UFF: Chapter 22 (Patreon)

Chapter 22

Of all the things that I expected to happen, having the Saint awaken immediately from her vision induced slumber and demand that I begin casting spells that by all means should be unknown, I was largely caught off guard.

The words came rapidly and insanely slowly. For a second, it felt as if all time seemed to stand still. Dust particles that glinted in the air seemed to hold still, as Marie rose up from the bed she had been resting in comfortably a moment ago.

Then as if floating in water, she arose in the air, her hair flowing wildly around her and she spoke.

Oh boy did she ever speak. Her words were crisp and clear, as if spoken at a painstakingly slow pace, so that every word, syllable and possible meaning was explained.

Yet, the words were also spoken quickly. So quickly that they almost felt like they were transposed as one complete thought directly into my mind.

The best my mind could come up with was this, but I am certain that there was so much more that I missed, as the meaning of the words spoken began to flake and crumble at just touching my mind.

“Cast your Factory Reset

To gain control of the Master’s Staff

This will start the onset

Of your intended Path.

To fight the future, you must endure the flame,

Get out now, this is not a game.”

It was Marie’s voice. Well Marie’s voice if she spoke through water, but still managed to come through with crystal clarity.

Her words were so wild and exotic that I understood the first part almost immediately, as they were directed towards me.

Actually, who was I kidding all of the words were directed towards me.

The minute I touched the glowing staff that had just been lying down in a hidden alcove under the seemingly moved table, that is when this whole thing started.

GLOW!

Even now the staff in my hand began to glow with a dark and hidden power that all but screamed of ill intentions. The fact that Marie chose this of all times to speak her prophecy screamed that I had started a scene that would now be unavoidable.

With that, I decided to do what the prophecy stated. I mean, I myself was running through things to do, but to be given the spell to cast seemed to be a calling.

The spell noted in the prophecy was the baseline and weaker version of the spell. For a second, I thought about casting that version of the spell, wondering about possibly destroying the staff and causing a mini explosion in my hand if I went too powerful, but then I instantly dismissed that thought as both Marie and I could likely cast enough healing magic to fight off any permanent damages caused by an explosion.

As such, rather than using the base spell as was stated, I used the fully upgraded version of the same spell.

Perfect Factory Reset

While casting the spell, I felt the glyph of the Ancients flare to life on my left hand, one of the hands that was holding the staff.

There was a pause, as for a moment it seemed like my will was being put to the test as I mentally had to battle and fight off the remaining mental residue of the staff’s former owner.

For a second time still paused, Marie and Rydel both just stood there, their bodies stopped in a snapshot of time. Though if I didn’t know where to look, I would have easily missed Marie as her body was now all but hidden by the much larger frame of Rydel who had been charging forward to protect me.

At least, I hope he was trying to protect me. Regardless, at that moment, my mind fought with the dark residual energy that lingered on the staff, and after a minor application of will, the foreign hold over the staff ended.

Then I was just holding a staff that all but radiated with power.

Power that I quickly sought control over, and forced to contain itself.

SHWOOOM!

The second I cast the spell, the staff that had been glowing and pulsing brightly with untold powers suddenly stopped.

One second a staff that looked like it was about to go nuclear on me and detonate in my hand. The next, the staff was dormant.

Well no, it wasn’t dormant. The massive swells of power that had been there moments ago still remained, but like an unagitated ocean, the energy that had been surging and swelling violently a moment ago suddenly stopped moving.

Then as if the image before my mind that had somehow slowed everything down to a crawl ended, I felt a slight shattering within my mind. That’s when time seems to speed up to its normal flow, as suddenly everything surges to life as if catching up to the time I had.

I pause for a moment as both Rydel and Marie come to life and seem to move twice as quickly as I can for a moment. Then when time is seemingly caught up, they all look at me.

For my part, I am just holding the powerful staff, and my mind goes blank for a second, before I realize I basically have an unclaimed weapon of the Ancient’s within my hands.

The fact that this staff is a staff belonging to the Ancients goes without a doubt in my mind.

I also realize the warning in Marie’s prophecy. At least I understand that there is an immediate threat that is coming. It is also clear that the most likely action that will come next is the inevitable fire event that permanently closes off this mountain range in future years.

“We need to leave.” I state, seeing both Rydel and Marie who are close. Suddenly so close that both are within my personal bubble of space, not that now is the time for personal boundaries as there are clearly bigger issues at hand. Yet, I can’t help but feel that this is somehow important.

