The Fourth Gate: Chapter Four

Just as a reminder, there will be no chapters next week, since I'm not writing this week in order to spend time with family and friends.

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Liz’s seemingly lifeless body hit the grass of the arena ground, and before I had a chance to call for help, gold and white light erupted from where she had been. It was a strange and powerful mix of mana, almost reminding me of Caladrius magic. Something tickled the back of my head, but I didn’t have time to react, as Liz was already moving. She exploded up from the ground, the hole in her chest entirely gone, her sword extended toward my throat, and spells forming in the air around her. I reacted on instinct, teleporting several feet backwards as I processed what had just happened. 

“Was that the cyan crystal?” I called out, sweeping a ball of Foxfyre between myself and one of the attacks. It was the only thing that made sense. Sure, the color hadn’t matched, and the crystal had been said to stop a blow, not heal one, but Liz didn’t have the magic for any sort of regenerative effect. 

“Nope! It was unicorn magic,” Liz called out, her voice filled with wild laughter. Then, as if to prove her point, she pulled out her own tournament prize. One of her earrings that I hadn’t noticed initially began to glow with physical and creation mana, and thick plates of force armor forged themselves around her body. 

I’d mostly skipped over the armor while I was looking through the vault, apart from Kumi’s armor, which had been made from enough magical minerals that it had caught my interest. After all, with my Fungal Armor, auras were more useful than additional armor that could potentially create overlapping issues. I partially regretted that now, but not too much. After all, there had been literally thousands of arcanist level items in the vault, and I hadn’t had the time or the memory space to remember details on every single one of them. But it did mean I had to analyze this earring as quickly as possible. 

“Dusk, buy me time!” I shouted, teleporting out of the way of an attack and starting to cycle Mantle Dragonfyre again. Dusk whistled her agreement and launched into the fight, dual shockwaves blasting from her hands and into the armor. I took a breath and swept my mana senses out, focusing them intently on Liz. 

The earring was an arcanist level item, that was the easy part. Near as I could tell, it had three physical mana spells worked into its construction. Namely, the basic Force Armor spell alongside a pair of meta spells that increased the shaping and thickness of the armor. An additional pair of meta spells cast out of the reserve of creation mana were also running through it. The first seemed remarkably similar to Enhance Forging, but higher gate and more directed, like some sort of powerful Enhance Armor. That might not be the actual name, or the full effect, but that’s the role it was filling here. The second was a first gate spell that complimented Force Armor, enhancing its resistane to less tangible damage, like heat, cold, or other things. I decided to name it Creation Armor, which definitely wasn’t the name, but I needed something to refer to it as. 

Not wanting to remain entirely useless while I analyzed, I threw Fungal Locks empowered with Fungal Siphon over Liz. I’d been planning to hold back fungal magic, but with how much she’d already pulled out, that plan was essentially out the window. The moment my spells landed, and the mycelial threads began to burrow into her, however, they froze and shattered as Liz used some kind of ice spell on them. She knew just how much my spells could drain. I dropped the siphoning spell and continued to throw locks, hoping to force her to waste mana as I analyzed. 

The inlaid enchantments seemed pretty complex, with multiple internal switches that responded to mana manipulation and the like. At a guess, I’d bet that the basic Force and Creation Armor could be run based on the artifact’s passive mana regeneration, but the additional layers of protection offered by the other spells were draining. She couldn’t keep it up forever. Unfortunately for me, based roughly on the rate of drain, it felt like the armor would last minutes, not seconds. Even blasting through the armor to force the artifact to spend the mana on self repairs wasn’t a guarantee of getting rid of it, depending on how that worked. 

Then there was her unicorn magic. Liz had been veiling that portion of her spirit for a long time, and even now, it felt incredibly slippery and intangible. I wondered if it was an innate property of the magic itself, rather than an active veil, because even knowing where the power had come from, it was still almost impossible for me to track down and analyze, even pouring as much power into Soulgaze and Concentrate Spellpower as I could manage. 

Within Liz’s spirit, somewhere I thought might be analogous to her ungated mana, though it was hard to tell, there was a white chalice filled with rippling golden magic that was now much depleted. I could almost see an echo, or perhaps a shadow, of Liz's body upon the intricately carved surface.

When Liz had first recovered from a hole in the chest, I’d assumed it was some sort of resurrection ability, like my own Ephemeral Rebirth. I didn’t actually think that was quite right, however. It felt more like some sort of super potion, almost like the soul mana potion that I’d crafted with Orykson’s help, but also like Ikki's full-gate spell, Orykson's ideal body spell, every bit of Kene's healing spells and knowledge that went beyond regeneration like I used. I wasn’t sure it was actually a potion at all, it just felt like it. But a potion was enough of a description to work. The potion-filled chalice felt like it had been almost entirely drained by that trick, but there was still a splash of glowing power at the bottom, enough to heal some minor wounds.

