Disclaimer: I don't own Negima or Ranma 1/2.
Rise of Prodigies
Chapter Sixty-Nine: Battle of the Gravekeeper's Palace - The Battle of Gods
"Κενότητος ἀστραψάτω δὲ τεμέτω! Διὸς τύκος! (Come from the void, oh thunder, and cut down my enemy! Axe of God!)" Negi roared as surrounded by a nimbus of roiling mana, he charged at the Mage of the Beginning in a mindless rage in response to the Outsider's merciless killing of Fate-san.
The boy had been his nemesis for the longest time, long enough at least for Negi to come to respect him. Especially since for most of that time, Fate-san had been a nigh unsurpassable obstacle that Negi had worked hard to overcome. But just when he'd done that. Just when he had gotten through to Fate-san and they could, maybe, become friends… The Mage of the Beginning, Fate-san's own creator, had killed him!
Unforgivable! Negi thought, his mind full of unbridled anger as the electricity conjured by his spell gathered around his arm in response to his invocation and with a downward-sweeping motion, leapt towards the Mage in the shape of an ax shaped bolt of raw lightning.
"Oh, be gone, pest." The Mage said with an annoyed frown as he batted away the bolt that fell down upon him like the divine wrath of some vengeful god like it was little more than a fly, the blow somehow dispelling the power of Negi's spell and harmlessly dispersing the lightning around them.
Not discouraged in the slightest by the ineffectiveness of his opening attack, Negi simply followed up with another.
"Τὸ συμβόλαιον διακονήτω μοί, βασιλεῦ Οὐρανίων! Ἐπιγενηθήτω, αἰθαλοῦς κεραυνὲ ὃς Τιτῆνας φθείρειν. Ἑκατοντάκις καὶ χιλιάκις ἀστραψάτω. (Heed the contract and serve me, O King of the Skies! Come forth, Titan-slaying blazing thunder. Hurl down lightning one hundred times and even one thousand times!)" Negi incanted, conjuring lightning all around him that arced violently in all directions. "Χιλιαπλῆ Ἀστραπή! (Thousand Thunderbolts!)"
At the completion of his incantation, a concentrated beam made out of the fury of a thousand lightning bolts shot from Negi's hands straight at the Mage of the Beginning. To almost anyone else, a spell of such a magnitude would have terrified them but to the Mage, it just induced a growl of annoyance.
"Didn't I ask you to be gone, you pest?" The Outsider demanded angrily as he deflected Negi's destructive beam of lightning with a casual wave of their hand, sending the city destroying bolt slamming into the domed roof of the chamber at the heart of the Gravekeeper's Palace where they were fighting and blasting a hole straight through the sturdy structure.
If lightning isn't working, then I will need to try something else. Negi concluded as he gathered his mana once more.
"Agite, tenebrae abyssi, ensis incendens! Et incendium caliginis umbrae inimicitiae destrunctionis ultionis! Incendant et me et eum, sint solum incendentes! Incendium Gehennae! (Come, darkness of the abyss, burning sword! And the Conflagration of Mist, Shadows, Enmity, Destruction, and Vengeance! Set he and I aflame, burning to our very foundation! Hellfire Conflagration!)" Negi chanted the words of power and unleashed a vicious storm of hellish fire at the Mage.
"Are you hard of hearing, Negi Springfield? Did I not tell you to be gone!?" The Mage of the Beginning demanded angrily as they swept their arm to the side and unleashed a wave of raw power that not only smothered the hellfire of Negi's Incendium Gehennae but also slammed into the Son of the Thousand Master with enough force to send him flying all the way to the other side of the vast domed chamber they were fighting in, where he impacted the wall with enough force that despite him currently being in his Raiten Taisō 2 (Thunder in Heaven, Great Vigor II) form, still managed to become buried in a deep crater.
Somehow, despite his body currently being made of lightning due to his Magia Erebea (Dark Magic) form, Negi found that the Mage's blow had been harsh enough that he found himself coughing out blood as he pulled himself out of the crater his impact had created. However, despite the impossible injury that the Mage had dealt him with ease, Negi was undeterred. His fury at the monster before him still burned hot. The only thing that the blow had done was temper it, and allow his logical mind to fully reassert itself.
I need to buy time until Ranma-san gets he-
Negi's thought was cut short when the Mage suddenly burst into amused laughter that tapered off into chuckles as they finally deigned to properly address the King of fallen Ostia. "Y-You t-think you can buy time for Ranma-chan!? You!? A mere mortal? Are you honestly so arrogant as to think you have the power to stand in the realm of gods like Ranma-chan and I, Negi Springfield?"
It seemed like the Outsider had read Negi's mind. Unsurprising considering what Negi had learned their kind were capable of. Hence, instead of being shocked at this turn of events, he instead calmly replied.
"No," Negi admitted. He was self-aware enough to know his limits. However… "But that doesn't mean I won't do my pa-"
Again, the Mage did not allow Negi to finish. Instead, they blinked right in front of the child teacher and grabbed him by the throat. Negi tried to turn into a lightning bolt and slip through the fingers of his father's possessed body, but despite managing to transform, the Outsider somehow still managed to keep his grip on him.
"The!" The Mage said as he pulled Negi out of the crater even as he desperately kicked and otherwise struggled against the Outsider's hold.
"Sheer!" The Mage roared as he slammed Negi into the wall, cratering it once more and pulling a scream from the Son of the Thousand Master.
"Fucking!" The Mage continued as he pulled Negi back out of the new crater his body had made whilst he coughed up blood.
"Hubris!" The Mage screamed as he once more slammed the King of fallen Ostia into the wall a second time, creating yet another crater. This one deeper than any before and causing Negi to once more scream in agony and vomit up gallons of blood.
"T-This w-won't de-defeat me." Negi sputtered out as he glared up defiantly at the Mage.
"I have no intention to defeat you, Negi Springfield. I intend to kill you." The Mage countered with a bored drawl as they released Negi's throat, leaving him to sag into the crater his body had created and floated back whilst gathering mana into an orb above the open palm of the hand that they had used to repeatedly slam the child teacher into the wall.
"W-We wi-will see a-about that!" Negi shouted back stubbornly as he evaded the beam of raw destruction that the Mage shot at him with an activation of Koku Shundō (Void Instant Movement).
"You are just delaying the inevitable, Springfield!" The Mage shouted angrily as Negi dropped out of his high speed movement technique and they began firing off a storm of mana beams and orbs of raw destruction. An assault that turned the chamber into something that would not have been out of place as a level from a bullet hell game. A hell that Negi was forced to push his Koku Shundō to the absolute limit just to survive.
Shit! I don't think I can keep this up! Negi thought as he desperately weaved and jinked his way through the seemingly endless blasts, beams and destructive energy orbs that the Mage was shooting out in an attempt to kill him. Something that his monstrous opponent was very much aware of.
"How long can you keep this up, Negi Springfield!?" The Mage of the Beginning shouted with a demented laugh.
"L-Long enough!" Negi shouted back, just as defiant as ever, as he continued his desperate evasions.
"We shall see about that, Springfield! We shall see!"
Negi didn't reply. He just grit his time and focused on evading his doom.
Thankfully for his efforts, suddenly a portion of the roof exploded causing the Mage to cut off his attack and glance upwards at its source. Something that Negi stopped his evasions and after breathing a sigh of relief, followed his opponent's lead in doing and looked up towards the domed ceiling.
"Onee-sama, wait!" He heard Haruna-san shout as the cloud created by the explosion cleared and a figure descended out of it.
"Welcome, Ranma-chan."
"Welcome this, you shitty Mage!" Ranma shouted back angrily as with a sweep of her hand, she fired off a Radius Mordax Tempestate (Corrosive Ray Storm) that sent hundreds of beams of raw entropic energy at the other Outsider.
