A/N
I know I'm slow. I don't have much time to write, with my job and school. Also got rear-ended by a bus a couple weeks ago, so stress levels are high, my neck hurts, and I have to buy a new car. All updates are sporadic and will have no noticeable pattern. Sorry.
As per the A/N of the previous chapter, I have yet to receive any submissions for cover art. I am perfectly happy to continue without it, though. I refuse to use a book cover, or movie poster, as that just feels disingenuous to me: like I'd be cheating somehow. It seems I will be sticking with the basic silhouette for now.
To reiterate: I don't own Marvel.
Previously:
"Descendants of the Peon Gods." A voice of gravel seemed to declare, rather than ask, reverberating through the air, and shaking each of the practitioners of the Mystic Arts to their core. Forget the distance between them, because it didn't yell or scream, instead merely speaking those words, yet they were still heard.
"This plane will be brought to heel." It continued. "The banner of the Old Ones will be risen atop your graves, as is the fate of all that is, or will be."
If Nathan was being honest, he had no idea how to react to the creature that prophesied their doom. It wasn't attacking them, at least not yet, and Master Ghodi was just kind of… standing there, staring at the creature with bland contempt. All of the other students seemed to be in the same boat as Nathan though.
After about ten seconds, the Master finally spoke in a normal voice - totally disregarding the distance between the target and himself. "You are an Old One, then?"
The creature in the distance tilted its shrouded head. "I am old enough to remember the great city of R'lyeh. Old enough to remember the betrayal of the New Gods, and the denial of our prize. I am old enough to remember, but not old enough to be counted among the Lords." Its voice echoed out like before, reverberating through everyone like a twenty-foot subwoofer at a metal concert.
"From R'lyeh, then?" He asked rhetorically, pretending to think while opening a telepathic link between himself and the students.
'All of you. This is an Angled Wraith. I'm afraid it is beyond our capabilities. I should be able to keep it busy for a time, while you escape and inform the Ancient One.'
The darkness surrounding the wraith seemed to twitch slightly.
'I…' Hong began over the link, 'I can't open a portal, Master!'
Nathan blinked, and quickly tried accessing the Eldritch energies that permeated all of reality, and found… nothing. Was it something that the wraith was doing? Or a third party maybe?
That didn't mean they were out of magical options, though - it was obvious that telepathy still worked, but the Eldritch energies were one of the few that could be used for combat without requiring obscene sacrifices, or rituals, and were easily the most diverse as a source of magic power. Without them, this would be difficult. Not to mention they might not be the only source that was restricted. Only way to find out would be to try them all… or ask the creepy shadow monster, but Nathan doubted that it would answer. There were a couple less effective options that didn't require an external source, but they were more like cantrips than true magic; requiring the use of the caster's stamina, plain willpower, or a lot of thinking. Feasible for buying some time, or as a distraction, but little else.
'We're cut off from the main stuff.' The seven-year-old thought over the link, only panicking slightly.
Slightly, mind you.
'Run then.' Master Ghodi replied. 'Get out of his range of influence.'
'How will you fight it without magic?' The younger female student asked.
Didn't they just cover- oh, Nathan didn't actually say any of that over the link.
"Yes." The gravelly voice of the wraith spoke up suddenly, making it known that he had heard their whole conversation. "How will you fight without your pathetic tricks?"
Again, Mr. Monster, this has been covered. You can read minds - apparently - So you should know that.
"That was supposed to be a private conversation, Wraith." Master Ghodi shot back, not appearing surprised at all - unlike everyone else, and turned to the students. "Run now. If my suspicions are correct, the wraith's influence should cover a radius of about three miles from where he stands." How the hell did he figure that?
Master Ghodi then turned back to the wraith, and got himself into a loose fighting stance as the two oldest students began sprinting away, followed by the others. Nathan just kept floating there, a little taken-aback at the events.
"You wish to deny us our prize again, then?" The wraith asked, unperturbed and unmoving while the shadows undulated around him.
"What might this 'prize' be? Perhaps we can come to an arrangement." The Master said, though he didn't drop his stance.
Nathan couldn't see the creature clearly from this distance, being nearly half a mile away and covered in darkness as it was, but a very clear image of teeth shone in his mind's eye for a split second. Cone-shaped, and jagged. Built for ripping and tearing; giving the impression of a smile from a child's deepest, darkest nightmare.
"Our prize has always been the same, for we desire nothing else, and we will have nothing less." The impression of that deranged, horrible grin grew.
