The Nine Faces of Natz

This takes place directly after Epic Battle Fantasy 3. And if the characters seem tragically misinformed about things, or do something incredibly stupid, well, that's what they're like in the games. The plot of Epic Battle Fantasy 3 comes about because they make the supremely idiotic move of poking a chained, and obviously evil demon lord, when any sensible person would have stayed back.

Disclaimer: I don't own Epic Battle Fantasy.

Chapter One: The Spell

Matt, Natalie and Lance were very happy. They had defeated Akron, saved the world, and got their powers back at the same time. As they chatted about their victory, they returned to the town, not even stopping to battle the various monsters hanging around the volcano, desert, glacier, lake, and forest biomes. They went straight to the town, where lived many people they could tell about their exploit. As they came through the dungeons into safe lands, they were excited and conversing about what their next adventure might be

A man with long blonde hair, pirate clothes, and a sword half as long as he was said: "We did a zombie monster, a neo-Nazi, and now a godlike...Demon-thing. Maybe we'll top that next time. Maybe the boss'll be God himself!"

Another man with reddish-brown hair, military clothing, and a very large gun, told him: "Please watch what you say about me, Matt. I am not a Nazi, and never was. I simply wished for peace, which is hard to come by in a devastated world. But you make a good point. So far, the bosses have been increasing in strength. So, maybe it will be God."

Natalie, or "Natz" for short, pouted. "Aw, Lance. Do we have to fight God? Isn't he the one that's keeping the universe from blowing up or something?"

Lance replied: "Not quite. He was the one who blew it up in the first place, creating the universe we know."

Their conversation continued into the inn, where they were to spend the night. The inn was a dingy, ramshackle place, with some rough wooden tables, hungover customers, and a small room off to the side with some beds. It never looked very clean, but a bed is a place to rest and recover however the sheets are done, and the trio were looking forward to it. It was also the only place to spend the night.

What grabbed their attention, though, was the new customer. He was an old man, and he looked like a wizard. When I say "He looked like a wizard" what I mean is that he was wearing long, midnight-blue robes with strange, occult symbols on them, pentagrams, five-pointed stars, stars of David, crescent moons, other, unrecognized symbols, and a few Treble Clefs, had a long, pointy hat of the same color and decoration, was carrying a long wooden staff, taller than he was, which was pretty hard to achieve, with a knob on the end, and had long gray hair and beard that went down to his chest. Which the party took to mean that he was a powerful magic user, maybe with a quest.

They approached him, and Matt spoke.

"Is there anything you need done?"

The man nodded yes and said: "I need spell components. If you could get me some Dark Matter, a Pearl, a Sad Statue, a Red Potion, some Gold, Talismans, Dark Runes, and a Diamond, I can teach you a powerful spell."

The components were easy enough to get. They were at the store in town, and though they cost much, the party had much to spend after their adventures. They were able to get what he wanted, though they ran out of cash and had to go fight some monsters in the Volcano to get some of the money to buy all of the stuff that he wanted. But in the end, they got it done, and returned with the components. He said:

"Ah, excellent! Now I can cast that spell! And, as promised, I will teach the young mage you have a powerful and useful spell." He then beckoned for Natalie to follow him, but when the boys started to come with her, he told them to stay back. "This is for her and me alone" he said.

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He took Natalie into a clearing in the forest, which she hadn't known existed before he told her about it. He told her: "Now, we are alone. It is time for me to impart the knowledge of the Spell of Splitting, which splits you into many different bodies, each of which you control."

Natz paid great attention. This looked to be a useful spell. It could allow her to train in many different ways at once! She'd be many times as powerful! Unfortunately, her dreams of outstripping her companions many times over were somewhat crushed when he continued: "Each of your copies has only a fraction of your power. How much it has depends on how many clones you make. For example, if you make split into five, each body will have one-fifth of of your original power, and if you split into two, each part will have one half."

'Oh well.' She thought. 'It will be great for learning other things, and not all we do is fighting, despite Matt and Lance's insistence on the contrary.'

Not knowing Natalie's inner thoughts, the man continued. "Now, here's what you do. First, you inscribe the ground with your magic circle. Do it once with your finger, and once with each of your staffs."

He then proceeded to, with his finger, scratch into the ground a complicated pattern inside a circle as big as the clearing, involving a five-pointed star and some runes. He then dug it deeper with his staff, and then swapped staffs and did it again, until he'd apparently used them all. He then walked to the middle of the circle, with the clothes and staff that he had been wearing when the party had encountered him, and sang an incantation.

Is Mian Liom Go Mbeadh Nios Mo De Som, Scoilte Ag Seal I Gcomhlachtai Ar Leith, Ceangailte Ag Aigne, Riamh Dom. Five.

