Chapter Text
The heat didn't worry him.
Viren felt the opposite of worry. He felt... powerful. Using his staff once again, it was... right.
Now he was creating a path for them - melting rock by his will.
He saw the sun. They were out of Umber Tor.
Claudia said something, but he didn't understand. There was a weird... buzz in his ears as if something exploded next to his head.
He turned to face her. A huge smile appeared on his face. She was with him, his most precious daughter. He also got his powers back. It was a good day.
Then he saw something on Terry's face. That boy smiled most of the time, but now his face was... weird, no, it wasn't the right word. Terry's expression - he was seeing something - something that terrified him.
Then Viren realized that it was because of him. Terry was staring at him in horror. He came back to his senses - his body flared with pain he didn't notice just a moment ago. Now he understood - his face turned.
Then, just as quickly as the feeling of power came, it was now replaced by exhaustion. He felt weak as if he hadn't slept for days.
He heard Claudia scream - something happened. He wanted to see what, but he couldn't turn. Then he realized that he couldn't see at all!
Time slowed - the buzzing in his ears stopped and he could hear Claudia clearly.
"Terry, catch him!"
Only now he sensed that his legs have gave out seconds ago. This was the reason Claudia screamed - he was falling to the ground unconscious.
Then his mind finally gave up, and Viren fell asleep.
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The journey ahead of them was torture.
They walked for a day. Claudia and Terry took turns carrying Viren, with breaks every hour.
Not only were they going through dense forest, but they also had to carry all of their supplies AND her dad. Sir Sparklepuff wasn't helping either, running around chasing flies while they struggled.
At least now they had a destination. After comparing the map from Rex Igneous's lair to the one they had, they deducted that their destination was the Sea of the Outcast - how ironic.
Viren sometimes woke up, only to go unconscious after minutes. These few minutes he was conscious, Terry had to guide him. Her father spent more time leaning on his staff than actually moving forward.
If they didn't figure out how to speed things up, that damn elf and the rest of her group will catch them in a matter of a day or two, and even if they walked non-stop for the next week, they were still far from their destination. Xadia was huge.
They got out of the forest. A mountain range spread before them. It was already late, but they could not stop. They will walk all night if they need to.
After an hour of going uphill, she decided that maybe walking the rest of the night was a really dumb idea.
They were exhausted. Now they were additionally cold. Maybe her decision to go through the mountains was a bad one.
Claudia lit a campfire, while Terry gathered some snow and melted it. He found a few herbs back in the forest, and he will make a somewhat edible soup.
Viren was sleeping in the corner of their little camp. When he wakes up, she will give him some soup and they will get back on their way.
When she took out her mug, it appeared that Sir Sparklepuff had a different idea.
He ripped the mug from her hands and went to the campfire to get some water from their pot before Terry even added any herbs.
"Hey, what are you doing ?!" She yelled at the being, but it didn't seem to notice or care.
Then it puked into her mug.
"HEY!" Now she was furious. That little insect stole her mug and... vomit into it. How is she ever gonna drink from it again?
But Sir Sparklepuff looked at her, then at Viren, while constantly pointing at the mug.
"He wants to tell us something." Terry said, looking at the being - "This has a purpose."
"The only purpose I see is making me throw out my favorite mug." Claudia responded.
Sir Sparklepuff began mixing the contents of the mug with his finger until it became a blue, a little less disgusting substance. It then pointed to Viren again and laid the mug by his side.
"I think it wants your dad to... drink it." Terry said
Claudia sighed - "I understand."
She crouched next to Viren, took the mug in her hand - oh gosh that stinks - and opened Viren's mouth.
"Sorry, dad."
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Viren was standing in the dark. He felt... weird. Like knowing that this is a dream, yet he was in control of everything.
"Welcome back." A voice said from behind.
He spun on his heel. He didn't panic often, but that voice made him nervous.
Aaravos stood there, right in front of him, so close he could feel his breath.
