Difficile Theurgy – Part 2

This is a direct continuation of Difficile Theurgy – Part 1

She licked her fangs, tracing the side of his neck with her finger.

“How do you feel, Hal?” Her voice was as cold as the night’s breeze.

He gritted his teeth, desperately resisting her charms.

“Master… I’m… busy…” he grunted. The palm of his hand extended outward, the veins in his hands protruded through his skin, pulsing purple and blue, like an aurora, as magic coursed through his body. She slid her hand down his arm and then placed the palm of her hand on the back of his.

“Good. Let nothing break your concentration.”

A few meters in front of them floated a sphere of concentrated magic, dripping mana from it. A mixture of spells varying from elemental to dimensional, so potent that losing focus could cause a catastrophe.

“Seal it…” She whispered into his ear. He gasped and closed his hand, forming a firm fist. The sphere collapsed in an instant and turned into a jewel. It fell to the ground, reflecting a whole rainbow of light from its surface. Hal’s knees gave in and he fell to the ground.

“Hah… I did it…”

The sage sat down beside him, her cold hand combed through his hair.

“Almost Hal. You’re almost ready…” Her voice seemingly trailed off as her focus shifted from him to the horizon.

“Hmmm…”

“What…. what is it master?” Hal inquired out of breath.

“Hmm… Something…” She spoke softly, getting up. “A final magic type to mix into the sphere, and you’re ready, Hal.” She reminded him, then snapped her fingers and her attire changed. No longer was she wearing a skirt and blouse, she was now draped in a robe decorated with glyphs and jewels unlike any Hal had ever seen before.

“Gotta run-byeeee.” She snapped again and disappeared. The traces of her magic vanished the same instant, as if she traveled to a different dimension altogether. He knew not of where she headed, or the reason for her disappearance. The only things he knew for the past 100 years were servitude to her, and training: agonizing, hellish training that lasted day and night. He was mighty, perhaps the strongest wizard around by now, but she was right, and her final order made sense – he needed to master the final form of magic and combine it before he was ready.

In the sanctuary she had created he could practice and fail with no fear. Even without her his training continued, until one day, the jewel he created no longer shone a rainbow. It now reflected nothing. Magic so potent that once sealed it turned into void. His journey was complete, he was now on par with his master, one of the ancient sorcerers.

Departing the sanctuary at last, he still failed to detect any hints of his master’s presence. Though worried about her, he did not fear for her life. She was an ancient vampire that had lived for thousands of years, she’ll be fine no matter what. At last, Hal felt safe to be around himself. For a hundred years he trained restlessly to control the potency of his, as his master referred to it – theurgic magic. Though he could move anywhere within the realm of existence, and even beyond it, he still opted to travel on foot, to enjoy the world as it was for all it had to offer. The scenery and how it changed as he walked for hours and days. Hunger no longer bothered him, he was beyond it, and sleep was not necessary either, yet he still enjoyed the dreams, although unlike even the most skilled wizards, he could easily control them, so to him, sleeping was just means of practicing, or playing games.

For a while, life seemed peaceful, but something felt off. With time he started seeing dreams that he had no control over. He stood in a field of lush greenery, surrounded by everlasting whiteness on all sides. There was no single source of light, the light was all around, as was the voice.

“It’s withering…” It said, a different voice replied.

“It is, sad… corruption destroyed that one.”

Off in the distance, Hal could see a silhouette.  A person in robes so black that he seemed to not exist. Hal thought he felt a piercing gaze on him, the robbed figure seemingly glanced in his direction. He awoke from the dream, perplexed. Unsure what to make of the scenery he saw, but somehow it felt real, not dream-like. He meditated, studied for days at the library, but still couldn’t get back into that realm. No records of such a place seemed to exist anywhere.

Another night, another dream. He was in a forest where trees assumed shapes of creatures and objects, he heard a voice far too familiar. A single tree amidst this strange place, seemed out of the ordinary. It was shaped like a tree, but bearing roses instead of fruits. The same, perfectly red roses that he saw in the other dream with the endless whiteness. A detail that seemed odd, no tree in any plane of existence that he knew of ever had roses growing on it.

“Hal!” A distant voice called out to him.

“Seek the seed… I need you!”

His master’s voice echoed through the emptiness of the strange forest. He jumped from his bed, startled by his master’s voice that called for him. His mind was in disarray. His research once more yielded no results, yet something in the world felt off. Through meditation he detected that the abnormality he felt was the flow of magic changing. It was converging at a location that made no sense. His peaceful life, that he so longed for, for 120 years, abruptly came to an end once more. The strange dreams persisted, haunting his nights to the point that after a few more he opted to not sleep again. He rested through meditations but even in those, the voices haunted him, called for him.

