Macronomicon
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Chapter 204: Backlash
🕑 Added 2019-09-07 22:57:58 +0000 UTCGarth slammed the scrying shut with all the intensity of someone opening a refrigerator full of severed heads. It didnt help.
Black fire flooded through the mirror, and Garth was propelled through the air, the small of his back slamming against his stone workbench before he was flipped over and hit the side of his little hut hard enough to send splinters erupting out around him like a strange halo.
The fire stormed through the mirror, filling the hut like water. It radiated an energy that hurt to look at, like staring into a blacklight. Wherever the fire lingered, things crumbled to dust. The table and all Garths tools were covered in it, dissolving in seconds as he peeled himself away from the wall.
Garth gave a quick mental command for the Halo to keep itself out of reach of the fire, and the swarm of stones lifted themselves out of range.
Garths clothes crumbled away, and the grey corruption began to spread to his skin. Garth tried to put a blockade of mana between himself and the ravenous spell, but the fire treated the external mana like it wasnt even there.
The Fff- Garth grunted as his skin began to lose its healthy Beladian purple.
Pain began to shoot across his entire body as his skins nerves reactivated, crying out in agony instants before they began to swell and mutate.
His engineered body was trying to fix itself as growths began to form all across his body before they played out in instants, turning black and sloughing off faster than they could regrow.
It wasnt fire. The cancerous little nubs that peeled off of him in droves attested to that, but Garth couldnt quite narrow down what was happening to him.
It wasnt fire, and it had to be magical in origin, but it was unaffected by magic. A Blessing? An Apostles Blessing couldnt be prevented by typical means.
The fire seemed to be slowing down as Garths adrenal response kicked into high gear, giving him plenty of perceived time to study his rapidly mutating skin.
It seems like cancer-causing radiation on fast-forward, except, if it were, my insides would be growing tumors too. Radiation doesnt stop at the skin. So whatever this is can penetrate mana like its not even there, but cant penetrate skin unless it broke it down.
Garths gaze flickered over to his destroyed workstation. One of his big steel clamps was simply a pile of rust at this point.
Its not rapid aging, but it mimics the effects of rapid aging, mixed with radiation .Entropy!
The fire probably came from a god. One whod spoken to Jim, and warned him not to overuse his ability.
Presumably the one who gave it to him.
He obviously had a dick, and talked about his sister.
I only know one god that ticks all those boxes.
That night I dreamed about the twin gods of fate, Elle and Markus.
Garth remembered Jim mentioning his patrons, just minutes before he was taken over by a black mana tapeworm. Brother and sister.
Garth also remembered their appearance, as the two of them had dismissed him as not being Fate-y enough.
Garth closed his eyes and brought up the memory of Jim speaking to him after the meeting, separating his mana sight from the memory of the event.
Surprise surprise, The little butthole was using his Blessing, Weal and Woe, to navigate the conversation with Garth to achieve the best possible result.
The Blessing was a strange one, with a rather intricate arrangement of mana that allowed it to accept almost any proposed action with a single thought, then test it to see if would read Weal or Woe.
Weal was a silvery mana, while Woe was light-absorbing black much like the flames that were currently destroying his body. The entire spell could be boiled down to a very delicate test that worked like an upside down tuning fork. Smack the business end with the proposed course of action, and the weal or Woe would respond by rising up the handle of the tuning fork.
Garth watched in fascination as Jim pinged the Good Idea/Bad Idea ability every ten seconds or so, essentially surrendering control of his decision-making process to his patrons.
Stupid brother of mine.
You have Learned Weal and Woe! 0.1% Profic?????----
Garths Status Band released a puff of smoke as it corrupted and fell off his arm.
Yeah, better hurry this shit up.
Garth was pulled back into the present moment, where his body was rapidly being devoured by black cancer-flames. He channeled Beladias mana, pushing his fertility aura out in a tightly controlled wave. The black fire pressed up against the purple mana, providing extreme resistance as he tried to peel it away from his skin.
It lost its hold on him as the last of his unhealthy skin crumbled and was replaced by fresh new tissue, like a nasty piece of stuck-on food taking some of the stoves chrome with it. Ill live.
The black flames were pushed back by Beladias mana, and Garth thought he could feel irritation, when he looked at them.
Garth pushed himself off the wall, keeping Beladias Fertility aura wrapped tightly around himself in an ovoid shape. Moss sprang into being, and insects seemed to come out of nowhere like Genesis, covering the floor at his feet. When the aura passed, the black flames attacked them, crumbling them to dust in seconds.
Garth broke into a run toward the scrying mirror that was still belching black flame into his little hut, the runes written in his blood glowing along the edges.
Garth covered his fist in hardened plant matter and let out a grunt of effort as he smashed his pointed knuckles against the reflective pane.
The mirror shattered, and as soon as the symbols written in his blood were no longer whole, the black fire pouring into the room shut off like someone had simply flipped a switch.
Now what do I do about the shit weve got here? Garth thought, glancing around the veritable ocean of Woe that was pooling around him, barely held off by his status as and Apostle.
Last thing I need is Alicia coming back right now, Garth thought, glancing toward the door. His first instinct was to stick the door shut so that she couldnt stumble into this absolutely foul substance.
Oh, thats not going to be an option, Garth thought as he spotted all the holes that had been worn through the sides of his wooden hut. The fire poured out of the compromised hut, flowing like water among the startled villagers.
