Ends of Magic

The Heirs stepped away from their parents, standing to one side of the garden. The trees around them rustled in the breeze, and the glow from the world above lit the scene in a soft blue.

Kia’s expression was solemn as she walked into the center of their group, facing the Heirs. She clasped her gauntleted hands together as she prepared to say farewell to her son and the Heirs of Gemore. The valkyrie exhaled slowly and a gentle golden glow rose from the ground, the light glinting off her polished armor. The magic was a slightly different shade than Khachi’s, the emotion emanating from the magic feeling prouder but less hopeful than Khachi’s magic.

Just like them. Kia fights to end the threat. Khachi fights for the promise of the future.

“By my own shard of divinity, may your Path be righteous and clear,” Kia began, her voice strong and unwavering. “Deiman is the god of righteous battle, and with his stolen power I bless you with wisdom and strength. In the moments of smoke and blood may the light of the divine guide you to valor and to victory.” The magic billowed out around her, centering on every member of the Heirs - except Nathan - and giving them their own personal spotlight.

She turned to face Khachi, her eyes burning and her expression proud. “My son, you have carried my flame forward into peril and burned brighter than any prophecy I could make. Belief is your shield, and your hammer is justice. Stand as a beacon of hope to the innocent, and I will always be proud of you.” Divine mana bled out from her and formed a tether with Khachi. To Nathan's senses it felt like just half of a ritual, inviting a response.

Khachi seemed to feel the same. “So do I swear,” he returned, his voice deep and resonant. “For I am a [Shield of Hope], and by my class do I bind myself to divine duty. I shall protect those in need of protection, and strike down those who harm the innocent. There is no other Path I will follow.”

The divine mana tightened and flexed, invoking wizardry as Khachi spoke his oath. Everybody else took a few steps back as a swell of magic spilled out of the fabric of Davrar. It started circling Khachi, waiting for one last ingredient.

Kia was ready to provide it, her hair rising into the air and glowing with light as her voice cut through the world.. “Then I bless you with my power. Carry my hopes with you on your journeys, no matter where they take you. I charge you before Davrar to fulfill your Oath and redeem the power of the Divine from the sins of the old gods.”

The magic around Khachi suddenly compressed in on him, condensing more power than a mere person should be able to bear into his form. He lifted into the air, head thrown back in a silent scream. The glowing magic sunk into his body, vanishing as if Khachi was absorbing it. To the naked eye it looked like streamers of golden light flowing into Nathan’s friend from every direction.

Nathan watched the process carefully, using senses beyond the visual to examine the magic drain away from the world and into Khachi. It was like how divine magic emerged from the fabric of Davrar when Khachi prayed and cast his spells - but in reverse.

It seems to be piercing the barrier that separates the physical world from mana pools. But neither Khachi nor his mother have a mana pool. They just summon divinity and it comes. But now it’s like that blessing is returning to his mana pool. Augmenting it.

Arcane Insight 2 achieved!

If that was what it was doing, then Nathan couldn’t see it. He took a breath and narrowed his concentration. He ignored the physical light show and the amazed expressions of the Heirs and the Guardians of Gemore. He spent Focus and narrowed his entire world to the place where magic and wizardry vanished across the dimensional barrier to reach across to the other side.

The power seemed to be vanishing into nothing, but as it passed across into the metaphysical world of mana it sketched out a shape on the other side. Nathan caressed the edges of it with his senses, finding something closer to a crystalline shard than an ovoid mana pool.

I think that’s the ‘shard of divinity’ he claimed that night way back when. Before we fought the ashblood cobras.

Nathan dedicated all of his concentration to the invisible object, trying to batter through whatever was preventing him from perceiving it. The wizardry and mana alike flowed smoothly into the shard and it grew jerkily, sprouting new metaphysical nodes that had no connection with physical reality.

Khachi’s divinity is growing stronger. This ceremony is permanently empowering him.

