Chapter 41 | Aisha & Sanya
A pathway through various objects led directly to a raised platform carved from the earth, maybe three or four feet above the rest of the room. Steps led up to it. It was at the back of the room, carved out like the rest of the lair. This one appeared like an alcove or more natural than the rest of it, though. It had a rounded back wall and a domed ceiling, unlike the flat walls and ceiling of the other rooms.
Ignoring the objects around the room, Aisha gazed upon the . . . chancel? Dais? Stage?
Raised altar?
It had the impression of a cathedral. One aisle leading up to the chancel, with a row of seats on each side, and the architecture of the carved-out room . . . and there weren't any seats..
Whatever.
The air smelled thick of iron. Blood.
Upon that altar sat a large, rectangular slab of stone, another three feet high and large enough for multiple bodies to lay on. A far too familiar man stood next to it. Blood dripped from the stone and into chiseled cracks, into more cracks in the dais and then dripped again onto the normal level of the room. Aisha couldn't see the details of the . . . blood flow . . . from here. Where did it go? Anywhere? Were the cracks laid out like some kind of ritual circle? Like a demonic summoning from works of fiction?
Then there was the corpse that lay sprawled out on the stone. It fed the cracks with blood.
The familiar man held a dagger in his hand, blood stained it to the handle.
This wasn't real. It looked fake. Staged.
Behind all the anger. The rage. The grief. The disbelief. The fear. Aisha felt . . . confusion?
“Of-Jinan!” The man . . . the monster . . . exclaimed, as if too happy to see her. “I see our rampaging killer has finally shown up!”
What? . . .
The monster smirked.
Oh, he was teasing. Wait. Aisha infiltrated his strange little necromantic lair—of this absolute villain—and he was teasing her?
“Just in time!” He continued. “I think I've finally graduated from the mundane. I want to see what I can do with you . . .”
Aisha blinked. Ah. He had already moved on to villainous lines and evil monologues. Maybe he could go back to the teasing? . . . Aisha took a step forward.
“Such a good girl! Step right up to the altar. You're already much more obedient than . . . the others.”
Aisha spat to the side. “You're sick.”
The monster just shrugged. “What else was I supposed to do with this magic? How else will I get stronger to face what comes—?”
“Don't even try to moralize.”
“—Or even for Glorestra to continue being sovereign?”
Aisha continued walking forward, steps determined and confident. She tried very hard to ignore the sights around her. The blood in cracks in the floor. That one wheelbarrow off to the side full of corpses. The candles flickering on posts, making up for a lack of llumifruits.
Aisha knew what needed to be done. The monster had to die. She needed to tune everything else out—ignore it, there was nothing she could do about it.
“This magic.” So, the monster had been murdering orphans and the homeless for his magic? His necrotic magic, probably?
What did he mean by his words? For one, he had probably chosen that magic. If by some chance he had been gifted it, how would he know what it was? What to do with it? What it did?
“You do know what is coming? Don't you?” The monster asked.
Aisha didn't. She didn't care. Maybe that was stupid.
She wouldn't negotiate with royalty.
Erm, she meant she wouldn't negotiate with mass murderers of children . . . Same thing? Yeah, kind-of.
“Where is your retinue? Where's the real ‘rampaging killer?’” Aisha asked.
“Ah . . .” The monster took a step away from the altar, closer to Aisha. “They . . . Ah . . . There may be a vacancy in that position. We're recruiting. Six vacancies, to be exact! The retinue position—not the ‘rampaging killer’ one.”
Aisha stopped, mere paces away from the steps up to the altar. “You killed them.”
“I may or may not have wanted to know how they would transfer with my magic . . .” He scratched the back of his head, looking like a guilty child.
Aisha didn't actually know about the monster's magic. She didn't know a thing about necrotic magic. What exactly did it entail?
She was going in blind.
Yet, she had a powerful tool at her disposal. She could end the monster with a snap of her fingers.
She was going to murder this monster.
“[Temporal Sundering],” Aisha cast.
She sensed temporal mana in the air all around her. The world stilled.
The monster did not.
He let out thundering laughter.
☆ ☆ ☆
Mai groaned, snapping her grimoire shut. “I don't get Fleshweaving at all! I can't do anything with it!”
“[Starshot],” Sanya said.
A symbolic depiction of a star appeared at the end of Sanya's staff. It could fit in the palm of someone's hand. It was shiny and yellow, with five sharp points. It had a bit of depth and dimension to it. Sanya promptly dismissed the spell, looking at the roughly star-shaped chunk missing from the infirmary door from an earlier attempt with the spell.
“That's not fair! You learned a Celestial Summon already!” Mai crossed her arms.
Sanya didn't know what to say to that. “It's awful, though.”
“[Pocket Space]!” Mai said. A little black tear in reality appeared in front of her. She tossed the grimoire into it, which disappeared. The tear closed and the air returned to its normal schedule.