"Ah! That is quite a warm welcome you are offering to me." The Mage said as they conjured a wall of mandala-like barriers in front of them that effortlessly blocked Ranma's opening barrage.
"Ranma-san, we ne-" Negi-sensei started as he used Koku Shundō to blur beside Ranma as she continued to float down from the hole she had created in the roof of the chamber she was fighting the Mage in.
"Quiet, Negi-sensei. Go take a breather. Leave the Mage to me." She bluntly told her homeroom teacher.
"No, Ranma-san, like I said we-"
Ignoring him, Ranma teleported in front of the Mage with Conniveo (Blink) and using a wordless casting of Flamma De Rasura (Erasure Flame) to conjure a blade-like construct made of entropic energies shaped like flames that she proceeded to swing at the other Outsider's neck. A move that the Mage replied to by wrapping raw mana around their hand which stabbed outward in the direction of its outstretched fingertips in the rough approximate form of a blade in a way that was reminiscent of Eva-chan's Ensis Exsequens (Sword of Conviction) spell and use it to deflect Ranma's strike.
"I did not know you were a swordswoman, Ranma-chan." The Mage said, glancing at Ranma's blade as they exploited how it was out of position from his deflection of her earlier blow to attempt a thrust at her.
"I dabbled." Ranma replied as he spun out of the way of the Mage's attack and swung her blade in their general direction and released the hold she had on the entropic energies that made up the blade, sending the flames at the other Outsider. "Burn!"
"Oh, you'll have to do better than that if you want me to burn, Ranma-chan." The Mage retorted as they released a burst of mana that smothered Ranma's entropic flames.
"Why the hell are you so damn cordial?" Ranma shot back at her enemy even as she wordlessly cast Sphaera Ex Putredine (Sphere of Rot), conjuring a sphere of entropic energy around the Mage.
"Why shouldn't I, Ranma-chan?" The Mage replied as he cut his way out of Ranma's entropic sphere with his spellblade. "We are kin. It is only right to treat you with respect and speak to you civilly."
"I am not your kin." Ranma insisted as she conjured and tossed a Stella Tenebris Shuriken (Dark Star Shuriken), a construct of entropic energy with a resemblance to and the properties of black holes, like a shuriken at the other Outsider. Though the Mage simply responded by using their spellblade to cut Ranma's construct in half causing the energy to destabilize and detonate in a burst of raw entropic power. "You might have manipulated things to make me become an Outsider like you, but I am not grateful to you for that."
"Unsurprising." The Mage said with a shrug as a directed storm teeming with lightning from a Iovis Tempestas Fulguriens (Jupiter's Storm Of Thunder) cast by Negi-sensei washed harmlessly over their barriers and they raised a hand in Ranma's direction from which they unleashed a storm of mana beams. "You are hardly the first of our kin that I have elevated and they often say the same at first, but most thank me for my efforts eventually."
"If you expect that from me, then dream on! I never will!" Ranma retorted as she used Conniveo to teleport out of the way of the beams that the other Outsider shot at her.
Before the Mage could follow up with a further attack against Ranma, a beam of lightning was shot at the Mage by Negi-sensei but the other Outsider just casually deflected it with their spellblade. Though the child teacher wasn't alone in launching an attack at the Mage as his attack was joined by a whole host of others from every member of Ala Alba, save a conspicuously missing Kagurazaka-san, that had apparently arrived whilst Ranma and the Mage had been dueling. Heck! Even Ucchan, Ryōga-san, and Herb-san were with them. Thanks to their efforts, plasma, ki, magic bullets, and spells from a whole variety of elements chased after Negi-sensei's Χιλιαπλῆ Ἀστραπή. A barrage that was blocked with a wall of mandala-like barriers that the Mage conjured to defend themselves.
Frowning, Ranma turned to the large group of her classmates and allies that had arrived on the battlefield. "What are you fools doing here!? Get out of here, this isn't a fight that you can help with!"
"Shove that, Ranma-san!" Chisame-san said from inside her lion-like mech which was firing away at the Mage with abandon. "Like hell we're going to let you fight the bloody Mage of the Beginning on your own!"
"Yes, Ranma-san! Asuna-san has empowered us so that we can stand by you even against the Mage." Konoka-san insisted. "So, let us fight with you!"
"You-"
"Oh, ignore the mortals, Ranma-chan." The Mage said as they teleported in front of her and tried to cut her in half with their spellblade, only for it to be blocked by a couple panels of raw entropic energy conjured by the Scutum Et Putredo (Rot Shield) that she instinctively cast. "They are not even a nuisance to beings like us."
Ranma could not deny that. Despite her allies throwing everything they could at the Mage whilst wisely keeping their distance, the Mage was not even paying any attention to their assaults. Instead, just leaving it up to their barriers to shield them from harm. A task that said mandala-like shields managed without any sign of strain.
"Shut up! Don't talk about my friends like that!" Ranma shot back as she unleashed a point blank Nigrum Draco Waltz (Black Dragon Waltz) at the Mage, sending a construct in the shape of an Eastern dragon made of what appeared to be black lightning but was in fact entropic energy roaring towards the other Outsider.
The Mage teleported out of the way however, forcing Ranma's lightning dragon to chase after it by coiling through the air and roaring in anger. Though it barely existed for a few seconds before the Mage rematerialized next to it and decapitated it with their spellblade.
"Very well," the Mage said with a nod even as he was consumed by a Incendium Gehennae that Negi-sensei cast and a Hikari no Omamori: Kurenjingurei (Talisman of Light: Cleansing Ray) that Konoka-san shot at him. Though the other Outsider simply released a flash of raw mana that smothered the hellfire and the scorching light of Ranma-san's allies. "Out of respect for you, I will stop speaking to the mortals in a demeaning way. Though, in exchange, would you be willing to answer a question?"
"Ask! Whether I answer is another matter altogether." Ranma retorted as she used Pluvia Acida (Acid Rain) to fire a large number of lances of entropic energy at the Mage.
"Then, so I shall." The Mage said with remarkable cheer despite having Asakura-san's Mors Maior (Greater Death), a bolt of substantial necrotic energy in the shape of a screaming green skull; and Sakurazaki-san's Kyokudai Raimeiken (Maximum Thunderclap Sword), a slash that unleashed a bolt of lightning, wash over him. "Tell me, Ranma-chan, have you chosen a true name yet?"
Ranma had, but she refused to give the Mage the satisfaction of knowing that. Instead, ignoring the question entirely, she just launched an attack against the other Outsider in the form of a Vim Fulminis (Force Bolt). The spell conjured dozens of explosive bolts that slammed into the Mage's barriers, detonating with bursts of entropic energy that ate through the nigh impenetrable shields.
This seemed to make the Mage cautious and instead of pressing the attack, he teleported away to catch a breath. This gave Ranma the chance to turn her attention to her teacher and her other allies. She had failed to convince the latter to retreat on her own but maybe she could persuade Negi-sensei first and he could do what she had failed to do.
"Negi-sensei, disengage from this fight and leave the Mage to me." Ranma argued. "Don't worry, I'll make sure to save your father. Instead, you should focus on convincing the other members of Cosmo Entelecheia that you have come up with a way to save Mundus Magicus like I know you have."
"Do you think it matters that he has, Ranma-chan?" The Mage taunted as he rejoined the fight, ignoring the Makankōsappō (Demon's Penetrating, Killing Light Gun), a spiraling beam of energy of ki, that Kū Fei-san shot at them. "Where would he find the time to convince my little pawns?"
"He does not need to convince us. We have already chosen to defect." A Demonfolk girl who looked remarkably like Ranma's classmate, Zazie Rainyday-san, but which her Origin Sight identified as said quiet girl's elder sister, Poyo, said as she appeared alongside the majority of the members of Cosmo Entelecheia and, unexpectedly, Tatsumiya-san. The latter of whom her Origin had unexpectedly informed her was the Rainydays' cousin!
