Sacrifice Mage

Silan was impressed by my idea. Not that it was hard to impress him. From everything Khagnio told me about the man, he already held me in very high esteem. I could do no wrong in the old Therioceph’s eyes.

So when I said that I wanted to destroy Uralivanth from the ground up, Silan bared his jackal fangs in a wide grin. I now saw why his second name was Blackfang.

“You understand that turning the entire might of Ring Zero against House Uralivanth of all people is a monumental task, yes?” he said.

“Yes,” I said. “But you don’t sound like you’re backing down.”

“Of course not. I’m old. One of these days, I’ll have to croak. That’s just life. But if I can go out shooting for the distant stars, then why would I ever back down?”

I slowly nodded. Khagnio didn’t look like he appreciated that line of reasoning, but he didn’t raise any specific concerns. “That’s why I’ve already started the rumour mill. Which you’ve been helping with, of course. I appreciate it.”

“Yes. That was a good start, and it helped propel the blow you delivered to their finances. Their economic standing in the broader financial landscape of Zairgon has taken a terrible hit, Moreland. You must understand, all their competitors, all the other gangs they’ve been helping their favoured groups oppress, they are all champing at the bit, ready to rip into them.”

“Good. Just what I’ve been hoping to incite.”

I had figured that no matter how strong the Roaring Claws, no matter how much of a stranglehold House Uralivanth had on their side of Zairgon economy, neither group was without competitors. Without enemies who were circling like sharks sensing blood. It was satisfying to receive confirmation that it was as true in Ring Zero as it was on every other Ring.

“The only thing is that you want us to take the heat for it,” Silan said. “Riptide would ostensibly be the one dealing a mortal blow to the Roaring Claws.”

“You don’t have a problem with that, right?” I asked.

“Of course he doesn’t,” Khagnio said with a flicker of his serpentine tongue. “He’s been wanting to do that for as long as I remember, from even before I joined, going by what some of the others had said.”

The other members of Riptide weren’t present. That wasn’t a problem, according to Khagnio. While they were all free and independent, the leader of their little coalition was very much Silan Blackfang. If he decided on a direction, then the rest of them would have to accept it.

“Yes,” Silan confirmed. “I’ve killed two of their old leaders. It’s annoying how they keep sprouting back up.”

“Why haven’t you killed Shagor yet then?” I asked.

He shrugged. “I haven’t found a specific reason to do so yet. The others before him went out of their way to piss me off on purpose, so they had to go. Shagor has been a lot shrewder about it. Plus, he’s a whelp. Just like you. Slaughtering him now would just make me look pathetic.”

I raised my head higher. “Pathetic to whom?”

“To my sensibilities, alright? Even a lifelong undercity crook like me needs some kind of morals to stick to, Moreland.”

I grunted. “Fair enough.”

Khagnio had mentioned Silan was powerful. While he himself was unaware of his superior’s ranks and other pertinent information, he had surmised that Silan had to be at least low Opal-ranked.

That sort of power was something I could have used in the operation going forward. But of course, I was relying on no one but myself.

“When?” Silan asked.

“Tomorrow. At dawn. I’m going to end the Roaring Claws and all the stupid threats and annoyances they’ve been causing. And then I’ll deal with their masters.”

Silan met my eyes, golden pupils boring into my own darker ones. “Then I wish you fair fortune, Moreland. The path you tread is full of great danger, but you’re clearly a man who meets danger head-on. I admire that. When the time comes, I will be there to assist. Riptide stands with you, Ross Moreland.”

Slowly, I nodded. The reassurance did a lot to lift the pallor on my heart. I had help. I had friends. For all the enemies I had, I had a great deal more meaningful relationships I could count on. It made me feel both humble and grateful as I exited Riptide’s base.

“You’re really going all out, mageling,” Khagnio said. “The fallout from this… is going to be massive.”

“I’ll worry about the fallout when I can stop thinking about these bastards. Right now, I need to make sure Uralivanth and the Roaring Claws don’t pose a problem after I’m done.”

Khagnio snorted a little. “You’ve even got the old geezer excited. I haven’t seen him this eager for anything in a decade.”

“He’s…” I hesitated, not sure I wanted to state the thoughts about Silan that had popped up in my head.

“Stop hiding it, I know what you want to say,” Khagnio said. “He’s already dead, so now he’s happy to see the world burn. Or something along those lines, right?”

“You’re the one who said it, not me.”

Khagnio muttered out a curse. He said he wanted to be a part of my team tomorrow, so I told him the exact time and location we needed to gather. Apparently, Khagnio had full faith in Silan and the rest of Riptide to provide whatever support would be necessary.

“Just one last thing before you go, mageling,” Khagnio said. “There better not be any dying tomorrow.”

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I shook my head. “Of course not. I’m not dying before I make them pay.”

He gave me an uncharacteristically grim look as I finally left.

I blessed the fact that I didn’t have claustrophobia. Though, even without it, my heart was constantly on the edge of panic. I was in darkness, my body cramped in the tightest of confines, and the lack of air was starting to make my lungs seriously hurt.

This was the first time I wished I had something akin to the immortality the Scarthralls possessed. Which…

Would Reverence Everlife help if I started suffocating for real? Was it already helping? I had heard that the lack of air was an intended feature. Something to forcefully pacify the poor monsters and other creatures they normally carried in these boxes. But with the help of Riptide, the monsters they were carrying this time weren’t exactly the easily-compliant sort.

“Careful,” one of Claws hissed outside my box. “Don’t jostle them too much.”

“I’m trying,” said another. “Can’t help it. These things are heavy.”

“This is why I keep telling you to pay some attention to Power instead of just Agility all the time.”

The other Scalekin scoffed and made excuses. They continued bickering. I didn’t pay attention, just tried focusing through the lack of air on the moment I needed to act.

