CH 24 - Gauss the Golden

Dainn

"No!" I scream at the goddess. "Leave her alone! You call yourself Joy, so don't take mine away!"

She gives me a sorry excuse for a frown, her lips still curling slightly into that mocking, yet motherly smile. "Events are already in motion, we cannot intervene. It is up to you, now."

"Up to me? You just told me I lose in every scenario! No, I won't accept it!"

I raise a hand and prepare to crush the goddess's heart, but my magic stays quiet. She laughs at me, bouncing as she floats in the ether.

"Look at you, and after I try and warn you! Pitiful little wretch! You're lucky the other two like you, or I'd castrate you and blast you off to the middle of the ocean to drown!"

She starts cackling like a fucking witch, and I find myself shrinking before her. Not metaphorically, either. She is becoming colossal in size, looking over me like a mountain to an ant.

"No! No! N-"

"No!" I hear Cassie shriek as I jolt awake in a cold sweat. I am alone, but I hear voices nearby. I listen closely.

They are talking about a killer in town, and… my mom? I touch the iron bars, drawing upon Orange magic to feel it. Ever since I learned I could expand my senses through the earth like a certain blind protagonist, I had tested what else I could do. Metal impedes magic, but it is still a product of the earth. It seemed logical to me that I'd be able to affect it with Orange mana, but I realized to do so I needed to bypass the thing impeding the flow.

I found out what it was after a few years. It's the composition. Mithril and orichalcum are pure and uniform in structure, ores that are completely foreign to the natural earth. Iron, steel, and the rest? They are amalgamations of different minerals to make a new whole. It makes the process of affecting it harder, near impossible even, and a mage that can't comprehend the makeup can't enforce their will upon it. But if you can comprehend it, and can make the mental alterations every fraction of a fraction of a second, then it is doable.

Iron bars, simple. But do I want to break out?

My answer is given to me as I overhear the accusation of my mother being the killer. Then I hear the name of the disease she apparently had, and my nerves turn ice cold and my hairs stand on end.

Sanguine Manaleech. I had read about it three years ago. I was studying a book of monsters, trying to see what I recognized from my old world. I had come across lycanthropes, and found that any animal could accumulate a curse in an overflow, and if they bite a human they are cursed to become a permanent were-beast.

I found it fairly interesting, and since I remember being a fan of this movie franchise about lycans versus vampires, I turned to look in the "v" section.

What I had found had upset me. Vampires in this world weren't a plague that could spread, but rather always a mother who gave birth to a mage. I hadn't understood then why it upset me, but now, I realize the truth.

I had unconsciously connected dots. My mother was magicless. I am abundant with it. Had I known then that I had basically condemned my mother to death by being born?

Do I care?

"I can't just let them kill her… maybe I…" What? What can I do?

I ignite the ground around my feet, setting the room ablaze. Activating my speed boost spell, I reach out and grip two iron bars, sending a small ping pong ball of mana into them. I adjust the flow thousands of times a second, all to carry out my advanced Orange spell, of which I would classify as a Master level, Shape Metal. Every time the ball hits the edge of the bars, it pushes the metal towards the next bar in the row.

I have broken free in mere seconds, having created a wide enough gap to walk through. I move the fire from my feet to my hands, my flesh searing, blistering, and frying. I add White magic into the mix, keeping my arms in shape as I reach out and incinerate the door into ash.

I see my party, the boy from earlier, and three guards reaching for their swords. Mine is missing, but I prefer magic anyways.

I look at Emilia and Cass, frowning as I ready myself to become a wanted criminal. "Emilia, Cass. I am very sorry for this, but…"

A guard suddenly rushes in. I aim for his breastplate, focusing on maintaining force and impact but not the actual structure of the fire as I hurl a sphere of compact blue flames. He is sent flying back, feeling the wind get knocked out of his lungs and a little heat, but the fire dispels upon contact with the metal, sparing him any fatal burns. I open a shadow portal behind him as he is airborne, releasing him in the sky three stories above the one story guardhouse.

