Prismatic Education Begins With A Spark 33 (MTG/Multicross)

Prismatic Education 33

Working with Asana to develop a cure for Behemoth poison was slightly interesting, despite my usual disinterest in the potionmaking side of magic. From what I could understand, the difference between what the Orario alchemists made and what she was trying to create, was that the former had a healing effect bordering on the magical, while the latter actually was magic in the form of a potion. Given how the poison functioned, the second one was thus more suited to curing a suffering victim.

“The creators of that potion would have to make one that could generate an internal anti-magic effect when imbibed, if they even could with their skills,” She said in an offhanded comment when I asked her about it.

Doesn’t that mean Alfia’s spell could work? Oh wait, that one’s personal armor only. Too bad. 

Asana came over carrying another pest, the spiky creature gnawing on her thickly-gloved hands. With a deft movement born of long practice, she slipped the hand out of its jaws and replaced it with a vial, letting the pest gulp down the liquid within. She then placed the creature in the crystal testing box, closing it so that it couldn’t escape. 

“Alright, cast your spell, if you would.”

Cold-Shield. I obliged, applying Quandrix meta magics as I did.

Within the box, the movements of the pest slowed down greatly, looking like an image playing at a tenth of the speed. At my nod, Asana triggered the release of the poison loaded into a separate tube, sending a single black drop falling slowly down on top of the pest.

The Time Warp magick I learned in Midgard originally affected everything while leaving the mind thinking at its normal, albeit faster pace, giving more time to react. Modified for our current purpose, it extended the working time of the poison, allowing whatever experimental concoction we were testing to display its effects against the poison as it actively corroded a body.

I initially hadn’t planned on involving myself in the process, but Asana persuaded me otherwise, citing the great reduction in the final price she would charge for her work. It helped that my wide repertoire of spells helped to speed up the research process greatly. Especially since I could use mathematical magic to increase the amount of poison she needed for testing, instead of having to go back to Orario to extract more from Zald.

The pest turned to ash after several seconds, and I noted down the time on a recording form, which I tore off and handed to Asana.

“It’s an improvement from the last batch, but still not what I had in mind. Back to the brewing pot.” She triggered the cleaning spell in the case, and left it to do its work.

So that’s the alchemist’s version of ‘back to the drawing board’. It was late, so I excused myself to go back to where I was staying.

For my accommodations, it wasn’t hard to find a hostel to take me in. Since I wasn’t a student, I couldn’t stay at the dormitories anymore, but in addition to the usual passing guests, there were always alumni mages returning to make use of Strixhaven’s resources, so naturally there were places for them to stay in. The place I was staying at even gave discounts to mages who showed their Strixhaven medallions. It wasn’t as big as my previous dorm rooms, but I was fine with that, since I only used it to sleep after spending most of the day out.

The days passed slowly as I waited for Asana’s efforts to yield something useful. In the meantime, I took the chance to gather the knowledge Baldr and his union of gods had requested for the development of the School District, usually while the Witherbloom professor was busy with her classes during the day. Naturally, the place for that was the Biblioplex, where I spent hours every day, free from the requirement to attend classes.

Megastructure and ship architecture designs, lesson plans from military academies and trade schools, guides to setting up in-house manufacturing, medical matters, and more, with adjustments made for beings of different physical sizes and strengths. If it wasn’t for the automata librarians helping me track down what I needed, I would have been there for much longer. 

Baldr had revealed to me some of the plans they made for the ship Hringhorni. A normal ship floated in water, and over time, would accumulate things like barnacles, resulting in hull fouling that would slow its movement. The solution to that was to use multiple buoyancy generators, like the one that was used in the elevators of Babel. As long as they were powered with enough magic stones from the Dungeon, the ship would be able to float above the water and flatlands, letting it travel large distances. 

However, there was the issue of propulsion. Something of its humongous size needed a great amount of force to move. Paddles, rudders and sails had been considered, but were dismissed as unfeasible. Baldr did share a secret with me, that several technicians who specialized in magic stone technology had been gathered to work on creating something that could serve that purpose. It wasn’t hard to guess that they were just repurposing that buoyancy field into something more adjustable, capable of horizontal movement instead of just vertical.

“Sometimes I wonder about why the technological progress of that world is so weird…” I muttered to myself as I took notes on the workings of magitech vehicles. “Probably the gods…”

According to what I read of history books in the Gnome Library, the descent of the gods had quite a number of effects. Even with their divine power sealed, their existence as divinities made it hard for mortal races to defy them. The most common influence was having gods becoming akin to rulers in some nations; the most well-known example was Ares Familia in Rakia, with the war god often going to war with other countries no matter how many times they lost, especially to Orario. There was also Amaterasu who ruled over the Far East, which I was interested in visiting in the future. Other gods, capricious in their behavior, also led their familias to commit disruptive acts, serving as assassins or mercenaries. 