"Food."
The shadows exploded outward from the wraith in a liquid flow, consuming even the fires that clung to the trees like a burst dam. And from that inky doom, deep black tentacles of darkness-formed-mass rose from the growling void and slammed down, again and again, crawling at a terrifying pace towards Master Ghodi and Nathan.
At the same time, a slight, yellowish-gold aura started to form around Master Ghodi, who stood solid, staring down the tide like a badass, forming a Tao Mandala in one hand as a shield, as well as a golden lightsaber-like weapon that extended from his other hand's index and middle fingers.
Before the wave reached them, Nathan flung himself away through the air towards the town using his Celestial energy. He had hesitated long enough as it was, and it was getting to the point of no return, but judging by the wraith's reaction to his fellow students' escape, it wasn't too worried about them getting away; which either meant it had help, or was confident in its own abilities.
Either way didn't bode well.
Nathan didn't look back as he fled, but he could hear deep, guttural growls, roars of pain, and static, paired with the sound of dull weight crashing against the landscape, or maybe trees being uprooted. There was definitely the sound of more than one creature in that battle, and even more on his heels. He wasn't sure exactly what source of energy the Master was using to combat the wraith and its friends, but it at least sounded effective. He hadn't heard any screams that might have come from a human, anyway.
It didn't take long for him to catch up with the other students: being able to fly was pretty awesome. However, the wave of darkness was quickly covering the same distance. Even alone, he wouldn't be able to escape before it reached him, so he slowed his pace to match theirs. Strength in numbers, and whatnot. As it was, the flood had already nearly reached the town, and Nathan was only just inside the first block, the other students running beside him.
"How are you still able to use magic?!" The jealous, older student from before yelled over the sounds of destruction that approached them from behind, glancing back at the floating seven-year-old.
"Doesn't matter!" Nathan yelled back. "We've got to get out of here!"
"No, he's right!" The oldest female student, who had till then been quiet, spoke up. "If you figured out something, tell us! If we can defend ourselves, we might be able to escape faster!"
Nathan shook his head. "I have a set of abilities that are a little unique. It's how I can float like this, but I'm just as limited as-" Nathan stopped that train of thought and blinked. "Wait, maybe…"
A few weeks ago, Nathan had started meeting with the Ancient One semi-regularly. In these meetings, they started talking about possible uses for his Celestial energy in regards to magic. So far, they had been considering how they might go about adding his Celestial energy to already existing magical formulae, meaning they were trying to combine Eldritch energies with the Celestial variety, as that was how they typically used Chi to enhance spells. He had proved with 'The Method of Loci' that his own energy could sort-of double for that particular source.
He had only tried it the once so far, and It had failed spectacularly; partially singeing one of his eyebrows.
However, he had just seen Master Ghodi use a Tao Mandala, even though their access to the orange, sparkly stuff was restricted. He had no idea what that lightsaber was, though, as it was much more uniform and controlled than a normal Eldritch weapon could ever be, but it definitely looked effective. Odds were, it was another weapon within the Dao of Weaponry, which was the same category that the Tao Mandalas fell into.
The Dao of Weaponry was easily one of the largest Daos - or 'paths' - within the Mystic Arts. Throughout time, sorcerers had created innumerable styles of weapon constructs. It was also, arguably, the easiest Dao to start with due to this diversity. There was something for everyone, and it was open to interpretation and experimentation.
To get back on track though, the fact that Master Ghodi could still channel magic meant that he could use a source that was not affected by the wraith. However if it was a source that was as open to access as the Eldritch energies, he could just tell the students to switch to it. All of which were well versed in the known 'open' sources, meaning they could change the power source for their spells with little difficulty if the extra-dimensional entity that they called on allowed it. Mostly, though, those sources restricted the spells that were usable - each having a particular set. Everyone knew at least one for each major source. All they would have to do is sacrifice a rabbit or something later, so that wouldn't have been a big issue, but the Master didn't do any of that. This meant that he was using something local. Something that came from his own being. Meaning Master Ghodi was either using a forbidden ritual binding that would give him direct access to an extra-dimensional power, or… he was using Chi, and only Chi.
"Fucking eureka!" Nathan whispered to himself, then spoke up to the rest of the students. "I'm going to try something. You guys keep going. If any of you can use Chi, substitute that for the source for your spells. As long as one of us can get back to the Temple-"
"Who put you in charge?" The second youngest of the group, the girl, interrupted him.
