Draugzel
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Chapter 53: Weak Point
🕑 Added 2022-07-31 22:14:47 +0000 UTCMorgaine Le Fay protectively pushed her child behind her as she addressed the man that was covered in dim, golden light. "What do you want?" She asked warily.
Her initial guess was that he worked with the other heroes and their teamwork evidently supported that line of thinking, but when she watched the man that was jumping out of the scorched entrance above, she couldn't associate him with the others. The others were not tame, but they were different, they were Good.
They didn't radiate that pure, violent aura. She could feel that he wasn't here to arrest them, that was for sure. He wanted something from them, but she couldn't understand what he wanted. Was it power? No. He had more than enough of that, proven as he casually located them and burst through their barriers as if they hadn't been there at all. He simply waltzed into this hideout of theirs.
She couldn't attempt to control him, either. Unlike the martian, she hadn't established a telepathic connection with him, and merely a brush with his mental defenses clarified she would need a lot of time to breach them if she was able to at all.
He strolled towards them as if he expected something, merely looking interested when several traps were triggered by him brazenly walking through them. Lightning, poison, animated weapons, what name you were thrown at him and he brushed it off as if it were child's play.
He ignored every temptation she offered. Maybe he was even a little annoyed by her attempts at a corporation.
"We surrender!"
"Mom, what are you doi-" Her child wanted to question her, but this was not the time to be anything but decisive. Although they were still being protected by her barrier, she had the feeling that it wouldn't hold on forever. The man was growing more and more fed-up like he was disappointed.
"Shut up, Mordred!" Her child seemed surprised at the tone she used. The times that she spoke harshly to him could be counted on one hand.
Suddenly, he took another step, and instantly crossed several meters, arriving directly in front of the barrier before waving his hand down.
She couldn't understand what had happened, but the barrier that she had refined for centuries showed a gap of a straight line where the man had touched the barrier with his hand. The rebounding effect of the barrier didn't seem to activate as it instead tried to quickly regenerate, but it was hardly fast enough.
The man had grasped the edges of the regenerating barrier before releasing a golden sphere around him that pushed her barrier away. He nonchalantly stepped into her barriers.
She had already stepped back, and her child's back was pushed against her own barrier. The runes in this room prevented any form of teleportation other than the specific one that she had used to enter this place. It was a safeguard to prevent anyone from entering this place, but now it made it impossible for any reinforcement to arrive. Not to mention that the barrier also prevented any teleportation. It had turned into a death trap.
"Please, spare my Mordred. I will do anyth-" She fell to her knees and pleaded for her child. There was nothing she wasn't prepared to sacrifice if it meant saving him.
"Mother-" Her child was astonished before he turned to the man, "If you dare touch her I will-" With a brief spell, his eyes gently closed and Morgaine guided him to lie on the ground. Mordred wasn't powerless by all means, but he was hardly as powerful as her. If he dared to attack this assailant, she doubted he would survive it.
"Don't worry, I just want your knowledge." He said as if he talked about the weather and reached out and grabbed her head before she felt the full force of a telepathic attack.
She wasn't able to resist him from entering and sifting through her memories at all as he forced himself into her mind, shattering her barriers with brute strength before skillfully making his way through her layered defenses. The situation was more than just dire, but at the moment he focused on reading her mind, she noticed something.
Because their minds clashed with each other, it gave her the opportunity to sense the situation of his mental defenses. Something lightened up to her like a light in the dark, and she instantly honed in on it with desperation.
A little dent in his defenses, something that seemed to have been mended already. The crux, however, was that it was mended by someone other than the man in front of her. Maybe it was a secret backdoor that a rival or mortal enemy had left behind after they had psychically clashed with each other.
It even seemed to have interacted with a form of magic as well, naturally masking it, making the weak point a secret and strange combination of psychic and magical energy. If one was only a pure telepath or pure magician, one would have had a hard time breaching this point, but those descriptions didn't fit her.
