Robert Meta
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Brockton Bay's Marvelous Mage - Chapter 100
🕑 Added 2025-04-29 15:42:17 +0000 UTCI woke up the next morning tired, my brain feeling foggy and sluggish. I had pushed my magic significantly while making the metal tree the previous night and in more ways than one. Watching Olivia work her ritualized cloak like she had been had led me to a bit of an epiphany.
So far, I had been using magic like it was real-life programming. Input commands, input data, and watch the results. Any of the slight variations I put on spells were due to observable and quantifiable differences in casting, specifically in chanting and casting methods. And yet, with sheer force of want and will, Olivia had gripped the magic of her cloak and pulled into what she wanted.
Magic was not science. It was not hardcoded and locked in like I had been treating it. It was about intent, desire, and force of will.
It was clearly difficult to do, as the process of just shifting the magic of my metal control spell to work with my druidcraft spell had worn me down and rattled my mind. I also didn't really didn't know the specifics, but slightly altering a spell as I cast it, especially when I wasn't chanting, was clearly possible. Now, of course, there had to be limits. I couldn't imagine I would ever be able to cast a lightning spell and conjure water, no matter how badly I wanted it. I also had to imagine that some types of magic, like rituals and enchanting, were too precise to muddle around in the concepts blindly. But even with those limitations, it was still a significant discovery to find just how much I could influence what I was casting.
As for my moment of discovery, the creation of a living metal tree, while I was happy with the result, looking back, I realized I might have gone a bit overboard. I could have just as easily made a metal sculpture and decorated it however I wanted, but instead, I was determined to be extra and no doubt earned the label of a biotinker.
I cast a low-level healing spell on myself, which watered down the fogginess enough for me to think straight. I climbed out of bed, got dressed, and headed outside, stepping into the cool air of the forest compound. Kali immediately enveloped me in a warm hug, despite not actually appearing, before Alya corporealized.
"Olivia is still sleeping, but you should really thank her," Alya pointed out. "You were barely functional by the time you got back to base. It's a miracle you were able to teleport at all."
"Yeah... Dammit, that explains why it felt like I was hungover this morning," I said, shaking my head, rubbing my temple. "Yeah, I'll go grab us some breakfast. Kali, let Olivia know I'll be right back if she wakes up."
Kali patted me on the head before I got loosely dressed in my costume and teleported into one of the hidden alleys I used. Once there, I quickly changed into civilian clothes. About thirty minutes later, I landed back on the ritual platform with a bag of bagel sandwiches under my arm and two coffees in my hands.
As I walked around to the lounge area, chatting with Alya, I spotted Olivia, who was lying back in one of the chairs, a blanket covering her as she dozed. She moved and lifted her head as I approached, eyes latching onto the coffee.
Once I had shared the food and drink, we sat down and enjoyed a relatively simple morning. There was no patrol since the ABB area was covered by Smokey and his guardian teams. Despite having created them, I was still impressed by how well they were handling their patrols.
I was also pleased that, between the Endbringer recovery and through shorter meetings spread out over the last few days, I had gotten the chance to get to know the guardians I had created. I apologized for the callous way I had brought them into this world, and thankfully, most of them had accepted it and moved on. Be it a side effect of the specific intent of their creation, or maybe just because they had their own sort of brotherhood with the other guardians, they seemed to understand and accept the necessity of what I was doing.
A few stated they didn't quite like me, but acknowledged that someone didn't have to like someone to work for them. I would have been nervous about them causing problems if I didn't have the same link I had with most things I created, with their golem bodies. If need be, I could disable them with a firm thought. Plus, I could essentially see their consciousnesses with my magic, meaning I could very safely confirm that none of them were anything less than dedicated to the roles I created them for.
It was unfortunate, and it wasn't my proudest moment, but they were just too useful and capable to not continue making them. Once the Empire was wiped out, I planned on convincing Director Piggot to let me make a few more, before going to other cities and making them some guardians to help their heroes.
I would try my best to connect to them, but when I would inevitably end up creating hundreds of them, just being a vague creator to them was a sacrifice I was willing to make, especially when they had proven so capable.
Once breakfast was done, I sent Olivia back home before I set to work. I had a few projects I wanted to tackle, especially before the PRT managed to gather all the supplies I needed for their order of luck charms. Once they did, I would likely be busy for an entire day or more. Just because I could do multiple of the charms at once did not mean I could do them all at once.
