ULTRAMagic (Before) Prelude - Chapter 4
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At the opposite end of the castle entered a man of tall and strong stature. He looked tired and worn, yet refused to stop fighting. He sighed as he brushed his combed, dark brown hair back and was met by a kind-looking woman in a modest dress and blouse from the Celtic islands. She had long, curly, dirty blonde hair with a hint of red to it and smelled of wild flowers, which was pleasant to the senses. Her silver eyes met the man’s ruby red eyes and she could see how exhausted he was in general. She got up from her seat in the hall and went to speak to him, hoping to cheer him up.
“Leif, welcome back, dear. How did things go?”
The man exhaled and straightened out his vest. “Hello, Carol. It went… Things went about as well as you would expect. The Beast of Old is still under the hysteria spell from The Fear of Old, and he just would not listen to me. On the bright side I was able to find Mal again.”
“Oh, how wonderful. How is she doing?” Carol inquired as she opened a set of double doors for Leif.
“Just fine, which is good as I was worried for her after I lost track of her following the end of the Epoch-Modernity Transition. Thankfully she’s been staying safe and… she’s decided to start exploring The Unlight…” there was a notable hint of worry in his voice.
Carol chuckled as they maintained their pace to the great hall, Leif’s fatherly side being endearing as always. “She gets it from you, you know? No doubt about it.”
Leif shook his head with a smile, recalling his early days of exploring the Cosmos when it was still young. “She needs to be careful, as she’s had multiple close calls in her adventures. And I don’t dare imagine what would happen if she crossed paths with Karnage Dethgrave. It’s bad enough I couldn’t stop that bastard during the Epoch to begin with…” He then noticed that some of the other guild members were talking amongst each other and stepped away when they approached to return to their business. “Hey, what’s all the commotion about?”
“Apparently Scotty and Zara encountered Damien at Ironstone Canyon today…”
Leif groaned with unmitigated frustration in his voice. “I see Erikson is slacking off again…”
“And they appear to have brought back a boy to the guild.”
Leif froze, feeling a small surge of adrenaline as his instincts began to warn him of something. “A boy? Out in the canyon?”
“Um, yes, a young ar’ton boy without an affinity.”
This warranted an uneasy breath as Leif was beginning to worry. “Well that’s… odd. What would such a boy be doing all the way out here in The Dark Void?” he wondered as he scratched his stubble.
“And they further believe Damien may have been after the poor thing…”
Carol was cut off by The Automaton and Tiberius hurrying over to the two. “Leif, don’t panic, but there’s been a bit of a situation you need to look into,” Tiberius stated.
Leif then let out a muffled, nervous laugh. “Please tell me it’s nothing serious…” There was a scenario in his head and he was not looking forward to it.
The Automaton slightly averted his gaze with a sympathetic groan, then turned around. “Come with us…”
Back in the great hall, Erikson was telling the tale of how he ended up joining the Dark Divers, albeit with certain details left out. This was primarily for Blood-Wraith’s entertainment, but the others always enjoyed the story. “And the great champion of fire and bravery thought he had me, but that is when I pulled a fast one on them-in the blink of an eye I put an illusion in my place and escaped into parts unknown. I had to be clever, so I hid part of me in a quirky video game series on various Earth’s across the Cosmos and found a corridor into the Epoch.”
Blood-Wraith was on the edge of his seat, utterly amazed at such a perilous battle. “And what happened next?”
Erikson smiled with a calm exhale. “Well I thought about recuperating my strength and coming back ten times stronger than before to really show The Destined Warriors my might, but I met such wonderful people during the Epoch that I figured it would not hurt to take it easy, especially when I met my good friend…”
“ERIKSON!” Leif called out, stomping over to the tables.
“Leif, The Dragon of Old.”
“Erikson, you said you would take care of the Audoin situation, so why are his knights still running around the Dark Void?!” he demanded to know while slapping the dorsal of his hand into his other.
Getting up as he cleared his throat, he chuckled upon meeting Leif’s eyes. “Audoin is a pain in the rear, you know that just as well as I do. One minute he’s writing a sub-par, fanfiction webcomic and next he’s trying to destroy two universes and then some. And besides, it looks like you’ve been a little reckless yourself…”
Leif was confused by that accusation, and it fed into his growing dread. “What are you even talking about? I haven’t…” He then noticed the boy and his breathing became subtly uneasy. “C-Carol, is that the boy you were mentioning?”
