Chapter 277 - Dodging
45th of Season of Water, Year 183 AL
Maelstrom wished she could be relaxed like Newt. He approached his heaven’s wrath more relaxed than he approached her. It was an unbelievably bold concept to take in all that energy into himself and use it to expand his realm. And if he wasn’t lying, he’d been doing it since he was sixteen.
Pure madness, even with the support of an entire order to endure the danger, but what he was doing at the eighth was no less insane. And he survived his punishment with his clothes untouched.
Maelstrom wasn’t as crazy. She stood nude in the middle of the jungle, Newt giving her a long, lecherous gaze, as if he hadn’t felt and experienced every inch of her. He made a squeezing gesture with both his hands, opening his mouth as if he was about to fall unconscious.
She rolled her eyes.
Why do I have to be the adult in this relationship?
“Can you be a bit serious? I might die.”
“You won’t die,” he turned serious in a blink. “And once you’re done… well, let’s just say I’m not going to give you your clothes back immediately.”
Maelstrom rolled her eyes again. She almost said that the reason they weren’t going for children was because she would be alone, saddled with two from the start, but it was a distasteful joke. They had agreed that until Newt handled the dragon exalt, any thoughts of children were off the table.
“Thanks for distracting me,” she took a deep breath. “It’s what every mageknight wants before facing the lightning.”
With that, she sat on the ground and closed her eyes.
A moment later, she found herself on an iceberg in the middle of a dark sea that was more ice than water. The strength and firmness of ice combined with the fluidity of water to make Maelstrom. And when her fury was roused, well, the seas were known for their tyrannical nature during storms, and Maelstrom was no different.
Like the water of her realm, the sky was dark, cloudy, frozen in a moment before a storm broke out.
Newt said his realm barrier was a shimmering thing of swirling colors, Melstrom’s was a near-black blue. She regarded it and focused. It resisted, like a sheet of ice on a pond withstanding a single foot pressing on it.
Maelstrom frowned, and for the first time she was forced to exert more force than just a bit of focus to advance her realm. The second boot stepped onto the ice. It creaked, lines spreading, slowly at first, but then the web of cracks extended in a blink to cover the entire barrier, not just the spot Maelstrom was focusing on.
Like ice, it shattered and sank into the distance, but Maelstrom didn’t have the time to appreciate the sight of her triumph. She opened her eyes; the jungle was dark already, but it had grown darker still. She knew the sky above would be black, the clouds furious.
A bolt of lightning descended upon her, blasting away everything in its path. The canopy exploded above Maelstrom, and in the next instant, white light flowed through her body, tearing it to shreds. That was when Maelstrom did something she would’ve once considered madness.
She drew the lightning into her core. Just a sliver of it. It raged and rampaged, trying to destroy everything, but the clouds above her condensed. A gigantic white fang gathered lightning, shining like the sun.
Then, it crashed towards Maelstrom, ready to annihilate her. The heavens were furious she had drawn some lightning into her realm and wanted her gone.
Newt appeared in the sky two dozen yards above her, slamming into the lightning fang with fury. He smashed his fist into it, and the light shattered, shooting in all directions save for Maelstrom’s. Only she remained safe, Newt blocking the lightning for her.
The lightning fang would’ve vaporized her, and yet, Newt stood there unharmed, covered in his glowing armor. The technique so blistering and domineering, the world twisted around him. As the sky above cleared, Newt was left looking like an ancient god from legends.
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“Mel,” he said in an amused voice as his defenses vanished back into his skin. “As far as I know, you’re entitled only to a single bolt of lightning. The world must really want to punish you for some reason.”
He turned towards her with a big, wide grin. Maelstrom could see his glee. Somehow, he already knew that she had drawn Heaven’s Wrath into her realm.
“In its place, I’m going to spank you.”
Huh? The joy in her eyes died. Newstar hadn’t detected anything.