"Chi?" The older woman asked, ignoring the younger.
Nathan nodded, even though he was in the back of the group and nobody could see it. He had pulled up even with them at first, but started to pull back after his lightbulb moment, pooling his Celestial energy and shaping it into a spell. "Yeah, whatever field the wraith is putting out seems to disable our connection to everything else."
"Is that how you're flying?" Hong asked. "You're using Chi?"
"Explanations later!" Nathan snapped. "We're being chased by the fucking Abyss itself, so less talky more runny!" Praying to whatever deities might be watching that what he was about to do would work. The seven-year-old dropped from his flight abruptly, turned one-eighty, and slammed his fist into the ground, releasing the spell at the same time.
Immediately, a blue wall of light erupted in front of Nathan and spread out to either side, bisecting the buildings and continuing a little further into the next streets over, and stretching over twenty meters high. This spell, the Rimu Wall, had grabbed his attention when he was looking up defensive magics. The description in the various texts reminded him of Wakanda's city shield in Infinity War, but golden. Now, in the mere fact that it was blue, was the spitting image of it. Although it was supposed to be much smaller.
"Holy shit. That worked." He mumbled to himself.
Why was it so big? Usually, these walls are only five or so meters wi-
The ink flood crashed against the blue wall of light, halted in its tracks and began to spread out. No doubt it was flowing over to the sides, but the wall would buy them a little time. However that wasn't the only thing that had been chasing them.
Lovecraftian, vaguely aquatic, monstrosities that his brain had trouble comprehending - he couldn't even tell what color they were - whipped their mangled limbs and tentacles at the wall in an attempt to break it. The wall itself screamed in an orchestra of sizzles and sparks, barely holding back the flood and threatening to break at any second.
Nathan quickly poured more energy into the spell, making it shine brilliantly before clasping his hands and shoving them forward.
The wall seemed to warp slightly, then burst outward; blasting the wave of creatures and ink backward, giving him a slight respite, as well as causing no small amount of damage to the buildings that the wall cut through.
He quickly turned around to find the other students stopped and staring. "Go, you idiots! We need the cavalry!"
He caught a glimpse of them starting to book it before turning back around, already forming another spell. He swung his arm in a wide circle, blasting hurricane force winds at the wave that tried for another push, sending the creatures and ink sprawling backwards and toppling a few of the broken buildings around them, whipping debris and the smaller monsters into the air.
Again, that was much more powerful than it should have been, but after the wall he suspected as much, otherwise he would have used something more powerful. However Power came with energy cost; he couldn't keep up this pace for long.
The goddamn Summer Gale spell seemed to be pretty effective at halting the wave's progress - even though it didn't do any damage at all, so he used it another three times before he was confident that the other students had gained some ground on the tide of horrors. However that had left him at about half of his reserves. The Rimu Wall was the most expensive spell of the two, taking about a quarter total after he made it explode. That was where he found the downside in using his own energy. When he used Eldritch energies, there was literally an infinite source to pull from, meaning he could blast these spells, one after another, for all eternity without breaking a sweat. When using his own energy though, even if the spells seemed to be innately more powerful, there was a finite pool that he was draining from.
'Oh yeah, four rings is enough. When will I need more energy than this any time soon?' Nathan mocked himself. 'First damn thing I do when I get back, I swear!'
He threw one last Summer Gale, shoving in a bit more energy than before, and actually collapsed the rest of the buildings around him, crushing a few of the abominations in the process, but then, something unexpected happened.
There was a loud explosion in the distance, from back where Master Ghodi and the wraith were, and immediately afterwards, the flood stopped.
Oh the creatures were all still there, but they stopped their mindless stampede, and the inky, liquid blackness started to recede. Or rather, it started to sink into the ground; dying everything the color of the void. The cobbled paths, the cars, the broken buildings to either side. Everything that the ink had touched turned black as the pitt.
For some reason, the creatures were giving him a bit of rest as they slowly got themselves up and turned to him. Some shook themselves slightly, most with loose, unmuscled jaws or mandibles that flailed around listlessly. It was as if the wraith had them in a frenzy, crashing forward with reckless abandon. Actually that made some sense; the Rimu Wall burns everything that it touches, and the creatures had just piled against it, not caring that their faces were melting off. It was obvious - from when it intercepted the telepathy link - that the creature had some control over mental magics, or some other ability along those lines, so it wasn't a stretch to think he was controlling these monstrosities. Or perhaps it had something to do with the inky liquid that had been raging through the town?
