Ar'Kendrithyst

Ophiel remade the severed stone towers, as Erick practiced on the ground.

He held out his hand and channeled [Force Bomb]. A cascading ball of white light appeared in his hand; like an illusion of an explosion. It sounded of something pure and singular.

[Force Wave] looked like a pulse of expanding light, that crashed against his skin to create more ripples in the air. It sounded like a muted gong; a traveling noise. A change that radiates.

Erick switched back and forth between the two spells, trying to hear for ‘intent’. [Prime Area] was crucial to both [Shattering Light] and [Carving Radiance], and many other spells besides those, according to his recent research. As he listened to the spells, he heard how to make them combine into something highly damaging, but the ‘soaking of intent’ was something else. Something not easily garnered.

He kept trying. Somewhere in his own attempts, Kiri began channeling the same spells through her own hands, ten-or-so meters away. Ophiel and Sunny played with each other in the sky, alternatively chasing each other. Sometimes Sunny would turn clear, to ambush Ophiel, and Ophiel would turn into light, with [Lightwalk], and return the favor.

Erick moved on to other, more easily visible intentions. [Telepathy] was pure intention, it seemed. Channeling mana through that spell produced a tangle of white streamers with meter long intentioned air whipping and cracking outward. He switched back to [Force Bomb] and [Force Wave], and resumed his search.

And then he remembered his [Detect Intent Aura]. He could have kicked himself. He turned his aura on, and the world was like an ocean, while Erick, Kiri, Poi, Sunny, and Ophiel, were minor snowstorms.

Channeling mana through [Force Bomb] was like having double vision. The white explosion of light was mirrored with another layer of power directly on top of the first. Erick focused on that unseen layer.

After another half an hour, he had separated that layer from the original; expanded it by a fraction larger than original white.

Erick played around with the spell. He eventually found success when he channeled the barest bit of mana into the spell; one point every second. It sounded nothing like the pure notes he was used to seeing, but it worked to see intent, without the mana glow obscuring it all.

He held an invisible explosion on his hand that was only visible with his [Detect Intent Aura] active.

He tried the same with [Force Wave], and found great success. A ring of expanded power gonged from Erick’s hand and crashed in every direction. [Force Wave] was the foundation for almost all scanning magic, so that made sense that the resulting intent of the spell was much larger than normal. Almost all of [Force Wave] was intent.

Erick smiled, as he said to himself, “[Force Bomb] is like a mallet that will trigger a [Force Wave] gong in an area, to soak the mana in that location with intent, to make it more responsive.” He smiled, saying, “Magic is just so awesome.”

He pointed at the remade stone tower in the distance, focused on what he wanted, and cast.

[Force Bomb]. [Force Wave].

A nearly-invisible point of white light shot forward to strike the tower with a silent explosion. Whatever change happened over there was out of Erick’s sight, and way too far for [Detect Intent Aura] to function, but a blue box appeared, confirming that he had done it correctly.

Prime Area, instant, long range, 70 MP

Designate a large area as under your influence. For 1 minute, your spells are heightened and others are lessened.

Erick said, “Now! The big question: Is that the good version?” He looked up [Prime Area] in the Script.

Prime Area, instant, self, 100 MP

Designate a small area around you as under your influence.

“Oh yeah. That’s the good version.” Erick called over, “Kiri! How’s your magic going?”

Kiri’s eyes looked into nothing. Erick looked up. Sunny was gone. Ophiel was gone—

Nope. Ophiel was floating over by the stone tower, next to Sunny. Erick slipped his senses into Ophiel and turned on [Detect Intent Aura]. From his vantage point above, the entire stone tower was awash in bright white intent, like a fog holding in the air. Wind from the north rolled the mana down south, like a moving sea that rubbed against Erick’s intent like waves washing over a sand castle. It wouldn’t be long until Erick’s magic was destroyed by natural forces.

Erick came back to himself.

Kiri called out, asking, “[Force Bomb] is the mallet, eh?”

“I guess!”

Erick moved on to the next part of the spell.

Mana Alter had a lot of parts to that blue box.

