//------------------------------//
// Chapter 30: Revolution Part 2 
// Story: Level Up! 
// by RisuUmbra 
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Chapter 30: Revolution Part 2

Many eyes flicked about the room until they all at once settled on me, my revulsion at the sight had swallowed up all my false bravado in a heartbeat. The tumorous muscle underneath Ozymandias' gray skin writhed and squirmed with every movement and twitch of his many eyes. I felt both mine and Calcifer’s mind quiver in fear both potent and unfathomable. For a moment I saw Ozymandias’ jawbone twitch in an attempt to smirk at my fear… and just like that all my fear was converted into a want to wipe that grin right off his face and I had the perfect thing for that.

“Alright then Ozzy… Think fast!” With no further warning I made one of the coins I was [Levitating] launch at one of the larger eyeballs sticking out of Ozzy’s head. The coin quickly closed the distance and just as it was going to make contact with the pus ridden eyeball it slowed to a stop. A nebulous aura slowly started to grow around the coin, constantly shifting colors and tones. I watched as Ozzy floated the coin before himself and sent me what could only be a many eye’d condescending look over it.

“ Did you really think you could surprise me with a c-ACK!” It’s a good thing my goal wasn’t hitting him, with an eye searing explosion the coin erupted into bright solar light sending Ozymandias to the floor writhing in pain as his many eyes were rendered useless. [Solar Magic] plus [Imbuement] equals… Flashbang! I wasted no time and scooped up the nearest two rubies then turned to run down the hall. I didn’t know how long the flashbang would affect him and didn’t want to stick around to find out, I know for a fact that I can’t fight this guy head on. I needed to get to my friends and set up the ritual. 

I rounded a corner as the pain screams of Ozymandias turned into enraged screeches, something deeply beastial and feral that made the heart shake. Calcifer faltered for a moment in the air from the roar but continued on. I chanced a look behind me and immediately regretted it when I caught sight of my pursuer. Ozymandias’ ornate clothes had been reduced to expensive tatters from the changes his body went through. His body hadn’t changed size no… he had sprouted hooves and claws of all different lengths and sizes all over his body and they were pulling him along like some kind of demented spider! Why is this Resident Evil all of a sudden! I pulled up another coin and saw how his eyes seemed to lock onto it, without a second thought I launched it back at the Ozzy abomination. The moment I shot out the coin Ozzy closed all his eyes and tried to plow through to get to me… so I bet he was surprised when his body locked up from the lightning that hit him and sent him to the ground rolling and spasming. I didn’t only make flashbangs, I looked at my last three coins and reminded myself which was imbued with what. I had one fire, another lighting, and a last resort, a neutral magic imbued coin. If it does what I think it does then it could save my life… at least I hope it does. 

I had just passed into another small showroom when I heard the sounds of many hooves hitting the ground behind me. I quickly about faced and shut the large ornate doors and started barricading, my heart hammered in my chest as I shoved and [levitated] over more gold furniture to block the door. Calcifer helped by quickly melting the gold plating and welding everything together. I added another [Lighting Imbue] on top of everything to buy some extra time. I rushed over to the opposite door and slid to the ground, ripping the book of rituals out of my bag, quickly flipping to the needed page I read over the ritual more and what I needed to prepare. One of the rubies needs to have some special sigils carved into it and be a specific shape so I set to work. I used the larger of the two gems that was the size of a baseball, I had to shape the gem into a heart. I used a concentrated [Mana Beam] to make a rough approximation of a heart, it looked like a child had drawn it but that’s not what matters. It was supposed to be symbolic of Ozzy’s heart, next I had to engrave a few sigils onto the gem. I was flipping to the sigil index when Calcifer screeched in warning mere seconds before Ozymandias’ now hulking body of mismatched body parts crashed through the door ignoring the lightning arcing off his body.

I quickly scooped up everything in my [Levitation] and flung my fire coin at him. Seeing another coin flying at him Ozzy braced his body for either lightning or blinding light, but wasn’t prepared to be blown straight off his many hooves and claws entirely by the resulting explosion and being launched out the window… hopefully harmed. I held the open book and ruby in front of me as I ran away from the room going up in flames. A glance up at my mana bar placed me a little above half empty, I didn’t have enough extra mana to try to make more explosives. I was scrambling, constantly glancing up at the book sigil index trying to engrave the right ones onto the ruby while running all the while. My stamina was tanking quickly from all the multitasking, I was heaving for breath and I had just barely finished the first sigil. It was a wobbly spiral that ended with a letter that looked like a cross between an S and a sideways K.

The rumbling was back, glancing back just showed me the smoke rolling out the now flaming hallway. The buzzing of [6th Sense] was my first warning, my second was the large shadow falling over me. It was years of horror movies that had conditioned me against turning and looking, instead I did the smart thing and just dived out of the way. Calcifer quickly followed my lead and banked away from the window as many long burned hooves speared through the window and the spot I was just in, crashing into the wall behind me. The hooves had morphed again, now at the end of each hoof was a large blackened stinger that dripped with a tar like ichor. 

I ignored the mounting burning in my legs from running so long and scrambled to my hooves, How long is this house anyway! I didn’t watch the legs retreat from the window but I was extremely aware of Ozymandias crawling after me on the side of the mansion. I felt Calcifer’s mind lean against mine and at the speed of thought a packet of ideas was passed over. Calcifer wanted to fly out and distract Ozymandias while I regrouped with everyone and set up the ritual. Calcifer was extremely aware of the danger involved, but they were also extremely aware of their newfound immortality. My first response was to refuse, I had just gotten them back and I don’t want to lose them again. Calcifer circled back around to their immortality as a way to convince me but didn’t try to hide the burst of warmth they felt at my words. I snuffed out a burst of worry and acquiesce to their plan, I knew they were right and that my fear was irrational but still I wanted them to be careful. 

