Page 67
Story: Mantle
And then he reached out to the glowing containment field trapping the medallion within. Floating runes circled its perimeter—interlocked spirals, one gold, one blue-black.
He called his vibrant-blue magic and swept it over the expanse of it, a few inches from actually touching it.
“It’s not ancient,” I spoke, not feeling anything of the sort as I scented it and breathed the magic in.
“No. It’s not. Hold on… there’s something…”
A thunderous pop sounded and I jerked my head around to see that Kai and Ariana had disintegrated their opponents.
“I can’t… this requires equilibrium, but I can’t determine the parameters.” His gaze flicked to mine. “If they’re not precise and we don’t balance it correctly, the whole thing will implode.”
“Like a magical bomb?”
“Pretty much, yeah.” He turned toward the sky and called out, “Kai! Need your expertise!”
As Kai swung his head toward him, two more Threniths blasted into the Rifted Cradle.
“Go!” Ariana told him, her voice carrying across the sky. “We can’t complete the mission without you over there!”
Kai gave her a chin lift, then levitated over—his rose-gold magic flaming from each palm, pointed down toward the ground hundreds of feet below, carrying him with floating grace.
I was about to move to go to Ariana, to essentially switch places with him, when the ground shook beneath our feet, a deep rumbling and cracking following in seconds.
“Holy… damn,” Nyx uttered, as we saw the ground split open, then three beings clawing their way out and up toward us.
Hulking masses of stone and metal, their heads featureless, torsos wide, and their fists crackling with kinetic energy.
Kai touched down right beside me, then immediately focused on the containment field.
His magic sizzled, concentrating at his fingertips as he swept his hand across the pedestal, carving out a large rectangular panel. Once complete, he pulled it free, revealing a glowing reservoir of magical liquid within.
“That’swhat we need to balance.”
“The parameters we’re working with… wow,” Nyx uttered.
“If we try to extract the medallion without perfect balance being struck according to this level, it will disintegrate, then the magic will erupt all fucking over us.”
“So we use the Twin Spiral? Like what we created in Professor Caelum’s class?”
“Yes,” Kai confirmed. “It needs synced opposing magic: elemental and arcane—one amplifying, one destabilizing.”
Nyx shifted his weight. “All right, let’s do it.”
A quake shook the stone beneath our feet and I spun just as one of the stone beings thrust their hand out, trying to grab at my leg to haul themselves onto the platform.
A blast of silver magic sent it reeling back and falling down onto the rocks below that it had emerged from.
I looked up at the sky. “Thank you, gorgeous!”
Ariana winked at me, then focused back on dealing with the Threniths.
I turned back to see that Kai and Nyx were already going for it, starting the balancing.
Two spirals of raw force were rotating in opposite directions, pushing and pulling against each other like magical gears, one crackling with rose-gold lightning, the other swirling with blue elemental wind.
The containment field shuddered, a sign that it was working.
Another very good sign was the magical level shifting, the pink liquid within moving closer to the center point.
He called his vibrant-blue magic and swept it over the expanse of it, a few inches from actually touching it.
“It’s not ancient,” I spoke, not feeling anything of the sort as I scented it and breathed the magic in.
“No. It’s not. Hold on… there’s something…”
A thunderous pop sounded and I jerked my head around to see that Kai and Ariana had disintegrated their opponents.
“I can’t… this requires equilibrium, but I can’t determine the parameters.” His gaze flicked to mine. “If they’re not precise and we don’t balance it correctly, the whole thing will implode.”
“Like a magical bomb?”
“Pretty much, yeah.” He turned toward the sky and called out, “Kai! Need your expertise!”
As Kai swung his head toward him, two more Threniths blasted into the Rifted Cradle.
“Go!” Ariana told him, her voice carrying across the sky. “We can’t complete the mission without you over there!”
Kai gave her a chin lift, then levitated over—his rose-gold magic flaming from each palm, pointed down toward the ground hundreds of feet below, carrying him with floating grace.
I was about to move to go to Ariana, to essentially switch places with him, when the ground shook beneath our feet, a deep rumbling and cracking following in seconds.