"I just want you to get out of my house!" The Master of the Gravekeeper's Palace shouted as she fired off a storm of lasers at the Mage to join the barrage of dark energy bolts that Poyo-san unleashed as well.
"I expected your betrayal, Guardian of the Entheofushia bloodline." The Mage said as they let the attacks their former servants sent their way slam harmlessly into their barriers alongside the other attacks shot at them from Ranma's allies. They even left it to said shields to defend them against the Sagitta Mixta (Mixed Arrows) Ranma shot at them that contained a mix of Sagitta Magica, Series Obscuri (Magic Arrow, Dark Series) and Sagitta Senium (Decay Arrow). "But what about the rest of you? Why have you betrayed me?"
"Simple enough." Poyo-san explained with a shrug. "We don't need your help anymore, Mage. As Mana-chan explained to me, our world has its own Outsider now and Ranma-sama's power can sustain Mundus Magicus until we come up with a solution even if Negi-san's plan fails."
"I would like to point out that I have made no promise to do anything of the sort." Ranma said, shooting the Demonfolk an annoyed look.
"Are you saying you wouldn't do it?" Negi-sensei asked, aghast. His sentiment was echoed by everyone of her friends and allies around her.
That wasn't the case. Of course she would do her part to save the world. What kind of monster did her teacher think she was? She just did not like people imposing commitments on her without even consulting her.
She was just about to tell them all that when suddenly with the sound of a roaring drill, a portion of the domed roof of the chamber they were all fighting within collapsed, causing everyone to look up to see who had joined the fight. The new arrivals turned out to be her parents, Haruna and Nodoka-san, who were leaping down from the hole that Okaasan had drilled through the roof using her Artifact, Miner Gladio Exercitatio (Miner Drill Sword). It seemed the Okaasan had gotten around the barrier Ranma had thrown up to block her family from following her by simply moving out of the area she'd shielded and then using the drill-shaped sword that was her Artifact to dig a way into the chamber.
"You better help, Ranma! Or else!" Okaasan threatened as she, Otouchan, Haruna and Nodoka-san landed on top of a Flying Manta Ray golem that Ranma's sister conjured for them.
Ranma sighed and began mumbling to herself in annoyance. "Argh! I'm in the middle of a fight for the fate of the world and Okaasan is nagging me? Seriously!?"
"I heard that, Ranma! You're getting grounded after this!" Okaasan scolded. "I'm not nagging!"
"Dear, maybe worry about that after we're done fighting for our lives against a god of gods?" Otouchan countered with an exasperated roll of his eyes.
"I agree with Otouchan, Kaasan." Haruna added, loyally defending Ranma as she always did.
"Fine, fine. She's still grounded for the sass."
"Even if Ranma-chan does help you, do you honestly think you will ever come up with a means that can save Mundus Magicus?" The Mage asked with a dismissive snort whilst still ignoring the unending barrage of attacks that Ranma's allies launched at them. A sustained attack that barely strained their shields even as the bombardment was added to by Okaasan, Otouchan, Haruna and Nodoka-san.
"Whatever they come up with will at least be better than the insane plan to kill the world's magical creatures and trap its human population in an illusion." Poyo-san retorted as she conjured several beams of raw darkness that she shot at the Mage.
"I wonder about that." The Mage said as the beam washed over them, their shields holding steady even against Poyo-san's beams. "Do you truly believe that you can come up with a better solution than what I have offered?"
"It will be!" Negi shouted back. "I've already worked out a better plan."
"I don't care about that." The Master of the Gravekeeper's Palace, which Ranma's Sight told her was actually Asuna-san and Negi-sensei's ancestor, chimed in as she conjured a barrage of bullets of light and fired them at the Mage. "All I know is that you've outlived your usefulness to me and so you've got to go."
"And you, Tsukuyomi?"
The Shinmei-ryū (Gods' Cry School) swordswoman was visibly shaken, shivering in distress, even as she somehow still managed to unleash technique after technique at the Outsider.
"I just want revenge." The typically sadistic and masochistic swordswoman in the lolita style dress said, revealing that she shivering not from fear but instead barely restrained rage. "I liked Fate and you killed him. I will avenge him."
"Is that so? Those are all such petty reasons you have for your betrayal." The Mage said with a shrug. "Truly you mortals are trash. Well, I suppose I should exclude Dynamis from that statement since he remained loyal but the rest of you certainly fit that descriptor."
Ranma was about to unleash a particularly powerful spell against the Mage and remind them to not insult her friends and family, but before she could, the other Outsider acted first. Action that took the form of the Mage unleashing a blinding flash of light that caused everyone but Ranma to reel in pain.
Ayaka looked over the well placed picnic area currently occupied by her classmates that she had reserved for her class to use during the summer holiday. It wasn't too difficult to use some favors to secure such a premier spot, it was all but a few days work for someone like her!
Yet, it was still missing the most vital part, at least in her opinion, of having a successful class event: Negi-sensei! Just the thought of his absence had Ayaka twisting around to hide as she bit into a handkerchief as she pulled at the edges. An action which served as an outlet for her growing frustration at the lack of her beloved homeroom teacher's presence.
He's still away in Wales while I wallow here! Along with the rest of that club, Ala Alba. If only we managed to follow him to his hometown and weren't sent back. That Asuna-san better properly take care of him!
As if Negi-sensei's absence alone wasn't frustrating enough, the unity of 3-A had also taken a dive in the wake of having a good chunk of its members being away. Something that as the Class President was of major concern to her. It had been what prompted her to organize this class picnic to buoy the class' mood.
And speaking of that! I really shouldn't get lost in my head like this! I'm Class President! It's up to me to be present in body and mind at events like this. Ayaka thought as she turned her attention back to her surroundings. And as she did, her sharp eyes caught sight of the devilish Narutaki twins, who were suspiciously holding some type of jar in their mitts as they tried to sneakily make their way to the refreshment table.
Reaching out to lift them by their collars like the mischievous kittens that they were, she sent the twins a scolding look. "You two, what were you about to do to the punch bowl? Did you think I wouldn't notice?!"
"Eh?!" "But Iinicho!" The two whined, no doubt from being caught and not from their vile act!
"Negi-sensei may not be here, but I can still report-" Ayaka started her tirade, but it was cut off when she heard gasps from all around her, and everyone's eyes turned skyward.
Joining them, Ayaka felt her jaw nearly drop as a tear suddenly ripped itself open in the sky that spat out, there was no other way to describe it, a floating castle straight out of a fantasy anime that was surrounded by a fleet of airships in the shape of marine animals. And as the fantastical things appeared in the sky, something suffused their surroundings. It felt like static, but clearly wasn't. It was indescribable, but… I know this feeling… It's what I felt at the Mahora Festival and when I am around Negi-sensei and Ranma-san! But its never felt nearly as strong as this!
Ayaka was still trying to make sense of things when from all around the campus, several blurs shot into the sky and soared towards the castle in the sky. And in the face of all this madness, the blonde heiress could only say one thing…
"What on Earth is going on?!"
As the light that the Mage conjured cleared, Ranma took a moment to check on her family, friends and allies that had been injured by the attack. One that she had shielded them all against by surrounding each of them in a protective aura of entropic energy. She had activated her Origin Sight to do so, her Sight being one of the best ways to check on one's condition. And as she did, she noticed something surprising.
"Mage of the Beginning," she asked, turning to the opposing Outsider and shooting him a quizzical look. "Why have you brought us to Mahora?"
The Mage responded with a laugh. "This is where your path to apotheosis began, as such it is only appropriate for you to finish your journey here as well."
