"Fuck!" I exclaimed as I reached the front door of the tower. Alberto was standing beside me looking concerned.
"I think you should sit back and try to rest or heal." Alberto said. I chuckled and shook my head.
"I must be in a really bad way if I got you acting worried about me." I said. Alberto frowned and looked away.
"Fine, be that way." Alberto scoffed.
[You're too hurt Ssssstar Ssssshaper…] Alpa'nagia commented.
[You're hurt worse than I am, I just got a couple of bruises. It'll heal on its own.] I replied.
I stretched as Alberto and I walked through the tower doors. I felt a few things pop and groan but forced my body to work through the pain. Elder Luna and the other elders were still in danger, as well as the rest of the village as long as Raziri lived.
"Something doesn't feel right." Alberto observed as he looked around. I nodded and looked up the staircase to the top of the tower.
The black aura that seemed to infect the barrier around the village was so thick in the air you could track it easily. It rolled down the staircase in waves, coming from the doorway at the top of the staircase. The room where the elders met.
"Did that spell you cast stop working?" Alberto asked. I shook my head and frowned.
"It should last until morning." I replied.
I looked to Alberto and started running up the stairs, Alberto hurried after me. I channeled volt attribute mana into my legs to try and speed myself up and felt a wave of drowsiness wash over me. It took all my mental fortitude to not pass out. I stopped on the stairs and leaned against the wall, trying to overcome the drowsiness.
"See, I said you needed to rest!" Alberto exclaimed. I rolled my eyes and pushed off the wall.
"I'm low on mana, tried to use more and nearly passed out. I'll have to do this the old fashioned way." I said then went back to running up the stairs.
"What's the old fashioned way?" Alberto called after me.
"Good ol' fashioned beat down!" I replied.
"That doesn't work against splicers you hick!" Alberto yelled back.
When we reached the top of the staircase I had to stop and catch my breath, not that the black mist that was flowing out from under the elders door made that easy. I nearly chocked with each breath and had to lean over the rail to get a good gulp of air.
"This in not natural…" Alberto said as he looked over the door.
"Thank you captain obvious." I said with a roll of my eyes. Alberto sighed and turned to me.
"Look this is serious, there is a very real chance that we could all die if we don't work together, can you stop with the rude comments and work with me?" Alberto asked. I looked back at him and frowned.
"You literally just called me a peasant not even five minutes ago." I said. "And I've been working with you this entire time, even if you've been unconscious for like eighty percent of this entire crisis."
"That is not…!" Alberto paused mid-sentence then looked away.
"Look, you don't like me and I don't like you, though admittedly I like you more than Damon. The insults aren't going to stop mostly because you keep insulting me along with the lord of ass world." I said then leveled a serious gaze at him. "My great aunt is in there, I probably have cousins passed out somewhere in the village. My family's lives are at stake here, it doe not get more serious for me than this. Because if there is one thing that we take seriously in America, it's family…unless you're a splicer but that's another can of worms."
Alberto searched my eyes for something for a few seconds then a look of understanding came over his face. Alberto held out his hand and the farm crystal on his right shoulder started to glow.
"I heard from Astrid that you can take mana from people. Well take some of mine." Alberto said. I cocked my head sideways at him and gave him a suspicious look.
"Why?" I asked.
"Because…as much as it pains me to say this you are a better fighter than me, but you need mana in order to fight. I'm mostly a long range fighter, my spells are for keeping people at range and then slowing them down to make them easy targets for my evos. You're a all around fighter, wherever you need to be you're there. You're fast, strong, and dangerous. The chances for us succeeding increase as long as you are able to fight." Alberto said.
'Can't really argue with that…though I wonder why he's admitting all this right now…' I thought.
I grabbed his hand and my farm crystal started to glow green. My mana started to flow into Alberto and mix with his. Compared to Dwarm'moo he didn't have a lot of mana but it was still more than I had at the moment. I pulled my mana back towards my crystal and a good chunk of his mana came with it. His mana integrated with my mine and I felt a rush of energy, while Alberto looked like he was a little drained as I let go of his hand.
