An attempt at exploring the situation between the time skip between the beginning and end of endgame. I am skipping the initial chaos because it's bit of a plot hole but assume it was destructive.
The Interregnum(MCU Time Skip OC)
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chapter 1
The circle was coming along well, it had taken him a few tries, but the inscriptions had been drawn and the candles lighted. Now, it was just waiting for the planar conjunction to happen.
"Ha, planar conjunction. It might finally be the time to move on. I spent the entire week on this, just waiting to be disappointed." Amar says with a bitter sigh. It was the eighth ritual of his life, something he had become interested in as a teenager. The occult practices had always fascinated him, and he had immersed himself in the rituals and mathematics found in old books. But each failed ritual hit him hard, his beliefs in the existence of magic wavering each time he even failed to divine something or curse someone with misfortune. This ritual was his last attempt to invoke magic, a ritual on that specific date that had been independently calculated by a dozen different cultures and recorded in the history books as the closest humanity will come to touching other worlds, better worlds.
So, now here he was, sitting in the centre of a circle engraved with borrowed power tools and with lit candles and burning herbs obscuring the room. He was starting to feel like an idiot, childish even. Many of his friends told him he was silly to believe in magic, but he had in his heart of hearts held onto the hope that the world wasn't a piece of probabilistic machinery made of atoms; he hoped there was more to the world. But as the hour of Convergence approached, he felt that last ember beginning to flicker.
But unknown to Amar, it was a rare moment. The great wheel of the multiverse turned, and the magicless world that Aram was part of got his first whiff of magic in centuries. The planar boundary thinned, and the ancestral currents deposited a drop of magic into his world. Whether it was by fate or by sheer dumb luck, that metaphorical drop of magic landed in his ritual circle, and it sparked to life. A blue glow of discharging energy light up the circle before the magic went to work and ripped a hole in the walls of reality.
Now, Reality is a tough little cookie; these minor planar breaches are nothing it can't deal with, it took about a second for the hole into the astral to close, but something significant had happened in that time. The force of tear had pulled Amar out of this reality into the void between worlds.
Amar felt that he should feel vindicated as he fell through infinite nothingness. He had been vindicated, magic was real, and he had made it work. But he was falling through an endless void, so he was trying to scream his throat off. It wasn't working sadly; his body had been the first casualty of his minor accident; it had dissolved as soon as he had fallen through the hole. So, now his soul was falling, and souls famously couldn't get a sore thought. But at least he could tell his friends I told you so if he ever saw them again, or that's how he consoled himself in between bouts of endless terror and mind-breaking boredom.
Slowly his soul began to change; it started picking up detritus of energy, the aftermath of universes being born and his soul gained ontological weight. It started slowly draw in the energy of creation into itself until it was filled to the brim, and he felt the pull of reality on his soul. It had become corporeal enough to be attracted to a cluster of realities.
He fell through the membrane surrounding the reality, defences constructed by a long ascended wizard. The defences sensed the humanity of his soul and saw that he had no ill intention towards reality, so he was let through. He fell and fell, hurtling towards a particular planet of the universe, his soul was drawing in stray matter towards him, constructing a shell that could survive this reality, it grew the shell in the image of his previous body. Atoms formed chemicals which formed cells and slowly, layer by layer a human body took shape around him.
Then he fell into a river, his body cushioned by the residual energy of the inter-versal transfer and he floated down the river. It took a while but finally, after a few hours he washed up on the shore. A great faded sign hung above him, listening over from disrepair. The sign read Madripoor, but the usually bustling city was descending into chaos, as people all over the universe turned to dust.
"Ha, planar conjunction. It might finally be the time to move on. I spent the entire week on this, just waiting to be disappointed." Amar says with a bitter sigh. It was the eighth ritual of his life, something he had become interested in as a teenager. The occult practices had always fascinated him, and he had immersed himself in the rituals and mathematics found in old books. But each failed ritual hit him hard, his beliefs in the existence of magic wavering each time he even failed to divine something or curse someone with misfortune. This ritual was his last attempt to invoke magic, a ritual on that specific date that had been independently calculated by a dozen different cultures and recorded in the history books as the closest humanity will come to touching other worlds, better worlds.
So, now here he was, sitting in the centre of a circle engraved with borrowed power tools and with lit candles and burning herbs obscuring the room. He was starting to feel like an idiot, childish even. Many of his friends told him he was silly to believe in magic, but he had in his heart of hearts held onto the hope that the world wasn't a piece of probabilistic machinery made of atoms; he hoped there was more to the world. But as the hour of Convergence approached, he felt that last ember beginning to flicker.
But unknown to Amar, it was a rare moment. The great wheel of the multiverse turned, and the magicless world that Aram was part of got his first whiff of magic in centuries. The planar boundary thinned, and the ancestral currents deposited a drop of magic into his world. Whether it was by fate or by sheer dumb luck, that metaphorical drop of magic landed in his ritual circle, and it sparked to life. A blue glow of discharging energy light up the circle before the magic went to work and ripped a hole in the walls of reality.
Now, Reality is a tough little cookie; these minor planar breaches are nothing it can't deal with, it took about a second for the hole into the astral to close, but something significant had happened in that time. The force of tear had pulled Amar out of this reality into the void between worlds.
Amar felt that he should feel vindicated as he fell through infinite nothingness. He had been vindicated, magic was real, and he had made it work. But he was falling through an endless void, so he was trying to scream his throat off. It wasn't working sadly; his body had been the first casualty of his minor accident; it had dissolved as soon as he had fallen through the hole. So, now his soul was falling, and souls famously couldn't get a sore thought. But at least he could tell his friends I told you so if he ever saw them again, or that's how he consoled himself in between bouts of endless terror and mind-breaking boredom.
Slowly his soul began to change; it started picking up detritus of energy, the aftermath of universes being born and his soul gained ontological weight. It started slowly draw in the energy of creation into itself until it was filled to the brim, and he felt the pull of reality on his soul. It had become corporeal enough to be attracted to a cluster of realities.
He fell through the membrane surrounding the reality, defences constructed by a long ascended wizard. The defences sensed the humanity of his soul and saw that he had no ill intention towards reality, so he was let through. He fell and fell, hurtling towards a particular planet of the universe, his soul was drawing in stray matter towards him, constructing a shell that could survive this reality, it grew the shell in the image of his previous body. Atoms formed chemicals which formed cells and slowly, layer by layer a human body took shape around him.
Then he fell into a river, his body cushioned by the residual energy of the inter-versal transfer and he floated down the river. It took a while but finally, after a few hours he washed up on the shore. A great faded sign hung above him, listening over from disrepair. The sign read Madripoor, but the usually bustling city was descending into chaos, as people all over the universe turned to dust.
Chapter 2
I wake up coughing as the water in my lungs is expelled. I try to stand up but immediately stumble; my legs feel longer than I am used to, and It takes me a few moments to get used to them. I use my arms to balance my self as I push my self off the ground and noticed that they are a bit more defined than I remember being. In fact, my whole body is a bit more muscled, so clearly something strange was going on. I look around and notice the sound of a city as I take in the riverside I had washed upon. It was grimy and littered with refuge, broken glass bottles and plastic bags. Beyond the beach was a sea wall with fading letters painted on it, most of the wall was covered in graffiti but Focused and suddenly I knew what the words meant.