"Why won't we sit and have a chat." Aaravos said.
Two chairs appeared out of the darkness. Aaravos sat in one of them, gesturing to Viren to sit too.
He hesitantly obliged. The chair was made of pure silver, yet it felt soft like a pillow.
Viren took a deep breath - "What are you doing in my head?"
Aaravos let out a chuckle - "Nothing much. I just liked talking with you back when you first uncovered the secret of the mirror. You know, being alone for centuries makes you long for discussions with other great minds."
Viren wasn't satisfied by this flattering response - "I ask once again, what are you doing in my head!?"
Aaravos's mood darkened - "If you want to know it so much, you should first tell me why are you dreaming at all." He smiled again.
"I... I was dead for two years, you made my daughter revive me, but I am not in the best shape. I used dark magic once and it made me faint."
The fallen star was delighted by his response - "I understand. Unless you free me in less than a month, you are living on borrowed time, of course your body is weak. You tried not to use magic, but finally, you gave in to the urge. Now you are in a constant state somewhere between being awake and falling into a coma."
Viren gnashed his teeth - "If you know all of this, then spare me the presentation and get to the point."
"As you wish," Aaravos said, although he seemed sad that he couldn't play with him anymore - "Your daughter and her boyfriend are carrying you around, but there is a hostile party on your heels. If you continue like this, they will catch you in a matter of days and all is lost."
They sat in silence for a moment - "Then perhaps she should leave me. Claudia deserves more than I am, maybe alone she will find happiness."
Aaravos smiled again - "No she won't. You are her drive, the only reason she keeps moving forward. She will never leave you. But don't worry - your condition isn't permanent. I will help you - as your trusted ally - heal swiftly so you are back on track and get to me before your time window is depleted. Those chasing you are - on the other hand - a different problem. You will need to slow them down."
"And how am I to do it?" He asked.
But Aaravos got up from his chair and began disappearing into the darkness.
"You already know the answer."
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Viren opened his eyes. He was laying on some rocks. There was a weird taste in his mouth.
He glimpsed something - a beautiful butterfly, it was called a Sunray Monarch. So alive, so full of energy. It landed on his hand.
In seconds he was back on his feet.
Claudia was turned towards the campfire, talking with Terry. He silently approached her. When he placed his hand on her shoulder, she at first jumped up, startled by him. Then she saw him, once again full of color and standing tall.
"Dad!" she yelled, throwing herself at his neck.
"Hey! I am old, you want to put me to rest just after you brought me back?" He joked - "I see you made some food while I was... asleep."
Claudia looked at the empty pot. - "Yeah, but we already ate it. Don't worry, we'll make more."
He silenced her with a wave of a hand. - "There's no need. We need to hurry. I also don't feel hungry, in fact I feel full."
Claudia and Terry exchanged glances. - "Well... That's good, yeah, definitely good. Then let's get back on the road!" She said.
He didn't know what made his daughter so nervous. Nevertheless, they were all ready to go.
Now the last thing.
"Claudia, if I may, please pack our things with Terry. I will join you later. Oh, and could you give me a few ingredients."
His daughter looked at him confused. - "Why would you do that? The last time you did dark magic you passed out. Also, what is it that you want to do?"
"Nothing much. I will cast a spell that will cover our most recent tracks, if someone follows us, they will lose our trail when they reach the base of the mountain."
"Oh," she said - "Okay, I don't know the spell, will you show me it later?"
"I am afraid we won't have the time. Also, this should be enough, so let's not waste your ingredients."
She seemed content with the answer. He didn't lie... much. When Claudia checks her stuff, she will find plenty of ingredients missing. She will of course think that this spell is so costly, which is only partially true.
Viren will cast two spells - the one to cover their tracks and one to do something Terry might not be very... okay with.
When Terry and Claudia were already back on foot, walking to the other side of the mountain, Viren was climbing.
Higher.
And higher.
