Augmented Aspects: Chapter 124: The Tempest (Patreon)

Chapter 124

The Tempest

(Cassiopeia)

We were winning.

Despite the odds, despite the hundred to one difficulty of our current predicament. Despite the fact that there would be well over fifty thousand monsters summoned for this final survival stand for our guild, as we had well over five hundred guild members present for this, as this time we wanted everyone to be here, so we could make the final one hundred members easily. The only thing that was not taken into consideration was the ridiculous rate that the monsters would increase to. Still, despite their numbers, we were winning.

At one point the number of evacuees coming and being around me got to be so tight and filled with the constant chattering of their own fears that I couldn’t think. That was why I took to the skies and began subtly changing the spells being used.

Level thirteen Holy magic being added to the Cleansing Rain was enough to slow down by half the speed of the monsters. Still, that wasn’t enough. Yeah, we had teams like Mallory’s that were out there holding the line and able to keep up with that rate, but that wasn’t enough.

Thus, I began altering the Cleansing Rain spell. At this point it was about all I was good for, as I still didn’t have it in me to kill these monsters. Despite their half dead and rotting forms, it was my intention all along to keep them alive and hopefully turn them all into the creatures that would help us terraform these lost lands.

Honestly, I think my true inspiration for how I truly changed the spell came from witnessing a free forming lightning bolt. With so much forced energy into the air, the build up of electricity was a given. Then I saw the clouds that I was theoretically controlling spark down to discharge some of the electrical energy to the ground, but at the same time, I saw a slight portion coming up from the ground and essentially directing the lightning bolt to the ground.

That was the key moment for me, the moment when everything clicked.

Yes, I could just create a rainstorm that rained down punishing rain that would slow down the Blighted creatures we were facing. But that was only half the solution. The second half was coming up with a counter spell going up from the ground that could then connect the two halves of the spell I wanted to happen.

From there, it was a LOT of trial and error, mostly error. With my large ten-kilometer radius, I could see further than the rain clouds I could create and control with my arrays. This was good, as it meant I could see subtle changes. Of course, even minor changes took time and effort to get put into place. Worse, even when I knew there was a mistake, I still had to allow time for my previous change to roll out, before I could then roll out the correction.

At one point, I am pretty sure I managed to simultaneously slow down the monsters to a quarter of their speed, while also increasing their health pools. The health pools were something that I had wanted to add later, once I hopefully cured these creatures, but not while they were in the middle of actually fighting. Fortunately, no one seemed to notice the increased difficulty there for a few minutes, while I waited for the healing aspect to be lowered from the Blighted side.

Eventually I realized that just as the clouds were negatively charged with electricity and the ground was positively charged to form a lightning bolt. I needed to do something similar with the clouds and the ground. Thus, the sky was filled with mana that I rotated clockwise with mostly Holy, Life, Nature, and Light aspected mana particles. Then on the ground, I used Shadow, Spirit, and Nature again, but the corrosive parts of nature. I also spun this second grouping of magic particles with a counterclockwise rotation.

WHOOSH!

The effect was as amazing to feel as it was to watch.

Within seconds of that spell going live and rolling out over the fields, every Blighted creature collapsed to the ground. They were still alive, but their bodies were unable to proceed with the competing powers that were essentially ripping them apart.

This was the most challenging part for the working, as I knew I was close. So close that I could feel the answer right there before me.

Mentally, I began calculating the pros and cons from each side. I realized that there needed to be a balance between both polarities of magic. Both the clockwise good, and counterclockwise bad sides had to be balanced, or my control over the spell would be lost.

Thus, I began calculating. With my left hand I tried to keep track of the good or skyward magical Tiers being used. Then with my right, I tried to keep track of the bad ground side magical Tiers being used.

“Thirteen Spirit, Seven Shadow, and Thirteen Nature gives me thirty-three from the ground. Meaning I need to counter the top with thirty-three as well.” I begin muttering to myself, desperately trying to keep track of what I can use for the top side. I could add another magic type to the mix of the bottom, but if I didn’t do it exactly perfectly, I would either break my array that was already nearing its limit to what it could process magically, or I might send out a devastating nova of magical energy because I lost track.

Of course, while I am caught up in these deep existential crises of trying not to lose our one advantage, and not blow everyone up, I have Mallory coming from behind me and smiling like she wants to tickle me in surprise. Normally she does this when I think too much, but in this case, I really really need to focus. So not even turning away from my spot, I raise my hand and point it towards her, letting her know she was discovered, then I say the first thing that comes to mind.

“Shh, I’m concentrating.”

Silence.

With that Mallory looks like her momentary antics are placated and I can get back to trying to solve this problem. For after I figure out how to evenly match a total of sixty-six Tiers of magic into one combined dual layered spell, I will then have to implement the spell, without blowing everyone up.

