"So the only people who will survive this war are the people in the shelters." Daray said.
"Well I look forward to fighting to the death with you guys." Ally stated grimly
"No, there has to be a way to fix the barrier." Silas said staggering, trying to stand on his own again. "They found a way for everyone to sense it though?"
"Apparently. Nic wants me to be there when they announce it, he said he wants my take on the barrier from my Thunderbirds perspective."
"Great, the only way in is to be electrocuted across." Daray snickered. "sounds like more fun for you thunder. when is the MLFC meeting?"
"Two hours." Rahkesh sighed. Over fourteen thousand years and the barrier still isn't stable. The Thunderbird animagus couldn't help but wonder if something had gone wrong in creating the new world, and how on Earth they could fix this without sending another team back in time. Rahkesh looked around at the wasteland that was the battlefield, the ground was blackened, everything burnt or charred to ash. Demon bodies and limbs lay everywhere, piles of ash and puddles of different unidentifiable ooze lay here and there. There were tens of thousands of demons in this battle and it was just one of countless many going on around the world, this war had only just begun and already they had tens of thousands of warriors dead while the demons still had millions to throw at them. Not for the first time Rahkesh found himself missing the good old days when the only problem was Voldemort.
Back at Akren Rahkesh went to the healers' wing to find Rianae. She had gotten knocked out rather spectacularly. During the battle she'd been separated from everyone else and continually attacked by swarms of beta demons. Rahkesh and Daray had both tried to make their way over to help but were repeatedly rebuffed due to the swarms of beta demons attacking them as well, but, given that a frankly disgusting amount of limbs, blood, and various other viscera kept getting sent flying from the center, not to mention the demons that had begun fleeing in terror, she seemed to be holding her own. Rahkesh remembered one demon had come running out ripping its own face apart and pulling out its brain. After the battle had wound down, they found her unconscious with an axe imbedded in her side and promptly shipped her off to the healers' wing.
Rahkesh found her conscious but loopy with pain killers just like Daray had been the week before. Justin was sitting next to her laughing at something, he seemed fine but for the bandage obscuring most of his head. "You look like a pillow brought to life." Rianae was telling him "or like a marshmallow on a stick." she snickered at him.
"You look like you took on a couple hundred demons all by yourself." Rahkesh said walking up to her bed. She looked up at him and smiled smugly.
"I took on over seven hundred demons all by myself, before one of those skinny bastards with no wings found my axe in one of his friends' faces and stuck me with it." She sounded frustrated now "I ripped off his arm and shoved it down his throat then popped his head like a water balloon." she laughed, 'maybe not quite so frustrated' Rahkesh amended mentally.
"The MLFC is meeting soon about the new world, the barrier is apparently fluctuating frequently and making it so that only small groups of maybe twenty or so can cross over once every other week. I'm attending the meeting, but I was wondering if you might have any theories on how to stabilize it?" Rahkesh asked her, though with the loopy grin he received from her he was feeling less than sure that she'd have any coherent ideas.
"Thread magic could work to anchor it to a point in this realm but then that would be a weak spot where the demons would attack, and that's only assuming not being anchored is the problem." she supplied, which Rahkesh already figured would be along the lines of what she would say.
"Thought you might say something along those lines" Rahkesh replied with a nod as he stood and made for the exit.
"Feel better Rianae, there's plenty more demons for you to play with in the near future." Rahkesh sent as he opened the door. "Save some for the rest of us Thunder!" Rahkesh heard the vampire shout in reply. Shaking his head in exasperation, he departed for the Conclave.
XX
The MLFC was just as crazy and chaotic as ever, with sorcerers and scholars running about left right and center, and politicians screaming back and forth at one another. Rahkesh searched out his link with Nic
'Where are you?' he asked Nic
'In the gardens, it's a bit chaotic right now but Stocklir is about to start the meeting.' Rahkesh shut off the link and made his way over to the massive, airy hall covered in a myriad of vibrant plants and trees and supported by massive, ornately decorated columns. Just as he walked in, Stocklir sent off the fireworks she'd become known and feared for in an effort to regain everyone's attention. Rahkesh didn't have time to prepare so he was blinded and deafened for a few seconds. When he'd regained his senses, he made his way over to where the Chachapoyaro were standing in their neat formations and clapped Nic on the back.
"There you are, I'm glad you're here." Nic told him.
"As you are all aware, we sent a reconnaissance team into the new world last month and they never came back." Stocklir stated in her soft yet authoritative voice. "We later decided to send another team from the Chachapoyaro, who not only have just come back but also brought with them the first team as well. They have come bearing good news and bad. The good news is that the new Magical world is not only there but it is also thriving, the bad news is that the barrier between world's is fluctuating in such a way as to make travel in either direction both difficult and unpredictable."
At that revelation, pandemonium reigned as nearly everyone in attendance began yelling back and forth, heated arguments brewing and, in some cases, physical violence erupted. Rahkesh and Nic covered their ears just before Stocklir sent out another round of firecrackers.
"Now I know this is frustrating, but this is still our best chance at survival. We must come together now and figure out how to stabilize the barrier. At this point we cannot afford to send another team back in time so it must be done in real time. I will now turn the floor over to the Chachapoyaro Generals to report on the condition of the new world." She calmly stated and walked to a corner, where she sat down and observed as one of the Chachapoyaro Generals got up to speak.
"You said you wanted my Thunderbirds take on the barrier?" Rahkesh asked Nic.
"Yes, you discovered that electricity can be used in some limited fashion in conjunction with magic and I was wondering if perhaps using lightning to charge the barrier and weave it into stability might be possible." Nic said doubtfully. Rahkesh thought about this for a moment before deciding he would have to talk to Namach about it. "I'll have to think about it, you said you had a way to sense the barrier? " Rahkesh asked with a raised eyebrow, Nic smirked.
"Yes, simple spell really. You could probably do something similar with one of your wands, but we use our staffs. For us we just tap the staff on the ground and follow the magic through the sound waves. In this way we can feel the shape of the barrier and its fluctuations, but for a wand you'll need a spell to create a sound from magic that you can maintain a connection with."