“Withering…” He heard someone say, and glanced around anxiously. A few meters from him was a florist.

“They’re withering so fast…” she complained to a customer.

“I’ll give a discount if you buy some.”

Hal eyed the transaction. The flowers indeed were looking under the weather, despite the claims that they were just cut freshly a few hours prior. Life was draining from the plants. Beyond the village spanned a forest, ordinary at first sight but deep within it, Hal could sense abnormalities, and the flow of magic converged at the heart of it. Before departing on the journey, he approached the florist as he always liked flowers, and hated seeing people sad. He did not so much as say a word, just glanced over the flowers, and with a swift flick of his wrist, and a whisper of his voice, the flowers regained their life. The flowers almost emitted a glow from how vibrant they became. He took a single rose, flipped a coin at the florist, a coin that he transmuted from a rock a few moments prior, and then ventured onwards. Whatever laid at the heart of the forest was calling for him. The moment he stepped on the hunter’s trail that villagers pointed him to, he felt a surge of energy. As if the forest repelled him and denied him entry.

“You won’t deny me…” Hal uttered under his breath. He extended his arm, his veins pulsed with energy. The aurora-colored energy flowed to his fingertips, and then the surge seized, having failed to deny him. The trees trembled in his wake. The forest was silent, only the shaking of branches and falling of leaves to break the awkward silence that filled the forest. Never has silence felt so full and packed to Hal before. In the absence of all animal life, somehow the forest felt packed to the point of eruption. It felt crammed. He felt squeezed.

He forced his way through the dense energy that no longer resisted him, but still offered a challenge to traverse through. For a normal person it would feel incredibly unpleasant to be here, they’d have a desire to leave as soon as they could. A trained wizard would feel like he’s walking through water, an apprentice would feel suffocated as if traversing a swamp while fully submerged. To Hal it simply felt like walking through rain while it’s windy. The winds of magic tore at his mana and smashed against him like droplets of rain when pushed by the wind. This storm was caused by the converging streams of magic. The forest was oversaturated with it. A faint whisper reached his ears.

“Hurry…” It was his master, the sage.

His heart clenched, adrenaline rushed through his body. He gestured with his hand in a soft and flowing motion, his index finger pointed up, a gust of wind pushed at his feet and then dissipated, failing to form, refusing his command. The veins throughout his entire body began to glow. He clapped his palms, and then extended one outward. A tear formed in the fabric of reality. He stepped through it, and then got thrown out as it collapsed. Stumbling back on the path he started on, a mere few hundred meters ahead, he regained his footing, realizing that the chaos of magic made lower level spells obsolete. His mind raced through lists of spells he learned and knew, choosing which to ignore and next ones to try. He clapped and chanted for a few seconds a spell that he thought might help soothe the storm of magic. It did. The winds no longer tore at his mana as violently. The entire forest calmed down, only occasional gusts of magic would extinguish his spells, but it was a lot easier to deal with than before.

As he stepped through another tear of reality to teleport himself closer to the heart of the forest, he felt the urge to duck, and in doing so, he avoided a dagger aimed right at his neck.

He ducked, and then pushed himself backwards, teleporting a few meters back.

“Who dares…” His vision changed. No longer could he see the real world, instead he saw the flow of mana. Foggy all around, dense, but amidst this fog he could see four shapes, armed, bearing their fangs at him. Two on trees, one in front and one to the side in the bushes, ‘an ambush? In these circumstances?’ He thought to himself, curious as to why, or who. The one from the bushes pounced at Hal. Dagger plunged into the soft soil beneath as Hal pressed his index finger against the back of the attacker.

“Discharge…” In an instant, thunder roared. A scent of burned flesh filled his nostrils as the body collapsed to the ground with a thump.

“Seize this foolishness, who dares? I ask again.”

The one that attacked him first shouted a command in a tongue Hal couldn’t understand. It was a younger lad, a teenager, that somehow had a slightly familiar look to him. Hal couldn’t quite recall where he may have seen him before, but the ferocity in the attacker’s eyes was enough to cut Hal’s pondering short. He swatted with ease the arrows that were aimed perfectly at his arteries.

“Disappear!” He glanced at one of the attackers on the tree. The reality tore beneath his feet, taking him along with half the tree he stood upon to a place not even gods would dare enter. The rift closed instantly.

“Then die if you so desire…” Hal uttered. A sphere formed in the palm of his hand, gradually changing color with every passing moment, turning more and more bizarre as the attackers prepared their next move.

“We can’t let you pass…” The young attacker spoke softly, gritting his teeth. Terror was the only emotion visible on his face.

“But you’ve no choice,” Hal responded. “I am called upon, and none shall stand in my way.”