I looked down to notice that I had unconsciously made a hand gesture for a simple divination spell. It wasn't anything impressive, helping to increase pattern recognition a bit. It was intended to be a study aid, a minor magical charm that had never worked before, I mostly used it as a psychosomatic aid in learning new things. But now I had clearly felt some form of energy exert from deep inside my mind and now I was picking up clues a lot better. I was noticing things like the sound of the city were strange, hardly any cars and a lot of cries for help. It was that realisation that brought me out of my introspection and ended the focus required to maintain the spell. I was an unfamiliar place in the middle of what felt like a disaster in progress, there was only one course of reasonable action. Hunker down and try to figure out what's going on, I would help anyone I saw but I wasn't risking my life over some stranger.
I take a few minutes to look around for a stairwell and climb it into the city. It was chaos as I got the street, there were cars just standing on the highway, their engine idling while those few that were left were looking around, some were on their knees crying. The shock was beginning to wearing off so I decided I would figure out what happened later and just ran down a few alleyways. I emerged in one of those open-air markets with only a few people in sight. Most of the shops were empty with their owners either shocked or disappeared, so I sneaked into a clothing store and stole a few jeans and shirts to conceal my naked body. I also grabbed a few snacks from food stalls since I was starving, it was hungry work falling through a void for eternity,
I noticed a few people were doing the same thing I was doing and had started looting the shops, They were big guys too, with tattoos and concealed weapons. So, I figured since it seemed like an unsafe sort of a city and decided to do some pillaging of my own. I had cast a working spell today and I had a burning desire to know what more I could do, so I had to gather supplies since the majority of my magical knowledge was about rituals and seances and not a lot of spells, So I started stealing supplies I could need. I first grabbed a pair of oversized duffle bags from a utility store, along with a bunch of different kinds of knives, tomahawks ropes and a few tools to help me carve circles. Then a trip to a lifestyle store got me boxes full of candles, crystals and various occult objects like dream catchers and decorative pentagrams. The last shop was a traditional medicine shop, and in this case, the owner was still there, a middle-aged Filipino man that was remarkably calm about whatever chaos was going on outside. It was a bit awkward when I busted in with bags filled with looted goods but he didn't look worried, it was only after I paid him with stolen money for my purchase of dried herbs and oils that I learned that he had had a gun pointed at me the entire time. But I was glad that I had also stolen tens of thousands of dollars from an abandoned bag full of money. I know that's how people were killed in the movies but I wasn't worried about that right now, the owner had disappeared and seeing no owner I had just thrown the small bag into the duffel bags and walked away.
That walkaway would have been a lot more dramatic if I had a place to go to, I mostly walked around town for a while trying to find a place to hide out, till I gather my withs about me and find out what has happened. It seemed like that while the initial chaos had subsided the city had descended into a few fires burning out of control while an increasingly violent gang war was engulfing the Lowtown.
Some of the TV networks had come back on the air, the news was scary. A man called Captain America was explaining to the newscaster a dire warning. He was battered, his arm hung in his sling while he had a black eye, he looked like he had gone a round with a tank and it was amazing that he was standing and giving a press conference.
"Thanos is a warlord from space, he has been behind the last few invasions of earth, I search of weapons capable of destruction of a massive scale. I am sad to say she won that fight and unleashed untold devastation on the universe. Even as the world recovers, I can assure the world that the avengers are hard at work finding him, despite our own losses. We have already deployed resources to the worse affected regions of the world." The good Captain was a gifted orator, speaking with empathy and he had an open expression containing no guile. I almost wanted to believe him but a mad man had just invaded the planet and killed half the people on the earth. He had apparently defeated the gathered heroes of earth and wasn't that a surprise, a team of superheroes failing in protecting the earth. It was like one of the old justice league cartoons.
It was a big shock to me, coming to a world that apparently had superheroes and alien invasion but there wasn't anything I could do about that. So I had to secure my self and get a patron to fund my exploration of magic.
But I needed to focus on survival first, so I start looking for a place to sleep in for the night. I do that by sneaking into a residential tower in the low town. It was the run-down place, something where the poor working families of the city live. I choose it because there was no guard on the gate and the camera in the hall is broken. I just put on a stolen overcoat and hat and just walk into the entrance of the building. It akes a few trips up a down the elevator and a recasting of the divination spell to identify the lack of residents on the floor. I break in and check each of the rooms on the floor. It takes me a while to find a room of a guy living alone with no pictures of family or friends and who has disappeared mid-cook. I turn off the stove before a fire breaks out and lock the door.
I take a closer look at the apartment after getting a seat on the one couch in the room. It's a bit of a rundown place but well maintained. Someone had lovingly repainted the walls and decorated the walls with landscapes. The appliances were old and worn, the TV looked like it was from 10 years ago, a small LCD with a satellite uplink. The kitchen was clean but bare, with mostly take out menus. But the real coup was an empty room, some sort of indoor gym. My nelly ripped body was quite useful here, it was pretty easy to haul out the weights and mats. I clean the room for over a few hours and started working on making it my ritual room. That where I stumbled into my first problem, I didn't know what magic actually worked. The divination spell was an instinct and it wasn't from any specific style of spellcasting. There was only so much space in the room but I didn't know what would work. I could try Vashu Shastra but it turns out it is feng shui that actually works.
So I decided to go for the most basic formation I knew, a simple circle. It was simple to draw and a staple of many traditions of the world.
It is exacting work but I have gotten very good at drawing a circle over the years. My hands don't shake as I use a chisel to etch a circle on the cement floor. It is an almost geometrically perfect circle, my new body had a much better hand-eye coordination than my old one.
I finish the circle and take a shower to ritually remove any foreign influences on my spirit. It is another of those universal bits of folklore from around the world, water represents purity and cleansing power of nature. As the water flows over my body, I feel a weight lift off my shoulders, all the stray bits of suffering and pain that pervade a city after a disaster. That suffering has a mystic taint but my ritualistic bath purifies me and I feel myself relax and my body feels reinvigorated.
The next step I do is take a seat in the middle of the circle, using an Aasna taught to me by a yogic master from my gym. It is the stereotypical lotus pose, my forefinger touching my thumb and my legs crossed as I sit on the bare floor and start meditating. It takes great concentration to maintain that meditation as after a few minutes of meditating, I start floating off the ground and my eyes start glowing. I feel streams of energy rush into me, the cosmic energy flowing into my soul and recharging the minor reserves I had depleted today and then building up more capacity. It's almost like stress training the soul, I know instinctively that my power reserves will slowly grow each day but if I tried to rush it my soul could suffer damage. It takes me two more hours of meditation before I am full and just in time too, as there is a knock on the door
I looked down to notice that I had unconsciously made a hand gesture for a simple divination spell. It wasn't anything impressive, helping to increase pattern recognition a bit. It was intended to be a study aid, a minor magical charm that had never worked before, I mostly used it as a psychosomatic aid in learning new things. But now I had clearly felt some form of energy exert from deep inside my mind and now I was picking up clues a lot better. I was noticing things like the sound of the city were strange, hardly any cars and a lot of cries for help. It was that realisation that brought me out of my introspection and ended the focus required to maintain the spell. I was an unfamiliar place in the middle of what felt like a disaster in progress, there was only one course of reasonable action. Hunker down and try to figure out what's going on, I would help anyone I saw but I wasn't risking my life over some stranger.