Rahkesh ran down the various noise producing spells he could recall off the top of his head for a moment then cast a simple charm. "Reverberae." This spell, often used by curse breakers for evaluating the size and shape of wards without disturbing them, produced a sound not unlike a gong which began ringing out from his wand. Just as Nic instructed, Rahkesh latched onto the sound with his magic and observed with his magical senses. At first there was nothing, but then he directed his attention.. not elsewhere in the sound but higher, if you will? It was hard for Rahkesh to explain, let alone understand, but once he'd begun observing the sound waves on what seemed to be a dimensional level he noticed the vibration of the sound waves clashing, almost like waves on a beach. Or rather, waves crashing into waves. It was chaotic and unbalanced, and undulated constantly in unpredictable patterns.
Sharing a concerned glance with Nic, Rahkesh acknowledged to himself that they had a lot of work ahead of them.
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Once Rahkesh returned to Akren he was rather annoyed to find himself cornered in the hallway outside his rooms by a first-year vampire. He didn't know the Vampires name and was certainly not in the mood for a fight, but this guy looked particularly hungry. The vampire, wand in hand, blocked the hallway. Easily as tall as Rahkesh and maybe a little heavier, he had short red hair, brown eyes, and a pugish nose and he was quite literally drooling whilst staring Rahkesh down like a dog after a bone.
Rahkesh tried sidestepping the (possibly) rabid leech and made to go round, but the vampire blocked him again. Rahkesh sighed "And you are?" He asked. The vampire just continued to stare and drool. Daray's door opened and he stepped out. The epitome of all things vampiric was clearly about to head the opposite direction, probably for dinner, when he caught sight of the scene before him. Smiling in anticipation, Daray turned and leaned against the wall, patiently observing.
"I'll give you one chance to walk away." Rakesh said pulling his wand out. Faster than Rakesh could follow, the unknown vampire cast a series of spells. Rahkesh dodged all but the last which just so happened to be a disarming spell, just as his wand flew out of his hand, he wandlessly summoned it back to him. Just as his wand came back over his shoulder the vampire lunged, fangs coming out. 'amateur' Rakesh thought as he sidestepped and pulled his Chachapoyaro staff out of its special holster in his sleeve and expanded it to it's full size.
As the vampire stumbled past Rahkesh, the wizard cracked him up-side the head with the staff. Following the swing all the way through as he descended, Rahkesh then took the vampires feet out from under him with the other end of the staff. As the vampire hit the ground he began firing off more spells, each one shining brightly as it sailed through the air. Rahkesh dodged, bobbed, and weaved but got hit with a curse that ruptured an internal organ, 'definitely my spleen' he thought, then took a curse to the shoulder that made every nerve in his body scream in pain (not unlike the cruciartus) and a banishing curse that blasted him into a wall where he hit his head so hard he briefly saw stars.
Officially pissed-off, Rahkesh let his magics loose. Instantly a strong cold wind blew through the corridor and pushed the vampire back on his ass just as he had stood. Thunder rumbled, electricity sparked all over Rahkesh's body, the spicy tang of vaporized venom filled the air and though Rahkesh was seeing red, his eyes began glowing black, with luminous golden specks and killing curse green streaks. he didn't know who this vampire was, but he wanted him dead, magical backlash be damned. The unfortunate blood sucker made the mistake of making eye contact with the lethally annoyed Rahkesh, and instantly the corridor was rent with blood curdling screams, but for Rahkesh this wasn't enough.
He didn't know why the vampire was in so much pain from mere eye contact but he was willing to chalk it up to a happy accident. Rahkesh took out his wand and decided to use an old spell he'd learned from a potions book, a book he still had in his rooms. "Sectum Sempra!"
After Rahkesh took the vampires arms and legs off with the spell, he grabbed one of the arms off the ground and beat the still writhing vampire with it until he stopped screaming. Collecting the rest of this parasite's limbs in a wandless levitation spell, Rahkesh calmly stalked over to the closest window and dumped his spoils out into the cold, brushed off his hands, banished the blood from his clothes and entered his rooms.
After Rahkesh had left, Daray still stood in the hall, invisible, and staring in a mix of awe and horror at what Rahkesh had just done to this vampire, a first year by the name of Scott. After a minute or so, he realized that the younger student wasn't healing from the spell Rahkesh had used to dismember him and, knowing that Scott was probably about to die and not feeling like dying in-turn from the backlash, decided he had to do something. However, Daray thought that the point his friend had just viciously and violently made was too beautifully well done to erase completely.
Daray walked over to the dying first-year and after trying every healing spell he knew decided he would just have to cauterize the wounds to stop the bleeding. That done and feeling that Scott probably wouldn't drown in a pool of his own blood now, Daray decided it was time he'd have a chat with Rahkesh.
"He learned his lesson then, for however little he has left to appreciate it." Sygra said after Rahkesh had explained what had just occurred. When he had walked into his rooms he'd noticed Sygra on his desk, coiled up, head held high with an accusing glare pointed directly at him. She had started to berate him for almost dying again without her around. "You should leave the concealments off; you're much more intimidating this way." She stated as she coolly inspected Rakesh's practical mantle of miasmic magic.
"I would be less intimidating if I was always like that." Rahkesh replied, reigning himself in.
"You almost killed hi-AAAARRRAARRGGHH!" Daray began to say then yelped as he appeared on Rakesh's couch, startling the wizard so badly that he had accidentally reflexively shot him with a bolt of lightning. Sygra laughed, "If he saw the whole thing he should've known you'd still be on edge." The snake said mockingly.
"What the fuck!?" Daray yelled from the floor.
"Sorry, you startled me." Rahkesh replied, not feeling particularly sorry. It still pissed the Thunderbird animagus off that he couldn't figure out how his vampire friends always got into his rooms unnoticed. Rahkesh decided mentally that his only hope to ever reclaim his couch was to give Daray one of his own for his birthday. Just as Rahkesh commenced healing himself fully he was knocked flat from behind. He looked up just in time to see Satan the magical vampire-bat land on his intruders' shoulder and chirp at him. Daray smirked "Good job Satan." He cooed at the bat as it bit his ear and lapped at the blood.
