Immovable Mage

– Era of the Wastes, Cycle 218, Season of the Setting Sun, Day 84 –

“Why are we going to these vile scoundrels?!” Barnes glared at Zhang.

“The same reason you went last time even though I advised you against it.” Zhang glanced coldly at his junior martial brother.

“Weren’t you the one that told us to—?”

“Yes, and you clearly weren’t listening.” Zhang controlled his breathing. He knew his junior’s temper well. He could not allow himself to act in a similar manner. One of them had to maintain reason.

“If that bastard was right, then the cat-masked person was…” Barnes’s face contorted in fury. He subconsciously grabbed his left arm. Barnes and Chun had been ambushed shortly after they had traded in Shen’s camp. His senior martial brother Zhang had managed to reach them in time for treatment and succeeded in preserving their lives, but most of their possessions had been taken.

“Most likely one of Shen’s group, yes.” Zhang continued walking. “I see no reason to distrust Terry’s words back then.”

“These bastards robbed us right after selling us a ticket!” Barnes clenched his fists so tightly that they audibly cracked. “Why would we go back to them?”

“To ask for a ticket.” Zhang refused to meet Barnes’ gaze.

“What?! I’d rather die than—”

“That’s not your call to make.” Zhang cut him off. “Your life is not your own, neither is mine. We are all members of Icy Dew Mountain and have to think of its future.” His eyes grew distant while he spoke these words.

“I refuse,” hissed Barnes.

“I told you to be wary of Shen’s group and yet you did not heed my warning.” Zhang hissed back. “Now look where that attitude got you. Your Junior Sister Chun and yourself have been impoverished and injured.” His words had a sharp bite to them. “The folded space might close in the next few days already and then what?”

“You warned us to stay away, so why are we going there?”

Zhang sighed. “Because I have prepared a means to keep them honest. Shen with all his intel gathering surely knows what I’ll be bringing today. He also knows that with only the two of us here, I am willing to use it.”

“Then why didn’t we do that in the first place?!” demanded Barnes.

“Because there were better options before.” Zhang briefly stared at his junior martial brother and shook his head. “You have to stop acting like a fool all of the time.” He continued in a whisper. “I really don’t know what she sees in you.”

“If you have a way to force them, then…” Barnes did not catch the last words. “Will we be able to acquire enough tickets for all of us?”

“No.” Zhang replied with forced calmness. “I’m not even sure we can acquire one. I only said I can keep them honest. I cannot force them to trade.”

“Hmph.” Barnes crossed his arms, which was an awkward posture while walking. “I refuse. I’d rather die than beg for mercy from these—”

“I’ll do the begging.” Zhang’s words sounded indifferent, but his fists were clenched tightly. “If that is all that is required of me, then I will lower my head.”

“Bah.” Barnes glowered at his senior martial brother with contempt.

“There appears to be a line,” muttered Zhang. “It seems that everyone is discovering that treasures mean little if you fail to leave with them.” His eyes were wandering over the different martialists. They lingered on a familiar pair of siblings from the Blazing Sun Sect. After a moment of hesitation, he walked up to them.

“Can we help you?” asked the brother irritably.

“I just wanted to warn you,” whispered Zhang. “If you are trading for tickets here, be prepared for an ambush afterwards.”

The brother and sister both rolled their eyes.

“Naturally,” scoffed the sister.

“Only an imbecile would not prepare for that,” added the brother.

Barnes’ face flushed and he involuntarily emitted a low growl.

Zhang might have laughed if the situation wasn’t so dire. He nodded at the siblings. “I had thought you were the type to prepare two tickets in advance.”

“Pickpocket.” The siblings were scowling. “One short now, but it seems as if we have wasted our time here.”

Zhang raised an eyebrow.

“They’re not trading anymore.” The sister from the Blazing Sun siblings spoke up. “Only with ‘friends’ or those willing to sign their clans into servitude.” She shrugged. “They might change their minds another day again.”

Zhang’s expression darkened. Bowing his own head to achieve his goal was one thing, but this was beyond what he was willing to bear. He was about to ask another question when the whole earth began quaking.

“What…?”

A gigantic explosion of azure flames became visible in the sky.

“The Heretic?”

Beyond the flames an enormous face inside a torrent of black liquid emerged.