Knowing that her family, friends and allies needed more time to recover, Ranma launched into an attack in an attempt to prevent the Mage from turning their attention towards them.
"Sagitta Mixta!" Ranma incanted, sending a mixed barrage of Sagitta Magica, Series Obscuri, Sagitta Senium, and Vim Fulminis. That was an immensely destructive barrage in its own right already, enough to level all of Mahora if it struck the city, but against the Mage it was not enough. Thus, Ranma did not stop at that and just kept casting. "Stella Tenebris Shuriken! Nigrum Draco Waltz! Radius Mordax Tempestate! Pluvia Acida!"
"Wow!" The Mage said in surprise at Ranma's sudden heavy assault as they finally dismissed their spellblade and threw their two hands in front of themselves as they conjured a mandala-like barrier in front of them to shield them from the massive assault.
A barrier that despite straining and cracking, nevertheless held. It thus served to protect them from Ranma's wrath. However, it did nothing against the spell that came at them from an entirely different angle.
"Aperantos Leukos Ouranos! (Endless Nine White Heavens)" The familiar voice of Eva-chan shouted from behind the Mage as her spell conjured a tornado of lightning-ice with a passing resemblance to a rose with vines of frozen lightning that wrapped themselves around the Mage, freezing them in place. More importantly, the entire area around the other Outsider, including their shields were frozen and shattered by the constricting vines. And without their shields to block its passage, the barrage unleashed by Ranma's spells were no longer held back and they slammed into them, consuming them in a blaze of entropic energy.
"Stay away from her, you sick alien!" Eva-chan growled at the Mage. "She's mine! Stay away from her! You took my humanity away from me already, you'll not get my mate too!"
"My, my, if it isn't one of my previous failed experiments? She's your mate, Ranma-chan? How cute!" The Mage said airily as they unleashed a burst of mana, smothering the entropic energies that had been attempting to consume them and revealing that they had survived their exposure to Ranma's attack. It looked like the bastard had even managed to do so unscathed!
"Yes, she is." Ranma told them with a glare. "Don't you dare insult or hurt her! If you try, you'll have to go through me."
"You'll have to go through us!" Negi-sensei shouted as he unleashed a Χιλιαπλῆ Ἀστραπή at the Mage, the first of a renewed barrage sent by Ranma's family, friends and allies as they recovered and rejoined the fight. Though that was a double edged sword. On one hand, that they were awake meant Ranma no longer needed to defend them. But on the other hand, their attacks were basically doing nothing to the Mage. Not even the addition of attacks pouring down at the Mage from the various Mahora magic teachers who had just joined the fight. But honestly, more importantly, them being awake was a headache in another way…
"Exactly! You'll touch my future daughter-in-law over my dead body!" Okaasan shouted as she cast Lapis Inspiratione (Stone Blast), conjuring a salvo of boulders that she sent flying at the Mage.
"You're not going to touch Eva-san, you crazy Outsider!" Haruna added, conjuring a Sagitta Magica Mini Gun with her golemancy and using it to send a stream of Sagitta Magica mana bolts at the Mage. "Stay away from my family."
"Uh, Chinatsu-san, Haruna, is it a good idea to say something like that to something as powerful as the Mage of the Beginning?" Nodoka-san asked as she almost absently shot a Incendium Gehennae at the Mage.
""We don't care!"" Okaasan and Haruna both shouted back, undaunted by the fact that their spells, or Nodoka-san's or the others for that matter, failed to do anything against the Mage. Their efforts simply proceeding to wash harmlessly off their barriers.
"Why is every woman in my family crazy?" Otouchan lamented as he conjured a lightning javelin with the Iaculatio Fulgoris (Lightning Spear Throw) spell and hurled it at the Mage.
""Hey!"" Okaasan and Haruna protested.
"Bad luck, Otouchan?" Ranma suggested as she concentrated her Nigrum Draco Waltz spell into a single concentrated javelin and threw it at the Mage in the form of a whole new spell.
Nigrum Draco Perforans Lanceam! (Black Dragon Piercing Lance) She thought as she threw the lance she had conjured at the Mage, entropic energy that manifested as black lightning arcing across its length as it flew through the air. A move that the other Outsider responded to by teleporting out of the way of Ranma's throw. Unfortunately for the monster, Ranma had taken the possibility for them doing so into account, it had been why she had repurposed the Nigrum Draco Waltz and not one of her other spells, as doing so gave her conjured lance a level of autonomy that allowed it to home in on the enemy. Something that with a crackling roar, the current lance did as it proceeded to alter its flight path as it zeroed in on the Mage the moment it rematerialized.
"I probably did something terrible in a past life." Otouchan commented in response to Ranma's suggestion, as her Nigrum Draco Perforans Lanceam slammed into the hastily conjured wall of mandala-like barriers that the Mage threw up when they realized they were unable to evade it.
"It's a legitimate possibility." Ranma agreed with a nod even as she watched in satisfaction as the lance of entropic lightning showed off the barrier busting power that she had specifically imbued it with when she had created it, and pierced through the Mage's barriers, popping them like they were little more than a soap bubble.
This left them open to the unending barrage of spells that everyone else was shooting at the Mage, but they paid those attacks no mind. Instead, they focused all their efforts on countering Ranma's lightning lance by gathering together some of their mana and blasted a beam at the black lightning javelin, negating it. Despite this effort however, the Mage was unruffled and even chuckled.
"Your mortal family is truly interesting, Ranma-chan." The Mage said with a grin. "Oh, and apologies. Pardon me. I forgot to let you know how impressed I was by your new spell."
"Like I care." Ranma retorted as seeing the success that her Nigrum Draco Perforans Lanceam had achieved, she proceeded to conjure hundreds more iterations of the lance it conjured and sent them flying at the Mage.
Even practically being flooded by the spells unleashed by the others, the Mage ignored all of them and instead focused their attention entirely on Ranma's incoming Nigrum Draco Perforans Lanceam. Attention that took the form of the Mage firing a torrent of mana beams that intercepted all the lances of black entropic lightning headed towards them. All the while, they addressed Ranma with curiosity. "By the way, Ranma-chan, do you have any plans for the future?"
"Plans?" Ranma asked with a frown as she took a breather from launching attacks so she could come up with a new way to fight the Mage. Considering that nothing they had tried so far had worked, they needed a new plan. "Yeah, I do. I'm gonna kick your ass, go home and sleep this fight off."
"Don't I factor in those plans, Ranma?" Eva-chan asked as she fired off a Nivis Tempestas Obscurans (Snowstorm of Darkness), combining the forces of ice and darkness into a directed storm that she sent hurtling at the Mage.
"Of course, but I really need a good night's sleep first before we go on a date, Eva-chan." Ranma told her mate as her beloved vampire flew over to hover by her side. "The Mage's voice is migraine inducing."
"Oh that I agree." Eva-chan said in understanding.
"My voice is migraine inducing, huh?" The Mage asked with a smirk. "Well then how about this then!?"
With that, they let out a twisted laugh made out of the pained voice of billions of tortured souls. A laugh that had all the combatants, except for Ranma herself; Eva-chan; Poyo-san; the Master of the Gravekeeper's Palace; Negi-sensei; Herb-san; and the most powerful of the Mahora magical teachers, like Headmaster-sama, reeling. Of those affected, some even had blood pouring from their ears. Regardless of how badly they took the laugh however, it took those affected by it out of the fight.
"Now that was on purpose." Ranma said, shooting the Mage a glare as she surrounded her injured allies in auras of her power that she used to protect and heal them.
"Of course, it was!" The Mage declared as they blurred through the chamber, blitzing past Poyo-san and the Master of the Gravekeeper's Palace, unleashing immensely powerful attacks on both of them as they passed them, knocking them out.