The young attacker’s gaze briefly switched to the limp corpse of his comrade.

“Our lives are a small sacrifice to make…” He pulled out a device unknown to Hal and tossed it toward the wizard. The device hissed, and while Hal watched it curiously, it clicked and then in a blinding flash and thunderous roar it exploded, sending him tumbling back a dozen meters. The attackers disappeared. His ears rang and his head spun. Struggling to regain his footing, and senses, the device did as the attackers had hoped – held him back a few minutes.

Before Hal moved on, he took a moment to pray for the attackers. They stood in his way, but he hardly desired to kill those he didn’t even know. He believed in respect for the dead, and a single type of magic he refused to use was necromancy. He despised the magic that enslaved the dead. He returned the other attacker from the realm beyond, and buried the two by a tree.

“Life for a life…” His heart ached, yet his instincts pushed him forth.

During the next encounter, having gotten more accustomed to the dense magic of the forest, Hal avoided lethal spells.

“Show me your motive…” Hal’s voice was cold and stern. The young man from before sat on his knees. Vines bound him, and thorns of them dug into his skin, tearing at his flesh every time he tried to resist. The color of Hal’s eyes changed to that of a setting sun.

“LEAVE! ME! BE! DEMON!!!” The young man tried to resist, though his resistance was futile. Hal’s piercing gaze looked past his eyes and into his soul. Ignoring his flesh and the memories bound to it, he searched the soul’s memories for answers. He sat on a tree, his feet dangling off. His gaze wandered the expansive field before. In the field, in the thick overgrowth, played kids. They hunted each other. Pouncing, hiding and wrestling. Giggles and joy filled the air. His heart felt at ease, and his body was relaxed. The light of day pleasantly warmed his skin and the tree provided a comfortable seating and a good overview.

“Larzal!!! What’s that?” Shouted someone. His gaze darted to the horizon upon which a storm was brewing. Uneasiness washed over him. The world morphed before his eyes. Greenery withered; drought settled in. The soil cracked and the world itself screamed. The air filled with pollutants and ashes, plaguing the lands. Off in the distance, upon a volcano, sat a titan of fire and fear. In the vision, the titan consumed the seed of world, the seed of life within it. Death and terror conquered the lands. Populations starved. The world on brink of death; it began to wither fast. Hal stumbled back, his head spun, and his thoughts were scrambled.

“You…you’re not from this world…” The young man conceded and slumped at last.

“Our world fell to corruption, it sparked the birth of the titan and the death of our seed… No means of saving our dying world, all hope seemed lost, until our magicians came up with a plan – to steal a seed of a thriving world.”

Hal gasped, glancing into the thick of forest.

“Converging magic, could it be…”

The young man nodded.

“I see… and the titan?” Hal asked, cautiously.

The young man shook his head. “Incarnation of corruption, he had his feast and vanished after, setting our world on the course of sure death.”

Hal shook his head.

“That, is horrible… I, am sorry to hear of your world’s fate. Perhaps we could…” He began but the young man hissed.

“HUSHHH! No wizard can save us, no magic exists in the world, no more at least.”

Hal tilted his head.

“I see. The seed provides the connection…”

“And life.” The young man finished Hal’s thought.

“Then our world would…”

The young man gritted his teeth and looked aside in shame. “Wouldn’t you do the same for your world? For your family? Sacrifices… such is life.”  His voice trembled, and a tear rolled down his cheek.

Hal walked up to him and knelt beside him, his hand firmly resting on the young man’s shoulder, he squeezed it, opening his mouth to speak, but no words came out. He lowered his head, realizing he had no wisdom to offer, and no comment to make. In the end, he would do the same. To defend his world, to protect his master, the only person he cares for, he will have to doom their world. ‘Entire civilizations… A whole… world…’ His body trembled from fear of the decision he is to make, but also from fear that a similar fate could befall his world.

His master’s voice was carried from the heart of the forest once more. She sounded weak, exhausted. It was a single word.

“Stop…”

Hal got up; his fists clenched. Sparks discharged from his knuckles. The color of his eyes changed once more. One as white as the first winter’s snow, and the other as black as the shadows in the night. He vanished from existence, reappearing where he desired, by his master’s side.

She stood with her arms extended toward a barrier surrounding them. Blood dripped from her fingers, from her chin, and soaked her robes. Beyond the barrier, a dozen attackers relentlessly slashed at the barrier. Something sat behind him, something that felt abnormal, different, unlike anything he had ever sensed before, but in the moment, all that mattered to him was his injured master, who seemed so desperate to hold back the attackers, that she didn’t even notice him appearing beside her.

Prompts for this story were:

• A key location: A deep forest full of strange trees

• A key emotion: Compassion

• A sacrifice to be made: A relationship with someone.