Congratulations, you have developed the [Wizard’s Detection] utility skill into [Mystical Discernment].

Utility Skill: [Mystical Discernment]

Magic becomes apparent to you, including mana, wizardry and divinity. You may expand and direct the reach of this sense by spending Focus.

With the skill Development Nathan could suddenly perceive a whole extra layer of magic to the ceremony, guiding and shaping the mana and wizardry. He could sense the ordered crystal growing in the place Khachi’s mana pool would normally be, and the slightly smaller and much more jagged one attached to Kia.

Then the influx of power came to a halt and Khachi settled gently to the ground, panting from exertion. The immaterial crystal pulsed with energy and his eyes lit like portals into a world of light. He turned towards Kia and bowed slightly, seemingly unable to find words to describe what had just happened.

Nathan didn’t have much longer to ponder his new senses before the gentle heat of Kia’s eyes found him.

“Nathan,” She said, her voice carrying a true fondness. “Your deeds ring across Davrar. I cannot bless you directly, but know you have my approval. In Halsmet I said I would hunt you down should you become a monster.” She rolled her shoulders as if shrugging off a heavy burden. “I no longer bear that fear. You have acted with Righteousness in terrible circumstances, and I pray for your continued ascent. Is there any final Insight I can grant you?”

He gave her a sly smile in return, holding back a laugh. “You already did.” He gestured towards Khachi. “I can sense Divinity now. You both have shards of it, in the places most mages have mana pools.”

Kia’s laugh rang out like clear bells, joyous and free. “Then your Path may extend to the dead Gods themselves. You know my fears. Both of you, carry that mission forward into the broader world.” Her words were vague but encompassed both Khachi and Nathan, and out of the corner of his eye Nathan saw Stella exchange a puzzled look with her parents.

I suppose Kia hasn’t told them how she’s scared of people reviving the Old Gods, the ones killed in the Ending of Deicide. I didn’t realize it was that close of a secret. But it really is the basis of both her and Khachi’s Paths. They’re not worshiping their gods, they’re stealing from them, and crafting a new Divinity all their own. Is Khachi going to turn into a deity at the end of all of this?

She raised both of her arms to encompass all of the Heirs. Kia’s face was split in a broad smile. “Go! Leave Gemore, and spread the blessings of your deeds across Davrar! It would be selfish of us to keep you here,” She continued in a softer voice. “Make us proud.”

The Heirs all looked around at each other, the moment of ceremony broken. Stella shrugged, and cast [Fly] a few times. The Heirs all rose into the air with a few waves and then took off. They headed west towards Agmon first, attempting to throw off pursuers tracking them. They flew straight over the streets of Gemore and over the walls to exit the city. Flying into the city would have triggered alerts from the guards, but they weren’t nearly as alarmed about people leaving the city. Nathan peeled apart the single detection web over the wall to let them fly through without problems.

The night grew darker as they flew, with clouds blowing in to hide the world overhead. With Khachi propelled by streamers of golden light it wasn’t the stealthiest exit, but nobody attacked them on the way out. That was a win in Nathan’s book.

They flew in silence for a little while, eventually changing their direction to fly south towards Litcliff. They were over the ruins of Old Gemore, far from the transit roads. The city of Gemore was a beacon of civilization in the distance, contrasting with the darkened ruins below stretching in all directions. Khachi’s magic shed a glow that illuminated the Heirs, but it wasn’t bright enough to light up the ruins below.

Sarah called out a halt after a bit longer. “It’s late." She pointed down and to the side. "There’s a high building that would work for camping. My eyes see no monsters.”

Nathan squinted in the direction she indicated. Despite his perception skills the night was too dark to see anything but a formless blob. From here it looked like a jagged tooth racing up towards them. “Lead the way.”

They all followed Sarah, soon enough finding themselves in the upper floors of a tall conical building. The top had collapsed at some point, crushing several buildings nearby, and the wind gusted through the shell that remained. But it seemed isolated from the monsters that prowled at ground level. The Heirs could easily defeat anything that called Old Gemore home, but that wouldn’t be conducive to getting a good night’s sleep.