Mana Altering X

Bludgeon, Slash, of Piercing Damage

Force to Light, Blinding, Variable Cost

Invisible Force, Variable Cost

Force to Thunder, Disorient, Variable Cost

Force to Fire, Burn, Variable Cost

Force to Ice, Slow, Variable Cost

Force to Lightning, Paralyze, Variable Cost

Force to Decay, organic damage, Variable Cost x1.5

Chain, Variable Cost x2

Combine Effects, Variable Cost x3

Generate new effects. Variable Cost

Requirements: 10 Willpower

All of the parts of the Skill were for transforming Force into something else. This was normal. Force was one of the most blank-slate parts of magic. But according to what Erick had just seen, Force was also what came after intent.

Maybe Erick had that wrong. Maybe he did not. But the point was, was that Mana Altering a spell like [Prime Area] into Light, as the recipe called for, seemed like it was missing a step. You could only alter Force into Light, right? Not intent into light? Or had Erick, by virtue of casting a ‘blank’ spell like [Prime Area], made a different sort of Force spell?

Oh. Wait. Yup. That’s exactly what he had done.

Back to experimenting!

He channeled mana through the Light part of Mana Altering, and immediately blinded himself as his hand flashed to brilliance. He yelped and turned away, cutting off the flow of mana. After a moment, when his eyes cleared of bright dots, he turned on [Lightwalk], and tried again. He couldn’t be blinded as a person made of light, after all.

There was an immediate complication.

He couldn’t rightly channel mana through his hand like this; he had no hand to channel through, just the facsimile of a hand. And when he did try to channel mana, all he got was brighter. He could still cast his other spells in [Lightwalk] form, and spells like [Force Beam] still came out of where his ‘hand’ was, but using [Lightwalk] was obviously not a solution to the blinding problem of light magic. He dropped [Lightwalk] and conjured a lightmask on the upper button of his shirt, encapsulating his head, to block out half of all light.

This time, channeling mana through Mana Altering: Light produced a brilliant spill of radiance, but he did not blind himself. With [Detect Intent Aura] active, he even saw the intent in that radiance, like an overlapping image. But it was not an overlapping image of just one intent. Erick saw at least two. With focus, and time, and a very careful trickle of mana, he separated those two larger prominences into the light aspect, and the blinding aspect; like splitting a hair.

From there, it was the work of a few casts and combinations, directed at the stone tower in the distance, to see if he was working the spell right, followed by a concentrated moment to produce the first blue box, and then directly after to produce the other version, focused the other way.

Light Shift, instant, long range, 120 MP

Drastically empower your light aspect magic in a large area. Shadow aspect magic turns solid. Dark aspect magic is greatly weakened. Lasts 1 minute.

Blinding Shift, instant, long range, 110 MP

For 1 minute, your spells cast in a large area are naturally blinding to all except you.

[Light Shift] set the stone tower aglow, like it was a neon sign flipped on in a bar. [Blinding Shift] didn’t seem to do much, but upon asking Poi, it apparently made the tower uncomfortable to look at; like staring at the sun, but without the brightness.

Erick said, “I knew Mana Altering could be used multiple times in the same combination to make vastly different spells, but I didn’t think it would work quite like that.” He smiled. “Neat.” He called over to Kiri, “Hey, Kiri!”

Kiri looked up from her green glowing hand. “Yeah?”

“Do you know anything about splitting Mana Alters into their component pieces?”

Kiri dropped her hand, and began walking closer, asking, “Did you not get to that at Oceanside?”

“Nope.”

She said, “Some of the splits are more useful than others...”

Kiri spoke of a few different aspects of magic that Erick did not fully know. Splitting Mana Alters between the Elemental side of the ability, and the Affliction side of the ability, was necessary for producing light which did not blind, which was great against shadow monsters while remaining easy on the eyes of your fellow mages, or cheaper cost fire magic, where the energy of the spell was focused on the damage over time, instead of on the increased instant damage that was common to fire magic. The splitting of Decay into smaller pieces was a fundamental necessity for Poison Mages…

Eventually, Kiri just said, “But mostly, splitting the effects lessens the outcome. But it does reduce the cost.” She added, “I know we have books on this?”

“Yeah, yeah. But I didn’t read them yet.”

Kiri smiled.

Erick went back to his spellwork.

[Force Shrapnel] and Mana Altering for Light, but skipping the blinding aspects, produced a decent spell.

