The Unique Properties of Dark Magic

by Shadestyle

(Past Chapter 28): Proxy War: Part 2

"Alright, let's clean up shop boys!" Helmsplitter shouts, taking command of the gigantic tank plowing its way through the Frozen North, cresting the last hill between it and the Crystal Empire, carrying reinforcements along with it.

"First Division! Aim!" Helmsplitter commands, having them begin targeting the legs of the last remaining Obsidian Golems.

A bright light begins to swell inside of the barrels of the machine as they turn red from heat building up inside of them.

"Fire when ready!" he shouts. The tank rocks backwards as all of its cannons fire simultaniously, independent beams of black energy piercing through the black rock of the golems.

"Second Division! Aim!" he shouts, the smaller guns pointing up as light begins growing inside of them as well.

"Fire!" he commands. The smaller guns unleash thin pencil-line swathes of destruction, sweeping across the sky as they automatically avoid allies and track the enemy drones, slicing them in two with raw destructive firepower.

"Open the bay doors!" Helm says, the others to begin manipulating the machinery to open the tank's rear end wide open, releasing swarms of mechanical soldiers who charge towards the massive battle.

At the same time, the surviving pokemon begin rushing back, several of them carrying injured instances of the remote-control creatures with them as they pile into the gigantic empty tank with the intention of getting the hell out of there before the bomb goes off.

Helmsplitter takes control of one of the mechanical ponies himself, sprouting a long bardiche in his teeth as he flips himself into the air and cleaves his axe through the head of one of the spider golems, twisting around and kicking another one away.

Landing heavily, he sees something happening to the Crystal Palace.

The ground begins to rumble, buildings cracking and shattering as streaks of purple and green erupt from the palace, a pillar of energy shredding its way through the night sky.

"Darn, that thing's really about to go! Alright men, it's time to retreat!" Helmsplitter shouts, cleaving several bug golems in half before turning to run.

His mechanical drone is blown to bits when the portal-bomb goes off, ripping through the Crystal Empire in search of ponies to teleport.

---

"Split-Shot Death Beam!" I shout, firing a beam from my horn which splits into several that punch through Sombra's body, driving him back.

He reforms with a grin, cracking his neck to both sides.

"You know, if you haven't actually changed anything, you're still going to lose. I've got more stamina, power, and speed," Sombra states, igniting his own horn with malevolent green energy.

I frown, holding out my hands. "Well, one thing has changed. What was my best shot last time, is a warm-up now."

With that, six gigantic scimitars drop into my hands, each one polished to a mirror sheen. "That said, I think we've done enough stretching."

Sombra narrows his eyes, firing off the spell he was charging, directly into my crossed blades. Just as I predicted (and tested), half of the Unicorn Light bounces off of the blades' polished surfaces, forcing him to step to the side to avoid his own attack, which takes him into the path of my own blast, hate-fire washing over him as he snarls with what I hope is significant pain. The other half of the spell he cast is absorbed by the blades' internal portals, stored away for later use.

"I hope that wasn't your only gambit," Sombra says, igniting their horn and charging at me with clouds of smoke driving behind them.

I fling my weapons into the air, my own body exploding into a donut of shadows that he passes through, confused slightly, but turning rapidly.

One of my hands reforms before the rest of me does, grabbing one of the swords out of the air and cleaving him in half with it, distracting him long enough for my fists to slam into his disembodied halves.

'I just have to keep him stuck in his smoke-state until the bomb goes off, and we'll be peachy,' I think to myself, grabbing my other swords and leaping back as his eyes open in the middle of the blackened cloud, leering at me as lime haze wafts from them.

I stab my blades into the ground, shoving my fists forward. "Chain Lightning!"

Several gigantic bolts of dragon-lightning leap towards Sombra, ripping through his smoke and arcing back to continue chasing after him.

Sombra reforms as the spell peters out, having wasted a lot of time, but failing to have done much damage.

His eyes narrow. "Why are you stalling?"

I don't allow my emotions to show. "Do you want to know that, or do you want to kill me? Because let's be honest, you probably won't succeed at both."