One of the stories even mentioned a sage who made a stone that granted immortality. When he brought it to his familia’s god, the god smashed the thing right before the sage’s eyes. After that, he laughed at the face the sage made. That was a very strong example of how cruel some gods could be to the mortal races.

Speaking of the races, the diminutive pallums found out that the goddess Fianna they worshipped didn’t exist, and fell into a depression because of that. Others like the tribal female-only Amazons, made use of the power granted by their falna to engage in banditry and kidnapping.

Enough of that. I’m only depressing myself. I shook my head to take my mind off the dismal state of that plane, and decided to indulge my interests instead. Where’s that automaton librarian? I feel like reading more about this plane instead.

In one of my tangents, I went to read up about the Plains of Conflict, refreshing my memory of the name of the snarl responsible, which was apparently named Furycalm. The recorded writings of a mage who traveled around researching snarls proved to be very informative, especially when it came to some of the effects they had on the surrounding lands. I had overlooked this text because I had been focused on my studies before, but better late than never.

Like the one I saw, Furycalms could affect emotions, but there was a description of one that reshaped a nearby mountain into an orderly shape. Similarly, some of the White-Black Shineshadows revealed the light or shadow hidden beneath one’s character, which made me look at the refined one in the Hall of Oracles with relief. In contrast, Frostboils were generally chaotic in all examples, while enough of the Necroblossom ones were poisonous that it was better to have antidotes on hand before venturing close to them. Vineglimmers had a potential chance of chronal or spatial distortions that made them hard to escape when wandered into, which made me rather lucky to have found a sedate one.

I shut the book. Even after more than a week since I saw it, I couldn’t forget the Red-White snarl I saw on my way here. It was strange since I was more aligned with the colors of Quandrix, but after some self-reflection, I came up with a theory as to why.

“So you think your magic is pushing you towards it to form a balance?” Hofri asked me after I finished explaining my thoughts to him.

I nodded. “Yeah. A Vineglimmer is Green-Blue, while a Frostboil is Blue-Red, so I’m currently skewed towards the Blue side of mana.”

“And you think Red-White can balance it out.” The dwarf said slowly.

“That’s the feeling I get.”

“So what about the campus we’re in?” He gestured at the office we were sitting in.

Hofri, now Instructor Ghostforge, had been given his own office. It was a small one since he was just starting out as a teacher, but it was already looking much like his own space. Sculpting tools which he used to carve out statues for spirits to possess, books and scrolls detailing information shared by the spirits and possible clues as to other archaeological finds, it was the very image of a Lorehold office.

I wiggled my hand half-heartedly. “Lorehold Campus itself is more about the focus on the historical past. It’s not exactly my thing, so yeah, I don’t really feel the connection.”

Hofri chuckled. “I can believe that. So tell me more about your journey. I wasn’t expecting you to return so soon.”

“Yeah, I feel the same.”

He looked at me, then laughed again. “You went west, but arrived from the east! I thought you got lost and traveled in a loop.”

“My sense of direction is not that bad,” I protested, “It’s the travel method that’s the issue.”

“Sure it is.” He said knowingly, recognizing my wish to be vague about Planeswalking.

Since I was back at Strixhaven, it was natural to catch up with the only one of my friend group still in this place. So far, Hofri was handling the responsibilities of teaching rather well, even as a teaching assistant to the spiritcalling professor. 

“Theory-based lessons are a bit rough, but I have no problems with the practicals.” He told me proudly.

“Oh?”

“You actually came at a good time. If you had turned up a few weeks earlier, I would have been away from Strixhaven on another archaeological dig.”

“A live demonstration of your skills in the field?” I guessed.

“That’s right. We gathered quite a number of relics to be examined and presented for the next Arcavios history symposium.”

“Nice.”

“Anyway, you were talking about the city over a dungeon you went to?”

We talked for quite a while about the culture and history of Orario, along with the falna and my research into its workings. Our conversation was finally interrupted when Asana sent a message asking for me. Hofri stopped me at the door before I left.

“Here. Knowing you, you’ll probably want this while you’re here.”

I recognized the access key to the advanced student stacks. “Not that I’m going to refuse, but why?”

“Your falna enchantment research, it reminded me of a set of spirit statue enhancing spells that I came across while working on my project. I think they could help you with it.”

“Okay, now I’m interested. Anything more specific to direct me to those?”

