Tales of magic: grimoire of transmorfigration
Chapter 6
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Opening Arc- "Crow and Quill"
Chapter 6- "Quill"
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"Success and failure are viewed differently by different people. Maybe that is why the line between winning and losing isn't a straight one.
...Those who chase success at all costs, never tread a straight path."
~ Wisdom of the Insane by The Philosopher,1873.
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April 29th, Pridon.
Central city
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20:12
The door closed shut, just as Jordan walked through.
He looked around, discovered that he was indoors somewhere, in a spacious and luxurious room. It had large chairs and sofas with pillows. The general theme was white and gold.
The windows were shut, but the curtains in front of them weren't. However, the room was well lit, with expensive looking chandeliers hanging from the ceiling, and so many torches.
There was a pleasant aroma in the air, one that was also a little intoxicating.
Also, the room was devoid of people. There appeared to be no one there, apart from Jordan. Which made him all the more shocked, when he suddenly heard a voice.
"We were expecting you, Jordan Middesworth."
It was a female voice. An older lady, with a fine accent, and perfect intonation. She was better at speaking English than his former school teacher.
"I guess I was expecting you too."
'Who the heck is 'we'? I'm not prepared to fight two Mages. Is that even possible- for more than one mage to work together? I'm being paranoid. There is no conclusive proof that I have more than one enemy.'
It was a male voice this time, they didn't waste time in shattering Jordan's hopes of this fight being easy.
"I believe my Queen meant that you made us wait, which is quite appalling, considering your position."
'What is he even talking about? At least now I'm completely sure that that was the queen. I was sure before, though.'
"I did not mind it. Infact I would have been glad if you had spent a bit more time preparing yourself."
"You are too kind, your Majesty."
The female voice -the queen- laughed.
"Indeed I am, my friend. Indeed I am."
'What was so funny?'
Jordan had had enough.
"I'm sick and tired of this useless chatter. Let's get down to business, already. If I remember right, according to the rules, if both of us have announced our Names or Titles, we have to fight to the death. Come on! My Title as Mage is Quill. Tell me yours and let's begin."
"Or are you scared?"
The voices remained silent.
"You don't understand the true power of magic. I'm practically unstoppable.."
"The words that stem from your mouth are false."
Jordan closed his mouth. He was surprised as to how her words had so much impact on him.
Her voice sounded serious, with so much intensity, she almost sounded angry.
"You speak as though you have power. It might be my duty to show you what Unstoppable truly means."
"Ma'am...that wasn't the plan."
He sounded a bit scared.
Jordan was shaking. He couldn't explain why.
"Do you have any second thoughts? You must have some regrets, you should have trained more. You should have prepared more, right?"
A chill went down his spine.
"I will tell you the sad truth. You will never stand a chance against me, regardless of how much you delve into the works of magic, how much you learn and master, no matter how much power you learn to control or skills you hone.. You will never defeat me."
Jordan was shook to his core. He truly believed every word that came out of her lips.
He understood it.
'Her word is law.'
Shakily, he responded.
"Umm..maybe we could.."
"I accept your challenge, Quill. My title is Crown. In your own words, let us begin."
She laughed once more, mocking Quill.
Somehow, Jordan couldn't manage to be infuriated by that.
The moment her laughing stopped, something hit the front door of the room. Something started to bang, loudly on the walls, as if demanding attention. As Jordan turned towards the source of the disturbance, the entire segment collapsed.
An entire wall segment, as long and as high as the room was - easily more than 12ft - collapsed as an entity that took up 1/8th of the room smashed it's way through. This thing, looked like a statue. A great big moving staue made out of steel.
"No. It's not a statue. It is more like a suit of armour, worn by knights in the olden days, but it's much bigger."
Jordan felt like an ant. He didn't waste anymore time, he started running and preparing a plan of attack.
'I made her angry. So she must be using her full power against me -or at least she's serious about killing me now. This thing isn't her weakest summon. I'd wager it's probably among the strongest. I know hom much stronger she is now... And I must confess, Crown, you're weak after all..'
Broken furniture, glass shards, etc were flying all over the room as the Summon bulldozed through the room. Jordan managed to spot and pick a wooden stick whilst running.