"Poyo!" A newly arrived Zazie-san shouted, only to be shot and taken out by a powerful beam absently cast by the Mage as they blitzed across the battlefield taking out everyone one by one. Moving so fast that Ranma simply was unable to react.
"Headmaster-sama! Herb-san! Get everyone else out of here!" Ranma cried out at Konoka-san's grandfather and the Prince of the fallen Musk Dynasty even as she moved in front of Eva-chan defensively. Watching out of the corner of his eyes as the draconic martial artist heeded her order whilst the old teacher hesitated.
"Ranma-chan, what are you do-" Eva-chan said, only to be cut off as the Mage appeared in front of Ranma, unleashing a blast of raw mana that was aimed at her mate behind her. The blast was so overwhelmingly powerful and had struck so fast that it overwhelmed Ranma's defenses. The coverage of her Scutum Et Putredo was simply insufficient to absorb the full effect of the blast and enough power leaked past the gaps between her panels of raw entropic energy to still knock out Eva-chan.
"Headmaster-sama!" Ranma shouted again as she turned around and grabbed hold of the knocked out Eva-chan, relieved that instead of pressing their attack against her mate, the Mage had instead chosen to continue his blitz by targeting someone else.
"Understood, Ranma-chan!" The elderly Headmaster of Mahora Academy and the head of the Kantō Magic Association said at last as he quickly began organizing the few still conscious combatants to recover their unconscious allies and retreat.
"Hand her over, Ranma-chan. I'll make sure Eva-san is taken care of." Albireo Imma said as he teleported in front of Ranma.
Ranma just nodded and quickly passed her mate over to the Ala Rubra veteran. "You better. Or else."
Not waiting for a reply from the enigmatic man, Ranma turned away and returned her attention to the Mage who it seemed had stopped his rampage once her call for a retreat had been heeded. The damned monster instead chose to hover in the center of the expansive chamber and shot Ranma an expectant look.
"I am more than happy to let the worms leave, Ranma-chan." The Mage said, shaking their head as if in disappointment that Ranma would even think otherwise. "My fight is with you alone."
"No, it isn't." Negi shouted defiantly as he used Koku Shundō to interpose himself between the Mage and his Outsider student. "I will not leave Ranma-san to fight you alone."
"You would defy a direct command from your god, mortal?" The Mage said, shooting him a glare with his father's eyes.
"Ranma-san is not my god." Negi shot back. "And neither are you."
"No," the monster possessing his father's body agreed before blurring in front of him.
"Sensei! Watch out!" Ranma-san screamed in warning and tried to intervene, only to be hit with a mana beam that sent her hurtling away.
Negi thus faced the Mage's attack alone and though he tried his damndest, before he could put up any kind of defense, they proceeded to shove their right hand straight through his chest. "But I am your father, so be a good sport and be quiet for daddy."
Fortunately, Negi was currently in his Raiten Taisō 2 form and thus was thankfully a living mass of lightning at the moment and all the Mage's attempt to impale him accomplished was to cause him to disperse into sparking lightning and force him out of his Magia Erebea mode and be sent crashing towards the ground.
"Oh look at that, you actually lived. Seems you Vespertatian royals inherited my ancestors' inability to quit better than I hoped. It didn't help my relatives when I slaughtered them, it won't help you now. You are nothing more than the byblow created by some of my failed experiments so just lay down and die, boy. Just like mommy."
The Mage's mention of his mother sparked something in Negi's mind. It helped him make a connection that he had not made till now. His mother was Arika Anarchia Entheofushia, the last Queen of Ostia. A Queen who had sacrificed her life and destroyed her kingdom, forever branding herself the accursed moniker as the Queen of Calamity, to use the magic of both to save the world from Cosmo Entelecheia… From the Mage of the Beginning!
"You killed my mother!" Negi shouted in a moment of painful epiphany as he leveled off his flight.
"Not directly but I suppose you could say that." The Mage said with a shrug as they conjured an extensive, multi-layered series of their trademark mandala-like barriers to shield themselves from the entropic barrage that Ranma-san was raining down on them with her spells.
"Don't ignore me!" Negi's student shouted.
"Be patient, Ranma-chan." The extradimensional invader told the petite redhead chidingly. "I'll be with you in a second. Just let me deal with this nuisance first."
Even as Ranma-san held the Mage's attention, Negi had not been idle. Instead, he was gathering all his mana for what was perhaps the most important spell he would ever cast. A spell that he had been working on since that fateful day when his hometown was attacked and he had learned his father had been possessed. And as he did, his mind was filled with thoughts about the monster that he was about to use it on.
You killed my mother. You possessed my father. You destroyed my hometown. You and yours have attacked me and my students time and time again, first in Kyoto and then here in Mundus Magicus. I had thought Fate-san was my nemesis, but I was wrong! You are! Negi concluded. And even though I can never defeat you, I will pave the road for the one who can. Time to feel a fraction of the pain you have put me and the whole world through…
"Mage of the Beginning!" Negi roared, causing the Outsider to turn away from maintaining their barriers against Ranma-san's unrelenting assault to look at him. "Get out of my father! Exorcismus Divinitatis Tenebris (Exorcism of the Dark Divinity)!"
At his invocation, Negi poured his everything: his mana, his ki, even the very power of his soul into the spell. All of which coalesced together into a beam of pure white light that impaled the stolen body that the Mage was inhabiting and forced the Outsider out of it with a tortured, soul scarring scream. A scream of anger, yes, but much to the satisfaction of the Son of the Thousand Master, one of agony as well.
Smiling at having dealt the Mage a fraction of the pain they deserved, Negi closed his eyes to the sight of the mass of twisted mind-bending, reality warping flesh that was evacuating his father's body and let the darkness of death claim him.
Ranma-san, I leave the rest up to you.
"Yeah, yeah, Sensei, leave it to me." Ranma replied distractedly to the last thought of her dead homeroom teacher even as she abandoned her attacks on the Mage to teleport below his corpse and catch it in her arms.
"Geez, remind me not to piss you off. Killing yourself to take the enemy out with you, that's extreme. But I guess being crazy is a hallmark of being one of Eva-chan's students, huh?" She mused before she tapped into her reality warping power as an Outsider. She would rather not have to. She was unpractised in its use and she was thus leery of utilizing it, but considering Negi-sensei's spell had literally burned away his soul, nothing less would be enough to revive him. "̶̞̣̑͝͠L̴̺̩̃̾͌ị̸̇̌̿v̸̲͌̈e̷̡̧̝͊͊͊!̶̝̿͊̓"̸̤̟͎̊
"Is he-?" Albireo Imma asked as he teleported next to Ranma with the unconscious but recently freed Nagi Springfield tossed over one shoulder.
"He's alive. I revived him." Ranma said as he handed her homeroom teacher over to the man. "Get him and his father out of here. Now!"
The Ala Rubra veteran did not need to be told twice and the moment he had a firm hold of Negi-sensei, he teleported away, taking both father and son away to safety.
"Looks like it's finally just you and me, Mage of the Beginning." Ranma said as she turned towards the roiling mass of otherworldly flesh that the other Outsider had been reduced to by Negi-sensei's exorcism spell as they struggled to stabilize into their true form.
She could have attacked them now whilst they were vulnerable but Ranma refrained. The Mage might be a dishonorable piece of shit but that did not mean that Ranma had to follow in their footsteps. She did not want to gain a reputation among her fellow Outsiders for kicking her enemies whilst they were down. She was better than that.
Now, if only the Mage didn't take damned forever just to assume their true form!
Thankfully, Ranma did not truly need to wait too long and after only a second or two of waiting, with an enraged roar, the Mage completed their transformation into their true form.