Hofri told me, along with a parting reminder to return the key before I departed from Strixhaven. 

With this new development, I wasn’t sure if I would be staying even longer than I thought.

…

“I believe this is it.” Asana announced, settling back in her chair with her eyes on the surviving animal in the testing box.

“So, success?” I asked, with a bit of trepidation.

She nodded. “Indeed.”

I slumped over, letting out a long sigh of relief. Finally… and shortly before the end of the school year too.

Pests with their powerful life force could endure quite a lot, so it was necessary to prove that the created cure would work on weaker creatures as well. I was willing to accept one that would work just fine on pests, since Zald’s constitution was far more sturdy, but Asana wouldn’t hear of it.

The poison was technically a near-instant death, but with time magic extending the window of opportunity for treatment, it no longer became so. However, the transmuted parts were usually too heavily damaged to recover full function, and that was what she was focusing on. The explanation for the whole process made my head spin, but simply put, the cure hijacked the necrotizing transmutation, turning it into Life-element regeneration instead. Full recovery without any cancerous growths.

I noticed Asana giving me a slight glare. “What?”

“I still don’t like that I couldn’t do it without your assistance.” Her dissatisfied tone made that clear.

Rather than reply, I raised one hand and made it sparkle with the prismatic magic I contributed to the creation process. Prismatic magic, fuck yeah.

After we had recovered enough to function, it was time to tally up the receipts. Even with my contribution, along with trading in the spare drop items I had, I still paid out a hefty sum to Asana for handling this request. It was a reasonable expense; time taken from her own pursuits, the costs of the reagents she used up, and a few other minor expenses… But still, more than a quarter of the wealth I had left from the Clover Kingdom dungeon, gone just like that.

I was definitely going to make Zald repay me for this.

“Right, that settles all accounts between us,” Asana confirmed, spinning the unicorn horn in one hand. “As troublesome as it was, you did bring me quite an interesting test of my skills.”

“Well, you’re welcome.” I almost made it sound sarcastic, but restrained myself.

“Now shoo, if you please. I need to write up a report for Dean Lisette.”

As I was leaving Widdershins Hall, my eyes caught sight of an elegantly beautiful woman on the way in. She was dressed entirely in black, a fashionable high-necked dress with upwards-jutting shoulders that exposed only her hands and a bit of cleavage. Her hair was bound up in a thick bun on top of her head, which made her nicely-shaped face stand out more. However, her looks wasn’t the thing about her that stood out the most to me.

Our eyes met, and I stepped aside to let her pass.

“Your courtesy is appreciated. Are you a student here?” She paused in her walking to ask me.

“An alumni.”

“The same.” She answered my unspoken question. 

Since she mentioned my courteous manner, I decided to just go for it. “Roy Staff. Of Quandrix. Pardon me if I don’t shake your hand or anything.”

The female mage smiled, a thin one that conveyed amusement as though seeing a small animal performing a trick. “Serafina Onyx… I’m to be a professor for Witherbloom, my old college.”

“...Vein?” I ventured the guess as to her college philosophy.

“Yes. Necromancy.” 

I wasn’t surprised, given the amount of BLACK mana I could feel from her. Whoever this woman was, she was not someone to be taken lightly. 

“Perhaps our paths may cross again in the future,” Serafina Onyx said delicately, “But for now, I must go see Valentin.”

I nodded, and continued on my way once she moved past me.

With my luggage and money pouch much lighter, I only had to confirm that I had the notes taken from the Biblioplex before I left. Hofri was having a faculty meeting when I made a quick trip to Lorehold to return his key, so I just dropped it in his office’s letterbox with a note of thanks. With nothing else left to do here, I made my departure from Strixhaven. 

Alright, so now it’s time to head back… but not before making a little detour to that place.

My route out of Strixhaven this time made sure to detour around Detention Bog. No point exposing myself to its stench if I didn’t have to. I traveled swiftly until the snarl came into sight, and this time, I cloaked myself in a veil to sneak past the guard post. 

It didn’t take long before I finally experienced it for myself. The guy wasn’t kidding… I feel… aggressive.

I punched at the air a few times, before forcing myself to calm down. Above me, the shifting cloud mountain of the snarl awaited. So I bespelled my staff to fly, and took off upwards to get closer to it.

I could feel the seething mana within, hidden from sight by the enormous cloud. Just like its clashing mana nature, the contrast between the peaceful whiteness of the cloud and the angry writhing of the rock spiral struck me. At this distance, I could see how the Red part of it suddenly erupted from the orderly White, like a spontaneous burst of violence that spilled out at a moment’s notice. 