Jordan continued to run, but the giant armour was faster, and was catching up to him. However, Jordan had already begun the chant for a spell.
"Spirits of fire, converge on my command, and follow the path I lay out.."
The young man dodged several falling pieces of rock, as the roof was falling apart, because the armour summon was taller than the ceiling and was tearing it apart with his head, without even trying.
Jordan swallowed, as he turned back to look at the thing, holding the stick and pointing it at the thing.
'A channel for Power. A straight line. Come on, work!'
"..that leads to my target. Fire Cannon."
A roughly cylindrical torrent of fire projected out from the makeshift wand, landing on it's huge target- the Crown's summon. The fire started to increase in size,width and intensity. Jordan could 'feel' more and more fire elemental spirits gathering together and bolstering the effects of the spell.
The thing continued to advance, not even slowing down, while the blast of fire, that was now almost as large as the Armour itself appeared to do nothing to it.
Jordan cursed, and ended the spell, using Quill/Inscribe to erase the diagram drawn on the ground. He turned his back and started running, but he was too late, the thing had suddenly decided to leap across the room to attack Jordan using it's abnormally huge sword.
Quill managed to dodge by releasing dozens of Explode spell diagrams he had already Written on the statue using ink this time.
Unlike the previous spell, this one was effective.
The force of the explosions that have been building up for quite a while, managed to push the hulking armour and its gigantic sword more than a few meters away.
It only managed to slow the contraption down , but that was more than enough for Quill to draw another spell diagram, inside the armour this time.
"Construct Wall"
And the earth spirits gathered inside of the thing's armour, sculpting a solid rock within the joints, eventually halting it's movement, right infront of Jordan.
"It worked!" Jordan almost jumped. He had realised that though the Summon was fuelled by magic, it must've had joints linking the rigid metal plates together. It did.
The construct spell was still in effect, and Quill was manipulating the spell diagram and sculpting the earth within the Summon to properly impede it's movement, in all of its limbs.
When he was done, he stood back and stared at the 13ft tall Giant of an armour, that moved on it's own and carried a sword- completely defeated and helpless. He grinned
'I wasn't expecting it to be this easy.'
'My new spells work splendidly.'
"Fire cannon didn't work at all, though. Was there some kind of magic protecting it from fire?" Jordan thought aloud.
Suddenly the armour Summon started to vibrate.
Jordan began to panic, unsure whether to start casting the wall, or attacking. He managed to do none of those.
The vibrations increased in frequency rapidly until, the solid rock holding the plates and blocking the joints, crumbled, and the Armour Summon lunged at Quill once again. Quill wanted to Write explode spells, but he didn't have enough time to give the spells more momentum. He decided to cast a barrier (Shield of Force) between himself and the Summon.
A line of ink and a translucent white rectangular wall stood between Jordan and his enemy.
However, the Armour simply ran through the barrier and smashed Jordan across the room, causing his body to break through quite a few chairs and tables and useless decorations, before slamming his back on the wall and slipping down to the floor. His back slick with blood.
All the while, Jordan's entire body was covered by a thin layer of translucent white magic.
'The barrier reduces force by more than 1/2. So without that spell,what magnitude of force was it about to crush me with?'
Not a second later, a large metal object flew through the air.
Jordan didn't get a second to catch his breath, because the thing's sword found it's way to his body. His scrawny body prevented him from dodging completely. Hence, the sword ended up piercing through his left shoulder and lodging itself into the wall. Effectively pinning Jordan's body to the wall at the right of the room.
Jordan screamed in agony and terror.
The Crown and the Seer were silent.
Tears streamed out of his eyes,. Blood pumpped out of the open wound. He was still reeling from the shock when the thing kicked the sword deeper into his body, piercing through flesh and bone as if it was made out of butter.
He cried out again.
The thing then proceeded to extract the sword from Jordan's body, in one swift motion causing him to shout again.
He fell faced down to the floor, hitting his head and almost losing consciousness. The intense pain brought him back to reality.
"Why .." he managed to say.
'I am a man. I've been shot more than 12 times today, I got through it. I can survive this. I have magic....'