"One of these days one of you is going to accidentally kill each other." Silas said striding in, Nuri bounding ahead of him. "That was you?" he asked pointing over his shoulder. Standing, Rahkesh merely nodded in acknowledgement. "There're a lot of students out there, that grabbed quite a bit of attention." he said approvingly with a small, cruel smirk.
"Are you guys ready for your next blood magic pieces yet?" Rahkesh asked, changing the subject.
"Not yet." Daray sighed. "I can't decide which chamber to use for my first offensive piece. I've checked each of them and felt them out at different times of day and none of them feel right."
"Maybe try the one with the Basilisk skeleton, I know Namach said that one's dangerous because the snake was driven mad with anger but this is offensive blood magic and your demon form is also a reptile." Rahkesh suggested.
"No way." Silas threw in. "His demon instincts would go apeshit over that snakes' magics.. What is that?" he asked looking curiously at Rahkesh. Noticing what his friend had directed his attention to, Rahkesh winced. Silas was gazing curiously at his wand, which Rahkesh was absentmindedly twirling between his fingers.
The wizard sighed, both vampires were staring intently at his wand.
"I've never seen wood like that." Silas stated, shuffling slightly closer to the wand. Daray was strangely quiet, though Rahkesh knew his rooms were secure he cast anti-eavesdropping spells anyway. Sygra wound up his leg and over his shoulder, made eye contact with him out of the corner of her eye, and bobbed her head as if to encourage him. "Well... it's.." Rahkesh shook his head and pulled an armchair off his shelf, enlarged it, and sat down. "It's Dyalnos." He stated flatly.
The vampires took it better than he'd feared they would, now both were looking at him in confusion.
"The fuck is that?" Daray asked. "Never heard of it."
"Of course, this being you we should've expected you to make a wand out of something rare and almost unheard of." Silas agreed. Sighing in defeat, Rahkesh explained what it was and why they'd never heard of it. As soon as he said it was elven, Daray shifted into his demon form. When he'd finished his tale, both vampires erupted into laughter.
Rahkesh scowled, it was exhausting when everyone found your imminent death hilariously amusing. "Is this what Namach tore you apart over?" Daray asked, gasping for breath, still laughing.
"Yes, though I couldn't tell at the end if he was amused or relieved that at the least it wouldn't be the demons who'd destroy all life on Earth."
the vampires slowly pulled themselves back together.
"So what kind of special powers does that wood have?" Silas asked.
"I'm not sure, I haven't had much time to experiment over-much with it yet, but Namach said that what little leaks off of my spells give off a smell not un-like my blood." Rahkesh shrugged.
XX
Rahkesh knocked on Namach's door. He knew something was off the second the door opened. It was dark inside; the torches were out and the light from all the luminescent vines seemed to have been magically restrained.
Cautiously Rahkesh stepped inside and jumped when he heard a low, irritated growl. Turning, he found Eli the magical frill neck lizard, wary of the wizards' presence as always. Stepping further into the room Rahkesh glanced away from the death-glare of the lizard to find Namach striding into the room with a notebook under one arm and a bottle of blood baring the name 'Da Vinci' written in fancy calligraphy on the barely aged label. The ancient vampire strode over to his desk and sat down, then beckoned Rahkesh over without sparing him a glance. After pouring himself a glass of blood he looked up at the precocious wizard and smiled. "He died."
before Rahkesh could guess as to what he was referring, Namach continued "Scott, the vampire who attacked you. He couldn't heal his injuries because of the curse you used." Namach paused. "And the fact that he didn't have any limbs. Beautiful statement you made by the way, what was that spell?"
"Just something I picked up from an old potions book, it's called 'Sectum Sempra', quite nasty. I've been thinking about trying it on the demons, but I think their scales will block it." Rahkesh replied taking one of the armchairs across the beautifully ornate, jewel encrusted desk.
Quirking a brow in amusement at the thought of gleaning such a spell from a potions book, Namach asked the obvious follow up question to this statement.
"Strawlime?" He asked confidently. "No actually, that greasy, hooked nosed bastard that went with the time traveling group to set up the new world. Snape was his name." Rahkesh replied in shared amusement. Namach's other eyebrow joined the first in rising, "Hm, more talent than I'd expected from that one."
Gaining a distant look for a moment, The Blood Magic professors face then took on a darkly amused gleam. "It works if you catch them off-guard." he stated, and Rahkesh concluded that he must currently be speaking with one of his professors' golems and that the real Tristan Namach was actually still out fighting demons.
"Where are you right now?" He asked, keen to keep up on the fighting.
"Japan, quite an impressive number of arch demons came through this one as well as a significant amount of sorcerers, but I think this portal is just about done." Rahkesh noted a hint of disappointment on his face and laughed.
"I think you're enjoying this a bit too much."
"It's been quite some time since there's been a good war, feels good to flex my magics again." Namach smiled, showing off both fangs. Rahkesh didn't feel bad for the demons in the slightest, though he almost pitied them.
"Why don't we just send you into the demon realm so you can exterminate them?" Rahkesh joked.
"I've considered it but going through the portal would most likely weaken me too much to get all of them, and I wouldn't want to be stuck there." Namach replied frankly.
"So I've been thinking about using lightning for my next offensive blood magic piece in the hopes of forcing more conscious control over what the bolts do, their shape, etcetera." Rahkesh stated changing the subject. Namach mulled it over for a moment and took a drink from his glass, forehead creased in thought.
"It might work, probably be a long session though." He didn't seem particularly happy about this prospect and Rahkesh wondered again what about his lightning was so unnerving to the all-powerful ancient vampire. He really hated not knowing things, and especially those which concerned him directly, such as what he was transforming into. "If you're going to do that ritual you'll likely need to use all your knives." Namach stood suddenly and vanished. "Things probably just got interesting in Japan" Sygra stated from Rakesh's shoulder.
"Indeed, I almost feel bad for those demons." Rahkesh replied heading out of Namach's rooms and towards the blood magic Chambers to hopefully develop some idea of which chamber to use for this particular piece.