Sombra's eyes narrow, as he glances around the room, searching for anything out of place.

"Solar Flare!" I roar, flooding the room with blinding light from my horn and distracting Sombra enough for me to get in close.

"Pay attention to your opponent, Sombra," I snarl, stabbing him in the stomach with one of my swords, and releasing the spell he cast.

He snarls, shattering the crystals growing over him as he rips the blade out and shatters it as well. "I'm displeased with your behavior, Sage."

"Write a book about it. Cream!"

My body is coated in twisted space as Sombra unleashes a wave of crystal magic, the curse ripping through the empty space that I had been occupying.

I fly invisibly around the room, watching him carefully as I maneuver around inside the sphere of twisted space.

One thing I had tested earlier with my Split-Shot Death Beam was how durable Sombra's body was. It stands to reason that, if his own technique for turning into smoke was like mine in any way, it means that his body is more fragile as a result of being prepared to turn into smoke at a moment's notice.

Something that makes him vulnerable to the same tactics I used against the Windego.

"Diamond Dust!"

I rip free of the twisted space, firing a wave of ice and portals, the tiny circles tearing through Sombra's body, turning him to smoke, but more importantly, trapping him in hundreds of separate capsules, each made of folded together portals.

I scatter the portals in all directions, attempting to move his pieces as far away from one another as possible before he escapes.

With a violent, terrifying roar, Sombra's body erupts from the sealed space, crystals sprouting over the seams of the portals, and consuming their magical energy.

Bit by bit, his smoke congeals back together, rushing into the center of the room and reforming once again.

"Enough! I'll end this right now!" Sombra shouts, summoning multiple layers of energy over his horn.

I can sense it from here, the kind of power that someone can only get by burning away life as fuel.

I need more time, if he lets that spell loose in here, it might very well destroy my bomb, and then everything we've done would be for nothing. A spike of fear stabs through me.

I know how he's doing this. I can practically sense it, the mechanisms he's been using to convert life energy into magical power. To drain it out of living things, and transfer it elsewhere.

At the moment he aims his spell at me, I have an idea. Twenty years should be enough.

I fold four of my arms behind my back, placing the other two together, fingers coming together to form a triangle, with Sombra in the middle of it.

Using the fear I feel, I tap into my own lifespan, imitating Sombra's trick and converting some of it into enough power to do something.

A variety of spells are rapidly cast as I burn through lifespan and magic, energy crackling between my fingertips and horn.

Sombra's eyes shine with madness as he points his horn at me. "I'm in control, Sage of Darkness!"

He fires a pillar of green at me, and I release my own spell before it can hit.

"Kikoho!"

By using vast amounts of magical energy, I'm able to combine the principles of the Wave Motion Gun with my portal magic and Dragon Lightning to create a beam of crystal mass, a beam with the ability to absorb incoming spells and redirect them.

Our two blasts clash, waves of magic streaking up into the air as they are forced away from the epicenter.

Sombra might be spending years of life-force every second to cast his spells, but at this stage, so am I.

The difference being, I only needed ten extra seconds.

The bomb explodes, warped space and portal magic ripping through the palace, shredding both mine and Sombra's bodies in an instant as every single pony nearby who isn't one of us is hunted down and teleportaled into the Shadow Realm.

-

Luna is already there waiting for me when I emerge in the Arcana Nox.

She looks... strange. Probably because of my little strategy.

"Was it worth it, then?" she says, staring at me with that same odd look.

I shrug, pulling up one of my screens and examining the results. Zero ponies detected in the Crystal Empire, aside from Sombra himself.

"It wasn't the cheapest victory, but I believe it was worth it. I mean, after all, we've won. Sombra's arrays are empty, his golems are destroyed, and his operations have ground to a halt. The ponies are safe, my researchers are already on the job of studying them, and we didn't take a single casualty. How could it be a more decisive victory than that?"

She sighs, ignoring my words. "What could have possessed you to do such a foolish thing, Weiss? You had so many other options."