“Fuck me, what’s going on over there?” The surrounding martialists broke out in an uproar.

Another quake, even more intense than the first one, shook the pocket realm. The most eerie aspect was not the strange monster of darkwater, but the fact that this latest quake did not match any other sign visible in the distance.

A bad premonition caused Zhang to glance up at the sky just in time to notice an orange flash of light.

*Hong* A deep bell sound reverberated across the pocket realm.

“Move,” muttered Zhang. “We have to move!” He grabbed his junior brother Barnes by the arm and pulled him into a mad dash. The fluid monster did not matter to Zhang. He had to reach his two other juniors before the third flash. That was all that mattered.

“I know that mana,” muttered another martialist. “That monster carries the same signature as the traces when our junior disappeared.”

“These are the flames of the Heretic.”

“This heaven’s roar lightning, isn’t that the pinnacle item of the Arcanian?”

Little by little, the intense battle was catching the eyes of everyone. Few were the people that noticed the rumbling from deep below.

***

Terry caught himself from his rapid descent with the help of his divine hammer inscription and his coil spring mechanisms. He had just dropped a heaven’s roar into the center of the ever-growing whirlwind of darkwater.

The battle against the cultist from the Shapeless Pond had taken a strong turn for the worse ever since they had forced Vicious to use the trump card hidden within the strange mana aspect.

Terry was almost glad that the cultist had not unleashed this insane ability while inside the tunnel. He might have been able to ward it off with the help of the Immovable Object spell, but without the synergy of the spear’s lightning attack, there would have been no way for him to inflict damage on the cultist.

Vicious’s real body was floating at the center of a whole lake full of rapidly rotating darkwater. The debilitating fluid was flying and spilling everywhere, inflicting havoc on the whole vicinity.

Even Apex appeared to struggle dealing a significant blow against this torrent of darkwater. Despite her increase in cultivation, this never seen ability from the Shapeless Pond was taking her all just to contain.

Terry himself had been fighting entirely on instinct since they had broken out of the mountain. His body and subconscious had taken over because his conscious thoughts had become completely muddled.

What the Wastes is going on?

Terry would have loved to focus entirely on the battle against the despicable cultist, but unfortunately, something else had blindsided him shortly after Vicious had released his latest channeled ability.

Terry had almost tripped when pursuing Vicious outside the mountain, because his habitual mana touch scouting had shown him movements underneath the very mountain they had just blown up.

Unnatural movement.

Moving walls.

A path has been opened.

Terry did not even have the spare time to acknowledge the fact that the sky had lit up with an orange pulse from the strange magic moons. He knew that this was the first of three to count down the folded space opening and closing off for good. He could only curse at the horrible timing.

Timing? Coincidence?

Terry was beginning to feel like a mana battery for all the magic artifacts in his possession which he activated one after the other to throw his everything at the cultist. Even with his astounding mana foundation, he felt incapable of keeping up the pace.

An elf in green-golden robes darted forward from another direction. The mana behind the man resonated and gigantic arms of steely green wood appeared above him. The wooden hands clenched and the ironbark fists smashed into the darkwater vortex.

Vicious appeared completely still but the water itself moved his physical body out of harm’s way.

Seeing the attack from Guillermo, the Outcast of the Ironbark Fist Sect, made Terry aware that the cultist and the movement below the earth were not the only mana signatures worth paying attention to.

Countless martialists had come rushing towards the scene.

Some of them were now throwing their attacks at Vicious. Among them were some whom Terry was acquainted with. Guillermo was only the first.

“Die!” “For our junior!” Some martialists Terry had never seen before appeared to carry an intense grudge against Vicious.

“Die!” Unfortunately, some of the martialists also had a grudge with Terry. He had to dodge a lightning strike from a group of martialists dressed in yellow.

This is madness!

Terry wanted to curse, but instead he used his king spear to exploit the incoming lightning attacks and redirect them to the cultist with the help of the spearhead’s magic.

Martialists were pouring in from everywhere. Terry did not know if they were looking to exploit an opportunity, or if they had given up on leaving this realm and were simply yearning for a glorious death. No matter which way, he did appreciate the ones that were attacking Vicious.

Bless these battle-crazy maniacs.

However, the few that instead aimed for Apex or Terry himself were another topic.

“Heavenly Wolf Slash!”

