The Fusionist Book 2 -- Chapter 45

Chapter 45

The handle of his axe dropped from Larek’s hands as he looked down at the decapitated body of the student he had just killed, the wood making a sharp report as it echoed through the tunnel. His knees followed suit as he collapsed, the import of what just occurred slamming into his mind with such force that he couldn’t take it.

What… what did I just do?

He knew what he’d done, of course, but he was having difficulty processing everything. The hyper-focused state seemed to have evaporated with the death of Ricardo, and all of Larek’s actions repeated themselves in a loop through his mind as he asked himself how he could’ve done all that. He remembered his own emotionless voice and the lack of feeling he possessed when his plan was enacted… and it scared him.

At the time of their arrival, his focus on the plan had overshadowed the anger he was carrying around at his abductors; he was doing this to save himself, his friends, and his family from being hurt in the future, which was all that mattered.  After hearing the Aeromancer mention how he had wanted to be the one to kill Larek, lamenting at the death of his prisoner as only an inconvenience rather than in remorse at Larek’s fate, the fury rose up in him and amplified his hyper-focus to levels he hadn’t known was possible. At that point, his plan to protect himself and others from future harm had morphed into an overwhelming desire for revenge and there was nothing that was going to stop him. If he hadn’t been aware of what he was doing the entire time, he would’ve thought that something had taken over and used him to fulfill its nefarious deeds.

Looking at the blood pooling underneath the body of the yellow-robed student, Larek nearly threw up from how much it sickened him that he had been the cause of it. A glance toward the interrogation room showed that the two Martials had been trapped inside while the Extreme Heat +5 Fusions worked in tandem to continually increase the temperature by 50 degrees as they reevaluated the current temperature and attempted to heat the space even further. All that was left were dried-out and burnt husks that used to be people, and it was only now that they had died and the reconfigured Personal Air Deflection Barrier set up around the door to activate at the increase of temperature had disappeared that he was able to smell the charred cloth and leather, as well as the nauseating odor of charred meat.

What do I do now?

Despite the heinous act he had committed, he still believed it was necessary toward his survival and the survival of his friends and family; that being said, he wasn’t happy with what he’d been forced to do. But was I really forced into doing this? Their deaths were perhaps necessary, but did I have to take such perverse pleasure in it? When he thought about it, he realized that he was wrong; it hadn’t been pleasurable at all; in fact, he hadn’t felt anything at all – which was potentially even worse. Am I turning into some sort of emotionless killer that will murder anyone that looks at me funny? How many will I have to kill to ensure my secret is safe? Should I just flee back to my family and help them hide away?

He knelt there for some time, wrestling with an acceptance of his own actions, feeling remorse over having to do it at all, and confusion over what to do next. His planning had gotten him to this point, but after its success – if he could call it that – there was nothing.

After not coming up with any answers to his questions at the moment, he decided to take things one step at a time. The first thing he needed to do was to ensure that what he had done wasn’t discovered, or at least that it wasn’t linked back to him. He wanted to maintain his place at Copperleaf Academy, and if it was discovered that he had killed a star Mage student and a pair of trainees, all Nobles, then he’d be executed or sent to the Diregate place, most likely. Perhaps it was selfish of him to be thinking of his own well-being at this point in time after what he had just done, but that didn’t change the fact that he’d done it because he didn’t want to die; being caught would eventually end up with him meeting the same fate, which he’d rather avoid. The stain on his soul was enough of a burden as it was.

Therefore, the first thing he needed to do was get rid of the bodies. Remembering what he’d overheard Ricardo mentioning about going deeper into the abandoned tunnels and stashing Larek’s body there, he figured that would work just as well for his purposes. In his case, however, he was going to hide them a little better than they likely would; he had Camouflaging Spheres, after all.

So, that was what he did. Touching and carrying the bodies of the deceased finally did make him throw up and later dry heave as nothing was left in his stomach after a while. Regardless, he managed to bring all three bodies into a partially collapsed room he discovered at approximately a 10 minute walk down the dark tunnels. Burying them half under the rubble, he also repurposed the stone slabs he’d used for Camouflaging Spheres to create his trap to completely hid any sight of the bodies; the only way they’d be found was if someone deliberately dug them out, already knowing they were there.

After the bodies were disposed of entirely, it was time to clean up the site of the massacre. Using a combination of two of his new Fusions, he was able to both get rid of the dust debris and blood, as well as erase his footprints by getting rid of all the accumulated dust throughout the tunnels.

The first Fusion was on a pair of staves that he had borrowed from a storage room earlier, which was based on the Repelling Gust spell he had learned from Nedira. After having applied Minor Mending, Wind Barrier, Light Bending, and Static Illusion to Fusions, Larek remembered what his Advanced Fusions instructor had mentioned about adapting even more spells – including offensive ones. This was his first attempt, and he thought it had worked out well enough.

