Most people would be catastrophizing when they said their life was over. For Carlam being reeled in by his deity for a public punishment this was a very accurate circumstance.
The wind whistled by as he ascended and he was given scarce moments to decide on what he should do. With the statement of his God through his own voice he was probably going to be executed, though that wizard was supposed to be an equal of Adras. Furthermore Adras feared his retaliation. If he could destroy him and make sure he was no threat then Adras might be able to make an exception, or he would be cowed by Carlam's power.
In becoming a priest of Adras one would destroy their mana production to become vessels of Adras. This process was supposed to be permanent and would make them unable to work contrary to the will of Adras. Trying would be a surefire way to get killed instantly.
Unless-
Carlam wrenched control over the weave that was pulling him into the air, beginning to pull him northwards to the capital. He had only a moment while he could still live. He turned the weave and severed his connection to Adras. A death sentence should he run out of the quickly dwindling supply of mana.
As he fell he strengthened his body and dove like a missile into the temple of Adras, plunging into the pool of blood that was secreted beneath it. With the last dregs he ripped at the blood, drawing it into his body and pulling the power as a replacement that plugged the pipe that was draining his life away.
He would destroy the mage who made a mockery of his life. Then Adras would accept him or he would engage in deicide.
---
Taramo downed a vial of a healing draught and felt the pain of his hand beginning to regrow. It would take a few minutes but he had time since the priest had been removed. His reputation hadn't been forgotten, which could be a good thing if he's going to end up in conflict with others who remember him. He would be able to forgive some past behaviors, even if it feels to him like they happened months ago rather than eons.
The earth shook and a plume of debris was thrown up in the north. With the great wave of mana he felt a smaller prod from the village, someone asking to teleport. Taramo quickly sent assent through, receiving the expected spherical hole that dropped out a bedraggled clump of dirt with an attached root system and small vine. He picked up Ariwyn while she was orienting herself after the jump.
"I guess my reputation was forgotten." Now he'd have to make good on his implied promise-
"No. The priest escaped."
"So he's dead. If Adras is not supporting him he can't live."
"He's got a few hours before he runs out of mana completely." Ariwyn began, "He in that time needs to find a permanent source of mana strong enough for him to subsist off of. One source qualifies." A tendril poked Taramo. "You."
"So what do you suggest I d-"
"Sewer. Run. Now."
Half a building soared overhead and latched onto it was what was left of the priest. All his hair was gone though he appeared to have flowing locks with a mass of blood connected to his scalp, face, and arms, the latter of which were entirely degloved. The wrath in his eyes could be felt from the half mile overhead as he leapt at Taramo, shattering the rubble to dust and widely missing, destroying five buildings across three streets.
Needless to say Taramo ran.
---
If Taramo could escape to the vault and seal it it should be able to handle anything for at least a few hours so he ran towards the nearest sewer access. Taramo delegated his protection to Ariwyn, giving half his mana and all his hope as he ran to the entryway.
Most of it was spent in a massive ice wall set at an angle on one side so when the bloody priest leapt at it and broke through the different resistances set him at an angle into the middle of a building, giving about eight seconds more for Taramo to act.
Taking advantage of the time Taramo ignored the ladder and leapt down, landing on the burden bearing Spot. There was some murky water in the sewer and he froze a small sled in the water, ordering Spot to run after he snapped a leash to connect him to the wisp. The sled came along moving as easily along the walkway as on the water. This was discovered when one of the massive aggressive spiders had occupied above the waterline with webbing.
Taramo felt a little bad for the spider, though not enough to do anything as he zoomed past it under the water. The spider had leapt at him which was the only thing that kept it from being turned to mist when the priest blew through the web. The priest stopped for the briefest second to crush it, giving Taramo a second to rip a sleeve off and twist it into a little piece of rope. Just long enough so he wouldn't have to touch it.
