– Era of the Wastes, Cycle 216, Season of the Setting Moon, Day 34 –

Inside Tiv Palace, an oppressive silence had fallen.

“Lady Supreme?” Mahalia stared at her mentor, who had paused mid-sentence during the conference.

The reigning king as well as his parents – the Founding King and Queen – had been discussing with the Mage Supreme and her disciple about how to deal with the rampaging people from Arcana.

The awkward pause continued and everyone was staring at the old human woman that was clad in silver and red. Her shocked eyes were glued towards an empty location at the wall.

More precisely, the Mage Supreme was staring into a direction to the northwest where she had sensed a mana signature appear. A mana signature that could not possibly exist. Not anymore.

“Impossible…” The Mage Supreme babbled quietly. “This is impossible…”

The royal guards were shooting puzzled glances at each other.

Mahalia leaned in and spoke in a lower voice. “Mentor Diwa, what’s wrong?”

“Impossible…” Diwa’s hoarse breathing became erratic. Her eyes quivered.

“Mentor Diwa…” Mahalia repeated and put a hand onto her teacher’s arm.

“Impossible…” Diwa finally noticed the face of her disciple, who was staring worriedly at her. She swallowed even though her mouth was completely dry. She lowered her gaze and shook her head. “This is impossible…!” Diwa raised her head and glared at the elderly pair that was sitting behind the reigning king. Diwa saw it in the Founding King’s face. Tivius’s mana sense was far from her own but this particular mana signature was vast and unmistakable. The moment Tivius noticed, Diwa saw and she finally understood.

“WHAT DID YOU DO?!” snapped Diwa and stepped forward. Her mana flared and the mood instantly turned oppressive. She glared furiously at the Founding King, who was now staring dazedly into the same direction that Diwa had looked at. The flash of guilt and horror on his face already gave the Mage Supreme an answer.

“La-Lady Supreme?” Mahalia was taken aback.

The royal guards were nervously glancing at each other.

“Lady Supreme, with all due respect, behave your—” The reigning king spoke up hesitatingly.

“WHAT DID YOU DO?!” repeated Diwa furiously.

“Insolence!” spat the Founding Queen. “Do not forget your station, Diwa!”

Mahalia was getting anxious and she held her mentor’s arm.

Diwa shook off her disciple roughly and stepped another step forward. “You told me she DIED! Died in battle!” Diwa’s eyes were bloodshot as she glared at the Founding King. “The dead do not come back to life after two centuries!”

Realization flashed through the Founding Queen’s eyes and her aged face turned cold.

“I should have known.” Diwa shook her head frenziedly. “I did not— I dared not— I refused to believe you could be this DESPICABLE!”

“Hold your tongue!” shrieked the Founding Queen. “Impertinent! How dare you insult the Founding King! ARREST HER!”

“Mother, what…?” The reigning king looked back with a puzzled expression.

“Arrest her!” repeated the Founding Queen coldly. “Lock her up immediately!”

“...arrest the Su-Supreme?” The royal guards were not enticed by that idea. Their expressions varied from hesitance and wariness to outright rage and indignation.

“Tivius!” shouted Diwa. “Look at me! What did you do?!”

The Founding King finally jolted from his haunting thoughts and turned to look at Diwa. The instant his eyes met hers, he immediately lowered his gaze and then closed his eyes.

“Never…” Diwa shook her head incredulously. “Never would I have dared to believe you would—” Diwa almost spat in disgust. “Of all the people, you— Stoop so low…”

“Arrest her!” shrieked the Founding Queen.

“Mother, perhaps we should—” The reigning king was completely taken aback.

“ARREST HER!” The Founding Queen stood up shakingly from her throne.

Some of the younger guards drew their weapons. However, the moment they made a single step towards the Mage Supreme, many of the older guards drew their own weapons to obstruct them.

“Are you trying to rebel?!” The Founding Queen glared furiously at these older guards. She turned to those that had acted to follow her orders. “Execute these traitors!”

“Eh?” These younger guards looked at each other.