Morgaine had several centuries of experience in all kinds of arts. A telepathic battle wasn't something she was unfamiliar with. In fact, a moment ago, she had defeated a Martian, a natural telepathic being that was several hundred years old, and influenced him enough to do her bidding.
One shouldn't underestimate her skill in that regard. Not even mentioning her skill in the arcane. It might not have been able to trump this monster's brute strength, but something like this? A weak point in his otherwise secure mind? It was a silver lining in this desperate situation, so she moved with decisive quickness.
Like a scalpel, she directed her magical and telepathic attack at his weakest point. She only needed to create an entrance, and she could reverse the situation. Her attack was precise, like a machine, and directly hit this weak spot, directly cutting into his defenses with practiced ease.
Unexpectedly, the moment she breached his defenses, the man noticed the attack and, with a reaction time that seemed instantaneous, a wave of psychic energy flooded out of the tiny hole she had created with her scalpel-like attack.
The man didn't hold back with his telepathic counter, submerging before shattering her scalpel-like a twig being crushed by a tsunami, by a strength that she had never witnessed before. The things that she saw him do with his body were already something that she couldn't believe was possible, but his telepathic abilities didn't seem to fall behind at all.
Maybe it was because his focus had changed at that moment or it was because she was momentarily stunned by his counterattack that she paused and noticed something else.
It was but a moment that her fear and desperation didn't disrupt her way of thinking and only then did she notice the overflowing energy of this man and surely the source of his power. It was almost instinctively since she had been forced to use this technique to keep herself young for centuries by now.
She had gotten old and weaker with time, having to use the life force of the youth to keep herself young, so it was almost natural that she reached out for this monstrous life force. The thought came to her as she extracted the energy with her silent spell, a spell that was already ingrained into her. She didn't even need conscious effort to use it.
If she could take his energy, she could live forever! She thought the moment she could feel the stream of energy entering her body. In a state of deliriousness and by the greed of having such power and unimaginable-sized energy, which could extend her life for the dozen millennia going forward, she seized as much as she could.
It wasn't until the moment that her spell wanted to convert the energy and make it her own she knew she had overestimated her abilities. Like a splash of cold water on her face, she woke up from what she was trying and couldn't help but curse her luck.
The energy was like that of a fierce sun.
The raw power, the sheer amount, was too much for her to handle. Even if she had another year to absorb this energy, she might not be able to do it. She lost control almost instantly. Her spell couldn't hold back the energy and broke like a breached dam.
With her spell broken once, it was almost impossible to rein it back in and she could only witness how it flowed away. His life force burned its way through the protective spells on her body and then her innards.
Her body, which should have returned to its youth, was being quickly destroyed from the inside out as if the energy wanted to escape the confines of her body. It wasn't the first time she was burned, but this feeling of being burned from the inside out was too much for her. She screamed as she smelled the burned flesh before her vision grew dark. Her last thoughts on her child.
...
"Ugh. Disgusting." I said as I pushed Morgaine to the side. After she tried to rob me of my life force, the energy leaked out of her and returned to me, destroying her clothes in the process.
Surprisingly, she looked rather young for being centuries old, but her innards were badly burned, with parts looking like they had been rotten for a while. The sight was contradictory, and I wasn't sure what I was seeing, but I couldn't bring myself to care too much. Like I did to Morgaine, I crushed Mordred's mental defenses and sifted through his mind.
However, something seemed to have happened to him after I did that as he rapidly aged until he looked ancient. I could sense that he was still alive and might stay around for a few more years or even longer, but like this, he completely depended on someone else, so with a wave of my hand, I destroyed their bodies.
From what I had seen, Mordred still seemed to be a kid in his mind, just a bit more spoiled, and psychopathic, but most importantly after the long time, he had long become a mass murderer too. He was already in the deep end. Though one couldn't blame him too much. Morgaine was the main reason he had turned bad. Being an evil sorceress would do that to the children, I imagined.