Said form took the shape of a spherical mass that was roughly the size of the orbship Ranma had created and used as a base after splitting off from Ala Alba. A sphere that was made out of twisted, constantly roiling flesh that hovered in the air. Flesh from which tortured souls and a myriad of butterfly themed monsters struggled to free themselves only to be pulled back into the rest of the grotesque mass by stringy growths of flesh and bone. The butterfly dragons, caterpillar worms and the chrysalis beasts fought desperately for their freedom, transforming the vaguely orb-like surface of the fleshy thing into a battlefield but their efforts were all in vain and they were all inevitably drawn back into sickening union with their progenitor. Either being swallowed alive by disgusting maws that opened around them and devoured them with grotequest chomps; or they were killed by the tentacles that rose up to restrain them and their dead remains were dragged back into the ceaselessly undulating flesh of the Mage's body. As for the tortured souls? They could only struggle fruitlessly and scream in pained defiance, at best pulling themselves halfway to freedom before their surroundings invariably turned into quicksand and despite their struggles, they found themselves sinking back into their torment within the Mage.
The Mage's true form was truly a R-rated body horror display but all it could elicit from Ranma was a cocked eyebrow. "Yeah, I'm so scared."
"I didn't expect you to be, sister." The Mage said, their voice sounding like the screams of a billion tortured souls and pulsing through the air with literal power, its passing causing the very walls of the chamber to tremble and in places crumble to dust. At the same time, ten gross tentacles that seemed to be an amalgamation of corpses and which ended in bestial heads, each different from the other and ranged from that of a fox, ox, cat, tanuki and other animals abruptly grew out of her opponent's disgusting body. Tentacles that began shooting multicolored beams of an unfamiliar energy that Ranma's Origin Sight identified as chakra at her.
"Don't call me that. You don't get to call me that!" Ranma snarled as her skin rippled in rage at the Mage of the Beginning, of all beings, daring to address her as 'sister'. There was only one person in all the worlds which had the right to call her that and it was most definitely not this freakshow of an Outsider!
The chimera-like creature laughed mockingly, the action destroying even more of the Gravekeeper's Palace. "We are both Outsiders now. Kin. Calling you 'sister' is factually accurate and proper, Ranma-chan."
"Shut up. Stop calling me that!" Ranma snapped as her skin took on the rose tone of her slime flesh and her body began to rapidly grow in size. "Shut up! Shut up! Shut up!"
With each shout of anger, her body grew even more in size and shifted ever closer to her own true form until finally she was just as large as the Mage's own horrific true form was. Her body took the shape of a caricature of her favored human form. Only vaguely however, as her arms and legs were disproportionately lanky and ended in bestial looking hands and feets tipped by vicious looking claws that resembled those that Itami's own new form sported. It had lines running across her rose colored skin that vaguely resembled the patterns of a labyrinth and from her back grew a mass of tendrils that dripped slime and resembled a pair of skeletal wings. From the small of her back extended a single long pseudopod that stretched far beyond the rest and gave the impression of a tail.
"That is a most impressive true form, Ranma-chan." The Mage of the Beginning praised.
If they expected their praise to elicit a response from Ranma, they had achieved what they set out to do. They probably did not like the form that said response took however, as with a furious roar, Ranma replied by ferociously attacking the Mage.
"D̵̖͈͒̔e̸͎̰̅̊ć̷̭̎a̷͎͂͠ỳ̶̹͈͘ ̴̼͐a̸̞͒͘w̶̞͒̑ä̸̢̐ÿ̸̦̠́͆ ̴̮͇͒̇ḯ̸͓͝n̶̨̓͆t̶̤͆͒ŏ̶̼ ̸̯̾n̴̞̄̈o̶̱̫͛t̴̛̜̹̿h̶̩̓͝į̵̛̩ṋ̶͇̍g̸̨̈́n̸̙̩͌͊e̴͔̋s̴̼͐̓s̸̜͌̚, you abomination!" Ranma screamed angrily at the Mage, as in response to her command, an invisible bubble of raw entropy manifested itself around their body and began eating away at the other Outsider's twisted flesh. An effort that Ranma bodily helped with as she began ripping into it with claws and tendrils as well. "Shut up and feel the wrath of the Mage of the Abyss!"
"That is quite a nice name you have chosen for yourself, Ranma-chan." The Mage replied with a calm that belied the fact that they were being brutally torn into. Something that they retaliated against by conjuring innumerable spell circles around themselves from which they unleashed a literal storm of magic at Ranma.
Flames hotter than any sun washed over her. Beams of raw electromagnetic energy impaled her. Bolts of freezing energy that reduced the temperature of everything they touched down to absolute zero slammed into her. Lances made of superdense materials that would put the hearts of black holes to shame pierced her. Blades that were literal rips in reality cut into her. These and everything in-between were conjured by the Mage's magic and hurled at Ranma. Only spells of the corrosion or entropic elements, being Ranma's own elemental affinities, were excluded.
But despite the immense destructive power being thrown at her, Ranma was unfazed. Every flame, beam, bolt, lance, and blade that got anywhere near her had to pass through an aura of raw entropy that now surrounded her body. An aura that whittled down most of the attacks to nothingness before they could score a hit. And for those that did, it took only a moment before the injuries caused by them were negated by the command over time that she usually reserved for use in her temporal spells.
"Is your inclusion of 'Mage' in it a reference to moi?" The Mage said with bemusement, seemingly unfazed that his counterattack was not even slowing down Ranma's attempts to rip him open.
"Do not flatter yourself! It is a reference to the art to which I have dedicated myself." Ranma retorted even as she frowned at the annoyingly slow progress of her efforts. The Mage's regeneration was just too powerful. Any damage she did was negated almost as soon as it was dealt. It was maddening!
I have to change tactics! Ranma thought as she kicked herself away from the bulbous form of the Mage and gathered her power.
"̸̟͇̓N̶͎͑í̸̲ǵ̵̥r̶̛͍͠u̵̳̇̈m̴̹̿ ̶͕̒̂D̵̩̘̃r̶̖͍̚ä̸͖́̈c̵̺̻͗̚ö̵̘̱́ ̶̧͙̎P̶̨̧̈́e̸̝̟͒ṟ̸̆͜f̸̛͉͍o̴̧͇͋r̸̮̈͠ȧ̸̹n̶̜̎s̷̗̈͗ ̴̫́L̸̻̎a̶̧̡͐̃n̵͓̒́c̷̻̠̄͘ê̴̦̈́a̵̮͋̕m̶̜̊!̵̜͕̈́̇"̶̣͉̎ Ranma incanted as she ignored the continuing barrage sent her way by the Mage and focused on combining both her magic and her innate reality warping power as an Outsider to cast a supersized, supercharged version of her Nigrum Draco Perforans Lanceam spell. A spell that conjured a lance of black lightning the size of a narrow, short skyscraper whose mere presence warped the reality around it, draining it of color and causing everything to dissolve away into pixel-like particles. A lance that Ranma hurled with a powerful throw right at the Mage of the Beginning.
"Oh! Most impressive spellwork, Ranma-chan!" The Mage praised even as they shed a whole chunk of their outermost layers of flesh and reshaped it into a single gigantic butterfly monster.
Said monster wasn't one of the Mage's standard butterfly dragons but an actual monstrous insect. Or at least it looked more like one than the standard butterfly monsters that the Mage spewed out. As large as Ranma's true form, it had a body seemingly made out of tendrils that had fused together into a solid mass and vaguely in the shape of a child, if a child had innumerable trailing tentacles instead of legs. Or if some kind of circular headdress grew right out of the back of their heads and it had the first and larger of two pairs of massive wings for ears. The second pair being where the child's arms would have been was the most vaguely normally looking thing on this abomination. Even its coloration, being a mostly sickly green with only the tips of the top pair of wings breaking this norm by being a dark blue, gave it an unnatural, almost ghastly, appearance.