Whatever the case, that control had been shaken by something.
Hopefully Master Ghodi was wrecking the bastard back in the mountains.
Without having to worry about the black liquid, Nathan wouldn't have to keep throwing out the larger spells to push it all back, so he backed up a couple steps and formed the spell for a Spear of Skanda, substituting his own energy for the usual Eldritch variety. What appeared in his hand looked sort of what he imagined Zeus's lightning bolt would look like; a blue, seven-foot length of sparkling energy. One of the best parts about this particular spell was that the entire thing was an incredibly sharp blade except for where he chose to hold it. Useful for wrecking things at a distance, but a little lacking in defense. It probably wasn't the best fit for someone that was barely four feet tall, but the thing literally weighed nothing, and Nathan could fly, so…
One of the creatures, easily the largest at about two meters tall, seemed to be shaking off the after effects of the wraith's control faster than the rest. Nathan couldn't really be sure, as the creature's whole existence was blurry, but it appeared to have one large eye and the mouth of a piranha, which sat on a heap of tentacles.
Actually, the more he looked, the harder it was to tell where one creature ended and another started. At first glance, he could point out several masses of limbs and tentacles, which he had been assuming were individuals, but after staring at a couple of the masses for longer than a second - an effort that left him with a headache - he could point out separate bodies that were just piled on top of eachother, with no uniformity at all.
Some were just foot-long tubes with scaly hides, where others were vaguely humanoid with fins for arms. There was even a couple floating eyeballs with teeth instead of irises. Speaking of eyes, they were placed anywhere and everywhere without any thought towards symmetry or usefulness; for example, one of the monsters that was mostly teeth opened its gaping maw, only to reveal a giant, bleeding eye on the left side of its tongue - like it was having trouble keeping the eye away from its teeth. Some had twelve, others; none. There was literally no measurable pattern between them.
Nathan turned his thoughts away from trying to understand them. It was an exercise in futility, and only served to enhance his headache. Instead, the seven-year-old readied his spear and used his energy to launch himself towards the nearest abomination before they all got their bearings. Getting in close, he swung the weapon down, bisecting the creature and spraying a black inky liquid… wait a minute.
Was all that ink from before… blood?
Well shit, that's just gross. These things bleed black? Eugh.
Anyway, the previously confronted creature's two halves started to spasm before bursting like a popped balloon, spilling more of that black blood onto the street, which promptly did its part in dying the splattered surfaces black like the flood had done before. Nathan took care in not getting any of it on himself.
It was at this point that the other creatures locked their attention on Nathan, having finally shook themselves free of whatever control they had been under. Nathan pushed off the ground, floating quickly away to avoid a swipe of a tentacle, then had to duck and dodge around the massive maw of another creature as it tried to have him for a mid-afternoon snack.
Halfway through the dodge, the floating seven-year-old threw his spear, piercing through the attacking creature, which also shuddered, and popped like a balloon. Before the spear hit the ground on the other side, though, Nathan clenched his fist, stopping it in mid air. He then proceeded to make a hand sign, not unlike Spider Man's classic web-shooting sign, and swung his arm while twisting his wrist, which sent the spear soaring through the hoard of monsters, spinning madly the whole way.
The Spear of Skanda was easily his favorite conjured weapon so far, as it could do exactly as he was using it for currently. Most weapons required direct contact with the user, as the user's body was a 'gate' of sorts that fed the weapon power, allowing it to exhibit whatever specialty it had. This spear however, was one of the few exceptions, meaning that its special ability was the fact that it could separate from the user, and be controlled from a distance. Effectively making it a magic lightning rod of doom, attached to an invisible, sentient string that Nathan used to control it.
When Nathan was tasked to figure out a combat style that worked for him, he was forced to consider his current size. Meaning that it would probably be best to figure out how to fight from a medium-ish distance, rather than up close. If he was honest with himself though, fisticuffs were never going to be his style anyway. He had gotten the spear spell down a few months ago with little difficulty, but was having trouble with some of the hand-signs that would control it from a distance. Masters of the spell didn't need them, but as a beginner they were necessary. In the ancient Hindu text that he learned it from, written by the spell's creator, a man by the name of Skanda, told tales of armies falling to the use of this singular spell. Skanda, who was revered as a War God, could summon nearly a hundred of the things and control them with ease over an entire battlefield. Nathan was currently limited to the one, and could barely control its flight with any meaningful accuracy within half a football field's worth of space.