Terry saw the silhouette of a white wolf tear through a group of martialists from the Thunderous Palm Sect. It was the direction from where he had to dodge the lightning strike before. Not far from the spot, he could see a leopard-spotted felan in a mask.

Settling old grudges? At least he’s not aiming for me.

Further away, Shen was observing the battle warily. After some time, he ordered his group. “We’ll leave immediately.”

“But we still have spare tickets to barter with?”

“And with this much chaos, there will be plenty of death and that means treasure waiting for the pickings!”

“Enough,” barked Shen. “Don’t let greed blind you. We have earned our share. Something is off. We are leaving. Whoever insists on staying has to hand over everything they have earned so far!” His tone did not allow any disagreement. Shortly after, the whole group had activated the exit tickets and departed from the folded space.

“Fuck!” A human woman in yellow combat robes and a black sash appeared out of thin air and cursed. Chalita’s face was ashen.

“You tried.” A felan with the appearance of a golden tigress appeared close to Chalita. “But the heavens appear merciless today. It was a long shot to begin with. Their current young master always had sharp instincts.”

“I’ll really die in this forsaken space…” Chalita clenched her fists.

“You could still go after the Arcanian if you want.” Hom suggested. “Avenge yourself. Might make you feel better.”

“No.” Chalita shook her head. “The Arcanian fought honorably. My vengeance is with Shen, not with Terry.”

Hom glanced at the raging battle with the demonic cultivator that commanded an ever-growing lake of darkwater. “No matter. You won’t have to suffer a quiet death. There seems to be a good opportunity to die with glory.” She looked at her old rival one last time. “I’ll inform your sect of what happened. I can promise you that.”

“Thanks,” said Chalita with a heartfelt tone. “May they find a way to address my grievances and let my soul rest in peace.”

Hom nodded and then activated her own exit ticket.

The number of martialists was thinning out rapidly. Both from battle and from martialists choosing to leave this secret tomb before they joined the corpses.

In another location, Barnes was staring incredulously at his senior brother Zhang. “What?!”

“Take it, that’s an order.” Zhang held out an exit ticket. One of two which their group still possessed. The second one was already in the hands of Sheila, their young princess.

“I refuse, I cannot accept this kindness.” Barnes forced out through gritted teeth.

“This is not kindness,” barked Zhang with bloodshot eyes. “Far from it. This is a curse of life. You will leave this realm. You will work hard for the sect. You will grow to reach the apex. And you will stop acting the fool!” He forced the entrance ticket into Barnes’ hands. “This is the curse I am ordering you to accept.”

“I…” Barnes was struggling with himself. “But this is yours, Brother Zhang. I…”

“Stop embarrassing our sect!” Sheila hissed at Barnes from the side. She glanced with teary eyes at Zhang, the senior brother that had acted as her bodyguard in this secret tomb. She chose to bow. “Thank you, Senior Brother Zhang.” In her hands she was clasping the storage item that Zhang had given her, which contained all the treasures he possessed. He had only kept the old sword with which he had entered.

Under Sheila’s chiding eyes, Barnes activated the exit ticket gifted to him by Zhang. Sheila departed in the same instant.

“Why?” Chun asked with a quivering voice.

Zhang smiled faintly. He did not dare look at her for fear of having his eyes betray his feelings. Instead, he fixed his gaze on the blade that had been his companion for so long. “Would you have accepted the ticket if I had given it to you?”

“No,” replied Chun instantly. “Because you would have chosen me for the wrong reasons. The ticket belongs to our sect.”

Zhang closed his eyes. “I knew that would be your answer. That’s why it had to be Barnes.”

“Why did you not keep it?!” yelled Chun.

“He will go farther than I ever could,” said Zhang calmly. “If he fixes his attitude, he can—”

“No!” spat Chun. “Your talent isn’t any worse than his. You… you…”

“Our talents may be comparable, but his background will have him overtake me with time.” Zhang spoke matter-of-factly. “You know that as well as I do.”

“So it’s not because…?” Chun averted her gaze.

“Because I know that you traded your treasures to secure a ticket for him?” Zhang smiled sadly. “No, I’m not that selfless.” He flicked the blade of his old companion sword with a finger to listen to its sweet hum. “In fact, I’ve grown tired of acting for the sect. Let my death be my final act of selfishness.” He circulated his mana and darted towards Vicious. “Let my body be buried next to yours!”

