Chapter 31 [Both]: Rise to the Occasion (Patreon)

Technology is dangerous—in cycles. For thousands of years on Earth, people created new technology—more dangerous technology—and humans adapted to it, creating better defenses. Spears turned to swords, swords to guns. Guns to machine guns. Machine guns shifted to bombs and bombers, and soon, there were jets. Somehow, that shifted to humanless drones that could drop nuclear bombs. And even in the face of technology that can wipe out cities and cloak the world in nuclear winters that would blot out the skies and spread famine and radiation upon the Earth, they’ve created missile defense systems to fight them and technology to overcome the fallout. No matter how advanced technology becomes, humans create systems to counter it.

But.

When technology first comes out—

—that’s when it’s the most dangerous. It catches people off guard like U-boats sinking British ships mercilessly and radar destroying U-boats and shifting the war. 

In the world of software, this is called a Zero-Day exploit. A brief moment where malware is unknown and unguarded before it suddenly launches and has a heyday, exploiting everything without a single anti-virus program to stop it. 

That’s what the Pandora 0 20mm Cannon was to Solstice.

The gun had shells that I personally engraved with ancient magic to seek out the most powerful person in the area—friend or foe—before hitting them with a massive armor bullet that could shred through an armored tank like butter. In a word, it was an archwizard killer.

Words couldn’t describe how dangerous the gun was for Solstice. In an enemy’s hands, it could kill me if I didn’t tattoo arrays on myself, my family’s clothing, armor, swords, insignias, and anything else they wore to ensure it wouldn’t hurt them. It also didn’t fire within twenty feet of the shooter, ensuring that it wouldn’t result in friendly fire. Still, it could still kill them. So, I didn’t release that weapon lightly and ensured that only my family would use it. As for the array itself, it burnt up inside the shell upon contact, and the shells would explode if someone attempted to open them. Still, I only made six rounds for the weapon I left there and six for my own, knowing full and well that my weapons and defense systems would be enough to kill quite a few in the event of the war. That was the weapon that I unleashed upon Solstice. And soon, my guns would be found by enemy troops and replicated. And, while I burned the array I used—locking it forever only in the confines of my and the Archwizards’ memories—it wouldn’t be long before there was a mad dash to create fire bullets, wind bullets, barrier bullets. Hell, there might be bullets to heal people from a distance one day. Such was the nature of magic.

And I was leading that charge, not shying away from it, because one day someone would, and it was better to do it now and prepare to defend ourselves against them than to wait.

Still, the stakes were far too high. If my family lost that war, the archwizards could figure out the technology and prepare for me. If my family lost the war, they would die. If my family lost the war….

I gripped the windowsill from my chambers, staring over the ocean, waiting, waiting for the sign that risking the world with such an irresponsible weapon was enough to kill the Archwizards and bring my family safety. 

2

Water flooded Scarlet’s bunker, getting shin-deep. Her emotions were going haywire as she pressed Eris against her bosom, praying someone would save them but not knowing how. The bunker was one hundred feet under the ground, and the tunnel was filled with water. Soon, the oxygen in the room would run out, and the room would be completely flooded with water regardless. She prayed that Leon could save them… somehow. But deep down in her heart, she didn’t think he could.

3

Samson went through the most hellish two minutes of his life, flying in and out of the water, crashing into buildings, getting dragged under, always thinking that he’d drown only to feel hope for a single moment before being dragged back down. The water was filled with debris: shattered buildings, wood roofs, thatch and bowls and dirt. Sundell was like an underground graveyard from the flood, a forgotten city that had submerged and been confined to the pages of history. And during that trying few minutes, with his ribs and back battered and bruised, he thought, if only for a second, that he’d just give up and let the tide carry him away. It’d be easier. But then, as his vision was blurring, he remembered his brother’s face. Big brother: the prodigy. The most famous person in the world. The most unattainable person. The one his family lavished with praise and always talked about. The favorite child: his face came up. And when Samson saw it, a fire burned in his heart.

