Chapter 70: A Trial of Endings

Chapter 70: A Trial of Endings

Baduds first spell was a vortex of distorted space. It flew as fast as a crossbow bolt and punched easily through a tendril of antimagic. The feedback sent a shiver down Nathans spine.

Hes not pulling any punches. It feels like hes spent extra resources to make the spell harder to dispel or counter. Hes probably got two spellcasting classes over level 729 or 2187, and all of the tricks to go with them. Better to dodge what I can.

Wizards Understanding 3 achieved!

Nathan watched the spell home in unerringly on his head, then jerked aside at the last moment, spinning his whole body away from the attack. The twisting wizardry rattled his bones as it flew by, and it felt like hed stood next to a building-sized jackhammer. The vibrations caused by disrupted space damaged his soft tissues, and Nathan coughed up bloody froth as his lungs healed from the damage. But he didnt slow his airborne sprint towards the Questor.

Effortless Dodge 6 achieved!

Behind him the spell impacted the wall of the huge chamber, boring a ten-foot wide hole all the way through the Academy to the outside. Another plume of dust shot into the chamber, and Nathan heard the sounds of crashing stone as floors and ceilings crumbled in the wake of the disruptive spell.

Badud backpedaled from Nathans charge, casting a trio of enormous fireballs that split apart and curved towards Nathan from varied angles. Then the Questor glanced backwards and cast a quick [Disintegrate] to open a hole in the wall so Nathan didn't trap him against the stone.

Nathans magical senses told him that the flaming orbs werent the simple explosives they appeared to be. Each contained a core of wizardry that would summon some kind of material to be blasted in all directions. But the spell was primarily mana-based, and quick tendrils of antimagic detonated the fireballs early. Burning chunks of metal or thermite zipped all around the room, and Nathan pulled his aura in tight to break down the summoned material.

He was pockmarked by burns, but the blindingly bright flames disintegrated in his aura and he healed quickly. Nathan punched through the cloud of smoke to see that Badud had vacated the room and gotten out of sight. But he'd left one more surprise behind. It was a slowly moving orb of plasma surrounded by a framework of force magic. The force compressed down rhythmically, each pulse squashing the plasma down to a tiny point that flared with intense power and pushed the containment back out. The spell captured most of the energy, seemingly using it for the next round of compression.

Nathan sprinted towards the spell and Baduds exit beyond. He formed a shield of antimagic in front of him to block an explosion, preparing to destroy the spell as soon as he got into range. But then his gut clenched and he realized he wasnt running in quite the right direction. The room wobbled, and flashes lit up his vision.

Its an intermittent fusion reaction, and is absorbing most of the energy to do it again. But I bet its letting through the dangerous radiation, especially neutrons. Ive probably absorbed a thousand times the lethal dosage.

Wizards Meditation 6 achieved!

Nathan's whole body started failing as high-energy neutrons bombarded his body, cascading into showers of radiation in the soft tissue. Nathans vision started graying out, and he spent Focus to keep himself conscious. He lanced out with antimagic to slice through the bottom of the force magic right as the Questors spell compressed down once again.

The resulting jet of fusing plasma roared through the chamber like the plume of a rocket, flames cascading over the broken remains of the giants skull and punching into the Academy below. The chamber became an oven filled with flame, but Nathan had dealt with magical flame before.

He paused as his body was rebuilt. The world snapped back into focus, and Nathan purged his body of the newly created radioisotopes. He couldnt break them down, but he collected them in the colon for later elimination.

Immortal Body 3 achieved!

Hes trying out different ways to kill me and seeing what sticks.

Nathan didnt feel any traps ahead, but he still punched through the wall next to where Badud had disappeared, not trusting the gaping hole the Questor had left behind. He found a golem that had been slashed into three pieces, and another in the wall a dozen paces down the corridor. He could feel a powerful source of Wizardry farther ahead, at the very edge of his sensory range.