I take a few minutes to look around for a stairwell and climb it into the city. It was chaos as I got the street, there were cars just standing on the highway, their engine idling while those few that were left were looking around, some were on their knees crying. The shock was beginning to wearing off so I decided I would figure out what happened later and just ran down a few alleyways. I emerged in one of those open-air markets with only a few people in sight. Most of the shops were empty with their owners either shocked or disappeared, so I sneaked into a clothing store and stole a few jeans and shirts to conceal my naked body. I also grabbed a few snacks from food stalls since I was starving, it was hungry work falling through a void for eternity,
I noticed a few people were doing the same thing I was doing and had started looting the shops, They were big guys too, with tattoos and concealed weapons. So, I figured since it seemed like an unsafe sort of a city and decided to do some pillaging of my own. I had cast a working spell today and I had a burning desire to know what more I could do, so I had to gather supplies since the majority of my magical knowledge was about rituals and seances and not a lot of spells, So I started stealing supplies I could need. I first grabbed a pair of oversized duffle bags from a utility store, along with a bunch of different kinds of knives, tomahawks ropes and a few tools to help me carve circles. Then a trip to a lifestyle store got me boxes full of candles, crystals and various occult objects like dream catchers and decorative pentagrams. The last shop was a traditional medicine shop, and in this case, the owner was still there, a middle-aged Filipino man that was remarkably calm about whatever chaos was going on outside. It was a bit awkward when I busted in with bags filled with looted goods but he didn't look worried, it was only after I paid him with stolen money for my purchase of dried herbs and oils that I learned that he had had a gun pointed at me the entire time. But I was glad that I had also stolen tens of thousands of dollars from an abandoned bag full of money. I know that's how people were killed in the movies but I wasn't worried about that right now, the owner had disappeared and seeing no owner I had just thrown the small bag into the duffel bags and walked away.
That walkaway would have been a lot more dramatic if I had a place to go to, I mostly walked around town for a while trying to find a place to hide out, till I gather my withs about me and find out what has happened. It seemed like that while the initial chaos had subsided the city had descended into a few fires burning out of control while an increasingly violent gang war was engulfing the Lowtown.
Some of the TV networks had come back on the air, the news was scary. A man called Captain America was explaining to the newscaster a dire warning. He was battered, his arm hung in his sling while he had a black eye, he looked like he had gone a round with a tank and it was amazing that he was standing and giving a press conference.
"Thanos is a warlord from space, he has been behind the last few invasions of earth, I search of weapons capable of destruction of a massive scale. I am sad to say she won that fight and unleashed untold devastation on the universe. Even as the world recovers, I can assure the world that the avengers are hard at work finding him, despite our own losses. We have already deployed resources to the worse affected regions of the world." The good Captain was a gifted orator, speaking with empathy and he had an open expression containing no guile. I almost wanted to believe him but a mad man had just invaded the planet and killed half the people on the earth. He had apparently defeated the gathered heroes of earth and wasn't that a surprise, a team of superheroes failing in protecting the earth. It was like one of the old justice league cartoons.
It was a big shock to me, coming to a world that apparently had superheroes and alien invasion but there wasn't anything I could do about that. So I had to secure my self and get a patron to fund my exploration of magic.
But I needed to focus on survival first, so I start looking for a place to sleep in for the night. I do that by sneaking into a residential tower in the low town. It was the run-down place, something where the poor working families of the city live. I choose it because there was no guard on the gate and the camera in the hall is broken. I just put on a stolen overcoat and hat and just walk into the entrance of the building. It akes a few trips up a down the elevator and a recasting of the divination spell to identify the lack of residents on the floor. I break in and check each of the rooms on the floor. It takes me a while to find a room of a guy living alone with no pictures of family or friends and who has disappeared mid-cook. I turn off the stove before a fire breaks out and lock the door.
I take a closer look at the apartment after getting a seat on the one couch in the room. It's a bit of a rundown place but well maintained. Someone had lovingly repainted the walls and decorated the walls with landscapes. The appliances were old and worn, the TV looked like it was from 10 years ago, a small LCD with a satellite uplink. The kitchen was clean but bare, with mostly take out menus. But the real coup was an empty room, some sort of indoor gym. My nelly ripped body was quite useful here, it was pretty easy to haul out the weights and mats. I clean the room for over a few hours and started working on making it my ritual room. That where I stumbled into my first problem, I didn't know what magic actually worked. The divination spell was an instinct and it wasn't from any specific style of spellcasting. There was only so much space in the room but I didn't know what would work. I could try Vashu Shastra but it turns out it is feng shui that actually works.
So I decided to go for the most basic formation I knew, a simple circle. It was simple to draw and a staple of many traditions of the world.
It is exacting work but I have gotten very good at drawing a circle over the years. My hands don't shake as I use a chisel to etch a circle on the cement floor. It is an almost geometrically perfect circle, my new body had a much better hand-eye coordination than my old one.
I finish the circle and take a shower to ritually remove any foreign influences on my spirit. It is another of those universal bits of folklore from around the world, water represents purity and cleansing power of nature. As the water flows over my body, I feel a weight lift off my shoulders, all the stray bits of suffering and pain that pervade a city after a disaster. That suffering has a mystic taint but my ritualistic bath purifies me and I feel myself relax and my body feels reinvigorated.
The next step I do is take a seat in the middle of the circle, using an Aasna taught to me by a yogic master from my gym. It is the stereotypical lotus pose, my forefinger touching my thumb and my legs crossed as I sit on the bare floor and start meditating. It takes great concentration to maintain that meditation as after a few minutes of meditating, I start floating off the ground and my eyes start glowing. I feel streams of energy rush into me, the cosmic energy flowing into my soul and recharging the minor reserves I had depleted today and then building up more capacity. It's almost like stress training the soul, I know instinctively that my power reserves will slowly grow each day but if I tried to rush it my soul could suffer damage. It takes me two more hours of meditation before I am full and just in time too, as there is a knock on the door
chapter 3
Whoever was knocking on the door was really violent, their blows stuck the padlocked door like hammer blows and it echoed in the empty apartment.
"Joey you in there mate, the boss sent us to check up on you after the fubar that has been today" an extremely Australian sounding voiced boomed from behind the door and the knocking got louder.
Whoever this was sounded prone to violence and I didn't want to be the guy that they found in their mate's empty apartment. I had half a minute before they decided to break down the door and I didn't know what spells to cast, it's not like I had fireball as a cantrip or something. I think quickly and make a snap decision, I had to risk everything on magic. I quickly stride back into the meditation room, the ritual circle was still filled with residual magic., usually it would interfere with most of the spells I knew, but I was going to risk it and use it as an extra boost.
I step into the circle just as I hear the lock on the door shatter, the noise of wood splintering almost breaking my concentration as I begin to cast a spell. It was a European spell, used by outcasts and thieves to hide. It was something popular with kids that were being bullied these days. It is cast by a 3 quick hand motion, invoking the Moon, the Shadows and the Unknown to hide the caster. As I cast the spell I push in the residual magic from my meditation into it to try and supercharge. The spell structure wobbles but holds firm under my desperate efforts.