On his way there, Rahkesh noted that none of the vampires would look at him but for a few last-year students who gave him a short nod or said hello. The dragon/snake/thunderbird wizard found this amusing.
Upon arriving to the Blood magic wing, Rahkesh bumped into Haedil, who was watching a last-year Amadan necromancer performing a ritual. Mildly interested, Rahkesh joined him. The last year Amadan was a female by the name of Noel. She was quite tall, standing at six foot seven and beautiful enough to be a Veela. She had long blonde hair with silver highlights that were seemingly natural, and she had grey eyes with a golden orange corona surrounding the irises.
Slim but curvy and bearing a willowy grace, Rahkesh was unashamed to admit she was a beauty. Inside the chamber Noel was standing in a circle of blood runes with a shiny Chrystal bowl full of her own blood hovering before her. The female Amadan was in the process of cutting herself up in various ways and places.
Training to be a black necromancer, every ritual required self-inflicted pain, though every cut looked searingly painful Noel's facial expressions never changed. Not even a grimace or a wince. As he observed, Noel picked up a small vial with a glowing neon blue liquid in it and divided it twice.
Holding the vial with a third of the liquid still inside and levitating the rest in two small orbs in front of her, she cut two long lines, one on each forearm, and drank the vial while simultaneously injecting the other two thirds into her forearms. At this she finally grimaced and Rahkesh could tell she was fighting hard not to scream. She quickly started a quiet chant and applied more cuts to her face, throat, chest, arms, and legs. She conjured another small vial and captured a few of her tears, then levitating the new vial, she conjured another still and captured some blood from her throat. Picking up the chant again, she poured the two vials into the bowl.
Noel then cut two small slits on both sides of her neck and one in the hollow between where her clavicles met. Using magic, she pulled all the neon blue liquid out of the cuts and poured that into the bowl as well. The blood in the bowl rapidly began boiling and gave off a glittery silver steam. The Amadan woman started up her chanting once more and activated a couple of her blood magics. Glowing golden lines of runes ignited all over her body. Rahkesh couldn't help but admire how beautiful she was, all cut up, covered in blood and runes, surrounded by waves of magic, and so focused you could set off a bomb behind her and she wouldn't notice. Rahkesh noted that her left eyebrow was twitching in such a way it looked like it was dancing.
She stopped her chant suddenly and stabbed her knife deep into her thigh, then cried out as she fell to one knee. With a golden glow starting to shroud her hands she waved them over the bowl and a silvery glowing orb emerged. She quickly sent the glowing magic from her hands to surround the silvery sphere.
"This is where it gets good." Headil said softly.
The sphere floated up and over to the other side of the bowl from Noel. She quickly reached down and yanked the knife out, then stood as she ignited her healing blood magics. As her injuries sealed, the orb started to expand and take the slightly transparent shape of a man.
The blood in the bowl stopped boiling and turned the same shade of neon blue as the liquid she had used. The man that the orb had turned into slowly came into better definition. It was short with long hair down to its knees; it had a long sharp nose, and its eyes weren't quite level with each other. The magical constructs frown was so sharp it literally looked like an upside-down smile.
"How long have you been watching?" Rahkesh asked Headil.
"Only a little longer than you have, I'm looking for the right chamber to do my first defensive blood magic ritual. What about you?" he asked.
"I'm looking for a chamber for my next offensive blood magic ritual, I was thinking about using chamber twelve again." referring to the chamber constructed using obsidian and fulgurite that he'd used a couple of times before. Being closer to it now he could feel that it was the right choice.
"I was actually thinking about using this chamber that Noel is using for summoning." Haedil said, glancing back. Expanding knowledge and experience and witnessing others' experiments aside, it was really just plain cool to see this ritual. Not to mention, it was a valuable sight to behold because the Necromancy class were supposed to start learning how to do summonings soon. The section they were currently reviewing was the creation of a true Inferi, and after that they would get to the more complicated stuff like a soul summoning. As enticing and exciting as that was, the demon invasion had thrown a wrench in those plans and there was no telling when they would actually start.
Having seen enough, Rahkesh walked over to the logs and saw that chamber twelve was available all of the next day and so put his name down. He would have to spend the rest of the day going over his runes and making sure his knives were in order, but he was rather excited for this piece. If all went well he would be able to shape and control his lightning in much finer detail than he could now. As of now he could direct a bolt of lightning at something and almost always hit the mark, but they were still wild and if anyone else was close by then the odds weren't favorable that they wouldn't also get hit.
Scheduling complete and knowing that he probably wouldn't eat again until breakfast the next day, Rahkesh went off to have a large lunch. He found a mostly empty table and sat down. Looking around the hall, the wizard admired its vast size. Cavernous, some might say. Big enough to fit the Hogwarts quidditch pitch easily. The walls, limned with glowing vines and torches lit with white fairy cocoons, the domed ceiling hung beautifully with a chandelier the size of a pickup truck.
Rahkesh looked around the room at all the other students, all in their neat groups. The vampires, the various types of Fae, (the lion Fae staring at him of course, he pretended not to notice) the humans, the Veela, the werewolves. All of them wearing the Akren Crest on various pieces of clothing. What was most surprising was that though some were glaring murderously at other students as if they wanted to kill them (probable), there were no fights.
Except for the yelling coming from a few tables to Rakesh's left where some students were playing poker, there wasn't even any arguing. Rahkesh reminded himself that this was the calm before the storm, the demons were currently invading all around the world, tens of thousands of magical beings had already died in the war and the invasion had really only just begun. Maybe a million demons had come through and millions more were queue'd up at the portals on the other side. If that wasn't enough, soon the Elves would realize that Rahkesh was in possession of a blood tree and that he was transforming into something that would make them want to kill him instantly, so they would have an Elven invasion to ice the cake. Rahkesh sighed and pushed his plate away, he'd lost his appetite.
"you should force yourself to eat" Sygra chided.
