A Journey Unwanted

[Realm: Álfheimr]

[Location: Heart Kingdom]

[Outskirts]

Mikoto was still rushing toward Trismegistus.

His sabatons struck the ground in rapid succession, each step biting into the thoroughly ruined ground beneath him. The red aura around his body remained compressed against him, reinforcing his frame as he crossed the enormous crater. Behind him, the remnants of the arms fire continued to burn through, while the two separated trails of destruction carved away what little remained of the forest.

The distance between Mikoto and the Royal Guard was rapidly disappearing.

Trismegistus remained stationary, but now Wuchowsen stood between them.

Mikoto’s red eyes stayed fixed ahead as the enormous fiery arm above Wuchowsen disappeared. There was certainly no dramatic transition; one moment the limb was there, its open palm still glowing with residual heat.

The next, it was simply gone; the flames vanished first, and the physical structure beneath them disappeared with them, leaving nothing behind.

Mikoto’s eyes shifted upward for an instant, and that was enough.

Wuchowsen’s wings moved; the enormous spirit drew both wings backward. Its feathers compressed toward its body, then they snapped forward.

The resulting wind struck the crater; the entire area seemed to move with it. A violent wave of pressure swept outward from Wuchowsen, tearing across the destroyed landscape and throwing dust and debris into the air. Loose stones were lifted from the ground and sent tumbling away. Sections of already broken earth broke apart completely, their pieces dragged along by the current.

Mikoto’s hair whipped across his face as he stopped running. His sabatons dug into the ground; one foot slid several inches before he brought himself completely to a halt. The wind continued pushing against him as he looked upward.

Wuchowsen was rising.

The spirit’s enormous wings beat again, lifting its massive body away from the crater floor. Its four birdlike feet left the ground one after another, and its broad body climbed rapidly into the air.

Mikoto tracked it with his eyes.

Wuchowsen climbed higher and higher still, its wings beating with enough force to disturb the air around Mikoto despite the increasing distance. The spirit became smaller as it gained altitude.

Mikoto’s expression remained flat as he waited. Taking his eyes of the unknown seemed like it would be a bad idea.

Wuchowsen reached a considerable height above the crater; for a moment, it simply hovered there. Then its body tilted as its head dipped. Its wings shifted and the creature began descending. It changed direction; the enormous body angled sharply as it began a strange maneuver through the air.

One wing folded partially and the other extended, and Wuchowsen rotated, then it spun. Its body rolled through the air, wings cutting across the atmosphere in broad arcs. The first rotation generated another current, and the second strengthened it. While the third turned that current into something far more violent.

Wind spiraled around Wuchowsen as it descended.

The spirit continued spinning, its enormous body becoming the center of a rapidly intensifying vortex. The feathers along its wings were pulled outward by the speed, while the black symbols running across its body remained visible between the layers of brown and white plumage.

Mikoto watched as Wuchowsen came lower while its spinning accelerated. The wind surrounding it became increasingly concentrated. The crater floor below began to suffer; dust rose in a circular pattern as even larger sections of debris were torn from the ground and thrown outward.

Wuchowsen suddenly changed its angle; the spinning body tilted directly toward him. It began to barrel downward.

It was not long before the spirit was almost upon him.

Mikoto raised one armored hand; his thick gauntlet opened.

His palm faced the incoming spirit as mana gathered; a shape appeared in front of him. A wide, translucent hexagonal barrier formed in the air. Its surface was nearly transparent, allowing Mikoto to see Wuchowsen clearly through it.

The barrier expanded outward, hexagonal segments interlocked across its surface, forming a broad defensive plane large enough to cover Mikoto’s entire body and then some.

Wuchowsen struck it, and the impact detonated across the crater. A violent shockwave spread outward from the point of contact, tearing through the ground and sending enormous amounts of dust and debris into the air.

Mikoto’s arm remained extended, the barrier flexed, and its translucent surface warped backward under Wuchowsen’s weight and momentum. But it did not break; even so, the enormous spirit pushed against the barrier.

Its wings beat violently, and the wind continued crashing into the defensive construct. The ground beneath Mikoto cracked.

Though it hardly mattered, the barrier held, but Wuchowsen continued either way, its massive body partially obscuring the sky behind it.

Mikoto looked at the creature.

His expression became increasingly unimpressed.

"Tedious." The word was dismissive as his fingers shifted.

The barrier changed; its hexagonal structure began losing its rigid geometry. The individual sections stretched and the edges softened. The translucent surface warped as though the material had ceased behaving like solid energy.