“Yes,” she said as she walked over to him. “Blood-Wraith, this is Leif, our other dragon.”
“Hello, Mr. Leif!” Blood-Wraith said as he held out his hand, eager to meet such a great member of the Dark Divers Guild.
Leif got down to shake the boy’s hand and get a good look at him. “A pleasure to meet you, Blood-Wraith…” he awkwardly replied. There were no two ways about it, as that had to be Blood-Wraith, the one who was the core of his plans to stop The Eternal Order. “Pardon me for once second…” he said as he stood up, leaving Blood-Wraith a little confused.
“Now, Leif, I implore you to be cordial about this…” Sander beseeched.
“Just one… one second, Lord Sander,” Leif said with a look that gave the impression he was about to throttle someone as he stepped over to the center of the great hall. With a good inhale, Leif shouted “NOSMIRC!!!” his mighty voice seemingly shaking the entire castle, startling everyone.
A moment later a fountain of gentle, red flames erupted from the ground, opening like a door for a man with crimson hair, orange eyes, and dressed in a fancy, black suit and scarlet bowtie with a top hat to step out from it. He was quite the interesting chap, and much like Erikson, seemed to have details he preferred to keep to himself. “Goodness, what’s the matter, my darling guild mates? Are we being attacked or is there a party…” he yelped when Leif grabbed him by his coat and dragged him over to Blood-Wraith.
“Nosmirc, who is that?”
“Who is who? The Boy?”
“NOSMIRC, WHO IS THAT?”
He glanced down and felt his blood run cold. “Oh, um, well that would be Blood-Wraith…” Leif shook him rather violently. “THE ONE YOU TASKED ME WITH PROCURING FROM THE VOID,” he quickly said in a panic as he was jolted back and forth.
“Nosmirc, WHY IS HE HERE?”
“Um… uh… I don’t…”
The others were starting to grow worried, as it was never a good sign when Leif became this angry. Leif shook Nosmirc again and said “NOSMIRC, he’s supposed to be in The Unlight, NOT THE DARK VOID! He is supposed to be in The Iron City by now! JUST WHAT IN THE SOURCE DO YOU THINK YOU’RE…”
“ALRIGHT, enough of this!” Lord Sander interrupted, breaking up the two. His noble and commanding voice had perfectly defused the tension “That is quite enough, Leif, as Nosmirc appears to be just as confused as we are.”
Erikson was snickering as he stepped over to the fuming Leif. “You’re not going to get back at Karnage if you keep messing up like this, Leif…”
“Quiet, you!” Leif snapped back, thrusting his finger in his face. He then grabbed Nosmirc by the back of the coat and began dragging him off. “You’re coming with me. Tiberius, we’re going to go talk to Mr. EP…”
Tiberius groaned a little, looking down at the box of incense. “If it’s not one thing, it’s another…” He then handed the box off to Erikson. “Erikson, since you have time to spin a yarn, take these to Cynfelyn and help calm him down… By the Source, the boy’s probably hallucinating his room leaking by now…” he remarked as he walked with Leif and Nosmirc.
“Blood-Wraith, stay here in the guild until further notice…” Leif called out as he disappeared down the hall.
“Further… notice?” Blood-Wraith wondered.
“He means stay here for the time being my dear,” Carol elaborated.
“Whelp, looks like I got work to do,” Erikson admitted as he began to walk off. “See you later, Blood. Don’t worry about Leif, he’s still got some fire in his breath.”
Blood-Wraith nodded and looked up to Lord Sander. “Again, I didn’t do anything wrong, did I?”
“Absotely not, my boy,” he answered as he took a seat next to Scotty. “It’s been a trying time against The Eternal Order, as they are fighting from the shadows and we have been trying to smoke them out for a while now.”
“It’s a whole shindig and a half at the moment, especially with me coming in with all of my baggage from the Audoan Wars,” Scotty added with a laugh. “We’re trying to stop the bad guys, but they are pretty smart.”
“Oh, Automaton, there’s something I want to go look into…” Alexander interjected.
The Automaton took a quick breath to steady his nerves. “And what would that be, Alex?”
“I found a… Well, I found what seems to be something giving off energy similar to ULTRAMagic in The City of Steel, and I wanted to go over to Lemogethon’s Castle to talk to him about it. It’s incredibly strange though, feeling more like ANTIMagic.”