I’ve deduced that 13 Tiers of Holy is needed to slow the Blighted creatures to half. The other half comes from the residual 13 Tiers of Spirit that come from the ground. With those twenty-six Tiers of magic taken care of, I have effectively immobilized the creatures. Now for the cure…

Nature magic is great in that it can be both destruction and growth, death and rebirth. That is why my adding Nature to the negative karma side of the spell is a given as it allows me to add more to the positive karma side of the spell. I would like to add more Spirit, but I am already maxed out on Spirit being used to effectively pull the Blighted particles to the ground, almost like an overgrown magnet. Now I just need a way to remove the poisonous lumps from the body. The obvious answer would be Life Magic, but Life Magic never truly works against the Blight. At most Life Magic is a stop-gap for how to fill a patient up with Qi, which the Blight consumes greedily.

Then I think of Qi and how it reminds me of glowing light, similar to Holy and Light magic, but entirely different at the same time. Almost as if those two schools of magic had a love affair child that then grew up and completely rebelled against its overbearing parents. Speaking of which, I need to remember to try to reach out to Robert again, no wait, focus. Trying not to blow everyone up in an explosion, remember.

Calming Breath.

I force myself to breath, as I realize I need to come at this problem from a different angle. Then suddenly everything clicks.

“Holy F, I’m stupid.” I say to myself, as I realize the answer, or at least an answer is right there staring me in the face.

Holy and Spirit are both gone. That leaves me approximately Twenty Tiers to work with where I need to use Shadow for seven of them. Then it hits me, use Shadow to be the grounding rod for the actual Lightning bolt that will come from the sky. Of course, I will want a lot of power in that Light infused bolt from the sky, meaning I need to use Nature Magic, and not just any Nature Magic, but the moss and mold type of Nature Magic. But then thinking about it, I just have the Nature Magic further target the Light and Shadow magic, devouring the leftover components that get burnt away. Then Life Magic to heal away anything important that was actually needed but lost in the cleansing process.

In the end I have my tallies as such.

Left Hand, or good Karma: 13 Holy, 13 Light, 7 Life.

Right Hand, or bad Karma: 13 Spirit, 7 Shadow, 13 Nature.

I double check the math, normally I wouldn’t need to, but I am sort of at my wits end by this strenuous use of magic at the moment. As I have been doing this for, almost a day-ish? Again, math is not my friend at the moment, kind of sad, really.

Still, everything checks out, I mentally imagine the new spell and don’t get an immediate pulsar explosion, so that is a positive.

Then I do the crazy and push that monstrosity of a spell out into the world.

THUNDERCLAP!

Instantly, the world seems to protest this much power being thrown at it. Honestly, I don’t blame it, this dual spell matrix is ridiculous, and if it didn’t seem to work, I would have gladly dismissed the entire idea as stupid.

Only once the spell goes live across all sectors does the system finally decide to give me a name.

So far, I have a collection of terrible spells.

Incomplete Blighted Movement Inhibitor (C) [Tier XIII]

Better but not Quite Good Enough Blighted Movement Inhibitor (C) [Tier XIII]

Blighted Movement Inhibitor (C) [Tier XIII]

Yeah, the world seemed to hate the spells I was casting as much as I hated being told they were wrong.

I was half expecting the system to come up with some type of snarky name once again for this spell. Only to be pleasantly surprised when it came up with a decent name for the spell. Even the description seemed nice.

Blight Immobilizing and Purifying Cleansing Rain (C) [Tier XIII]: A master work spell involving dual spell work latices, created by Cassiopeia Spiritlight. This rain will both immobilize people suffering from the Blight, while simultaneously curing them of the affliction.

Seeing the message about the spell. Then not trusting the words, I watched as the monsters that were closest to us, began getting cured. I saw the way the Shadow acted as an anchor for the Blight, causing it to be pulled in a direction, then how the Light from on high came down and burnt its way through the body of the patient, then how reaffirming Life magic quickly followed to heal the damage caused. Then everything was processed by Nature Magic, making it so the remaining Blight particles never touched the ground.

“It worked.” I said, my voice weak, as I didn’t want to jinx it.

At this point, the system rewarded me with a quest completion notice.

Quest Completed (Repeatable): Cure the Blighted: You have cured a Blighted creature. Reward Experience.

50 / 25 / 25.

That is when I remember the quest I had given myself as the Mage Guild Master. It seems that this quest was still applicable to me, even here in the real world. Of course, a hundred experience was a joke at my level, especially if it was spread out over three classes. But that was only a joke if I got it once. Seeing as there were now tens of thousands of monsters waiting to be cured, I was looking at an amazing pay day.

Then I got a second and third notification, letting me know that the one was not a fluke.

50 / 25 / 25.

50 / 25 / 25.

I let out a surprised joyous laugh, as tears came to my eyes.

“Are you okay?” Mallory asks, fear evident in her voice.

“What?”

“You are crying.” Mallory says, a note of concern in her voice.

“No, I’m not. That is just the rain.” I say, trying to cover up the joy I am feeling right now and wipe away the offending tears.

“You realize your tears sparkle right?”