"Damn, you took a lot…" Alberto said.
"I think I'm at about thirty-five percent now…" I said. Alberto's eyes widened.
"You took all that mana and it only got you to thirty-five percent." Alberto muttered.
The room was pitch-black, as if there was a wall if shadow in front of us preventing any light from escaping. Looking into the black abyss in front of me I suddenly wished I had Bone-lasher with me so I could share my sensed with him. Alberto reached a hand out to find there actually was a wall of shadows in the doorway. He ran his hand along the wall and frowned.
"This might be why we can't get in touch with Lady Baset and the others." Alberto said. I nodded then pooped my claws and took a swing at the wall. My claws bounced off without making a scratch.
I frowned then started channeling shine attribute mana into my claws. The claws glowed with a golden light and I tried attacking again. The moment my claws got close to the wall the light as well as my mana got sucked inside and vanished. I quickly jumped away and stopped channeling mana.
"The fuck!?" I growled.
"Must be a axiom spell, a wall that is absorbing mama and using it to make it stronger." Alberto said.
"Axiom, my assiom!" I snapped then rushed over and slammed my right hand against the wall. My farm crystal glowed green again and I felt some of my mana drain into the wall. Closing my eyes I let the mana drain out of me but paid close attention to how my man flowed. My mana didn't get diffused and distributed throughout the wall like I had expected it to be. Instead it flowed steadily to a center point in the wall. It was the phantom of a spell sigil that Raziri used to create the wall.
I focused my mana and made it expand as big as much as I could theb tried to pull it back into my crystal. This was a challenge. Raziri's spell actively fought me as I tried to reabsorb my mana. After a moment I changed tactics and imagined my mana as tendrils leeching into the spells sigil and draining Raziri's mana put of the spell so there was noting to power it. I didn't expect it to work but to my surprise it did. I felt a surge of energy as more mana flowed into my body. A few moments later the wall started to crack, I opened my eyes in time to see the wall shatter completely and vanish like smoke.
"Mana manipulation for the win." I said with a chuckle.
"Well this is a surprise. I assumed that you'd be dead by mow." Raziri's unmistakable voice said from deep inside the elders council room.
With the wall gone Alberto and I could see inside the room, much to our horror. Astrid and Damon were lying motionless on the floor near the door, bruised and bleeding. Geryo was pinned to the far wall with wooden spikes through his hands and legs, hopefully unconscious. Baset was suspended from the ceiling like she'd been in Raziri's lab, bleeding heavily from her temple and leg but still conscious. Raziri was sitting in the center elders seat with Abra'bo,, Dwarm'moo, and Elder Luna encased in crystal and floating above her.
"Lady Baset!" Alberto yelled and started to rush forward. I quickly grabbed him and yanked him back before he stepped on the spell sigil on the floor in front of us.
"Don't it's a trap!" I exclaimed then pointed to the spell sigil.
"How observant of you. Let me guess, you're here to stop me from taking my revenge against the village" Raziri asked. My response to that was to point my claws at her and channel shock attribute mana into my claws then fired a lightning bolt at her. Lightning started sparking from her body and deflected my lighting bolt and sent it flying into the ceiling.
"What the hell?!" I groaned.
"Cute trick turning your claws into a crossbow but I've had the mana-nana manipulation spell for decades at this point. Anything you can think to do I can make useless." Raziri said.
"Enchantment and utility spells are useless against her." I said to Alberto.
"That spell is a pain…" Alberto groaned then looked down at the spell sigil at our feet. "Is that a enchantment spell?"
"I think so." I said looking down to read the spell. I suddenly felt Alberto push me and I stepped on the spell sigil. The enchantment spell sigil activated and a crystals formed around my hand and jerked me into the air, a half a second later the spell shattered and I went hurtling to the ground.
"Ow!" I groaned as I fell on my back. I heard Raziri's cackling laughter booming throughout the room.