This new monster promptly placed itself directly in between Ranma's souped up Nigrum Draco Perforans Lanceam and its creator. As an autonomous construct, the Mage of the Abyss' lance had the wherewithal to attempt to bypass this new addition to the battlefield to strike directly at its target. However, the monstrous butterfly was equally as autonomous and just as determined to not allow it to do so. Thus even as the Nigrum Draco Perforans Lanceam attempted to streak around it, the butterfly shaped abomination flew directly into it.
The resulting clash saw the unstoppable piercing power of Ranma's spell tested against the immovability created by the sheer defensive power of the Mage's monster, which it turned out was covered in scales, each of which were like the panes of her own Scutum Et Putredo and were immensely powerful barriers. The struggle between these diametrically opposed forces lit up the area like a second sun, as the main body of Ranma's lance tried to pierce through the Mage's monsters and stray entropic lightning arced all over the sickly green and deep blue barriers that surrounded the entirety of the butterfly shaped abomination. It was truly a titanic struggle of strength but ultimately Ranma's power triumphed and her lance shot through its monstrous opponent, killing the twisted horror and continued its way towards its true target.
"I am going to get back at you for all the suffering you have caused my worlds, both this one and the Abyssal Labyrinth as well!" Ranma told the Mage with all the weight of a woman determined to make her words, as grandiose as they sounded, fact, even as her Nigrum Draco Perforans Lanceam finally found its mark in the other Outsider disgusting flesh only to fizzle out, its energy spent, after only piercing a few feet into its foul mass. A mass that much to Ranma's irritation had already regenerated what the Mage had spent to create the butterfly super monster. Heck! The bastard had even, at some point where she hadn't noticed, popped the bubble of entropy she'd trapped them in.
"Ah! Is that where the 'Abyss' in your true name comes from, Ranma-chan? The prison world that I fed you to facilitate your apotheosis?" The Mage asked as it cut off its spell barrage, dismissing the magic circles that had been sustaining it and replacing them with a single extremely complex, mandala-like circle just below the roof of the chamber from which shot out a brilliant white beam that erased everything it touched.
Thanks to her Origin Sight, Ranma could tell that the energy of the beam bore some similarities to the magic of the Code of the Lifemaker that had created and could freely manipulate Mundus Magicus. The energy of the Mage's beam was however far, far more potent than that of the Code of the Lifemaker. Yes, they both could erase things it touched from existence but comparing one to the other was like comparing a spark to the sun. The Code of the Lifemaker's power was limited to affecting its creations, namely the grand illusion of Mundus Magicus and the creatures it had spawned, and even then the souls that came to inhabit those creatures were outside its authority and were thus safe. In contrast, the energy of the Mage's beam had the authority to erase whatever it targeted from all Creation itself!
Well, that was if the beam itself wasn't erased from existence before it could actually cause any harm that is.
"̸͉̏͝B̶̦̓ê̵̦̠ ̴̟̫̀g̴̭͒ó̵̢͖̕n̶̼͍̆̑ȩ̵̒!̷̮̣̂"̷͉̦̇ Ranma commanded, her reality warping authority as an Outsider easily overriding that of the Mage's spell and causing it, beam and the magic circle that it created, to dissolve into black pixel-like motes.
It was an impressive feat, even Ranma could acknowledge that much. She honestly hadn't known if she could manage it and had in fact been prepared to use Conniveo to evade the beam if it failed. However, she was not going to let the Mage know she had such doubts. So giving no sign of her own surprise and relief, she instead used her already prepped teleportation spell to transport her in front of the grotesque sphere of abominable flesh that was the Mage's true form.
"Like I'm going to tell you, you son of a bitch! Just shut up and die already!" She shouted at the Mage as with her body wreathed in the entropic fires of a wordlessly cast Flamma De Rasura, she once more viciously ripped and tore at her fellow Outsider's body.
Once again, even with Flamma De Rasura adding strength to her efforts, Ranma's attacks just weren't doing enough damage to outpace the Mage's regeneration. The asshole somehow managing to up the speed of their healing so that it kept pace with the damage she was dealing to them.
That was annoying enough but they also seemed to have learned from the futility of just barraging her with elemental spells like they had used to attempt to keep her back last time, so they tried something different this time. Said new tactic took the form of the Mage reshaping part of its mass into a single gigantic fist that it proceeded to use to punch Ranma, who was distracted trying to tear into them, in the gut with enough strength behind it that it sent her crashing into the wall of the chamber they were fighting in with enough force to collapse a whole section of the domed structure.
"Resorting to melee? Weren't you a Mage?" Ranma taunted as with a flare of her entropic aura she disintegrated the rubble that had partially buried her and she pushed off from the wrecked section of wall she'd crashed into.
"Who ever said that a Mage should forgo melee comba-" The Mage said only to suddenly be pelted by a veritable torrent of spellfire from all around it. "What!?"
Ranma did not turn look at practically everyone - Ala Alba, the Mahora mages, the Confederation and Empire troops, and even her own army of familiars - joining the fight against the Mage whilst surrounded and protected by Asuna's own lesser, but still potent, reality warping power as the Lifemaker as seen by the brilliant white auras that surrounded all of them. She did acknowledge their presence though, with her mother among them she couldn't afford to be rude. She was already going to be grounded after all this, there was no point in making it worse.
"Thanks for the assist!" Ranma shouted back as she conjured a pair of supersized Stella Tenebris Shuriken which spun on their center axis so quickly that they were practically giant buzzsaws and used them to cut through the Mage's grotesque body, helped along immensely by the large chunks that were being blasted off by the sustained fire from all her allies.
"Oh! How impressive! It seems that the princess has figured out how to use the raw power of the Code of the Lifemaker to stop the mortals from being driven mad by our true forms, Ranma-chan." The Mage commented with a cheery laugh, seemingly unconcerned by the fact that thanks to everyone combining their efforts he was finally receiving more damage than his regeneration could keep up with and they were finally making progress at tearing him to pieces.
"I would expect nothing less from the mortals you deride." Ranma told him even as she breathed a stream of Flamma De Rasura into the trench of the Mage's flesh her improvised Stella Tenebris Shuriken buzzsaws were craving, the entropic energy shaped into flames filling the gash and eating away at the edges, aiding her efforts to cut her way through the abomination. "Unlike immortals who would just give up, trusting in their immortality to allow them to survive whatever crisis they face, mortals will fight tooth and nail to survive. They know the fear of death and that gives them a determination that most immortals have lost."
"Well said, Ranma-chan. Well said." The Mage agreed. "But even with all their struggles, it is still NOT ENOUGH!"
As they decried the weakness of mortals, the Mage unleashed a pulse of raw power that threatened to throw Ranma herself back. It was only her digging her Stella Tenebris Shurikens deep into the other Outsider's flesh and hanging on to her weapons tight that stopped her from being swept away. The lead elements of her allies were not so lucky and they were sent tumbling through the air, some even starting to be burned away by the sheer power that had washed over them. Before any permanent harm could come to them however there was another pulse of energy, this time from the rear of the allied ranks and suddenly the white auras that were protecting all the allied forces were strengthened. An aura that proceeded to shield them from the Mage's energy pulse and even healed those who had been injured by it.
"Like hell I'm letting you take us out of this fight, you bastard!" The familiar voice of Asuna-san shouted with determination from somewhere above Ranma. "Tear its heart out, Ranma-san!"
Before the slime-type Outsider could reply, Negi-sensei suddenly zipped as a lightning bolt into the airspace above the Mage in his Raiten Taisō 2 form. He was followed closely behind by Eva-chan and Nagi Springfield. The latter of whom was being carried by Albireo Imma whilst he was rapidly flipping through a notebook.