"Yes I know, thank you Sygra." Rahkesh sighed and took a couple more bites of his food. As he went for another, he felt a surge of dark power and fell back onto his ass as he was no longer in the dining hall. Sygra lunged from around his neck, transforming she took the head off of a demon in one swift bite then quickly spit acid into another's eyes. Rahkesh rolled and summoned his staff as a demon fell out of the sky towards him. Coming to his feet, he drove the transfigured point through that demon's skull and launched a throwing knife into another's gaping mouth, snuffing out the fire attack it was charging and it's life in one go.
Yanking his staff free, he glanced around at the chaos surrounding him and caught his breath. The fighting spread further than he could see. Gigantic fire tornadoes were twisting around everywhere. There were fireballs falling from the sky, smoke billowing all around, rising from burnt out husks of demons, charred piles of former vampire, raging infernos most likely born from the fire tornados. The sky looked like it was on fire, black and red colored all his surroundings.There was not an ounce of blue left in the sky.
As Rahkesh glanced up he saw an enormous black demon come tumbling out of the clouds of ash and smoke, both of its wings torn off. One was twirling out of the sky like a kite cut free from its string a little ways away and the other was still in the mouth of the even-larger Ice Dragon that came soaring down after it.
Namach's eyes looked like they were on fire. Awash with hundreds of gnarly looking cuts, what wasn't bleeding or covered in blood on his body appeared to be scar tissue. As Rahkesh watched the enormous demon hit the ground with a deafening boom, letting off a small earthquake, the ancient vampire turned Ice Dragon wasted no time landing on top of the demon with a sickening crunch and helped the earthquake much further along on the Richter scale. Rahkesh stumbled and another demon flew right over him but then promptly got swallowed whole by Rakesh's favorite Wyvern Basilisk.
"Fight now, admire later." She told him sternly before taking to the air. Rahkesh grinned and felt his cheeks get hot as he blushed.
The fighting was so dense Rahkesh could hardly discern friend from foe. He couldn't change into his Thunderbird form because he knew he lacked the control necessary to operate this close to his allies but going into his basilisk form would give a lot of allies something at their back and give Rahkesh a better vantage point.
Swiftly transforming into his basilisk form Rahkesh snapped a sorcerer demon out of the air and chewed it up. Slithering hastily away from an approaching fire tornado and crushing any demons unfortunate enough to be near his undulating body, Rahkesh quickly found a point under heavy attack. A few kilometers away there was a large group of vampires focused intently on the tornadoes and easily twice as many vampires defending them, or rather attempting to do so.
The vampires protecting the ones in control of the tornadoes were under heavy siege from two arch demons, at least six score of betas and alphas, and a score or more of sorcerer demons. Snapping, crushing, chewing, and electrocuting demons, Rahkesh slowly made his way over to this group.
Once there Rahkesh wrapped his lengthy bulk around the group of vampires controlling the tornadoes and attacked any demons that came close. Seeing the added security, the other vampires quickly broke from their neat ranks and attacked from all sides, overcoming the opposition rapidly. Seeing that they were beginning to lose ground, many of the sorcerers changed tactics and went after Rahkesh.
Rahkesh let all his magics loose, the air about him became poisonous, electricity wreathed his entire body and magic-infused wind started rippling around him. The first spells that the sorcerers threw at the wizard-turned-basilisk were blown aside from the magical wind. As the sorcerers got closer they realized that it was also harder to fly which in-turn made it easier for Rahkesh to snap up two in one bite. Spitting the remains of those demons at the others Rahkesh whipped his tail around sending another score or so of demons tumbling. He felt a sharp stab of pain in his back and roared, the Thunderbird answered his call and the demon who had just managed to get under a scale on his back exploded into a shower of limbs and blood owing to the giant bolt of lightning that had just struck him.
Namach, now finished with the biggest arch demon Rahkesh had ever seen, looked up at Rahkesh and smiled. Though Rahkesh was too busy to tell, his protection and presence inspired courage and confidence in everyone in his vicinity. The vampires controlling the tornadoes had doubled their number of fiery spinning columns of death since he'd first arrived, the ones originally defending them had cleared a wide birth all around them, and the others at the portal, now with greater numbers, were able to kill everything as soon as it came through.
Taking to the air Namach soared over towards where Rahkesh was, roasting and freezing any demons he flew past. He'd need the protection and lightning for his next trick. Landing in front of Rahkesh, Namach released his animagus form and ignited his blood magics, waving his hands around in a ritualistic fashion and gathering the magic surrounding him Namach started to glow. Two dark angels soared out of the sky and started circling Namach from above, as everything surrounding him began to dim Rahkesh recognized what was happening from the fight at the manor.
The ground started to shake and a great crunching, grinding noise came from the Earth around the vampire. The dark angels soared out and captured sorcerer demons, then promptly flung them into the newly formed pit. Screaming and throwing magic around in a panic, the sorcerer demons stood no chance. The ground continued to fall away around Namach, and the dark angels started throwing as many sorcerer demons into the hole as they could find. After a few minutes they dove down after them. Silver and red fire erupted from the gaping hole in the ground, surrounding and shrouding Namach in the middle of it. Recognizing imminent death, the demons attacking Rahkesh changed tactics yet again and the wizard-basilisk understood why he was summoned by the ancient.
Acting on instinct Rahkesh morphed into his Thunderbird and took to the air, Sygra too reached the same conclusion at the same time. Understanding that as soon as Rahkesh took flight that she needed to guard the vampires controlling the tornadoes of fire she rapidly made her way over.
Rahkesh shot up into the sky and instantly clouds began to gather, soaking up the smoke they started raining fat drops of acid onto everyone below. If they weren't all demons and vampires this might have been a problem but the demons with their ever-resistant scales and the vampires all being old and magical didn't seem all that bothered that the rain was dirty. Rahkesh began blasting any demons that got close to Namach or the tornado vampires with bright, powerful, bolts of lightning until he heard the roar of a super massive beast. Moments later some.. thing as big as his Thunderbird form bit down hard on his right wing.