His original plan when coming up with a general strategy, was to use as many of the spears as possible, then defend with the Tao Mandalas while floating around above his enemies. Obviously he was nowhere near that good at multitasking yet.
Thankfully, these creatures were kind-of stupid. If Nathan had to guess, these were just the dregs, or something similar to chained wolves that were left to starve, then sicced on whatever the Wraith chose to let them at. They weren't exactly difficult to handle, as seen by the fact that they popped whenever his spear so much as grazed them. Or maybe that was an effect of the different energy source?
All the same, Nathan didn't fancy being an early dinner.
Trying to save even the smallest amount of energy, Nathan kept to floating just a foot or so off the ground as he ducked and weaved through the masses, calling his spear back to his hand, and throwing it, rather than having it dart around on its own. As it was, his reserves were steadily draining, but he would be able to keep up the pace for a little while yet. Thank Stan-fucking-Lee these things weren't that hard to kill. They weren't that fast, so it wasn't too hard to dodge around, but they were strong - thrashing around, ripping and pounding up the surroundings like no normal living creature could - and their blood was creepy as hell. Definitely wasn't going to let any of that get on him.
Nathan continued like that for… well, he wasn't sure how long. Time is a difficult thing to measure when your body is being pumped so full of adrenaline that you can track the movement of a hummingbird's wings.
That wasn't even an exaggeration. One of the creatures had wings that resembled one, attached to an eye, and nothing else. Seriously, though; what the hell was with these things and their creepy 'eye' theme?
Nathan had managed to gather the attention of the entire swarm of creatures, making it so the others wouldn't have trouble getting away, but he really hoped they would move their asses.
Thankfully, just as he finally got around to stabbing that damned hummingbird-eye thing, a large wave of golden force whipped around him, obliterating the remaining creatures, and leaving him a little wind-swept.
Nathan let out a breath and released his spear spell before dropping down to the ground on his ass, leaning back on his arms.
"'Bout time!" Nathan laughed without turning around. "I'm pretty sure Master Ghodi is still fighting the Wraith." He rose an arm, pointing down the street towards the mountains. "That-a-way."
"Thank you Nathan." The voice of the Ancient One began. "Master Gerand, Master Yuuki, please go on ahead and relieve Master Ghodi. I'll be there shortly."
Not bothering to respond, both individuals passed by Nathan at a dead sprint.
"I see you managed to get your energy and magical formulae to work together."
Nathan tilted his head backwards, peering at the lady as she walked towards him. "Well, what can I say? I'm pretty awesome."
She smiled. "I'm sure you are. Tell me, are you able to make it back alone? I'm afraid an Angled Wraith is a bit out of your pay-grade."
The seven-year-old waved her off, and laid down fully. "Yeah I got it. Go kick ass, boss-lady."
She chuckled as she passed him. "Go home, Nathan. You've done well."
Nathan blinked as he watched her quickly make her way down the street.
"'Home', huh?" He smiled and stumbled to his feet, mumbling to himself. "Didn't know I had one of those anymore."
A/N
Alright, I've done an absolutely obscene amount of thinking and planning in regards to the power development and descriptions of most abilities. I've essentially got an in-depth explanation of how the various magical forces of the Marvel universe work. I broke it down into the rules that everything follows. I'm afraid that the next chapter might just be a bunch more exposition and explanations of certain aspects of it… I'll try to limit that, and include some more action to break up the boring. I'll be sure to break it down over time though - as it fits with the story and Nathan's progression. It turns out though, that I will, in fact, be using 'Life Energy' quite heavily in this fic; as most of my explanations fall back on it (Refer to the explanation in the ending A/N of Chapter 1).
On those lines, you can look forward to a more in-depth dive into 'Chi' than Nathan has already done. Suffice it to say, he was wrong in his earlier assumptions.
Now this explanation to come will obviously not include and explain everything, as I have not read all of the comics that exist. Perhaps it will contradict some explanations in Canon, but it makes sense in my head for what I have researched, and can try to fit all of it into my explanation. There will be outliers that get their abilities in different ways.
All of this will be according to my head-canon. I fully expect and support all of your criticisms of my explanations. I want to make it work correctly, if possible.
I don't need a new asshole. The one I have works just fine, so please don't rip me a new one with your crappy insults. However if you have actual constructive criticism, I will gladly accept it. If you don't know the difference, you don't have to say anything at all.
Please review! Even if it's just a word or two, I would like to know what you think.