223 (II)

Academia [III]

***

Shiv and Helix spent a little while longer reviewing their Biomancy, but after that, the Deathless decided that he wanted to survey the campus grounds. Though it displeased Helix that Shiv wasn't devoting every spare second he had toward the art of manipulating biology, he was assuaged enough that his whining was kept within acceptable parameters.

Shiv departed from the coliseum and returned to his dorm room alongside Helix. To Shiv's surprise, the other orcs, fugitives, and the Educator were nowhere to be seen when he departed. He would have gone looking if he had more time, but there was already too much on his plate. Right then, he simply wanted a few seconds to know what Phoenix Academy actually looked like before everything went to shit again.

Shiv scoured his surroundings before leaving his dorm. He swept the rooms to his left and right using his various magical fields and confirmed most of the other students were sleeping. He also managed to find the ogre student's dorm room. It was, in fact, larger than Shiv's, and he shared the chamber with several other unique Pathbearers. Some of them were absolutely tiny, the size of rats.

Probably because they are rats, Shiv thought to himself.

There were also two of what Shiv felt to be reptiles built roughly like humans. Their biologies were dramatically different from that of a human's or even an elf's, and the blood of the lizard Pathbearers ran cold. Shiv wasn't sure what kind of arrangement had so many different kinds of students living together in the same room, but the academy was clearly an accepting and accommodating place.

Wonder if they'd be willing to take an Umbral or a Weaveress someday if the Light-Curse gets resolved. Shiv paused at that thought. Yeah, more than the Light-Curse needs to be put away for that to happen. Ascendants need to be put down too.

Slowly, Shiv crept out. He peeked his head out of the room and looked left and right. None of the old Brunswick boys were waiting to jump him, and there was no hint of campus security either. Even so, Shiv didn't feel entirely safe, so he retreated back into his room and pulled out his frying pan. "Alright, let's see what else you can do for me when we need to keep things subtle."

He focused on the shadows nearby and carved a slice of it away. He kept doing that until his pan felt considerably heavier than before, and then he summoned the fire. But he cut the fire off as he decided that he wanted to test another ingredient first. "Alright, so you're all about cooking and cutting things that usually shouldn't be cooked or cut. What happens if I mix in water with the darkness? Actually, what happens if I mix in Chronomancy?"

And Shiv did just that. He first peeled a bit of his Hydromancy away, filling the pan with the source of magical water. It didn't do anything to the darkness, and it was accepted as just another component it could fry. He added a hint of gold in that as well, and then, the insides of the pan churned with new radiance.

Shiv stared into that pitch black depth as splashes of time, water, and shadow began to mingle together. It was hard to tell what kind of effect he would get when this was done, but he was looking forward to it. I wonder just how many things I could mix together. How weird stuff can get.

He channeled a steady stream of fire into the pan, and its lid manifested thereafter. It took three minutes for him to fully cook this new meal, and when it was done, he saw for the first time that he had made some kind of soup. A film of black oil drifted atop, and its fragrance was that of salty tang, but then came a hit of pungence that nearly made Shiv recoil.

"What felling shit is that?" He pinched his nose. It didn't smell particularly bad, just too damned strong, and he traced the taste back to the dense threads of gold inside the substance. That was the Chronomancy. It almost seemed like noodles. It also smelled like oil, but what it was something else entirely.

The magic had been transformed, mingled within the darkness. And from it came a new flavor.

Maybe I should name it. Shivium? No, that's for metal or something. Uh… Better spend a bit longer thinking about this.

After a few moments of searching, he found a cup in the room and poured the soup in. For several seconds thereafter, Shiv examined his new meal. He thought back to what Helix had to say earlier and decided to scan it using his Biomancy. When he washed his mana hydra through its expanse, however, he detected nothing. It was, in fact, an absence within his field, and even his Pyromancy couldn't sense the heat radiating from its top.

"I can still see the steam rising," Shiv muttered, confused. Something wasn't adding up here.

"What are you mumbling about?" Helix asked, popping his head out from the back of Shiv's cape. "I expected... What is that? When did you make it?"

Shiv held up his frying pan in answer to the orc's question.

"Ah, yes, your Legendary artifact. What an odd thing for the System to give you. Still, it's suitable. Never mind that. Are you actually planning on drinking it?"

"Probably," Shiv said.

"Are you mad?" Helix waved a hand, and a flare of red mana manifested. After a few seconds, the orc let out a groan of frustration. "I can't tell what it is, either. Absolutely do not put that down your—"

Shiv picked up the glass and drained it. Before Helix could say anything, Shiv used one of his spare mana hydras to nudge the orc back into his cape, just in case he found himself displaced after Shiv's transformation. Helix let out an indignant squawk, but didn't resist otherwise.