Mai fell back against Sanya's bed with a bounce. She waved around her staff, staring at it.
It was, of course, made from the purple, reality-warping metal. Her staff ended in that curved, half-circle design. Yellow crystals were embedded in it on either side at equal intervals. A golden bell hung at the very end, ringing as she twirled it. She also bound a yellow cloth around her staff where she held it. She had created it some hours ago and graduated to Nur's class.
Not that class was in session. Everyone was taking it easy for the most part and doing “independent studying,” or group studying, if they wanted to.
Maybe Sanya should reassure Mai. She was making a lot of progress, even if slower than Sanya. Mai was still ahead of dozens of others.
“U-um, It's great that you learned [Pocket Space], I'm sure you'll get your first Fleshweaving soon,” Sanya said. Would Fleshweaving be able to alter her voice? It did come from a physical structure . . .
“Maybe . . .”
“Having your book in your little [Pocket Space] won't help.” Please learn Fleshweaving soon. Maybe that was a selfish thought. Yet, Mai could be the solution to a handful of Sanya's problems . . . Anyway, Sanya shouldn't use Mai as some convenient tool, even if Mai did promise to help.
Mai turned and glared at Sanya. “I'm taking a break.”
Mai continued to stare as Sanya manipulated spatial mana off of [Pocket Space]. She wished she knew the theory behind spells more. Then she could figure out how to make the upgrade instead of blindly guessing. It was kind-of hard to find the patterns between the spells she knew so far.
Sanya gasped.
The mana held, locking into a shape, almost unrecognizable from [Pocket Space]. If anything, it looked more like [Material Displacement]. The structure that deviated from the Organic version was present here. When in doubt, mix the different structures together. Expand them. Make them more complicated. Move them around.
Over and over again. Finally, a result!
“Yes!”
A black sphere sputtered into existence at the end of Sanya's staff. Dark, all-consuming. Light disappeared. It felt . . . wrong. It demanded to be unmade, and to look away, yet begged for attention.
Dima looked up from her book, equal parts curious and shocked and yet that she also somehow expected this. Weird spells bubbling into existence was normal to her now, probably.
The spell held for a moment before collapsing on itself.
It had looked and behaved nothing like Sanya expected a [Pocket Space]-like spell should. Thus . . .
Sanya blinked. “That wasn't the upgrade . . .”
So, what was it?
Mai pointed to a book on the shelf. “[Material Displacement].”
The book dropped in front of Sanya.
“Cast the spell again on the book.”
“Okay . . .” Sanya tapped the book with her staff. She commanded the spatial mana to form again. Meticulously recreating the spell. It was far more complex than the other spells so far.
The black sphere appeared again. It held for a moment, rippling and confusing, then collapsed.
The book was gone.
Um? . . . Where had it gone? Surely it hadn't just disappeared?
“[Pocket Space],” Sanya cast. She reached forward. There was nothing in it. Maybe it had gone onto a different Pocket spell? Like, the upgrade? Yet . . . It didn't behave like one, as she had thought before. Hmm . . . Could this only mean one thing?
She didn't think she'd get that book back.
Mai tilted her head. “Sanya?”
“I think I deleted the book,” Sanya blinked.
“Awww. That one was getting good.”
Mai and Sanya both frowned. That book was indeed getting good. Sanya's frown vanished as quickly as it had come.
“It's a new spell!” Sanya exclaimed. “What should I name it?” She had just erased an object from existence! A book—gone, just like that!
Mai looked up at the ceiling, still laying down. “That was a Material base right? How about something like Material Deletion?” Huh. Sanya hadn't realized she was projecting her mana out for others. Unless Mai somehow got mana-sense as well? That would be another great development. She was doing good!
Sanya shrugged, it was . . . okay. Maybe a synonym would work better? She created the spell again. “[Material Consumption]?”
Mai giggled. “You can't cast spells by asking questions.”
What other options were there for synonyms? “How about Obliteration? Um . . . Erasure?”
“I like Consumption.” Mai added something under her breath. “Eat me.”
Sanya rolled her eyes. Mai was still being a freak, or maybe that was just her humor. Either way . . . “It feels inaccurate. Consumption implies the resources go somewhere or are repurposed.”
“Consumption implies that? And are you sure the entirety of the book is just . . . gone?”
Sanya shrugged. “I don't know anything." She recreated the spell again. “[Material Consumption].”
The black sphere bubbled into existence. Consumed nothing. Then collapsed.
Sanya did not manipulate the mana, this time. She only spoke. “[Material Consumption].”
The spell cast.
Sanya smiled. Then it became a mischievous grin. A particular spell had both a Material and an Organic version, using slightly different pieces of a mostly similar whole . . .
Mai caught it. “Oh no—you're not thinking—”
“Is there an [Organic Consumption]?”
Mai paled.