They scouted out the upper floors carefully, finding them deserted before settling down for the night. Aarl pulled Nathan’s bedroll out of his dimensional storage, laying it on the ground. He shot a grumpy look at Nathan. “Khachi got a blessing, you got a skill Development. Seems you stole the true treasure.”

“I don’t think so,” Nathan replied, scanning the entire tower with his magical senses. “Khachi’s magic is better in every way because of that blessing. He can cast more spells, faster, and they’ll be stronger. I can just detect Divinity.” He yawned and rolled his shoulder’s around. “Though that is probably the first step to learning to break it.”

He glanced over at where Khachi was settling in for first watch. “Did I get that right? Do you feel like your divinity is stronger? What does it let you do?”

Khachi nodded slowly from where he sat, faint wisps of golden light playing around his fingers. “I Developed [Shard of the Divine] to [Nascent Divinity]. It expanded my Faith pool, and increased my regeneration rate. My magic feels deeper now. A lake, where it was once a pool.”

“Hah! Welcome to the halls of the bold,” Stella said gleefully. “Carefully hoarding resources is for those without weighty Talents.”

Khachi didn’t respond, and there was a moment of silence before Aal broke it. “Waking giants, I wish we could sleep in Gemore. I miss a real bed,” he grumbled, patting down his bedroll. “Blasphemous assassins. Attacking us is one thing, but keeping us from our beds is the real evil.”

Sarah snorted from where she was settling into her own bed. “Soon enough we’ll be on a ship. From the stories I’ve heard, that will be even less comfortable.”

“Why are we using a ship?” Stella chimed in uncertainly. “Could we just… fly? Across the sea. We’re pretty fast. Then we wouldn’t need to go to Litcliff at all.”

Khachi shifted slightly, getting more comfortable as he kept watch. “We would have to fly for days without pause. Maybe weeks, if we did not know the direction of our target. I do not know the width of the ocean. I cannot remain airborne that long, and you cannot remain awake that long.

“Oh,” Stella said, then rolled over to snuggle into her nest of blankets. "Nevermind."

Nathan climbed into his own bedroll. His wasn’t enchanted like the others were, but it was still luxuriously bulky in a way only possible with dimensional storage. “Right now we need a ship. In a few years and a few hundred levels? Maybe we won’t.”

Khachi chuckled, but didn’t keep the conversation going. The Heirs fell asleep quickly, leaving Khachi to keep watch and meditate upon his Talent Development.

–

The next morning, Nathan opened the conversation as they were all packing up. “I should choose my level 729 class before we get to Litcliff.”

“You could wait,” Aarl replied quickly. “Hold the choice until you meet the Questors and see the shape of our task.” He got a series of unimpressed looks and continued in a sarcastic tone “It would also let us catch up to Nathan in levels?”

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“What are your choices?” Khachi asked, ignoring Aarl’s comment.

“Five, like I said. [End of Magic] makes my antimagic bigger and more potent, [Nullmage] lets me make enchantments out of antimagic, [Slayer of Giants] makes me stronger and more noble, [Undying] makes me hard to trap or kill, and [Warden of the Arcane] lets me mark people who have done evil so they can’t run and gives me advantages against them. Any initial thoughts?”

“End of Magic,” Stella said with a snort. “It’s like your choice is between the glass of an enchanter class and the gem of an archmage class.”

Aarl shrugged. “[Slayer of Giants] so you can punch hard enough to matter.”

“More noble,” Sarah said, chewing on the word. “Seems like a prophecy of idiocy.” She looked back to Nathan. “With [Nullmage] you could enchant my bullets with antimagic. That would be blasphemously powerful.”

Nathan nodded slightly. “Yeah, but that seems like the only real improvement to actually fighting. The other benefit is making better antimages.”