Chun shook her head slowly while clenching her teeth. She drew her own soft sword, the only item still left in her possession. She chased madly after her senior with defiant eyes. “I refuse!”

Not far from them, the siblings from the Blazing Sun Sect had their own farewell. “Go, we both know that you have a better shot to enact our vengeance.” The sister ordered her brother.

The brother only nodded while pressing his right fist against his chest. His solemn gesture was interrupted when Terry suddenly descended from the sky.

“Are you joining the fight?” asked Terry.

“I am.” The sister forced a cheerful expression and winked at her brother. “See, what else could I ask for? A glorious battle awaits.”

“Here.” Terry handed over a bunch of fire-focused weapons from the Hall of Power. “Use these. If you know anyone else who is trustworthy enough, feel free to share.”

“Okay?” The sister was quickly suppressing her surprise and accepted the unexpected support.

“Strange person,” mumbled the brother.

“Leave.” His sister reminded him with a grin. “I leave our revenge to you. I have a battle to join.” With these words, she charged towards Vicious.

Terry was darting through the sky without pause. He had done a quick trip around the battlefield. He had killed and scared off a few of the people aiming for him and Apex. He had also handed out some of his weapons to martialists that were attacking Vicious. While most of the beneficiaries appeared confused and wary at this sudden gift, Terry assured them that it was purely self-interested.

Better than me being the only mana battery for these greedy artifacts.

Terry transfixed the coating of septimum at the king spear’s bottom and then infused his mana into the pole, which immediately extended into the sky while being chased by his naturalized mana.

Terry grimly observed the battlefield while the heavens roared above from the lightning synergy in his king spear. He directed the furious lightning towards Vicious’s physical body. He was still keeping up with the battle, but his real attention was somewhere else.

Somewhere below the earth.

Something is off.

Terry could sense that all the moving walls were opening… a path.

A path leading deep down.

A path for what?

Terry’s mind was racing to make sense of the different inputs from his mana perception. In the middle of his indecision, the strange marks were bubbling up into his consciousness. The very first association that he had when finding them immediately sprang to the forefront of his mind.

Dungeon.

Terry refused to believe that the recent timing was nothing more than coincidence. Vicious had channeled a powerful ability from the Shapeless Pond, a god-like creature from a foreign realm. The folded space had reacted. Deep underground with the movement of earth. High above with the orange flash from the moons.

Dungeon.

Terry did not have time to make sense of all the stories about this pocket realm, or folded space, or secret tomb, or whatever people called it. He could not explain everything, but he was beginning to see a pattern.

He was not surprised at what he sensed next.

Something was coming up.

He fumbled for his communication talisman. [We have to push Vicious back underground. Back into the tunnels.]

Terry did not hear a reply from Apex, but he could see her adjust her attack trajectory. Hoping that this was a sign of acknowledgement, he burst his mana and rushed to inform his other allies among the martialists.

For his plan, Terry received incredulous stares and skeptical questions he was hard-pressed to answer. He couldn’t very well say that something in this realm reminded him of the Valkyrie’s prison dungeon.

Terry couldn’t explain, so he did not try. The martialists that trusted him would act accordingly. The others had to make up their own minds. He did not have time to waste.

To his pleasant surprise, many of the martialists were following his instructions even if they did not trust him completely. They maintained their distance from Vicious but they used their abilities and artifacts to prepare the ground and what was left of the mountain.

[You better know what you are doing!] Apex’s irritated voice arrived in his thoughts.

Terry could immediately sense why she was so irritated. The battle sequence she was preparing would leave her unguarded at the end. He cycled a burst technique that emphasized speed and rushed forth to make sure he would be there to protect the momentary gap afterwards.

A gigantic white-azure phoenix with dark-golden eyes manifested in the air. The mana resonance creature charged into the mass of darkwater. A sky-piercing cry reverberated from the phoenix during its charge. The soundwaves of the shrill cry blasted the darkwater out of its way.

The black liquid tried to move Vicious’s body towards a safer spot, but a flap of the blazing wings cut off the escape routes until only a single path was left.

Vicious’s true body was being rushed back into a tunnel close to the location where they had exited the mountain.