“Holy… damn,” Nyx uttered, as we saw the ground split open, then three beings clawing their way out and up toward us.
Hulking masses of stone and metal, their heads featureless, torsos wide, and their fists crackling with kinetic energy.
Kai touched down right beside me, then immediately focused on the containment field.
His magic sizzled, concentrating at his fingertips as he swept his hand across the pedestal, carving out a large rectangular panel. Once complete, he pulled it free, revealing a glowing reservoir of magical liquid within.
“That’swhat we need to balance.”
“The parameters we’re working with… wow,” Nyx uttered.
“If we try to extract the medallion without perfect balance being struck according to this level, it will disintegrate, then the magic will erupt all fucking over us.”
“So we use the Twin Spiral? Like what we created in Professor Caelum’s class?”
“Yes,” Kai confirmed. “It needs synced opposing magic: elemental and arcane—one amplifying, one destabilizing.”
Nyx shifted his weight. “All right, let’s do it.”
A quake shook the stone beneath our feet and I spun just as one of the stone beings thrust their hand out, trying to grab at my leg to haul themselves onto the platform.
A blast of silver magic sent it reeling back and falling down onto the rocks below that it had emerged from.
I looked up at the sky. “Thank you, gorgeous!”
Ariana winked at me, then focused back on dealing with the Threniths.
I turned back to see that Kai and Nyx were already going for it, starting the balancing.
Two spirals of raw force were rotating in opposite directions, pushing and pulling against each other like magical gears, one crackling with rose-gold lightning, the other swirling with blue elemental wind.
The containment field shuddered, a sign that it was working.
Another very good sign was the magical level shifting, the pink liquid within moving closer to the center point.
Table of Contents
- Page 1
- Page 2
- Page 3
- Page 4
- Page 5
- Page 6
- Page 7
- Page 8
- Page 9
- Page 10
- Page 11
- Page 12
- Page 13
- Page 14
- Page 15
- Page 16
- Page 17
- Page 18
- Page 19
- Page 20
- Page 21
- Page 22
- Page 23
- Page 24
- Page 25
- Page 26
- Page 27
- Page 28
- Page 29
- Page 30
- Page 31
- Page 32
- Page 33
- Page 34
- Page 35
- Page 36
- Page 37
- Page 38
- Page 39
- Page 40
- Page 41
- Page 42
- Page 43
- Page 44
- Page 45
- Page 46
- Page 47
- Page 48
- Page 49
- Page 50
- Page 51
- Page 52
- Page 53
- Page 54
- Page 55
- Page 56
- Page 57
- Page 58
- Page 59
- Page 60
- Page 61
- Page 62
- Page 63
- Page 64
- Page 65
- Page 66
- Page 67
- Page 68
- Page 69
- Page 70
- Page 71
- Page 72
- Page 73
- Page 74
- Page 75
- Page 76
- Page 77
- Page 78
- Page 79
- Page 80
- Page 81
- Page 82
- Page 83
- Page 84
- Page 85
- Page 86
- Page 87
- Page 88
- Page 89
- Page 90
- Page 91
- Page 92
- Page 93
- Page 94
- Page 95
- Page 96
- Page 97
- Page 98
- Page 99
- Page 100
- Page 101
- Page 102
- Page 103
- Page 104
- Page 105
- Page 106
- Page 107
- Page 108
- Page 109
- Page 110
- Page 111
- Page 112
- Page 113
- Page 114
- Page 115
- Page 116
- Page 117
- Page 118
- Page 119
- Page 120
- Page 121
- Page 122
- Page 123
- Page 124
- Page 125
- Page 126
- Page 127
- Page 128
- Page 129
- Page 130
- Page 131
- Page 132
- Page 133
- Page 134
- Page 135
- Page 136
- Page 137
- Page 138
- Page 139
- Page 140
- Page 141
- Page 142
- Page 143
- Page 144
- Page 145
- Page 146
- Page 147
- Page 148
- Page 149
- Page 150
- Page 151
- Page 152
- Page 153
- Page 154
- Page 155
- Page 156
- Page 157
- Page 158
- Page 159
- Page 160