With his age, his mind deteriorated at an unimaginable pace, leaving me with precious few memories. Her son was of no value to me and with his aged body, he probably would have remained in a vegetative state for the rest of his life.
To be honest, I would have kept Morgaine alive for longer. Her arcane knowledge was incredible and I could hardly memorize all of it in a single and short session like that. Arcane knowledge was now lost, maybe even forever, though that didn't mean I came out with nothing. I had acquired some knowledge about artifacts, books, and places of importance.
Even though I couldn't learn her skills anymore, there was still a lot spread around the world, knowledge, and artifacts that even she couldn't procure, but these things weren't on my mind at that moment.
After having dealt with her, I thought about what happened before she tried to steal my life force for her own use. My senses brushed over my now smoothed mental barriers.
At one point in the past, a flaw was created in my mind without my notice. It hadn't been bad, but it could have gotten dangerous if my enemy was more skillful, stronger, and had a better a reaction time than I did. I was lucky that it was only Morgaine Le Fay that had attacked me.
Even if I had let her into my mind and let her ravage inside, she could hardly control or kill me. Though if she had a spell that could mind control me, it truly might have become dangerous. Good thing I was always vigilant after having been taken by surprise on numerous occasions in the past.
Either way, her attack wasn't that special and she wouldn't have been able to harm me, but that wasn't what I was truly concerned about.
How and who created this flaw - this backdoor - to my mind??
If I had sensed it earlier, I might have figured their signature and could go from there, but after Morgaine Le Fay forcefully broke in at that place, there wasn't anything I could investigate.
With a shake of my head, I focused on the here and now. I looked around and found several books and trinkets. I wasn't too sure if anything here was of any use, but that was something I could easily find out by asking Raven about it. In fact, I headed outside and flew up into the air until I had some service on my phone before I quickly called her and told her she should come to me, which she promptly did.
I hadn't flown far away from the entrance of this underground crypt and could quickly guide her into it. Perhaps it would be impossible to find this place without knowing about it since it was in the middle of nowhere. Honestly, if I hadn't disregarded the walls and stones in my way and flown as fast as I did, I would have lost Morgaine, too.
The last barrier that she had taken refuge in had blocked out her life force as well. Fortunately, it wasn't perfect. I was able to sense her life force just enough for me to find her, though somehow, I doubted it was because her barrier was flawed.
Although the crypt seemed to be ancient, the runes around the walls, ceiling, and floor seemed to be properly maintained. It made no sense for her to intentionally produce a flaw, with her life force leaking out of her secret hideout.
Maybe it had something to do with my senses getting better through my Spirit Control training? I shook my head and decided not to worry about it. Raven looked through the books and trinkets with enthusiasm, explaining from what era some of them were as if it meant anything to me, which, I supposed, wasn't entirely untrue after having absorbed some of Morgaine's memories.
Her explanations gave me the impression that it was an impressive stash, but nothing was truly powerful, had specific uses, or wasn't already drained from its power. Still, they appeared to serve as study material well enough, especially the books that were gathered here.
Raven believed she might learn new spells from these books. I could probably tell her about what I had learned from her mind as well. I had memorized every place that seemed of importance, especially those where she had hidden magical artifacts, books, or even places that were rich in magic.
Usually, they had all problems or were guarded by some kind of magical/mystical creature, which was why it would have been incredibly difficult for Morgaine to snatch the artifacts for her own purpose. I wasn't sure how much of a problem it would be for me, but that was something I wanted to find out.
This entire operation was to get some experience with the more powerful magical side of this world, something that could give me a glimpse of what a task I had picked up with the goal of slaying Trigon. Morgaine, although seemingly powerful, didn't even remotely give me any trouble.
The fact that I was a Super Saiyan right now was already overkill. I had dialed down the power to 20 times, which was currently the lowest I could go, but after the fight with Darkseid, I could clap him easily with a 20 times increase. There was no comparison between me now and Darkseid. A random magical user on earth was hardly a challenge.