I feel a cloak made of glittering shadows surround my body and my body turns transparent and blurry, like The Predator. It is not complete invisibility but it should suffice for now. It took me ten seconds to cast the spell but I could hear the men outside.
"Someone is here, I checked the bathroom and the mirror is still covered by condensation." A vaguely American accented voice says. I hear guns being drawn and cocked, the sound recognisable from countless video games.
I must have released some small noise as the next thing I know, a 6'5 man kicks the door down and three men rush into the room, their guns at the ready to shoot. I go still, hoping against hope that my magic protects me, and miraculously it does. They search the room but none of them notices me, although they pass inches away from my spot in the middle of the room. It is like the worst game of green light red light ever, I know that if I move even a single inch the spell would blur and I would be found out. So I hold my breath and pray, to the universe to save me.
"Could have sworn I heard something" the Australian man shrugs and sheats his pistol, shrugging at his companions as they all go out of the room.
"It seems like Joey has been dusted as well Fellas, well at least we won't have to babysit him anymore. Let's check on Gerard, bastard owes me 100 quid." The Australian man continues as I hear a door closing and fading footstep going down the hall. I relax and take a breath, letting my spell lapse, the invisibility was draining and I wanted to be prepared if they come back.
As I walk out of the Meditation room to check if the door was still lockable, I feel a cold metal touch my head and a tsk sound coming from behind me.
"No funny business dickhead, I bet I could pull the trigger faster than whatever weirdness you do," the Australian man says from behind me.
Then I feel metal hitting the back of my head and the ground rushes towards me. My last thought as I lose consciousness is that I got tricked by one of the oldest tricks in the books, fucking babies do it better than me. Then my face smashes into the hard floor and I pass out.
"Joey you in there mate, the boss sent us to check up on you after the fubar that has been today" an extremely Australian sounding voiced boomed from behind the door and the knocking got louder.
Whoever this was sounded prone to violence and I didn't want to be the guy that they found in their mate's empty apartment. I had half a minute before they decided to break down the door and I didn't know what spells to cast, it's not like I had fireball as a cantrip or something. I think quickly and make a snap decision, I had to risk everything on magic. I quickly stride back into the meditation room, the ritual circle was still filled with residual magic., usually it would interfere with most of the spells I knew, but I was going to risk it and use it as an extra boost.
I step into the circle just as I hear the lock on the door shatter, the noise of wood splintering almost breaking my concentration as I begin to cast a spell. It was a European spell, used by outcasts and thieves to hide. It was something popular with kids that were being bullied these days. It is cast by a 3 quick hand motion, invoking the Moon, the Shadows and the Unknown to hide the caster. As I cast the spell I push in the residual magic from my meditation into it to try and supercharge. The spell structure wobbles but holds firm under my desperate efforts.
I feel a cloak made of glittering shadows surround my body and my body turns transparent and blurry, like The Predator. It is not complete invisibility but it should suffice for now. It took me ten seconds to cast the spell but I could hear the men outside.
"Someone is here, I checked the bathroom and the mirror is still covered by condensation." A vaguely American accented voice says. I hear guns being drawn and cocked, the sound recognisable from countless video games.
I must have released some small noise as the next thing I know, a 6'5 man kicks the door down and three men rush into the room, their guns at the ready to shoot. I go still, hoping against hope that my magic protects me, and miraculously it does. They search the room but none of them notices me, although they pass inches away from my spot in the middle of the room. It is like the worst game of green light red light ever, I know that if I move even a single inch the spell would blur and I would be found out. So I hold my breath and pray, to the universe to save me.
"Could have sworn I heard something" the Australian man shrugs and sheats his pistol, shrugging at his companions as they all go out of the room.
"It seems like Joey has been dusted as well Fellas, well at least we won't have to babysit him anymore. Let's check on Gerard, bastard owes me 100 quid." The Australian man continues as I hear a door closing and fading footstep going down the hall. I relax and take a breath, letting my spell lapse, the invisibility was draining and I wanted to be prepared if they come back.
As I walk out of the Meditation room to check if the door was still lockable, I feel a cold metal touch my head and a tsk sound coming from behind me.
"No funny business dickhead, I bet I could pull the trigger faster than whatever weirdness you do," the Australian man says from behind me.
Then I feel metal hitting the back of my head and the ground rushes towards me. My last thought as I lose consciousness is that I got tricked by one of the oldest tricks in the books, fucking babies do it better than me. Then my face smashes into the hard floor and I pass out.
chapter 4
I am slapped into consciousness, the hit snaps my head back and disorients me. It wasn't a pleasant wake-up call, but I try and open my eyes. My eyes are starting to swell up, I was pretty sure I had been punched in the face a few times. The room I was in was dark, only a single bulb hanging over my head lighting a small island in the sea of darkness.
A figure steps into the light, flanked by a pair of guards. It is a dark-skinned man, in a very fashionable suit and enough jewellery to buy a building. He looks down on me with an amused look in his eye, he gestures to one of his guards and they backhand me. The strike almost throws me off the chair but my arms are secured with ropes so just go limp, to try and prevent arms from getting dislocated. I feel iron in my mouth as I feel my mouth fill with blood, I spit the blood out, taking care not to spit towards the mysterious man, I had seen the movies so I was going to show deference. Hopefully, they don't mutilate me for squatting in their friend's house.
"Now that we have shown the consequence of taking something that belongs to me. Let's talk about how you can repay me, maybe I will even let you keep the flat, it seems like you have already made yourself at home." The man says with slight mirth in his voice. He reaches into the pocket of his suit and draws out a couple of pictures of my mediation room "What are these symbols, are they the reason you turned invisible. Is it some form of holographic tech or is it some sort of super-soldier serum?"
I cough as the blood goes down my windpipe, it takes me a few seconds to gather my breath but I manage.
" Its magic, a ritual chamber. It can be quite useful to help do stronger magic, like the invisibility spell. It is not something that can be taught but I will be happy to work for you to pay off the debt I owe you." It galled me to be so submissive towards someone that has beaten me to an inch of my life but I had no other option to survive, so I swallowed my pride and begged.
"Ha ha ha, magic" He laughs and then uses a free hand to backhand me across the face.
" Do you think I am an idiot, tell me where and how you got your power from and I will let you walk out of here, otherwise you leave in a bag." His smile was gone now and all that was left was the vicious face of a ganglord, someone that knew no mercy and wouldn't hesitate to put me in a shallow grave.
"It's the truth, I promise you. If you untie my hands I can show you. I promise you, I am not lying but you hold all the power here, if my demonstration is not satisfactory you can do whatever you want." I tried to project confidence in my voice, I kept the tone steady, despite how scared I was feeling, I didn't even know what magic would work. But I had to try, it was my only chance of survival.
The man nods to his guards and steps about ten feet back from my chair. One of the guard comes and unties me and pushes me to the ground. They have their guns drawn on me as I get to my knees and start trying to use magic. There is enough blood spilt on this ground that I can push my magic into the blood and create a sanctified ground. It was an instinctual action but if they tried to kill me I knew the ground would make it easier to cast.
Then I draw an Elder Futhark rune onto the stone floor. It is the rune URUZ, shaped like a cursive n and it represented lifeforce and strength. The rune is hard to draw with a shaking hand but I manage it through desperation. Then I push my magic into the rune and it starts glowing with a golden light. I get feeling similar to when I had invoked the concepts for my invisibility spell. But this was different because it was much more real like I was shaking hands with a person as compared to writing them an email. It had a quality to it that made it feel like it was an active part of the world instead of a platonic ideal.