Riven Light, instant, close range, 7 MP

Sharpened light blasts forward, dealing 25 + WIL damage in a cone. Deals double damage to dark and shadow aspect creatures and objects.

Trying again, but going for blinding, produced:

Flash, instant, close range, 8 MP

Blind all seeing creatures in a forward cone, for ten seconds.

Trying again, but with both aspects of Mana Altering for Light at the same time, produced:

Broken Light, instant, close range, 7 MP

Sharpened light blasts forward, dealing 25 + WIL damage in a cone. Blinds for 3 seconds.

Erick laughed as the sun dipped down in the west. It was not sunset, it wasn’t even twilight. But it was getting late. He would continue for a little longer; he did not want to be out here at night.

I think I know which is the better choice for the next part.

Erick wrapped [Light Shift] together with [Riven Light] and pointed. A dot of brightness flew out from his fingertip like a laser pointer turning on, to crash into the stone tower in the distance. The tower and a large area around the tower flickered to neon white. Cracks formed immediately. In two moments, the tower collapsed into broken boulders of light, like a grocery store pyramid of oranges spilling outward.

A blue box appeared.

Breaking Light, instant, long range, 260 MP

Designated light breaks to pieces, dealing 25 + WIL damage per second to all in contact with the spell. Deals double damage to dark and shadow aspect creatures and objects. Lasts 1 minute.

The boulders of light glowed bright for a little while, possibly the full minute according to the box, but some of the smaller ones turned back to normal orange stone well before the larger ones.

As the glow fully vanished, Erick inspected the destruction from the air, from Ophiel. [Breaking Light] had not been as destructive as it appeared. When Erick had raised those stone towers from the ground, he had made them solid; five meters thick at the bottom, ten meters high, and four meters wide at the top.

[Breaking Light] had turned an apparent two meters of the surface of the tower into boulders made of light. The tower itself had been reduced to a five meter tall, thin spire, surrounded by irregularly shaped boulders.

This was why [Shattering Light] called for Mana Shaping for 500 and [Lightshape]; in order to penetrate the entire area, and make an actually damaging spell; a pile of boulders wasn’t going to do much, now was it?

Now that he saw the spell for what it could be, Erick had Ophiel rebuild the towers, while he played around with [Breaking Light]. After a few rebuilds and breakings, he prepared for the real deal.

As the sun dipped down, casting the sky into purples and reds and gold, Erick pointed at a fresh orange tower in the distance.

Mana Shaping. [Lightshape]. [Breaking Light].

The tower cracked like a frozen pond, then broke, then shattered, all at once. The entire structure and ten meters of ground beyond turned to light and separated in all directions. Gravel became a sudden storm of hail that buried itself into the dirt far further than Erick would have thought possible, leaving tiny glowing craters absolutely everywhere.

Some of the shrapnel sailed overhead, and crashed near Erick’s feet.

Kiri ducked, “Shit!”

Erick laughed, unmoving. “We’re way too far away to get hit, Kiri.” He added, “I mean. We could, theoretically, but—” A falling pebble struck him in the shoulder. His [Personal Ward] easily soaked the damage, but he had Ophiel cast a low-strength [Prismatic Ward] across the group, anyway. No need to risk a critical hit to the eye, or anything like that. Erick said, “I stand corrected. It didn’t really hurt, though.” As a new blue box appeared, Erick said, “It’s not really meant to harm people.”

Devastating Light, instant, long range, 860 MP

Break a large area to pieces and explode the shrapnel in all directions, dealing 50 + 3x WIL damage per hit and littering the battlefield with sources of light that deal 2x WIL damage per second. Lasts 30 seconds.

Shadow aspect magic turns solid.

Deals double damage to dark and shadow aspect creatures and objects.

Erick said, “It says right here, ‘Deals double damage to dark and shadow aspect creatures and objects.’ Pretty good, I think.”

Glowing hail plinked against the [Prismatic Ward] and the ground around Erick, Kiri, and Poi.

Sunny, however, was outside the shield, flying around, dodging falling glows like it was a fun game. After a moment of indecisive padding around on Erick’s shoulder, Ophiel took to the sky and joined Sunny’s games.

Erick exploded the final two towers he had yet to touch, causing even more glowing pebbles to fall across the twilight sky.