While he was saying the incantation, a glowing white mist had been rising around him. When he finished, the mist began swirling around him clockwise, and around the five points of the star. The circle glowed as the mist began whirling faster and faster around these points, and congealing near them until there was none of the mist anywhere else, and on the points and center it was a solid white light. Then, suddenly, the light in the center collapsed inward, revealing that there was nothing within, while the lights on the points exploded outward, revealing five people, identical to the original wizard, though wearing robes of differing colors, standing on each point of the five-pointed star. The one in the midnight-blue robes left his point and approached her. He said:

"This is a demonstration of the spell. Each of these bodies is mine, and are each controlled by one consciousness. Each has one-fifth the power I would have were I not split. You are not limited to just five bodies. Five was simply the number of outfits I had available at the moment. To change the number you split into, simply change the number at the end of the incantation, and change the number of points on your star. To reverse the spell, simply do it backwards, like this."

Each of the wizard's clones walked back onto the points that they were on, and said in unison:

.eviF. moD hmaiR ,engiA gA etliagnaeC ,htieL rA iathcalhmocG I laeS gA etliocS ,moS eD soiN hdaebM oG moiL naiM sI

As he (they?) was speaking the backwards incantation, the white mist rose again, and again in the same way covered the points of the star, and in the same way coalesced around those five points and the center, spun counterclockwise around them, faster and faster until it was a mass of white light, and then at the five points it imploded, revealing that the copies had disappeared, and exploded outward at the center, revealing the wizard as he was normally. He stepped out from the circle and said:

"Mo Seal Os A Chionn, Scith Anois."

The seal then depowered, reverting to just a load of fancy scratches on the ground. He walked next to Natz and said to her: "Now you know how it is done. Do you wish for me to teach you it magically, so you couldn't forget it even if you tried?"

She told him: "Yes, I would. And another thing, why is how many clones you produce limited by the number of outfits?"

The old wizard replied: "So that you have enough for all. You would not like the alternative. Got my message?"

She got the message and did not pursue the subject. Continuing on, the wizard said: "Okay. Here's the spell, that you can use ability points to get at any time you have enough."

Then, a searing feeling invaded Natalie's mind. She saw herself doing the spell, and the words of the incantation were written as if in white fire before her eyes. In her mind's eye, she saw herself drag her finger across a clearing, in a circle. She saw her finger create a star, the same as the wizard used. This part of the vision repeated nine times, each with a different number of points to the star. She also just knew that if she wanted an eleven-pointed star, she could get that too. She then saw herself scratch it deeper with all of her staffs, and as she wrote the symbol she saw it fill with the white energy of the spell. She saw her body walk in the center, and do the incantation. Then her mind went black, and after that she saw the world through twelve eyes. After that, she returned to reality.

The wizard was waiting when she got over with the vision-teaching, and he had something to say. "The magic circle will stay, and cannot be erased until you say " Mo Seal Os A Chionn, Scith Anois." It will go into a sort-of dormancy after a while and you have to use the phrase: "Duisigh an seala, mar is ga dom an litrithe" to reawaken it. You can use that same magic circle to undo the spell after you're done. And if the spellforce exhibits a color other than white, the spell has gone wrong, and use the word "Finis" to end it."

Natz nodded, thanked him, and ran off to tell her friends and fellow adventurers about the cool new spell she learned.

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Natz ran as fast as she could through the forest and into the town inn. She found both Matt and Lance sitting on their beds, talking about stuff, and she rushed into their room, eager to tell them about what she'd learned. When they saw her, they stopped their conversation, and looked at her, awaiting the story. Matt spoke first. "Okay, Natz, tell. What happened with that guy?" Matt was the enthusiastic one of the party. He tended to be a eager adventurer, but did not tend to care much for anyone else's property, and was not all too bright. He made up for that with his vast knowledge of how to cut his opponents into tiny bits.

Lance didn't say anything, but his expression made it all to clear that he wished to hear the story, too. Lance had joined their party a while ago, after he'd tried to take over the world, and Matt and Natz had blown up his tank. He tended to be the practical one of the party.

Natalie was a mage. She used different staffs to channel her spells and heal the party, as well as to hurt her opponents with the elemental equivalent of everything but the kitchen sink. She had bright orange-red hair that spilled over her quite well-endowed chest. She took a deep breath, and explained, "That guy taught me a spell for splitting into different numbers of bodies. It looked pretty powerful, and so cool! I'm going to go try it tomorrow!"

Matt smiled. "Cool, let me see!"

Natz laughed and said: "Tomorrow, I'll test it out. You can see it then."

Lance chimed in. "Seeing your new spell would be nice. We could test it out, see what it would be good for."

Natz smiled. "That is so cool. I am so looking forward to that!"

Lance got up and looked out the window and told the others: "It's getting dark. We'd better go to bed. This spell sound pretty tough. You'd want to be sharp when you do it."

The others nodded assent, and carefully didn't look as Natalie undressed and crawled into bed. She then proceeded to put her pillow over her eyes while the boys did the same.

"G'night!" Matt called as he pulled the covers over his head

"Good night" answered Lance as he closed his eyes.

"Sleep well!" muttered Natalie as she put her pillow back under her head, found out that she was now so tired, and dropped off to sleep. Tomorrow would be a crazy day.

Author's note: Please tell me if I've made Natalie a Mary Sue and I'll try to fix it. All the incantation words are Irish and from Google translate, so please tell me if I've got them wrong. Reviews and constructive criticism welcome, but flames will be ignored unless it's night, in which case I will use them for a light source so that I can continue writing this thing. So long until the next chapter.