The Fusionist Book 2 -- Chapter 38

(This chapter has some revelations that have been a long time coming, and I hope it explains some of what has occurred before.  I'm sure there will be even more questions after this, but they will be explained in time.  Enjoy :) )

Chapter 38

The two bright lights practically blinded him when he woke up, a splitting headache piercing into his brain and making everything blurry. As he struggled to move and focus on what was going on around him, an anger he’d never experienced before surged through his entire body as he suddenly remembered what happened in his room. While he cared about being knocked unconscious, what made a murderous intent flow through him was the thought of what had been done to Verne and Norde. He wasn’t sure if they were alive or not, but they had hit the wall hard enough to break multiple bones, if not kill them outright. Granted, they had Healing Surge Fusions on an accessory that they wore on their person at all times, similar to what Larek normally possessed; but if they had been knocked unconscious, those Fusions wouldn’t do much good.

Some of the anger faded as he briefly contemplated how he would go about putting together a Reactive Healing Surge Fusion that could automatically detect when someone was hurt and stop when they were fully healed. Though, it would have to possess limits put in place by Variables so that it didn’t try and heal every little cut or bruise that appeared during normal life, or even the tiredness in their feet if they were walking too long, as that would quickly drain a Mage of their physical energy. And what about exercise? If I remember correctly, sore muscles are a simply a body’s way of showing that the muscles will get stronger through repeated use – would that prevent that from happening? It’s not like Mages can simply add an Advancement Point to their Strength—

A few notifications that appeared distracted him from his prior distraction, demonstrating how messed up the damage to his head had made his mind.

Pain Management has reached Level 10!

Pain Management has reached Level 11!

Body Regeneration has reached Level 8!

Body Regeneration has reached Level 9!

Ouch. It must be working overtime with all the damage that had been done to me.

Larek began struggling to his feet, the cold stone underneath him hard and somehow even more uncomfortable than his head. As he sat up and started to rise, a part of his mind detected a spell being cast nearby, before he felt unyielding bands of something wrap around his torso and knees, trapping his arms against his upper body and making it nearly impossible to get to his feet.

Magical Detection has reached Level 14!

What is going on? Where am I—?

“Half-breed.”

The sudden voice startled him, causing Larek to freeze in his attempts to free himself from the bands. He felt as if he used enough of his strength, he could break through whatever was restraining him; but with his head still recovering from the beating it had taken, which was slowly getting better thanks to his Body Regeneration Skill, he was having difficulty concentrating well enough to employ that kind of force intentionally.

“How did you get out of your cage?”

Larek had no idea what the strange, distorted voice was talking about, but he looked to see who was speaking. Much of the blurriness had disappeared, or so he thought, but when he looked past the light that was still a little too bright for him, all he could see was a blot of blurriness covering the face of a person wearing a light-yellow robe. A working portion of his mind told him that this person was an Air-based specialization, likely an Aeromancer, and what was binding him were likely bands of hardened air. It would also explain how the room to his door had been blasted in so easily.

Along the walls, he also caught an indication of two other people, though they weren’t wearing robes. Instead, they were wearing leather armor typically seen on Martial trainees, though they were wearing helmets with face masks, so he couldn’t see them clearly. All he could tell about them was that one of them appeared female by her physical build, while the other trainee and the one that had spoken were male.

Larek chose not to answer this anonymous Mage that seemed to have abducted him… at least until he had an idea what was being asked. Half-breed? Cage?

“So, you’re going to be like that, huh? Well, we have all day, especially with these Scissions diverting everyone’s attention.” The yellow-robed Mage walked closer and squat down until he was approximately at the same level as Larek as he laid sitting up against the wall behind him, unable to move. His head was slowly feeling better, but it was going to take a little more until it was healed enough to focus completely.

“It’s true, I see. You half-breeds really do have both Martial and Mage stats, don’t you? I can see your wounds healing even as we speak. Body Regeneration, if I’m not mistaken?” The Mage looked over at one of the Martial trainees standing up against the wall, who nodded in response to his question. “It’s a trait you share with the Great Ones, but fortunately you don’t have the same kind of Dominion magic that they possess; otherwise, I’d probably be a gibbering mess on the floor right now, given the way you’re looking at me,” he went on, chuckling as if he had just made some sort of joke.

Pain Management has reached Level 12!

Body Regeneration has reached Level 10!