“No way,” exclaimed a younger woman. “What? I c-can’t execute my teacher.” Many of the other guards nodded faintly. The people that obstructed them had basically been their mentors for at least a decade.

The few younger guards that still had their weapons raised firmly could not help but look perplexedly at all the parties present.

“Do you really believe anyone here could arrest the Mage Supreme?” asked one of the older guards that were obstructing the way. He scoffed slightly. “Half the city would be blown apart first.” His expression became stern. “And the bigger question is why would you want to?” He looked at the Mage Supreme. “What’s going on here?”

“Mentor…” Mahalia was as confused as the others.

Diwa was shaking from anger. She raised a trembling hand and pointed at Tivius. “If you have any shred of decency left, you will end this yourself instead of having your son shoulder the sins of his bastard parents!”

“Sins?!” shrieked the Founding Queen. “What ‘sins’? Tivius has built this empire from the ashes! Everyone here owes him their lives! He only did what was necessary to finally secure peace! That bitch would have ruined everything!”

“Hahahaa!” The Mage Supreme laughed madly. “Shameless insanity!” She spat hatefully. “I finally understand all the thinly veiled insults that Thanatos has been throwing your way. It all makes sense now. You dare blame her?! Wretched scum!” Diwa’s face became increasingly flushed from anger and she pointed once more at Tivius. “It was him that ruined everything when he invited the Lich Kingdoms to his table. Hope’s oath was clear from the beginning. The fact that she never broke her vows was the very foundation for Tivius’s alliance to work.

“YOU BETRAYED HER!” Diwa roared at Tivius. “And when you did, you destroyed the alliance with it. This disgraceful attempt— These LIES only further serve as proof of the bastard king’s cowardly character.”

“How dare you!” roared the Founding Queen back.

“AHAHAHA!” Diwa laughed madly once more. “I can finally see why you chose Korra as your queen.” She looked from the Founding Queen to Tivius and spoke in a mocking tone. “The only one that would shamelessly accept and support your despicable side.

“Do you believe that everyone followed you?” Diwa sneered. “For your great prowess in battle and your strategies? BULLSHIT!” Diwa broke into a mad laughter once more. “You despicable thing!” The Mage Supreme rained curses on the Founding King.

“I’ve been a good king!” Tivius finally spoke up loudly but in a quivering voice. He repeated in a quieter voice and with a distant expression in his eyes. “I’ve been a good king.”

“YOU’VE BEEN NOTHING BUT A LIE!” spat Diwa. “A traitor to the cause!” She was heaving heavy breaths.

The door of the hall opened and new royal guards entered. At the front was a sturdy old human man with a thick belly. He walked with a slight limp.

“What is all this ruckus about?!” demanded the man.

“They’re rebelling!” shrieked the Founding Queen. “Arrest them, Castellan! Arrest them all!”

“Korra?” Castellan furrowed his brow and searched the different faces for a clue of what was going on.

“Hope is alive!” shouted the Mage Supreme hoarsely as soon as Castellan’s gaze was on her. Tears of anger and indignation were welling up in her eyes.

“What…?” Castellan did not understand what this was supposed to mean. Not until he saw the expression on Tivius’s face. The face of Castellan’s old companion was distraught and Tivius refused to meet Castellan’s gaze.

For several breaths, Castellan stared at Tivius. Then, Castellan’s expression fell and he straightened his back. He looked at the guards that stood opposed to the Mage Supreme. He searched for a familiar face. “Put down your sword, my grandson.” His voice was shaking as he gave his order. Tears had already entered his eyes. “You’re standing on the wrong side of this.”

Castellan’s word carried an immense weight among the royal guards and added to the threat of the Mage Supreme, to the deterrence of having to face your own mentor, there was suddenly no one willing to follow the orders of the Founding Queen.

Afterwards, Castellan shot one last look of sadness and disappointment at his old friend Tivius. He turned around and with tears rolling down his face, Castellan ordered: “Someone bring me my armor. I want to greet my commander properly.”