Spot softened Taramo's halt against the wall of the shrine room as he yanked Taramo off the sled into the room. The disorientation meant he could barely see what he was doing but he got some help to loop the rope from Ariwyn, tying it in place and setting a quick weave to drag the rope, and the grate connected to it, at the next thing to cross the threshold into the room.
Still disoriented he shambled down the tunnel towards the vault, barely recognizing the shriek of absolute rage and explosion as the wraith-iron grate slammed into the thing that was the priest and exploded from the heat of too much mana being drained into it. If he got caught it would be inevitable that he would become a mana-battery for the rest of time. The priest would probably pick apart his mind as well, for tidbits of information as much as torture.
Ariwyn collapsed the tunnel behind them several times, slowing the pursuit enough that they were able to get to the door. The last of Taramo's energy was spent pushing open the door with Spot's help and closing it after them.
Except as he stumbled towards the other wall the failed mechanism in the vault meant that the door only closed most of the way, leaving a hair's width open.
Help support creative writers by finding and reading their stories on the original site.
And that was enough.
The pummeling on the door from the outside was as heavy as an earthquake and as consistent as a hurricane, stopping only to have a gush of blood force it's way through the tiniest gap. It returned to the gap and formed into the ends of fingertips, forcing the door to open to accommodate the hand and afterwards throwing the vault door halfway open. With the shriek of metal mechanisms it would neither open or close any more after that.
Taramo clutched his want in hand as he hurriedly meditated. The mana in the air was more than before with the passage being open for weeks, though the ability to process mana into a useful form almost always took a few minutes.
The priest was even less put together than before. His face and front of his body was closer in consistency with ground beef and both his eyes were in the process of being regenerated while he ripped the door open. He bled profusely but the blood refused to flow, pooling on his skin and being forced back into his circulatory system.
By the time his eyes were regenerated and able to see, a matter of two seconds, a shadow-dog had slammed into the Priest before he was able to locate Taramo. Misty teeth and claws dug at the flesh while Spot tried to drain as much mana from him. Wisps were difficult to permanently kill since as long as they kept their purpose they would eventually reform after almost any attack. The priest wrapped his arms around the dog-wisp and the blood that was pooling around his numerous wounds flowed into the beast.
He pulled his arms apart and the wisp was pulled apart into a fine mist, which tendrils of blood greedily vacuumed up. The Priest walked inside the room as his eyes reformed after being ripped out, generating as pure pupil in the near darkness.
"Nowhere to hide." The priest rasped, stepping towards his salvation and around the glowing cauldron in the center. He was grabbed and thrown against the wall by something inside the pool.
Half a body, meaning that it was a body halfway through construction. Green tinted hands came from arms that were hastily made with vines about the wooden skeleton. The skull had two shattered holes which held glowing green points.
"Not yet." Ariwyn's voice was projected through the system setup in the vault instead of from her partially formed avatar, keeping a completely placid tone that belied her aggression since she was running at him before he could stand.
"Funny that you think you could become a god when you couldn't be a proper follower of one." Ariwyn taunted with an indifferent tone as vines from the arms crept up the priest's body, probing for weakness, "The only ones left under your domain are the dead you've chained to yourself. Only a fool would follow you."
This angered the priest and in the following struggle one of Ariwyn's arms had been ripped off and thrown aside.
(The system connection is his weak point) Ariwyn whispered in Taramo's mind as the priest ripped the other arm off. The feeling of a torn connection gunked up with a scab of bloody mana was projected in his mind as the Priest gloated his victory.
"I was held back by rules and your meddling. Without either I will grow."
Taramo stumbled to his feet as the Priest ripped at the wooden ribcage, uncovering a beating heart that glowed with mana. He raised it to his mouth and ripped a bloody chunk off it. The vine connected to Taramo spasmed and his connection with Ariwyn dimmed.
"(You are not a wand)" he whispered to his wand as he barely walked forwards "(You clear blockages and make flow)" And Taramo raised his wand in hand and plunged it into the priest's back as he swallowed the last of the heart. Flowing blood ate away at the skin of his hand and re destroyed the one that was partially regenerated before being frantically withdrawn.