Terry was rapidly summoning layers of divine mana to protect the panting Apex as well as to seal the tunnel exit.

“What’s going on?” one of the martialists asked. “Why aren’t we pursuing the demonic cultivator?”

Terry subconsciously shook his head while staring at the entrance. His mana sight was glued to Vicious’s signature, and to those that ascended from below. Terry half expected to see an army of hellspawn emerge, but instead he sensed a shape and signature that were both familiar and unfamiliar at the same time.

A four-armed earth giant that was covered in strange carvings was the first to stomp into the darkwater. A blue symbol glowed brightly at the giant’s forehead and chest. The symbol depicted a flame and it was connected to most of the giant’s inscriptions.

The symbol caused Terry to fall into a daze. He had seen it before. Long ago, in a small classroom for aspiring Guardians wanting to learn about mana curses. This was a well-known symbol from a mana curse that infected constructs. The curse empowered its target and charged itself on ambient mana.

One of the few known mana curses to infect non-living beings.

One of the few known mana curses with a beneficial effect, although it represented a trade-off between power and durability.

One of the few mana curses whose name Terry had known even before the Guardian introduction. This was a curse of legend, a curse from the legend. A magic created by one of the later allies of the Veilbinder, created by the only curse mage among the Faithless Saints.

Aspiring Soul.

“Impossible,” whispered Terry. Back in the early days of construct crafting, this mana curse had been a game changer. A magic that pushed the tides against the cultists and in favor of the Faithless Saints. A single invocation would spread on its own through all closeby battle constructs to instantly increase their mana throughput and magic resistance. Its only downside was the additional strain on the constructs’ materials.

Terry felt as if he had stepped into forbidden ground. Into a path of history that was not supposed to linger in the present. A vivid memory of the dungeon marks he had seen forced itself upon him.

Dungeon. Was I mistaken?

The Curse of the Aspiring Soul was man-made. Not of dungeon origin. How could it exist in a dungeon?

Terry subconsciously gulped when picturing the marks he had seen in the shadow plane. He had never seen them before, but they had felt strangely familiar. Confronted with one piece of magic legend, he suddenly became aware why these marks had seemed so familiar.

He had never seen them before, true.

But he had read a description!

It was not a reptilian eye. It was a pair of crescent moons, touching at the tips.

It was a symbol he should have recognized much earlier, if not for the fact that he had never actually seen it.

It was the symbol of Dalia’s House after she was granted the status of a dwarven noble. The symbol of the descendants of the first dwarven mage, an ally of the Veilbinder, and one of the Faithless Saints.

Terry was so dazed by his sudden rush of realizations that he almost missed the trembling figure of Vicious crashing into the layers of divine mana he had created to block the entrance. The cultist was at the end of his ropes and was desperately clawing against the translucent golden mana.

Terry could see the terror in the eyes of the cultist. The man was moving with his physical body again. He had been smashed into his real self by the army of constructs that were empowered with the Aspiring Soul.

Something in the cultist’s eyes made Terry believe it was not the constructs themselves that Vicious was terrified of. Soon after, Terry sensed another pulse of mana emerge from the cultist’s channeling anchor. This time, the strange mana only extended to cover Vicious’s whole body and then rapidly contracted back into the channeling anchor.

Terry saw the light fade from Vicious’s eyes, to leave only a dead terror behind. The mana rushed into the channeling anchor which then collapsed onto itself.

Terry had his own naturalized mana spread out and even though he could not be certain, he believed that the feeling matched magic he had experienced before. This last activity of the channeling anchor had been an invocation of soul-based magic.

Terry found it difficult to believe that the despicable cultist was finally dead. Died in such a manner. It felt surreal. Lost in his thoughts, he subconsciously let go of the divine hammer inscription and the barriers dispersed.

Terry did not even react to the second orange pulse in the sky. He was too stunned by the realizations, his own growing confusion, and the cultist’s abrupt and strange death.

Terry had sworn to kill Vicious before the tomb would open up again. Both Apex and he had worked hard towards that goal. However, neither of them had expected that someone else would deal the finishing blow. Especially not a construct with an ancient mana curse.

Exactly what soul magic did the channeling anchor trigger in Vicious’s final moments?

While Terry was too busy with his own thoughts, nobody stopped the two reckless martialists that thought it would be a good idea to attack the constructs.

***