"I have to save my mom." I say it while looking at Emilia and Cass, my expression one that is searching for their understanding, their consent.

The guard crashes through the roof, his helm falling off as he slams onto the ground. He coughs up blood, but he should live.

The flames are spreading, giving the room an eerie blue glow. The heat is intensifying, so I use Green magic to send a breeze through. The flames intensify, but I keep my party cool. I am starting to sweat from all the magic I'm using. What is it, four schools at once now?

Another guard steps forwards, but before he can do anything I feel a surge of mana. I recognize it and am ready this time.

I reach out and command all the flames around me to unite with my ongoing winds, tunneling it like a snake through the air and connecting with the golden ray of light that is coming right at me.

I gasp slightly, realizing I'm in my first beam struggle.

"Get back!" The boy yells to everyone, and I watch the two guards rush over to drag their unconscious comrade out of harm's way. Inside them with Green magic to have the floor boards move him towards the southern wall. Cass and Emilia run to either side of the desk filled office of the guard station, the blonde haired boy joining my sword master.

My magic pushes back, then his, then mine. The light is blinding, I am sweating, and I realize I am losing control. I swear, releasing the spell and quickly forming a dome of earth around me. I manage to create four layers before the light reaches me, but it blasts through all of it in the blink of an eye.

I take a grazing hit to my right temple, and I feel the warmth of my blood rapidly pouring, a numbness seizing my body. I stumble, shaking horribly as I heal myself as quickly as I can.

Gauss enters the half burned building through the door he obliterated with his spell. He cracks his neck and looks at me with that hateful look, like always.

"Stop this, Dainn. Tell us where your mother would go, and we'll kill the monster wearing her skin and forget all of this. You'll be honored as a hero, one who made the right choice and did the noble thing."

I shake my head defiantly. "No! I can save her! With my magic… and even if I can't, it shouldn't be you! None of you have any right! Especially not you, Gauss!"

He sighs. "You won't win against me, Dainn. You lack both the experience and the determination."

I summon two daggers of light in my hands, with blades eleven inches long. It's what I used against him in our graduation duel as an opener, getting in quick and delivering several quick slashes to the arms. I didn't have Purple magic then, per the rules set forth, but this is the real deal. "Did you forget I bested you already?"

He laughs. "I know your feats well, boy. Still, you should have realized when you fought me one on one and not in that group duel you thought up that I am on another level. You feel it, don't you? My willingness to kill? The razor edge that is my bloodlust? The power I'm not going to hold back?"

I can. Like his magic, his bloodlust is blinding, cutting my nerves as it washes over me. How had I never sensed this before? His control over it is greater than even Lord Hera. What was his true role in the family?

I decide not to talk to him, rather wanting to show him the difference between us through action. I dash forwards with the speed of a lightning bolt, appearing before him in an instant, daggers going for his gut.

He moves, taking a step back with such speed I am caught off guard. He is in front of me one second, gone the next. He raises a hand, and I realize, he doesn't just wield light, he is light. He is so attuned to his magic, it's indistinguishable from his physical form when he lets it all flow.

He blasts out a ray of light that hits with the force of a truck, far too fast to avoid at such close range. I take the hit directly to the chest, flying back with a large, circular wound on my chest that is already cauterized. The smell of burning flesh blesses my nostrils.

I summon Green and White magic, using wind to keep me in the air and flying towards the hole in the ceiling all while healing myself. I feel my mana reach seventy-five percent. The building is too cramped, with too much potential collateral, so I need to leave, to get space to act.

"Impressive, Dainn! I've never seen a flying mage before, but I refuse to let you leave. We will settle this here!"

I sense his mana surge, and since I don't have time to turn and see what is coming, I open a shadow behind me, with the exit being just behind where I sensed the bloodlust coming from.

I hear him roar and a thud, so I assume it works. Either way, I fly through the roof into the open sky. I know he will follow me, and I can't let him.

I begin preparing a Royal Silver spell, no, make that a Chosen! I don't want to hurt them, I refuse to kill anyone! So I will send everyone away, too far to regroup in time to stop me!