The golden glow suffuses my body and soothes my pain, my wounds begin healing, and I feel reinvigorated like I had a good nights rest. It wasn't an instant healing spell; of course, the magic was slowly knitting my wounds together, but it had staunched my bleeding and made me functional enough that I could try to escape if need be, but that was looking like a difficult prospect. The consecration and healing spell had almost taken ⅔ of my magic. I don't think I could even manage an invisibility spell in that situation.
But luckily for me, my gambit seems to have worked. The Man smiled and walked just within the leaping range.
"So you weren't lying, that's good to hear. Now as for paying me back, I think we can work out some arrangement that will work out well for both of us." He pulled out a gold plated pistol and took out a single round from the clip " But if you ever try any magic on me, I will put a bullet like this through your brain."
He puts the bullet in my palm and I close my hand around it.
"Take him back to Joey's apartment. I will call you tomorrow, better heal up magic boy"
A figure steps into the light, flanked by a pair of guards. It is a dark-skinned man, in a very fashionable suit and enough jewellery to buy a building. He looks down on me with an amused look in his eye, he gestures to one of his guards and they backhand me. The strike almost throws me off the chair but my arms are secured with ropes so just go limp, to try and prevent arms from getting dislocated. I feel iron in my mouth as I feel my mouth fill with blood, I spit the blood out, taking care not to spit towards the mysterious man, I had seen the movies so I was going to show deference. Hopefully, they don't mutilate me for squatting in their friend's house.
"Now that we have shown the consequence of taking something that belongs to me. Let's talk about how you can repay me, maybe I will even let you keep the flat, it seems like you have already made yourself at home." The man says with slight mirth in his voice. He reaches into the pocket of his suit and draws out a couple of pictures of my mediation room "What are these symbols, are they the reason you turned invisible. Is it some form of holographic tech or is it some sort of super-soldier serum?"
I cough as the blood goes down my windpipe, it takes me a few seconds to gather my breath but I manage.
" Its magic, a ritual chamber. It can be quite useful to help do stronger magic, like the invisibility spell. It is not something that can be taught but I will be happy to work for you to pay off the debt I owe you." It galled me to be so submissive towards someone that has beaten me to an inch of my life but I had no other option to survive, so I swallowed my pride and begged.
"Ha ha ha, magic" He laughs and then uses a free hand to backhand me across the face.
" Do you think I am an idiot, tell me where and how you got your power from and I will let you walk out of here, otherwise you leave in a bag." His smile was gone now and all that was left was the vicious face of a ganglord, someone that knew no mercy and wouldn't hesitate to put me in a shallow grave.
"It's the truth, I promise you. If you untie my hands I can show you. I promise you, I am not lying but you hold all the power here, if my demonstration is not satisfactory you can do whatever you want." I tried to project confidence in my voice, I kept the tone steady, despite how scared I was feeling, I didn't even know what magic would work. But I had to try, it was my only chance of survival.
The man nods to his guards and steps about ten feet back from my chair. One of the guard comes and unties me and pushes me to the ground. They have their guns drawn on me as I get to my knees and start trying to use magic. There is enough blood spilt on this ground that I can push my magic into the blood and create a sanctified ground. It was an instinctual action but if they tried to kill me I knew the ground would make it easier to cast.
Then I draw an Elder Futhark rune onto the stone floor. It is the rune URUZ, shaped like a cursive n and it represented lifeforce and strength. The rune is hard to draw with a shaking hand but I manage it through desperation. Then I push my magic into the rune and it starts glowing with a golden light. I get feeling similar to when I had invoked the concepts for my invisibility spell. But this was different because it was much more real like I was shaking hands with a person as compared to writing them an email. It had a quality to it that made it feel like it was an active part of the world instead of a platonic ideal.
The golden glow suffuses my body and soothes my pain, my wounds begin healing, and I feel reinvigorated like I had a good nights rest. It wasn't an instant healing spell; of course, the magic was slowly knitting my wounds together, but it had staunched my bleeding and made me functional enough that I could try to escape if need be, but that was looking like a difficult prospect. The consecration and healing spell had almost taken ⅔ of my magic. I don't think I could even manage an invisibility spell in that situation.
But luckily for me, my gambit seems to have worked. The Man smiled and walked just within the leaping range.
"So you weren't lying, that's good to hear. Now as for paying me back, I think we can work out some arrangement that will work out well for both of us." He pulled out a gold plated pistol and took out a single round from the clip " But if you ever try any magic on me, I will put a bullet like this through your brain."
He puts the bullet in my palm and I close my hand around it.
"Take him back to Joey's apartment. I will call you tomorrow, better heal up magic boy"
chapter 5
A Week Later
I was settling into the apartment I had stolen from joey. Smiling Tiger had invited me to his bases and held a gun to my head as he forced me to make an amulet protecting him. I had requested something important to him, something where he has risked his life to earn. Smiling Tiger has just smiled handed me the claw of a panther, he had shown me the scars on his chest, after he had been ambushed by the leopard when he had killed its mate. I could feel the metaphysical weight of the object, the lifeblood of the slain creature and its vengeance thwarted. It would give the claw its power but I knew I couldn't work for a gangster. So I cursed the Claw, it will serve faithfully but When he will trust it and depend on it, it will betray him. I couldn't curse it to do anything too drastic, first, his men would have vengeance and it would take too much power to kill a man with a protective item. So, I had moulded the curse after the old tales, boons that had turned against their masters. I hope it happened after I have gathered some power, so I could survive the power struggle that would ensue.
The charm would create a protective barrier of hardened air, it wouldn't hold up to anything more than a pistol shot and it couldn't stay up for long but it was automatic, so it would protect him from things like drivebys or shrapnel from a grenade.
When I handed it to him after pouring magic into it, blood from a sacrificed cat anointing the charm. He still tested it after I handed it to him, handing it to a minion and he shot him. The barrier held thankfully, it absorbed the shot and the bullet floated in the middle of the air for a second before falling to the floor, but Smiling Tiger was happy and put it on and I felt the curse latch onto him, it was bonded to him and it will probably kill him someday, I just had to survive till that happened.
He did reward me for the charm, despite being shorthanded from the blip and the subsequent gang war, he gave me a few guys to go collect resources for me. It had turned out well and now my ritual room was well stocked with anything I had been able to imagine would be useful for magic. I had been researching magic for the past week. I wasn't making much progress, I wasn't getting those instinctive nudges that life and death situations seemed to bring out in me. I had learned some things, general themes and limitations.
My magic was the magic of sympathy and invocation, I could use symbols and rituals to call upon the universe to do specific things. I could etch a bullet with a targets name and it would never miss that target, or invoke Gaia to grow vegetables in my window garden. But there was another aspect to my magic, just as I could invoke greater concepts I could invoke my self, where I could use my magical energy to cast effects but it was horribly inefficient and lacked the oomph that the metaphysical connection with the concept provides. It was like using a phone battery to run a TV, it could theoretically work but it was a bad idea. The general outline is the best I could pick out of my week of mediation and experiments. I hadn't had much success actually inventing spells and performing rituals. Turns out if I wanted to do them properly they couldn't be half-assed by brute-forcing them with my internal reserves. I had made one charm but I hadn't tested it so it might not even work.