A few seconds passed. Shiv looked down at his hands, expecting to transform. But he didn't. He didn't become a splash of shadow. He didn't meld into the darkness. Shiv remained himself. However, his shadow on the ground, cast by the warm ceiling light, began to quiver like it was a pool of water. And it called out to him. It called out to his Hydromancy and his Chronomancy, resonating with a similar frequency.

Swallowing, Shiv crouched and sank a finger into his own shadow—and felt it submerge. It was like a pond just beneath him. More importantly, it was a pond that left his hand encased in gold. A second later, the university's ward swept by and ripped his Chronomantic protections free. But for a moment, he felt his Strider of the Unbending Path amplified.

Taking in a breath, Shiv dropped into the darkness, and it splashed around him. The moment it did, the world slowed. His Chronomancy was magnified, and though he could see the waves cast by the academy, the wards ripped through his room without ever touching him. He could feel billowing waves of pressure displace the shadows above him. It splashed about as if a missile streaking across water. But other than that, Shiv remained untouched.

Dodge 33 34

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Shiv kicked and swam with the thrust of his Shapeless Tides. He emerged, and as soon as he did, he felt his Strider of the Unbending Path begin to dissipate around him. It was evaporating as if water coming free from his body. And then the next wave cast by the counter-Chronomantic wards fell upon him like a rough towel. It scrubbed him bare, and time resumed once more.

"Alright, so, a mixed effect between all three," Shiv noted. "The shadows become like water, and there are additional Chronomantic benefits as well. Well, it's more of a Chronomantic pond that resides in every bit of darkness. Is it every bit of darkness?" Shiv looked down at his own shadow, and then he looked out at the surrounding shadows. They all seemed fluid, but he wanted to know for sure. He dove into the darkness that lined the entrance hallway leading just beyond the door of his room. The world went still once more. The wards passed over him and spared him of any devastation.

Shiv swam outside, but he quickly discovered the limits of his newest boost. He wasn't in a moving shadow. Instead, he could simply traverse from dark patch to dark patch. The moment he got to the light, the world became as if a boundary, an edge. He could pull himself up, but he couldn't spread the blackness anymore. Then he took a chance. He triggered his Creeping Void, and as sprawling miasma filled the hall, Shiv felt his boundary get blown open. Suddenly, he was moving again, and a rumble of laughter escaped from him.

He slipped out of his room that way, never bothering to open the door, never walking down the hall. Instead, he glided through darkness until he reached the outside. The fragments of the broken moon drifted high above, casting a pale glow upon the world below. It was like a smattering of dappled moonlight kissing the land, projected as if from a shattered spotlight. And because of it, there were places where the darkness was stronger, where the darkness was overwhelming.

Shiv stuck to patches of shadow. He glided through the night, and deep in the stygian waters made by the Last Morsel, he had all the time in the world.

The Creeping Void 117 119

He swam up along the sides of a building, climbing eight stories before he got to the top. He emerged from a patch of darkness and surveyed his surroundings. There were still students racing even into this late hour. The sun would be coming up in a while, but that didn't seem to deter them. They painted two streaks in the air, one barely leading, trailing a ribbon of red behind them. The other was a slow bolt of lightning. It carved and twisted through the air, and with every attempt at acceleration, flashes followed, painting two silhouettes. The first was an automaton, large and decked with multiple thrusters.

The second seemed an elven woman, riding upon a broomstick, sporting a large, pointed hat. Quite a stereotypical getup for a mage, he thought to himself. But there was a smile on his face. It was kind of charming to see people living their lives, practicing their talents. There was a sublime pleasure in beholding other Pathbearers simply being who they were.

The two racing students crossed through another ringed tower, and they looped around, making another pass. In the distance, the large walls wrapping around the exterior of the academy shrouded much of the neighborhood nearby. Yet, the presence of the Yellowstone Supervolcano and Flamecrown Castle, for that matter, was undeniable, unavoidable. Flamecrown was a raging beacon, spearing deep into the guts of night, its three spires casting thousands of burning magma threads across the land. It felt ominous to Shiv, like an effigy manifested at the whim of a cruel god, casting condemnation upon the world below.

He used his Farsight to zoom in as much as he could. Something caught his eye, and he zoomed in on that specific point. There was a person. At the very top of Flamecrown Castle, he saw someone hovering there, the form of a woman, dressed in long, billowing black.

