The final blizzard of the season was instantly melted as the spear from hell passed through the air. Everything within a radius of twenty five feet disintegrated. Even the air within the trajectory turned to small flames that quickly disappeared. This was the fate of a profound magical spell.
The people of the kingdom say the closer you get to what they think is the top, the closer the spell you cast becomes to the origin of that element. Some say the heat of the sun can even be surpassed.
Amaris flew directly next to the silent Landon Ruby. The fire eyes and short curly brown hair rustled in the blizzard of the snowstorm. "You did it, you destroyed it!"
"Yes, but only because it was distracted and the mana had left its body. Amaris… these beasts. The magic they use is likely not natural. Decay, disappearance, and destruction. We have never seen this before. What do you think is the cause?" Landon asked as he shivered in the blizzard directly next to the ice cold man that was seemingly unaffected.
"I understand what you are thinking. Nothing happens without reason. This magic… is not natural. I assure you it is being created from something, and that something might be what is underneath the whirlpool…"
Amaris and Landon stared at the charred chest of the humanoid beast. Smoke was slowly flowing into the sky and quickly disappearing from sight.
"Well, this is progress." Amaris said.
Rodrick joined the fray and added confidence and excitement to the conversation. "This was a tough bastard!"
"Yea, just imagine if you had helped us instead of culling the cannon fodder. You should be given a demerit for that…"
"You are a funny one Amaris. I am only doing my job, killing these beasts. Technically, there is no difference between the two haha."
Amaris' anger began to show in the atmosphere. The blizzard slowed, and the speech that was coming from Rodrick's burly mouth deepened and became indescribable.
-{The Catacombs, Northside}-
The nostrils of four wrinkly beasts were circling Elijah's body looking for a sign of danger. The shallow breaths were not something they could sense, only the vibrations of the sounds, footsteps, and destruction by its invader.
Small voices echoed in and out of his mind. Words repeated over and over without any order until they all made sense, and within an empty black space, was an ethereal being in the shape of a woman adjourned with white hair that glistened and flowed for no apparent reason. The front of the woman was the only thing Elijah saw from a distance.
"Remember Lukas, nothing in this world is impossible without reason. The elements, and boons from the gods that are not affected by time allow the events you cannot even fathom to occur. I wish I could give you more, but already, you have taken more than I intended. What makes me, me… Please Lukas, do not waste your time. The people around you have no meaning. You are everything, the anomaly within the place you are being reborn. Good Luck. I enjoyed the short chat, and I hope I can see your future face soon…" A kiss was blown, and the movie playing in his head turned to white noise.
Elijah's eyes slowly opened to the sight of moles baring their fangs. Without a sense of reality, action was only taken once his body was filled with pain once again. A sharp pain moved through the front and back of his head.
A quick and hoarse scream full of his voice cracking echoed through the cavern alongside the growling of the moles. However, this only lasted for no more than ten seconds. Without even moving his hands that were being gnawed on, the pressure and heads slid off their necks.
Lukewarm and slightly glowing water began to slowly wash over his body. Elijah could feel the absence of his mana, and almost everything to slightly heal and close his wounds was used. Immediately after standing, a sense of forgetting his balance caused him to tumble to his knees.
"Dammit! What the hell is wrong with me… I-I just want to sleep. I want to get the hell out of here…"
The impact from not just the gorgon, but also from exploding through the small entrance had a huge impact on Elijah's current state. His entire back side was inflamed, including the nerves concentrated around his spine. His upper chest right below his neck, his collarbones had been cleanly broken, but were quickly mended back into place with the small amount of water magic that developed his body earlier. Everything broken in his body was held together by strings.
The main problem however, was his head. Elijah's state of mind was in turmoil. Not just because of the mental trauma accompanied with being reborn into a new world, but the inflammation from a fast and hard impact, and the remnant memories of what he just saw and heard. It was impacting his decisions, and easily letting loose his good and bad desires. The option of calming down to absorb mana was the only action within Elijah's mind. The gears of his body had cracked and rusted.
Water once again enveloped his body like a cocoon, only this time, it stayed for quite some time. The pressure in his head likely from blood was removed, and the wincing pain every time his spine moved also passed. There were only three moles that came to slay Elijah, only to have their heads quickly chopped off.
His mind was on three different things at once. The new part of the conversation he remembered, the glowing orange core from the trap mole that was free to grab, and the magic core within the gorgon. Elijah knew the kingdom had this beast written in their records as having no magic, but what if that was false? It would make sense if the affinity had something to do with gravity, which is not noticeable to the eye, but that wouldn't explain the set of rules around its power.
What is an element that is extremely limited, but also similar to gravity?
Nothing came to mind, however, the Orange core he picked up from both the gorgon and the mole rat were similar in shape. The notion that mana cores surround the soul as protection, and the soul being the life of the core is an idea not contested within the kingdom.
Elijah could feel something within the asymmetrical shaped cores, a breath of life, but quickly stuffed them in his spatial storage and moved on.
The light footsteps made their way through the cavern.
'So… My space affinity came from someone. This person gave me their affinity, which is part of what made them who they were. I need to figure out what kind of person gave me this. Where are they? Do gods exist?'
Slowly, the sight of a large number of abandoned buildings came into sight. Elijah kept his head down to make sure no one saw his face. There was nothing he could do about being seen by other hunters and pedestrians that were roaming a little too far. The light coming from the concentration of buildings would ruin any plan of flying.
A cozy vibe of dimly lit torches and orangish-yellow magitech lights came into view . An effort to remove the obstructions above the mana barrier would be made with haste once the storm passes. A group of hunters a little older than Elijah allowed them into their group for an easy way back.