Given the resistance she had shown, it would have been a walk in the park if I decided to send a clone in my base. Maybe I was lucky that Morgaine used tangible magic? The attacks in the form of magical energy blasts, summoned beings, animated objects, or even the elements were hardly something that could affect me.
The only things that were surprising, and a semi-threat, were that last-ditch effort of a telepathic attack and her ability to steal my life force, but other than that, she wasn't that hard to deal with. Even these two last-moment attacks were something I could easily thwart.
I needed an opponent that was weirder. Someone that could warp reality. Someone that I couldn't punch to death, only then I would have an inkling of how I could face Trigon. Maybe I should have given her the philosopher's stone?
Perhaps I was overthinking the weirdness of magic. Even Superman could brute force most magical beings from what I could remember of the comics.
I watched Raven dust off a book before opening it. "Do you want to take it with you? You will have enough time to study it at home." I asked, not wanting to spend more time in this ancient crypt with air that had seen no form of circulation for a couple of hundred years.
Raven thought about my proposal for a moment, but then shook her head. "I don't think that would be a good idea. It is unclear what they all do by simply assessing them once. I could be wrong about their function, or maybe they have a hidden trigger. It would be best if I go through them thoroughly before deciding to invite them into our home... Who was the owner, anyway? It might give me a clue what I am dealing with."
"It was Morgaine Le Fay's hideout, but she wasn't the one that had created these objects. She had collected them and stored them in individual rune cages. Most of the artifacts that you assessed as being drained of their power were the work of Morgaine, but I am not sure about the rest of them. She seemed to have plans for them, or at least used them as a fallback plan."
"Morgaine Le Fay, huh? I had read about her. She is pretty famous for what she did at Camelot." She held her chin as she thought about something.
"Was she considered powerful among sorceresses?" I asked. It would be helpful to know if I should bother those that were considered inferior to her. Objectively speaking, she wasn't that formidable.
With her barrier, she could have barely stalled an Omega Beam for a few seconds. True, she could also slip away by teleporting, so surviving an encounter with Darkseid should be possible if one didn't count that with the accuracy of Darkseid's Omega Beams, they didn't reach far. But merely surviving Darkseid was hardly impressive... Wait. Was my view skewed by comparing her with Darkseid?
Raven regarded me for a moment before shaking her head, "I...I don't know. It wasn't like I could socialize with others when I was on the run. Not to mention that... my kind isn't really welcome among human magic users."
I scratched my head. Zatara was probably the best example. He wasn't pleased to converse with the child of Trigon. Given the incident of them attacking Portland had understandably influenced his view. "Yeah, sorry. Forgot that you are ostracized by the magical community."
Raven smiled helplessly, "Tell me about it. Most of what I know is from Azarath or through grimoires."
If that was the case, maybe I should get in touch with someone that was knowledgeable about the magical community's opinion. Thinking about my lack of knowledge, I probably should be more careful in the future if I decided to hunt down the things that Morgaine yearned for.
From the brief battle between Morgaine and the Justice League, I had already known what she was capable of, so I wasn't too worried about her being too much for me, but what if she had lured me into a trap? (She did, but those weren't really effective.) This could have gone south really quickly.
It was best to have a magical user by my side if I decided to head for some artifacts next. I looked at Raven. She should be able to help me figure some things out if we discovered something that I couldn't brute force through. Though that would diminish the experienced I would gain.
"...Why are you looking at me? Do I have something on my face?"
But perhaps this was even better. She would gain experience as well and since she also wanted to go against Trigon, it would be best if my teammates had lots of experience in dealing with magical opponents. Then shouldn't I also include Kara as well? She was the least experienced among us.
I should probably just take it as a field trip with the three of us. Fighting side by side against strong and strange opponents until we are sweaty and...
