Blade Over Magic

Deadly Assault IV

”Hm.” Aubrey hummed as she lowered her bow slowly, and Ben couldn’t help but glance up at her curiously.

”Are you done?” He asked with wide eyes, but to his surprise, she shook her head.

”Sadly, no. I managed to take out most of them, but the magic circle is still activating.” She explained, and Ben blinked before nodding.

By now, the formation he’d been drawing spanned several meters, making Curtis, Mary, and Keir look at it curiously as it’s appearance was definitely a bit unique. Aubrey was also paying attention to the process even though she didn’t look directly. Courtesy of her perception, and even she couldn’t truly grasp what it did, though he clones still filed it away.

”Done on my end.” Xander appeared near Aubrey’s side, and a moment later, so did Falael.

The half-elf glanced at him and clicked her tongue. ”Tch, you just beat me to it.” Xander only flashed her a smile, and she rolled her eyes before glancing at Ben.

”By the way, I thought you could use this.” She tossed the cracked skull artifact at him. He didn’t even try to catch it as a tendril of darkness emerged from his suitcase, caught the skull, and sucked it in without a sound.

”Thank you.” He said simply, earning him a few looks before Xander spoke to Aubrey.

”What’s the status?” Aubrey glanced at him and explained.

”I killed most of the assassins working on that magic circle I mentioned earlier, but before I could kill the last two, an odd barrier protected them. I think it’s rooted in the void concept as my arrows ceased to exist on contact. As for the ten that were in reserve, they are also preparing something behind a layer of concealment also of the void domain, so I can’t observe them properly. But they do seem to be summoning something.” As she said that, Ben drew the last line in the formation, and it lit up with a resonant hum. The whole thing was bluish gold in color, and the complexity of it would cause a weaker person to lose consciousness when they looked at it.

”Done!” Ben exclaimed, appearing pleased. This made them all look at him again.

”What exactly does this circle do?” Xander asked curiously. He knew that Ben had been the direct student of Archmage Finn, but he didn’t really know what that entailed.

Ben looked up and started speaking quickly, sounding excited.

”So like, one of the guys that bestowed an artifact i have pretty much told me what the formation the assassins are making does. So the point of this formation is to protect us from its effects and counteract them somewhat.” The group all stared at him.

’One of the guys... is he talking about one of the entities? They can do that?’ Xander was taken aback.

At the same time...

Near the foot of the mountain where the spell formation had been. 9 headless corpses could be seen, their blood oozing into the ground. And only one remained in the center. Sitting down cross legged.

’If everyone else had been alive, we’d have been able to combine our mana to activate the formation. But alas...’ The assassin looked up, eyes bloodshot as he made a decision.

Rapidly, his body began to wither as his mana, life force, and very existence was sucked into the spell formation, until only his cloak remained.

The formation lit up, and an ominous aura seeped out of it as..

CRACK

Something massive began to grow out of it.

The group felt the change almost immediately and looked up. There, a massive obsidian spire began to materialize, its heigh dwarfing even the tallest mountains in this place in just a few seconds.

And at the very top, a black and purple eye with a slitted pupil materialized. The pupil looked around for a moment before locking onto the group, and as soon as it did, the whole area darkened.

Xander’s eyes widened as he observed with Myriad Paths, the surrounding paths and concepts began to unravel and get reduced to nothing as they were made void.

With the spire as the center, space began to get removed along with everything within. And even Mary frowned at the sight of this as Mira’s voice echoed in Xander’s head.

’I see. Whatever that spell did, it created a direct connection to the Void Demon I told you about. That eye you see belongs to it. Likely, one of the assassins has a contract with the thing, making a spell like this possible in the first place.’ She explained, her voice also solemn, and Xander couldn’t blame her.

At this speed, the entire area would be made void in only a few minutes, and while the group would be able to resist for a while, resisting something like erasure via the void was could not be done indefinitely.

Which is when Ben moved.