The Automated Armour did not give him time to rest, swinging the sword down.
However, Jordan only had to think about it, to cause the explosion spell to force the sword out of the Automated Armor's hands.
He prepared this trick, whilst flying across the room a moment ago, believing that the Barrier would protect him from the worst of the thing's attacks without its sword. And if it decided to go and retrieve the sword, that would give him time to formulate another plan.
The thing stood still this time. Its helmet- with hollow spaces where its eyes would have been- appeared as though it was looking at Jordan. Watching him.
After a moment, it turned it's back and began to retreat.
'Why is it doing that?'
Jordan decided it was best to open his mouth and begin the chant for Body replacement.
However, he soon realised that that was a huge mistake.
The thing instantly turned back and kicked Jordan into the air, knocking the wind out of him. While he was in mid air, he quickly casted Barrier, but that wasn't nearly enough to protect him from the Automated Armor's brutal assault.
Jordan was punched, kicked, and tossed around the room, until he ended up, lying face-up nearly covered in blood.
The Barrier spell was still active.
The thing started to crush Jordan's chest, with it's right foot.
Jordan couldn't scream. He couldn't breathe.
He felt his ribs breaking apart one by one.
'I am going to die.'
'What was I thinking, challenging Her?'
'I was never a fighter to begin with.'
'I just wanted to win'
'I've run out of Power. I still have a few tricks I didn't use, but it wouldn't make a difference now. Because I am going to die.'
`Who said you were going to die, Jordan?'
It was the demon's voice. Time seened to stand still for them, allowing the demon and the Mage to speak privately, in the confines of Jordan's mind.
`You're interesting. So I will give you some advice, in exchange for a favour later. A favour you must repay. Now then, Do you want to live?'
'...Yes, I do. I want to win.'
`Good. I must first make it clear to you. You do not stand a chance at winning as you are. Because you are not Quill.`
'..what?'
`You still call yourself Jordan, do you not? You see yourself as Jordan Middesworth. But in order for you to survive this and have a sliver of a chance at winning, you must become Quill, so that Jordan Middesworth might die.`
'...'
`Have you ever heard of the ship of Theseus? The more of yourself you lose, the less of yourself you are. You have only lost a small part of your humanity. If you would win this battle, you must first lose it all.`
The demon chuckled.
'Thanks for the advice.'
`Don't thank me, it comes at a price. Also, never hold any grand Ideas that I am favouring you. I am not. I'm simply capitalising on your intense desire to win..`
The demon's voice gradually faded away towards the end of that sentence.
The world was normal again.
And Jordan was about to get crushed to death...
But He refused to lose. No matter what it would take, he didn't want to be a loser. He wanted to prove to the The Crown, to alk his enemies, and to everyone , that he wasn't weak.
He never cared for the name of Jordan Middesworth anyways.
Subconsciously, he had communicated his innermost feeling and thoughts, through his writing. The spirits had seen his runes, and read his heart through them.
They had asked him the same question the demon had asked.
"No. I'M NOT DYING YET!"
Blood poured out of his mouth as he forced his lungs to breathe out and say that. He didn't know where the power came from. He didn't care.
He wanted to win.
He stood up, forcing the thing's body to lose balance and fall.
And then he kicked the thing across the room. Soft crimson light was emerging from his body.
'Spirits of blood, flesh and bone?'
He instinctively knew it wasn't just them. There were other Greater Spirits at play, who had heard his desperate cry for help, and were ready to give him the power he needed...for a price.
Instantly summoning the Hammer of Force without chanting, Quill smashed the thing repeatedly, until it was damaged beyond repair. It stopped moving. He won.
It was only then, that the young mage fell to the ground, his clothes soaked with his own blood, his head facing upwards.
He wasn't Jordan anymore. Not inside.
He was Quill.
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"The boy might prove useful after all."
"To think he would damage one of your Knights."
".... He shall have his revenge for his sister's murder."
"You don't mean...Hunter?"
"Hunter wasn't the man that landed the killing blow. But it wouldn't matter to Quill. He will tear him apart."
".. Should I See if It would work?"
"No. I am sure about it. This boy is not ordinary."
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