He gave an approving nod. “Strange indeed. You’re free to go, Alex. Just be incredibly careful, and let Barry and The Highway Knight know if you see anything since they’re out and about.”
“Yes sir, thank you. See you later, Blood,” he said as he began to leave.
The Automaton gently exhaled and smiled. “Yes, it has certainly been a hectic time, Blood. Now, until we figure out what is going on and can get you to The Unlight, make yourself right at home. Our groundskeeper, Carol Corcoran, will look after you for the time being…”
“Oh, Automaton,” Scotty put in. “Can Zara and I also look after him” Since we found him and all? Zara nodded along with this.
“I don’t see why not,” he answered with a chuckle. “Now if all of you will pardon me, I need to go see what Mr. EP has to say and see whether or not I have to call in The Madman for help…” Much like Leif and the others, the concern he had was clear as day in his words.
Lord Sander stood up as The Automaton vanished down the hall Leif had taken. “I suppose that is my cue to look after things until he is finished. Good day to you, everyone. And I hope you have a wonderful time here, Blood-Wraith.”
Zara glanced around as everyone took a second to quietly relax from the commotion and shrugged. “So, what do you all want to do now? I didn’t really plan anything past today’s patrol…”
Carol put her hands together and smiled. “How about we head to the lounge and relax? Blood-Wraith, Charles has been creating some fantastic creations with his buildable toys lately. Would you like to see them?”
This caught his curiosity as he turned to Charles. “Really? What are those though?”
Charles laughed as he indicated for Blood-Wraith to follow him. “I’ll show you. Not to brag, but I’ve been making some MOCs that put some of the builds the adults make to shame…”
“MOCs?”
Scotty chuckled as he got up to follow the three with Zara. “‘My own creations.’ It’s a whole thing where fans of those toys take them and make their own thing. The ones we have are all the rage back on my Earth. I’ve even dabbled in making some back at the primary school I used to volunteer at,” Scotty explained as they all walked down the hall to the lounge.
Next:
ULTRAMagic Alternate © 2022 William Ford II (ChaoticTempleKnight)
Master Post - Patreon
At the opposite end of the castle entered a man of tall and strong stature. He looked tired and worn, yet refused to stop fighting. He sighed as he brushed his combed, dark brown hair back and was met by a kind-looking woman in a modest dress and blouse from the Celtic islands. She had long, curly, dirty blonde hair with a hint of red to it and smelled of wild flowers, which was pleasant to the senses. Her silver eyes met the man’s ruby red eyes and she could see how exhausted he was in general. She got up from her seat in the hall and went to speak to him, hoping to cheer him up.
“Leif, welcome back, dear. How did things go?”
The man exhaled and straightened out his vest. “Hello, Carol. It went… Things went about as well as you would expect. The Beast of Old is still under the hysteria spell from The Fear of Old, and he just would not listen to me. On the bright side I was able to find Mal again.”
“Oh, how wonderful. How is she doing?” Carol inquired as she opened a set of double doors for Leif.
“Just fine, which is good as I was worried for her after I lost track of her following the end of the Epoch-Modernity Transition. Thankfully she’s been staying safe and… she’s decided to start exploring The Unlight…” there was a notable hint of worry in his voice.
Carol chuckled as they maintained their pace to the great hall, Leif’s fatherly side being endearing as always. “She gets it from you, you know? No doubt about it.”
Leif shook his head with a smile, recalling his early days of exploring the Cosmos when it was still young. “She needs to be careful, as she’s had multiple close calls in her adventures. And I don’t dare imagine what would happen if she crossed paths with Karnage Dethgrave. It’s bad enough I couldn’t stop that bastard during the Epoch to begin with…” He then noticed that some of the other guild members were talking amongst each other and stepped away when they approached to return to their business. “Hey, what’s all the commotion about?”
“Apparently Scotty and Zara encountered Damien at Ironstone Canyon today…”
Leif groaned with unmitigated frustration in his voice. “I see Erikson is slacking off again…”
“And they appear to have brought back a boy to the guild.”
Leif froze, feeling a small surge of adrenaline as his instincts began to warn him of something. “A boy? Out in the canyon?”
“Um, yes, a young ar’ton boy without an affinity.”