Thats gotta be him. Lets go through the floors to surprise him. I just need to get close once.

Nathan tunneled downwards, then ran through an empty classroom to get underneath the Questor. It felt like Badud was floating high in the air in the room above, and Nathan started tunneling upwards directly underneath the Questor.

High-tier Noticeability 10 achieved!

He broke through without a sound, looking up to see a massive hall with rows of pillars supporting a high ceiling. Badud was floating a hundred feet in the air, staring straight down at Nathan. His head surrounded by a halo of divination magic, and the mans eyes literally glowed with fury. His lips curled up in a vicious smirk. There you are.

[Master of Stone]

The material of the Academy flowed towards Nathan. He tried to leap upwards for Badud, but the stone coiled around his ankles and yanked him downwards even as it dissolved in his aura. In less than a second the rock had completely encased him and begun pressing in from every direction.

Nathan curled into a ball and flared his Rage high to enhance his durability. He could feel the wizardry of the spell that was guiding the rock, and he could try to reach out and disrupt it. But holding his aura in close was all that was preventing him from being crushed to paste. So Nathan concentrated the antimagic down to destroy the rock pushing against him and lessen the pressure.

High-tier Aura Manipulation 3 achieved!

The stone kept coming, a crushing force that stressed his body and his antimagic. Bones groaned in protest, but Nathan focused on the wizardry in the marble. He needed to eke out every bit of efficiency he could in dissolving the enormous mass of stone that the Questor was using to squash him. It didnt need to be a targeted effect, he just needed the mass of stone gone.

Marble breaks down with acid. That isnt helpful. But it is crystalline. I have experience breaking down magical crystals by disrupting their lattice structures, like that book that came out of the river. I just need to apply that knowledge here. The source of this content nov(el)bi((n))

Arcane Nullfield 5 achieved!

The stone started disintegrating nearly as quickly as it flowed towards him, and Nathan started chuckling despite himself. He was destroying an enormous amount of rock. There was going to be a giant hole in the Academy when he was done. And with the source of the Academys wizardry gone, it wasnt coming back.

His new understanding let Nathan carve out a hollow in the onrushing stone, and he started moving towards Baduds last known location. His senses told him that the Questor had moved, and was now floating off to the side, barely thirty feet away.

Wizards Detection 4 achieved!

Nathan had a bit of aura to spare and swept it towards Badud, hoping to disrupt his flight spells. But the Questor sensed the oncoming danger and teleported a short distance to escape. That broke his control over the stone, and Nathan erupted from the stone tomb to find himself in a much-changed room. The floors and pillars on all sides had been cannibalized to feed the rock encasement. What was left looked positively fragile.

Baduds entire body was tense as they faced off in the ruined hall, eyes darting from side to side before fastening onto Nathan once more. He was just barely out of range of Nathans antimagic, and they were both ready to react to any move the other made.

Nathan lashed out with his aura, but not towards Badud. He targeted the remaining support columns of the room, hoping to distract the Questor with a collapsing ceiling. He would be fine, but if the Questor had to dodge the falling stone he might get within aura range of Nathan. The reaction was more than Nathan had expected. The support columns gave way and the entire ceiling came down, thousands of pounds of stone falling straight down. There werent a lot of places to run, and Nathan launched himself upwards, preparing to make himself a hole in the falling rock and then angle towards his enemy.

But Baduds reaction was fast and overwhelming.

[Pressure Wave]

The spell was mostly air mana, with only hints of wizardry. It created an explosion so violent that the falling stone was blasted away in all directions. Nathan resisted the spell easily, and he and Badud were left floating in an empty void for a moment. Then more rocks started to fall, now illuminated by the golden haze that surrounded the Academy. Baduds spell had blown off the roof, opening the room to the night air. A third of the base of the central tower had been obliterated, and the thick spire of rock was looking a bit precarious overhead.

More rocks started falling, and Nathan dashed towards Badud once again.