The barrier sagged, then it moved; instead of resisting the great spirit, it began flowing around it. The hexagonal structure stretched outward and elongated, transforming from a rigid wall into something resembling translucent cloth.

Wuchowsen’s wings became partially trapped; the barrier wrapped around one side of its body. Then another section folded around its back; the spirit struggled as its wings beat harder. The cloth-like barrier responded by tightening around its movements.

Wuchowsen screeched; the sound was sharp and confused, echoing across the area as the enormous spirit tried to understand the strange change in the spell.

Its momentum disappeared; the force that had carried it toward Mikoto was gone. The barrier had not stopped it; it had taken the force of its movement and contained it.

Wuchowsen’s massive body sagged, and the spirit began falling. The translucent material loosened and its body dropped several meters before the barrier finally released it.

Wuchowsen crashed into the ground; the impact sent another cloud of dust outward. Its enormous body rolled slightly before coming to rest.

Mikoto did not watch it for long.

His hand lowered before his attention immediately returned to Trismegistus. The Royal Guard had not moved despite what happened to his spirit.

Mikoto’s eyes met the lenses of his mask; there was a short silence between them.

"Do you want to see a really nice ice spell?" Mikoto’s voice carried across the area easily; the question was almost innocent.

He did not wait for an answer.

His free hand moved forward.

A pale blue circular glyph formed in front of him; it was large. Its outer ring glowed with a cold white-blue light. Jagged lines extended inward from the circumference, meeting around the center in sharp geometric patterns.

At the exact center was a single pointed shard.

The glyph rotated slowly.

Mikoto stared through it toward Trismegistus; he remembered the Royal Guard’s earlier ice spell. The one that had seemed impressive only because of its size.

To Mikoto, it had been crude.

He could do considerably better.

"That ice spell you used earlier was pretty shitty," Mikoto said, his tone blunt but strangely matter-of-fact. "If you’re going to rely on ice, you should at least understand what you’re actually doing with it. After all, you’re not simply creating something cold. You’re transferring energy out of a system until the matter reaches a lower thermal state. I mean something like sub-zero isn’t some vague idea of ’really cold.’ Temperature is a measurement of thermal energy, and once you start pushing it far enough below the freezing point, the difference becomes difficult for ordinary matter to ignore."

The glyph brightened and the temperature dropped. It happened gradually for only a fraction of a second, then the change became unmistakable.

"Lemme show you."

The air around Mikoto chilled, moisture condensed as dust settling near his sabatons became coated with frost. The already devastated crater floor began whitening beneath a spreading layer of ice.

Mikoto’s breath became visible as the cold continued intensifying. The blue glyph’s jagged lines grew brighter.

Mikoto’s red eyes remained fixed ahead.

"There’s a big difference in our magic."

The glyph released its spell, and a large, intense blue beam shot forward. It was broad enough to consume a huge section of the crater. The beam crossed the distance toward Trismegistus with terrifying speed. Where it passed, the ground froze, and ice spread outward from its path.

The earth became encased in it; cracks disappeared beneath rapidly forming ice. Broken pieces of the ground were swallowed, and deep sections of the crater floor froze solid. The beam continued toward where the forest had once stood, spreading its influence across the enormous destruction.

The cold moved with it; trees that had somehow survived the earlier devastation were instantly coated. Remaining branches froze, and the ground beneath them hardened. Entire sections of the landscape transformed into an enormous frozen expanse.

Trismegistus remained at the far end.

Mikoto watched the beam approach, then he noticed something. There was a spark; a tiny point of fire appeared ahead.

His eyes narrowed; the spark was small, almost insignificant compared to the enormous blue beam.

But it was moving; Mikoto tracked it as it grew brighter. The blue beam was about to collide with something.

Mikoto’s expression changed slightly before the collision occurred.

Something met the ice; the resulting explosion tore through the area. A tremendous burst of frozen energy erupted outward. The beam disappeared into the detonation, and ice exploded in every direction.

The ground shook; the already ruined crater was covered in a storm of frozen pieces before the explosion settled.

And something enormous remained; an immense wall of ice had formed where the collision occurred. It stretched across the destroyed area; its base was broad enough to occupy a massive section of the crater, while its upper edge climbed extraordinarily high into the sky.

The surface was uneven; thousands of jagged formations protruded from it. Some were thin and needle-like, while others were thick columns of frozen material that twisted upward before breaking into sharp points.

The wall extended far to either side, disappearing into the distance.

The scale of it made the destruction around it seem smaller by comparison.

Mikoto stood before it, Sabre still in hand, his red eyes fixed on the enormous wall.

Trismegistus remained no doubt.

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