There is a pause as both Rydel and Marie share an unspoken glance between the two of them. In their exchange it is clear that they speak both volumes while not exchanging a single word. Instead, they seem to play a game of who will flinch, before nodding and turning to face me in near perfect unison.

“Where do we go?” They ask in an eerie unified voice, as if for this moment they are one consciousness.

A singular consciousness that has apparently chosen me as the de facto leader.

I pause, realizing that the base of the mountain is likely where a large fire attack is going to occur.

With that, I turn to Rydel, “do you know of any tunnels or escape paths that are on the southern side of the mountain range?”

At that Rydel just pauses.

“I think there is one cave, but it is small and I don’t remember it having an exit.” Rydel states.

Hearing that, I pause wondering if that will be enough.

Then for a moment, I have an amazing idea. An idea that my face apparently instantly tattles on, as Marie instantly questions me about my thought.

“Did you think of something?” Marie asked.

I pause, not quite knowing how to speak my words, but I instantly run to the back of the shack that we are in. A shack that is part of the remains of a hidden Ancient observation post.

“Since this is an Ancient Observation Post, there might be a way to link it to the main nodes.” I state, as I begin to run to the corner that had the old text of the Ancients.

“Right, about that,” Rydel states, clearly seeing the words I was able to translate, but only after months of immersion learning on the odd text.

“Shh!” I say, holding up one finger from my free hand to my lips as I begin looking around for more Ancient technology.

Fortunately, there is more, as there is clearly the basis for a communications relay. Unfortunately, that is all this post can do, transmit communications. At one point it looked like the place could have been upgraded to a teleportation node as well, but sadly that was not the state it was in currently.

“Dang it,” I hiss, realizing that I just wasted a good minute or two of our escape time trying to see if there was a way to fast travel away from here and thereby avoid the inevitable cut scene.

Of course, this is likely a scene that is unavoidable, and thus we would have to escape from here to Rydel’s mountain tunnels and hopefully avoid detection.

“All right, plan B it is. Rydel you are up,” I say, turning from the communications platform to face Rydel and Marie. Both of whom are just staring at me with a bit of shock on their faces.

I don’t quite know why. By all means, Marie’s prophecy should have been far more concerning that my finding a communications node, that likely could still work.

Actually, I pause and look at the communications platform and see the power source.

“Wait,” I say turning back to the communications device and with a quick application of my Arcane Machinery skill, I work open the seemingly seamless stone pillar.

Hiss.

Then grabbing not one but two older but still functioning power crystals I nod to myself before hitting the close button and once again sealing the communications platform back up.

Hiss.

I can all but feel the mental note going off informing me that I have gained a fully charged and mostly charged arcane power crystal, low grade if I had to guess. Had there been a medium grade I likely could have upgraded the podium to teleport us away.

Turning I had my hands full.

One hand had my staff, while the other clutched two arcane power crystals.

“Okay, lead on.” I state, as I mentally prepare and begin stashing the crystals in my pouch. At least that was the plan, before I pause again and realize that I need to do something with the staff. Either I need to leave it here, where the staff might once again form a sympathetic link to its previous owner. Or I could try to bind this Ancient device to me.

And it is an ancient device.

There is clearly a spot at the top where a fully charged arcane power crystal should go. All I need to do is swap out the old and nearly broken crystal that is in there, then bind it to me, and it should be like new. Or better than new really.

“Oh wait, one last thing,” I state, as I take a moment to pop out the old crystal. Then I debate with myself over which of my two new crystals to use, before I ultimately settle on the nearly full one. As I realize that I will likely need every ounce of power here in a second to fight off whatever will come next.

As soon as the new stone enters, I feel the staff come to life and tell me what its name and status currently are.

Modifiable Beginner’s Staff of Necromancy

Current Owner: <Blank>

Effects: Primary Passive Effect: all spells cast will be 5% cheaper to cast. Active Effect: All spells cast from the primary affinity (Necromancy) will be cast if at a tier higher.

Seeing that the staff no longer has an owner assigned, I use another of my Ancient spells.

Perfect Account Creation

Whoosh.

There is a surge of energy as the new stone and configuration register me as the new owner.

New Owner Identified: Lady Karen Laurain

Would you like to set a new preferred Affinity?

Current Preferred Affinity Selected: Necromancy

Eww, just seeing the selected affinity let me know that this was likely a staff owned by one of the many main bosses. As they all seem to use the overpowered form of magic known as Necromancy to both gain power and to sustain their powers.