Stella's expression grew thoughtful. “What is the wording on [Warden of the Arcane] and [End of Magic]? Those classes are the ones that will serve our quest.”

Nathan related the full descriptions of the two classes. “Those are the two I’m most interested in. Do I want to cover a huge area, or be able to mark out specific targets? Dalo’s advice was to take [End of Magic].”

Khachi gave a slow nod. “I agree. The ability to overlap our auras would be a true edge to hold. And Detecting evil deeds is a power I already possess.”

Nathan blinked at the comment but didn't challenge his friend. He looked around at the other Heirs. “Ok. I’m going to think about it for a bit longer and we should discuss it a bit more, but the choice seems to be [End of Magic].”

They talked about it on and off over the course of the day, but everything came back to the fact that Nathan’s antimagic was the strongest part of his build, and everything was built around it. He could improve his strengths or shore up his weaknesses, and a pillar of the Adventurer’s Guild of Gemore was that a team’s purpose was to shore up each other’s weaknesses. The Heirs could do everything else, but they needed him to fight against overwhelming enemy magic.

They camped in the barren hills not far from where they’d fought the Ashblood Cobras so long ago. Just after dark, Nathan made his choice.

Congratulations, you are now the [End of Magic]. As a reward for clearing a Grand Dungeon, all of your existing class skills have developed, and you have unlocked three new class skills!

End of Magic: Where you pass, magic ends. With this class your aura will expand to a storm, and you will smother magical catastrophes of every kind. Your antimagic will obey your will, targeting only that which you wish to End. Upon this Path, you and your antimagic will dominate the battlefield as an Ending dominates a continent.

Class Deepened Stamina: -> Bottomless Stamina

Your Stamina capacity is increased by a factor of ten. Stamina will accumulate during periods of rest, and can be spent to improve the speed and strength of your movements, or used for other skills or Talents that utilize Stamina.

Class skill Void of Feeling -> Indomitable

You are detached from pain and injury, and mind-affecting skills will be ineffective against you.

Class skill Antimagic Momentum ->The Undeniable Strike of the Antimage

Your blows will shatter magic. The greater your speed, the more powerful your antimagic.

Class skillRaging Thrill -> Stamina Burn:

You can spend Stamina to greatly increase your strength, speed and resilience to damage.

Class skill Implacable Inertia: -> Momentum Mastery

You can control your inertia by spending Stamina, making it harder or easier to change direction. Magical effects cannot change your direction unless you wish them to.

Class skillUnarmored resilience -> Stoneflesh

Your body has dramatically increased durability while not wearing armor.

Class skill Magic Anathema ->Arcane Nullification

Your antimagic Talent is dramatically enhanced, and your aura is more potent at destroying enemy magic.

Class skillAirborne Agility ->Galefoot

You stride easily through the air, able to move with the wind. Your Stamina is much more effective when spent to enhance your movement.

Class skill Hand-to-hand Expertise -> Close Quarters Mastery

You excel at unarmed combat.

Class skill Voluminous Aura: ->Boundless Aura

Your aura is massive. It can reach extraordinary distances and still carry the strength for action.

Class skill Denial of Wizardry ->Denial of Mysticism

Your antimagic can degrade any effect that does not originate from physical reality. The better you understand the unnatural phenomena at play, the greater the effect.

Class skillMana Severance ->The Ending of Magic

You can use your aura to cut a target off from magic, destroying their source of power and preventing them from ever using magic again.

Class skill Aura Projection

You can spend Stamina to enhance your aura, increasing its size and the speed at which you can extend your antimagic.

Class skill Selective Dispel

With concentration you may designate certain magics as permitted, letting them take effect even while under the influence of your aura. Your body is still anathema to magic, and you cannot personally to benefit from spells or enchanted items.

Class skill The Living World

Your antimagic enforces neutrality on the world around it, draining corruption and cleansing blight of every form. Where you pass, life can thrive once more.

