BECMI Chapter 399 – An Arcane Cycle of the Elements

Rune Seals exploded in the air, flaring out around us, base Caster Level higher than any there had ever experienced, realizing now why I was here. The Seals made their eyes water and heads throb as they tried to understand the magic symbolized there, but none of them had the power to do so.I organized them like a lens to the sky, turning over as we approached noon, and the Pyramid and Ceremony aligned itself with the distant sun at the center of Meandral. Valences I and II were poured into the Circles by all the mages present, and the starfire built, and built...

Fire came down with a blinding flash and a roar… but the Circles of flame about the wizards were in the way, and they were neither blinded nor burned in the slightest, despite many crying out and flinching as a raging inferno of starfire from the highest heavens came down upon the Pyramid, and the stones drank it in.

Flames swirled around and above the Circle, building up a flaming spiral of power and magic that swirled into all four openings of the Pyramid, and down, down into the mountain, into the world.

I shifted the howling vortex over to Master Kirk, who many would have been very surprised to learn was not a Master Geomancer like his mother, but a Master Aeromancer.

The flame pouring down from the sky in a long line seemed to draw apart into countless white trails and winds, swirling and feeding it, and then ultimately replacing the starfire white-hot heat with a cerulean vortex moving faster and harder than any mortal tornado as it plummeted from on high to the mountain top, winds that could tear a man apart in seconds flowing past us and around the warding flames.

Down, down into the mountain, as Valences III and IV were sacrificed to strengthen the air magic.

As the power compressed again, and again, the contrails of whiteness above thickened and darkened, growing heavy and condensing, reaching out in all directions, and directly touching the waters of the bay, ocean, and even streams and rivers on the far side of the mountain, arching up and down as Kirk handed off to his sister Uhura, who was a Master Hydromancer, the equal of any upon Iotar.

Now it was a solid column of water plummeting from the sky, something that should have washed us all away, chewed through reinforced stone like mud, and basically wiped the School off the map. Many of the students were trembling to see it, even as those who could let loose Valences V and VI.

The mountain drank it all in without any problem.

And then the water crystallized, the air exploded into a thousand fractals of gold and rainbow. Particles of salt and sand and stone and ash and metal dust rose and gathered from miles around, earthpower converging on them as blue-haired Uhura handed off to her mother Chalcedony. The powers of the Earth compressed water to solid, and the bottom of the Elemental cycle combined all the frozen remnants of the other Elements as it came down like a pillar of crystalline destruction.

It was just raw magic, like all the others. Instead of boring through everything in its path like empowered diamonds, it rode the Valences VII and VIII down, down into the mountain, the mightiest and the strongest of the magicks.

The petals and streams unspun, the lights concentrated, and the end of the rush of power came like falling lightning, there and past us. Suddenly there was nothing overhead of us.

Raw Valences of IX churned in the air from dozens of archmages, living and past, as well as power sacrificed over two thousand years slowly and steadily, to build what was coming.

Down into the mountain the Elements came, compressed, one on top of another, and there they completed the Cycle under pressure.

Arcane glory ignited, and roared back out as the Runes on the tip of the Pyramid divided it into a thousand fractals. Raw arcane power leapt for the sky through a thousand focusing lenses spun out of that white marble. Lines of power streaked across the sky, and as they did, they moved.

Writing, leaving trails of energy at the edge of the void, patterns and lines and Seals and Circles and Sigla.

Runes, painted across the sky, changing the very nature of the magic here.

Everyone could feel it, falling down across the world like golden dust. The remnants of the ancient catastrophe wrought of Fire and Air had been taken, Burned away, and now, now it was time.

One by one, the thousands of peaks of this remnant land, carved by Geomancers across the centuries, lit up, and pillars of crystalline golden light leapt for the sky, extending the reach and power of that golden dust.

They marched across the whole continent of Omicra, those protective Runes carved into the mountains showing their true power and purpose as they lit off and re-wrote the laws of magic for this Remnant of Delpha.

This text was taken from NovelFire. Help the author by reading the original version there.

The incidence of those being born here able to learn magic would rise once again. Not to its old level of nearly fifty percent, but higher.

In return, more Forsaken would be born, and Chalcedony would be starting the training of that Tradition. With the Forsaken’s ability to hold an untapped Matrix for their bondmage, the relationship between them would never be truly antagonistic.

Furthermore, the magic here in Omicra would have a clear bias towards Earth magic. It would be easier to learn and Cast, and more children would be born with a bias towards it.

But that was not all of it.

I hadn’t spent that much magic in a very long time. My Sorcerer Slots were emptied, and half my Wizard ones, leaving me just my Divine Slots with full power… not that I expected anything to strike at us right now.

