AO 6 Ch 31

My eyes swept through the group quickly to see if anyone was going to say anything else. When no one jumped to challenge Zuri, I shot the platform down towards a cluster of officers hiding in the back. My bluesteel sheet slapped down against the ground hard enough to kick up a good bit of dust.

The impact had the nobles coughing in their hands as they turned from the raging, swirling, fiery problem of the battlefield to regard me. Some recognized me, but I must have looked a little different because not as many as I expected had understanding shining in their eyes.

They should have all dropped to their knees in thanks for my arrival, but I’d forgive them.

Meanwhile, my anchors stepped to the corners of the bluesteel plate, drawing their weapons and standing tall. Goddamn, I loved them. They looked badass. In the moment, each of them was a ferocious pillar of strength daring anyone to get close to me.

I didn't engage with any of the Aldis House members. Instead, I focused on the fight ahead, reaching out and connecting to the magical battle of wills raging on the battlefield.

Immediately, I could sense my grandfather’s location as I touched his magic. He was perhaps a hundred yards to my left.

And to my surprise, I could also feel three chancellors nestled over amidst the hills, not two. It seemed they had brought out enough to guarantee their victory against my mother and grandfather. Sadly, they didn’t plan for me.

Reaching a step further with my magic, I could feel that my grandfather's hold on all of this power was tenuous at best, while the chancellors were still holding back. They seemed to be waiting to wear him out.

A smirk spread across my face as I forced them to work a little harder. I poured my own magic into my grandfather's ice. Rather than wrestling control from him, I flowed my magic alongside his, letting him lead as we pressed down with chains of ice.

This gave my grandfather enough leverage to try and create a larger frozen structure around it all, to pin it in. More chains shot around the whirling storm of fire growing thicker as it came to a complete halt before the fleeing soldiers.

I did my best to hold the chains, much like I'd seen many kids hold their grandfather's tools in the field. It was the least I could do, given that he missed those sorts of memories.

Yet even as my grandfather pushed, compressing and trying to wrangle the swirling storm of fire, it battered from side to side and threatened to rip itself free, escape, and swirl across the land.

A massive structure of ice slowly grew around it trying to restrain the storm.

As our pressure intensified, I felt the moment that the chancellors stopped stalling. The pressure increased tenfold. Their counter-attack had begun.

My grandfather's attempt to encase it all failed miserably. The ice was shattered by blazing heat that rolled over my grandfather and everything he was trying to stop.

I reached out on my own, flaring more and more ice magic into his structures, trying to overwhelm the chancellors. But they were three wills in perfect sync, backed by King Martin's own soul. The pressure we were up against got so strong that I chipped a tooth with how hard I was clenching. Perhaps if we were starting fresh I could take the advantage, but they already had too much momentum. 

A moment later, I came to the conclusion that this battle of wills and magic would be a losing battle if all I did was continue to throw magic at the problem. It was time to come up with a classic Ard plan of attack. 

Stepping back from this for even a moment would cause the tornado of fire to rip through House Aldis' camp faster than Emlyn ripped through an ice cream cone. So my best option was changing the rules of this battle with magic into something that I could win. 

My first thought, of course, was stepping into the realm of souls. My palace made of Ardenium had helped me more than a few times so far and it was time to see what it could do yet again.

It had been a sponge for all sorts of magic. Most mages never reabsorbed magic in the air because they had plenty pouring out from their spheres. If the magic was still in the air, it was something they could reuse for their next spell, but they never brought it backwards. It was always something that came from a mage and never to. But the palace was a sponge and I was running out of options. 

So, with my will holding as much of the magic in place as I could, I pushed a thread of the magic into my soul and the Ardenium palace. It burned, but not so much that I couldn’t take it, just the subtle warning like when you grabbed the handle of a pot that hadn’t been centered over the fire.

The result was instantaneous. Like a sponge left out in the sun, the magic suddenly disappeared. It drained into the mystical purple metal that swallowed up every piece of magic it came into contact with, drawing from the spell as a whole.

That little thread became a scorching pain that raced through my connection.