The mimics nearby didn’t seem to care about the light-aspect magic. The glowing rocks must have plinked into every mimic for two hundred meters, but the mimics did not move. They just shook their leaves to dislodge the glowing gravel and went on pretending to be agave.

- - - -

Back at home, Teressa had made a nice dinner, and it was time to eat.

Afterward, Erick went back to his library and cracked open a few books he had barely read before. ‘Mana Altering for the Beginner’, and ‘Mana Altering for the Practitioner’; the two Arcanaeum Consortium approved books for the beginner mage, meant for classes Erick had never chosen to take. While he read, he channeled mana through Mana Altering, dissecting the Skill into pieces, trying to understand everything it was capable of accomplishing. The books had a few experiments to try, and Erick tried a few of the less destructive ones, and while some of them were helpful in understanding something he didn’t already know, none of the two books seemed to say anything about channeling mana through the Skill, to listen and witness the magic how Erick was doing. None of them spoke about what Erick had seen with his [Detect Intent Aura], either.

Erick brought that up with Kiri, the next morning. “So why doesn’t anyone channel mana through the skill to listen to it? Or use a [Detect Intent Aura]?”

Kiri yawned as she rubbed the sleep out of her eyes, asking, “Did you stay awake all night? Again?”

“Doesn’t matter. And I took a break to make some more rings. Answer the questions.”

Kiri chuckled, sleepily, then looked over what Erick was reading. “Check higher level books?” She added, “But your methods don’t really work that well for me, so I doubt it would work for many. Nothing of what you do is normal technique, Erick. Besides! A lot of books are written with Scions of Willpower in mind, and they can’t endlessly channel magic all day long like you can.” She shrugged, jostling Sunny on her shoulders, saying, “If it weren’t for your success, I’d say you were doing everything wrong.”

Erick grumbled, “Mmm.” He looked down at his book for a moment longer, then snapped it shut and set it aside. He stood, saying, “If it’s morning it’s time to make more magic.”

Kiri asked, “Time for breakfast, first?”

“Of course!”

Kiri smiled, saying, “Good. I’ll make cinnamon pancakes.”

“I already made the batter and scrambled the eggs.” Erick said, “I was just waiting for others to get up.”

- - - -

The sun rose in the east, as a cold northern wind tangled in Erick’s hair and his clothes, sapping the heat from his body. It was technically Winter in the Crystal Forest, though you couldn’t tell most of the time, except for times like now. While the days were less harsh, the mornings were downright chilly. If Erick had been out here an hour earlier, when the sun had yet to touch the sands, he might have found frost on the ground.

“Time to warm things up,” Erick said, getting ready.

He had practiced extensively with separating out the pieces of Mana Altering last night. Separating highly damaging Fire from lingering Burn was easy enough, but the lingering damage of [Devastating Light] gave a great example of what [Carving Radiance] was supposed to be. Erick liked the lingering damage, so that’s how he would make his version of [Carving Radiance]. His [Luminous Beam] would be the direct damage spell.

Erick pointed at a nearby stone tower, 15 meters away.

[Force Beam]. Mana Alter: Fire. Mana Alter: Light.

A beam of white light shot from Erick’s finger, radiant and burning, to impact the stone tower like a hot knife through mud. The effect was… muted, to say it kindly. As the spell petered out against the orange rock, a small clattering of blackened stone broke from the tower to land on the ground. Those broken rocks steamed into the cold morning air for a while longer, but from this far away, Erick couldn’t really tell.

Firelight Beam, instant, medium range, 45 MP

A piercing, slicing beam of firelight that deals 4x WIL and lasts 10 seconds, and deals 2x WIL for 10 more seconds. Deals double damage to dark and shadow aspect creatures and objects.

It was a successful combination. The [Firelight Beam] in the Script only damaged for 3x WIL and 1x WIL.

Erick moved on to the next combination. He turned a little to the right, and pointed at a much further stone tower in the distance.

[Firelight Beam]. [Force Bomb].

The beam that leapt from Erick’s fingers was a dense, thin line, that struck the tower, exploding into burning radiance where it touched. Erick dragged his finger through the air a little, moving the line up and down the tower, exploding in great, bursting white fires everywhere the line touched, until the spell finally ended. The stone tower remained, though.