"Emittam et stagnet, Jovis Tempestas Fulguriens, Iaculatio Fulgoris, Unisonent. (Release and fixate, Windstorm of Lightning, Lightning Spear Throw, Technique synthesis.)" Negi-sensei incanted with all the resolve of a hero desperate to save the world.
"Kom ut med nåde Yggdrasil, Spidderen… (Come forth with the grace of Yggdrasil, Impaler…)" Nagi Springfield read from his spellbook with the desperation of a man who was fighting to protect his only child.
"Attende contractus et servi, tenebrarum, glaciei et nivis, regina aeternitatis! Rosae albae glaciei aestus, hortus aeternus dormiens! Age, tenebrae aeternae, glacies aeterna! ((Heed the contract and serve me, darkness, ice and snow, the queen of eternity! The coursing white rose of ice, the sleeping eternal garden!)" Eva-chan chanted with the fervent desire to do everything she could to ensure her mate won the day and returned to her. "Vincite automata inanimalia fulmine concreto! Tranquillitatis lepidus, aeternae rosae carceris albae vernantis in profusione! (Come, everlasting darkness, the eternal glacier! Imprison the soulless puppets with frozen lightning! The enchanting tranquility, the eternal prison of white roses blooming in profusion!)"
"Titanoktonon II: Iaculatio Vortices Tempestatis (Titan-Slayer II: Windstorm Spiral Spear)!" Negi-sensei roared as a drill-like javelin brimming with the destructive power of a directed lightning storm manifested by his side.
"Gungnir!" Nagi-san roared with all the fury of a parent seeking righteous vengeance on the being who had deprived him of years with his son as his spell proceeded to summon a giant javelin of wind and lightning.
"Aperantos Leukos Ouranos!" Eva-chan said with firm resolve as a tornado of lightning-ice manifested around her and quickly took on the shape of a rose.
A flower whose vines quickly reached towards the Mage's revolting body, where it froze every inch of the twisted flesh it touched. They were not just reaching aimlessly however and within seconds they had managed to wrap themselves around the edges of the gash Ranma had dug into the other Outsider's flesh, freezing them solid and thus holding the wound open.
"Nagi! Negi! Now!" Ranma's mate commanded.
Acting with a synchronicity that was uncanny, the father and son Springfield threw their respective conjured javelins of lightning and wind at exactly the same time and with the same unerring accuracy. Both Negi-sensei's Titanoktonon II: Iaculatio Vortices Tempestatis and his father's Gungnir flew straight into the opening that Ranma had cut into the Mage and which Eva-chan was holding open. They even detonated at the same time too! Unleashing as they did a powerful eruption of cutting wind and scorching lightning that finally blasted a way almost through to the very heart of the Mage's spheroid mass.
"And that's another thing!" Ranma roared as absorbing her Stella Tenebris Shurikens into her hands, she enshrouded her clawed fingers with an additional layer of destructive entropy and used them to go for the kill. "Unlike your sorry ass, I'm not alone in this fight!"
Reaching deep into the bloody trench that had been dug and blasted into the Mage, Ranma swung her enhanced claws at their exposed inner flesh whilst unleashing the stored entropy in a concentrated wave that shot even deeper inside the other Outsider's repulsive body. Now well past their outer defenses, the destructive wave ate through the Mage's flesh with ease until they hit a hardened shell of some kind.
A shell that Ranma didn't need her Origin Sight to tell her had been created by some of the innumerable souls that the Mage of the Beginning had consumed over its long existence to empower themselves. This soul barrier held against Ranma's entropic wave for only a moment however until with the sound of shattering glass, the section in the path of the attack crumbled. This released the thousands of tortured souls that had been used to create it, each of which screamed in ecstatic joy as they were finally able to escape into the afterlife where they belonged.
But as heartening as that was, the soul barrier had done its job and sapped Ranma's attack of the last of its strength. That was not to say that it had failed either, as through the hole in the soul barrier, everyone could finally see a glimpse of the Mage of the Beginning's core. This took the form of an orange jewel that was the size of a small car and and within which it could be seen a withered skeleton seated on a throne and dressed in the tattered finery of an archmage.
"You're mine now, you gross jackass!" Ranma shouted triumphantly as she grabbed the core in her clawed hands and began to squeeze.
"So it would appear!" The Mage said, sounding proud, even as cracks began to appear around their core due to the pressure that Ranma was applying to it. "But alas I can't let you kill me today. There are other nursery worlds I need to tend to and other potential siblings to nurture."
"Like I care what you think! We end this now!" Asuna-san shouted as she dropped down from on high whilst surrounded by an almost blinding aura of white light and stabbed the massive buster sword that was her Artifact, Ensis Exorcizans, straight through the Mage's core. Her magic canceling blade cutting through the material that even Ranma's Outsider strength was having trouble crushing like a hot knife through butter. Oh! And the Great Grand Master Key of the Lifemaker trailed after her like it was an obedient little puppy.
If Ranma wasn't a transcendental god she would have been terrified by the power that her classmate had somehow amassed.
"You don't have a say in the matter, mortal." The Mage declared, completely ignoring Asuna even though Ensis Exorcizans was stabbed right through what presumably was all that was left of their mortal body. In fact, they burst out into an amused laugh even as they continued. "It looks like sister, O Mighty Mage of the Abyss, that you'll be ruling over quite an interesting cast of characters."
With that last taunting statement, the Mage, both his core and the rest of his abhorrent true body, just vanished. Its sudden disappearance deprived Asuna-san of her footing and she let out a squeak of surprise, which was wholly in-character for the girl but was highly unbecoming of a princess and the Lifemaker, and she found herself suddenly falling.
"Aaaah~! Someone catch me!" The orangette cried.
Did she forget she can use Koku Shundō? Ranma thought with a facepalm even as she used her other hand to catch her classmate in its open palm.
"Thank you, Ranma-san!" The rescued girl said with a grateful nod at Ranma before she hastily stood and struck a triumphant pose.
"And stay out of our world, you nasty jerk!" Asuna-san said to the empty spot where the Mage had been just a moment ago.
She does know they're gone, right? Ranma couldn't help but ponder as she began to question her classmate's sanity.
Said ponderings were pulled up short however when suddenly a massive cheer erupted from everyone as they celebrated the defeat of the Mage of the Beginning and the liberation of their world from their tyranny. A cheer that seemed to shake the world.
Done and done! Thanks to Nameless as always!
Woo! The near end to a Negima fic! I am amazed at how well this has come along! I mean, last I checked? Is there an actual Negima fanfic that ended in the Magic World arc? Unsure, but damn we are at the wire and it feels good.
Nameless: Okay. A couple of things that I want to make known about our intentions when writing this chapter. Firstly, we wanted to emphasize that the Mage is not taking this fight all that seriously. In fact, outside of focusing on Ranma and, to a lesser extent, Negi, they don't care about just about everything that everyone was attacking them with. This ties in nicely with the second thing, which is that we wanted to give the perception that for most of the fight, the majority of the combatants involved in the fight are actually irrelevant. So please don't critique us on these deliberate decisions. If you must, critique why we made these choices instead.
Yeah, he was mostly playing around and Ranma too since she was testing her own elevated capabilities. While the others are in the upper ranks of the mortal realm, to Outsiders? They are mostly just a bunch of screaming kids. But setting that aside, we're nearing the end people! It's still surreal to me that we've reached this far.
Nameless: Lastly, from me at least, is that I think the chapter is a little on the short side for the climactic battle of the story. Unfortunately, I think we suffered from the same problem as with the previous chapter, we reached a point where adding anything else seemed to just be padding. Hopefully, despite its relatively short length, this chapter still served as a suitable concluding fight of Rise of Prodigies. There's still an epilogue arc left for us to tie up the loose ends for our many, many characters though, so we hope you'll stick with us for that too.
You know what to do! Smash that review button and tell us what you love! No flames and peace off my peeps!