BECMI Chapter 488 – The End of No Magic

Natural Renewal.“Behold the New Day!”

The manafield .

Sunlight swept across the ranks of revealed shaden, pale gray to white skins suddenly flushing as the light swept across them, a sense of hope and purpose returned, as it always did when the Salute to Aru was invoked… just as the quiet determination of Aethra’s Salute, which my cousins actually preferred, steeled them for the night ahead.

But this, this brought with it something more.

Tired and weakened elves took deep breaths, and their eyes flew wide. Magic was drawn into them. Spell Valences that had lain fully dormant in their minds glowed with power. Weakness from No Magic lessened with every breath, every beat of a heart as the Shaden stood taller, straighter, some letting fall sticks and staves they’d been leaning on to get around as their vitality returned with magic.

A week of No Magic, and now it was over!

The Sublime Chord echoed around them as I let the thaumaspectrum Sing to them, a wordless Song making all of magic quiver around those gathered here. Cantrips lit off here, there, and everywhere in little displays of magical power and relief.

Across the world, prayers were finally being answered. Spells tripped off the lips of eager and vengeful wizards. Long-standing Wards and Enchantments gone dim or suppressed hummed back to life. In Delpha, thousands of buildings, sky islands, and grounded vessels rose slowly and majestically back into the air as the morning light crossed the arc of the Core of all Magic, and their power returned.

Marks kicked back on. The Markspace lit up again, quiet and ready.

Immortals gave orders to their priests, and the faithful, rewarded for their steadfastness, leapt eagerly to obey.

Like a beast shrugging off its torpor, the world made ready to pursue war once again, and Siricil, Siricil was going to eat the heart of it.

A spoiled man-child nearly as insane as Delphax had inherited the Imperial Throne of Delpha, and wasn’t allowing his mother to be returned to life. He was a ranting hater of non-magi, and Siricil was a direct affront to all his sensibilities, its people barbarians and savages… and Zanzyr was the home of terrorists and murdering black magicians threatening all that Delpha held dear.

The surviving Overmagi were spending and bringing their fellows back. Those who had died would largely be returned, unless someone had prevented them… such as by Forsaken driving True Death knives into their corpses and making sure their spirits could not come return. But Sama wouldn’t have run right over to Vinndsvoll to do that directly, would she?

Of course not. Nopers.

I turned around to face the revitalized and ready Shaden, and the square of land in the middle of their claimed territory that they’d worked on slowly and patiently, teeth grit as they traded persistence and precision for power, purpose for speed during No Magic.

It was enough. The stone was not smooth, but it was revealed and rough and they were prepared to begin building around it.

I raised my hand, gleamed, and Stone began to itself out of the ground. Runes were scrawled onto the twenty-foot block with eye-searing precision, pulsing with power that took the first Block up out of the ground and left it hovering there in midair for me to put into place.

I did not interrupt my Pyramid building. This thing had to go up and fairly quickly to have the protective effect that they needed, but that was fine. This kind of stuff I was good at, and they didn’t want to be vulnerable to the Radiance. If Thaum didn’t like me building another one… there was nobody watching here, and he had enough things to keep busy with…

-Edge, we’ve got a problem.-

Sama didn’t like having problems she couldn’t handle, and problems she could handle she didn’t bother to tell me about before resolution. I handled what I had to, she handled what she did, and if she wanted help, she’d ask.

Needing help rankled her.

-Go ahead?- I /asked her, about halfway through with the Shaden Pyramid and dancing my way like a tai-chi master through the process. My cousins were standing mesmerized by my control, power, and endurance, just watching for hours on end as I put together this floating mass of stone that was being erected in a uniquely Shaden style.

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-We have an asteroid that has suddenly burst into motion.-

My eyes narrowed, but the thoughtstream managing the wasn’t affected and kept on moving. -And I bet you thought I was a bit paranoid for suggesting that high atmosphere monitor.-

One of the more unique things about Nown was the size of its atmosphere, which extended for a full sixty thousand miles around the planet. Naturally, most of what happened above the stratosphere was invisible to human eyes, and there were actual sky cities and entire civilizations up there, mostly of Elemental beings, which had never set foot on the ground.

This atmosphere was held in place by the Worldshield, an Immortal contrivance that made it physically difficult to enter or leave the atmosphere. It was something put into place to stop powerful extra-planetary events, like, oh, a Federation Starship trying to land under control and suffering incredible damage as it did so, or a plummeting comet punching holes into the Hollow World instead of destroying everything.

-Course?- I /asked.