It was then that the Chancellor's wills clamped down, trying to stop the flow of magic bleeding out of their spell.

I smiled through the pain, tisking aloud as I continued to play tug of war with the magic. There was no escaping now, I shattered the ring they were trying to stop the siphon of magic with. I held everything firmly open as the magic disappeared faster and faster.

The palace of my soul became absolutely radiant. The flecks of magic inside twinkled like stars in the night, flashing brighter with every passing instance. Even I was impressed by just how much magic could be stuffed into the Ardenium. 

My grandfather landed next to me. "Ard," he said, "I don't know what you're doing, but you need to stop. You can't hold that much magic without accelerating corruption to a dangerous level."

I waved away his concern, continuing to suck up the magic.

“Ard, please. You can't handle that much magic," he implored me to stop. But I was too far along and also feeling rather stubborn to show him what I could actually do.

I was peeling back the three chancellors’ grip on their magic.

The entire cyclone of fire drained away through the air and straight down into my forehead as my Ardenium Palace swallowed the entire spell whole. 

I grinned at my grandfather before looking across the field. "I am rubber and your glue will bounce it off me. Sticks to you!" I stuck out my tongue and noted Emlyn’s shake of her head in the corner of my vision before I mined, tossing a ball.

A massive, even larger storm of fire ripped out of my hand, expanding into the sky at an unprecedented pace. 

To the average soldier, the spell would look like a grand magic, even larger than the previous one. But there was a difference. It wasn't as realized as a true grand spell. And the fact that it was larger was actually because it wasn't as concentrated as their spell had been.

But it was currently all in my control and flew over the field in moments before the chancellors could put up more than a token of resistance, crashing down into the hills explosively, ensuring there were no more hills, and hopefully doing a decent amount of damage.

I had no doubt that three chancellor mages working together could have avoided death, but at least it slowed them down.

My grandfather stood next to me, blinking before he turned to stare at me.

"Yeah, that just happened.” I grinned, excited to have impressed my grandfather. “I just took the spell and all the magic back into me and then turned around and threw it at their face. I mean, really, it's their fault for giving it to me in the first place. What did they think I was going to do with all that fire magic?" 

My grandfather just blinked, opened his mouth once before closing it and thinking before he spoke.

"Don't worry," Eva spoke up, walking up to my grandfather and patting his arm. "As a fellow mage, I understand the pain that you are going through right now. Watching Ard do things that should be completely impossible always messes with your mind. I would hazard to say, he is now doing magic that's within the realm of gods." 

Emlyn muttered something under her breath. "He even spends time with gods." Her words were quiet enough that I was fairly sure only Aurelia and I heard them.

"Well, I think the realm of gods is a bit much," Anadonis roused himself from his stupor. Apparently it was a little too absurd. 

Our words, I noticed, were carrying quite far as the sound of battle had leveled out across the field. The nobles of the command center had completely stopped giving orders. And every anchor and mage was turning and staring at me.

"Hi, I'm Ard," I gave them a big smile and put my hands in my pockets. "Pleasure to meet you. Now I do apologize, but I don't think I killed the chancellors with that so I need to go finish this fight. Emlyn, Aurelia, Zuri, and Maribelle I am guessing the fight in that cluster will resume. Please squash it like a bug." 

The bluesteel plate began to rise and everyone hopped off.

As I floated higher, I noticed my grandfather creating his own sheet of ice and joining me in the sky.

"You're right, that hit won't likely defeat the chancellors, especially not now that we know that their souls have all been connected and they can use each other's spheres. As a result, we should think of the three of them like pseudo four sphere mages. The three of them can draw on the strength of over a dozen two and three sphere mages," he clarified, squinting through the haze caused by my spell to see if anything was coming out of the mess.

Meanwhile, I was gathering more magic into the Ardenium Palace. He wasn’t sharing anything I didn’t already know.

The blast had been the first true test of my newest upgrade to Soulgard.

Seeing how easily it absorbed and released the magic shifted my idea of what was possible. It made me question whether there were actual limits or just ones I self-imposed with my own preconceptions.