The Thunderbird screamed in fury and pain. Instantly turning corporeal, the jaws of the arch demon that bit him exploded. The demon's scream was so loud it made Rakesh's ears bleed. The arch demon twisted in the air, still screaming despite its lack of a lower jaw and mangled and shattered upper jaw then slashed at Rahkesh, opening a long, ragged gash on his torso. Down below Sygra roared in pain. Glancing down and seeing his familiar being swarmed, Rahkesh determined that he'd had enough with this arch demon, he didn't have the time, nor the patience for it.
Giving it all he had the Thunderbird screamed and summoned all the storms rage into one massive bolt of lightning, then aimed it square at the arch demon barreling towards him. The bolt of lightning was so massively thick its length and girth could rival a skyscraper. Almost hypnotized as he was by the beauty of his work, it felt like an eternity before the bolt of lightning hit its mark and consumed the demon. If the arch demon screamed, Rahkesh couldn't hear it. The sound of the resulting thunder blast was like a bomb going off. Or ten.
The smell of ozone and roasted demon filled the air. A ringing silence descended on the heels of the rumbling thunder as the demon fell from the sky. Just before it hit the ground Namach, now shrouded in the black mist of death magic, threw out his hand and the black magic responded. In a matter of seconds black clouds of magic surrounded the massive falling demon and then Namach threw his hands into a clockwise motion and the black magic swirled back around him, the arch demons' body had vanished into the magical cloud. Rahkesh threw more bolts of lightning at the demons, all of them, every demon Rahkesh could see he sent a bolt of lightning at, many exploding as they were hit.
A burst of dark magic punched into Rakesh's mind. 'Fly over and charge the death magic, quickly.' Namach told Rahkesh. As Rahkesh flew to the top center of the heaving, churning tornado that the black death magic surrounding Namach had become, Rahkesh called the storm to him and without hesitation sent it into the death cloud swirling below him.
In a matter of seconds, the swirling tornado of death below Rahkesh was charged with electricity and storm, but Rahkesh was angry. Angry that he probably wasn't going to perform his blood magic ritual in the morning, angry that the demons just kept coming through and especially angry that they had hurt his familiar. He called to his basilisk and from the depths it responded, charging the storm with vaporized venom, the Thunderbird consented and concentrated the venom into the water in the storm, changing the rain and moisture of the storm into pure basilisk venom.
'Send it out along with the plume of death magic.' Namach spoke in Rakesh's mind, then threw the magic out in a massive wave of death. Forged from the death of the demons it would only harm the demons and charged with electricity and venom it would pack an overwhelmingly painful punch. Rahkesh mirroring his professor, concentrated the storm, electricity, and venom into the death magic, then together they let loose a massive wave of pure, undiluted, charged death. Rolling out over the battlefield, the veritable tsunami of death magic killed every demon it encountered.
less than a minute later the remaining vampires were finishing off the few demons that were left, the portal had become a massive crater of melted gold and the landscape looked like actual hell. There were puddles of ooze in every color of the rainbow. There was nothing within sight that wasn't a charred husk of what it used to be, rocks and unidentifiable chunks of metal were melting and sizzling here and there. Bodies, limbs, and chunks of both lay strewn about everywhere and though the storm Rahkesh had made was still raging, the smoke in the air was so thick you could taste it. A certain cloying, choking taste that burnt the back of the throat and made one feel lightheaded.
Rahkesh found Sygra and landed right next to her, morphing back he wobbled briefly then righted himself and started casting healing spells immediately. "Getting better at that" Rahkesh hissed to his familiar, who merely sent a weary gaze back at him. Sygra had gotten overwhelmed and clawed up pretty good, but she was still conscious and would be okay with some quick attention and rest.
"I can't leave you alone for five minutes without you getting gravely injured." He chided her, immediately shifting that weary gaze into an annoyed glare.
"Hypocrite." She hissed, Rahkesh laughed and finished healing Sygra before turning to heal himself. The gash down his torso was huge and horrible but had stopped bleeding. If Rahkesh was a normal mortal he probably would've bled out from it by now but because of the dragons' blood his own blood clotted rapidly, causing the worst of wounds to stop bleeding before they killed him. His shoulder had some gnarly bite marks in it from the arch demon, but his adrenaline was still so high that he didn't feel any pain.
He cast a healing charm on the gash and as the magic enveloped the wound he hissed, and the wound simply vanished. Confused, he did the same to his shoulder and got the same result then as well. The wound he had forgotten about on his back, that one had venom in it and took a couple seconds, but it too healed far faster than the healing spell should have been capable of inducing. When Rahkesh looked up he caught Namach staring at him with a furrowed brow. The Ancient Vampire quickly turned to an approaching subordinate to receive a report of the battle.
After what felt like an hour all the vampires were teleporting away and other vampires, some werewolves, and a few humans were teleporting in to begin clean and cover-up. How exactly they were going to spin this to make it look as though hell hadn't briefly visited the earth Rahkesh did not know, and he was also much too tired to care. Namach came striding over, looking like hell himself. He still had a few open gashes on his arms, face and torso, his clothes seemed to have given up the ghost, appearing threadbare and barely hanging on. If the cloth wasn't stuck to him in some places, and in him in others, Rahkesh was sure the ancient would be naked instead. Namach had blood magic runes glowing all over him and he walked with a slight limp.
"You look like death." Rahkesh told him flatly.
"Feel like it too, I still have enough stored energy to go until this war is over, but that stored energy is much more effective if I take time to sleep every few months or so. I haven't slept since before Mexico so I think I'll take a death nap for a few hours this evening." Namach laughed at Rakesh's look of horror.
XXXX
Lightning swirled around the room striking pillars with such force that if they weren't reinforced with magic they would have crumbled apart. As if every particle of air was a conductor, lightning was igniting and expelling at random, as if to the beat of a song no one could hear. Most bolts were bleeding off of Rahkesh and jolting around as if stuck in his own personal orbit before swinging back and amassing upon his body. The lightning bolts turned red whenever they encountered his knife as it wove an intricate tapestry of runes from his very flesh.
Rahkesh couldn't see the bolts of electricity turning red as they came into contact with his knife and runes because his eyes were closed, but he could feel the electricity changing. He had been performing this ritual for just over nine hours and still had at least another hour to go, but he felt great. He sent up a silent prayer of thanks for his other blood magics for making the rituals easier to withstand.