The School was horrendously vulnerable to outside attack at the moment, with all of its students and alumni virtually drained of magic.

Thinking it was undefended would be a grave mistake, of course, and the Wards were up and working perfectly well.

Chalcedony was a Mystic Theurge with Druid, and anyone who thought she was depleted of magic was going to receive an unhappy lesson in Theurgic power, too. A 36/30 with a strong bias towards Earthcasting, sure, but also deeply connected to the Land and one of, if not the strongest, Druids on Omicra and maybe this entire world, too, as Druid wasn’t a terribly popular Class here.

Most of the attendees crowded onto the walls and rooftops to watch the mountains lighting off, staring at the pillars scribing change into the sky, and they drank and cheered as they completed the work of thousands of years of Terrestria’s people.

Urgent messengers were coming up from the city, demanding to know what was going on, and likely more than a little checked by the great Bat flying leisurely around the place with a bunch of cheering children sitting in extended saddles and screaming excitedly, watching the show from the best seat in the house.

“Well, I’d best get off to Iotar, then,” I told Chalcedony with a very slight smile, watching a thousands-year plan come to fruition in the very best way.

Popping Immortal avatars was satisfying, but this, working so long and hard at a great dream, and watching it go off, was why we did this.

“She’s getting the last of it arranged,” Chalcedony nodded understanding, glancing towards the main gates which were stopping a restless crowd of folk who thought themselves important from barging in and demanding answers.

The second part of this had to go off tomorrow if the two were to be conjoined properly, united by the turning of the planet.

It meant I had hours of Meditation ahead of me to refill all my Slots, but these were the moments that made being a spellcaster worth it.

The Immortals could go eff themselves, we’d done a great and Good thing here today, even if some Omicran nobility were determined to leverage this to their own advantage. They probably wouldn’t like some of the changes that were coming…

Nobody was in a real mood to celebrate, far more concerned with getting eight hours of rest and restoring their power. As such, I was waved off, the gate was opened to the waiting group of officials outside, and they all paused in their outcries and parted quickly before me as I walked out, leading with a Humanbane Skull Burning the hue of their blood on , just to get my point across.

Then Duum rather impolitely strode up, forcing all of them even further out of the way. He grinned widely as I drifted my way up his wing, his child riders all tumbling enthusiastically down the other side, and swung into the fancy saddle of crimson and ebony dragonhide there.

Quite ignoring them, as they weren’t my problem and definitely not my superiors, Duum flapped once, blowing some around a bit since they were still too close, rose into the air in defiance of the Wards, and, his wings spreading awesomely wide, rotated south and west and soared away as smoothly as silk, with none of that annoying up and down motion normally part of riding a flying creature.

It was a long flight, but that was perfectly fine. I certainly could have to the horizon and upper atmosphere and closed the distance in no time at all, rocks circling the place or not, but I had a lot of Valences to restore, and Duum was perfectly happy to fly the entire distance over the waters, pretty much intimidating anything else in the air. Few creatures were airborne this far out over the sea, save random Elemental things of Air who had no desire whatsoever to mess with him, courtesy of the Primal Elemental Command radiating from us both.

So we headed west, chasing the light of day, and got to enjoy a truly spectacular banded sundown because of it, the blue of the atmosphere almost letting in the sight of the sky world beyond it for a brief moment during the extended dusk. I quietly observed it while mostly meditating, scrubbing my Slots free of arcane residue thoroughly and refilling them as quickly as I might.

They were going to be emptied again tomorrow, after all.

The starry night of Remnant Delpha was extremely active compared to Nown. The stars up there were mostly tumbling asteroids and rock chunks in orbit, moving here and there as they tumbled above the atmosphere and the magic attached to it.

Astrological significance to them? Possibly. Magic definitely had an impact on their orbits, any collisions, and the dusty nebulae refracting lights in clouds of different hues. I imagined that the active Immortals here were plenty ready to use them to convey signs to their faithful… or to read signs of greater forces in them, who knew?

Still, it was immensely relaxing to suspend any thoughts, just feel the magic, hum along with the Sublime Chords reacting to the shifting stars, and shut off any intense concentration.

I had over four hundred Valences to get back, so relaxing and stargazing in a naturally high-mana environment like this Remnant world was a great way to spend my time.

The radiant effects of the Sublime Chord around us spread out gently, soon garnering a lot of attention from curious Elementals. Wary of our Aura, they nevertheless swooped in closer to investigate, and were soon dancing around us as the winds shifted and altered, Duum soaring and banking as the Chords led him on.

I knew he was missing Cirru right now, as they often liked to go flying together, reading his cries as they bounced off the land below and painted pictures that could touch on the Chords even if I wasn’t Singing along with them...