tobiasbegley

PSTH2: Chapter Four

Allergies are a frustratingly complex thing for magic to deal with. It’s distinctly possible to narrow the scope of an allergy with spellcraft, such as turning an allergy to tree nuts into an allergy for pecans. It’s also much easier to treat allergic reactions with magic than using purely chemical processes. The ability to remove them completely, however, has been frustratingly elusive. However, I have some good news on this front: we have successfully removed an allergy from three mice,...

The Fourth Gate: Chapter Twenty

The fifteen minutes of rest, healing, and planning went by in a flash, and when Dusk and I were pulled into the arena a second time, I felt much more uncertain. I had shifted a few things around with Ghostmind, since I needed to adapt my strategy, and this time, I was holding my bone spear in one hand. Dusk was floating next to me, spells whirling around her. Though I couldn’t see them, I could feel them, crackling within her cloud like lightning. When we appeared, Corra’s expression was ...

The Fourth Gate: Chapter Nineteen

I reached into my spirit and opened a path to Combat Echo. Within the spell there was a second version of myself, with all of my physical strength, and enough raw mana to match mine. It didn’t have all of my advantages, it was very close to my own level of power. I could see it in my mind’s eye, frozen in time, eyes peacefully closed. I snapped the protective barrier, and the other me fell forward from the tree. 

At the same time as I called my Combat Echo, I was drawing out mo...

The Fourth Gate: Chapter Eighteen

“Welcome, one and all, to the next round of the spellbinder division of the Elysian Mastery Tournament. Today, the sixteen greatest fighters of the upcoming generation will compete for the top eight.” 

Our short bit of training after Dusk’s event had flown by, but having told me she needed to tell me something, she at least seemed more relaxed. She’d also apparently spoken to Meadow about it, which had likely helped. But, our preparations were done, and it was time for what...

The Fourth Gate: Chapter Seventeen

Bonus Chapter Today

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The rest of the day, as well as the next two days, were a complete blur. I was in a constant state of training, rotating between Spriggan Step, Ghostmind, and Fungal Armor. That last one was probably the easiest to train, as it basically just involved Ed firing off Stone Arrow spells at me. Imbued with his legacy, they were powerful, and helped build my armor’s resistance to telluric magic. Ideally, I’d have been able to ...

PSTH2: Chapter Three

Attempts to create magian classes, certification levels, or other measurements of magian’s skill have been attempted for as long as humans have had magic, and they all have flaws. Levels might indicate a magian’s power, but not their skill, so the obvious was right out. But other things, like applied testing, fail as well. Different people are experts in their chosen fields. You couldn’t expect a master electrician to match a master plumber in plumbing. In this same way, you couldn’t ...

PSTH2: Chapter Two

Spell design is an interesting topic. Tracking the development is difficult, as the records from the era where magic first arrived are often lost or corrupted, but it’s believed the first spells found were from breaking apart essence hearts, and studying the natural Bond Primal patterns within them, though there are also those who believe that the development of stage III ousia sight came first, and spells developed from there. Whatever the truth, once humanity had its first spells, reverse...

PSTH2: Chapter One

Something people don’t realize about the end of the world is that it never comes. Even when the sky rains flame and magic detonates one in ten micro-transistors, people put their lives back together. Humanity’s a tough bunch, and as long as there’s one of us about, the world will be put back together, no matter how many times it ends…

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The Apocalypse and You, 375 Modern Era.

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I took a long, slow, deep breath, reaching out for the essence in the air a...

The Fourth Gate: Chapter Sixteen

“The Ghostmind spell was only consolidated into a singular spellform roughly forty years ago,” Orykson began, and I leaned back, plopping down to sit in the dirt and listen. It seemed like I wouldn’t be getting out of a lecture, despite my best efforts. Ah, well. 

“During the age of the Spirit General, the effect was actually composed of three spells, two natural treasures, and an unknown number of ghostgifts. The primary treasure is also called a Ghostmind, as it is where ...

The Fourth Gate: Chapter Fifteen

“Alright, out, out,” I said, waving each of them out of the way, even as I started unbuttoning my shirt. I wasn’t near as self-conscious about my body as I had been a few years ago, not with my full-gate spells having progressed so far, and it wasn’t like Kene hadn’t seen it several times or like I’d be completely stripping down. Even so, having Meadow, Dusk, and the witch watching me felt… weird. Thankfully, the witch grabbed Meadow and they dove into a shadow, while Kene and D...