Cutting the runes and feeling the electricity raging about him gave Rahkesh an amazing rush not unlike a high. He did his best not to think about the fact that after the ritual he would most likely feel extremely exhausted, nor the fact that he probably had half the school watching him doing this.
Neither Rahkesh nor Namach brought up the strange way he had healed himself after the battle, but it was clear that both thought it odd. Rahkesh chided himself for letting his thoughts get away from him while performing an exceptionally risky (even for his standards) and untested blood magic ritual given how the most minor of mistakes would lead to a messy, gruesome death but Rahkesh found being so near death somehow peaceful.
Being so occupied and so connected with his magic was relaxing and freeing on a level he'd never known he could reach before beginning blood magic. There was nothing quite like being one with his magic, feeling it flow, feeling it's power, feeling as if he could direct it and coordinate with it to accomplish anything. 'If only I could figure out how to fix the barrier' he sighed. Reigning himself back in, he focused on his lightning. It's flow around the room, the way it struck his skin and the way it flowed off and shot from him hitting the one-way mirror. How it seemed to like hitting the rubies, emeralds and diamonds in the ceiling and wrapped wildly around the pillars, warped the air and blistered its surroundings.
'Wait.' Rahkesh thought, 'how do I know where it's striking?' Rahkesh never once opened his eyes and though he could usually feel the lightning as if it were a part of him he could never really tell exactly what it was doing. 'The ritual is working well.' Rahkesh thought, he focused harder and almost dropped his knife as a rush of light flashed through his mind. Pausing and letting his focus on the lightning recede he continued, turning up the intensity, strength, and voltage of the lightning as he came nearer to finishing the ritual.
The last thirty minutes were a struggle because the Thunderbird was desperately struggling to break through and force a transformation but with iron-like will he kept it under control. After Rahkesh finished he spent forty-five minutes stretching and thinking over what that flash of light in his mind could have been and what it could mean.
After shattering the surrounding circle of runes and soaking the blood back in, Rahkesh was pleasantly surprised to note he'd actually gotten all of it instead of leaving that little bit stuck in his ears like usual. The positively bedraggled wizard stumbled through the door and pressed his hand to the wall, igniting the cleaning process. Just as he turned to reach for his robe Namach appeared, dark power raging around him, eyes glowing, fangs actively growing and bearing one of the most sinister smiles Rahkesh had ever seen.
"With the exception of whatever gave you pause towards the end, that ritual went perfectly." Namach purred, Rahkesh took a step back and silently cast a scent concealing charm, knowing full well it wouldn't help much against the three-thousand-year-old vampire. sure enough..
"Unfortunately, there really isn't much that can block my sense of smell, and you, Rahkesh, are simply the most delicious smelling being I have ever met." Namach purred taking a step closer. Rahkesh felt the freezing dark magic begin seeping over his skin and start messing with his pheromones. Rahkesh fought it but couldn't make any headway given who he was fighting with for control.
"Fuck." Rahkesh said as his blood magic runes meant to prevent specifically someone messing with his pheromones flared to life on his skin.
"No." Rahkesh mumbled barely able to speak, all of a sudden Namach lurched around and yanked a vampire out of the hallway, slamming him into the wall and sinking his fangs deep into his neck. The vampire, a third year by the name of Jav who Rahkesh had briefly met when he'd asked him to collect some information from the MLFC was clearly terrified at first, but as soon as Namach had sunk his fangs into his neck he gained a blissful, relaxed look on his face and his eyes rolled back into his head.
Rahkesh stared, unsure of what to do as the vampire became more and more pale as the Ancient professor drank his blood.
"The vampires heart rate is getting faint, the ancient will kill him if he doesn't stop." Sygra said as she slithered off the shelf behind Rahkesh onto his shoulders.
"What am I supposed to do? he just almost did that to me." Rahkesh argued.
"You both would've died from that and he knows it but if he kills that vampire you'll still die, quickly!" Sygra hissed, Rahkesh thinking quickly whipped his wand out and banished the ancient. Namach was ripped away from the vampire and blasted into the wall on the opposite side of the hallway, he quickly righted himself and a flash of freezing magic burned at Rahkesh causing Rakesh's vision to swim. As he fell to his knees, Rahkesh became dimly aware of Jav collapsing next to him and the cold dark power attacking Rahkesh vanished. As Rahkesh looked up he noted that Namach had vanished as well.
"Well done, that vampire needs some serious rest." Sygra soothed, trying to comfort Rahkesh but the Thunderbird animagus was deeply unnerved from what he'd just experienced and observed.
Stumbling back into his rooms and into the bathroom in the hopes of starting a nice bath, Rahkesh noticed one of his hippocampus hair notification sheets was lit up. After starting the bath and setting Sygra on his bed he took out the communicator and dabbed a drop of blood on the corner.
"Lad, been a while." Moody smiled from the other end, or at least it looked like he was trying to. At best most might consider it a leer. Rahkesh couldn't tell where the old alumni-turned-auror was because the background appeared to be a sea of darkness.
"How are things in Britain?" Rahkesh asked, sensing that there was a reason for this call other than to check in on him.
"Some demons got through a portal and slipped the containment zone. I've sent out a few reconnaissance teams to try and find them but it's clear they're onto the next phase of their plan." He sighed "And you? everything good on your end?" Rahkesh contemplated telling him about the blood tree or his final transformation and then there was the bit about the subsequent attack from the elves, to be triggered by either or both, but then he decided against it.
"Other than the demons and the injuries? how about the fact that classes are bloody haywire because of so many students being moved around and the demons attacking everywhere."
Fuck it, he trusted Moody as much as he trusted anyone.
"How about the fact that I'm supposedly slowly transforming into something due to the dragon's blood I drank about a thousand years ago, the final form of which is apparently likely to entice the elves to commit genocide on the whole of humanity, if not the whole earth. And naturally, Namach knows what it is but won't tell me because pissy ancient vampire superiority complex. Let's not forget also that I've grown a damn tree for a wand, and it just so happens to be an exclusively elven tree and anyone who grows one who isn't an elf is highly liable to be murdered for such a crime, something which was not mentioned in the warning labels and I can't kill it because that would only make the whole situation WORSE. Much worse."