Samson was NOT jealous of his big brother. It was just that his big brother was his hero, the person that he looked up to. And sure, he was constantly focused on surpassing his brother and was being competitive and stuff, but that wasn’t because he hated his brother. It was just because he wanted to be more like him. He wanted Ryker to be proud of him and know that he grew up and would be like him one day. He loved Ryker, and when he saw his face lighting up in the suffocating, water-logged darkness, he remembered:

If Ryker was there, drowning or dying or whatever, he wouldn’t give up. He’d punch the water in the face and save his family! And if the water fought back, he’d punch it in the face again! And if the water grabbed a sword, he’d draw his own and annihilate a full city. And if that wasn’t enough, he’d use super amazing magic to make it submit! And Samson had that power! His brother taught him!

Eyes shut, struggling to breathe under the water, he concentrated and chanted a spell. It was the first spell his brother taught him. It was the one that made him fall in love with magic. 

Ánemos tis symmetochís suskíazei. Samson churned his mana core to the furthest possible degree. It was the best mana core, untainted by a priorly established one, born from a clean slate. He and Eris were there to inherit Solstice as the world’s strongest. This was his realm, and he couldn’t mess it up. Parousiázontas ti diástasi tis dýnamis. The water around him lit up, and mana pulsed out for half a mile. Drande, mes' sto parélasma, skertóntas tin epígnosi tis zoís!

Suddenly, all the water around him shot up into the air in a massive reverse waterfall, shooting him into the sky like a slingshot. This antigravity spell was a trick. A way to fly in a world without flying magic. A simple wonder of the world that allowed people to lift objects well beyond their means. But the ancient magic version of the spell shifted the world itself, and soon the water was sucking to the sky in a vortex again.

4

Leon, who was desperately swimming, looking for Samson in the wreckage with a pounding heart, suddenly dropped to the ground when the water below him gave out. He looked to the sky in horror, expecting to see another archwizard preparing a vortex to slam into the city. Instead, he found something wondrous. His son, the kid that he told to go into the bunker to stay safe because he was truly convinced he wouldn’t be able to help, was in the air, surrounded by cocoa fruit-sized droplets of water, floating around him like bubbles in the wind. For a moment, the young boy looked like a god, holding the weight of the world on his shoulders. Then he saw him struggling: the water had gone up, but it wasn’t going anywhere—

—and Samson’s mana would run out.

He got up, coughing out water, silent-casting an amplification circle. Once it was up, he yelled.

“All mages! That’s your leader up in the sky! Work together to get the water out of there!”

Suddenly, the stunned city, seemingly frozen in time as they watched the carnage unfold, looked up and fell victim to the charm of Samson’s demonstration. Then one soldier started barking orders, and griffins and thunderstags took to the sky with mages, who started strategizing as fast as possible to get the water out of Sundell’s walls.

5

Eris started to squirm in Scarlet’s arms, and she found herself incapable of holding her daughter. “Eris! Conserve your energy!”

“No!” Eris screamed. “Dad and brother are out there!”

Scarlet didn’t know whether to laugh or cry. They were about to suffocate or drown or get crushed by a wall of force once that water exploded from the door, but Eris was worried about them. It was endearing, but she couldn’t do anything about it. But when Eris jumped into the water with a splash and started wading toward the door, she panicked. “Eris! Don’t open that!”

Eris didn’t listen. She started mumbling to herself and then, in a flit of rage, put her hands on the door—

—and the temperature in the room instantly froze. Then ice shot across the door, turning it vibrant blue. Eris jumped back and put up a light barrier to stop the ice from spreading.

“What are you doing!” Scarlet yelled. 

Eris released the barrier and stomped on the ice around her, setting off an explosion of shattered glass. “Water was getting in, Momma!” 

Scarlet looked at her daughter’s bright red legs under her sundress and saw her shaking body, wanting to chastise her. But then she realized no water was getting in. She didn’t know what to say.

Eris climbed up on a table and used a heating spell to bring the temperature up in the room. She jumped down and looked at the walls, then looked up, furrowing her brows. Then she looked at the door, went to the other side, inspected the floor, and then climbed back on the table, where she sat down and hugged her knees.