"I need to get out more, I have cash now and the clubs have opened up again. What do you think Zukhov" I ask the dude that had been assigned as a "guard" for me. He is here to keep a tab on me but I imagine he must have been pretty bored this week, it was mostly me spending hours meditating and maybe scribbling a few runs or a pictograph on a Notebook.
"If you want to go, sure. I know this little Club that has opened its door after the blip. I can get us in there since it's owned by the boss." His accent was fairly faint and he was pretty chill. I think smiling tiger choose him because he is personable, he wanted me to develop weak points he could exploit. But I knew who the enemy was, I am going to be free if its the last thing I would do.
I wasn't lying though, I was genuinely feeling bored and claustrophobic sitting in my apartment. If I was going to be a criminal I would at least partake in the benefits.
"Sure buddy, Let me grab my lucky charm." I was going to enjoy myself tonight but no need to be unsafe.
I grabbed the amulet, a steel chain with a bullet welded to it. It was the same bullet that smiling tiger had given me after my beatdown session. It was a metaphorical bullet I had dodged and so it served as a core for a protection spell. The spell used the Ontological Weight of my soul to subtly twist probability around, making projectiles far harder to hit. My soul was growing bigger and heavier the more my magical pool grew, and so the spell would get stronger as I did. But it wasn't a sure thing, anything that had a strong sympathetic connection or Strong willpower behind it would pierce through it. If someone hated me considered me their greatest foe or someone with an unshakable resolve would get through. It was another thing I had noticed in my experimentations, there was no perfect spell, there was always a weakness or workaround or a counter. So I had to be careful when telling anyone about any details.
But those were concerns for the future, now it was time to party.
I was settling into the apartment I had stolen from joey. Smiling Tiger had invited me to his bases and held a gun to my head as he forced me to make an amulet protecting him. I had requested something important to him, something where he has risked his life to earn. Smiling Tiger has just smiled handed me the claw of a panther, he had shown me the scars on his chest, after he had been ambushed by the leopard when he had killed its mate. I could feel the metaphysical weight of the object, the lifeblood of the slain creature and its vengeance thwarted. It would give the claw its power but I knew I couldn't work for a gangster. So I cursed the Claw, it will serve faithfully but When he will trust it and depend on it, it will betray him. I couldn't curse it to do anything too drastic, first, his men would have vengeance and it would take too much power to kill a man with a protective item. So, I had moulded the curse after the old tales, boons that had turned against their masters. I hope it happened after I have gathered some power, so I could survive the power struggle that would ensue.
The charm would create a protective barrier of hardened air, it wouldn't hold up to anything more than a pistol shot and it couldn't stay up for long but it was automatic, so it would protect him from things like drivebys or shrapnel from a grenade.
When I handed it to him after pouring magic into it, blood from a sacrificed cat anointing the charm. He still tested it after I handed it to him, handing it to a minion and he shot him. The barrier held thankfully, it absorbed the shot and the bullet floated in the middle of the air for a second before falling to the floor, but Smiling Tiger was happy and put it on and I felt the curse latch onto him, it was bonded to him and it will probably kill him someday, I just had to survive till that happened.
He did reward me for the charm, despite being shorthanded from the blip and the subsequent gang war, he gave me a few guys to go collect resources for me. It had turned out well and now my ritual room was well stocked with anything I had been able to imagine would be useful for magic. I had been researching magic for the past week. I wasn't making much progress, I wasn't getting those instinctive nudges that life and death situations seemed to bring out in me. I had learned some things, general themes and limitations.
My magic was the magic of sympathy and invocation, I could use symbols and rituals to call upon the universe to do specific things. I could etch a bullet with a targets name and it would never miss that target, or invoke Gaia to grow vegetables in my window garden. But there was another aspect to my magic, just as I could invoke greater concepts I could invoke my self, where I could use my magical energy to cast effects but it was horribly inefficient and lacked the oomph that the metaphysical connection with the concept provides. It was like using a phone battery to run a TV, it could theoretically work but it was a bad idea. The general outline is the best I could pick out of my week of mediation and experiments. I hadn't had much success actually inventing spells and performing rituals. Turns out if I wanted to do them properly they couldn't be half-assed by brute-forcing them with my internal reserves. I had made one charm but I hadn't tested it so it might not even work.
"I need to get out more, I have cash now and the clubs have opened up again. What do you think Zukhov" I ask the dude that had been assigned as a "guard" for me. He is here to keep a tab on me but I imagine he must have been pretty bored this week, it was mostly me spending hours meditating and maybe scribbling a few runs or a pictograph on a Notebook.
"If you want to go, sure. I know this little Club that has opened its door after the blip. I can get us in there since it's owned by the boss." His accent was fairly faint and he was pretty chill. I think smiling tiger choose him because he is personable, he wanted me to develop weak points he could exploit. But I knew who the enemy was, I am going to be free if its the last thing I would do.
I wasn't lying though, I was genuinely feeling bored and claustrophobic sitting in my apartment. If I was going to be a criminal I would at least partake in the benefits.
"Sure buddy, Let me grab my lucky charm." I was going to enjoy myself tonight but no need to be unsafe.
I grabbed the amulet, a steel chain with a bullet welded to it. It was the same bullet that smiling tiger had given me after my beatdown session. It was a metaphorical bullet I had dodged and so it served as a core for a protection spell. The spell used the Ontological Weight of my soul to subtly twist probability around, making projectiles far harder to hit. My soul was growing bigger and heavier the more my magical pool grew, and so the spell would get stronger as I did. But it wasn't a sure thing, anything that had a strong sympathetic connection or Strong willpower behind it would pierce through it. If someone hated me considered me their greatest foe or someone with an unshakable resolve would get through. It was another thing I had noticed in my experimentations, there was no perfect spell, there was always a weakness or workaround or a counter. So I had to be careful when telling anyone about any details.
But those were concerns for the future, now it was time to party.
chapter 6
"As I told your friend over there, you can't go in the club is full" the bouncer was talking to a bunch of gaudy gangsters dressed in bright shirts and gold jewellery.
It was pretty fun seeing their reaction as Zukhov nods to the bouncer and just walks in with me in tow. I could still hear their outraged screeches over the deep bass music coming from inside the club.
The inside of the club was dark lit only by neon stips straight out of Blade Runner. The club is filled with people drinking their sorrows away. Statistically, half of them had probably lost someone close to them, so there was a dark undercurrent in the club, tension and sorrow mixing with booze and drugs to create a heady mix. My magic reaches to the built-up energy, and I have to forcibly restrain myself from channelling the emotional energy.
Zukhov guided me towards the VIP section, a raised section of the club that was filled with a lot fewer people in there. We grabbed a table and ordered a few drinks, a vodka for Zukhov and a whisky for me. My mates had always ragged on me that I had an old man's taste, but I liked the burn. I got the top shelf stuff since it was on the Boss's dime.
Then it's a blur of drinks, girls and drugs for most of the night. I don't know where the girls came from and who were the people that joined us at our table and brought the drugs. I stayed away from the hard stuff; it is not like cocaine could compare to channelling the power of the universe through your soul, but I didn't want to risk building a dependency. But I did partake in the more enjoyable recreational stuff. I am pretty sure at one point I conjured a spell to enhance the pleasure of everyone involved, consensually, of course. The invocation of Dionysius uses wine originally, but I decided to use the beer keg someone had brought along.