There’s a connection, but it’s… vague. Shifting my position on my flying staff, I focused on trying to deepen it. At least the snarl’s cloud is shading me from the sun. 

I wasn’t sure how long it took, but I finally understood the nature of the urge drawing me to it. It was the desire for adventure that lay sleeping within me, suddenly waking up and calling me to venture out of my comfort zone. Like seeing the mountain from the city and getting the urge to climb it. Just like how I made that connection to the one in Clover Kingdom. Just like the taste of adventure that I got in Orario.

With that understanding, the mana bond began to form. 

A sudden pulse from the snarl sent my emotions into disarray, and disrupted my control over my flying spell. For a moment, I hung in the air.

“Fuck.” My mouth expressed my opinion automatically.

Then I fell.

My heightened emotions expressed themselves the only way I could think of at that moment. “FUUUUUUUU-” 

The mana bond completed forming.

SPARK

And I was no longer in Arcavios.

The falling sensation I detested was replaced by the same mysterious one I always felt while Planeswalking, but this time, it felt like I was traveling even faster, like the snarl I just connected to was propelling me.

Then I entered a whole new plane, crashing into rocky ground. Thankfully, with my falna, I wasn’t that hurt, so I quickly picked myself up to look around.

Oh no… Did I do this?! This is awful!

Wherever I just arrived, it was in a horrible state. Wrecked buildings, corpses of people crushed by falling rubble, and there were some fires starting to spread. More worryingly was the feel of powerful magic around the air, as though some great magical working had just taken place. Oddly, some of those who died seemed to have just keeled over, but I didn’t detect any death mana.

Perhaps it was an impulsive decision from the lingering effects of the snarl, but it only took a moment for me to make up my mind. Raising my staff, I gathered my mana and began casting. The deaths were recent enough that the Revive magick would work on them, and I just had to  modify it to work on multiple targets at the same time. It didn’t matter if they had been crushed into paste by the buildings they collapsed on; the magick automatically targeted their remains and returned them to a healthy living state. 

Ominous silence was replaced by cries of relief and horror at the scene the revived people woke up to, but eventually all the dead people were back. They were looking at me in awe, something that normally would have made me uncomfortable, but I wasn’t in any mood to care.

The people I revived were generally attired in colored robes of red, green, blue or yellow, with a few children wearing white instead. Some of them appeared to be mages as well, using spells to extinguish the fires or to shift rubble for me to work. 

“You,” I pointed my staff at the closest person, a yellow-dressed man who froze and quickly bowed, “Where is this place? And who is in charge?”

“Um, uhh… here?” He stammered, “This is… Wave Circle Temple, o-on Ragat Island… And t-the one in charge i-is Dedicate Superior Huath.”

A temple… should have guessed. My memories don’t have anything though. 

As I had the man lead me to where this Huath was, I took a sniff of the air. Underneath the smoke and blood, I could smell salt water, which meant the ocean was nearby.

Huath was a man who looked like he had seen better days, mumbling to himself as he wrote in the sandy ground. I didn’t miss how some of the other people were giving him a wide berth, some even shooting him accusing looks.

“It should have worked? Why didn’t it work?” I could hear him asking himself.

I stopped right in front of him. “What did you do?” I wanted to know.

He looked up at me, his expression filled with confused questioning. Despite that, he still answered me coherently. “The earthquake, I tried to stop it. Seal it in a crystal, and use its magic.”

As he continued to lay out his plan, more for his benefit than mine, the pieces fell into place for me with a chill. The amount of Red mana lingering did match the chaotic power of an earthquake, one that had built up strength in its storage medium until its power exceeded the tolerances.

This person had caused the death of the whole temple.

The light of righteous indignation blazed to life within me, and the people nearby went silent as my body started to glow. Huath noticed as well, his eyes widening as he shrank back.

Perhaps it was the Furycalm snarl’s influence, but I was feeling very calm despite the anger within me. It demanded an outlet, and I just knew how to express it.

“YOU ABSOLUTE DUMBHEADED BLUNDERING FOOL OF AN IDIOT!”

Afterword: Another chapter coming from an enthusiastic muse! To be honest, I wasn’t originally intending to introduce Serafina Onyx, a.k.a. Liliana Vess, but it just happened as I was writing the scene of Roy leaving Witherbloom, and I ran with it. The return to Orario won’t happen yet, but this side trip isn’t likely to be long, like the initial visit to Seabed Temple. 

This world was one I had in mind when I came up with the magical school idea, though I still haven’t decided if Roy is to be a teacher or student here. I won’t state which world it is exactly, but it’s easy enough to figure out with a Google search.

Do leave a like and comment, and thanks for the support!