“Okay, I cried a little, but its good. It is so good.” I say, and before I know it my wings are propelling me forward towards Mallory and I am hugging her as she is the closest person to me.

“Are you okay, you are shivering.”

“Okay, no, right now I am beyond okay. I am amazing.” I say, pulling back and trying to look her straight in the eye.

“What?”

“I did it.”

“Did what?”

“You know the thing.” I say, gesturing down at the monsters that were now climbing back to life. While others were being cured, the first ones that were noted as being cured, were finally healed enough by the Life Magic to start standing up and were finally able to move on their own.

“The thing?”

“I am really tired right now, and half of my concentration is going on maintaining a dual storm matrix involving sixty-six tiers of magic. Which could blow up violently if I lose concentration for a moment.” I say, trying to defend myself.

“Why are you talking to me then?” Mallory asks, and pushes her way back and looks at me like I am the crazy one. Maybe I am, I am definitely a little tired right now, but that is okay, as I feel the experience just rolling in.

“The animals, they are all healed.” One of the animal tamers we had on standby said, going over and peering at the animals that were just now starting to come to life.

Hearing that Mallory looks down to the person calling to her. Then over to the animals that are slowly rising up, I don’t know how they look now, but they are clearly healthy, well not completely healthy, but much healthier animals. They will all likely need a lot of care and attention for a while, but for the moment, they all look healthy.

“You did it?”

“HAHAHAHA! YEAH, I told you.” I shout excitedly.

“The antibodies?” Mallory asks looking up to the clouds, as if trying to see if I could somehow generate tiny antibodies to fall from the sky and perfectly integrate into an alien body.

“Oh my gosh no. I just found a way to cure the Blight from creatures that are in the wild like this. This spell will need a lot of prep work, and likely a lot of arrays if we want a larger area like we are using currently.” I state.

“Oh, so this is just a start, not an actual cure?” Mallory asks.

“What? Clearly, they are cured.” I state, gesturing to the animals down below.

“But not permanently? I mean, they could get reinfected?” Mallory asks.

Suddenly I noticed her real fear, a fear that all survivors have. A fear of a relapse or repeat infection.

Sigh.

“Not yet, but can you give me this one win? This is huge. Also, it should mean that everyone here today will not get the Blight as it should all be cured by this rain.” I state, somewhat placatingly.

That seems to be the words needed as she visibly relaxes and seems to deflate a little at that.

“Thank you,” she begins, then taking in another calming breath she continues. “I guess, I didn’t realize that I still had a fear of getting the Blight again.”

***

Hours later, I was finally able to relax my sustained casting. While I had the mana to continually cast the dual matrix spell work, my mental ability to continually cast a spell of that complexity was pushed to its limit. My mana somehow managed to remain constantly topped off from a constant series of level ups, and my exceptionally high Willpower attribute that made mana spells like the ones I was using easy to maintain.

Fortunately, I had a lot of motivation to continue casting in that my rain both healed the injured, while also flooding me with a slow but steady flow of experience.

Then finally, after long last, we all saw the message that we had all been waiting for.

Midnight Hunters Guild Quest Completed: A Land of Your Own. The Midnight Hunters have managed to claim a plot of land of their own. Claiming a once forgotten kingdom that had long since been eroded by monsters and a disease that there was no cure for. You and your guild managed to stay out in the unclaimed wilderness for thirty days and thirty nights, truly claiming the land as your own. Rewards: Experience, Guild Title, Guild Land, Guild Badge.

Experience Gained.

50,000 / 25,000 / 25,000

Guild Title: Reclaimers of the Lost Elven Capital of Deolar. Effect: All guild members who were present for the final stand gain a complete understanding of the Ancient Elven Language.

Guild Land: The Midnight Hunters are now able to gain up to 612 Acres (upgradable) of land belonging to the former Elven Capital of Deolar. Note: One acre given for every guild member present when the final victory was noted.

Guild Badge: Reclaimers of the Lost Lands: Your guild has managed to carve out territory of their own. As a member that was present during this time, you are able to claim one acre of that land as your own for you and your family.

I didn’t even have the bandwidth to see the changes in levels, as all I wanted was to register the changes and finally crash out for a long well-deserved slumber.

Unfortunately, it seemed that the world was not done with us, for at the exact moment we saw the message letting us know we had succeeded, we were met with yet another situation.

“YOU DARE TO CLAIM MY HOME!” An ancient but powerful voice began bellowing from somewhere at the heart of our territory.

Hidden Quest Found: Awakening A Sleeping King: You have managed to awaken the slumbering king of the Deolar Kingdom…

That was as far as I got, before I turned to Mallory and said five key words.

“I’m out of this one.” Then before Mallory could even protest, I Teleported up to one of the empty rooms on the nearest airship and immediately fell asleep. I was pretty sure it was my room, but even if it wasn’t, I really didn’t care at that exact moment.

I was asleep before I could even mutter the words, “the Doctor is out.”