Is that—

The watching form of his grandmother vanished in a burst of darkness, and Shiv felt a coldness seep into his stomach. She was watching. And she was probably one of the few reasons why he and the rest of his not-so-merry band were still hidden. But she wasn't even the worst of his problems—somewhere further out in the darkness were Udraal and the Tarrasque, and Shiv couldn't help but have visions of fighting the colossal monstrosity on campus.

Shaking his dark mood off, Shiv moved away from the Carrot dorm and made a run for one of the floating towers instead. When no one was watching, he launched himself up along its side and glided up its dark edge. He felt like one of those fish pawing their way up a waterfall, and he managed to get to the very top in a few short seconds.

Upon arriving there, he took a seat upon the open ring at its apex, and he surveyed the entirety of the campus for the first time. Phoenix Academy was constructed in layers. The outer walls stretched wide, going past the horizon. Damn, is this place felling big.

Little wonder that some people called it a small city unto itself. The dorms were stretched far and connected through trenches. They were like long-running barracks, and a good portion of the infrastructure was underground as well. But then there were the other facilities. Massive, cathedral-sized classrooms, what looked like something of a zoo or a forest to the southwest, and a mess of maze-like trenches past a glistening perimeter dense with dimensional mana.

As Shiv looked past that perimeter, his eyes narrowed. He saw writhing forms rush through the darkness.

Distantly, he heard animalistic shrieks as well, and they were cut off as someone yelled, "Shut up!"

The crackle of lightning sounded, and a few of those forms were smote from existence, bursting into smoke. Shiv looked past that glistening mana perimeter once more and realized the buildings there were even more fortified, and that the students there wore armor or had active spells flowing across their bodies.

What is that? Shiv wondered. Why is there a portion of the academy under attack? Is that normal? As he continued using his Farsight to observe the scene, he realized there was another threshold past the first one, and this one was even denser. He could barely see through it, and there were no buildings there either. There was just a collection of trenches, wards, and layer after layer of fortress walls. There, upon those walls, were students, and they were constantly firing at something, unleashing skill and silent artillery upon an unseen enemy. Past them was the gate at the heart of campus, and Shiv blinked.

He guessed that there were dimensionals slipping out from the gateway, that students were fighting some manner of primal elemental or something. No alarms were going off, and there was a distinct absence of any Prismatic Guard or militia activity in the area, so he guessed that this was just normal. Sections of the campus were designated combat zones, and it was simply that the place he occupied right now was calm and peaceful. Maybe I'm just where all the first years are supposed to be, Shiv thought to himself, first years or the non-martials.

Turning away from the gate, he swept the west and east some more. There were several gardens between neighboring dorms, and there, he saw a collection of statues. Even with his Farsight, it was a little bit hard to read the plaques lining their base, but a flicker of light came from the left, and Shiv found himself staring at one of the dorms.

Then a massive ball of flame erupted out of it, followed by a thunderous blast. For a beat, Shiv blinked, wondering if this, too, was a normal part of campus life along the second threshold. Then, as the alarm sounded, Shiv realized it probably wasn't. His pin blinked twice, and a pitched alarm sounded.

Warning! An alchemical explosion has taken place at Dragon Dorm. Students within the dorm, please shelter in place. Head to your bathroom and stay near a hydro dispenser. Other students, please do not approach the endangered area. Rescue personnel are on the way.

Shiv looked on for a moment as the flames quickly crawled up the sides of the curving building. They were eating through it at an alarming rate, and soon, the entire west end of the building was utterly consumed by a flickering conflagration. If they don't stop it soon, the entire structure might catch fire, and who knows how many students will…

Shiv sucked in a breath. But if I get involved, I might just expose myself. There are a lot of risks that... And then Shiv realized he had already launched himself off the top of the tower and was making a swan dive for the darkness below.

"Godsfuckingdammit," he muttered, "I just can't let shit go. Helix, we're going to go fight a fire. You want to give me a primer on how to properly treat burn victims without using my Aegis's Woundeater ability?"

"Burn victims, you say?" Helix said with giddy delight. "Tell me more. Is it an alchemical fire?"

"Seems to be."

"Oh, then this will be absolutely nightmarish. You're going to need to regrow some skin and lung tissue. Far more delicate work than just removing some plaque."

"Ah, shit," Shiv mumbled. "Well, looks like I'm sticking to crystallizing injuries for now."

And as he splashed into the blackness, time drew to a near-standstill as Shiv tore off across the darkness, wary of compromising his cover, yet unable to leave his fellow students to their fate.