost Slate God, or rather its reincarnation,” The Madman answered as he finally cleared his eyes. “As an aside, Mal was a close friend of hers in her past life…”
“Wait, hold up a second… Don’t tell me, Mal is a Lost Era entity too?”
“Correct, Benedictus,” The Hunger answered as he readied his sword and hammer. “We’re not sure who, but she was a Lost Era primordial that failed to reincarnate properly. It’d be nice if we could access more of her power like Aava’s, but that’s playing Russian Roulette…”
Benedictus looked down at Mal, who looked a little embarrassed. “You know what? I give up. How many more twists and turns are there going to be, anyone?!”
Wulfric laughed, but it was unclear if it was directed at Benedictus’ exasperation or Karnage getting knocked around by Aava. He then noticed that The Lost Slate God was beginning to fade and raced in to rescue her. With hurricane-force winds of unbelievable, magic proportions, he knocked Karnage back long enough to return Aava to the group. “There you go, Ms. Janzen…”
“Th-thank you, honorable Wulfric…” she shakily replied as she stumbled into Mind-Wraith’s arms.
“Easy there, I got you,” he said as he propped her arm around his shoulders. “Well I’m out of ideas…”
“MIND,” Blood-Wraith interjected. “You’ve got this though! Your thermomancy and Void magic are amazing!”
Mind-Wraith smiled and chuckled. “Thank you, Blood, but we can only do so much…”
Karnage was not going to let them have a moment’s rest and flew directly at the group in blind fury. “DIIIIIEEEEE!!!” he screeched at the top of his lungs as he readied what could only be described as an atomic explosion compressed to the size of a ball in his hand.
Everyone started to panic, but Nacht summoned a black and indigo great hammer with the head the size of a colossal tree trunk and held it before him like he was about to charge with it. “I’ll take care of this one!” Nacht hit Karnage head on, causing the attack that was prepared to backfire in the rogue god’s face. Each swing of the hammer was devastating, but Nacht could not do it alone and would eventually require help.
“Jeez, did Nacht go up to 11D or something when I wasn’t looking?” Blood-Wraith inquired.
“Aye, lad,” Losian answered. “To everyone’s surprise, but we’re not sure how or when he did it…”
Mal was studying the battle closely and had an idea as to how they could get the upper hand. “Blood, I don’t think we’re going to get anywhere if we keep fighting like this. He’s abusing your old magic to no end. Do you… can you, um, steal it back, perhaps?”
Blood-Wraith had the most clever grin stretched across his face as he glanced up a little to think real quickly, stroking his chin at the appeal of the idea he had. “Yeah, yes I can… Mind, hand me Voidborne for a second!”
“Sure, but what do you have in mind?” he asked as he tossed him the weapon.
“Oh nothing special, just going to take back what’s mine…” he coyly answered as Voidborne hummed with excitement.
Blood-Wraith felt himself become weightless as he flew in with a charge towards Karnage as Nacht knocked their foe into the air with a swing from the ground up. A series of wide slashes was unleashed from the swordstaff to disorient Karnage and it worked. Karnage was losing his grasp on the battle, and the continued assault from Nacht’s hammer made sure it stayed that way. Summoning the clawed hand of his dragon form, Blood-Wraith waited for just the right moment to strike. Karnage would eventually falter, even if it was just him losing focus from his degrading mental state. After a few more missteps from Karnage, Blood-Wraith saw his opening and went for it. Karnage’s animalistic fury gave him great strength, but rendered him no more than a stupid beast. With a deft thrust of his mighty hand, Blood-Wraith reached through his opponent’s chest and grabbed exactly what he was looking for. Karnage was jolted out of his berserk fury as he realized the worst had just happened…
“I’ll be taking this back…” Blood-Wraith declared as he leapt back with Nacht, holding a red crystal with six orbs in the other colors of the rainbow orbiting it.
“You-you… I-I have… I have… not lost…” Karnage struggled to choke out as he looked down at the gaping hole in his chest.