***

Before Terry had much chance to react, the juggernaut was already right in front of him. He barely managed to dodge the shoulder spikes before facing a giant palm that was swatting at him.

The nostalgic image of an inscribed earth giant flashed in Terry’s mind and for a brief moment, Terry wondered if he should transfix some of his septimum scales to block. This slight moment of hesitation was already too long. When Terry moved to dodge, the hellspawn palm still grazed him in the air and he was sent both spinning and flying. Terry’s mind was flooded with a world of spinning sensations. One disadvantage of using mana sense was the fact that it was one more sense to disorient you.

“Ugh…” Terry channeled mana into his gloves to use the bidirectional attraction to slow and stabilize his flight. When he had finally managed to get the rotation under control, he fleetingly transfixed the extension pearls in his bracers to use the coil spring resistance to decelerate.

If it had not been for Terry’s long practice of incorporating rotation and rapid shifts in movement into his battle training, he would have vomited his brains out. Terry didn’t exactly feel comfortable or unperturbed, but he still managed to catch himself and to spot the charging hellspawn figure in time.

Terry couldn’t help but acknowledge that this was a troublesome opponent for himself. An opponent that appeared much stronger than Terry. If it had been as little as a year ago, Terry might have flinched and gotten himself smashed into an early grave. Now, however, Terry’s muscles were moving almost on their own.

Luckily, this wasn’t the first time that Terry had to confront opponents much stronger than himself. No matter how intense the hellspawn’s relentless assault got, it could not overwhelm the memory of repeatedly facing a much smaller and yet much more intimidating opponent. Terry did not have time to verbalize his gratitude to Sigille and her all-out spars but the feeling was real regardless.

Terry’s body reflexively did something his mind was not entirely on board with: He charged forward just like the juggernaut hellspawn. He began creating a strobe light effect with the radiating light inscription from his gloves. His mana shifted between different burst techniques and just when the two opposing bodies were about to collide, Terry accelerated.

In a combination of his own movement and an additional booster from his bidirectional attraction aimed at the dungeon wall, Terry narrowly passed by the juggernaut’s spikes and ducked underneath its swatting palm.

Terry did not slow down and continued dashing while shifting his burst techniques. At this point, Terry’s conscious mind was catching up with the reason for his subconscious actions: The hellspawn’s charge was fast but its speed and trajectory impaired its reaction time. It was unable to quickly change course without relying on the palm smash it had used earlier on the floor. This meant that being on the move was Terry’s best defense.

A short moment of respite while running was sufficient for Terry to regain his battle groove and he was already placing transfixed items all around the chamber to impede the juggernaut’s charge.

Behind the cover of a transfixed tertium slab, Terry retrieved two more items: An octavum ball and a long metal chain. “Let’s see how this works out…” He used the Shape Metal imprint in his armor to reshape the octavum ball around the first link in the chain. He weighed the ball that was now attached to the chain in his hand. “Throwable. Swingable.”

Terry had kept his mana sense locked on the movements of the juggernaut hellspawn the whole time. He broadened his awareness to include all the transfixed items in the chamber as well as their remaining Immovable Object charge. At the same time, Terry was stuffing the other end of the long metal chain into his Academy bag to make use of the enlarged space and weight reduction enchantments.

“Let’s find out if you can handle my spell faster than I can activate it,” growled Terry. He weighed the ball and chain in his hand and dashed from behind his cover.

***

“I admire your tenacity,” praised Weran flatly. He flicked his wrist as another spatial storm broke out around him. “But this is still within my means.” Mana flared up around his hand and the space became calm. “Intriguing mana efficiency though, I have to admit. It’s quite a feat to use less mana in the attack than is required to defend when it comes to space magic. Impressive.”

Jee’s mirror-like eyes showed no reaction at the praise. He shaped a complex spell structure and the moment the spell was ignited, Weran could sense the space distort around himself.