-It’s still adjusting course and velocity, but all the corrections seemed to be aimed at getting it to land somewhere north of you, and not by much.- She /paused for emphasis. -Prince Nerocuori has been engaged in some manner of extended Summoning Ritual for the last two days, according to one of our spies.-

Thoughts spun and clicked. -He’s trying to call down a meteor on Skyhill, and someone is using it as an excuse to do much more.- Because of course they would. -ETA?-

-Two days, approximately.- She let that hang there for a second. -Can we use this?- she asked grimly.

The nearest Shaden paying attention to me actually jumped back when I suddenly smiled. My sudden killing intent shriveled every living thing around me instantly, while the Sublime Chord I was Humming grew razored edges that had my cousins clutching at their larger ears.

“Yes. Oh, yes, we can.”

It was

I couldn’t stop building the Umbral Pyramid. It was going to be important, especially when I informed the Shaden of what was going to happen.

Some immediately wanted to head back underground, as this was just too goddamn much. The surface was even wilder and more dangerous than legends said!

Then I challenged them to fight back against the shit their ancestors had run away from repeatedly, proving they had earned their place on the surface. They grit their teeth and agreed.

I brought in two Sims to help set up the Formation with the Ritual, while every Shaden who could, and every human in the neighboring lands to the north smart enough to believe me, headed immediately for the edge of the Pyramid Domains, away from Skyhill.

Nico Bastionelli in particular was notified to get any people he could out of Fuireze, which he did rapidly and without ceremony, having had plans to that effect to protect his family and friends long waiting in case the Prince wanted to try something against me. We didn’t have many natives of Iendyl in the Allegiances...

Yet it was all quietly done. Many of the free farmers didn’t want to believe and held their ground and farms and land, convinced we or somebody, anybody would seize what they had accomplished with years and generations of hard work if they left, and so they wouldn’t move for anyone or anything.

It was what it was, and we could only save who we could save.

That wasn’t to say I didn’t make at least a perfunctory attempt to stop it.

was powerful enough to get me to the asteroid. I arrived there and looked around, the vacuum of space tugging at the combined power of my Ring, Staff, and Amulet and being told to shut up and go away, I could survive natural conditions pretty much anywhere.

It was just a lump of stone, maybe the size of Manhattan Island. That was plenty big, and even after going through the Worldshield, it was going to be devastating when it hit.

The power moving it was Entropic. A Major Artifact, the Six-Deaths Drums of Sundrensar, was being sacrificed to provide the Immortal Power to propel the thing, an outlay of Immortal Power I couldn’t match or overcome.

What I could do was identify who was responsible, and that was Delphax, who was obviously smarting after losing an Avatar and being banned from Nown. Now he was taking advantage of the magic of a Zanzyran Wizard-Prince to really up the stakes of the conflict.

Without any hesitation on my part, I carved the True Name of Thanatos into this thing, and added my own special results to what was going to happen here, all before covering it up.

And so confident was I that nothing was going to happen to this thing, I went ahead and subtly informed, through suggestions and visions and modified memories, the clergy of three different churches that a star in the sky had shifted positions and was growing brighter as it did so.

All three of those churches were adherents of Immortals whose identities were on a specific list, and who in general remained aloof and above the politics and actions of mortals on Nown.

I gave them a chance.

They didn’t bother to take it. I left a simple Formation there to sense Immortal attention, and it pinged off three times during the next two days.

No action was undertaken to prevent the stone from falling, despite other Immortals, especially the Hierarchs and Eternal-tiers they were, having all the power needed to shift its course, or even destroy the stone outright.

They could even have notified Quarizon, who would definitely have acted to prevent this from happening.

They did not, preferring to sit back and see what happened with the interest of jaded movie-goers thirsty for a new flick with better special effects about to start rolling.

The Clash of Empires had reversed very quickly once Delpha’s magic was restored. More archmages thirsty for revenge and blood had joined the Delphan forces, an edge in magic that was terrifying to face, especially when they started acting with something approaching teamwork and a lot more morale than before.

All positions on the Isle of Kheper fell within two days of No Magic ending, and the Siricilans were routed from the island. The Delphan Imperial Sky Navy ravaged the Storm Riders and the much smaller Siricilan Air Fleet, establishing near-absolute aerial dominance as they pushed forward across the Dawnbreaker Strait and landed on Siricil’s shores in the Duchy of Tel Azha at Primlum. They took the city and sacked it in only a day before preparing to move out overland, sandwiching the Ducal Capital of Tel Azha itself between land and sea, and leaving the mouth of the Gulf of Hammanrium open for the Delphan forces to pour across and land their forces only a hundred miles from the City of Siricil proper, a course they’d taken twice before in previous clashes.

Both times, Siricil had not been able to stop their advance, and after all its recent struggles, it really wasn’t in the shape to do now, facing an outraged and energized Delphan combined force on land, sea, and sky.