"Well that was heartless! Using your friend to set off a spell sigil!" Raziri laughed.
"He's not my friend." Alberto said.
"No shit! Just wait until we kill this bitch. I'm giving you a nickname that makes lord of ass world seem tame!" I growled as I pushed myself to my feet.
"Kill me! You honestly think you can kill me?" Raziri asked.
My response was to channel burn attribute mana into my hand and flung a fireball at Raziri then rushed into the room. Raziri started casting a defensive spell sigil and wall of water formed in front of her. My fireball slammed into the wall and was extinguished.
Time seemed to move at a crawl as I saw the lighting bolt speed towards my heart. Instinctively I threw my left hand up to block it and then channeled gravity mana into that hand. A black mass of mana swirled in the palm of my hand and the air in front if me funneled into the swirl. The lightning bolt jumped off course and flew into the swirling mass of mana instantly broken down like the sonic vipers a few days when I cast that black hole spell. I felt a surge of mana and realized that the mini black hole had broken down Raziri's spell to pure mana and allowed my body to absorb it.
I smirked as I landed then pricked my index finger on my right hand. I quickly scribbled a few runes in my forearm as I ran and dodged more of Raziri's attacks. When I was done I sheathed my claws and channeled mana into my forearm. The runes on my arms glowed and flew off my arm and formed a spell sigil in front of my left hand. A long sword of solid shadow formed in my hand.
Raziri fired a lightning bolt at me and I blocked it with my sword. On contact with the blade the lightning was absorbed and broken down into mana.
'Oh I'm going to fuck so many people up with this!' I thought wickedly. Raziri fired more and more lightning bolts at me and I kept guarding, enjoying the mana that I got from each attack until my farm crystal started glowing red and I felt my body spasm violently. I let go of the blade it vanished in a puff of smoke as I dropped to my knees.
"So you learned about shadow, gravity, and darkness attribute mana being able to break down spells and allow you absorb mana. Congratulations! But it seems you forgot about mana overload." Raziri chuckled.
She shot me with another lightning bolt that hit me harder than titan and sent me flying into the far wall. Before I could fall to the ground ice spears pierced my arms and legs and nailed me to the wall.
"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHH!" I howled as the pain of mana overload and my impaled limbs made me nearly black out.
"AAAAARRRRGH!" Alberto screamed. I saw Alberto fly across the room and crash into the wall, sagging to the floor unconscious.
"ALBERTO!" I screamed.
"Wow if I knew you were going to be this easy to beat you all I wouldn't have wasted all that effort to guard my memories." Raziri said with a demented chuckle.
"Not to perpetuate a cliché but I'm not beaten yet." I said then channeled burn attribute mana into my arms and legs, which erupted into flames and melted the spears. I fell to the floor and screamed again.
"Yes, yes, you look so terrifying down there bleeding out on the floor." Raziri said. I felt my mana already working to heal and close the gaping wounds in my limbs.
"Fuck off, Psycho bitch!" I snapped and managed to flip her off.
"Psycho? That honestly the best you could come up with?" Raziri asked. My wounds on my legs had mostly healed at this point since the ice spears missed the bones on my legs, my arms were not so lucky. I wad fairly sure that my radius were shattered.
"Psycho sums you up well enough. You experimented on children! Innocent children!" I snapped. Raziri chuckled and waved away my words.
"I was innocent, you said so yourself and yet look at all the injustice I experienced in my life." Raziri said.
"Oh fuck off with this I suffered so everyone else has too bullshit! I heard enough if it from Anansi!" I snapped. Raziri's eyebrows went up.
"So you fought Anansi, let me guess you split your forces so that you and that other one could get here to stop me?" Raziri asked. I pushed myself up with my elbows.
"No, he's dead." I said coldly. Raziri's eyes widened in shock and she smirked.
"Well that is a surprise. I never thought your little group would be able to kill him." Raziri said then started casting a offensive spell sigil. "All the more reason to not let you live any longer…"