I hum. "There was only one option I had that presented no risk. The amount of energy he packed into that last spell would have started warping space itself. Trying to use my Vance portals to redirect it might have failed. And I doubt any golems I could have brought in would have been able to divert it. I knew what he was doing, I knew how he was doing it, and I knew how much energy he was using. Counteracting it directly was an option that had no risk of failure, in spite of the cost."

I place a hand on her shoulder. "It was worth it. Alright? Sixty years or so is more than enough time for me to get my business settled."

She shakes her head. "And what about after that? Is sixty years enough time to ensure that your Realm has a ruler that will preserve it? Protect it?"

She looks sad, staring at me. "I feel you don't comprehend just how long twenty years can be, and how much of a difference it could make for your rule. What you've done did contain risk, even if you can't see it from your own perspective."

I smirk. "I did have a plan for that, if you're interested in hearing it. Though, you might have already guessed at it."

I flip through screens until I find the correct one, a list of plans that I had prepared for various eventualities.

"If the Shadow Realm was left without a ruler, I've already got a system in place to make sure it isn't destroyed by it," I explain, flicking down to the entry I'm looking for.

Her eyes widen with shock when she sees the file I open as I turn to face her again.

"It's you."

While she stares at the file's contents, stunned into silence, I continue casually. "I don't care how you run it, to be honest. You've got a lot more experience with ruling than I do, so I'm sure however you handle it, you'll be able to keep them happy and healthy. Really, the only important part is making sure you know how the systems function.

"If the Shadow Realm were ever left without any true ruler, then I've already set everything up to default to you."

She backs away, seemingly unsure whether she should be fearful or merely surprised.

"Weiss, you do understand what you are saying, yes? I have obligations to Equestria, there are things that I cannot do in my capacity as Equestria's diarch."

I nod. "I looked over those laws. As long as the Shadow Realm defaults to an Equestrian Territory right before you take over, it would work out fine, legally speaking. Now, to be fair, you are my backup plan. I've already been grooming a potential replacement for myself, so this is more of the sort of plan that would go into effect after hundreds of years, when some asshole inevitably ends up being the Shadow Realm's Sole Administrator, and he gets deposed or imprisoned or something."

I shrug again, swiping away the screen and leaning back into a digitally created chair. "And hey, who knows. Maybe something will come up, and the Shadow Realm might get an immortal ruler of its own after I'm gone. But there's no point worrying about it. I've got a lot more time to make sure this place doesn't fall apart without me, now that Sombra's on suicide watch."

Luna swallows heavily, plopping down onto a cushion of her own. "I suppose you have a point, then. What are your plans for finishing off Sombra, now that his arrays have been rendered useless?"

"He's probably still got a lot of time saved up, and I'm not sure I'll be able to track him down easily. It's a waiting game, either he tries to escape the Crystal Empire or he doesn't. One way or another, I'll just have to keep an eye out, and be ready for him. A cornered rat fights hardest, and the corner he's in right now is a damn tight one."

Luna doesn't respond for a while, considering carefully what her next words will be.

"I'll try to help you, in any way I can."

-

Author's Note:

Some of you may have seen this coming, for some of you, it may be a shock. I've reached the point where I'm confident that I can no longer FORCE myself to work on this story. After taking a week to attempt to build back up my buffer chapters, a week of me making excuses, and spending late nights trying to get myself to open up an unfinished chapter and put words down, I've achieved nothing.

The week I spent attempting to get some chapters down and catch up has failed, switching to a slower schedule has failed, and even attempting to write shorter chapters altogether has failed, all because whenever I try to make myself write for this fic specifically, I can't bring myself to do so.

For now, I will be placing this story on Hiatus, until I can find some way to get around the incredibly strong aversion I've gained to even looking at this fic.

For those of you who are supporting me on Patreon, I'll be making this same announcement there, and pausing my upcoming Billing Cycle. If you weren't supporting me because of my work on my other fic, "The Sea Alchemist", then you can take that time to revoke your status as one of my Patrons.

I have no excuses. Only my sincere apology. I won't be able to revisit this story until I overcome my aversion to writing for it.