But this time the Questor had space to move, and he used wizardry to distort the space in the direction he wanted to go. He zipped upwards into the space between the towers, volleying spells with impunity and leaving traps behind if Nathan tried to follow. It was like the game he'd played with Brox, except Nathan wasnt nearly as quick as the fallen Questor.

He sped after Badud regardless, dodging what spells he could and punching through the rest. He detonated the traps with precise spikes of antimagic, and more stone crumbled as Baduds missed spells impacted the Academy below them. But Nathan wasnt catching up, and Badud was holding the distance behind them constant as he slowly kited Nathan upwards.

Acceleration 6 achieved!

Then an arrow the size of a sapling bounced off Baduds [Mage Armor], making him stagger. The Questor whirled around to see more of the large projectiles headed his way. They were being fired by the archer golems spaced around the outside of the central tower.

Nathan dodged as a few of the giant arrows flew at him. The projectiles werent enchanted, but each was a ten-foot rod of metal moving so fast he could barely track them. The material was made out of Wizardry, but they punched through his aura so quickly that it was nearly useless as a shield.

Badud took advantage of the distraction to cast some kind of invisibility spell. His shape wavered, becoming vague and see-through to Nathans eyes. The Questor paused and started charging a new spell, feeding power into a dark sphere of energy.

The golems apparently couldnt see through Baduds stealth magic. Their arrow fire refocused towards the only visible target, and Nathan was hard-pressed to dodge the dozens of projectiles while making any forward progress towards the stationary Questor.

Parkour 6 achieved!

Then Badud unleashed the spell hed been building. The orb of pure darkness had grown to a couple of feet across, and the light around it lensed strangely. Gravity pulled strongly towards the object and the next few arrows were yanked off-course. One of them flew straight into the dark sphere, entering without a ripple and vanishing entirely. Air whipped into the spell, causing it to grow at a steady pace.

Is that a black hole? Not a real one. A black hole that big would weigh as much as Saturn and would eat everything in sight faster than thought. Its a wizardry spell that mimics a black hole. Made with an Insight of black holes? How much do the Questors know?

Nathan easily resisted the pull, trying to figure out the Questors new magic. It would suck in everything around it, including both matter and mana. However, the wizardry holding the spell was inherently unstable and it would explode after a few minutes or when it absorbed too much. Everything the magical singularity consumed would contribute to the size of the explosion.

Wizards Understanding 4 achieved!

The black hole wizardry arced towards Nathan and more of the giant arrows vanished inside, each causing the spell to expand with a slight jerk. Badud was obviously hoping that Nathan would break the spell and eat the explosion.

Ive got a better idea. A two birds with one stone kind of idea.

Nathan stood in place on thin air as the sphere of darkness flew towards him. It was about ten feet across now and was absorbing or knocking off course all of the arrows fired his way. He reached out with his aura, careful not to interfere with the unstable magic holding the spell together. He did nudge it a bit, so it would miss him slightly.

He took a deep breath, focusing his mind and bracing his body. Then he bore down with Focus and antimagic, seizing the trajectory of the magical black hole and forcing it to orbit around him, throwing it back in the general direction of the Questor. Gale-force winds tore at Nathan and the edge of the wizardry event-horizon brushed his arm, wrenching at the limb. But hed braced well, and he didnt get pulled into the spell.

Airwalking 7 achieved!

High-tier Aura Manipulation 4 achieved!

Badud had been summoning forth shimmering obsidian spears and preparing to hurl them at Nathan, but he squawked when he saw his own spell headed in his direction. He fired off his summoned projectiles early, and the black hole happily ate the huge shards of volcanic glass. The Questor cast [Blink], teleporting out of the path of the devouring sphere.

But Nathan hadnt been aiming at the Questor. The miniature black hole zipped towards the central tower, falling downwards as Davrars gravity asserted itself. The spell went straight through the roof of the Academy about fifteen feet short of the main spire. Nathan could see the spell grow rapidly as the magic consumed the mass and magic of the Academy.