Scarlet smiled wryly. “What is it?”

“I don’t know!” Eris yelled, frustrated and holding her forehead to her knees. “There’s nowhere for the water to go!”

Then it became clear to Scarlet. They could freeze the water and keep it out of the room. Perhaps there was even magic that could suck the oxygen out of water. That was something that her son would do. There was always a way. But there was nowhere to put the ice unless they burrowed up the tunnel, filling the bunker part with the leftover water—and that was stupid. It was frustrating.

“They’re alone,” Eris said, eyes welling with tears. “And we can’t do anything!”

Scarlet’s eyes trembled with tears. She was so proud of her daughter. Somehow, when she wasn’t looking, Eris had learned so much from her tutors to the point that they could be facing death, and she could be worrying about her family. What an extraordinary young girl. “Come here, honey.”

Scarlet waded through the water and sat on the table, grabbing Eris and pulling her tight to her bosom again. “They’ll be okay. If your brother is half as amazing as you are, we’ll all be fine.”

“He’s better!” Eris yelled.

“Then there’s nothing to worry about,” Scarlet laughed, rubbing the back of her daughter’s head. “We’ll be just fine.”

6

Samson was dizzy from mana deprivation. He was holding up hundreds of thousands of gallons of water in the sky, sitting on a griffin in the air.

“Keep it up, Lord Everwood!” they’d shout to him as they used fire magic at the top of the water ball to turn it to steam, releasing it back into the atmosphere. From up high, he could hear statements like:

“I can’t believe it….”

“What do you mean? He’s an Everwood!”

“I know, but still…. This is just magic.”

“Yeah, it’s crazy. He may be more talented than his brother.”

“In magic.”

“Yeah, but still. If he gets even half the merchant skill—“

“Shut up and get to work! He’s dyin’ down there!”

Samson listened in a haze, pride welling in his heart. And whenever he got tired, those statements would make him churn and churn and churn his mana core. Most of all, there was his father, who barked orders in the city like, Drain it faster! If my son has to do everything, I’ll kill you! before rushing to the bunker that Mom and Sis were in. That alone gave him anxiety. But he knew Eris would keep Mom safe. As much as he hated to admit it, she was his rival in magic. She was so damn talented! He believed in her.

7

Leon’s heart nearly stopped when he saw that the tunnel leading into his family’s bunker had lost its metal lid and was flooding. The lid was made of reinforced steel, pressurized, and locked with a turning mechanism. But the flood was vicious and ripped it out, causing water to flood the shaft. At first glance, he feared that the same had happened to the inner airlock door, and they had drowned!

Please be okay, please….

Leon also used antigravity to lift the water. He was pretty useless, all things told. His son ruled the fucking world, and his other kid saved an entire city from a calamity spell, and he couldn’t even do a fraction of it. But as a father, he put aside his pride and used his son’s genius to help him. He’d sell his soul to a beggar right now if it saved his wife and daughter. As he tried to teach his son, it wasn’t about being stronger or better than Ryker or anyone else. It was about rising to the occasion, even when things were bleak. And somehow, that translated to Samson. If only that. If only….

After levitating the water out of the tunnel, he used a flash fire spell to turn it into a massive cloud of steam that burned his face. Who the fuck cared. Scar him for life. Make him hideous. If it saved him even a second, he would do it. That second could mean everything.

“Sir! Let us help you!” Mages ran up.

Leon’s desire for control made him almost yell, Get the fuck away from me! But looking up, he could see Samson in a cloud of steam with hundreds working to help him circumvent the flood. He was remarkable. Just like his brother. “Help get rid of the water!”

They nodded and started working.

8

Eris saw the door, which was pressurized and expanded from the frozen water, stop pushing inward. “They’re here….” She turned to Mom, whose tears were glued shut from tears. “They’re here!”

Mom’s eyes opened as she closed her eyes and set out a divination spell to check the mana signatures. It was really limited when she was 100 feet under the ground. But when she did it, she could tell. “Dad!”

“He’s here….” Mom said.