Firelight Blaster, instant, long range, 900 MP

A line of firelight explodes on contact in a large area for 5x WIL damage, lasting 10 seconds. Leaves behind fires that deal 3x WIL damage per second for 10 seconds. Deals double damage to dark and shadow aspect creatures and objects.

Firelight was pretty cool. Erick had briefly read up on all the other various dual-nature Mana Alters, but he needed to look up more.

The stone tower eventually stopped burning, leaving behind soot wherever the fires had touched.

Erick lined up his next combination.

[Prime Area]. Mana Alter: Fire. Mana Alter: Light.

A dot of intent unfurled against the blackened stone tower, soaking into the structure and its surroundings, turning the tower and the sand around the base into an ephemeral white bonfire ten meters tall, in the center of a white-hot land. It was not actually hot, at all, but it certainly looked like it was.

Firelight Shift, instant, long range, 190 MP

Drastically empower your fire and light aspect magic in a large area. Shadow aspect magic turns solid. Dark and water aspect magic is greatly weakened. Lasts 1 minute.

Erick watched as the structure slowly lost its radiance; the blackened tower reappeared out from under the incandescent overlay. [Firelight Shift] didn’t seem to do much on its own, but it was still rather beautiful.

He cast an Ophiel and expended the [Familiar] to create a safe spot of dense air around him, Poi, and Kiri, and then pointed, again. He concentrated on brilliant fire, and cast.

[Firelight Shift]. [Firelight Blaster].

A line of radiance carved through the stone tower, erupting out of the other side, then pulled right with Erick’s aim, slicing through the structure as it simultaneously set the whole thing aglow and exploding. Erick had yet to strike the second tower when the first tower and ten meters in every direction turned to light and fire and burst apart in a cascading series of explosions, scattering boulders and gravel and loose flame across the land, like a much quieter [Electrolysis Bomb]. The second tower exploded in much the same way, and then the third, before the spell ended. Flaming white stone crashed for two hundred meters in every direction, ripping past Erick’s [Ward]ed space, touching down on every nearby mimic.

Erick lowered his hand. He muttered, “It’s like too-close seats at a firework show.”

The mimics screamed. Some ran away from the spellwork, some ran closer, attempting to end the threat, while secondary and tertiary explosions continued to blast from the three spaces that used to be towers. Stone and sand rocketed from the ground. Flaming rocks rained, plunking into the soil, their radiance soaking into the land, brightening the coming day as they burned white, and burned everything near them. Mimics died, rather quickly. Those that ran into the flame died fastest of all.

Erick’s heart beat hard. His mettle faltered.

That was a dangerous spell—

No. He would not stop now. Not when war was coming to his front door. Not when monsters continued to roam and kill and maim and eat. He would not stop until the Shades were dead.

A blue box appeared.

Carving Radiance, instant, long range, 2100 MP

A line of firelight carves and explodes for 10x WIL damage, soaking everything damaged with power, then further exploding for 10x WIL damage. Firelight shrapnel deals 6x WIL damage per second for 30 seconds.

Shadow aspect magic turns solid.

Deals double damage to dark and shadow aspect creatures and objects.

Erick read the box and realized something. He turned to Kiri, giving her a copy of the box, as he asked, “Is this how you make your fire that explodes itself?”

Kiri read the box, her eyes going a little wide. “Yes. I made [Prime Area] a long time ago, but I used [Force Wave] and [Force Shrapnel]. I tried making it with [Force Bomb] yesterday, but that didn’t turn out well.” She dismissed Erick’s box, adding, “I’ve probably got a few more days to get that one right and then I’m going to remake everything.” She turned to face the glowing craters all around. “I think… I really like the entire idea of firelight. That was amazing.”

Erick gazed out at the burning, bright land, and said, “It is rather beautiful, in a way.” He asked, “Hey, did you ever talk to Maia, next door, about her fire magic?”

Kiri blinked, like she had heard something weird. She asked, “It would be okay to talk to other mages about magic while I’m your apprentice?” She answered, “No. That would not be okay. I’m not going to be doing that.”

“Oh. Well. When you put it like that...” Erick said, “Ah. Well. It’s time to test out Decay magic. Have you ever tried that? Poison spells?”