With a rapturous cry and another promise to me, Calcifer quickly made a hard right and crashed through one of the windows I sprinted past, cutting off Ozzy’s chase. I didn’t turn and look, I knew if I turned to look back then I would force myself to stop and help my creation… A voice in my head pointed out that I cared about Calcifer much more than just some creation. I didn’t even attempt to try and deny the voice, my feelings for Calcifer are beginning to feel more and more paternal and I don’t know how to feel about that. 

Pushing this line of thought to the back of my mind I continued running through the mansion, turning another corner I caught sight of an ornate set of double doors and hoped that it led to the exit. Bursting through the doors showed me exactly what I hoped for, the front entrance. I slid to a stop in the middle of the room and scanned my surroundings, the front room was generic when it came to mansions. Two staircases that led to the second floor on both sides of the room with the doors I had just entered through between them. A large white tiled open area in the middle of the room. Perfect… I wasted no time in setting up the ritual, first I had to finish engraving the ruby heart. 

I had to watch my mana bar carefully during this whole process, my mana regeneration rate was a bit odd. During times where I'm relaxed or just practicing my regen rate is pretty slow, but during times of strife like this it is incredibly erratic. It could be completely empty at one moment then just shy of full at the next, one day I am going to sit down and find out the deeper intricacies of the system the players have. I gently set aside the now fully engraved gemstone heart and focused back on the book of rituals, flipping back to the soul siphon page I was reminded of the massive black splotches that covered most of the ritual circle. I didn’t know what to do! The very ritual I needed was probably the only one that I couldn’t use! I ran a hoof through my mane and closed my eyes to think this through.

The spirit wouldn’t give me an impossible task if it had something to gain from this as well… What am I missing? I took a deep breath and circled my thoughts back around to what I knew about rituals so far. There are two kinds of rituals, the kind that are used modularly like a sort of swiss army knife to spell crafting, able to pick apart and put together types of magic and artifice that don’t naturally go together. The other type is the localized version, made for both large scale and multi-target spells. These types of rituals act as a sort of bridge between two forces, i.e. the caster and whatever force they are invoking. I let these descriptions float in my head for a moment before I focus on a specific part… modular. Rituals almost actively encourage experimentation… which means I don’t have to know the exact ritual… I just need to piece together the right sigils. With a newfound burst of energy I flipped through the book to the sigil index, I don’t even have to look for that many. I already had more than half of the ones I need stamped onto my butt, my [Cutie Mark] if I remember correctly is the Ritual needed to sacrifice anything to the spirit which means all I need to find is the sigils to extract and store the magic soul of Ozymandias.




Ritual Magic Level Up!: Level 1 -> 2


Level will increase with further study and experimentation




Well at least I know I’m on the right track, I got to work immediately. My grin was wiped from my face when the ground started to rumble, worry quickly blossomed in my chest as my thoughts went to Calcifer and their stalling of Ozymandias… then I heard it. I started as a slow din then slowly grew louder as the seconds passed, as time passed I began to hear… singing. The rumbling began to beat in time with the melody, rumbling that began to sound more and more like the marching of hooves. I let my grin grow back fully… the cavalry had arrived, the acknowledgment that my friends were near only made me work faster. There was a sureness in my movements that wasn’t there before, blackened lines seared into the pearly white tiles, swirls and etches along the edges, and finally a slot in the center for the gemstone. The moment the final sigil was burned into place the whole ritual seemed to click into place. Jagged curves smoothed themselves out, errant scorch marks were wiped away, the ill fitting ruby heart slot grew to fit. It was done and the ambient magic accepted it, though… it couldn’t be finished… without the target.

I didn’t need the warning itch of [6th Sense] to know Ozymandias was approaching. The singing had risen in volume enough that I could tell that there was a veritable army outside the mansion and for the first time in a while I expected this to all go smoothly… that was a mistake. The small itch that [6th Sense] was sending me quickly grew to a howling screech that even drowned out the singing outside. My body tensed as the ornate doors leading deeper into the mansion bulged outward for a moment before shattering into smoldering splinters as Calcifer streaked past them like a bat outta hell, but I wasn’t focused on Calcifer… My eyes were locked onto the all-consuming beam of energy that was quickly gaining on the phoenix and destroying everything in its path. I personally found it funny that the first thing I thought was to protect Calcifer, that idea was quickly discarded as unnecessary as I watched the energy part around Calcifer and speed past them on a direct collision course with me. I didn’t have enough time to construct a strong enough [Shield] and that was even if I sacrificed the ritual and only protected myself though that wouldn’t really matter now that the ritual was complete. It would exist until it’s purpose was fulfilled, as I watched the purple wall of energy approach turning the once pearly white tile to an ugly withered gray ash… I hoped. 

I didn’t hope for my safety… 

I didn’t hope for the goddess to save me… 

I hoped the coin did what I hoped it did… 

With a flash of soft silver light the bit in my bag ignited with magic as the destructive wave of magic washed over me. I didn’t black out when the beam hit me, I watched as a skin tight [Shield] Spell wrapped around me and protected me from the initial blast. What knocked me unconscious was the impact launching up and out the barred window above the entry door. The last thing I saw was Calcifer diving after me as darkness overcame my vision.
.

.

.

… Then I felt warmth




Congratulations!


You have unlocked the hidden effect of your Cutie Mark


Merger: Magic is a part of you in more ways than one