Larek couldn’t hold his tongue anymore, especially as his mind began to rapidly clear up after another increase to Pain Management and Body Regeneration. He could focus enough now that he thought he could break free of the hardened air binding his limbs, even after the Mage quickly renewed it by recasting his spell, but he held off for the moment; despite his anger and need to check on his roommates, this conversation was equally as important to him.

Why? Because this Mage seemed to have information that he craved.

“Great Ones? Who are they?”

“Feigning ignorance? I guess I should’ve supposed that would be your ploy, especially after watching you for a while revealed you not being what I thought you were. I mean, a Great One here at Copperleaf? Why would one of our masters come all this way, pretending to be a student? With their ability to completely dominate the minds and freewill of the Nobility so that we’re forced to obey their commands, there would be no reason to leave the Enclave underneath Andrin. I personally don’t believe that they can leave the Enclave, forced to maintain the barrier, but I could be wrong.

“Of course, you could probably answer that question better than me, couldn’t you?” When Larek didn’t answer, the Mage went on. “When you didn’t seem to show any signs of being a Great One, I knew the answer had to be that you weren’t anything but a half-breed, one of the unlucky few to have been born between one of us and one of them. The problem was that I had always heard that they were sickly and prone to bouts of uncontrolled anger, but that doesn’t seem to be a problem for you.

“Don’t shake your head in denial, I can feel the hint of the Great Ones in your gaze. One never forgets the touch of Dominion magic the first time they experience it, am I right?” he asked, looking over his shoulder at the two Martial trainees. At their nods, the mysterious Mage turned to Larek again, shrugging as if to say, “See?”

“I have no idea what you’re talking about—”

“So you weren’t sent here to enact some unknown plot? I find that hard to believe. Or, at least, I wouldn’t have believed that if I couldn’t, even now, feel four Scissions outside the walls of Thanchet.  What I need to know, half-breed, is if this heralds The Culmination.”

Larek listened to him speak, his final words spoken as if they had great meaning. They didn’t to the bound abductee, of course.

“What?”

Larek heard a sigh, followed by another cast of a spell that renewed the bindings on his extremities. “Do I really have to spell it out for you? Did the Great Ones not explain this all to you before you were sent here?”

He wasn’t getting anything but more questions with his answers, so Larek tried another tactic. “Why don’t you enlighten me of what you know about the Great Ones and The Culmination, and I’ll tell you if you’re correct,” he said, fully expecting his ruse to fail, but for some reason it seemed to work – at least according to the Skill Level-ups he received immediately afterward.

Speaking has reached Level 13!

Bargaining has reached Level 4!

“Fine. At least it sounds as if you’re cooperating now, so I might as well do my part. The Scissions outside haven’t even hit their thresholds yet, so we’ve got time.”

My friends don’t have a lot of time, especially if they’re hurt as badly as I remember, but I don’t think I can get out of here easily, even if I can break out of these bindings. I can’t cast any spells, after all – or at least not one that won’t blow all of us up. I also don’t see my axe anywhere around here, so it’s likely still back in my room; I have a feeling that I wouldn’t match up well against either of those Martial trainees, let alone both of them.

“A thousand years ago, this land was controlled by the Great Ones, who used their Dominion magic upon the common people, those of what is now this Kingdom, and forced them to do the Great One’s bidding,” the Mage began, reciting in a lecturing tone as if he was regurgitating a memory. “We were slaves, treated fairly by our masters, but we were given no choice but to follow the orders of the Great Ones.

“But the Great Ones were limited in their numbers, each of them only able to dominate up to a thousand of us at any one time. As it stood, there were enough of them to handle every common man, woman, and child in their land – but they wanted more. They wanted to expand into other lands and conquer them, ruling over the entire world. The problem with that was that while the Great Ones could easily use their Dominion magic to rule over the local population, they weren’t powerful warriors or Mages, as the latter didn’t actually exist at that time.

“So, they thought to enhance their powers, using their innate abilities to dominate the very environment around them, tapping into a latent energy that they felt leaking into the world from somewhere they knew not. This latent energy was potent; it was so potent that as soon as the Great Ones directed it towards themselves, most of them were overcome with the sheer intensity of it and were burned up from the inside as a result.

“The few that survived were blessed with immortality and incredible strength in both a martial and magical capacity. While few in number, they could finally conquer the world with their superior might unmatched by anyone or anything that might stand in their way.

“Unfortunately, by releasing this power into them, they also released it into the world. A large tear in the fabric that separated our world from another was formed as a result of the Great Ones’ meddling, slowly releasing horrific monsters into the world from strange portals that we know as Scissions. We now know this as The Transition, and it was a time of great upheaval as many of the common people of the land were killed as monsters roamed around and slaughtered everyone they could find.