My magic had been smoother and easier to use ever since I updated Soulgard. I was antsy to test it out further. I wondered what speed I could release magic now.

I waved a hand forward and hundreds of manticore claws materialized around me. They spun and sliced through the smoke and haze and into the ground beyond. Wherever they embedded themselves, I let them spread and swirl, hoping to create enough chaos and damage to find the chancellors. 

My claws pinged off of something that shouldn't be there after I leveled the hills. I focused the swirling claws in that direction, only to confirm my thoughts. There was a small dome-like structure amid the smoke. Given the response of my magic to where the claws couldn't penetrate or where they were getting stuck, I gathered more light magic into the very tip of my finger. Aiming down my arm, a bead of light concentrated before firing out, straight into that dome and slicing it to the side.

"If you could, grandfather, I can tell their structure is down there," I said, sensing the dome. I reached into earth magic, finding the three of them by grabbing onto the same structure and trying to rest for control.

The beam of light had hit one chancellor most likely. They seemed injured, but were rapidly healing.

I gathered another beam of light while also vying for control over that dome. This time, I was even more confident about their location. Another beam shot out, and I felt one of their controls completely slip from the dome. 

Using the moment of weakness, I twisted my hand, turning it into a jagged structure that collapsed inward and spun around them, trying to grind them up.

My actions had the immediate reaction of blowing away the smoke and dust from that area, giving my grandfather and I a clearer visual. 

"Allow me," he said. He slapped his hands together in concentration as chain after chain of ice materialized, wrapping around that area. The chains melded together, forming a more solid tomb than he’d managed against their firestorm. His hands turned into a knuckle-white grip, squeezing together, just as the ice below was being pressed into a singular block.

More and more chains shot up, wrapping around and pressing it further, stopping my spinning grinder of earth and seeping between every crack. 

Getting a sense of the Garrish mages by holding on to the same stone as them, I could feel that they were growing slower and faltering in their magic. My grandfather's spell was having the desired effect.

But it was too soon to win just yet. A bolt of thunder laced through the sky, slamming down to where we were working and shattering my grandfather's spell and likely the Chancellor's as well.

The chancellors ceased all magic. They were done and to make things certain, I reached down with earth magic to pierce each of their bodies. It would have been a shame if one of them had just been unconscious.

"Who could have..." my grandfather began as his spell fell away, but the answer was clear before he finished.

The King of Avente stood from a crouch, having just landed nearby. He had dealt the finishing blow to all three chancellors.

My grandfather's spell wasn't as strong to external pressure as it was to internal. But still, for the King of Avente to shatter it was unexpected.

The king stood tall, his voice echoing across the field. "House Aldis has escalated this war to an unacceptable level. I, the King of Avente, declare Anadonis and his spawn as criminals of the kingdom. The cost of their crime will be their heads, to appease Garrish forces and prevent further escalation of this kind. This is to protect all the people of Avente, as the common man cannot shoulder the burden that they have just brought down upon all their heads."

He held a magnificently crafted spear that looked a little too large for him to be holding so easily in his hands. It was more the size of something a person on horseback would use, not to mention it wasn’t even made of bluesteel and the design was foreign.

I frowned, seeing the way he easily swung the weapon with a single hand and realized the radiant armor that he wore was an unfamiliar design as well.

Anadonis scoffed next to me. "Is it a crime to fight a war that my liege sent me directly into? To protect my house from an attack that was started by the enemy? I think we both know that such rhetoric is as useless as it is empty." My grandfather replied, beginning to lower himself to the ground.

I grabbed hold of the magic of his platform. "Don't lower yourself to meet him. If he wants to talk, he can come up here," I said with a cocky smirk.

But I also did not want my grandfather meeting the King head on until I understood what was happening. The king was wielding the spear far too easily. He was a wolf and raven sphered mage. If he wanted to pick a fight, I felt more than comfortable challenging him on magic.

The king stepped forward, the ground rising underneath his feet as his entire body crackled with lightning magic. In his ornate plate armor, carrying the large spear, he certainly cut a figure striding up stone steps to meet both of us.