In Hindsight, that was my first mistake, using magic openly like that, and something that would leave traces of my magical signature in a dozen peoples bodies, but to be fair to my self I hadn't encountered any supernatural beings yet. But I definitely should have remembered the man that hadn't touched a single drink that night and had been quite happy to take pictures of everyone.
I had a hangover the next morning, a pounding thing that made me wish I was brave enough to try shapeshifting into a rock. But I got up and still did my morning meditations; the energies streaming in from the universe cleanses the pain from my mind, and I feel at one with the universe; I see the grand tapestry of the laws of reality, perfectly formed system, the clockwork of eternity and the song of the spheres. It is a humbling experience and a centring one, and it's the best-damned hangover cure that exists. It takes me a few hours to grow my reservoir of magic just a little bit, and then I get to work. It turns out that Zukhov hasn't come in yet, probably still suffering from last nights after effects, So I start working on the project I didn't want smiling tiger to know about, warding my house against intruders.
I start by etching a line in front of my door, deep into the floor so that it can't be destroyed easily. It invokes the stories of my childhood, the line drawn by Lakshman to protect Sita from intruders. In the Ramayana, it had been strong enough to stymie even the demon king Ravana but mine was a pale shadow of that warding. I poured energy into it for an hour, chanting the hymn in the proper ritual order and following all the forms. It glows a brief golden before settling on the floor as an unusual marking.
My next step is carving symbols on my walls, the glyphs invoking the great wall of china, 长城, a bulwark that has protected china for thousands of year. It takes most of my day before I apply it to all my walls, but now they would need an RPG to get through my walls.
It took me most of the day to finish my defences, but Zukhov still hasn't shown up, so a small worry starts wiggling its way into my mind. I hadn't actually talked to him since last night, and I don't remember much of what happened. What if this was a hangover situation, or maybe he ODed on something. I knew he was a gangster and wouldn't hesitate to kill me, but it was common courtesy to at least check up on someone that you had been out drinking with. So, I call his cellphone and shot him a few calls. His phone keeps going to voice mail. So I shrug and message one of the other guys whose number I had been given in case of an emergency.
"Hey Derek, I am just giving you a head-up, but I think Zukhov might be sick or something; he hasn't shown up since yesterday," I say as I consider maybe I should make a run for the airport or something. But I lacked any documentation, and most of the boats and planes were grounded due to the Blip. Having done my civic duty, I go do some more meditation before turning in for the night.
I am awakened by something crashing against my barrier and a boom that shakes my entire room. I could see my walls cracking as something pounded them with weapons.
It was pretty fun seeing their reaction as Zukhov nods to the bouncer and just walks in with me in tow. I could still hear their outraged screeches over the deep bass music coming from inside the club.
The inside of the club was dark lit only by neon stips straight out of Blade Runner. The club is filled with people drinking their sorrows away. Statistically, half of them had probably lost someone close to them, so there was a dark undercurrent in the club, tension and sorrow mixing with booze and drugs to create a heady mix. My magic reaches to the built-up energy, and I have to forcibly restrain myself from channelling the emotional energy.
Zukhov guided me towards the VIP section, a raised section of the club that was filled with a lot fewer people in there. We grabbed a table and ordered a few drinks, a vodka for Zukhov and a whisky for me. My mates had always ragged on me that I had an old man's taste, but I liked the burn. I got the top shelf stuff since it was on the Boss's dime.
Then it's a blur of drinks, girls and drugs for most of the night. I don't know where the girls came from and who were the people that joined us at our table and brought the drugs. I stayed away from the hard stuff; it is not like cocaine could compare to channelling the power of the universe through your soul, but I didn't want to risk building a dependency. But I did partake in the more enjoyable recreational stuff. I am pretty sure at one point I conjured a spell to enhance the pleasure of everyone involved, consensually, of course. The invocation of Dionysius uses wine originally, but I decided to use the beer keg someone had brought along.
In Hindsight, that was my first mistake, using magic openly like that, and something that would leave traces of my magical signature in a dozen peoples bodies, but to be fair to my self I hadn't encountered any supernatural beings yet. But I definitely should have remembered the man that hadn't touched a single drink that night and had been quite happy to take pictures of everyone.
I had a hangover the next morning, a pounding thing that made me wish I was brave enough to try shapeshifting into a rock. But I got up and still did my morning meditations; the energies streaming in from the universe cleanses the pain from my mind, and I feel at one with the universe; I see the grand tapestry of the laws of reality, perfectly formed system, the clockwork of eternity and the song of the spheres. It is a humbling experience and a centring one, and it's the best-damned hangover cure that exists. It takes me a few hours to grow my reservoir of magic just a little bit, and then I get to work. It turns out that Zukhov hasn't come in yet, probably still suffering from last nights after effects, So I start working on the project I didn't want smiling tiger to know about, warding my house against intruders.
I start by etching a line in front of my door, deep into the floor so that it can't be destroyed easily. It invokes the stories of my childhood, the line drawn by Lakshman to protect Sita from intruders. In the Ramayana, it had been strong enough to stymie even the demon king Ravana but mine was a pale shadow of that warding. I poured energy into it for an hour, chanting the hymn in the proper ritual order and following all the forms. It glows a brief golden before settling on the floor as an unusual marking.
My next step is carving symbols on my walls, the glyphs invoking the great wall of china, 长城, a bulwark that has protected china for thousands of year. It takes most of my day before I apply it to all my walls, but now they would need an RPG to get through my walls.
It took me most of the day to finish my defences, but Zukhov still hasn't shown up, so a small worry starts wiggling its way into my mind. I hadn't actually talked to him since last night, and I don't remember much of what happened. What if this was a hangover situation, or maybe he ODed on something. I knew he was a gangster and wouldn't hesitate to kill me, but it was common courtesy to at least check up on someone that you had been out drinking with. So, I call his cellphone and shot him a few calls. His phone keeps going to voice mail. So I shrug and message one of the other guys whose number I had been given in case of an emergency.
"Hey Derek, I am just giving you a head-up, but I think Zukhov might be sick or something; he hasn't shown up since yesterday," I say as I consider maybe I should make a run for the airport or something. But I lacked any documentation, and most of the boats and planes were grounded due to the Blip. Having done my civic duty, I go do some more meditation before turning in for the night.
I am awakened by something crashing against my barrier and a boom that shakes my entire room. I could see my walls cracking as something pounded them with weapons.
chapter 7
The booming hits continued as I scrambled out of my bed and rushed into my ritual room. Whoever was trying to get in didn't have good intentions towards me, otherwise, the wards would have let them through. I grab a ritual stiletto and grab a clay bowl to do a quick empowered ritual. I slash my palm and let the drain into the bowl. I grab a wolfs claw that I had bought from a poacher and drop it into the blood-filled bowl. I place the bowl in the middle of the ritual circle and push my magic into it. It sinks into the wolf's claw and the talon crumbles into dust. The dust I stirred by the magic to mix with the blood and form a silvery concoction. The magic is risky, I use the metaphysical bonds between the wolves and man to form a connection with the Ur-wolf, the archetypal ancestor of all wolves.