Holding out his hand, the darkness in his suitcase squirmed before a tendril emerged and deposited something in his palm.

It was a gem. More specifically, a type of diamond. Yet when looking at it, it was clear it was no simple diamond.

Diamonds were already known for their natural toughness and long-lasting nature. Yet looking at this one, it didn’t like that. Not only that, anyway.

Rather, it felt almost... anchored. Entrenched, kind of. Like it couldn’t be removed no matter what one did.

Ben placed this diamond in the center of the circle, and it sank into it until only the top of it was visible, and the moment this occurred, something almost seemed to... click.

Suddenly, the formation lit, up brilliantly, this light alone causing the sensation of void in their immediate area to halt as Ben pressed his palms together and spoke in a voice that didn’t quite match his frame.

”By the grace of ”The Unshattered Pillar” I Command: Endure!” As soon as the chant ended, the formation fully activated, and an invisible wave of what could only be described as ’permanence’ erupted from the formation, engulfing everyone in the group and extending outward for a pretty large range, only stopping when almost half of the basin was bathed in this wave.

Everything touched by it received an indescribable level of resistance and permanence, becoming more rooted in reality. It was less becoming more durable and more that the idea of being ’maintained’ had been fortified to an incalculable extent. Everything bathed by this light would show extreme resistance to weathering, corrosion, and, naturally, erasure.

As soon as the expanding void met the area fortified by the wave, its advance was actually halted, and a frequency that was less a sound and more reality groaning reverberated throughout the area as both sides clashed, one seeking to unmake and the other seeking to maintain.

Ben let out a breath and began explaining when he felt everyone shocked gazes on him.

”The name of this artifact is Persistence, and the entity behind it has authority of the domain of Permanence. It informed me of what was coming since the whole void thing is like an opposite to it. So this formation was just to amplify its influence.” He said while scratching his cheek, sounding almost embarrassed.

’... Just how many artifacts does he have?’ Xander thought and gave the unassuming suitcase a long look before smiling. However, before he could tell Ben good job, he noticed the eye atop the obsidian spire had shifted its gaze. Now it wasn’t just looking at them, but at Ben directly.

The eye deepened, and at an utterly absurd speed, the eye unleashed a beam of void that tore through the sphere of permanence, heading straight for Ben.

But before the beam to get close, a massive barrier of ice shaped like a snowflake materialized in front of the attack and took the attack head-on.

Its natural durability, coupled with the assistance of the permanence authority in the area, said resistance also serving to weaken the beam, caused the barrier to withstand the attack completely.

Curtis snorted as he lowered his hand, his tail giving an annoyed flick, like he couldn’t believe the thing would dare to blatantly attack someone he was defending while he was there.

Just then, another change occurred, and atop the mountain where the reserve assassins were, which was also conveniently unaffected by the encroaching void, an obscene aura erupted.

Mary suddenly stood straighter, her eyes narrowing. But no reaction was more extreme than Keir.

The dragon hadn’t spoken or done much. Seeming content to remain in his shrunken form while everything happened around him.

And yet, the instant this aura arrived, his eyes snapped open, and his wings suddenly unfurled as he took to the air, his body rapidly growing in size as soon, his large frame was fully revealed, an earth-shaking roar blasting from him.

And shortly after, the thing that made him react as such was revealed.

It was... a skeleton.

An utterly titanic skeleton. Titanic in the sense that it was currently crawling OVER the mountain where the reserve assassins were.

It took Xander a moment to grasp what he was looking at, but it was evident the skeleton wasn’t humanoid. Its front limbs were much larger than its hind ones, and from its skull, two absurdly large tusks curved like twin towers, and its three eye-sockets, ghostly purple flames burned brightly.

Xander’s eyes widened as he understood what exactly the thing was. It was the skeleton of a creature that, at least conceptually, existed on the same level as Dragons. One that he’d, in a sense, encountered before.

And Aubrey’s silent words confirmed it.

”That’s... a Behemoth.”