Rahkesh dropped his head into his hands and sighed "No, everything's good here Moody." He said. looking up at the hippocampus hair communicator he noted the look of disbelief and amusement on his old friends face just before he threw his head back and burst out into deep booming laughter.
'Great, just great, everyone finds this incredibly amusing. If only I felt the same way about it.' Rahkesh hissed silently to himself.
Sygra coiled up his chair then onto his shoulders and began rubbing her head against his cheek.
Finally catching his breath, Moody finally mustered the power to respond "I'm sorry lad, I've just never met someone with a more interesting life. Never a dull moment with you, make sure you write an autobiography before you get murdered by the elves eh?" Moody said still chuckling. "I've been busy training the greenhorns, what's the word with the new world?"
"It's there, you can sense it if you create a magical sound and follow the magical sound waves. It's hard to explain but you'll understand when you try it. The problem is that the barrier fluctuates, and we can't bring any more than twenty or so people across every two weeks. we're working on a fix but that's the situation as of right now." Rahkesh said grimly. "I just preformed a long and painful blood magic ritual, I'm exhausted and I've drawn a bath. I'll check in with you again within a couple of weeks." he told Moody.
"Sounds good, stay safe kid." Moody replied.
"You too." Upon terminating the call, Rahkesh tucked the hippocampus hair communicator back into the drawer and grabbed a few of his healing and relaxation potions off his desk, then went into his bathroom. After pouring the potions into his bath Rahkesh slowly slipped into its depths, hissing in pain and pleasure as the searing hot water set to healing him, his familiar coiled up next to him on the side of the tub. Rahkesh closed his eyes and felt the euphoria of the potions really getting down to business. "I'll wake you in an hour master." Sygra hissed soothingly, or maybe it was the potions making everything seem soothing.
BANG! Rahkesh snapped awake, instantly aware yet not moving a muscle, he sensed around but could tell nothing except that something was on his eyes and chest. Slowly Rahkesh sat up and looked down to see two floating slices of cucumber and also that he was now wearing a coconut bra. He realized he had something in his hand and saw it was some sort of pink drink in an iced glass with a purple umbrella sticking out of it. He turned and looked into the mirror, only to notice that he was wearing purple lipstick that matched the floating umbrella and that his hair was in pigtails. He quickly turned the rest of the way around to see Daray sprawled on the floor with Sygra on the ground next to him.
"I thought it was funny so I let him do it, but then he took a picture and told me the school would love it. I think he now knows I understand English." Rahkesh noticed the polaroid camera in the corner and the little photo lying face down next to it and was instantly enraged.
"Why is he unconscious?" Rahkesh asked assuming Sygra had bit him.
"I bit him, won't last too long since he's a vampire." Sygra confirmed. Rahkesh set to work.
Rahkesh turned Daray's hair hot pink and transfigured his shirt into an obscenely short and small hot pink tank top. He then transfigured the vampire miscreant's pants into a downright offensively skimpy brown and white plaid skirt and lastly, his shoes into bright pink heels.
Thinking that wasn't enough, he gave his friend an indescribably tacky bright yellow Daisy hat, he then very carefully levitated Daray into a rather suggestive position on his couch, went back, grabbed the camera and returned to take a picture. Sygra, now coiled up on Rakesh's bed, thought this was highly amusing. Rahkesh stepped back and found the right spot for the picture. "Two can play at this game." He hissed teasingly. Just before he took the picture Daray woke up, his head snapping around, drool hanging off his chin, eyes half closed from the remains of Sygra's venom and Rahkesh snapped the photo right in that second.
Rahkesh quickly ripped the photo from the camera, transfigured the camera into a flash grenade, ripped the pin out and chucked it at Daray. Daray, still in a daze caught the grenade before he realized what it was but quickly chucked it out the window, it blew up before it made it outside and left him even more dazed. When he could finally see again, he looked towards the door and saw Rahkesh was gone and desperately sprinted after him.
After chucking the grenade Rahkesh bolted straight from the room, he practically summoned his door off its hinges and turned down the hall at a full sprint. He bolted around corners and booked it down hallways diving and somersaulting under and around fellow students on his way to the dining hall. As he ran he magically made copies of the photo, not worried about dropping the few he did. He heard a roar behind him but was almost at the dining hall. "Impedimenta!" Daray roared behind him, but the spell missed as Rahkesh ducked around another corner. "Petrificus Totalus!" Daray tried again, but Rahkesh rolled under the spell and burst through the dining hall doors and used a spell to blast the photos throughout the room like confetti. Laughter erupted instantly from everyone inside. Rahkesh was tackled bodily from behind by a raging Daray. He punched Rahkesh in the back of the head, stood up and summoned all the photos back to him but the damage was done.
If that wasn't enough, he hadn't undone any of the transfigurations. With the exception of the heels, he was still wearing what he had on in the photo. Growling in fury and embarrassment the vampire turned back to Rahkesh. "Ooohh oh oh, we can play this game for sure." Daray said menacingly. "This is going to be sooo much fun." he purred.
Silently Daray cast the Rictusempra curse and held it at the tip of his wand, then silently cast the Tarantallegra jinx and let them both hit at the same time. Rahkesh, caught off guard, instantly burst into uncontrollable laughter and started dancing like his life depended on it. With the whole school laughing at the both of them Daray transfigured his clothes back and left the room.
Thank you for giving this a chance! I'm sorry it's taken so long to upload this chapter but I'm a very busy person and I'm putting all the quality into this that I can, it's hard to live up to Miranda's work.
Please review! Criticism welcome, it helps to know others opinions, furthermore if you have anything in mind, anything at all, please leave it in a review. If you have any ritual ideas, spells, hexes, jinxes character ideas, anything, please leave it in the review. If it's good or gives me any ideas you may well see it in this book, much much more to come and I'm very excited for it!