“The tear in the fabric was eventually stabilized by the Great Ones and was prevented from growing any larger, but the damage was already done. As they were essentially conduits to the power streaming out, the energy within their bodies grew to dangerous levels, killing a few more of them before they learned how to disperse it toward another living being.

“With monsters rampaging over the land and the majority of the remaining Great Ones needed to stay nearby to maintain the barrier keeping the tear from opening up wider, they developed a radical plan. Without the necessary numbers to maintain their Dominion magic over the entire population, the Great Ones brought together the most capable of their slaves and portioned out the power that was overwhelming their bodies, giving them the potential to become Martials or Mages. Thousands of these individuals became the first Nobles, tasked with getting stronger and ruling over the others in the Great Ones’ stead, along with organizing them to the point where they could fight back against the monsters roaming across the land.

“Obviously, it worked, and the Kingdom was founded and flourished. To this day, us Nobles are still bound under the Dominion magic of our masters, but we’re also given a higher priority to obtain the potential to become a Martial or a Mage. Naturally, the power coming from the tear is so extreme that not even the Great Ones could contain it all, so it also bleeds off into the common people of the Kingdom, which is why we send out thousands of agents to search for them before they can cause trouble. You would not believe how much they hate the Great Ones now that they aren’t subjected to their Dominion magic; that hatred stains their very bloodline, which has lasted nearly a thousand years.” The Mage looked at Larek and tilted his head to the side. “Or perhaps you might have an inkling of how they feel, given your height and resemblance to the Great Ones.

“Regardless, our situation with being subjected to the whims of the Great Ones is a fair trade-off, because we’re also allowed to rule the Kingdom however we want, as our masters rarely interfere; but when they do, the results are usually disastrous. Which is why I wanted to know what you were doing here, what plan the Great Ones had in store for us, but with the rumors around the Kingdom and the presence of these four Scissions, I believe this might be The Culmination.

“A theory held by one of the Great Ones soon after The Transition took place, The Culmination was thought to be a time when the foreign power infusing our world would hit a tipping point, where the saturation would be so deep that it produced another drastic change. No longer would the barrier over the tear be enough to ward off an increase in the influx of dangerous energy seen in the form of Scissions and the monsters that they spew out. Existing methods of defense would slowly reveal themselves to be ineffective, and it would be a struggle to hold back the powerful monsters that would appear.

“None of this information is known outside of the royal family and a few higher Houses, but thankfully I was privy to this knowledge given my status. And right now I’m using this status to obtain the information I need to warn my family of the danger if this is, indeed, the beginning of The Culmination. The Great Ones have stayed in their Enclave for the last year without giving us any direction one way or another, and we need to know. So, please, half-breed, tell me—us—the truth. Is this what we fear?”

Larek was stunned into complete silence as his mind attempted to assimilate the information he was just given, a thousand questions now roaming around in his head.  Are the Great Ones the Gergasi that I’ve heard mentioned? The Nobles are still slaves? The potential to become Martials and Mages comes from these Great Ones as a result of something that happened a thousand years ago?

But the one question that filled up his mind the most was, “What does this have to do with me?”

This Mage thought he was a half-breed, someone that was both a “Great One” and human from the Kingdom, but that didn’t make any sense to him. He was born to—as much as he loved them—rather ordinary and boring parents, not a mysterious and powerful being that could enslave someone with their supposed Dominion magic.

What made everything worse for his state of mind was that he believed this Mage, this Noble, about all that he had said – even if he was somehow wrong about Larek’s half-breed status. Then again, he did have the stats of both a Martial and a Mage, similar to the Great Ones he mentioned, as well as the supposed height, but did that really mean anything?

Seeing the yellow-robed Mage still looking at him, despite the fact that he still couldn’t see his face directly, Larek knew he had to answer. He debated simply expressing his ignorance yet again, but he was fairly certain that wouldn’t go over well with his captors. He doubted that they would believe that he had no idea what the Mage was talking about, and given that the disguised individual had revealed some secrets that probably shouldn’t have been shared with someone already in the know, he was fairly certain they would just kill him if he didn’t prove to be cooperative.

Taking a deep breath, Larek spoke.

“Yes. This is the beginning of The Culmination.”

Book 2 Chapter 39: https://www.patreon.com/posts/fusionist-book-2-83938273