Repelling Gust of Air +5

Activation Method(s): Reactive

Effect: Forcefully pushes away nearby targets with a strong, directional gust of air

Input(s): Word recognition

Variable(s): “Repel”, Directional orientation

Magnitude: 500% of base gust strength, widens to a cone 5 feet in diameter, and lasts 5 seconds

Mana Cost: 38,000

Pattern Cohesion: 375

Fusion Time: 50 hours

The new Fusion wasn’t perfect, as it could only direct the gust of air it produced in one direction, but it worked well enough. His focus on the Effect had it oriented to create the gust just off the tip of the staff, which could then be moved in a direction if it were being held, but he’d had to prop it up in the tunnel using some spare stone plates and hide it with a large Camouflage Sphere on the steel plates he had brought with him for use in his trap. It was voice-activated with the word “Repel”, and it would produce the strong gust of wind for 5 seconds before deactivating. He ended up using a pair of them to ensure there was enough coverage for the entire tunnel, but he only needed one to help with the cleanup.

Saying “Repel” over and over again to blow all of the dust and debris around was annoying, and he resolved to add a mental activatable Activation Method to it in the future if he made something like it again. The same problem went for his other staff that he used for cleanup, which held a Water Stream +5 Fusion on it.

Water Stream +5

Activation Method(s): Reactive

Effect: Creates a powerful, directional stream of water

Input(s): Word recognition

Variable(s): “Activate”, Directional orientation

Magnitude: 500% of base water strength, reaches up to 50 feet, and lasts 5 seconds

Mana Cost: 14,000

Pattern Cohesion: 225

Fusion Time: 35 hours

While it was the same magnitude as the Repelling Gust of Air, the cost to create the Water Stream was less; it confused him at first before he realized that the costs of the related spells – Repelling Gust and Water Jet – were also different, with the Air-based one costing more in terms of Mana and Pattern Cohesion.

Repelling Gust

Base Elemental Damage (Impact): 1

Base Elemental Effect (Knockback): Forcefully pushes away nearby targets with powerful gusts of air

Base Mana Cost: 12

Base Pattern Cohesion: 3

Water Jet

Base Elemental Damage (Impact): 6

Base Elemental Effect (Bleeding): 3 per second for 5 seconds

Base Mana Cost: 5

Base Pattern Cohesion: 2

It turned out to be identical costs for the other staves he created based on Fireball, Stone Fist, and Ice Spike, which translated to Flaming Ball +5, Flying Stone +5, and Icy Spike +5 when converted into Fusions. It was these that had been used with the trap he had set, and all it had taken was shouting, “Activate,” for them all to fire out a projectile toward Ricardo. He’d had to guess where his target would be while setting everything up and his Water Stream staff had almost missed him entirely during the initial attack, but it all worked out in the end.

Now he was using it to clean up the blood that had pooled out in the tunnel, washing it down the cracks in the stone floor, where it disappeared to end up… somewhere. He wasn’t exactly sure nor did he care, as long as it was out of the way. He used more of his Repelling Gust of Air staff to dry it as well as he could, but by the time he was finished it was still damp and humid inside of the tunnel and the interrogation room.

The last thing he did before he left was erase any sign of his Fusions, including the Healing Surge on the floor that had helped to heal him, as well as every single one on the staves and leftover plates, stone and steel – all but the steel plate containing his larger Camouflage Sphere +5. He then used the bag that had previously held food for him and loaded up his steel plates and a half-dozen stone plates, before stashing the rest in the corner of the room.

As cleaned up as he could be, he took the cubes with the Illumination Fusions on them and used them to initially move through the tunnels on his way out. Once the lighting illuminated the well-used storage areas, he eliminated the crude Fusions on the iron cubes and placed them in the bag, getting rid of another piece of evidence that would potentially link him to Ricardo and the two Martial trainees.

Activating his Camouflage Sphere, he traveled through the storage areas, avoiding a few staff members here and there, as he looked for another bag to trade out for the one that he’d received from the now-dead Mage student. He wasn’t sure if it was his, personally, but he didn’t want anything on him that could be traced somehow. Fortunately, he found a room that seemed to have travel bags very similar in appearance and he traded the one he was carrying out, transferring its contents quickly.

On the way out of the tunnels, he also dropped off the staves that he had borrowed, putting them back in the barrel where he had obtained them earlier with hopefully none the wiser at their absence. After that, he sighed in relief as the last sign that he was down there was erased, and he made his way up and out of the building.

Outside was a veritable madhouse as there were students everywhere. With the Scissions dealt with and classes apparently canceled for the rest of the day, thousands of students and trainees from the Fort were congregating in the park, likely discussing the day’s events. It was a challenge to navigate his way through the throng with his concealing Fusion active, but he managed it somehow without anyone running into him.

Finally arriving in the part of the building where his room was, he deactivated his Camouflage Sphere as soon as he entered, making his way to where his door used to be. Walking inside, he stopped immediately as he saw Nedira sitting on the edge of her brother’s bed, tears leaving tracks down her face.

“What happened, Larek?!”

Uh, oh.

Book 2 Chapter 46: https://www.patreon.com/posts/fusionist-book-2-84180437