*Cough* Raven coughed after being stared at by me.
"We should leave." Raven said as she quickly and mindlessly bolted out after putting her hood over her head, leaving behind the room full of trinkets. I followed her closely from behind.
"Didn't you say that we shouldn't be taking this stuff with us?" I looked at the ancient book that she carried under her arm.
Suddenly, she stopped at that, with the shadow of her hood covering her face. She thought about it for a moment and said that it should be fine if we directly teleported to her room. She had set up some magical runes to keep any magic from leaking out, which were supposed to keep her presence hidden from anyone seeking her, but it would also do well for artifacts.
After having said that, she went back into the crypt and everything that seemed of value was brought with us as we teleported back home.
We appeared in her room. I looked around and found it unchanged from the last time I was in here. She said nothing and just put everything inside a rather large treasure chest. Although it was rather big, it wasn't storing dozens of trinkets big.
I didn't bother with that and looked at Raven, who cautiously put the book she had picked out of the bunch that were in that crypt, and carefully looked at the cover of it. She placed it on the desk that was glowing with moving runes on top.
"Before I leave you alone to study that book, I have a question." She looked up from the book and stared at me as if to say, 'go ask away.'
"When you had healed me after my fight against Darkseid... Did you notice something off?" I began to which she frowned.
"Something off? What do you mean?"
"It's like this. When I fought Morgaine, she attacked me telepathically and there was a flaw that she was able to exploit..." I finished slowly as I noticed her expression changing, turning to something akin to shock and... guilt.
I didn't have to sense her feelings to confirm that she felt guilty, which meant that she knew of that weakness, but she didn't say anything?
There were all kinds of worst-case scenarios running around in my mind at that moment, but something finally clicked in my mind. First the strange wet dreams, and then Raven and Kara acting weird together as if they were hiding something from me.
Her eyes avoided mine, and I could feel the vein on my forehead bulge. My cheeks clenched and my fist clenched. I was furious.
"KARA!!" My shout shook the room and I could see the magical barriers around us glowing as they tried to contain the sound inside. Too bad that I was currently still a Super Saiyan, and I wasn't suppressing my power at all. The opposite, in fact, I was probably the strongest right now that I had ever been.
Kara opened the door with haste as a panicked expression colored her face, "Did something happen??" She asked, her eyes switching between Raven and me as if she was looking for injuries on our bodies, when she found none, she was confused, but it only took a look at my expression that she seemed to have understood what I had discovered.
She entered the room and closed the door, reactivating the sound-canceling barrier of the room.
"Did you know?" I asked with my voice carrying a dangerous edge with it.
"Yes." She answered calmly before a smug smile appeared on her face. "Did you enjoy it?"
Did she really have the gall to just say that right now? "Are you serious?" My voice was even, not containing the disbelief I was feeling.
"At least, it seemed you enjoyed it. You were quite into it if I recalled right." It was probably the first time since I had met her, but her smile right now was pissing me off.
"You knew that you two could enter my mind through my dreams and didn't tell me??" I didn't know what to say and it was bothering me she was taking it so casually.
"It was just some harmless fun-"
My aura stirred up the air in the room and moved the furniture around. It was only because of the magical barriers that the room was still holding on.
"Newsflash, it wasn't harmless fun!" Her eyes widened, maybe finally realizing the weight of the situation.
"W-we thought it wouldn't affect your defenses and-"
"By what account? Raven's? I am training her how to become a better telepath! You think she is so much better that she would know how to best secure my defenses?!" I glanced at Raven, who had the decency to look ashamed and mortified before I turned to Kara again.
"You knew of a weakness that an enemy was able to exploit. Not only did you hide something crucial from me. You betrayed my trust in you to have my back because you were horny!" Kara tremblingly reached out to me, but I just backed away. "I expected better of you, of the both of you..."
After saying that, I walked out of the room. I needed time to calm down. Maybe I was overthinking this...