Necromancy was such a cheat power, able to steal life from your enemies and give it to yourself. Able to convert that stolen life energy into mana, which you then use to steal more life. Just utterly ridiculous. They could even create decaying fields that passively leech away one of these two sources from the user.

Fortunately, I now had one of the few known counters to the Necromantic draining fields, in that my affinity Arcane Repair: Disruption Field, was likely a perfect counter towards stopping any would be impenetrable Necromantic Lair.

With that, I mentally speak out, “change affinity to Arcane Repair,” while I also mentally scroll through the list of combinations before I ultimately get to my affinity.

New preferred Affinity Selected: Arcane Repair

There is an audible clicking sound, as a flash of light that extends from the staff’s new power source and emanates outwards, illuminating the entire area.

After that I am left with a new staff that all but radiates power and I smile as its details as an Ancient staff come to my mind, letting me know that my alterations have been successful.

Modifiable Beginner’s Staff of Arcane Repair

Current Owner: Lady Karen Laurain

Effects: Primary Passive Effect: all spells cast will be 5% cheaper to cast. Active Effect: All spells cast from the primary affinity (Arcane Repair) will be cast if at a tier higher.

With that done, I nod to myself excitedly as I place my two remaining crystals into my satchel that I’ve been using.

There I place in the nearly four fifths full crystal, one that if I had to guess would have been considered mid-high grade in remaining power. Then the low grade nearly depleted stone as well. I take a quick look at the low-grade stone to see if there are any signs of residual necromancy lingering on the stone, but find that it is fortunately free of magical affinities. That or if it is, the effects are so subtle that I cannot see them.

With everything that we can do here done, I pause to turn back to Rydel, which is when I see that both he and Marie are just gawking at me.

“Well, come on.” I state, trying to stress the urgency of the situation we now find ourselves in.

Somehow this feels like it is one of those cut scenes where you are given as much time as you need or want to search a special safe room. Knowing that the instant you leave said room, you will be hit with an unavoidable death trap, but you still want to leave early, hoping that despite it being an unavoidable trap you might somehow gain yourself a few extra seconds to act.

“No, wait. What was that?” Rydel demanded and then pointed at the staff in my hand. A staff that went from glowing a deep but light purple color to a nearly blinding cream color.

“This is a staff that I took control of away from a necromancer.” I state, then use the same staff to point towards the door, “now come on, we don’t have much time left.”

“Wait, you realize what this means right?” Marie said, coming forward and grabbing my arms before staring me in the eyes.

“Yeah, it means we are about to get into trouble if we don’t leave here now and find the caves that Rydel spoke about.” I state.

“No, this means that you were the one from the prophecy. The child of destiny.” Marie stated.

“What, there was no child of destiny. Just talking about an intended path, and avoiding flames.” I stated.

“No, there was definitely a child of destiny in there. I had to protect her.” Rydel cut in.

At that Marie paused as she turned to Rydel.

“I too must follow her.” Marie stated, as if suddenly solving a grand puzzle that will win her a $25,000 prize.

They share yet another glance, as more unspoken words seem to be shared between them. Then once again they nod before turning back to face me.

This time, fortunately only Rydel speaks.

“Okay, follow me. I will take us to the cave I spoke about.” Rydel began, and with that we all followed him to the end of the protective barrier that amazingly protected us from all insects, while giving us a clear view of nature around us.

Just as his hand touched the magical barrier and was about to pass through, I could all but feel that cut scene coming to life, as I first felt the magical energy being released. Before I felt the flame.

KABOOOM!

Then just like that, a wave of force and mana surged past us, as a massive pillar of flames erupted from the entrance we took. The one that I could all but feel would be removed from us, and now like a plot predicting reader, I can only lament at the idea of what could have been had this happened tomorrow.

Why now?

Then just as quickly as that thought came to mind, I saw both the giant flames and the typical villainous strut of the likely instigator of the explosion and ensuing flames casually beginning to stride forward. As if they loved taking long leisurely strolls through burning nature trails.

Seeing the villain casually strolling towards us, I knew for a fact that we were not prepared for any type of boss battle, at least not now.

That’s when I turn to Rydel, and see that he is just paralyzed with fear. Seeing him in such a state, I hit him to gain his attention, and thereby break the stun hold he was under. I quickly turn to do the same for Marie.

Then seeing that both are able to move again, I say the only word might be able to ensure our survival.

“Run!”