"Will you submit or will you make me kill everyone?" The king said, waving his spear to the side and gesturing at his fresh army circling around the back of House Aldis' weary forces.

I groaned and rubbed my forehead. "This is stupid. You are committing treason," I gestured at the king, only for him to frown at me as if I was an idiot.

"My word is the law of the kingdom. My action is the will of the kingdom. A king cannot commit treason, little Aldis Spawn." He answered, talking down to me.

But while he spoke, I studied him. I couldn't help but feel that something was amiss. He was far too confident for the moment. Honestly speaking, I could thrash him up and down a field. He wasn’t even Elder Mage level. With my grandfather, it was no match. He was one of the stronger elder mages.

For the king to confidently stand up against both of us was setting off all sorts of alarm bells, mixing that with his carrying a spear far too heavy for him, something was amiss.

The King of Avente regarded me. "Boy, you weren't even sucking on your mother's teats the first time I killed a man. When--"

"Really?" I asked, interrupting his monologue before it even began. "I’m noting an obsession with my mother’s breasts. It's a little weird, dude. Your daughter was obsessed with my father, now you're obsessed with my mother." I pushed back my unruly hair. "Given that your family is really obsessed with mine, you could just marry all of your princesses to me and give me the crown. Call me king. It's fine."

The king of Avente blinked, unsure of what to say in response.

"Cat got your tongue?" I asked, never one to let an opportunity slip by.

His face pursed into a frown and he opened it mouth to talk again.

“Oooh, what if we spin it a little differently, though?" I said, putting my finger on my chin. "You know, if we just... I really feel like there's some untapped potential in just giving me the crown and seeing what happens."

The king of Avente was apparently done with my nonsense, because his answer  was to dart across the sky, spear in hand, rushing for my heart.

My little bluesteel sled clumsily dodged out of the way yet his strike remained true, rushing towards me wherever I went.

He charged me three times in quick succession, moving through the sky with a speed I was having trouble reacting to. The way he was thrusting the spear effortlessly gave me serious pause.

People had been aghast and astonished at my anchors, wondering if they were an anchor or a mage, and now I found myself wondering the same about the King of Avente.

"Just hold still and accept your punishment," he said, rounding on me again, that spear tip seemed determined to find my flesh.

"No thank you. I would really not like the pointy end of that spear to go anywhere near me," I gestured vaguely in his direction. "If it could be avoided at all, I would like you to put that away. Also, step off your high horse, and stop accusing my whole family of nonsense.”

“It's your crime for going against a god's will.” He raised the spear again, though this time he didn't charge. Instead, the sky above became a massive storm, bolts of lightning zipping back and forth, whirling about ominously.

"Going against a god's?" I said, my voice drawing out my sudden realization. "Wait, why do you know anything about the gods?" I realized the massive problem that had been staring me right in the face. "Playing with the gods is a very bad idea. Just ask King Martin and his current hunger for flesh.”

“What would you understand about the burdens of a king?" he roared as lightning continued to gather above.

I had another witty retort at the tip of my tongue, but it seemed like I should focus on the impending disaster above me. After all, the way the lightning was twisting and turning, curling in on itself, made me feel that whatever was coming next was not going to be to my benefit.

"Die, sinner!" the king roared. A thundering beam of lightning broke free of the clouds, threatening to rip me to shreds.

I stared it down defiantly. Instead of cowering and bringing up protections to absorb the blast, I decided to repeat the exercise from earlier. I opened up Soulgard and connected the torrent of lightning straight to the palace.

Once again, the palace began to unnaturally drain the magic, funneling it straight into me.

As the spell began, I didn't go splat like the king expected. Instead, I eagerly drank down every drop of lightning magic that he had hurled at me. It all disappeared into the bottomless pit that was my new favorite trump card.

“What? That display of power didn’t go the way you wanted?” I noticed that the magic coming into my body was tethered not only to the king before me, but I could trace it to somewhere else far more distant as the lightning continued to pour down onto me.

There was an old, ancient, and quite frankly, stale flavor to the magic. It reminded me of walking into an inn that did not wash their floorboards. It was the same sticky-stale scent. 