The Fourth Gate: Chapter Fourteen

Satya’s form flowed back into the necklace, and I looked at Kiran. 

“I hope that if we meet in the arena, you can at least hold back my name, at least somewhat. I wear a mask not just as a trick, but also to hopefully give me a bit more privacy in my personal life.”

“I’ll try, but if it comes down to using your name or losing, I won’t lose,” Kiran said. “But… I’ll try and whisper it.” 

I pressed my lips together, but nodded. I couldn’t fault...

PSTH: Epilogue

The Woolworthy Corporation is one that needs to be watched. I believe that there is something else going on, something deeper that we aren’t seeing. Have you reviewed their quarterly tax audits and conducted independent employee surveys?

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Message from Vincent Angon to the Oceanseed Corporate Overreach Department, Circa 15 Minutes After Aiden Defeated Councillor Kingfisher

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Gawain stepped into the meeting room, only to find that his mother was already there...

PSTH: Chapter Sixty-Five

Perhaps one of the largest effects of magic on the world was the battery. Where pre-magical batteries required rare metals dredged up from the earth via damaging processes, the magical battery can be produced with simple quartz, which is abundant. With that in mind, let us not be too judgemental of the pre-magical cultures. While they have many faults, many of the solutions they had were filled with flaws as well. Of course, the reluctance to adopt a solution because it has flaws does not exc...

PSTH: Chapter Sixty-Four

All the world's a stage, / And all the People and Primals merely players; / They have their exits and their entrances; / And one Primal in their time plays many parts / Their acts being three stages.

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Modification on a Pre-Arrival Quote by an Unknown Author, Circa 117 Modern-Era

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Scales leapt forward, the magic around him surging and pulsing as he formed a shell of pneuma around him, entering his battle form, and he took a position next to Hex. I studied the...

The Fourth Gate: Chapter Thirteen

As I stepped into the apartment, Kiran shut the door behind me. It sealed with a chunking sound, and the wards hummed to life, powerful and deeply complex. They were primarily intended to keep people out, though, so from the inside I was almost sure that they were sixth gate wards in quality. 

I had been told that a competent person in their given field can reliably jump one gate, while an expert can do two. I thought I was a good general example of that rule: I could fight Arcanis...

The Fourth Gate: Chapter Twelve

Even with all the plans laid out, and a laundry list of things that I needed to do, I still had to take my best shot at fulfilling another promise: the earring. Ikki had told me my best chance to encounter Kiran, the mysterious blood and abnegation mage, was after the top sixteen, when we got our apartments. So while Kene and Meadow left to visit an alchemy shop with most of the remaining silver in my bank account, and Dusk and Kene’s grandmother got started on building a bathtub, I started...

The Fourth Gate: Chapter Eleven

If Number One had offered me just about anything else, I would have told him to get lost. One was notorious, and the more I thought about him, the more sure I was that it was the right choice. I didn’t know much about him, but if the rumors were true, he had a lot of connections in creating and peddling addictive illegal alchemical substances. I’d bet that part of the reason he lived in the Tower-City was because the Space King had barred Meadow and many others from entry. 

If ...

PSTH: Chapter Sixty-Three

The world is full of wonders. There were more than four thousand breeds of potato that existed in the pre-arrival world, and yet, most pre-arrival peoples within a thousand miles of here only ever saw a dozen varieties. The mass farming of the pre-arrival culture favored standardization and profit above all else – and not profit for the farmers, mind you. Profit for the very same people who crushed the thousands of breeds of potato, destroyed the topsoil, and ensured that plants would lack ...

PSTH: Chapter Sixty-Two

The development of an artificial essence stone is the kind of thing that must be handled very carefully, especially if it can be done at a moderately high price. Oh, why a moderately high price? Well, if it’s extremely expensive, then it’s not going to be a major advantage. If it’s cheap as mud, then it will ensure that people level as much as they want or need to. But if it’s in just the right category of cost as to be affordable to the people in the highest tax brackets, then it cou...

PSTH: Chapter Sixty-One

Average rates of progression are a difficult thing to both track and measure. Even in studies where people logged time spent in training, time spent in cultivation, ambient essence levels, the best estimate we can put together is that over the course of a long enough period, training tends to result in comparable essence gains to cultivating in an at-level environment. But where cultivation is a steady gathering of essence from the air, training arrives in bursts of variable size.

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