“Of course he’s here!” Eris yelled, running up to the door. “Dad!” He couldn’t hear her, but she didn’t care. Then she released another mana pulse. After, she could tell that the water had cleared up. Now, if she were to boil the water, it’d turn to steam and shoot out of the ground like a whale’s blowhole, but… that’d burn his face up! Eris slapped her cheeks a few times. She was so excited. She just wanted to burn and break and smash the ice, then destroy and destroy until she got to him. But she had to wait! “Dad!” 

Eris released a mana pulse, shaking from anticipation. She was like a tea kettle with mana and anticipation shooting out of her like hot steam. Her body trembled.

“Eris!” Mom yelled. “Calm down!”

9

Leon’s heart fluttered when he felt Eris’s mana pulse. “Eris!” He immediately kicked into overdrive, heart knocking as he used another spell, shooting water out of the tunnel. “I’m coming, sweetheart!” He tried, but when he got halfway through, the water stopped floating out of the tunnel, and then he found a block of ice waiting for him. That was remarkable, in a way. His daughter had frozen a fifty-foot chimney of water into solid ice. It was also practical. It was thanks to that that they didn’t drown down there. But it was a problem because ice explodes under high heat, like ice magic, and trying to melt it would send a geyser of steam rocketing out of the tunnel, burning a mage’s face off. Just looking at it made him queasy. After all, his daughter was a firecracker, and she had the power to turn that block of ice into steam if she wanted to. That was a blessing and a curse—considering that there was no way to communicate with her. Anyone who went down in that tunnel would have to trust that she wouldn’t do it as they chiseled through that ice. Otherwise, they’d be standing there when the thing suddenly ruptured and burnt them alive.

What the hell would Ryker do? Leon asked. That question was like a mantra, but ultimately, asking what he’d do was always irrelevant. Ryker would melt the water slowly and use wind magic to suck it all up like a miniature tornado, causing a light mist to cool his face while he worked. Show off. Leon chuckled, emotions threatening to burst forth from him. I’ll try to communicate.

Swallowing hard, trusting in his daughter, he thrust himself into the tunnel and started climbing down the ladder. A few rungs in, when his mind was conjuring dozens of images of burnt flesh and traumatized children, he released a mana pulse. Then he started climbing down, expecting to put out another pulse to say, I’m coming down. Instead, he got hammered with an intense mana pulse so aggressive and extreme, as if Eris was screaming at the top of her lungs, “Kay Dad!” and he ended up falling ten rungs before his hand slammed onto a rung. He stopped, heart pounding, mind racing, thinking about having a daughter like that, someone with that much mana, accidently thinking, Light it up? On it! and then bye bye Daddy. He swallowed hard, chuckling to release his stress. Then he closed his eyes and released another pulse, gripping the rungs of the ladder tight so as not to fly away. Another pulse from Eris, this one lighter. Still made his brain rattle. 

Leon took a deep breath. At least she gets it, he thought. I think.

It took him a full minute to get to the ice, and when he got there, he didn’t know what to do. The ice was cold, and he was wet, making his boots stick to it. Then, only then, did he remember that there was a massive ball of water over the town, waiting to crash down on the city again and drown him. He had to act fast.

Just brute force it, Leon.

He unsheathed his sword, palms sweaty. Then he lifted the hilt above his head, blade pointed down, and thought, Not too hard, just enough, disgusted at himself for thinking of it as a sexual innuendo as he thrust it down into the ice, creating a ringing crack.

It was too much—

—or not enough.

He was nervous, and the ice cratered, shattering underfoot. It went down about ten feet. That's enough. Let's melt it....

Bending down, he chanted, creating a low heat spell that made his skin boil in the enclosed space. The ice groaned and cracked and melted, making him fight for balance as he sunk into the ground. He got about ten feet before he did another anti-gravity spell, soaking him to the bone with water as it flew out of the tunnel. Ten feet down. Forty to go.