He’s just a pumpkin, she thought.
“Get away from me, you pervert,” she grumbled.
***
Hours later, very enjoyable hours later, Maelstrom was back at their home with Newt. The maniac had finally left her alone, as if he had never seen a bare breast before. She shook her head and settled to inspect the changes to her realm.
At first glance, it all seemed the same. The black sea with looming ice, and equally ominous skies. But there was a change; a streak of white snaked through the clouds. It disappeared and reemerged at irregular intervals. Like a frenzied deep-sea leviathan trapped between ice sheets, it sought a way out, swimming through Maelstrom’s realm.
“I wonder what I could do with that,” she muttered, watching her own private shard of Heaven’s Wrath.
Maelstrom’s element was water, and while she focused on the aspect of ice, that didn’t mean she lacked in other aspects of water. Lightning was far from her element. In fact, it was quite the opposite, hard water versus airy fire.
And yet, she had lightning in her realm, and once you had it, you could nurture and harness it. The problem was she didn’t know the first thing about lightning. Luckily, she knew a pumpkin who should have some clues.
She opened her eyes.
“Newstar,” she said, and he appropriately shuddered.
He looked at her with a guilty face of a man trying to figure out what he had done wrong.
“I didn’t mean to,” he said preemptively, no clue what he was apologizing for.
She looked at him with half-lidded eyes to express what kind of pumpkin he was being, then after he shrank under her gaze, she spoke.
“I have trapped some Heaven’s Wrath in my realm, but I don’t know how to use it or how to nurture it. Fortunately for me, I seem to recall your master is an exalt who has built his realm on lightning and should know a thing or two that could help me.”
Newt nodded, his relief tangible. “Yes, yes, we can go see Master whenever you want to. I bet he would be very interested to hear that you have captured Heaven’s Wrath.”
Maelstrom still squinted at Newt, who jokingly shirked away again, and she sighed, shaking her head.
What am I to do with this man-child?
“Lead the way, husband.”
He opened his mouth to say they weren’t married yet, probably something about him having enough time to change his mind still, but she just speared him with her gaze, and he nodded, leading the way.
They went to Gatemaster Greenthorn’s treehouse, where the old man gladly shared some of his insights into lightning as well as the sculpting techniques he used. While sculpting anything beyond the first realm for harvesting mana was considered wasteful, dedicating a small portion of Maelstrom’s realm to drawing Heaven’s Wrath sounded like a worthwhile investment to all three of them.
“I must admit, this is the first case I’ve heard of someone actually drawing Heaven’s Wrath into their body. I have found warnings against doing so, as it ended in death not just of the ones undergoing the Heaven’s Wrath, but also of everyone who tried to save them, regardless of their realm.”
Newt and Maelstrom exchanged looks, and Newt spoke.
“Do you mind telling us more, Master?”
Gatemaster Greenthorn looked at them, and Maelstrom could see his vast intellect concluding several things or at least making several theories even before he opened his mouth to speak.
“Getting involved with another’s Heaven’s Wrath is extremely dangerous. The lightning grows stronger to match the punishment for the strongest person or persons undergoing it. This escalation usually kills everyone weaker than they are, making the involvement needlessly dangerous for all parties involved.”
Before Newt could ask his question, his master was already answering it. “Yours back at the third realm was an exception. It didn’t look like Heaven’s Wrath at first, even if we later mistook it for one. And there’s a maximum of mana the heavens will spend on its wrath. Since you were already at the limit, even if twenty exalts got involved, it wouldn’t have made a difference.”
The exalt looked Newt in the eye. “You stepped in for her, didn’t you?”
Newt nodded. “It would’ve killed her otherwise.”
“And what happened?”
“I blasted the lightning apart, and the clouds scattered.”
Gatemaster Greenthorn stroked his chin and said nothing, but Maelstrom later confirmed with her grandfather that the lightning should have kept raining on them until it killed them for her offense.