"Oh, dark shadows, fingers of Death, come to me!" I start the chant while summoning forth all the darkness around. Shadows are everywhere as the sun is just beginning to set, and they all rise like specters to swirl and coalesce into a giant dark star above me.

I sense Gauss as he summons magic, and I track him through his mana. "Send away these foolish disciples, let them bother me no-!"

In the blink of an eye Gauss is behind me, my magic faltering as my chant is interrupted by a searing, sharp pain in my gut. How had he moved so fast? Even though my speed was boosted by a factor of at least ten, I couldn't keep pace.

I look down and see a hole in my torso, right below my ribcage, the size of a baseball, going clear through to the other side. My breathing strains, and I seize as a lung collapses. I put my hands over both ends of the gaping wound, and try to heal. My eyes widen as I realize it is fighting back against my attempts. More than that, I lose focus on my spell, and it explodes.

Shockwaves erupt from the orb, shadowy mist filling the sky around us as Gauss and I are sent flying into the void. The town below changes into a black and white copy, with darkness everywhere, but light too, like rays of sunlight poking through a forest's canopy.

We land in the street in front of the guardhouse, with me stumbling and gasping as I fall to one knee clutching the hole in my stomach, and Gauss stepping down on steps of hardened light.

"I'm sorry, Dainn," Gauss says, a fury in his voice saying otherwise. What had he done? It was so fast I hadn't clocked it. "But if you keep this up, I'll be forced to kill you. My Blessing doesn't just add healing effects to my magic. Should I wish, I can also negate any and all attempts at using White magic. Stop this foolishness, and you can live."

He's been holding back this entire time. Then again, so have I. The difference is that I don't want to use Black magic. I need to think, but it's hard with my guts burning and pouring out.

"Why do you hate me? Everything I've done has been for the good of Emilia and the Hera family. What did I do to you?"

He scowls, his handsome face becoming quite scary. "You were born."

A part of me breaks, as I realize I had respected this man.

He punches forwards, his fist glowing brightly. "God of Order, god of judgement, I call to thee…"

Fuck, he is going all out. I have to, too. Since we're in the void, I might as well try a different Chosen spell. "Death, oh glorious king," I start, really not enjoying the prayer aspect of Chosen spells and above. It is why I don't use them often.

"Make me the light that smites down the foolhardy," Gauss chants, his body becoming light itself, his eyes glowing like a demigod.

"Keeper of darkness, walker of the void, open the gates and evict the outsider," I continue, and the void around us begins to shake, the shadows all around us swirling into a giant doorway behind Gauss, emitting a soft blacklight.

"I cast in the name of Order: Holy Spear Gungnir!" He turns into pure light, forming into a glorious spear, and races towards me faster than I can comprehend, though only half a second before I finish my chant.

"I cast as a self-proclaimed guardian of the void: Eldritch Shadow Eviction!" Great squid-like tendrils erupt out of the gate gateway, catching the mage turned holy weapon an inch before he strikes me, the light becoming consumed by the shadows.

I hear his scream as he is forced back into his human form, struggling against the spell even as the mana is drained from him. A shadow beak emerges to swallow him up, evicting from the void, to be spit out back in reality, in the same spot. He doesn't have the skill in Silver magic to return on his own, nor the mana reserves.

I release my spell, feeling myself at around forty percent. I try to heal myself again, and thankfully it works. The flesh and organs start stitching themselves closed, the bleeding slows and eventually stops. I had guessed his Blessing would release once he was drained, and I didn't have a back up plan. I breathe a sigh of relief, unsure what his spell would have done once it reached me, but knowing I wouldn't have survived.

"All this time, he had been holding back. I thought myself better, but I was outmatched…"

I look at my hands, at how they shake. I had almost died. Been killed. I had been terrified, and also, something else. I felt alive. Truly alive!

"Thank you Gauss," I say as I stand and command the earth to carry me through the void north of town, to where my mother would have gone. "You let me cut loose for once."

I smile wickedly to myself, licking my lips. "Next time, though, I'll kill you!"