Shit!
Garth sprinted for the door and didnt bother to slow down long enough to open it. Sure enough the door had been weakened enough for him to jump right through it, shedding the crumbling wood like water.
Teleport.
Garth teleported himself twenty feet away with a one hundred and eighty degree turn, facing his own hut that was oozing black badness into the village.
If there are any unwanted pregnancies, I apologize in advance! Hold onto your uteruses, erm, uteri!
Garth held both hands forward and channeled a flood of Beladias Borrowed Mana, probably earning him a stern talking-to from the busty deity during his next REM sleep. He corralled the black fire before it had a chance to spread any further than his lawn.
Out of the corner of his eye, Garth spotted Ninja Lawnmower Rock vanish in a puff of smoke.
Damnit! No, Ive got more important things to do. Garth shook off his frustration and focused on creating a wall of purple mana, penning the flames into his house.
A sudden thought sent ice through Garths veins, but when he glanced over his shoulder, Halo was sitting there in idle mode, outside the hut. It must had gotten out while the getting was good, too.
This circle of grass helps hold the black flames at bay. Garth told himself and Halo. Make it so.
Halo did three passes around the perimeter, and the living grass began radiating the same silvery mana that seemed to be the black stuffs antithesis, pushing the mana inward to reinforce Garths containment.
Mana From Elle?
Who cared, as long as it did what it was supposed to do.
Thats what got Jim killed, A little voice said in the back of his mind.
Garth gingerly slackened Beladias mana and was pleasantly surprised when the grass took over the job of keeping the fire contained. The fire settled for climbing up his hut and consuming everything inside it in an angry blaze.
Do your worst, shitheel, I already made Halo, I can recreate better tools in a matter of hours, Garth thought, crossing his arms with a smug grin. Now I gotta wonder how much this deity knows, and how bad hes trying to kill me. or was I just dealing with an apostle?
Gah, not enough information to be one hundred percent sure. I sure as hell dont have the ability if someone is scrying on me from the future I think.
Garth! Kurt shouted, his green face pale in fright as he charged up, staring slackjawed at the building black fire consuming Garths House/Laboratory.
Ayup? Garth asked, his arms crossed as he glanced over at the orc.
Whats going on? What happened?
I made a reality warping Omni-tool, Garth said, unfolding his arms and ticking off a finger, I scried on an event that happened some eight hundred and forty eight years ago, he ticked another finger.
Pissed off a god, and Im pretty sure he was responsible for like, a small fraction of my brothers douchiness. He just sent me a Cease and Desist letter that caught my skin and house on magic evil fire.
Garth paused in the middle of ticking off fingers, his mind making connections at a blazing speed.
And Im pretty sure Pala was trying to warn me about my brother being used by one of her contemporaries, and not in the good way.
That and the god of chaos, who knew my city would turn into shit. I feel like Im the only one thats not playing with a full deck.
Garth pointed at the nearest shadow, a pool of darkness beneath a wheelbarrow from which Pala was probably watching him with voyeuristic glee.
Cryptic prophecies that can only be understood after theyre needed are fucking useless, Pala, and you know it!
What about your house?
Im done with it, anyway, Garth said, waving Kurt off. I made the thing I wanted to make, so my progress has been preserved. Ill wait until the fire dies down and build something even better.
Ah crap, I left Origin in there. Garths heart skipped a beat at the possibility of losing such a critical source of knowledge. That wizards book was probably more valuable than all the summer homes Castavelle had ever had.
Shit.
Garth glanced up.
Shit.
The black fire was climbing Garths rather tall hut, then leaping to the ceiling, where it sank into the stone, disappearing into the dungeon proper.
Kurt, I want you to get your family and the rest of the villagers together, okay? Garth said, a tiny flicker of panic surging through his heart as the entire dungeon gave a little shudder.
If Garths hypothesis was correct, the flame destroyed his skin by making each individual cell experience extremely bad luck at incredible speeds, resulting in massive amounts of cancer. That same bad luck, or Woe, could spread through the dungeon and try to kill him another way.
The floor bucked out from beneath him, throwing him and Kurt into the air for an instant before they came back down to the ground.
Yeah, like that.
Kurt, Get everyone you can to the center of the village! Garth shouted, holding his hand up.
A pillar of ultra-strong wood leapt out of Garths hand before securing itself to the floor, stabilizing the ceiling.
Get everyone here! He shouted. Ill get the Hunters! the hunters included Alicia.
The Dungeon was dying, and they were inside of it. Like parasitic worms in a decaying corpse, their time was limited.
Comments
Prana
Easy! Make a four leaf clover and practice it to Make the most potent Lucky Charm ever to eat the bad luck flames
Smite
Nah this is Castavelle we’re talking about the mother fucker made an unfathomable amount of fail safes
Deinos
Damn and here I thought he'd make the next Utopia. Guess the dungeon peeps aren't so happy now with him around.
Macronomicon
What’s good for them vs good for you?
0xFFF1
So what's the difference between a Weal and Woe spell powered by divine mana vs one powered by your own mana, in terms of effectiveness and who's ultimately making your decisions?
0xFFF1
Narratively speaking, he shouldn't really be relying on that book forever, so he was bound to lose it eventually. Still, I'd be pretty mifffed at its loss regardless.
Amelgar
Please tell me he can sue a god. I'd love to see him try anyway!
Chris
not the book