“Not extensively. Fire and Decay both have similar damage over time components, but in normal practice they’re very different. Fire seeks to consume, turning mass into more fire. Decay seeks to poison, turning that mass into more poison. You need a critical mass to start a cascading effect of either, but Fire will burn itself out while Decay does better as you get more and more of it in the same place. In this way, Fire and Decay are at odds with each other, though I’m absolutely sure someone out there could prove that theory wrong. Not me, though.” Kiri said, “There’s just so many ways to Decay, too. Like...” She looked to the air, thinking. She said, “Flesh Decay. Wood Decay. Metal Decay… Bone Decay… Magic Decay; that used to be called Extreme Light, long ago... Growing Decay; but that’s hard-limited by the Propagation Ban which is why Fire is better; as an element that burns out, you can get away with more propagation—” She shrugged, “You get the idea.”

Erick smiled. Kiri was smart, and he was glad to have her for an ‘apprentice’. He teased, “And don’t forget the Health cost skills to attune the Decay.”

“Eh!” She said, “I don’t think you’d have to do that. [Blind] and [Deaf] are useful in creating those toxins, but they’re primarily useful in experimenting on yourself, and building up an immunity. You could probably make a Decaylight spell with that ‘extra damage against shadows’ part and do just fine, since you’re targeting shadows, specifically, and Light is already in Mana Altering.”

Erick kept smiling. As the pools of firelight all around the experiment began to cool, and dim in the daylight, Erick said, “We’ll shelve that idea for later, but for now! I have another spell to make, and for this one—” He conjured a [Teleporting Platform] out of the sands in front of him, outside of the [Prismatic Ward]. Stone coalesced into a hovering circle of rock, with ‘[Teleport]’ written in Ancient Script rounding the center. Erick summoned another Ophiel, then expended that Ophiel to cast a full strength [Prismatic Ward] over the hovering space. Erick stepped forward, onto the platform, saying, “Time to take to the air.”

Kiri and Poi followed. Ophiel twittered on Erick’s shoulder.

“Oh. Right.” Erick cast a [Lightmask] around the platform. “Can’t forget that one.”

- - - -

In another part of the Crystal Forest, not too far away from the morning’s experiments, where mimics soaked up sunlight and whatever explosions had happened here had happened a long time ago, Erick hovered in the sky, on his platform. He stepped to the edge of the floating rock, and thought of all the things he knew of high powered light, and what he had seen the Poison Archmage from the Wasteland accomplish. She had laid down poison for kilometers, killing absolutely everything. Whoever she was, she likely had a family history of poison magic to draw upon. The prevalence of poison was one of the things that turned the Wasteland into the Wasteland during their civil wars 45 years ago, after all.

But Erick had none of that.

What he had was a bit of knowledge, and an imagination. He filled his mind with thoughts of clouds that he had already conjured well before now, then filled those clouds with gamma rays, and microwaves, with light and color, and so much heat, flashing inside of a heavy, cloying cloud that would kill everything inside of itself through sheer illuminated might...

… But this entire spell went against everything he had ever been as a person, didn’t it? To kill, indiscriminately? To lay waste to all life?

Erick knew there was a need for magic like this. He knew it, unequivocally. He had seen the need for such a spell, first hand. He had killed over two-point-five million mimics himself, stopping their charge into inhabited lands! Veird needed magic like this to stop the monsters.

So he set aside most of his objections, and did what needed to be done.

Erick had already cleared this spell with Phagar; it would work. But right now, in the moment, Erick prayed to anyone who might be listening, hoping that he was doing the right thing.

He spoke to the sky,

“Tap the sky, vibrate the light. Micro, Ultra, Gamma’s blight.

“Sink low the glow, reflected depths! Darker brighter, heaven’s doom!

“Trap the sky, negate the night. Micro, Ultra, Gamma’s blight.

“Here was a land of life and bloom, now all there is, is [Vivid Gloom].

Mana ripped from Erick like flayed skin, cold and hot and cold again, to rush out into the manasphere, to enact his bloody will. Poi rapidly tapped him with the rod of [Treat Wounds], before Erick could fall to his knees, or off the platform.

And then it started.