This warranted an uneasy breath as Leif was beginning to worry. “Well that’s… odd. What would such a boy be doing all the way out here in The Dark Void?” he wondered as he scratched his stubble.
“And they further believe Damien may have been after the poor thing…”
Carol was cut off by The Automaton and Tiberius hurrying over to the two. “Leif, don’t panic, but there’s been a bit of a situation you need to look into,” Tiberius stated.
Leif then let out a muffled, nervous laugh. “Please tell me it’s nothing serious…” There was a scenario in his head and he was not looking forward to it.
The Automaton slightly averted his gaze with a sympathetic groan, then turned around. “Come with us…”
Back in the great hall, Erikson was telling the tale of how he ended up joining the Dark Divers, albeit with certain details left out. This was primarily for Blood-Wraith’s entertainment, but the others always enjoyed the story. “And the great champion of fire and bravery thought he had me, but that is when I pulled a fast one on them-in the blink of an eye I put an illusion in my place and escaped into parts unknown. I had to be clever, so I hid part of me in a quirky video game series on various Earth’s across the Cosmos and found a corridor into the Epoch.”
Blood-Wraith was on the edge of his seat, utterly amazed at such a perilous battle. “And what happened next?”
Erikson smiled with a calm exhale. “Well I thought about recuperating my strength and coming back ten times stronger than before to really show The Destined Warriors my might, but I met such wonderful people during the Epoch that I figured it would not hurt to take it easy, especially when I met my good friend…”
“ERIKSON!” Leif called out, stomping over to the tables.
“Leif, The Dragon of Old.”
“Erikson, you said you would take care of the Audoin situation, so why are his knights still running around the Dark Void?!” he demanded to know while slapping the dorsal of his hand into his other.
Getting up as he cleared his throat, he chuckled upon meeting Leif’s eyes. “Audoin is a pain in the rear, you know that just as well as I do. One minute he’s writing a sub-par, fanfiction webcomic and next he’s trying to destroy two universes and then some. And besides, it looks like you’ve been a little reckless yourself…”
Leif was confused by that accusation, and it fed into his growing dread. “What are you even talking about? I haven’t…” He then noticed the boy and his breathing became subtly uneasy. “C-Carol, is that the boy you were mentioning?”
“Yes,” she said as she walked over to him. “Blood-Wraith, this is Leif, our other dragon.”
“Hello, Mr. Leif!” Blood-Wraith said as he held out his hand, eager to meet such a great member of the Dark Divers Guild.
Leif got down to shake the boy’s hand and get a good look at him. “A pleasure to meet you, Blood-Wraith…” he awkwardly replied. There were no two ways about it, as that had to be Blood-Wraith, the one who was the core of his plans to stop The Eternal Order. “Pardon me for once second…” he said as he stood up, leaving Blood-Wraith a little confused.
“Now, Leif, I implore you to be cordial about this…” Sander beseeched.
“Just one… one second, Lord Sander,” Leif said with a look that gave the impression he was about to throttle someone as he stepped over to the center of the great hall. With a good inhale, Leif shouted “NOSMIRC!!!” his mighty voice seemingly shaking the entire castle, startling everyone.
A moment later a fountain of gentle, red flames erupted from the ground, opening like a door for a man with crimson hair, orange eyes, and dressed in a fancy, black suit and scarlet bowtie with a top hat to step out from it. He was quite the interesting chap, and much like Erikson, seemed to have details he preferred to keep to himself. “Goodness, what’s the matter, my darling guild mates? Are we being attacked or is there a party…” he yelped when Leif grabbed him by his coat and dragged him over to Blood-Wraith.
“Nosmirc, who is that?”
“Who is who? The Boy?”
“NOSMIRC, WHO IS THAT?”
He glanced down and felt his blood run cold. “Oh, um, well that would be Blood-Wraith…” Leif shook him rather violently. “THE ONE YOU TASKED ME WITH PROCURING FROM THE VOID,” he quickly said in a panic as he was jolted back and forth.
“Nosmirc, WHY IS HE HERE?”
“Um… uh… I don’t…”
The others were starting to grow worried, as it was never a good sign when Leif became this angry. Leif shook Nosmirc again and said “NOSMIRC, he’s supposed to be in The Unlight, NOT THE DARK VOID! He is supposed to be in The Iron City by now! JUST WHAT IN THE SOURCE DO YOU THINK YOU’RE…”
“ALRIGHT, enough of this!” Lord Sander interrupted, breaking up the two. His noble and commanding voice had perfectly defused the tension “That is quite enough, Leif, as Nosmirc appears to be just as confused as we are.”