And higher.
It took him three hours - the sun already appeared on the horizon - but he arrived at a height he deemed enough. There is not much living stuff higher anyway.
The first spell was very easy in fact. He used it many times in his life and it never tired him.
Now the hard part.
He found a valley - full of grass, flowers, small trees, and even a few animals. Perfect.
He carved a pentagram on a rock. Then he proceeded to smear ingredients coming from a creature of every primal in the right place.
At the top - ashes of a Starweaver spider of the star primal.
Left - smashed Emberback spider of the sun primal.
Right - fur of a Musk bear of the Earth primal.
At the bottom - eyes of river monsters and the tail of a Snickery, of ocean and moon primals.
And finally in the middle - the heart of a Flying Batfish of the sky primal.
Then he said the spell:
Yks eht naps ot yhtrow mrots a werb dna thgin eht fo stsohg eht ecnelis, shtped eht egavar, htrae eht reuqnoc, nus eht sa thgirb nrub, srats fo ecnadiug rednu.
The pentagram started glowing. He quickly backed off as tentacles came off every corner and sucked into the grass.
This spell wasn't particularly tiring, but still rarely used. To find out about it he had to dig through libraries of forgotten knowledge back from the time before the divide of the continent.
It didn't tire him in the slightest, for it required almost no strength of his own. Still, it had devastating consequences.
The pentagram acted as a beacon. It siphoned magic from everything around it - no, not just magic. The biggest source of power was the same energy that kept everything alive - lifeforce, for lack of a better term.
It will devour the valley first. There was so much primitive life here. Then it will proceed to strip everything on its path of lifeforce. Most of the mountains were barren land with only moss and some patches of grass covering most of the space, but it would be enough. The spell had a great range - miles in every direction. It will feed and redirect all the consumed power toward the sky, creating a giant storm that will engulf the mountains and will continue to do so until the whole mountain range isn't stripped bare of all life.
He found one account of the spell being used - on a small island now belonging to the kingdom of Evenere. It was so small that it wasn't even painted on most maps - and why would it be, it was a barren rock.
But it wasn't always so. There was a naval battle off its shores once. Its scale, participants, or even the war that the battle was a part of were long forgotten by history. All that remained now was a lifeless island - a result of a desperate gambit. He couldn't find much information about the battle itself, but he deducted that the losing side must have cast the spell, in a desperate attempt to create a storm that would destroy the victorious fleet.
All that remained was a desolate land.
Now because of him, this mountain will also become one. Fauna and flora will die. Even now he had to back off because grass started dying closer to him and he feared being consumed by the spell himself.
Once all plants die, without roots to hold the earth, in a few weeks the mountains will experience a giant avalanche of mud and rocks. If the mountain is seismically active the spell might unleash its long-hidden nature and it will become a volcano that one day might spit so much fire and lava that it will burn down all of the uncharted forest. There was also a possibility that some magic will escape - especially during siphoning such a huge area such events will happen. The freed magic will create anomalies - a glowing ball of light that might be dormant for thousands of years and will explode with lightning in the most unpredicted moment, a small area where gravity is reduced to a point where smaller rocks will float in the air.
No matter the outcome - if the devastation will end once the mud settles or will it continue in a rain of fire - one thing was certain. Nothing will grow here for millennia to come.
A circle of dead grass and flowers grew around the pentagram - now a meter in diameter and swallowing an ant nest unfortunate enough to be in the way. He has to go.
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The sun was already high in the sky when Viren caught up to them.
"Hey, we were worrying. What took you so long?" Claudia said.
"I am getting older. The climbing made me weak, so I took a quick break. Nothing to worry about though, we can continue on our way."
"Great, so now listen, I will show you the way, we are heading..." Claudia started explaining their plan to him, but he didn't listen.
Viren looked at the tip of the mountain. A lone cloud formed above it and the wind started to howl.
"We have to hurry, the storm is coming." was all he said.