10

Samson’s eyes were drooping. Two-thirds of the water was gone, but from where he was, he couldn’t really tell. With magic, you didn’t feel the weight. It wasn’t like there were 100 pounds of water above him, and now there were just 30. It took the same amount of mana to hold all of it as it did for some of it at this scale, which was a lot, and he was wearing thin.

“Hurry up!” a mage yelled. “He’s heatin’!”

Heatin’. That was a strange way to express mana deprivation that was cold and isolating and aching, making it feel like he injected ice water through his veins. It was so cold. He was so tired.

The water drooped over the skies of Sundell.

11

Leon shattered the ice again with his sword, making it burst. Then he sent out a mana pulse. The one he got felt like Ryker’s steam train hit him. That’s how he knew he was getting close. Twenty more feet. Maybe less. I’m almost there, sweetheart.

12

Scarlet watched Eris pace around the room like she drank ten cups of Luminara Coffee. She was frustrated, and Scarlet was trying to get her to calm down, but she kept mumbling, Something bad’s gonna happen. He needs to get out of that tunnel! 

Have faith, Scarlet had replied. But right now, she didn’t feel like that was a consolation. It was in Solara’s hands.

Suddenly, Eris thrust her hand on the doors, and Scarlet tried to scream Don’t!, but instead, the little girl shrieked, “Daddy!” and grabbed the handle of the door and yanked. At the same time, there was a terrifying crash overhead, and water flooded the room.

13

Leon released his last heat spell, melting through the ice and dropping him to the door. He was soaked to the bone, but he was finally there!

14

Outside, the mages dealing with boiling the expelled water looked into the sky. There was still a massive ball of water in the air. It was a fifth of the original size, but the mounted mages were screaming, He’s going down!

“Brace for impact!” one yelled.

Two mages put up a barrier as the ball of water collapsed and spilled downward toward Sundell. 

15

Iska barely made it in time. He was torn up from that Archwizard’s ice spell, and his body was pelted with wounds. Still, his body was forged from steel, and he wouldn’t die before he finished his duty to protect the Everwoods, his sworn duty in life. And now he was following through, hobbling toward the bunker when a massive wave of water crashed down on Sundell. Chanting out loud, he made it to the mages and fell on his hands and knees, finishing the final word as a massive barrier, the biggest he could manage with his mana surrounded it like a globe. Water smashed into his barrier, submerging the world in blue as if they were underwater. For a moment, the world stood still, and then the mages turned to him. “Hurry and protect them!” Iska yelled. The mages set to work.

16

Leon was stunned when Eris yanked open the frozen door, dress soaked, hands bright red from the cold. Leon stood there in a daze, looking at Eris as if he couldn’t believe she was alive. “Daddy!” she yelled, jumping into his arms. He hugged her, uncertain how his luck was so good. His eyes welled with tears, and he cried.

Scarlet joined in, wrapping her arms around both of them.

Suddenly, a massive crash hit from above, and for a fleeting second, he thought that they’d die. But then he heard, “Sir! Hurry!” from above and found himself gripping his family. “Hurry!” 

They rushed into the tunnel, Eris and Scarlet going first as they climbed the viciously cold rungs that stung their hands. There was one hundred feet to the top, and Scarlet was slipping on her dress. Suddenly, Leon understood just why Ryker hated nobles’ dresses so much and why he didn’t want his family to wear them. At least wear a cocktail dress, for fuck’s sake, Ryker once said at a banquet, looking at a woman with a red face, hyper-ventilating from trying to make her corset do what a healthy diet should’ve. It looks better and lets you breathe. Leon snapped back into focus. He shouldn’t be thinking about that, but Eris had already climbed to the top of the tunnel in her sundress, and Scarlet was still at the halfway mark, saying sorry over and over and over again. But they pushed forward, and when they finally crested the tunnel, the mages slammed a massive piece of concrete that had been swept up into the flood onto the hole. Then the barrier overhead gave out, and water smashed into everyone there.