It glows with an unearthly light, like a sliver of moonlight given form. It was a fascinating sight but I don't have time to admire it as I feel my wards ripple and fail as earthshaking impact puts a hole in the ground. The shockwave almost makes me drop the potion but I hold it tight and drink it in a single gulp. The change is immediate, my fingernails lengthen, my eyes turned silver and my reflexes speed up. I feel strength and speed fill my muscle and I grab the pistol I pistol that I keep there for enchantment testing. The gun had no enchantments yet but it had been impeccably maintained and I cock its hammer as the enemy rushes into the living room. Upon seeing the intruder I almost drop my gun from shock, it was honest to god Ninja, with whole dark Ninja-yoroi. Only my enhanced reflexes prevented me from fumbling my pistol. Then my enhanced senses begin noticing the non-stereotypical aspects of his get-up. Kevlar and armour plates inserted to provide protection, his blade was crackling with an electric current and I was pretty sure he was using drugs to enhance his physique, I could smell the chemicals in his breath.
I aim my gun at his face but he sees it coming and ducks under my firing arc. His blade rushes towards me in an upward slash as I scramble backwards from the attack, the blade missing my head by inches. I turn my guns towards him, scrambling to track the nimble target but he steps into guard and I headbutt him before he can stab me. My enhanced strength shatters his nose and sends him stumbling back from the pain. I quickly raise my gun and shoot him in the face, bypassing his armour. His brain splatters my wall as my bullet exit his skull and hits the wall.
That fight took two seconds and that was enough for the ninja's compatriots to come and take positions near the breach in the wall. There is three of them, two with blades drawn and one has a rifle trained at my skull.
I could see him squeezing the trigger and I jump back into the ritual room barely dodge the shots from hitting something vital, they still perforate my left bicep, armour-piercing rounds punching through my fortified skin. I shut the door and jump into the middle of the circle. I estimate it might take them 10 seconds to break through the steel door but that's enough time to cast one last spell.
I draw further on the connection between wolves and man and try something I have never tried before, I burn every bit of magic I have and summon a spirit. ᚢᛚᚠᛦ runes written in my blood glow with golden light and then float in front of me. They coalesce into a golden spirit wolf that floats for a second before diving into and around my body. I feel my form shift further, golden fur glowing and growing all over my body and I grow to 8 foot of height. My gun is dropped but razor-sharp claws take their place. I feel my wounds beginning to heal, as slow regeneration as I start to feel animalistic urges overcome my logical mind, I was a cornered wolf and I lash out.
The golden spirit flesh is strong, I feel the energy gather inside me as I leap at the door, pushing it off its hinges and I barely feel the impact. The Ninjas are surprised, one of them was planting explosives at my door and my charge had flung him into the wall and shattered his spine.
The rifle ninja shoots his gun at me and spiritual ichor starts bleeding from my wounds. But my rage-filled mind didn't notice, I rush the man and rend his arm with my claws. They dig into the flesh and slice deep into the bone. A flick of my wrist and the ninja falls on the ground, clutching his nearly amputated arm. I use my new fangs and lunge at the last remaining ninja. He stabs me through the shoulder but my berserker rage just let me push through the pain and push myself down the blade and chomp on his throat with my fangs.
The iron taste of blood in my mouth is the shock that lets me come back to my senses and notice the carnage I have caused. I grab a phone and quickly call smiling tiger, but he isn't picking up the phone and neither are any of the henchmen I know. I suspect the ninjas were not acting alone. So I begin preparing a go-bag.
It glows with an unearthly light, like a sliver of moonlight given form. It was a fascinating sight but I don't have time to admire it as I feel my wards ripple and fail as earthshaking impact puts a hole in the ground. The shockwave almost makes me drop the potion but I hold it tight and drink it in a single gulp. The change is immediate, my fingernails lengthen, my eyes turned silver and my reflexes speed up. I feel strength and speed fill my muscle and I grab the pistol I pistol that I keep there for enchantment testing. The gun had no enchantments yet but it had been impeccably maintained and I cock its hammer as the enemy rushes into the living room. Upon seeing the intruder I almost drop my gun from shock, it was honest to god Ninja, with whole dark Ninja-yoroi. Only my enhanced reflexes prevented me from fumbling my pistol. Then my enhanced senses begin noticing the non-stereotypical aspects of his get-up. Kevlar and armour plates inserted to provide protection, his blade was crackling with an electric current and I was pretty sure he was using drugs to enhance his physique, I could smell the chemicals in his breath.
I aim my gun at his face but he sees it coming and ducks under my firing arc. His blade rushes towards me in an upward slash as I scramble backwards from the attack, the blade missing my head by inches. I turn my guns towards him, scrambling to track the nimble target but he steps into guard and I headbutt him before he can stab me. My enhanced strength shatters his nose and sends him stumbling back from the pain. I quickly raise my gun and shoot him in the face, bypassing his armour. His brain splatters my wall as my bullet exit his skull and hits the wall.
That fight took two seconds and that was enough for the ninja's compatriots to come and take positions near the breach in the wall. There is three of them, two with blades drawn and one has a rifle trained at my skull.
I could see him squeezing the trigger and I jump back into the ritual room barely dodge the shots from hitting something vital, they still perforate my left bicep, armour-piercing rounds punching through my fortified skin. I shut the door and jump into the middle of the circle. I estimate it might take them 10 seconds to break through the steel door but that's enough time to cast one last spell.
I draw further on the connection between wolves and man and try something I have never tried before, I burn every bit of magic I have and summon a spirit. ᚢᛚᚠᛦ runes written in my blood glow with golden light and then float in front of me. They coalesce into a golden spirit wolf that floats for a second before diving into and around my body. I feel my form shift further, golden fur glowing and growing all over my body and I grow to 8 foot of height. My gun is dropped but razor-sharp claws take their place. I feel my wounds beginning to heal, as slow regeneration as I start to feel animalistic urges overcome my logical mind, I was a cornered wolf and I lash out.
The golden spirit flesh is strong, I feel the energy gather inside me as I leap at the door, pushing it off its hinges and I barely feel the impact. The Ninjas are surprised, one of them was planting explosives at my door and my charge had flung him into the wall and shattered his spine.
The rifle ninja shoots his gun at me and spiritual ichor starts bleeding from my wounds. But my rage-filled mind didn't notice, I rush the man and rend his arm with my claws. They dig into the flesh and slice deep into the bone. A flick of my wrist and the ninja falls on the ground, clutching his nearly amputated arm. I use my new fangs and lunge at the last remaining ninja. He stabs me through the shoulder but my berserker rage just let me push through the pain and push myself down the blade and chomp on his throat with my fangs.
The iron taste of blood in my mouth is the shock that lets me come back to my senses and notice the carnage I have caused. I grab a phone and quickly call smiling tiger, but he isn't picking up the phone and neither are any of the henchmen I know. I suspect the ninjas were not acting alone. So I begin preparing a go-bag.
Pridakarbiter
Unseelie
- Location
- Arctis Tor
SV is always more quiet than SB.
I think the story is interesting besides the fact I only possess a mainstream knowledge of marvel so Im a little lost here
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Nothing marvel has happened yet. It's mostly shit too low level for the heroes. Other than the TV shows maybe but even they are alot higher level than this.