“Oops, did I pick a bad time, Karnage?” Blood-Wraith cheekily replied with a finger on his cheek like he had just got caught with his hand in the cookie jar. Of course he was a little blinded by his victory to notice the unholy transformation Karnage was going through behind him as he went to return to the group. A red sphere of chaotic, evil energy flew off into nowhere and a bellowing roar shattered any hope that the war was over. “There’s something really bad behind me, isn’t there…” Blood-Wraith said to the others as they nervously nodded their heads.
The beast that appeared in Karnage’s place was a writhing abomination of fangs, tentacles, and teeth, with it resembling an ungodly amalgamation of an octopus and a lion. “BLAST IT ALL,” The Madman roared as he threw a glowing, black sphere of dust at The Behemoth God. “Karnage never was one to just give up, and never will be!” he pointed out as the sphere slowly sucked the god in. “COME ON, WE’VE GOT A HUNT TO FINISH!” Himself, Blood-Wraith, Wulfric, The Hunger, Ozymandias, Tereza, and The Vermilion King (from The Iron City Wall) entered a portal to The Dark Grand Desert and everyone else was teleported back to the safety of The Iron City’s outskirts.
Once the last of the shadow constructs were well and truly dealt with, the ULTRAMagic Guild gathered in the square of Blood-Wraith’s home so they could assess any damage they suffered and be checked on by the royal doctors. Morrigan finally realized Blood-Wraith was missing after all that excitement and went straight to The Golem of Old. “Golem, where’s Blood?”
The Golem stepped away from speaking to Barna and David to address her. He was not sure how to go about it as he knew Morrigan was going to try to be impulsive. “He’s with The Madman’s team, taking care of Karnage once and for all in The Dark Grand Desert…”
“Alright, send me there, I’m ready to go!” She said as she tried to heft the sword up onto her shoulder. The Golem could see her struggling, with the sheathing of the blade confirming she was in no condition to keep fighting. “No, Morrigan, your duty is done.”
“Golem, I’m going…”
“With all due respect, Morrigan, this fight is out of our hands,” Waramunt added as he stepped over with Lia. “I know how you feel, more than you realize, but at some point we need to take a step back and let the others take care of the battle.”
“But-but…” Morrigan stammered.
“The Vermilion King was insistent on the squad he desired to finish off Karnage,” The Golem stated with some ambient anxiety in his voice. “Wulfric wasn’t supposed to go, but otherwise the team is set. I don’t mean to be rude, but you would most likely just get in the way…” There was disappointment in his voice, as the Golem would have been in full support of Morrigan fighting bravely alongside her friend.
“You fought enough already, dear,” Lia reassured. “If there was any doubt of your priorities and honor, let the effort you put into helping us defend The Iron City speak for itself. You’re as much of a hero as Blood-Wraith is and then some, and will be remembered as one forever.”
It was subtle, but it looked as if Morrigan was about to cry. Regardless, she held it in and started to walk off. “That’s… that’s fine with me. Blood knows what he’s doing…”
“Morrigan, where are you going?” The Golem inquired. “Don’t you want to speak to the others and the royal court?”
“Haha, I’m just going to go for a quick walk to clear my head. I’ll be back in a few…”
But Morrigan would not return. In fact she would not be seen in The Unlight again for a very long time. She did not have the heart to face the guild after what she had done and needed to leave. It was for the best in her eyes… After writing a letter to Blood-Wraith to let him know what she was doing, she left the city and began to walk aimlessly. Ending up in The Roaring Mountains along the main road, Morrigan eventually ran into Tressacht and Siegeberht. The two knew well of her plight and offered to send her back home with the memories suppressed for the time being so she could heal. On one hand, she did not want to just run away… but the pain of unintentionally leading Blood-Wraith to his death was too heavy on her heart. Morrigan would accept the help and just like that, she woke up back home in Inferno, an intense dream she could not remember slowly fading away as she prepared herself for a new day…
Next: Chapter 32
ULTRAMagic Alternate © 2022 William Ford II (ChaoticTempleKnight)
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