17

General Moro finished surveying Sundell. Mages successfully drained water from the bunkers and protected them with barriers during the second dropping of water. The blast from the water falling destroyed dozens of buildings instantly, flooding the area, but it was nothing like the 30 feet of water that temporarily flooded the entire city. Now that the water had been rerouted it was flooding back into the Solsa River, the drainage areas, and the outlets. With nearly an entire city worth of bunkers (King Everwood clearly stated that bombs were the future of warfare and Sundell needed to prepare for it during planning), there were probably less than two hundred casualties during the battle, and almost all of them were soldiers. Once he finished, he made his way to Regent Everwood and his family. They were all safe, albeit exhausted, wrapped in blankets and holding each other. Eris Everwood was sobbing and chastising everyone, Samson was getting cheered on by Regent Everwood and the soldiers, and Scarlet was hugging all of them hysterically. It was remarkable.

Turning to his major, he whistled. Then, in a stunning display of pride, the mages shot massive flares in the sky in a flurry, hundreds of them, making everyone cheer. It was a flawless victory. King Everwood needed to know that.

18

I waited by the window for a full hour, Thea wrapped around my waist, body flexing, blinking to stave off eye dryness, rattled to the core when I finally saw it. Fireballs shooting into the sky. Not one, two, or three, which acted as warnings or urgent messages. Not four, which meant partial victory. No. There were dozens. In fact, it felt like the sailors were taking turns, trying to shoot as many as their mana channels would allow them. It was manic, euphoric even.

Flawless victory.

No family casualties.

I wasn’t one for crying. I think that I’ve cried a grand total of three times in my life. Maybe a few more times if you counted partial tears (I didn’t want to search my memory to check). But right then, knowing that King Elio or the Wreaths attacked Sundell, wielding calamity spells and city-obliterating magic, and my people won and my family survived… My family… survived…. I choked up. Thea squealed, wrapping around my stomach, crying and laughing and hugging me until I couldn’t breathe. It wasn’t until that moment that I realized that she was probably the only person who could hug me like that, and it made me laugh as I peeled her off me, turning around and gripping her, squeezing her bosom against my chest to get as close as possible. There were many types of happiness, and thus, many happiest days of one’s life. And now, seeing this…. I could honestly say that this was the happiest day of my life. And unlike fleeting feelings of joy and euphoria—

—I don’t think I’d ever forget this day’s importance.

19

It’s a funny thing, power. It has a way of skewing your brain, thinking in terms of statistics, cause and effects, and dissociating you from normal things like emotion and morality. Murder is a cardinal sin, but when you lump ten terrible people in a group of 50 and look at a single bomb, murder becomes common sense. A righteous sacrifice. A calculated effort. Skewed and detached. And you get used to that feeling until it’s commonplace. Until your behavior is “kingly.” And for me, the person with the guns and knowledge to rule this world, that idea had burrowed deep into my subconscious to the point that I could give the order to shoot canisters of misted war crimes into enemy combatants and order people’s executions and then sleep easily at night knowing that I did the right thing. I did do the right thing. I was saving lives. And I was okay with that.

But in reality, I was a fool. Somewhere along the way, I started thinking about myself as invincible, running around as if I had the luxury of being moral and righteous because I had weapons of mass destruction. Being ethical was the right choice, but I never had that luxury. The moment I left and my family nearly died, I realized that this wasn’t some game. From this day forth I’d continue doing my best to limit casualties, be ethical, be fair, be the best I could be given my advantages. But I would never again take war so lightly.

Tomorrow, I’d leave to fight Garfield’s forces. And I wouldn’t hesitate or second guess myself. I was leaving with The Swarm, 21,000 troops, 183 canisters of mustard gas, 350 Browning M2 machine guns, 232 .50 caliber sniper rifles, and a Pandora 0 20mm Cannon. When I got there, I would give them the opportunity to surrender. And if they didn’t—

—I would unleash the fury of the modern world on them.

Garfield Redfield was doubtlessly powerful, and I had no idea what he was capable of. For that reason, I planned to massacre his soldiers until he yielded, and I wouldn’t hesitate to use my Archwizard Killer to blow his fucking chest out before he could even whistle the attack order.

This war was over—

—and I was going home.

Let Fate and Folly try to stop me.