End of Magic is now level 731!

Oh. That's what clearing a grand dungeon does.

Void of Magic: Your Path is to deny the magic of Davrar. This class will dramatically expand your aura and allow it to effectively resist wizardry you understand. It will also allow you to render a target forever anathema to mana, unable to ever again use or cast magic. This class may further Develop towards banishing magic and wizardry over a wide area, or denying the subtle effects of magic and wizardry over an entire region. This class will allow you to contest magical might across an entire battlefield. Class skill Deepened Stamina:

Your Stamina capacity is tripled. Stamina will accumulate during periods of rest, and can be spent to improve the speed and strength of your movements, or used for other skills or Talents that utilize Stamina. Class skill Antimage’s Impassivity ->Void of Feeling

You are detached from pain and injury in combat, and mind-affecting skills will be ineffective wile in combat. Class skill Antimagic Momentum:

Motion enhances your inherent antimagic, allowing you to break magical effects with your movements and blows. The greater the momentum behind the motion, the greater the enhancement. Effect is further enhanced while Raging. Class skill Raging Thrill:

You can voluntarily enter and exit a Rage state, where you will be immersed in the thrill of combat. This will rapidly consume stamina, but will greatly increase your strength, speed and resilience to damage. Class skill Implacable Inertia:

Your motions carry significantly greater momentum, and any attempt to slow your movement is hindered. Magical effects will be almost completely unable to change your velocity. Class skill Unarmored resilience:

When not wearing armor your body becomes more resilient to damage from all sources. Class skill Improved Antimagic ->Magic Anathema

Your antimagic Talent is greatly enhanced, and your aura will excel at degrading and capturing hostile magic. Class skill Strenuous Agility: -> Airborne Agility

You will move more quickly and easily, especially when reorienting your body in combat. Stamina spent on mobility will have a greater effect. This skill is substantially more powerful while you are airborne. Class skill Hand-to-hand Expertise:

You will be faster, hit harder and be more skilled at unarmed combat. Class skill Voluminous Aura:

Your aura will be larger and more potent, able to spread farther from you and be more powerful when concentrated. Class skill Denial of Wizardry

Your antimagic will degrade wizardry. The better you understand the wizardry at play, the greater the effect. Class skill Mana Severance

You can use your aura to cut a target off from mana, destroying their mana pool and preventing them from ever manipulating mana again.

Utility Skill: [Wizard’s Detection]

This skill lets you sense the mana and wizardry around you, and understand its purpose.You may expand and direct the reach of this sense by spending Focus.

Utility Skill: [Mystical Discernment]

Magic becomes apparent to you, including mana, wizardry and divinity. You may expand and direct the reach of this sense by spending Focus.

Status of Nathan Lark:

Permanent Talent 1: Arcane Nullfield 7

Permanent Talent 2: Immortal Body 5

Permanent Talent 3: Airwalking 7

Class: End of Magic level 731

Bottomless Stamina : 22170/74100

Indomitable

The Undeniable Strike of the Antimage

Stamina Burn

Momentum Mastery

Stoneflesh

Arcane Nullification

Galefoot

Close Quarters Mastery

Boundless Aura

Denial of Mysticism

The Ending of Magic

Aura Projection

Selective Dispel

The Living World

Class: Spellslayer level 504

Regenerative Focus: 5140/5140

Catastrophic Blows

Battle Stealth

Mage Infiltration

Forgettable

Sneaky Blow

Antimagic Stealth

Magical Manipulation

Lethal Index

Wizard Resistance

Magic Jammer

Controlled Failure

Utility skills:

Tranquility 1

Inspiration 8

Acceleration 10

Mystical Discernment 1

Alertness 10

Arcane Insight 2

Effortless Dodge 10

Mental Vault 5

Tutoring 6

Parkour 8

Visibility Control 4

High-tier Disguise 4

High-tier Battle Cry 2

Aura Control 3