The blue sky thumped half a kilometer up and away, high above, like a god tapping on a barrier, testing its worth. It wasn’t worth much. Cracks appeared, splintering and spiderwebbing from a hundred small breaks in the heavens, revealing bright prismatic glows beyond. The Mana Ocean rushed across the Crystal Forest and seemed to fill Erick’s ears, inundating him with sound and wonder and terror, as dense white light, like slime, rained down from the holes in the sky.

The sky broke.

White light flooded down, taking long enough for Erick to think of what he had done, and find remorse and then hope, before light shifted to dark. Erick felt his heart sink, as uncountable prismatic white lightfalls touched down, and became endless black clouds that billowed outward, and began to spread.

Kiri yelled something behind Erick, but he couldn’t hear her; all he heard was the rushing shadows crawling across the Crystal Forest, coming for him, and everyone else. His floating platform was only twenty-or-so meters above the ground. The dark clouds— The fully black and flashing white clouds would easily swallow him whole. He tried to move; he saw the problem as it was coming for him, but he couldn’t.

Smiling eyes seemed to stare at him from that darkness, or maybe he had just been awake for too long.

Unexpected talons grabbed his shoulder, digging in, flickering Erick’s [Personal Ward] to white, before blipping away in a smattering of green glows.

Time slowed.

Black clouds crawled across the desert below, gently engulfing agave and mimics, like slow moving mist, flashing brightness as the cloud touched each one, and the ground.

Poi’s voice came to him, calm as ever,‘Sir. We should evacuate.’

Erick watched the cloud come at them. It was a wall of black, that hid so, so much light inside.

‘Sir?’ Poi asked, slightly more insistent.

Something clicked in Erick’s mind. He blinked.

‘Right... Right!’ Erick sent, ‘Hang on. We’re going up.’

The platform blipped white, taking Erick and Poi high above the black clouds.

Time resumed. Many, many blue boxes appeared, but Erick ignored them as he continued to watch the white and black spell unfurl across the Crystal Forest. Erick was initially wary of the color, but with a bit of distance, he saw how his wishes had manifested. The cloud was full of light, but the outside was black, because he desired the spell to soak up all light and trap it inside, to damage everything it touched. The outside was black because that’s how light worked when it only went one way.

He summoned an Ophiel and coated him in a [Personal Lightmask], then sent the [Familiar] down into the cloud. With a shift of view, Erick saw through Ophiel’s eyes, and it was exactly as bright as Erick expected. The dark ‘coating’ of the spell seemed to be a mirror finish, too, but Erick couldn’t really tell. Ophiel, even under the effect of [Lightmask], was no match for the power of the spell. Erick came back to himself well before he was ready.

He looked up, and out. Radiance crashed down from the sky, turning to darkness before it reached the ground. The black cloud laid a kilometer out in every direction by now, but it continued to grow. Maybe it grew a bit more to the south than any other direction, because that’s how the wind was flowing.

Erick searched through his recent blue boxes, ignoring the mimic kills, to find the spell creation notifications. He found [Vivid Gloom] fast enough.

Vivid Gloom 1, instant + 10 minutes, super long range, 500 MP

Chaotic radiance expands to fill a super large area, dealing every second to all inside. Spell lasts after conjuring is complete. Effects last longer.

Particle Mage Only.

Rozeta thanks you for enriching the Script.

+3 ability points.

That’s really not that bad compared to some of the other Decay magic out there. Also: See other note. ~Rozeta.

The ‘Effects last longer’ was scary, and the listing for ‘Cancer’ was a whole mess of a psychological issue, but the ‘see other note’ at the end was truly worrying. Erick saw no other note. As he glanced up at the cracked sky of [Vivid Gloom], ten minutes must have passed, because the sky began to heal over. The luminous waterfall began to slow, and then stop. As the final drops of light fell to join the black cloud below, another blue box popped up. This one was much longer.

We’re finalizing the upcoming introduction of Particle Magic to the Script, and I can tell you now that smaller versions of every spell you’ve made will join the Script in the usual way, but different. Large-size rainclouds from [Call Lightning] for those who have all the prerequisites. Large size [Luminous Beam]s next year for those who understand light and gamma ray bursts and black hole ejections; but I suspect that won’t happen for a long time. I suspect large-size [Withering]s will be the most popular spell you’ve made, but [Electrolysis Bomb] could be up there, too.