On the very instant I was going to start ripping apart the Roaring Claws.

The opportunity arrived moments later. I had to be a bit patient for it. The Claws lingered too long even after depositing the boxes. To the point that I just cursed and decided I had spent long enough waiting.

Silan had provided a few tools to extricate myself from the boxes, but I found a faster way to get out. The boxes were made of light stone. I considered warping it with Granular Control, but really, I could just apply some Atomized Oblivion to reduce it to nothing. The radiation washing me wasn’t too bad since I had Intake active and my target was small.

I briefly wondered if I could control the atomized matter with Granular Control, but I could experiment later. It didn’t take long before I was free and dusting myself off.

Now. To begin.

It was, of course, Gravity once again. Field Manipulation went first. A wide field of void-purple energy swept through the room, then expanded further outwards when I concentrated. The energy grew and grew, especially since I Sacrificed multiple casts to boost the next one that much more.

Cracks thundered through the building around me. The air itself began shivering. Everything started shaking.

My power was unleashed.

Moments later, the Roaring Claws’ hideout began breaking apart. Beams fell, bricks broke, windows shattered, and doors splintered.

I did the same with Ignition Charge. Instead of unleashing Orbit as soon as I thought about it, I Sacrificed the first two Ignition Charge casts. I had built up quite a few charges over the weeks. There was no need for me to hesitate.

The hideout continued shattering. Threads of Gravity went far and wide, Granular Control weakening everything around me so that Field Manipulation could make everything collapse that much faster. With Orbit active, none of that bothered me either. Everything that fell was caught up in a funnel, turning my surroundings into a destructive cyclone of broken stone.

The noise grinded against my eardrums. A roaring tornado combined with the roar of a jet engine. A maelstrom of pressure hemmed me in from all sides, the fury of my Gravity unleashed nearly to its maximum capacity.

And then came the screams. In the pandemonium of an entire building being ripped apart from within, they were faint. Almost imperceptible, if I was being honest. But I was keeping an ear out for them specifically, hoping to hear the exact fallout of my assault on the Roaring Claws’ base.

Not that the screams lasted long. I spotted body parts revolving around with the rest of the debris here and there, barely noticeable just as the screams had been. Limbs in one location, organs here and there, blood whirling like an eldritch rain.

“You!”

The shout of the familiar voice, now tinged with rage and the first hints of fear, pulled my attention upwards. Shagor was floating along with everything else, his body metalized to prevent the debris from tearing him apart.

“You won’t—”

I didn’t give him the chance to blather on and on. Waste of my time. Instead, I intensified Orbit’s effect specifically on him, slamming him around me faster and faster to have him crashing through more of the debris. Bastard was lucky I wasn’t burning him alive with Flare and blinding him with Illumination.

He tried to fight back, such that he could in his compromised position. I saw fire sparking around one arm, lightning buzzing to life in the other. But with how fast I had caught him in Orbit’s trap, anything he somehow managed to throw off went well wide.

Especially when there were so many other sources of Gravity active around me. I was impossible to take out from a distance.

It didn’t take long to completely debilitate Shagor. Strong though his Vitality was, my Gravity’s Ignition Charge was far stronger now. Especially after I had boosted it to such a high degree. Vomit and blood now swirled alongside Shagor’s body. Whatever attempts he had made to fight back earlier had now faded to near-unconsciousness as I threw him round and round.

I let it go eventually. A small avalanche crashed down with enough force and noise to wake the dead, and I was momentarily shaking with everything else. No doubt, the commotion was going to draw in the majority of Ring Zero over here specifically.

“You—” Shagor gurgled, as he tried to speak. Despite his attempt to protect himself with his metal-based Aspect, I had managed to break through his defence at several areas. His body was perforated with spiky debris here and there. “This will—”

He coughed, spitting more blood. A cloud of dust had blanketed the whole area, which was granting me some nice privacy, while Granular Control and Massless Interaction ensured I wasn’t hacking out my lungs like my poor victim here.

“You and your Roaring Claws have been working against me for long enough,” I said, intensifying the smaller Field Manipulation and Infusion I was applying where Shagor had fallen. He was struggling to rise, but in his current state, he was finding it impossible to free himself. “You’re dead now. All the members inside your little hideout, all the idea of strength you projected through Ring Zero, all gone.”

Shagor just tried to hold up a rude gesture.

I had to respect his defiance, if nothing else. Man might have been my enemy, but he wasn’t really a prick.

Which was why I raised my mace high, pushing in Gravity with Infusion and drawing in heat with Concentration, attaching it to my mace with Massless Interaction. It took only a few heartbeats. Shagor stared up at me, maintaining his defiant expression despite staring up his inevitable fatality.

“You’ll… upheaval…” he ground out. “You’ll… pay.”

“Sure I will,” I said. “Except, everyone who might benefit from making me pay will either be dead, or in no position to enact any silly ideas of revenge.”

I crushed my mace down. The blow gonged and cracked against Shagor’s metallic head, heat bursting out with melting power at the moment of impact to literally melt his skull. All that was left of his head was a burned and molten stump.

There was a surprising amount of silence afterwards.

[ Rank Up!

Your Thauma Attribute has risen by one Rank.

Your Gravity Aspect has risen by one Rank.

Your Path of Starforged Firmament has risen by one Rank.

Thauma: Gold VI

Gravity: Gold X

Path of Starforged Firmament: Gold IX ]

I ignored the blue screen, letting it fade after a cursory glance through the Weave’s notices. Shagor was down. The operational arm of the Roaring Claws were now no more. I looked over to where the remains of the boxes that were supposed to carry monsters—but instead held just rocks—lay.

It was time to deliver the same blow to House Uralivanth.