I missed. What can I say, I havent had a lot of practice throwing black holes. At least I had a nice backstop.

A second later there was a tremendous explosion as Baduds wizardry destabilized. The entire bottom of the central tower turned to flying debris along with about a third of the roof of the Academy. Thousands of chunks of stone zipped upwards, and Nathan dodged the big pieces and used his antimagic to disintegrate the smaller ones.

Effortless Dodge 7 achieved!

Once most of the debris had passed Nathan looked up to Badud, smirking and yelling through the cacophony of crashing stone. Nice spell, Idiot!

Nathan cut him off with another headbutt. I dont think you understand. If you unleash Endings on Gemore, then that means I cant solve the problem by staying here. Im coming to you, asshole. If you can control the Endings, then you can stop them.

He pulled Badud down into a knee which broke his jaw, then repeated the blow. He flailed the Questor back and forth to strike his throat, face and temples without ever letting go of his wrists. It took a couple of solid minutes of beating the overly tough body, but eventually Nathan had done enough damage that he could tell the man was dying.

Nathan crushed an automatic healing enchantment and regarded the pulped face. If I join the game of Questors, then I do it as a player.

Badud died, and his body dissolved into light.

Void of Magic has leveled to 511! You have destroyed the Ascendent Academy and killed the Questor Badud.

Spellslayer has leveled to 372! You have slain the Questor Badud from stealth and destroyed the institution of the Ascendent Academy!

Well shit. 173 levels for Void of Magic, 112 for Spellslayer. Because Void of Magic wasnt leveling during all the murders.

Congratulations! You have killed a Questor! They will not be able to return to this continent until those who knew them should have died of old age. If you claim this kill to other Questors they will receive verification. Be cautious, for many Questors are friends and allies of each other.

Another rumble of collapsing stone sounded from below, and Nathan looked down as the Ascendent Academy finished collapsing in on itself.

Mission accomplished?

Utility skill: Mental Fortress

You have a mental construct to aid with memory and recall. This skill will help you quickly store and recall memories, as well as protect you from skills and spells that would interfere with your thoughts and memories. With time and effort you can recall older memories and store them in the mental construct.

Utility skill: Mental Vault

This skill fortifies your mind, increasing the efficiency of Focus spent to enhance your thoughts. It will protect you from skills and spells that interfere with your mind and help you quickly store and recall memories. With time and effort you can recall older memories and store them in the mental construct.

Utility skill: [High-tier Noticeability]

You will know when others' eyes are upon you, and can spend focus to shift their attention. You can also guide their notice away from other events.

Utility skill: [Visibility Control]

You know when you are visible to others, and you can spend Focus to become less visible or to direct their attention in certain directions.

Status of Nathan Lark:

Permanent Talent 1: Arcane Nullfield 6

Permanent Talent 2: Immortal Body 4

Permanent Talent 3: Airwalking 7

Class: Void of Magic level 511

Deepened Stamina: 15630/15630

Void of Feeling

Antimagic Momentum

Raging Thrill

Implacable Inertia

Unarmored Resilience

Magic Anathema

Airborne Agility

Hand-to-hand Expertise

Voluminous Aura

Denial of Wizardry

Mana Severance

Class: Spellslayer level 372

Regenerative Focus: 2523/3820

Catastrophic Blows

Battle Stealth

Mage Infiltration

Forgettable

Sneaky Blow

Antimagic Stealth

Magical Manipulation

Lethal Index

Wizard Resistance

Magic Jammer

Controlled Failure

Utility skills:

Wizards Meditation 7

Inspiration 3

Acceleration 7

Wizards Detection 5

Alertness 8

Wizards Understanding 6

Effortless Dodge 6

Mental Vault 1

Tutoring 3

Parkour 6

Visibility Control 1

High-tier Disguise 1

Mid-tier Battle Cry 8

High-tier Aura Manipulation 6