Erikson was snickering as he stepped over to the fuming Leif. “You’re not going to get back at Karnage if you keep messing up like this, Leif…”
“Quiet, you!” Leif snapped back, thrusting his finger in his face. He then grabbed Nosmirc by the back of the coat and began dragging him off. “You’re coming with me. Tiberius, we’re going to go talk to Mr. EP…”
Tiberius groaned a little, looking down at the box of incense. “If it’s not one thing, it’s another…” He then handed the box off to Erikson. “Erikson, since you have time to spin a yarn, take these to Cynfelyn and help calm him down… By the Source, the boy’s probably hallucinating his room leaking by now…” he remarked as he walked with Leif and Nosmirc.
“Blood-Wraith, stay here in the guild until further notice…” Leif called out as he disappeared down the hall.
“Further… notice?” Blood-Wraith wondered.
“He means stay here for the time being my dear,” Carol elaborated.
“Whelp, looks like I got work to do,” Erikson admitted as he began to walk off. “See you later, Blood. Don’t worry about Leif, he’s still got some fire in his breath.”
Blood-Wraith nodded and looked up to Lord Sander. “Again, I didn’t do anything wrong, did I?”
“Absotely not, my boy,” he answered as he took a seat next to Scotty. “It’s been a trying time against The Eternal Order, as they are fighting from the shadows and we have been trying to smoke them out for a while now.”
“It’s a whole shindig and a half at the moment, especially with me coming in with all of my baggage from the Audoan Wars,” Scotty added with a laugh. “We’re trying to stop the bad guys, but they are pretty smart.”
“Oh, Automaton, there’s something I want to go look into…” Alexander interjected.
The Automaton took a quick breath to steady his nerves. “And what would that be, Alex?”
“I found a… Well, I found what seems to be something giving off energy similar to ULTRAMagic in The City of Steel, and I wanted to go over to Lemogethon’s Castle to talk to him about it. It’s incredibly strange though, feeling more like ANTIMagic.”
He gave an approving nod. “Strange indeed. You’re free to go, Alex. Just be incredibly careful, and let Barry and The Highway Knight know if you see anything since they’re out and about.”
“Yes sir, thank you. See you later, Blood,” he said as he began to leave.
The Automaton gently exhaled and smiled. “Yes, it has certainly been a hectic time, Blood. Now, until we figure out what is going on and can get you to The Unlight, make yourself right at home. Our groundskeeper, Carol Corcoran, will look after you for the time being…”
“Oh, Automaton,” Scotty put in. “Can Zara and I also look after him” Since we found him and all? Zara nodded along with this.
“I don’t see why not,” he answered with a chuckle. “Now if all of you will pardon me, I need to go see what Mr. EP has to say and see whether or not I have to call in The Madman for help…” Much like Leif and the others, the concern he had was clear as day in his words.
Lord Sander stood up as The Automaton vanished down the hall Leif had taken. “I suppose that is my cue to look after things until he is finished. Good day to you, everyone. And I hope you have a wonderful time here, Blood-Wraith.”
Zara glanced around as everyone took a second to quietly relax from the commotion and shrugged. “So, what do you all want to do now? I didn’t really plan anything past today’s patrol…”
Carol put her hands together and smiled. “How about we head to the lounge and relax? Blood-Wraith, Charles has been creating some fantastic creations with his buildable toys lately. Would you like to see them?”
This caught his curiosity as he turned to Charles. “Really? What are those though?”
Charles laughed as he indicated for Blood-Wraith to follow him. “I’ll show you. Not to brag, but I’ve been making some MOCs that put some of the builds the adults make to shame…”
“MOCs?”
Scotty chuckled as he got up to follow the three with Zara. “‘My own creations.’ It’s a whole thing where fans of those toys take them and make their own thing. The ones we have are all the rage back on my Earth. I’ve even dabbled in making some back at the primary school I used to volunteer at,” Scotty explained as they all walked down the hall to the lounge.
Next:
ULTRAMagic Alternate © 2022 William Ford II (ChaoticTempleKnight)
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