“Switching tactics to use defensive spells offensively?” Weran raised one corner of his lips. “I’m not that easily trapped.” His eyes darted all over the mana distortion in the area. “It’s been a while since I had to worry about spatial seals. This is almost exciting…”

Jee, by contrast, did not show any excitement on his face. Instead, he was feeling extremely tense like he had not felt in a long time. He knew that this battle was like walking on a tightrope. As long as he kept Weran busy, Amelia and Dargones could try to erase some of the dimensional gates, which meant that the city’s defenders had a chance to bring down the enemies without new enemies arriving immediately after.

If Jee failed to hold Weran’s interest with his space magic, then Weran might again decide to focus on inviting new enemy hordes that would wipe out the city. If Jee pushed Weran too much, then Weran might get truly incensed. If Weran took this duel seriously and used all of his available aspects again, then Jee was not confident in his ability to protect the outpost.

Jee used the time Weran was sealed to collapse the space around one of the stronger lichs that were flying in the sky. It looked as if the lich and the air around it imploded and were compressed to a single point.

“Leave them to us,” shouted Amelia, who was soaring through the sky. “You focus on tying the elf up. You have the most important task. Don’t get distracted.”

Jee wasn’t used to working with others, especially not in battle. He did not usually take combat-oriented missions to begin with. He recalled the first time he had assisted Matteo in a death hunt, which later developed into Matteo assisting him with a personal request after an unexpected situation had occurred.

“Got it,” murmured Jee. He was preparing to add a new layered spatial barrier with a matching lock to trap Weran.

“Here,” exclaimed Weran and used his spell to target a precise location in the space around himself. A quiet shattering sound resounded and it looked as if a layer of reflective glass broke apart.

“Let’s—” Weran jolted around.

Jee, who had been preparing his own magic, was taken aback by the sudden shift in Weran’s demeanor. Something about the old elf had changed in an instant.

A death reaver in intensely glowing red mana armor charged at Weran from the side.

Weran did not so much as turn his head or lift a finger as a blast of brightfire rushed from the air not far from him right towards the advanced skeletal warrior. The death aura creature dispersed into dust before it was able to make another step. All the while, Weran was staring at the distance unblinkingly.

Jee hesitated. On the one hand, this was an opportunity to trap Weran. On the other hand, the aura around Weran had changed. Weran appeared to be dead serious at this moment.

While the moments passed, several other undead were foolish enough to attack Weran in his unmoving state. None of them survived their mistake.

Jee involuntarily gulped when he saw Weran casually unleash an unknown spell that disintegrated a giant blood abomination in the blink of an eye. Such a feat was impossible for anyone but practiced death hunters. Blood abominations were known for their high resilience and regenerative abilities. For the first time, Jee realized that Weran was not only an archmage proper but that he probably specialized in eradicating creatures of the death aspect.

Weran’s expression darkened and he shook his head vigorously. “Can’t be. But if…” He clenched his fist. “If this is some kind of trick from that naive lass that calls herself Mage Supreme, she’ll pay. If…” His expression slightly melted and his eyes wavered. “If this is…” He swallowed the words in his mouth and his voice contorted in a snarl. He spat a single, loathful word: “Tivius.”

The space around Weran distorted violently. Jee was momentarily stunned at the exceedingly forceful and nevertheless skillful manipulation. It wasn’t easy to manipulate space in such a forceful way without having it implode upon itself.

Thanks to his special eyes, Jee could detect that there were small errors in the magic that could be improved on. He could not help but be impressed that the spell worked stably regardless. He could not help but be impressed by the mage that worked this magic without losing control and with nothing but his mana sense to assist him. He would definitely remember the elf.

For the moment, however, Jee focused on following the mana movements in order to remember them later. In their spatial duel, it had mostly been Weran trying to catch a glimpse of inspiration from Jee, but now their roles had switched and it was Jee taking inspiration from the elderly elf.

The minutes ticked by with a torrent of intense but finely controlled movement of mana. Finally, Weran vanished without a trace. In the moment before his departure, Weran’s grim eyes could have been able to teach fear to an undead.

***