My first project was one I had considered earlier in my career, but had ultimately brushed off when I put points into quick casting. Having drastically reduced my casting time had, overall, made relying on previous prep pointless. The last night, however, had proven that quick casting only went so far, and that instantly casting my longer spells was incredibly potent, especially my teleport spell.
The solution? The crystal bandolier. An all-leather belt with loops designed for bullets, which just so happened to almost perfectly fit the crystal points I used as spell holders. With a bit of leatherwork, I could divide the strips of bullet slots into four groups, healing, teleports, and lightning, as well as a small section for miscellaneous spells, just in case. The teleport selection was obvious, but the healing would carry my most powerful mass healing spell, the same I had given the guardians, while the lightning would contain a yet-to-be-designed mega lightning spell.
The process was time-consuming, as each spell storage crystal took its own ritual to create. It wasn't especially large or complex, but it was a drain on resources and time, forcing me to make another batch of higher-level chalk.
About four hours and three-fifths of the way through the whole process of running through the rituals, I checked my phone for a moment before finally spotting what I had been looking for.
It was time to help Alya evolve.
I quickly grabbed some supplies, double-checking with Alya again that she definitely wanted to take this chance to evolve and shift into something new.
"Yes, this would be a natural part of my existence, Warren," She said, repeating what she had said several times before. "I'm ready. The fact that it will make me more useful to you is only a side benefit."
"Right. Well, in that case, let's go."
After a quick goodbye to Kali, Smokey, and Piper, the latter two just happening to be on break at the compound, I teleported away with Troy, landing a moment later in streets outside of Houston, Texas, just outside the PRT headquarters, one of the many PRT locations Strider had shown me.
It was a risk, coming here specifically, since it was Eidolon's stomping ground, but needs must when the devil drives. Besides, from what I could read, he was hardly ever actually at his post, instead traveling around, taking care of various dangerous threats. Still, I made sure to appear quietly, as far away from the PRT as I could. Luckily, the streets were relatively empty, and simply looking up showed why.
The sky was a dark shade of grey, the cloud cover thick and roiling. The wind pulled and tugged at my cloak, picking up and dying down repeatedly. A storm was coming, the kind you could almost taste and feel.
"You ready for this?" I asked, feeling as Alya pulled in close around me.
"I am… but we should hurry, I can feel the storm rising up… it won't be long now."
I nodded, quickly hopping up onto Troy's back. We took it slow at first, making our way through the densest parts of the city before starting to pick up speed along the outskirts. Eventually, we left the city behind, and after nearly an hour of riding, just as the sky opened up and rain started to pour down, the distant rumblings of thunder getting closer and closer, I found a large open field.
A quick look around showed bo nearby houses, so I quickly rode to the center of the large open area. After jumping off Troy's back, I sent him away to the distant tree line, not wanting him to be a target.
Quickly, as the rain began to come down in sheets, I planted an acorn and created a ritual platform. With a quick spell to prevent water from washing anything away, I began to carefully draw out the ritual. For this, there were no material sacrifices since the storm itself was the material.
I finished the ritual and quickly charged it, sinking my mana deep into the lines and symbols. The ritual flared, and after a moment, Alya took her place at the center, coalescing into her "solid" form.
"I need to take cover," I said, having time to raise my voice over the storm. "Good luck!"
She nodded, and after a moment, I turned and ran to a nearby half-buried boulder, carefully digging a hole with Magic before sealing myself inside with an acorn-grown wood. The only opening I left was a narrow slit facing Alya so I could watch the ritual complete.
Already, I could see that it was affecting the storm, pulling it around us. A bolt of lightning hit on the other side of the field, then two more, before finally one hit Alya, and the ritual began in earnest. The wind and storm descended around us, whipping and pulling at the trees around the outside of the field, the ritual feeding off of it. More lightning slammed into the platform, each time followed by the flash of ritual as it greedily drank in the essence.
For nearly ten minutes, the storm raged around the field, the ritual drinking in the energy, the damage, the wind, and the lightning, feeding it all into Alya. At first, it was subtle, her usually calm presence becoming more solid, slightly grayer, the cobalt coloration of her hair shifting to a more cyan grey. Over time, sparks of electricity seemed to pass within her body, her form becoming one with the storm.