So if you don’t want something you’ve made to make it to the Script, talk to a Registrar and we can erase that spell from your Status, and prevent its implementation in the Script.

Also: I am taking your opinion on how Particle Magic should be implemented, and doing so. Nothing should change for you, personally, but the Basic Tier of Particle Magic will be [Condense Particle]. [Condense Particle] will have to be transformed into tier 2 spells like [Condense Hydrogen] on an individual basis. Everything else will have to be built up from there.

Kiri blipped onto the hovering platform while Erick was reading. She stared outward, at the black cloud settling onto the Crystal Forest below.

When Erick was done reading, he watched the black cloud with her.

[Vivid Gloom] had leveled to 3 with one cast; the part that read ‘Spell lasts after conjuring is complete’ had turned into 21 minutes. The next time Erick cast this spell, it would last a lot longer, but the numbering scheme seemed a little off. Erick figured that when [Vivid Gloom] got up to level 10, the black cloud would last a whole hour.

But the spell on the ground right now was only level 1. It wasn’t long before the dark cloud began to glitter harder than before, mainly at the edges and the twists in the darkness. The black shell was breaking, and as it broke, it revealed a dazzling and dissipating sea of light. Darkness cracked across the cloud, as the spell died.

Kiri shielded her eyes, but did not look away, as she muttered, “Wow.”

Erick blinked out brightness from his eyes— And that would take too long. He conjured another Ophiel and covered him in a [Lightmask] before sending him down to see the aftermath of [Vivid Gloom].

With eyes uncluttered by the drawbacks of flesh, Erick saw the ground, and it looked rather normal. But then he saw a mimic. Ophiel flew closer. The mimic was clearly dead. Its faux crystal arms were laid at its side, on the ground, limp and useless and cloudy. The entire mimic was cloudy, now that Erick could see better. Ophiel got closer. Liquids pooled out from the center of the mimic, and from the blue-brown sludge between its limbs. That sludge was juvenile mimics.

[Vivid Gloom] had killed the juveniles.

Erick checked a nearby crystal agave, and it stood tall and proud, with zero cloudiness inside its crystalline leaves. Plants did well with radiation, after all, didn't they?

… viewing the destruction, Erick realized what he had made. [Vivid Gloom] was ionizing radiation. It was gamma rays. It was nuclear fallout. Radiation destroyed magic. It even said as much in the box! Shit!

Erick came back to himself and hurriedly checked the edge of the floating platform, where the edge of the [Lightmask] held just beyond the floating stone. The [Lightmask] was degrading. Like chips smacked from a stone wall, the [Lightmask] was breaking. In some locations, it had already broken down to the [Prismatic Ward] under that. The [Prismatic Ward] seemed okay, but who knew about these sorts of things! Shit!

“I can fix this,” Erick said, half frantically. “[Cleanse] and [Conjure Force Elemental]!”

Kiri, nonchalant, asked, “Fix what? Looks like you did it right, to me?”

“It’s Extreme Light, Kiri!” Erick glanced down at the dead land far below, and decided, “I can fix it later. We have to get out of here before something breaks.” He asked Kiri and Poi, “Are you two ready to [Teleport]? We have to go.”

Poi said, “Sir. We’re fine. The platform is stable.”

“We’re not fine!”

“Erick!” Kiri stared at him, holding him still. “Relax! This is a good spell. Just recast your [Lightmask]. It’s not decaying that fast. We were never exposed, and Extreme Light isn’t a big deal when you’re ready for it, and you were. The spell is over.” She let go, and smiled, saying, “It’s a good thing you didn’t stay down there and let it wash over you, though!”

Erick breathed. He recast the [Lightmask] across the platform. He nodded. Kiri was right. No need to get all worked up. He muttered, “It’s just radiation, and I can fix that. Right. [Cleanse] exists.”

Kiri said, “I think we need to leave and come back tomorrow, after you’ve slept, and see how long it takes the mimics to return.” She asked, “It’s a lingering effect, right? What does the box say?”

“… Right.” Erick handed Kiri and Poi a copy of [Vivid Gloom], and said, “You’re right. Sorry. I got a little… strange, there.”

Kiri smiled as she read the box, then dismissed it, saying, “I don’t think you can Aurify that one.”

Poi agreed, “Probably for the best not to try.”

Erick gave a single, “Ha.”