I noted that for later, I’d let Thor know the next time I saw him. Meanwhile, I had a bone to pick with the king and wasn't going to let him off scot-free.

That savage suction, greedily drinking magic that came from the palace continued but I focused on the feeling of Thor and his stale, old magic, only to feel it successfully begin draining something far more complex than the magic I normally played with.

It was more akin to what I had gotten from Freya, only I suspected now that whatever I'd gotten then had been at least partially picked over by Missy before I got my share. 

What came from Thor made me feel gross and bloated as I squished it down and tried to make it my own and turned it around on the King, lighting him up like a rod amidst a thunderstorm.

The King of Avente screamed like a dying pig as he shook in the air. The lightning that had been dramatically coursing around him was no longer quite so playful. Instead, it burned him in spots and curled his toes. 

"You might want to get that checked out," I said, smirking from where I floated in the sky.

His armor was pristine, yet his hair that had been exposed was frizzed out and smoking. "You fucking..." He didn't finish his words. Instead, he zipped across faster than he'd moved so far in battle.

The King of Avente swung his gaudily big spear through the air faster than before.

I tried to dodge, but it bent and twisted with me before it slammed me straight in the jaw. I felt parts of my body crack and break before I was hurtling through the air, thrown from my own bluesteel plate.

My brain was still working to catch up to what had just happened. I wondered if I had gotten too cocky, realizing I needed to focus more on saving myself with whatever time I had to make a move.

Light curled around my hips and shoulders as I reached a hand up and grabbed onto the side of my neck, pumping life magic in through my jaw and skull. I had certainly seen better days.

I was in the process of healing as the King of Avente moved as a bolt of lightning and appeared before me, his spear raised and ready to do more damage and possibly finish the job.

Cyam swept out of my shadow, a whirling ball of dark tendrils. The good boy wrapped himself around the spear and the King's arm, stalling him just long enough for me to fly past in a boom of thunder.

The King nearly ripped the poor horse apart before he slunk back into my shadow. Together, we rocketed away from the King. 

"Good job, boy," I said, letting my life magic do its work.

Meanwhile, the light magic I had braced around myself steadily swept me upwards and away from crashing into the ground, which would have likely spelled my end. 

The King of Avente streaked past. His entire body and form became a bolt of crackling lightning that chased after me.

But I realized he could only move in straight lines effectively, so I turned my path into a spiral, flipping end over end. I was getting dizzy, but he was having trouble catching me. And while I healed, that was enough.

Catching onto my strategy, he changed his moves, starting to surge forward in short, quick bursts as he chased me through the air.

As he approached, I slammed my hands together, creating a shield of light just in time for his spear to crash against it. He pressed hard for a moment until finally it shattered and he attempted to thrust the weapon into my chest.

Another small shield of light pushed between me and the tip of the spear, throwing me back and only leaving a shallow gash on my chest that crackled with dangerous lightning.

This time I shot towards the ground with far less control.

The king didn't let up, racing down towards me in zigzag streaks of lightning, and keeping the pressure on.

I threw up quick shields of ice, lightning, and even managed to bring my bluesteel plate back to protect me, trying to find something that could stop the spear. But each time it ignored my magic as if the tip would pierce nearly anything. 

All this resulted in a continued, uncontrolled fall while I tried to gather my magic and my wits to keep me alive. I knew that I was close to slamming into the ground and breaking, well, everything in my body.

I called on a small bolt of soul lightning and let it loose at the king at the same moment his spear pierced my shoulder. Thankfully, a bit of my bluesteel plate protected me from having my arm torn completely off.

But the king had no such protections. The small bolt of soul lightning hit him square in the chest and sent him reeling backwards.

That small relief in time was just enough for me to get my descent under control, leveling out just before the ground and deciding I had had enough with falling through the sky. The ground was far safer.

I was officially pissed off. If the King was going to be such a traitorous pain, it was time he died a hard death.

AN - My bad, my brain is cooked from all the editing this weekend. Also I owe my wife a date night. But, I will manage to get this book out in time now. There are 43ish chapters. Need to get the last bit finalized. Going to give you double chapters for the rest of the book.