So. Thick armor, with a minor bit of healing left in the tank. Enough control over her sword echoes thanks to her spellbonded domain weapon that she could fuse them with her attacks and manipulate where they appeared, at least a bit. Then there was the power of her spellbonded full-gate spell, which would allow her to throw out spells that had been saturated in destructive magic for days, weeks, or even months. She’d not used that yet, except for maybe on the dozen crescent attacks. 

I sent all of that to Dusk in a rush of information, and felt her acknowledgement, then I leapt back into the fight. My analysis had only taken five or six seconds, but was quite a bit while in the midst of a life-or-death battle. 

I teleported into the air, catching myself as I started to re-weave my own defensive spells, my heart throbbing as I worked the complex and power draining mix of spells together, then I launched myself at Liz, slamming a kick at her head. From the other side, Dusk came in, releasing a massive hand down on top of Liz’s head. Liz dropped into a strange stance, rolling out of the way of the hammering hand, while knocking my foot aside. She looked up at me from underneath, and our eyes locked for a second. 

“You never managed to complete your strength,” Liz said. “What a shame.” 

Then she unleashed one of the spells she’d left saturating in her full-gate. Power that felt more comparable to the Flock than it did to any ordinary mage exploded out of her, and a dozen razor-thin whips of shadow burst from her form, from her sword, from Dusk’s shadow, and from my own. Once again, my armor started to shred under the force, even faster this time, while Liz swept down on Dusk’s head with a cut like an executioner’s blade. Even the trickle of soul mana I put into the armor wasn’t enough to stop it, not unless I dumped everything into blocking this one attack.

Except, my armor wasn’t shredding in the same way. The thinness of these shadow wires meant that they were torn in the specific spots where the wires landed, but the bulk of the armor was left untouched, the briarthreads still spun, Arthur’s dominion still hummed,  and all my other defenses still remained as well. The garrote-like shadows struck my skin, and blood exploded out from the thin gaps in my armor as my arms and legs were wrapped in shadows that sliced cleanly to my bone. The shadows around my neck cut through my skin. 

They went no further.

For all that my magic was something of an incoherent mess, I’d taken in a lot of powers that altered my body in one way or another. My full-gate spells had empowered me significantly, but that had only been the start of the changes. I’d used the Temporal Tortoise spell to begin charging and refining my bones. Dusk’s dominion, with its forest-like power, ran through my body. Dawn’s own dominion had joined it, enhancing and pushing me further. She’d transformed the Temporal Tortoise magic into my new soul magic altering my beast core, and furthered the flow of soul mana through my body. I’d taken in the organshield crystal, stealing power from an ancient seventh gate gemstone dragon to further empower it. 

It was enough that the threads could cut through the flesh and unenforced muscle, but the defended sections around my neck, my bones, my brain, my heart? She couldn’t. 

That didn’t mean that it didn’t hurt, though. I was screaming, even as I teleported an overcharged healing potion into my mouth, flared Starfish’s Regeneration, fueling it with a bit of soul mana. My spiritual stitches, which had already begun to rip earlier, exploded, and my scream went up an octave. 

Dusk, on the other hand, wasn’t as tough as I was. The wires slashed through her cloud, causing it to explode, while others hit her. She pulled herself into her realm to avoid the damage getting any worse, but her body was beginning to grow smokey around her, almost like Idyll’s had when fighting the desolant queen or pushing herself too far. 

The attack faded away, and I saw Liz’s eyes widen as she saw me still standing. I threw myself forward, aiming a punch right at Liz’s head. It connected to the force magic around her with a crack. For all the benefits of the armor, it didn’t entirely nullify her momentum, and she was thrown backwards through the air. I teleported on top of her, sweeping my hand down and unleashing my Mantle Dragonfyre, but she moved like lightning, taking the edge of the blow on her armor, sliding between my knees, and driving her palm into my stomach. Spikes of ice ripped out from her hand point blank, but my defenses stopped them dead. It bought her the time she needed to land, though, and we turned, both bruised and battered, but standing. 

Well, Liz had said she’d wanted to pull out all of my tricks, and she’d very nearly succeeded. I only had a few things left to try. Ignoring the pain in my spirit, I activated my entire suite of sensory spells, while maintaining my defensive mix as well, and then flicked on Kludde’s Weight. I hadn’t pulled it out yet because while it was a great spell for area of effect, it didn’t concentrate as well, and Liz had experience against it. Sure enough, her shoes flared with light as she leapt forward, launching another attack she’d stored. A wave of power exploded from her blade, which actually physically melted away into the sharp shadow attack. I teleported to the side, only for it to erupt from my own shadow. 

“Primes,” I muttered, mind racing as quickly as it could. I only a few tricks left, so what would be the least revealing? I’d already used the alchemy several times, and wore a bracelet with potions stored in it. I’d teleported the potions, so it was possible nobody had noticed, but I’d done it enough that the most perceptive people would be able to put it together. I teleported a haste potion and a basic mana restoration potion into my mouth, then launched myself at Liz.