I've decided to post this, the last full chapter I have completed, such that at least one loose end is tied up. The story was roughly 1/4 complete as of the end of this Arc.

Comments

[Insidiaphilia]

Understandable.

[Fancy Fox]

if you can't write you can't write, it is what it is. should inspiration strike maybe write a note that starts as a seed and grows into a chapter but otherwise don't feel you need to force yourself to write ok?
on that note however I have thoroughly enjoyed each and every chapter thus far so if the chapters become few and far between i'm willing to wait and if they stop all together then I'm glad for the chapters we were given!

[Mix-up]

good luck on coming back again one day and all that you do in life, you deserve a break with all you managed to do this Summer. I know that feeling all too well with my own art work, so I can empathize with your situation, my best advice is to keep on writing anything new that doesn't have anything to do with your current stories to keep the flame alive, otherwise it might just fizzle out completely. Just start over small at first then build yourself up for more ambitious projects.

Good luck and wish you well.

[Shadestyle]

9836436

Well, as I mentioned, I haven't actually slowed down on my writing, I've got another fic that I've been writing just as hard. It's just that writing for Sea Alchemist is a ton of fun, and writing for this has started to feel like Work.

My creative flame is alight, without a doubt. That's why I know I'll eventually come back to this. I love writing too much to stop forever.

[Alitaher003]

You've been pumping out chapters almost every day. It's understandable that you're tired.
Take a break, Go do something else u enjoy. we'll be here when you come back.

[Luminous Lead]

9836890
Shade's made a point of distinguishing between the two languages, though. It's been a plot point and point of contention between Weiss and Sunset.

[Marker]

Sorry to hear that you could not shake off the aversion you've developed for this story, but totally understandable. There's no need to beat yourself up if you can't keep to a regular update schedule, I'm no stranger to tracking stories with sporadic updates, and the good ones are always worth coming back to, no matter how long the wait.
I enjoyed everything about this story immensely, and I wish you the best in whatever projects you turn your focus to.

[Mezilsa]

Meh, take your break, relax, grab a cupcake, visit a changeling spa and then ... why not just stay there? Creative minds are allways tasty to have near you.

[Maramanasa]

I support you in whatever endeavours you wish to pursue. I do hope you dont end up hating this fic and the wonderful world that weiss noir is in. That aside ill go enjoy your other writings since i enjoy your prose too much.

[Lotharin]

Well... You do what you have to do. I'll be here waiting, until your muse shifts back into this direction.

[Fatch]

You do you my dude. I know how a person can lose interest in a project.

[Brass Cogs]

Hadn’t even realized you where also the author of Sea Alchemist until now. I love both stories!

[flutterboot]

After posting a chapter a day, and even every other day, for months, needing a break is completely understandable, and the fact that it took you this long to need one is impressive. You deserve this.

That being said, I hope you are able to find your muse again soon, and enjoy working on this fic like you (hopefully) did before.

[Lightwavers]

9836447
https://i.imgur.com/nwVUncD.jpg

That's a link to the commissioned cover. It's finished. :)

[Shadestyle]

9847446

Very nice! I approve wholeheartedly.

[Marker]

9847446
Nice!
1. The style feels sort of familiar, who's the artist?
2. Would you consider uploading it to Derpibooru?

[SOVA]

What ewer you end up doing in the future. Good luck, and thanks for everything so far.👍

[OmicroniX]

I know I’m extraordinarily late on this, but I want to take a moment here to show my appreciation. This story is quite nearly everything I’ve wanted for so long in a fiction here. I cannot believe it has taken me as long as it has to find this. I cannot express how delighted I have been discovering every tie-in and subtlety that you’ve put into this story. The system of magic you’ve devised here is simply genius. I’m not certain it can be done better. The fact that you estimate that we’re sitting at the 1/4th mark is plain fucking astounding to me. Regardless, I’ll be excited to read more of this whenever you feel ready to release it. Whether that be tomorrow or a year from now. Keep doing whatever you need to continue this. I wish you the best