The room was immediately filled with a putrid feeling mana. Blood magic from decades to thousands of years ago flowing from the broken tether that was trying with all it's effort to reseal itself. The blood was able to congeal from the edges inwards a bit but by the time it was able to slow the flow of escaping mana at all it was blasted away by the wand using the last dregs of Taramo's mana. Every open wound where blood wept blood as all his effort was put into sealing the river of mana from the priest's body.
Ariwyn's lifeless avatar was dropped and the crazed priest turned to Taramo, leapt at him, taking both of them down.
Then he collapsed lifelessly on top of Taramo.
---
Time passed with no meaningful referent. Taramo was stuck alone in a miasma of mana that wasn't foul enough to kill him and under an emaciated body he was unable to pull off himself. He was thirsty and tired and there was nobody else here except the remnants of whatever wisps that had decided to stay near their guard post of forever ago.
"(bring help)" He sent a small command.
A request.
A prayer.
The disruption in the mana could have been a result of something heeding him or just a ripple in the mana from him sending the command out too strongly.
He tried to lift the body off him but he couldn't get leverage and his hands couldn't leverage himself on account of being burned down beyond the skin. He would have been in shock if not for the ability to turn off the pain and knowledge that if he was saved, anything but death would be curable to some degree.
He heard something scuffle. A small creature.
If it was a rat he just hoped it started eating the body on him instead of himself.
It poked him with some elastic tendril. A slime? He didn't know they were around here.
It moved along his body, first from his hip down to the foot, but then turning about and more quickly going up towards his face. He swung a stump of a hand at it, feeling the cool mist as his hand passed through the creature.
It stopped at his head and Taramo felt the tendril rasp over his face. Then a little shudder in the creature was followed by a small dot of light. A tiny star that gave very little to see, but showed Taramo who it was.
"Good boy."
---
Taramo had never realized how much Spot was ambivalent about specifics. He didn't care how much time had passed or found himself unable to express it but didn't seem to bother. He'd also shrunk a lot. He was about the size of a smallish rat though with his changeable form he was able to stick himself to the body and cauldron lip to get the corpse off Taramo which made time a lot less uncomfortable.
The rescue team arrived while Spot was gathering chunks of ruined furniture in an attempt to make a fire but Spot hadn't had enough time to try actually making the fire.
Mask was the first. The little golem brought a first aid kit and blanket so by the time the tunnel was cleared for something larger than a child his hands were bandaged and some vitality potion had been applied.
It would take hours or days for a full recovery given it was trying to solve his hunger and dehydration at the same time but that wasn't worth trying to refuse the treatment.
The next person was the chef Carina. Balls of light hovered around her and lit up the whole room in a way that was almost painful to Taramo but he wouldn't argue.
Ariwyn's body had taken Carina's attention first for a good minute, though she came with a crock with some soup and a waterskin so Taramo had something to eat, assuring him that everything was going to be all right. The environment made something that should be good taste like ash. When the golem stretcher and others made it in he made them cover up Ariwyn before they took him away.
They'd broken through the ground to the sewer so they just had to lift him out. A lot of the unoccupied city had been damaged incidentally or from deflecting or blocking with some Arno leading the firefighters. Most of the buildings were fire resistant though they didn't want to rely on that.
Niki would have picked him up in a bear hug if he wasn't hurt and drained of energy. She'd been crying.
He was fed, re bandaged, and put in his old bed at his insistence. The vine that stayed beside his bed was in the same spot as when he'd awoken, maybe pointing a bit more towards the window. He brushed his hand along it's length and felt no feedback.
When he finally went to sleep, after far too long, the vine was in his grasp.
When he woke up it was around his hand
(Good Morning)
Do you feel this justifies the content warnings are justified (select all that apply. You should be able to do 3 answers I think that's how it works)