Finally, as the ritual drew to a close, the lightning, which had been striking faster and faster, suddenly stopped. For nearly a minute, the storm existed without the sound of thunder or the flash of lightning, not even the distant rumblings. Then, like a damn being breached, a pillar of power struck Alya and the platform, seeming to swallow them both. I could feel the ground shake, my body rocking like I had been slapped, a charges snapping sound passing through me. If I hadn't been strongly reinforced, I would have probably been knocked unconscious by the shockwave alone, even inside my impromptu wooden bunker.
Almost immediately, the storm shifted. It was still raining hard, but it was like an anchor had been pulled free, the storm pulling away now that the ritual wasn't holding on to it. The flashes of lightning once again became distant, and the wind was no longer dragging itself to the ground. The oppressive weight it had brought down on us had faded in a split second.
When I had finished blinking away the spots caused by the lighting, I could see that a crater had been blasted into the ground, tearing the platform into several pieces. I quickly ungrew my little bunker, collapsing the hole behind me as I shook myself off before slowly making my way to the crater.
"Alya? Everything good?" I called out, reaching out through our connection. "Alya?"
I reached the side of the crater just as Alya reached back along the connection. I could feel she was alright, but already I could tell that she was different. It wasn't like she was an entirely new person. Instead, it was more like how it felt to reconnect with a friend who had gone abroad for a few months or went to college too far away to see them regularly. They were still the same person, or being in this case, but you could tell that there was something new to them. Even if I could feel them, I couldn't see them, a dense fog clinging to the crater, obscuring my vision.
"I'm alright," She responded verbally before a small gust of wind brushed the fog away, revealing the newly evolved storm elemental.
Her long, cobalt blue hair had darkened considerably and was now marked with streaks of electric blue. She still looked ethereal, almost elvish and otherworldly, but her presence seemed more there, more solid. She floated out of the crater to my side, a smile on her face, and I could see her blue eyes now dancing with ice-blue highlights. As she moved, the streaks in her hair danced as well.
She was like a living, breathing storm. She even smelled vaguely of ozone, though whether that was her new normal or the result of the last lightning strike, I couldn't tell.
"How do you feel?" I asked, looking her up and down. "I like the darker look and hair."
"I feel good. More solid, more powerful," She responded, looking down at her hands, electricity sparking between her fingers.
The fact that she had manifested her form coherently enough to show her fingers was impressive, never mind that she would have been exhausted from playing with that kind of voltage before.
Suddenly, she raised her hand to the sky, and with a downward yank, another bolt of lightning slammed into the ground, digging the crater even deeper. The blast lifted me off my feet and tumbling backward, my skull rattled but otherwise unharmed. Alya was at my side in seconds, actually helping me to my feet moments later.
"I'm sorry, I didn't realize it would affect you so much… I'm going to have to learn to hold back considerably," She admitted, mumbling the last bit to herself.
"Yeah, don't use that on anyone unless I give you the okay," I said, using a general healing spell to wash away any side effects from my tumble.
Alya spent a few minutes experimenting with her power while I fixed up the damage to the field, first dissolving the exploded ritual platform, then filling in the crater before finally growing grass over it.
From what I could see, the evolved elemental could conjure a good bit of power before she began to feel exhausted, but her recharge time was fast enough that she would be able to consistently help in a fight. She could also create much more violent blasts of air and wind, even including some rain. She could even spread herself out more, observing a not-insignificant amount of space around us. It was an impressive upgrade.
We finally returned about thirty minutes after the ritual had been completed, Alya choosing to stay corporeal as we teleported back home to the forest.
Comments
Zai
Warren?
Miguel Garcia
BTW- isn’t each guardian supposed to be getting a psych evaluation by the PRT? Is that happening in the background? Did I remember that wrong?
Miguel Garcia
It would be interesting if one or more guardians defected to the PRT and kept being a hero. Because they disliked our MC. I’m not sure if it would make the PRT more or less happy with his powers though. It would show they aren’t slaves to his will, but then that also means they could be threats without our MC being a threat.
Al
Go ahead girl, with ya bad self!
Robert Meta
She is a storm elemental, standing under a storm....
Bishop7053
That's one hell of an upgrade for her
Dwhateverprof
congrats on 100!
David Green
Congrats on 100!
